Time to call it quits

I'm writing this on a genuine old-school notepad on a flight to Helsinki. With three degrees in the bag, five years spent abroad behind me, the day day which I swore would never come is finally upon me.

Whilst I've never been the one to long for my native country when I'm abroad (quite the opposite some times) - I have finally, however, come to the conclusion that staying in Finland doesn't equal defeat.

I now only dread for the future. Will I settle down, get a job, find a boyfriend, move in, get married, have kids and end up looking at the past five years as mere youth's folly?

I don't know the future but this blog has come to the end of its life-cycle. With adulthood looming around the corner I won't turn this into a ranting space for "what's to become of me?" or "why can't I get a job?" You'll get enough of that from me face to face.

Good luck for everyone studying abroad. It was the best decision I ever made. Now I only hope the rest of my life can rival it.

The end is nigh

May is crazy. So many exams, final projects, visitors... But then it'll be over. For good. The last of my studies will be done.

From there on it's just me travelling to Finland and then off to our delightful little eurotrip. But from August onwards, I have no idea where I'll be.

Suvi asked me to go on a holiday with her in August and I said I can't because I don't quite know what the future holds. She interpreted this to her friend as "Mia doesn't know what to do with her life."

Sure I do. I'm just... keeping it to myself for now.

C'est la vie

C'est la vie is my phrase of the month.

It's perfect because it's French and I'm working at the European Commission at the moment. So you know, being all European and stuff.

Secondly, I'm trying to be zen about things. Instead of raging on the injustices I face every now and then, I'll roll with the punches.

That said, my time in London has been absolutely lovely. I don't really want to leave.

Working at the EC Rep has been amazing in terms of seeing how the EU works and hearing some of the brilliant insights as how it *really* works.

I could get used to this. I keep an eye on EU news for work, I have my lunch in St James's park and then go home to have dinner with Triin. It's not a bad life.

Yesterday I went home but didn't have the keys so needed to wait for Triin for two hours. Time passed by relatively quickly, sitting there on the ground of a council estate, drinking cider. I felt like a chav so I was giggling by myself a lot.

Today Triin was going to Brussels. She was planning on getting up at 3.30am to catch her 6.20am Eurostar. Instead we woke up at 5.40am, I called her a taxi and gave her money for it. And she made it. Success.

I was on Newsnight on Thursday by the way. Catch on BBC's iPlayer if you want to see me blink a lot.

Now this could be fun..

I'm sure London is lovely and has lots to do. I, however, have not been able to do any of it.

Daddy was here visiting and we took one of those sightseeing busses. Too bad this one had an open top and it was raining. They practically pushed us upstairs, armed with white plastic bin bags - nay, "raincoats" - and left us to our own demise.

Needless to say it was cold, it was wet and I got soaked. Even ruined a pair of shoes after a taxi dropped us off by a massive lake (a puddle one just couldn't jump across).

So thanks to that adventure, I now have a lovely flu. Whilst producing massive quantities of mucus is fun anywhere, it's particularly so in my massive flat in London. You see, it's massive and I have a flight of stairs to climb where ever I go. And I'm not really in a fit state to tackle those stairs.

Plus I'm all alone.

Jolly good.

First impression

Good day at work. Seems like I'll get to do a lot.

Somewhat embarrassed at my lack of journalistic work experience but otherwise way cool. Tomorrow they're going to publish my first blog post for them. Yey.

My work place is right in the centre of London by the way, rather bizarre. I get to join all the suit-types in the tube, pretending I'm just as cool as everyone else and like totally know where I'm going. Inside my head I'm doing a little victory dance every time I get it right.

Because that's just how I roll.

London calling

Made it to London today. I'm here to do two internships.

As stupid as this may sound, I hadn't previously quite realised I'll be living in London. I'd only thought about the work aspect but now that I'm here I finally realise I can do all sorts of fun stuff as well.

I need to visit the museums, possibly see a show in West End and then on top of all that I get to spend time with my friends living in London!

I quite like this.

My headbands made it here too.

Future

February-March always seems to bring up the f-word.

Future. What am I going to do with my life?

I will soon have two postgraduate degrees so it's about time I enter the working world. And I'm quite happy to do so.

The question is, what will I do? Where do I go?

Well, to be honest, I know what I want to do. Get elected as a member of the European Parliament. But the question is more about what do I want to do before that.

I applied to my pretty much ideal job at The Economist so fingers crossed I get that. Ideally I think I would like to work in London or Brussels where I have friends. And I would want to work with something that combines the EU, writing and online content.

I suppose I should do what everyone else does and just apply everywhere. It's just that I really need to love what I do order to do it well. I would rather move somewhere completely new, where I don't know anyone and do a job I love than just settle with something.

I'm not a settler.

Do you know a place where they'd hire a megalomaniac EU journalist?

Brussels-bound

Now haven't I been a busy bee lately.

Firstly I have a lot of stuff going on at uni. Then I have my EU UK blog that doubles almost as a second job now. I just did a blog post series about British MEPs, I emailed all of them. Very exciting stuff.

I'm however very happy to take a break this weekend. I'm going to Brussels.

I'm absolutely stoked about it. I get to see all my wonderful friends who are now living there. Mostly from Maas-times but also one guy I went to uni with in Newcastle. What a small world.

I can't however fully escape work. I'm writing a feature on citybreaks to Brussels while I'm there so will be walking around taking pictures. Nice job, eh?

I had a brilliant idea of emailing the hotel I'm staying at to let them know I'm writing a story on Brussels citybreaks. I asked them for press photos but also for a room with a view for my own photos. Lets hope they get the hint and upgrade me to a nice room. ;)

We were told that we might as well try to make use of the fact we're journalists and that we shouldn't shy away from getting benefits. Because it's not like journalists make that much money anyway.

Anyways, hopefully will remember to upload some of my best shots here once I get back. In the meanwhile, have a lovely weekend!

Cars

Now I'm not a fan of driving. I'm actually quite scared of driving cars. I blame it on my sight, not having proper stereovision means that I lack depth-perception. Quite inconvenient when I'm driving, trying to watch 3D-films or indeed playing any sort of precision game.

I have always however liked cars. They've been talked about a lot, dad knows a bit about them and then coming from a family of taxi-drivers, cars have always been around.

So I enjoy watching Top Gear for example. Or reading reviews for new cars.

Today I started a new course at uni, motoring journalism. And it's absolutely fascinating! We looked at the car industry, how it's developed, the challenges it's facing etc. It also includes bits of economics and politics so I like it even more. I got a kick out of them using terms like economies of scale and FDI and me knowing what they meant.

I'm wondering whether this is just initial enthusiasm or whether it's something I could look into as a future profession.

But then I wonder how successful of a motoring journalist can I be without driving?

Sleep

My sleep routine is pretty standard for any student. Staying up until 4am, getting up at 1pm. That sort of stuff.

I admit, it's pretty effed up.

So today I wake up around 10.30am for class. And go to bed at 11pm. I go to sleep almost immediately. Sleep like a baby.

Until 2am. That's when I wake up again. Feeling completely refreshed.

I think my body thought I was taking a nap.