Cross Border Faith

When I first started writing this blog , I started with a statement that my life has taken a big swing and for the better. Well, it turned out to be much more than just a swing; it was a rocket launch straight to Jupiter! I'm still on the way to unknown though, but this is no exaggeration. My world turned completely upside down and I didn't even have to make an exchange operation to China for it! My eyes have opened. I see the world in a different way now, with full of possibilities, adventures and mysteries, only waiting for themselves to be unraveled and realized. Germany has taught me how to embrace the world with open arms and how important it is to make every second count. I have probably traveled at least 100 times more than ever before in my life! I have seen more Germany now than Finland. Heck, I've even seen more Germany now than many Germans have! First of all, thanks for this belongs to Germany , the state of Lower-Saxony and the Georg-August-University o...

I continued to live after the haunted forest. However, there is one more thing I need to survive before going back home. This is my final quest in the conquest of Central Europe during Erasmus. It will include cities such as Karlsruhe , Constance , Munich , Prague and Berlin . Megalomaniac? Yes. The travel begins today on Thursday night towards the first destiny. This is the longest road that will finally precede my homecoming. Pray for my existence. And you are very welcomed to join in! Karlsruhe das Fest So the first strike target was Karlsruhe and visiting my friend Michaela in her hometown. The same person that used to greet me at the Frankfurt airport in the very beginning of all this. It is crazy to think how all the time between these two meetings has gone by so quickly and unexpectedly! A feeling of certain nostalgia was definitely present. I took a Flixbus to Karlsruhe not from Göttingen but Kassel. Part of the reason I did this, was because it was a little cheaper...

Last week on Wednesday my family came to visit me in Göttingen and stayed for almost a week. Now, if it already was a surreal feeling for me to land here in Germany in the first place, it definitely was the case to see my family here as well. We spent a total of five full days together in the city vicinity and I was more than happy to receive them and show them a bit around as the local guide. Also, it was another cross border action for us this time as a family unit, since we have never made a trip abroad together as a whole family before. Went to hike up top to Burg Plesse with my brother. We did a wonderful family hike to the Bismarckturm in the Göttingen forest. I determined that this would be a great opportunity to write down some of my quick thoughts about the importance of family in the light of theological ethics and my own life experience. As the ground philosophy of my theology and understanding of life, once again I seek for a narrative perspective in t...

My historical second crossing of border took place in Ellund just the last weekend, right at the border of Germany and Denmark. The destination was Copenhagen and Denmark would now mark the second country I've ever visited besides Finland. I was excited, of course to see Heidi and Lara there, whom I knew back from the times they were doing an Erasmus at my home University of Eastern Finland a year ago. However, I was not so excited to hold three tickets to the IIHF World Cup Semi-Final game anymore, since the Finnish heroes had just lost their quarterfinal game against the Swiss heroes. If they hadn't, we would have been watching Finland in the Semi. What a national disaster! And if it was a disaster on a national level, it certainly was that on a personal level as well for this crazy Finnish ice-hockey fan. Once again it was another existential crisis to be dealt with. How can this be? I had bought the tickets way before I even knew who was clashing against whom in the q...

Meetup is a online social service that allows people to find groups and organize social gatherings all around the world. I learned about its existence just recently during my first travel to Copenhagen through Hamburg . I had plenty of time to luxuriate myself in Hamburg before the arrival of my night bus to Copenhagen around 2:30 AM. It was the first time ever for me to travel such a distance completely alone, so I sought out for chances to socialize with new people. That's how I found out about Meetup. My first steps in Hamburg went really well. I managed to find the city's central library for a free WiFi, take care of some business there and explore the city vicinity a bit. My Meetup event was organized at a place called Sofabar at 8 o'clock, about 45 minutes walking distance away from the main railway station. It was the only available public event in the area at that time so there was no alternative to go elsewhere, if I wanted to have something to do while waiting...

How many times has your mother prohibited you from talking to strangers during your childhood? For me, several times. Two rules from my mom were quite simple: first (1), don't talk to strangers and second (2), certainly don't let any strangers enter your home. While it might be useful to dictate these to your child, it certainly isn't helpful anymore once you are a grown adult. From time to time it's even necessary to talk to strangers as a grown-up. And this becomes even more evident when you're traveling alone in unknown places. Last week I visited Cologne to spent my May Day holidays exploring the city for the first time with my Finnish cousin Jukka and his German fiance Verena . During my adventures I had two experiences of talking to strangers and I would like to share these incidents with you in the next bit. My first encounter with a stranger was at the Bochum main railway station. I was on my way to Cologne and I went up to the track to see my train wa...