Remember the curse of the Blitz from How I Met Your Mother? Where epic things happen when the cursed one leaves the room? I realised that, though not as dramatic, that stuff works. On my exchange I made a rule that says ‘Never leave a place too soon’.

Orignally meant to help me avoid a boring host family, it opened up a whole lot of things for me. By staying in a place longer, you widened your windows for opportunities.

I’ll tell you about one. I had visited Oulu as part of my initial ‘A city every Sunday’ plan. In Oulu, there is a beautiful, old and lively market square called Kauppattori. Sadly when I visited there were no stalls set up- except for one where two sisters sold berries.

So I settled for the equally cool but much warmer Kauppahalli. Here I lazed around, shopped a little, got bored and decided to book prepone my train ticket. To fuel my plan I found a café owned run by a Japanese gentleman with whom a young Thai barista discussed barista stuff. A mother and daughter, who evidently knew the men, were chiming in too. They welcomed me warmly and asked if I am drinking anything.

Now I had no idea why people order a Mocha or a Triple, Venti, Half Sweet, Caramel Macchiato with a gold nugget and cure for Ebola. I couldn’t see why there are so many kinds of coffee. Overwhelmed by the menu, I asked the brewing (eh?) burning questions in my mind. And the young guy explained.

1. Learnt about coffee

Liking the concept of chocolate, I ordered a Mocha and was halfway about to sit alone but got my Sisu (guts) together and asked to join the ladies. They obliged and pretty soon what was meant to be a quick coffe-train-home routine stretched into an effusive two hour conversation with these strangers: covering their journey from Japan to Australia to Finland; the different climates; how we disliked IBDP; complexity of Finnish friendship and language; more.

2. Learnt about life in Austalia and Japan

3. Made close acquaintances

4. The Mocha was nice

It doesn’t seem like much right now, but at that point I felt lonely and worn out. I had been making no progress with school friends and family in Finland and India. It gave me a boost, something I would have missed if I had gone home too soon.

What would I have done at home? Sat, slept, Netflix and no chill.