Pictures from the Past

Wow, this brings us back to the very beginning of it all. This picture was taken at Winter Orientation in January when I was just told that I would be going on exchange to Finland. The boy in the blue blazer is named Ilkka, he was at the time on exchange in Juneau, Alaska. The other boy is named Kaden, and he had just gotten back from his exchange year in Finland. They both walked up on to the stage, Ilkka carrying the flag of his home country, and Kaden holding the envelope decorated as a Finnish flag. They gave out a short introduction in Finnish, then both with a smile on their faces said in unison, 

"Welcome to Finland Katie Cadigan." 

Here we have pictures from the night I left Fairbanks behind. This was both the most wonderful, and most terrible night of my life. I know I already posted a bit about this night, so I'll only give a short run down of what happened. My Dad and my younger brother Sean drove me to the airport at about 11:30 at night where we were met by my wonderful friends Kelly, Claire, Torie, Spencer, Deenaalee, and Harry. We had very tearful goodbyes, and eventually it was down to just Sean, Dad, and I, sitting on the bench shown in the picture. I was crying, and honestly having a panic attack, but somehow I managed to stand up, say goodbye to the two people closest to me in the world, and board my plane. 

Now we have me, in Finland, at the very beginning of my journey.