1 hour and 22 minutes. I’m counting down the seconds until I can step foot in my new home. The plane ride has been smooth. My mood has been very bittersweet this whole time. I’m sitting next to Zoeth. He is a Finnish exchange student who is going to be living in the town Kerava, right next to Espoo! (The town I am staying in) Today started out with a delicious breakfast of fruit, crescents and preserves. Then after some more get to know each other games and a ritualistic pledge, complete with chanting and drinking of sparkling juice, we headed to JFK airport in NY. We arrived at the airport 4 hours before our flight boarded, which was good because it turned out that the airport security was EXTREMELY backed up. Our gate number changed between gate 47 and gate 3 three times! Which meant we had to walk all the way across the airport several times. It was fun though, we were all laughing and having a good time. It is hard to get annoyed. At this point, I’ve been waiting so long, what’s a little more? The airplane is big, not a double decker, but big and really nice. I am flying FINNAIR. They fed us a surprisingly good dinner with chicken, stuffing and green beans about 5 hours ago, and breakfast is coming towards me on the little trolley that they push. I have been very productive, I studied Finnish for most of the time on the plane. I also tried very hard to sleep, but I couldn't do it. Time zones are confusing. The timezone I am currently flying over says it is 6 in the morning, and in Helsinki it is 8 in the morning. unfortunately the timezone my body thinks I’m in is currently at 1 in the morning, so I am a little out of it. The 6 other exchange students and I are becoming closer friends. We have a group chat called the “Hella Rad Finns” and hopefully we will be able to stay in touch throughout our year, even though we are not all close together. Their names are, Emily, Zoeth, Aly, Katie, and Sarah. We are all way more awake than we should be from excitement. Almost there!!