Young Eagles of Kotka: Perks of living abroad

* Getting to become familiar with places you didn´t even know existed. Two years ago, had anyone asked me what i knew about Kotka, Finland, I would´t have been to answer anything other than "uuuuh..." (let´s not even mention Pyhtää!) Now, I can impress all my friends with my knowledge of Finnish geography, a skill that would make anybody jealous. And you never know, this kind of trivial knowledge could come in handy if I ever end up on "Who wants to be a millionaire"!

* New appreciation for some unexpected aspects of your home country. I swear I will never again complain about the price of a magazine in France... with how much they cost, you´d think Finnish magazines have pages made of silk!

* Having the chance to travel to nearby countries that would otherwise be expensive and/or difficult to travel to: hello, Sweden and Denmark! Sweden in particular has been a true revelation. Not to add fuel to the fire of the old Finland/Sweden rivalry or anything (I refuse to take sides), but Sweden is pretty darn awesome.

* Exotic fauna. Well, I admittedly haven´t seen very much of the famous Finnish fauna... since I´ve arrived here, I have seen exactly one moose, and that was from the inside of a moving car. I´ve also seen one raccoon dog (I prefer the Finnish word, supikoira - it sounds much cuter!), and that was also from the inside of a moving car... at night.

Well, I´ve seen plenty of mosquitoes, so there is that...