daily life: November 2009 Archives
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!
