Recently in daily life Category
A couple of weeks ago, a male colleague of mine gave me a second-hand verbal meeting request for the morning of March 8 (today). This annoyed me. For several reasons:
So this morning I went to the agency office for this alleged "meeting." Over the past year, vague mandatory meetings have come to mean "someone is getting fired," so I was pretty uneasy. I patiently and confusedly and worriedly sat through their weekly status discussion. Then when the meeting was wrapping up (and no one was fired), Samuel the meeting leader announced that all the ladies needed to get out of the conference room, and go gather by the desks.
I continued to be confused. And scared. All the other girls stood around grinning like they knew what was up, and I was panicking. I hate not knowing what's going on.
Then suddenly...all the Wunderboys emerged from the conference room bearing roses!? And chocolates!? And each boy handed a rose to one predetermined girl, along with a quick hug and/or kiss!?
Then suddenly...a guitar appeared? And then all the boys stood and serenaded us???
And one guy used a beer can filled with rocks AS A MARACA??!!??
As it turns out, all the secrecy and trickery was because today is International Women's Day and all the Wunderboys were being particularly sweet and sensitive and European and adorable about it:
And they totally made my day/week/month/quarter.
And I won't ruin this nice story with what they told me was expected from women on "International Men's Day."
- This particular colleague generally tries my patience. He tends to boss me around all the time, and him ordering me to attend a meeting (especially with no details on why my attendance was mandatory) made me want to ditch on principle.
- I had other shit to do and didn't really have time to spend my whole morning on a status meeting that had nothing to do with me.
- That is disorganized. Don't tell me about a meeting and expect me to remember/show up! Forward me the official Outlook scheduler request from the original meeting organizer, jackass. Otherwise if details of the meeting change, I won't know.
So this morning I went to the agency office for this alleged "meeting." Over the past year, vague mandatory meetings have come to mean "someone is getting fired," so I was pretty uneasy. I patiently and confusedly and worriedly sat through their weekly status discussion. Then when the meeting was wrapping up (and no one was fired), Samuel the meeting leader announced that all the ladies needed to get out of the conference room, and go gather by the desks.
I continued to be confused. And scared. All the other girls stood around grinning like they knew what was up, and I was panicking. I hate not knowing what's going on.
Then suddenly...all the Wunderboys emerged from the conference room bearing roses!? And chocolates!? And each boy handed a rose to one predetermined girl, along with a quick hug and/or kiss!?
Then suddenly...a guitar appeared? And then all the boys stood and serenaded us???
And one guy used a beer can filled with rocks AS A MARACA??!!??
As it turns out, all the secrecy and trickery was because today is International Women's Day and all the Wunderboys were being particularly sweet and sensitive and European and adorable about it:
"Started as a Socialist political event, the holiday blended in the culture of many countries, primarily Eastern Europe, Russia, and the former Soviet block. In many regions, the day lost its political flavor, and became simply an occasion for men to express their love for women in a way somewhat similar to a mixture of Mother's Day and St Valentine's Day.
And they totally made my day/week/month/quarter.
And I won't ruin this nice story with what they told me was expected from women on "International Men's Day."
In honor of it being -25 DEGREES CELCIUS today (that's -13 F!?!), I think it's high time that I talk about the cold and the snow. I was reading about average temperatures in Helsinki yesterday to try to understand when it will warm up, and I was surprised to see that it's been about 10 degrees colder than the average since I've been here. I confronted my boss/client about that today, and he said, "Oh yeah...this is like the coldest winter in Helsinki, well, in my lifetime."
Great.
Actually, I've adjusted better than I thought I would. (Which isn't saying much because I expected instant hypothermic death when I stepped outside.) Obviously I'm used to Texas weather where there are only a few super-cold and/or snowy days per year. The snow is an exciting and rare event in Texas. Here in Helsinki, it's a daily reality.
Sidewalks
All the sidewalks are completely snowed over,
and have been for months. I can't tell you how much snow is there, but
it's enough that it's difficult to visually distinguish
where the sidewalk ends and the street begins. Someone goes around
town and scrapes all the sidewalks, and then sprinkles them with gravel and/or sand and/or salt
to make them safer for walking. The snow gets pretty hard-packed, and when you walk on it in rubber soled boots, it makes the weirdest sound. I've struggled to define the sound which is something between a "crunch" and a "squeak", and the best I can come up with is "squoonch." (And yes, I did double-check that "squoonch" wasn't in urbandictionary.com before I published this.)
As long as it stays below freezing, all is well. It's been very weird to learn and accept the fact that it getting above freezing is a BAD thing. Below is good because all the streets and sidewalks just stay snowy. If it thaws, it will freeze again then you have to walk on black ice instead of white powdery snow.
Bus/Tram Stops
Every time I walk up to my tram stop, I immediately get annoyed because I see that everyone around the stop is smoking, and that I'm going to have to stand in the middle of all that stinky cigarette smoke while I wait for my ride. Then I realize no one is smoking, it's just their breath!
Streets
Pretty pristine white snow + dirty cars = volcanic ash snow nastiness.
Cars
When I first arrived, my dad was very worried about me not having a car here. Dad, I don't want a car here. See Exhibit A at left.
Piles of Scraped Snow
All that scraped snow from the streets and sidewalks has to go somewhere. And it usually ends up on random street corners in a huge pile. This one you see behind the white car is a small one. Many of them are the height of two cars stacked on top of each other.
Drifts and Sparkles
One of the wonderful things about Helsinki is that even though it's very urban, there are still lots of areas within the city that have little pockets of nature. When I walk to my bus stop from the office, I walk through a semi-wooded area where there are pure untouched, unstomped snowdrifts. And when it's dusk (which is usually), the streetlights catch all the little sparkles in the snow and it seriously is so pretty it just takes your breath away. Unfortunately there is no way to capture that in a photograph. I think it's probably more magical and accurate if you just imagine it, anyway.
And speaking of beautiful snowy, icy nature...
Trees
In conclusion, Helsinki is coooooooold. But you know what? Even though there are definitely moments when I'm completely freezingly miserable (i.e. can't feel my appendages, having chapped lips/nose/eyes, lungs burning from the arctic air, slipping on ice and falling), when I look around at the landscape, it's pretty amazingly beautiful. So beautiful, in fact, that it makes me forget how cold I am...
Great.
Actually, I've adjusted better than I thought I would. (Which isn't saying much because I expected instant hypothermic death when I stepped outside.) Obviously I'm used to Texas weather where there are only a few super-cold and/or snowy days per year. The snow is an exciting and rare event in Texas. Here in Helsinki, it's a daily reality.
Sidewalks
As long as it stays below freezing, all is well. It's been very weird to learn and accept the fact that it getting above freezing is a BAD thing. Below is good because all the streets and sidewalks just stay snowy. If it thaws, it will freeze again then you have to walk on black ice instead of white powdery snow.
Bus/Tram Stops
Every time I walk up to my tram stop, I immediately get annoyed because I see that everyone around the stop is smoking, and that I'm going to have to stand in the middle of all that stinky cigarette smoke while I wait for my ride. Then I realize no one is smoking, it's just their breath!
Streets
Pretty pristine white snow + dirty cars = volcanic ash snow nastiness.
Cars
Piles of Scraped Snow
Drifts and Sparkles
One of the wonderful things about Helsinki is that even though it's very urban, there are still lots of areas within the city that have little pockets of nature. When I walk to my bus stop from the office, I walk through a semi-wooded area where there are pure untouched, unstomped snowdrifts. And when it's dusk (which is usually), the streetlights catch all the little sparkles in the snow and it seriously is so pretty it just takes your breath away. Unfortunately there is no way to capture that in a photograph. I think it's probably more magical and accurate if you just imagine it, anyway.
And speaking of beautiful snowy, icy nature...
Trees
In conclusion, Helsinki is coooooooold. But you know what? Even though there are definitely moments when I'm completely freezingly miserable (i.e. can't feel my appendages, having chapped lips/nose/eyes, lungs burning from the arctic air, slipping on ice and falling), when I look around at the landscape, it's pretty amazingly beautiful. So beautiful, in fact, that it makes me forget how cold I am...
I went to my colleague's house for dinner tonight. This colleague is a Spanish guy married to a Finnish girl, and they have an adorable 4-year-old son who speaks both Spanish and Finnish. The little boy is too young to have learned much English yet, although he apparently fakes like he speaks English sometimes by walking around jabbering and littering his jabber with the only English words he knows: "chicken" and "fish."
My Finnish is only at the level of a 1 month old baby, but my Spanish is decent enough to carry on a conversation with a 4-year-old. So this little boy and I became fast friends.
When we were in the house, he wouldn't talk much. He mostly just pointed and giggled at me, giggled at the toys he brought in to show me, at his coloring book, whatever. But when we got in the car so they could give me and Leslie a lift to the metro station...the little boy suddenly became very chatty.
After arguing with him in Spanish for 10 minutes on why he shouldn't open the door while the car was moving, he took off his glove and held it in my face. This conversation ensued:
Boy: "íCómelo!" ("Eat it!")
Me: "Ew, ¡no!" ("Ew, no!")
Boy: "íCÓMELO!" ("EAT IT!")
Me: "No. Tiene el olor de....stinky." ("No, it smells like...stinky.")
Boy: "Chicken?" ("Chicken?")
I had begged him all evening to say his English words to me, and as it turns out, all I had to say was "stinky" and he would be ready to talk about chicken.
My Finnish is only at the level of a 1 month old baby, but my Spanish is decent enough to carry on a conversation with a 4-year-old. So this little boy and I became fast friends.
When we were in the house, he wouldn't talk much. He mostly just pointed and giggled at me, giggled at the toys he brought in to show me, at his coloring book, whatever. But when we got in the car so they could give me and Leslie a lift to the metro station...the little boy suddenly became very chatty.
After arguing with him in Spanish for 10 minutes on why he shouldn't open the door while the car was moving, he took off his glove and held it in my face. This conversation ensued:
Boy: "íCómelo!" ("Eat it!")
Me: "Ew, ¡no!" ("Ew, no!")
Boy: "íCÓMELO!" ("EAT IT!")
Me: "No. Tiene el olor de....stinky." ("No, it smells like...stinky.")
Boy: "Chicken?" ("Chicken?")
I had begged him all evening to say his English words to me, and as it turns out, all I had to say was "stinky" and he would be ready to talk about chicken.
Wednesday was a Finnish public holiday. Obviously everyone goes drinking on Tuesday night. The Wundergirls and Wunderboys invited me to join them for pre-Epiphany drinks. (Sidenote: it appears the Wundergirls and Wunderboys have started referring to themselves at the Wundergirls and Wunderboys. I am very pleased and tickled by this.)
After a nice traditional Finnish dinner, someone suggested we go to the restroom for drinks and karaoke. I think I looked at them blankly for 5 solid minutes as I tried to figure that out.
Ahh, "The Restroom":
The first thing I did when we got to The Restroom was to go to the restroom, which is conveniently and thematically and accurately the first thing you see when you walk in. Then there were many beers. And many songs, including but not limited to:
Later we moved on a non-karaoke bar, but when the super catchy "Wonderwall" by Oasis came on the loudspeaker, we were all still in a sing-songy mood and drunk enough that we sang along, anyway. Oh! And I just remembered the Finnish American Idol was there, I forgot about that! That is the second Finnish American Idol I've seen since I moved here, Helsinki is crawling with them!
After a nice traditional Finnish dinner, someone suggested we go to the restroom for drinks and karaoke. I think I looked at them blankly for 5 solid minutes as I tried to figure that out.
Ahh, "The Restroom":
The first thing I did when we got to The Restroom was to go to the restroom, which is conveniently and thematically and accurately the first thing you see when you walk in. Then there were many beers. And many songs, including but not limited to:
- "Summer of '69" by Bryan Adams
Performed by Ville and Jaakko - The boys did a lot of hand-holding and lovingly looking into each other's eyes during the more tender parts of the song. And during all the musical breaks, Ville was kind enough to announce to the audience that there would be a "25 second musical interlude" at certain points during the song. - "Pamela" by Jaakko Teppo
Performed by Tanja, Tanja's friend whose name I can't remember but when Tanja reads this and tells me what her name was I will fix this, and me - Um, this song is in Finnish. And even though I've listened to it a few dozen times and am getting better at pronouncing Finnish words, I was totally lost. I resorted to mouthing "strawberry, watermelon, strawberry, watermelon." But I did sing the chorus, and make the moped sound effects. - "9 to 5" by Dolly Parton
Performed by me - Duh. When have I ever not sung this? Seriously, when I die just put "Tumbled out of bed and stumbled in the kitchen" on my gravestone. - "La Isla Bonita" by Madonna
Performed by Ville, Jaakko, and me - This one was hard, because as a child I rewrote the lyrics to this one to be about allergies at harvest time, and I kept almost slipping and singing those lyrics. "Allergic to the harvest breeze, full of pollen makes me wheeze, blows through the wind and in my eye..." - "Bohemian Rhapsody" by Queen
Technically performed by Steve - I say "technically" because we all couldn't help but join him. We all got carried away with the spirit of Freddie Mercury, and sang the shit out of this song together. It was equally epic to the Muppets version. How I remember it, anyway.
Later we moved on a non-karaoke bar, but when the super catchy "Wonderwall" by Oasis came on the loudspeaker, we were all still in a sing-songy mood and drunk enough that we sang along, anyway. Oh! And I just remembered the Finnish American Idol was there, I forgot about that! That is the second Finnish American Idol I've seen since I moved here, Helsinki is crawling with them!
Sorry about the lack of updates for the past week. It's a week I'd like to forget, actually, so I'm fine with having no posts to show for it. To explain, here is the emotional roadmap of what it's like to move to a foreign country:
Weeks 1 and 2, aka Wide Eyed Optimism - "This is so cool, oh my gosh, I can't believe I actually live here! Oh, rad...what is that place? Who is that guy? How does this work? Neat! Is it really this easy to use public transit? Don't I look cute in my coat and new boots? Man, I am awesome, I will have this figured out in no time!"
Weeks 3 and 4, aka Reality Sets In and It Is Not Pretty - (my current state) "I can't read the label on one single thing in the stupid grocery store, I am so hungry living off carrots and dried banana chips. It starts getting dark at 3:30pm, and it's freezing and wet outside and I'm afraid I'm going to slip and break my ribs AND my laptop. At first it made me happy that people thought I was Finnish, now it just makes me feel like a dumbass to make them say things over again in English. Work is hard, I'm not sure I'm cut out for this job. I have no reason to leave the apartment, no one will know the difference, anyway, because I don't have even one measly friend. Did I do the right thing in making such a blind and huge commitment to live here for a whole year? Can I come back early? I miss my friends."
Weeks 5 and 6, aka Reality Isn't Quite So Bleak - I can't really speak to this yet, but my guess is that after such a beatdown couple of weeks, my confidence will return, I'll get re-excited about exploring my new city, a few things will go my way, and I'll befriend just one person, and that will make all the difference in the world. I'll start figuring stuff out (like where to buy salt, for example) and little by little I'll start conquering all the little challenging annoyances and have some semblance of a social life.
Weeks 7 and 8, aka You've Got This - My friend Leslie moved to London from Seattle a few months ago, and she says her emotional roadmap has matched mine pretty much exactly, and that around the 2 month mark, suddenly it all comes together. I will be with Leslie in London at my 2 month mark, so if she's not right I will let her know it. With my fists.
Weeks 1 and 2, aka Wide Eyed Optimism - "This is so cool, oh my gosh, I can't believe I actually live here! Oh, rad...what is that place? Who is that guy? How does this work? Neat! Is it really this easy to use public transit? Don't I look cute in my coat and new boots? Man, I am awesome, I will have this figured out in no time!"
Weeks 3 and 4, aka Reality Sets In and It Is Not Pretty - (my current state) "I can't read the label on one single thing in the stupid grocery store, I am so hungry living off carrots and dried banana chips. It starts getting dark at 3:30pm, and it's freezing and wet outside and I'm afraid I'm going to slip and break my ribs AND my laptop. At first it made me happy that people thought I was Finnish, now it just makes me feel like a dumbass to make them say things over again in English. Work is hard, I'm not sure I'm cut out for this job. I have no reason to leave the apartment, no one will know the difference, anyway, because I don't have even one measly friend. Did I do the right thing in making such a blind and huge commitment to live here for a whole year? Can I come back early? I miss my friends."
Weeks 5 and 6, aka Reality Isn't Quite So Bleak - I can't really speak to this yet, but my guess is that after such a beatdown couple of weeks, my confidence will return, I'll get re-excited about exploring my new city, a few things will go my way, and I'll befriend just one person, and that will make all the difference in the world. I'll start figuring stuff out (like where to buy salt, for example) and little by little I'll start conquering all the little challenging annoyances and have some semblance of a social life.
Weeks 7 and 8, aka You've Got This - My friend Leslie moved to London from Seattle a few months ago, and she says her emotional roadmap has matched mine pretty much exactly, and that around the 2 month mark, suddenly it all comes together. I will be with Leslie in London at my 2 month mark, so if she's not right I will let her know it. With my fists.
Officially, I have been homeless since August 31st. I am very very happy to report that I am 100% completely moved in and settled into my new permanent apartment in Helsinki. I no longer live out of suitcases. I have a kitchen where I can cook meals for myself. I have a bed with my sheets and blankets on it.
For such a homebody, it has been a very trying two months to not have a place to call home.
Would you like to meet my new home? No? Too bad.
The name of my new street is Pohjoinen Hesperiankatu, which means North Hesperian Street. Hesperiankatu also has a south version on the opposite side of a park that is just outside my door. Middle picture is the front door of my building:
Here is the outside of the building, along with my cutesy little address cube:
You can either take the creepy curvy stairs up to the third floor, or the even more creepy tiny/terrifying elevator, then voila! My door! With my name on it!
When you first enter the unit, you're basically in the kitchen if you step in and take about a half step to the right. It's small, but does have lots of good counter space and decent storage. Storage includes those rad shelves that serve double-duty as a dish drying rack, just like at the other place. (This must be standard here?) I didn't bring much kitchen stuff with me, but luckily the place is pretty well stocked, including these dishes? With grapes on them? And peaches? I miss my green Crazy Daisy Corelle dishes, but these will do, I guess.
You can tell from the picture that the kitchen is kind of a hallway, and at the end of the hallway is the bathroom. Or maybe I should call it a "bath closet." It was really tough to take photos because it's so cramped in there. The bathroom is my least favorite part of this apartment. There is absolutely zero storage, not one shelf or cabinet other than than tiny one under the vanity mirror. The floor tiles aren't heated like in the other apartment. There is no towel warmer. And the whole room utterly reeks of cologne. (I kind of wish the landlords hadn't told me that an Italian guy lived here before me, because now I just obsess about that cologne smell and how there is probably chest hair embedded in all the furniture.)
I included a picture of the washing machine, so you can see how weird it is. I showed it to my sister Staci over video Skype, and she said, "What IS that? A cheese grater??" It's the washing machine chamber, and you have to un-hinge it and it's so weird and small and I'm going to have to do laundry every other day, dangit. And then have all my wet clothes strewn across the apartment.
When you walk in the front door, if you keep walking about 5 steps forward instead of turning right into the kitchen, you are in the living area. It has a sofa, a weird section of the wall framed around the sofa that has inexplicably been painted mustard yellow, two green sitting chairs, a table with a jambox and a candle on it, a TV and DVD player, and a small green bugle-bottomed dining table. I was shocked to learn this morning that the DVD player actually plays Region 1/US DVDs!? Yay!
And finally, the bedroom. When you're sitting on the sofa in the living room, you're staring directly across through some French doors to see the bed in the bedroom. There is also a big desk in there, and the little orange bugle-bottomed chair matches all the orange lights and buttons on my laptop and gets me all giddy. The bed is very weird, it is literally just two twin beds smushed together. And each mattress is only about 4 inches thick! However, it is very comfortable and I love having the little booklights right above my head.
And that is that! Even though it's a lot smaller than my Seattle apartment, it feels bigger since there is so much open space. With the bed that can easily be dissected into two, the couch, and the air mattresses I will buy soon...I am ready for visitors. Come see me!
For such a homebody, it has been a very trying two months to not have a place to call home.
Would you like to meet my new home? No? Too bad.
The name of my new street is Pohjoinen Hesperiankatu, which means North Hesperian Street. Hesperiankatu also has a south version on the opposite side of a park that is just outside my door. Middle picture is the front door of my building:
Here is the outside of the building, along with my cutesy little address cube:
You can either take the creepy curvy stairs up to the third floor, or the even more creepy tiny/terrifying elevator, then voila! My door! With my name on it!
When you first enter the unit, you're basically in the kitchen if you step in and take about a half step to the right. It's small, but does have lots of good counter space and decent storage. Storage includes those rad shelves that serve double-duty as a dish drying rack, just like at the other place. (This must be standard here?) I didn't bring much kitchen stuff with me, but luckily the place is pretty well stocked, including these dishes? With grapes on them? And peaches? I miss my green Crazy Daisy Corelle dishes, but these will do, I guess.
You can tell from the picture that the kitchen is kind of a hallway, and at the end of the hallway is the bathroom. Or maybe I should call it a "bath closet." It was really tough to take photos because it's so cramped in there. The bathroom is my least favorite part of this apartment. There is absolutely zero storage, not one shelf or cabinet other than than tiny one under the vanity mirror. The floor tiles aren't heated like in the other apartment. There is no towel warmer. And the whole room utterly reeks of cologne. (I kind of wish the landlords hadn't told me that an Italian guy lived here before me, because now I just obsess about that cologne smell and how there is probably chest hair embedded in all the furniture.)
I included a picture of the washing machine, so you can see how weird it is. I showed it to my sister Staci over video Skype, and she said, "What IS that? A cheese grater??" It's the washing machine chamber, and you have to un-hinge it and it's so weird and small and I'm going to have to do laundry every other day, dangit. And then have all my wet clothes strewn across the apartment.
When you walk in the front door, if you keep walking about 5 steps forward instead of turning right into the kitchen, you are in the living area. It has a sofa, a weird section of the wall framed around the sofa that has inexplicably been painted mustard yellow, two green sitting chairs, a table with a jambox and a candle on it, a TV and DVD player, and a small green bugle-bottomed dining table. I was shocked to learn this morning that the DVD player actually plays Region 1/US DVDs!? Yay!
And finally, the bedroom. When you're sitting on the sofa in the living room, you're staring directly across through some French doors to see the bed in the bedroom. There is also a big desk in there, and the little orange bugle-bottomed chair matches all the orange lights and buttons on my laptop and gets me all giddy. The bed is very weird, it is literally just two twin beds smushed together. And each mattress is only about 4 inches thick! However, it is very comfortable and I love having the little booklights right above my head.
And that is that! Even though it's a lot smaller than my Seattle apartment, it feels bigger since there is so much open space. With the bed that can easily be dissected into two, the couch, and the air mattresses I will buy soon...I am ready for visitors. Come see me!
At some point this whole "Day X in Helsinki" thing will have to drop off. Maybe today would have been a good day seeing as I skipped Day 6. Day 6 wasn't terribly eventful, it was my first day going to the real office where I'll be sitting for the next year. Observations of a European office:
In other news, I signed a lease on an apartment and picked up the keys yesterday. Unfortunately, the rental agency didn't bother to tell the landlords that, so the place was totally not ready for me. It still needs to be cleaned, and they need to haul a bunch of stuff off. I'm meeting them tomorrow night, and can hopefully start moving in for real on Wednesday or Thursday.
Because I started talking about work, I almost finished this by saying "Thanks!" like I always do on my work emails.
Thanks!
- Some people wear suits and stuff. Luckily, my boss wears jeans and sneakers so hopefully I can start dressing crappier after the first few weeks.
- People sit on each other's laps, practically. My boss/client showed me to my cube, which was pretty spacious...and then moved all his stuff over to sit right next to me. And then informed me that next week, there will be three of us in there. Permanently!
- There isn't one big bathroom with many stalls per floor. There are little nooks about every 20-30 meters, which have a coat rack and one men's bathroom and one women's bathroom. You have to go through two doors (and lock them) to get to the one toilet. And I think I'm catching on that it is poor etiquette to hang your coat over the back of your chair, because those coat closets are all over the place.
- Everyone eats at the cafeteria. And the food is super hearty and yummy and they change it up every day. And Finns like to eat lunch at about 11am, so I am fitting in just fine.
- People unapologetically wear their badges around their neck like a backstage pass. Here's mine:
- It's quiet. So, so politely quiet. I may go crazy.
In other news, I signed a lease on an apartment and picked up the keys yesterday. Unfortunately, the rental agency didn't bother to tell the landlords that, so the place was totally not ready for me. It still needs to be cleaned, and they need to haul a bunch of stuff off. I'm meeting them tomorrow night, and can hopefully start moving in for real on Wednesday or Thursday.
Because I started talking about work, I almost finished this by saying "Thanks!" like I always do on my work emails.
Thanks!
So after averaging about 3-4 hours of sleep a night since I arrived, I finally found the recipe for how to get some sound sleep:
Then I decided to go for a walk around my neighborhood. Looking at the map, it looked like the waterfront was not too far from here so I wanted to check it out. Along the way, I found several things to be excited about:
- I finally opened up my UPS shipment box which had some of my blankets in it, and banished these weird heavy/skinny duvet covers from the bed and used my fuzzy blankie instead.
- I put on that Scientologist documentary about Jason Beghe
which although interesting, is not edited very excitingly. It's
basically just him in a chair in front of a window talking for two
straight hours about how he got involved with Scientology, and
ultimately abandoned it, and is littered with the 8,389 Scientology
acronyms that make me feel like I'm in a Microsoft meeting: SP, PTS,
COB, OT, etc. And other than the occasional husky dog who walks by in
the backyard, that's it. Zzzz...
Then I decided to go for a walk around my neighborhood. Looking at the map, it looked like the waterfront was not too far from here so I wanted to check it out. Along the way, I found several things to be excited about:
- A mini-golf course a few short blocks away
- A beach
- Some cute turtle sitting stones
- A coffee shop/cafe/bar/sauna/laundromat...all in one
- A tennis complex! Complete with a bunch of indoor courts and one outdoor clay court!
There wasn't much going on yesterday, I honestly was just trying to
catch up on sleep and catch everyone on Skype. But I did meet Juha (my
new co-worker) for lunch at a pizza joint downtown. He amuses me...he
seems so buttoned up and incapable of dressing very casually. So we're
meeting for pizza on the weekend, and he still shows up
in a sweater vest, button down Facconable shirt, and polished dress
shoes. (So much for keeping your designation as the Finnish John
Morley! Until you can wear some jeans, a white tshirt, and black
Chucks, your Finnish John Morley status is hereby revoked.)
I had leftovers and took the tram back to my apartment, and since it was Saturday the tram was very very crowded. When I got to my stop, I had to elbow my way to the door and it started to close on me. Now, most automatic doors in my experience have some sort of safety function where they will pop back open if you apply any pressure to them. Well...not so with Helsinki city trams, apparently. I stuck my arm holding the styrofoam food box out first to push the door back open, and suddenly the doors starting closing and did NOT bounce back, and crushed my lunch box and ate a piece of the styrofoam and spit it out into the street. And bit my arm, too. Luckily some lady hit the stop-call button which caused the doors to pop back open, so I was able to escape...but not with much dignity.
I had leftovers and took the tram back to my apartment, and since it was Saturday the tram was very very crowded. When I got to my stop, I had to elbow my way to the door and it started to close on me. Now, most automatic doors in my experience have some sort of safety function where they will pop back open if you apply any pressure to them. Well...not so with Helsinki city trams, apparently. I stuck my arm holding the styrofoam food box out first to push the door back open, and suddenly the doors starting closing and did NOT bounce back, and crushed my lunch box and ate a piece of the styrofoam and spit it out into the street. And bit my arm, too. Luckily some lady hit the stop-call button which caused the doors to pop back open, so I was able to escape...but not with much dignity.
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...
