On vacation

I haven't written anything for my blog since May because I was back in Vietnam for the summer. When in Finland was born so I could communicate with people in Vietnam; therefore, already being physically close to them made me a bit….lazy to write. Even though the website has been inactive, a lot has happened in the real-life world. This post will sum up the past month and a half that I was absent.

When in Finland has welcomed new members

With me entering senior year and getting ready for college application, I will, unfortunately, have less time for When in Finland. Moreover, I may not be in Finland after high school graduation, so someone will have to take over. In May, I started to recruit new members and Phuong & Khue were the chosen ones! Phuong (18) is starting her studies in Kurikka this August while Khue (16) is still learning Finnish at home. For now, they’re responsible for writing blog posts, but let’s wait for their new exciting activities in the future.

My first offline event

My co-host, Xu, and I have had a few online webinars relating to studying in Finland. Even though they have yielded some success, they lack face-to-face interaction. Being back in Vietnam was not only a chance for me to be with family and friends but also to meet the people I had been talking to online for the whole year. I first thought of organizing a meet-up in April and the event finally took place at the end of June.

At events like this, there are usually two to three speakers. My usual co-host, Xu, was still in Finland, so I invited her mom, Mrs. Thu Ha. Talking with a person with much more experience than me was both exciting and scary at the same time. The event was supposed to be small and cozy so preparation didn’t take much time. Mainly, I had to find a good venue, post about the event online, and prepare the content that I was going to talk about. Mrs. Thu Ha had been at more events like this than me, so she offered a lot of advice about things I didn’t think of. Talking and sitting next to her were also very reassuring because I knew if I said something wrong or got stuck for ideas, she would come to the rescue :) The event was also attended by my friend from Finland, ST. He arrived near the end and immediately stole the spotlight because everyone was interested in hearing more about Finland from a Finn.

The topic of the talk was: necessary mindsets for studying abroad. I will have a blog post summing up what we talked about later. The event lasted incredibly long: we talked continuously for 2 hours and continued with networking conversations. The best part of the event was, as I said, face-to-face interaction. Last year, I received many messages from parents and students and I had to reply to them in a very robotic way, many people I only know by name and Facebook profile picture.  At the event, I could see their reactions and hear their stories. That made me realize it was much more pleasant answering to questions through talking than messaging.   

My Finnish friend visiting Vietnam

My trip to Vietnam was made more special by the visit of ST, a close friend who has written for my blog and attended my online webinars. He only stayed in Vietnam for 2 weeks, so we were always in a rush to get things done. ST’s visit encouraged me to try new things in Saigon because despite growing up in the city, I haven’t experienced much of it. We spent some time in Landmark 81 and it was my first time experiencing such luxury. Another novel experience for me was the Cu Chi tunnels, a system of underground tunnels that were used during wartime. ST was very excited about learning more about the Vietnam War from a Vietnamese perspective. He bought a Viet Cong hat and went through all the tunnels (I didn’t, lol). 

The final highlight of the trip was Da Nang. He even said he would only come back to Da Nang and not Saigon :) We spent a whole day in Ba Na Hills, then Coconut Village and Hoi An old town. The air quality was much better in a beach city than in a city with multiple skyscrapers. It was very sunny and almost 30°C every day, which I didn’t enjoy but he did. We once went to the beach at midday and our feet were burning on the sand because the sun was right above our heads. ST’s trip to Vietnam wrapped up nicely with a meal at a Michelin-selected steakhouse and a dip in the ocean. 

My first IELTS exam

I still remember going to my first IELTS class 4 years ago. I didn’t take the IELTS exam then because I didn’t need it to apply for anything. At the time, my English was adequate, but not very good. Although my Listening and Reading skills were okay, I struggled a lot with Writing and Speaking. 4 years later, now, I feel much more confident using English because somehow living in Finland without speaking Finnish has forced me to use English daily. I took the exam in Vietnam and didn’t spend much time preparing for it because I was busy being a tour guide. My preparation consisted of doing past R&L tests, reading model Writing answers, and practicing Speaking with ST. I aimed for an overall 8. and ended up scoring higher than that!

You’re all caught up on what happened recently. I just got back to my new and empty apartment in Turku. I have been feeling kinda guilty for being inactive, but I promise I will post more frequently.