Enni Korpela – New York State of Mind
EuroCircle Team in NYC noticed this lovely and energetic young lady from Finland in New York City and wanted to find out a little bit more about her.
My name is Enni Korpela, I am 23 years old and I come from Jyväskylä, Finland.
My hobbies are yoga, gym and blogging about New York. I am studying business at JAMK University of Applied Sciences (Jyväskylän ammattikorkeakoulu). When I decided to start study business, I had no idea what or who I wanted to be in the future. Only thing I knew was that I wanted to live abroad someday, work with different people and do something good for our society. I had no idea that New York could open my eyes that way it did.
I had my second year in school and my teacher sent me an email about open trainee position in Consulate General of Finland in New York. In that point, I knew very little about their amazing work and what they exactly were doing. I read their intro for this position and I got very excited. After two months I got a message that the next step was to move to New York and to be their trainee for next six months.
It was not my first time travelling to New York, it was actually my 15th.
Even though I knew the city already, I still was very scared to move abroad for the first time. Working at the Consulate General of Finland was the best thing ever happened in my life. I enjoyed every moment working there. I love New York but I think I loved my work even more. Every morning I woke up happy and smiling because it was time to go to work. My job was to interview visa, passport and residence permit applicants. I also put those applications into systems and answered to inquiries about visas. Meeting new people every day and talking with them about their desire to travel to Finland was very pleasant.
I also got to meet Finland’s current President Sauli Niinistö and his spouse Jenni Haukio as well as Minister for Foreign affairs Timo Soini.
Living in New York was very hectic. I did not expect it to be that hectic as it was. Everyone hurries to work in the morning and in the evenings they hurry to get home. Even though the constant hurry and the city made me feel pressure to do something every day, I loved the feeling New York gave me. I felt like I am home and everyone was very kind to me. I loved being between these crazy tall buildings and living in this city where every day was full of events.
I was very active about finding interesting events. For example, I got to meet my idol Olivia Palermo and I had amazing opportunity to take part in New York Film Festival.
During the week I wanted to wake up at 6 am and get to work by 9 am. I lived in Washington Heights that is on the top of Manhattan.
Every morning I sat on the subway about 30 minutes reading books and staring at the local people. During the mornings at work I interviewed our visa and passport customers. After the lunch I put their applications in the system. When I had done that we had a team meeting or the staff gave me some other assignments.
I usually got home around 4pm or 5pm. Many evenings I walked or shopped in Soho, got groceries on the Upper West Side or went to some events. I enjoyed New York life to the fullest. When I was walking by myself in the streets, I did not feel lonely because there always was so many people around.
When I am thinking back, I feel very bereft because part of my heart is still in New York. When writing blog posts about my life there New York is on my mind every day. New York has always place in my heart and I hope I will live there someday in my near future. It is my favorite city in the world and always will be.
CONNECT WITH ENNI KORPELA:
Website: http://dreamingnny.blogspot.fi/
Linkedin: https://fi.linkedin.com/in/ennikorpela
