Day 3 in Helsinki: Trapping the UPS Guy in the Elevator
Another mixed bag of a day. Another night of waking up at 2am, and not
being able to fall back asleep until 6am, only to be woken up by
hammering at 8am. Sigh...
I got up and worked from home for most of the morning, and about 5 minutes before I headed out to do some errands, the UPS guy called and said he would be arriving in 15 minutes. Yay!! This was excellent news because it meant that my shipment didn't have to be delivered to the office, which meant I didn't have to haul an 80 pound box across the city!
He was nice enough to bring the huge-ass box inside for me, and I put him and the box inside the elevator...and froze. I had no idea what floor I was on, there were no numbers and I couldn't remember if Finland was one of those places where the 1st floor is really the "ground floor" and the second floor is the "first floor," etc. I knew I had to go up one flight of stairs to get to my unit, so second floor, right? I pushed two and told him I would take the stairs and meet him upstairs since there wasn't room for both of us and the box inside the elevator. I ran to my door, and heard the elevator doors open somewhere not in front of me. He called out, "Where are you?" I panicked, realized my apartment number was 3 and not 2 and said, "Oops, I think up one more?" So he went up another floor. The doors opened somewhere not in front of me and he called out, "Where are you?" I panicked and noticed the door of the elevator where I was standing said "4 Henkilöa" and said, "Aha! Maybe up one more on 4?" The doors opened somewhere not in front of me, I was getting super embarrassed and I said, "Okay, hold on...I'll just call the elevator back to me, sorry!"
Turns out I was on 1, the only floor in the building we didn't try. But I was confused and said, "If it's 1, why does the door of the elevator say 4?" He shook his head at me disapprovingly and said "'Henkilöa' means 'persons'. That means that only 4 persons can fit inside elevator."
So after that fail, I went to the agency office for an orientation meeting with the HR guy Pertti, and my two new colleagues Juha and Antonio. There wasn't too much to be oriented on, because the three of us will be sitting at the client's office and not at the agency, but the HR guy seems to be very concerned about getting us set up with "lunch coupons." (Which he pronounces "lunch coupongs.") These are apparently pre-paid coupons that are good at just about every restaurant in the city, including the cafeteria at Nokia House where I will be eating. Each coupon is worth €8, but the agency will pay for 25% of it, so seems like a good deal.
After our orientation, I had planned to head home, but as I left the building one of the agency guys was having a smoke outside and mentioned a few people were staying late that night to play Wii. I decided to stick around. They had wine and beer at the office, and fired up the Beatles Rock Band, followed by an intense Wii bowling tournament where I learned all sorts of good Finnish cuss words. It was all good fun, and the people were so very nice and friendly and funny. Later I caught the tram home, and saw one of the guys walking in the street and he waved at me. It was the smallest little thing, but that little wave made me happy because it meant there was one less stranger in town, and made Helsinki seem a little smaller...
I got up and worked from home for most of the morning, and about 5 minutes before I headed out to do some errands, the UPS guy called and said he would be arriving in 15 minutes. Yay!! This was excellent news because it meant that my shipment didn't have to be delivered to the office, which meant I didn't have to haul an 80 pound box across the city!
He was nice enough to bring the huge-ass box inside for me, and I put him and the box inside the elevator...and froze. I had no idea what floor I was on, there were no numbers and I couldn't remember if Finland was one of those places where the 1st floor is really the "ground floor" and the second floor is the "first floor," etc. I knew I had to go up one flight of stairs to get to my unit, so second floor, right? I pushed two and told him I would take the stairs and meet him upstairs since there wasn't room for both of us and the box inside the elevator. I ran to my door, and heard the elevator doors open somewhere not in front of me. He called out, "Where are you?" I panicked, realized my apartment number was 3 and not 2 and said, "Oops, I think up one more?" So he went up another floor. The doors opened somewhere not in front of me and he called out, "Where are you?" I panicked and noticed the door of the elevator where I was standing said "4 Henkilöa" and said, "Aha! Maybe up one more on 4?" The doors opened somewhere not in front of me, I was getting super embarrassed and I said, "Okay, hold on...I'll just call the elevator back to me, sorry!"
Turns out I was on 1, the only floor in the building we didn't try. But I was confused and said, "If it's 1, why does the door of the elevator say 4?" He shook his head at me disapprovingly and said "'Henkilöa' means 'persons'. That means that only 4 persons can fit inside elevator."
So after that fail, I went to the agency office for an orientation meeting with the HR guy Pertti, and my two new colleagues Juha and Antonio. There wasn't too much to be oriented on, because the three of us will be sitting at the client's office and not at the agency, but the HR guy seems to be very concerned about getting us set up with "lunch coupons." (Which he pronounces "lunch coupongs.") These are apparently pre-paid coupons that are good at just about every restaurant in the city, including the cafeteria at Nokia House where I will be eating. Each coupon is worth €8, but the agency will pay for 25% of it, so seems like a good deal.
After our orientation, I had planned to head home, but as I left the building one of the agency guys was having a smoke outside and mentioned a few people were staying late that night to play Wii. I decided to stick around. They had wine and beer at the office, and fired up the Beatles Rock Band, followed by an intense Wii bowling tournament where I learned all sorts of good Finnish cuss words. It was all good fun, and the people were so very nice and friendly and funny. Later I caught the tram home, and saw one of the guys walking in the street and he waved at me. It was the smallest little thing, but that little wave made me happy because it meant there was one less stranger in town, and made Helsinki seem a little smaller...
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