Day 2 in Helsinki: Slightly Less Humbling
Today was all about the errands. I had a few appointments around
the city (tax consultants, apartment viewings, etc.) so I went ahead
and jumped into figuring out the public transit system. Luckily where
I needed to go first thing this morning was the end of the line on a
tram route, making it virtually impossible for me to screw it up. So I
trammed it down to the waterfront, and I met with the tax consultants
and interrogated them about pretty much everything except taxes, and then went the office of our sister agency. This is where the HR guy works who has been helping me out so much.
It was a very cool Euro-style office, right on the water. Pertti walked me around and introduced me to every single person at the agency individually, which was about 20 people. Names are going to be a problem. Pertti, Tomi, Kiirsi, Jaako, Jarkko, Janko...they are all such new names and they roll their R's very hard so it covers up the rest of the word so I can't hear it to begin with, much less to remember it. They struggle with my name, too. They tend to say "HALL-aye". Last week I had asked one of my new Finnish coworkers if I should start spelling my name as "Hejli" so people would pronounce it correctly. He recommended "Heli" instead. I learned today that he was totally pranking me, because "Heli" is basically like calling someone "honey" or "sweetie," and I think he wanted me to go around introducing myself as "Honey Sweetie Kotara."
I had lunch with the crew from the sister agency, and everyone was super nice and friendly. Then the HR guy Pertti took me on a tour of city centre, taught me how to ride the subway, took me to get my bus pass, showed me where to buy a tennis racket, bought me tea, etc. That guy has been entirely too nice. Then I left him to go meet up with the real estate lady and look at two apartments. I think I might have a winner! I looked at:
Then I came back home and decided to go on my first adventure to the grocery market. The goal was to walk around undetected so that no one would know I wasn't Finnish. I think I blew it when I had to pull out my Finnish/English dictionary within 30 seconds of arriving just to make sure that what I thought was laundry washing powder was actually washing powder and not pure bleach. So I am now running my very first ever load of Finnish laundry. Where the outtake hose dumps into the shower. And where I will have to hang my wet clothes all over the apartment. So the post with pictures of the apartment will have to wait until all my unmentionables are dry and put away, because this isn't that kind of blog.
It was a very cool Euro-style office, right on the water. Pertti walked me around and introduced me to every single person at the agency individually, which was about 20 people. Names are going to be a problem. Pertti, Tomi, Kiirsi, Jaako, Jarkko, Janko...they are all such new names and they roll their R's very hard so it covers up the rest of the word so I can't hear it to begin with, much less to remember it. They struggle with my name, too. They tend to say "HALL-aye". Last week I had asked one of my new Finnish coworkers if I should start spelling my name as "Hejli" so people would pronounce it correctly. He recommended "Heli" instead. I learned today that he was totally pranking me, because "Heli" is basically like calling someone "honey" or "sweetie," and I think he wanted me to go around introducing myself as "Honey Sweetie Kotara."
I had lunch with the crew from the sister agency, and everyone was super nice and friendly. Then the HR guy Pertti took me on a tour of city centre, taught me how to ride the subway, took me to get my bus pass, showed me where to buy a tennis racket, bought me tea, etc. That guy has been entirely too nice. Then I left him to go meet up with the real estate lady and look at two apartments. I think I might have a winner! I looked at:
- City Centre (Kamppi)
- It was a relatively large place (and when I say relatively large I
mean 550 square feet instead of the 300 square feet I'm living in
now...and to try to further your metric education those are 51 and 28
square meters, respectively) right in the middle of the central part of
town and a very very short walk to the bus tunnel where I'll catch the
bus to work. And a clothes dryer, which is unheard of here. But...that
area has tons of bars and the apartment faces the street, so I think it
will be loud and annoying at night. And the dealbreaker: it doesn't
have an oven!?
- Quieter, Older Area by Lake (Töölö) - This is literally around the corner from where I'm staying now.
It will mean a longer commute and no clothes dryer, but at least the
kitchen has all the basic amenities, including a teeny tiny cute little
dishwasher. And rent includes electricity, water, TV, and internet,
which makes it a pretty good deal. The bathroom is really small and
this place is not super special or amazing, but it's totally fine and
I'm anxious to get my permanent place set up, so I asked the real
estate lady to go ahead and draw up the contract!
Then I came back home and decided to go on my first adventure to the grocery market. The goal was to walk around undetected so that no one would know I wasn't Finnish. I think I blew it when I had to pull out my Finnish/English dictionary within 30 seconds of arriving just to make sure that what I thought was laundry washing powder was actually washing powder and not pure bleach. So I am now running my very first ever load of Finnish laundry. Where the outtake hose dumps into the shower. And where I will have to hang my wet clothes all over the apartment. So the post with pictures of the apartment will have to wait until all my unmentionables are dry and put away, because this isn't that kind of blog.
I'm so glad things are already going better!