So, tickets and offers are bought, the program is paid for, the embassy interview is done (nothing special - they rejected a couple of our people for no apparent reason. It's impossible to track the embassy's logic, hence the conclusion that the embassy is a woman), the session is extended until September 20th due to failing a term paper and two exams, mom's car is wrecked by an inexperienced driver—me, who dreamed of a trip to America and only got my license on April 12th, panic hasn't subsided for a month, on the last day something is frantically shoved into the suitcase, sleep is poor and....

Morning. Bus. Five of us are going to Finland. Me, Olya, Anya, and mom with her friend, who volunteered to see us off. We arrive at a hotel at the former Olympic stadium. Hmm, sporty. Everyone is running, even the squirrels. Cool, we think, we pass a park where a hundred Finns are doing showy wushu, we get scared, smile at strange people, and go to the city center to enjoy the harsh Scandinavian architecture.

And then, bam!! It's not even there!!! Wait, maybe here? No. Maybe here? No, it's not! Oh, oh, let's go there, it seems to be there!! Nope. Huge gray supermarkets, square houses, equally angular monuments, but the thing we came for is missing. And then, amidst all this gloomy filth, the snow-white Helsinki Cathedral emerges, along with two buildings resembling some Ministry of Justice in St. Petersburg. Now it's clear why they love Russian emperors. The only people who built something normal here..

After admiring it and checking who had the worst shortness of breath after racing to the top to the cathedral doors, we head to the embankment. Oh! A boat to the super fortress of Suomenlinna. We go to the ticket office, heart sinking from the lack of habit, we part with 10 euros for each ticket. Total, 30. We board. Uh, wait, there are no turnstiles here and you can get on for free! Give our money back!!))

It's cool in the fortress and, what's especially pleasing, there's mobile reception. And, apparently out of fright after a long coma, for some reason it picks up an Estonian network. Surprisingly, SMS messages arrive in the normal mode. Technology has come a long way.) We lie down to sleep on one of the boulders, which are plentiful here, and, closer to 6 PM, we return to the hotel to mommy, whom we promised to be back by 7 and who has a birthday tomorrow.

Flower shops, as it turned out, close at 4 PM at the latest, like all other shops outside the central square. Well, it's time to sleep, what kind of shops with flowers and chocolates! Suffering for a long time from the tearing shame before an incomprehensible but cute country, and the desire to give flowers to mom, I choose the only option and climb onto a flower bed near some house to pick a bouquet. It turned out cute, although the flowers weren't wildflowers. So 3 is enough. Now to mom!

In general, the next morning - 5 AM bus and at 6 we are at the airport. Here it turns out that only 2 pieces of hand luggage can be taken, so all my 7 kilos of buckwheat, spare socks, and manicure scissors fly immediately to New York, because we don't have a British transit visa, which means we don't need bags there. When we suggest that maybe they'll let us out, they laugh in our faces. While passing customs, they teach us Hauskaa päivää (have a nice day in Finnish)).

Next, we take off nicely on British Airways - I'm the only one freaking out, as I seem to be the only one who doesn't trust planes. The plane, however, turned out to be very polite and didn't shake. I meet an Australian there, he says I have good English, I say - you're kidding, he says - well, in any case, it's better than my Russian))) a textbook dialogue, I tell everyone in America about the phrases regarding my good English))) The steward laughs in my face again at the suggestion that maybe they'll let us out for a day in London. He says he wishes us a pleasant time in one of the biggest airports in the world, Heathrow)) Outside the window is the sun, gaining altitude parallel to us, snow-white clouds, and a huge sea of something new and unexplored.

We get out, we want to get boarding passes for the plane, right away, so we don't have to run later, because the lovely steward advised us so. We ride for 12 minutes (damn, exactly as announced during landing) on a bus to another terminal, they tell us that they will only be available the next day, because Kirill Andreevich took the flight 23 hours and 55 minutes after our arrival in London (because after 24 hours - tickets are already more expensive, and you can't count on a free pass to London)) and they advise changing tickets so as not to hang around for a day for some 20,000 rubles per head. After refusal, they advise terminal number 1 - the only one open 24/7 where you can sleep))

We ride 12 minutes (like a clock, the beast, the bus) back, we approach the passenger checkpoint to the wonderful world of London, without hope, and everyone is hating me in unison for the ugly future day at the airport. We slide our passports and printouts of electronic tickets to the black woman, explain the situation, look at her like our own mother.

She smiles, goes to consult with someone, returns, gives me my phone, forgotten on her nightstand, where it says "Under no circumstances put phones on the nightstand", stamps our passports 3 times and says for us to go, not to hold up the line, the subway is over there.)))