Looooong Introductions

So, this is me, Mika. I’m a third year English major in the University of Jyväskylä, Finland. Within a week I’ll be flying to the US for the first time in my life. After a quick tour on the West Coast I’m supposed to settle down in Whitewater, a small university town between Madison, the Wisconsin state capital, and Milwaukee, the largest city in the state, which is sitting on the shore of Lake Michigan. Still no idea? Well, this should help. This place, Whitewater, WI, is the home of the not-so-surprisingly-named University of Wisconsin-Whitewater where I’ll be studying for the fall semester 2011.

Simple enough. Except that the process that has taken me to this point hasn’t always been so straightforward. If we cut all the “I’ve always wanted to travel to US and blablabla” stuff, we end up in fall 2010, the time when I started to write my application. First of all, I decided to take the easier way and apply to a bilateral program instead of one operated by a larger organization such as ISEP (more bureaucracy, more paperwork!). I read the info considering all the alternative universities, there was about four, and decided that I am not really fond of going to a Christian university in Texas or one situated in the middle Kansas, a.k.a. middle of nowhere. Thus, middle of nowhere, WI was the place to be.

After pouring my heart into the application, where I listed all the relevant and irrelevant reasons for why I should be selected, I just had to wait. When the e-mail including the names of those who were selected suddenly hit my inbox, I was excited to say the least.

If I was over the top excited then, the feeling sure fled when I received the letter of acceptance all the way from the States. Why? Even though the letter itself was great it came with quite a few forms to fill. For example, I had to go through the course listings and create my schedule for the semester and fill out some medical and insurance forms and prove that I will receive financial aid during the exchange as well. If this was not enough, I still had to fill housing applications and some sort authorization forms later on. The good thing is that most of this stuff is done electronically, either scanning and e-mailing the documents or filling the forms online in the first place. Convenient.

Alright, enough of this whining. No wait. There’s still the worst part. Ugh. After I had managed to get most things in order with the university, I had to fill out the VISA application form. This is done online, but is far from convenient, since the page kicked me out on a regular basis forcing me to log in a dozen times (felt like a million). I also had to have my passport constantly at hand (which I didn’t) and answer questions requiring specific dates (e.g. end of high school) or even more ludicrous questions asking whether I was a prostitute or a spy. Or involved in the Holocaust. Or, well, you get the point.

After clicking the no -button for a hundred times I eventually got as far as scheduling the time for the VISA interview, which took place in US Consulate in Helsinki. I really appreciate the reservation system, since this way I got to select a date on which I would be in Helsinki anyway. It was a day after Caribou played at Tavastia and while I was nervous in the morning the feeling immediately subsided as soon as I entered the consulate building. I actually enjoyed my fairly casual you-have-a-nice-shirt type of interview. A week after the interview I got my passport with the VISA attached. (By the way, the quality of the print was so lousy that I felt stupid for being doubtful whether my self-taken photo would meet the standards.)

Around the time when I applied for the VISA I also went to a travel agency to book my flights. I know, it sounds like a lame thing to do, but I haven’t regretted my decision, since the itinerary of my trip was so complicated. Although I don’t advice against ordering online, I decided to leave that for pros. One more thing. The travel agency called me the other day and said that my return flights have “disappeared”, they simply don’t exist anymore. Glad I have an agency dealing with this situation now.

As you might be able to figure out just by looking at the sheer amount of text I’ve produced you might guess that going to the States as an exchange student is not all that simple. Glad I’m not that lazy. Nevertheless, I’m still in the middle of buying adapters, souvenirs, suitcases and getting some dollars, but it should all be cool by next Monday. At least I hope so.

Great if you managed to read or skim (acedemic style!) through this essay of my preparations. Next one won’t be this long, I hope. Otherwise I’ll be spending my whole exchange on writing these.

I’ll try to post something right before I leave unless I’ll be unable to describe the rollercoaster of feelings I am going through then. Later.