My nose is still defrosting.

It is fucking COLD!



-22 today WITH WIND [any wind- even 4mph is cruel in this weather] and 68% humidity!

For those of you who don't know, Finland is usually dry so the cold is bearable so long as you keep your head, hands, feet and midsection warm. But when you add humidity, it chills you right down to the bone.

No wonder Juha is borderline flu-ish! At least that means lots of warm tea, soup and meals so I don't get sick and he can get better.

Also, Google hates me and has decided that everything should be in Finnish.
Thank you Google.

But on a lighter note, people don't usually say "OMG IT'S -22" in Finland. Instead, they drop the minus because it's obviously not above freezing. I've actually never heard anyone say the weather [and they talk about the weather a fair bit] with the word minus.

Bus Mare.

Traumatized. I took a bus trip – my first ever in Finland – on Tuesday. So judging from the first word, maybe you can guess what happened. That’s right, I got lost.
It wasn’t just around the corner either, it was to Hervanta and I ended up in some residential part of it and when everyone got off the bus… I told the driver I must have missed my stop. I’d gotten into the habit of actually asking people if they spoken English [it just seems more polite than me expecting them to] but after awhile it seemed obvious that everyone spoke English so I stopped asking. And another reason I didn’t ask this time was because when I actually need to speak with someone, I’m a little too frazzled so I skip the formalities.

Me: “Anteeks, but I think I missed my stop.”
Driver: *Stares at me blankly*
Me: “Puhutko sinä englantia....?” [Do you speak English?]
Driver: “*Mumble…*” … and then something that somehow made me feel as though he was asking where I want to go.
Me: “TTY.”
Driver: “TTY?”
Me: “Joo… yliopisto.” [Yes… the university.]
…
Driver: “Wait 7 minutes.”
Me: “Can I wait on the bus?”
Driver: “*Mumble*”

So I figured that was a no because it was somewhere between a joo/no [yes in Finnish or no in English] or an ei [no in Finnish]. The whole thing was really unclear and he obviously didn’t realize I was ready to turn on the water works. He looked at me really strangely when I got off the bus, leading me to believe that I could’ve stayed on it, and I waited 7 minutes for him to come back and drive the bus back in the direction from which we came. I found the place I was supposed to get off at and made it to acrobatics! [And I'm really happy I made it. I even managed to do 3 handstand presses... it must've been the pasta I had for lunch!]
It was the first time since I got to Finland that I a) wanted to cry and b) wanted to be in Canada. BUT NOW: I can ride the bus to Hervanta [I wouldn’t confidently say anywhere else] like a champ!

I can’t really explain why this was such a big deal but I guess it’s part of getting used to living somewhere new where you’re not at all fluent in the spoken language. You’re, not only, intimidated by the language but also the unknown surroundings and the possibility of getting lost and ending up in a situation where you can’t make yourself understood. That’s the part that makes in terrifying, I suppose. Regardless of whether or not you’ve traveled the world, this little aspect of culture shock does not seem to be more clearly explained than just freezing up and feeling very unsure of everything… so you definitely need to kick yourself in the butt sometimes and dare to get lost or not be understood. This is bound to happen again at some point so might as well get lots of practice!





Otherwise, I am exhausted. GMAT studying is getting more intense and less rewarding….or maybe more rewarding but I’m getting less happiness out of it. I was supposed to do 2 chapters today but that’s not going to happen. I skipped school yesterday to do 2 chapters and I have 2 math chapters left before finishing the entire Math book I have. Then I still have 100000 Verbal chapters before doing the full-length tests.

There’s an international student career information session today at 17:00 and I’m going with my Canadian buddy Sydney. But I can’t stay the whole time because I have to run-off to my other Finnish course which starts at 18:30. I am definitely not at all bored.

Fell on my butt.

The title says it all. Today, while walking home from class, I slipped and fell on my butt. And the most surprising thing, is that I think no one saw... well that's the second most surprising thing. The actual most surprising thing is that it took me 23 days of living in Finland until I actually fell on my butt. It's quite common here, especially if your boots have no grip. Anyway, I walked away laughing and for some strange reason, felt the need to tell this to this internet.

I made some friends in class today! One is named Donna and she's from Louisiana. The other is named Rabia and she's from Turkey but she's leaving for Curacao next week so she might be gone a few months. Her husband is being sent there for a job for 10 months. Donna and Rabia used to do a salsa class together but now that Rabia is leaving, Donna doesn't want to do it alone. I suggested going with her because it's not too expensive and I actually really wanted to try dancing somewhere. So I'll see how that goes. I think we missed the sign up deadline but the teacher used to attend our language school so maybe some strings can be pulled.

I FINALLY finished reviewing [most] of the material for the GMAT and now it's just down to a million practice questions before starting the full-length practices... which is gonna suck, as each exam lasts about 4 hours. I'm looking forward to noon on February 17th.

Anne and I made some AMAZING [and by we, I mean Anne] food this weekend! I was too full to each as much as I actually wanted to consume [all in sight]. But I am planning on making it again soon...
The food I've been making for myself lately include [this is more for my mom haha <3.]:
- Fried rice
- Tacos! [baha.]
- Tomato Salad
- Stuffed Peppers
- Cookies!
- Pasta with pesto and feta [an old classic]
...
It doesn't seem like much yet but I'm trying to find some things that are easy to make and will bring variety to my meals.

Meanwhile, I've put my drawing on the back burner for now. Gah! Between Finnish classes every day or twice a day [I have 7 classes every Mon-Fri] and GMAT studying and coffee dates, my robotic cow has been neglected.
I'll post pictures once they're ready/post-able.

Conversation Etiquette.

When speaking with Finns, you may notice a different rhythme to your conversations. There are more pauses to allow others to contribute but because these pauses exist, there is really no reason to interrupt anyone at any point. Still, people from Mediterranean Europe or North America still have a hard time following these simple courtesies that I like to call this the 'conversation dance.'

So I guess I'm a bit ahead of the game. For someone with a pretty big mouth, I have a big advantage knowing, at the very least, the choreography of the dance. The problem is habit. Not only does my Canadian upbringing allow for free interjections but my Romanian culture teaches that it's necessary if you ever want to be heard! So when push comes to shove, it doesn't even matter if there's a bustle to talk, you just get used to doing what you do without even needing to do it anymore!

Now let's think of this from the Finnish perspective...
You're talking to someone, and they won't stop interrupting you. You then, instinctively, refrain from talking. They obviously want to speak so badly that what you have to say doesn't need to be heard.
... long awkward pauses follow. This actually makes a lot of sense to me in theory but practice is completely different.

Sadly, I haven't quite mastered this dance yet. So as of yesterday, I started explaining it to my Finnish friends, who had no idea that I had to actively try to follow in their steps. This way, we opened at least opened up the communication channels and when it happens from time to time, they are aware that I mean no disrespect. I even encouraged Jonne to cut me off yesterday!

I'm still working on it.

N.B. And I wanted to add that the reason, I think, Canadians tend to cut people off is sometimes because they listen actively. We want to show you that we're not just nodding our heads so we include comments such as: "Yeah, it was definitely good that you told her that." or whatever ... something that just says we're listening and agreeing with you. And I suppose sometimes we get really excited and go off on tangents "That is hilarious! It reminds me of the time..."

Dream.

Ever seen that Buffy episode where Buffy gets poisoned by the evil trio and she starts thinking that she's actually in a mental hospital and that in order to get better and go home with her mom (who's actually dead) and dad (her parents were divorced) she needs to kill all her Sunnydale friends and her sister? And then at the end of the episode, she doesn't and the parents and doctor are left staring at a catatonic Buffy says "we've lost her again..." and then you never actually know if any of it is real!

Anyway, sometimes I walk down the street and I keep thinking that this is all a dream and it's amazing how convincingly I fooled myself into thinking I live in Finland instead actually I'm still in school in Montreal, or something. Today I woke up and went to my class, for example, where I sat beside a guy from the Ivory Coast, 2 Russian women and 2 men from Somalia. Other nationalities in the class include a French woman, several people from Turkey, Afghanistan, Iran, etc. And we're all learning Finnish! Tomorrow we have a TEST but my teacher said she'll make it easier for me and the other new guy in the class...numbers, easy words and verbs.


AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! I can't really explain it with words but I LOVE FINNISH BREAD. I had it in the summer and didn't mind it. I had it last week and liked it. AND THIS WEEK I've been stuffing my face with it, shamelessly, because I can't get enough of it and apparently it's really good for you. We just ran out... I need more!

Last night we went out to DOLORES and had the Jussinkylä bad boys over just before! I made a Canadian friend at the bar and we exchanged contact info. Apparently he's in need of a Canadian friend too! And I also met a long, lost friend of the Jussinkylä bad boys: Santtu, who has been working in China for the past little while.
I am now very sleepy.

Word of the day:
pitää - to like
minä pidän
sinä pidät
hän pitää
me pidämme
te pidätte
he pidävät

Update!

So apparently people actually read this because I've had more than one person ask why I haven't updated in a few days... or actually accuse me of NOT updating. I'm sorry to have done this. I guess once I started getting busy, blogging was ON my mind but not so much part of my schedule.
SO - where to begin?

Since I left off with the language school POSSIBILITY, I went there the next day and they told me to come back Monday after 2:30pm. So yes, that was a crap morning because I had to walk all the way back home and nap off the disappointment for 2 hours. But in the afternoon, I finally checked out this awesome doughnut (is that really how you spell it?) place with my friend Nina so the day did look up at the end!

Friday... what happened on Friday??... I can't remember...Ah yes! I wrote motivation letters and probably went grocery shopping...or something along those lines.

Saturday Juha and I hung out in our apartment for several consecutive hours during one morning - so yes, that was pretty exciting (this hasn't really ever happened before)! We tidied up and I even started my online drawing course. I drew some lines and shapes and a duck and a cow so far! It's actually really motivating to be able to draw and recognize the animal so I'm pretty pumped about that. Maybe I'll upload some pictures of that once I can upload pictures...

Matti and Anne then came and saw our place for the FIRST TIME EVER (Juha's brother and his girlfriend)! We are also now the proud owners of a Nepalese sleeping bag so we can better accommodate Veera, Essi, Xevi and Jose once they come in February! Rushed off to Juha's mom for "lunch" (a few hours late), and hung around there playing Yatzee and Penguin Party before going to see our friend Heikki (re: FB status: He tricks like a champ.) perform in a circus show.
The circus itself was like no other circus I've ever been too because it was on a stage BUT the acts themselves were very impressive (almost all of them). The act we went to see was by Team Unito, which I finally got to meet that day! They tricked for about 6 minutes (a hard feat)!!
Btw, tricking is a mix of gymnastics, martial arts, break dancing?, acrobatics ... it's basically awesomeness all around. Sadly I was a little to short to see everything going on at stage all at once but everyone I knew there had the same problem so I was not alone.
Other acts included pole-dancing 'acrobatics,' a 25 minute drag-queen-one-man-show, an intensely impressive juggling act, and a hilarious MC from Miama via Sweden etc...

Sunday I saw Anne for a couple of hours and she gave me so many great ideas for things to do from now on in Tampere that I don't think I'll spend anymore time looking for inspiration on what to do! One of these things included going to volunteer somewhere before if you can get turned down for a job for not speaking Finnish, you can't get turned down for volunteering! AHA!
But also, I do feel my Finnish is improving... over the past 2 days at least.

Monday I hung out with Heikki and we went to the bank (fail.), to the post office, to some store with a Swedish name (Clos...) and finally, grocery shopping at a BIG grocery store (first time in Finland)!
[Oh and back to the language school who told me I can join a non-beginning course which I went to today for the first time ever! - But more about that later.]
Then at night I went to my ENSIMMAINEN [first but with : on the 'a'] Finnish class. It moved at a pretty good pace I think because I'd already studied the material we did in class but it was nice to review it in the structure of a class so I wasn't bored at all. Apart from the two Estonian girls in my class, I definitely think I'm near the top of the class. There's one other guy who has studied Finnish before though so maybe behind him but ahead of the others who were just learning:
mä, sä, hän, me, te, he +olla (to be) for the first time.
Then I got home and made a big meal of SEVEN stuffed peppers and a tomato salad - very Romanian. The meat in the peppers was a little bland but it was my first try so I was pretty happy with that!

TODAY I went to my very first daily language course in the morning. This was very very different from the course I had last night. There were about 25-28 people in this class (vs. 15-16). Most of them had been in Finland 2-4 years and I think they (maybe) understood more than me but their language skills were really limited. Otherwise, the class progressed really slowly because the teacher tries to get everyone involved but I think that's important. I want to keep going to this class (and the other) because I think daily and sometimes 2-times/day will help me improve a lot faster than just one of the courses. I also think that since both teachers speak Finnish all the time, I'll get more used to it and eventually start understanding more too.
THEN after class, I had a nightmare of a time at the bank but here it is in point form:
- take a number and wait... (times are cumulative)
- 20 minutes and I'm no closer to being helped.
- 22 minutes and the numbers finally start being called.
- 25 minutes and I go in.
- 27 minutes and I'm out with my new VISA ELECTRON BANK CARD!
"Go use it" the woman at the bank says.
- 28 minutes I put my card in the machine...
... 28.3 minutes, my card has been eaten.
... 29 minutes, ask a lady if she speaks English (she doesn't)
... 30 minutes, we go up to the info desk together and she explains in Finnish that the machine ate my card.
- 30.5 minutes, the woman hands me ANOTHER number to wait in the queue.
- 30.75 minutes I complain that I've already waited.
- 31 minutes, there's only one woman in front of you, she says.
- 41 minutes, still waiting.
- 42 minutes, get called in.
- 43 minutes, the bank woman goes to get the card.
- 53 minutes, she comes back and says "I couldn't find it so I have to call someone who can always find it... if you can wait awhile..."
- 60 minutes.... "the card has disappeared. We have to order you a new one."
- 61 minutes: "can I take out some money now?" She says: "You have to go to the teller to do that." "No offense but I've been waiting an hour..." "Okay, okay, we'll do it here." (And thank God for that because in Germany I FOR SURE would've been sent back to the teller because that's PROTOCOL.)

Went home and ate lunch. FASCINATING !
Studied for the GMAT for over an hour.
Juha picked me up and took me to TYY (Tampere University of Technology) where Heikki was teaching an acrobatics class from 4-6pm. Class was really fun but I am now tired. BUT I do realize I one can be IN and OUT of shape but one can also become IN or OUT of shape... so I'm hoping to make the leap back to "into." [That means I want to improve haha.] And also look for ways to maybe get into the Tampere gymnastics scene... but one step at a time. [Oh! And this class was good practice for my Finnish because I learn little words, one at a time, and you hear them repeated over the course of the two hours.]

SOOOO in summary, I now finally have a weekly schedule:
Monday - Friday: 9am - 11:30am (Morning Finnish Class)
Monday AND Thursday 6:30pm - 8pm (Evening Finnish Class)
Tuesday: 4pm-6pm (Acrobatics class - if they keep me)!

That's about it for now. I'll do my best to update again ASAP but I also need to catch up on my GMAT studying. =O

Bagoolarasabajaöninen.

Tänään oli ihana päivä!

(Today was a wonderful day!)

I woke up at - shocker - EIGHT AM. That's right, in the MORNING. I decided it was time to start my day much earlier than the aforementioned wake ups at 11am. The same wake ups which, my close friends know, are very uncharacteristic of me.

I studied GMAT for about an hour.

I then went to the uni gym to get picked up IN THE GASTROVAN then Juha and I headed to the THEATER to get some tickets for his mom and make a solid €1 profit! We then headed to a Thai&Laos place for their delicious lunch buffet. Their tomatoe soup was so spicy (tulinen aka fiery/spicy)... but overall, great restaurant! I was really excited because it was my first time eating out in TAMPERE (TamerFORS in Swedish) since the summer. While walking back to the van, we noticed a sign for a Finnish school and went in to ask. After a solid 10 minute conversation with the overwhelmed teacher there, Juha told me I can go tomorrow at 9am and see if there's room for me to register!
The teacher seemed really knowledgable and the course is from 9am-12pm, Monday to Friday for only €40/month! AWESOMENESSNESS! (I really, really hope I can get a spot.)
So after SKIPPING home (can you tell I'm still giddy?), and doing some daily shopping, of course!, I did a bit more GMAT studying.

Anyway, long story short, we watched "I love you, man" and I discovered the LONGEST word in the Finnish language (well not actually) EVER (lies):

"interior designer"

BRACE YOURSELF!

sisustussuunnittelija

...now try saying it out loud. And remember to emphasize the double letters. I said "sisustussynnyttelijä," which means interior birth giver. (Insert laugh here.)



And that's that. I'll let you know how language school goes!

So many thoughts in my head!

Who needs the gym when you can go walking around Tampere for 2 hours every day?
Okay... so every day is a gross exaggeration, especially since this is my 9th day here, but you get the idea.
So when I don't want to stay in the flat all day or I need a little inspiration for my motivation letters (I have 6 of them to do, but luckily only 1 is due in the next month.), I go for a walk, explore and think. Today I learned the word "tilaa." It means space (as in, there are free parking spots). On my walk back, I learned the word for full: täynnä. I tried to learn both in one go a few days ago and failed, so this time, I did them one at a time.
I noticed today that the sky isn't actually grey. I would call it off-white...because it almost blends in exactly with the snow. It was just a random thought.
Also, I went to buy highlighters today and noticed that the woman was really chatty with the customer before me (although it seemed like she was business chatty- informing her about sales and such.) The woman in front of me said: ei, kiitos. So I knew she turned down whatever offer it was. When I got to the front of the cash, she looked at me and I thought MAYBE I would be able to understand something but, nope! It was my usual "deer-caught-in-headlights-whenever-anyone-speaks-Finnish-to-me" look. I can't really explain why this happens, but I'm sure I'm not the first person this has ever happened to. It would be so easy to smile and say apologetically: I'm sorry, I don't speak Finnish (I can even say that IN Finnish for God's sake!). But instead I completely freeze up and have to FORCE myself to mutter a few words of English. It might be the desire to want to badly to understand that I don't want to give away that I'm foreign. Let's go with that for now because I have no idea explanations.

In other news, our DNA (internet company) man has informed us that he has ordered our modem. Although there is no word on how long it will take to arrive, Juha and I take comfort in the hope that it will arrive soon enough... especially since every day we have AT LEAST one breakdown EACH, over how shit our internet is. Cind iti e lumea mai draga... (Romanian expression meaning: "When the world is dearest to you..." implying that something unfavourable happens then aka our internet stops working.) So if you're working why I haven't called you yet, chances are I've been thinking about you WISHING I could call you. If that's any comfort to you... and at least we have Facebook. Or you have Facebook. I sometimes have Facebook!

Also, my two packages finally arrived today and I just have to pick them up from the post office! I would've gone on my walk but since I had no desire to lug 24kg in 2 packages for over 1km, I haven't gone yet. I'll go when I can get a ride.

Funny story, I went to buy nail polish remover today and figured it would be "meh... like... 1€." I get to Sokos and I can't seem to find anything under 4.90€!! I found nail polish removed that cost up to 10€ (boys, this crap is usually 1$ and you can get it anywhere in Canada). So since there was no way I was paying almost 10 bucks for it, I looked a little closer. Of course the brand that had no English translation on it was the cheapest. The actual funny part of the story (well there isn't really one but I like the word for nail polish remover): Kynsilakanpoistoaine. The only reason I recognized it was because of the Swedish translation: Nagellacksborttagningsmedel.
Although I have to say, these words only look scary because they're stuck together but they're usually only long because they're compound words. Otherwise, it's not like dog is: eläinkoirapyrstönkanssa! (That probably doesn't make much sense but you get the idea...) Dog is just koira. (Okay, enough of Google Translate for now.)

And now, lunch!

P.S. I took a ton of pictures of the area but the internet is too slow to upload them onto Blogger. They're coming soon.

black.

Juha has officially been driven insane with curiosity by everyone's facebook statuses reading "black."

He googled black and found this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_people

He paced around in circles and cursed saatana.

...but he hasn't figured it out yet.

Bank Card Pin! [More of a visual post]

In other news, I received my first letter EVER in Finland. I was so relieved to open the envelope and find all the information clearly listed within. [I used a translator.]

The top is in Finnish, the bottom is in Swedish.

Word of the day is tiskinpesukone - dishwasher.

Oh Kuha... the beginning of a beautiful friendship?

Oh, do I have a story to tell!

But first, a few things I've been writing down on scraps of paper and want to remember to make note of:

- Professional driving. In Finland, in order to pass your driving test, you must be a stunt driver! [Okay not actually but when you see Juha park by purposely skidding around the parking lot, it sure seems that way.] When you do your driving test in the winter, you have to prove that you can handle whatever situation: skidding, ice, snow, etc... and when you take your test in the summer, they put soap on the track so you can skid around a bit. I'm actually pretty impressed. If it were harder to get your license in Canada, no one would get anywhere because too many people would fail. But maybe that wouldn't be ALL bad since we'd know how to handle our snow storm driving. I don't know... just a thought.

- There is a bomb shelter in the basement of our building. It doubles as a storage space but if need be, we simply need to lift the board in front of the big door that leads to the storage area and ta-da! you're safe from bombs. Did I mention our building is THREE [3] years old? Apparently this is the norm here. I guess a history full of Russian and Swedish invasion will do that to you...
There's also an air-raid alarm that is tested weekend on Monday at noon. But no one heard it this Monday... it was very strange. Juha was saying if they stopped doing it, people would worry that it wasn't working. I asked a few friends if anyone had heard if on Monday and it seems no one had... one of them did panic when she realized though!

So yes, back to the good story I have to tell. Yesterday, I went for lunch at Päivi's place [Juha's mom] to eat with Juha and Anna [his sister]. We had salad, sweet and regular mashed potatoes and fish. Now WHAT KIND OF FISH!? ... you may ask. Why it was Kuha fish. Like Juha, but with a 'k-'. The meal was fantastic, right up until the last bite; at which point I got a piece of little Kuha's remains stuck in my throat. I will tell you - it was a HOOT having that there for 9 hours. I tried eating some "Pieni Pyöreä - Monivilja"
to wash it down. It's basically a hard cracker/bread type of deal and it's really high in fiber. And I must have eating half a pack [which made it really uncomfortable to sit in the hospital waiting room 6 hours later].

Anyway, the doctor didn't manage to see it because I pushed it down with my finger [semi-by accident] at some point throughout the evening but he said it just sucked but it wasn't dangerous [I was more concerned about it sucking for 2 months like some poor bloke on the internet]. But anyway, he sent us home and suggested we come back tomorrow if it hasn't washed down yet. There was also the possibility that it had cut my throat on the inside and that the cuts just felt like it was still there when really it was long gone. But I was pretty sure that wasn't the case since the pain seemed to move around. So after waiting for 2 hours and going home empty handed [we'll see how much that'll cost...] we stopped at Mr. Chen's for some Chinese food. And at exactly MIDNIGHT last night, I swallowed the fish bone.

Day 2.

So today is the second day of a completely surreal life, and I have to say, I really like it here. Before I rant about today, let me tell you a few really random things.

When in Austria, there were a million Romanian people there. There were Romanians in our hotel, on the ski slopes, in restaurants, in the bathrooms, in the shops... you get the idea. And this happens every year! But really, it's quite remarkable. I heard almost as many Romanians as I heard German speakers. This is something quite difficult to get used to because, like many Finns, Romanians are used to saying whatever they like without being understood. Our last night of the vacation, at a restaurant in Munich, my aunt [or dad's step-cousin... I'll just call her my aunt!], pointed out a woman sitting near us wearing a red track suit. And I commented: yeah, straight out of Romania!

... as it turns out, they were straight out of Romania...and it was embarrassing. But that just goes to show that you can't think no one understands you. And just maybe, maybe next time she won't go out in a track suit... but I guess that's up to her. And not really the way you should find out what people think about what you're wearing. So if you're reading this woman with the red track suit, I'm very sorry if I offended you.

In other news, we had Mr. Järvinen over last night for some cocoa. I also saw Anne and Jonne for a few minutes. Juha and I hauled 2 Ikea CD/DVD racks, 1 full-size book shelf, 2 garbage bags full of clothes, a few really long pieces of wood and some toilet paper... oh and an iron and an ironing board... with the seats does in the VW Golf and in very illegal ways. I had no room at all to move in the passenger seat and had to remain fairly hunched over since my seat was so far forward. Otherwise, the trip to get all these things was a success and we saved a lot of money! We also bought a pasta pot [5L!], some BLUE mixing bowls and other household tidbits for here and there.

Now here's the good part. For that full-side bookshelf, we couldn't find the metal rods that keep it standing so we cut up some pieces of wood and made it sturdy in a very makeshift way. We haven't put books on it yet but it looks pretty good! ... especially since we managed to make it stand up straight [it didn't start that way...] Go team!

I was so exhausted last night I finally got my wish: to fall asleep on the sofa while watching a movie. I realized a few weeks ago that I haven't had the time to fall asleep on the sofa since... well...I don't remember the last time I fell asleep while watching a movie. [My mom can tell you how therapeutic it feels!] So yes, I crashed to the movie Snatch around 11:30pm. Epäonnistuminen, I know. [=fail.]

We accidentally overslept until 10am this morning so we didn't do anymore unpacking. I then walked 2.7km, according to google maps, to have lunch at Päivi's [Juha's mom] with Päivi, Anna and Juha at 1pm. Since my face had just finished defrosting, I got a ride in the Gastronauttimobile to the train station to meet my new friend Nina at 2pm, for the first time, I may well add. Overall, I really feel like the freezing weather is just an extra effort one has to make to get everything done. And I mean that in a good way. I get home and I feel really proud that I met up with people and got things done despite how cold it was outside. So weather is not impacting my social contact in any way... but I hear this weekend it's supposed to be another 10 degrees colder... from -15 to -25 so I MAY decide to stay home on Saturday and avoid frost bite.
Note to self: I need a scarf.

And now, back to researching unis, deadlines, requirements and all that jazz.

Word of the day: hissi - elevator.

Winter Wonderland.

It's official, I now live in a winter wonderland. As of around 23:25 last night, as my delayed flight touched down, life feels very surreal.
It was snowing buckets - I mean in the sense that film crews had to be in the clouds sprinkling huge snowflakes down from the sky as I ran around trying to figure out where Juha was waiting with the car (his flight was less delayed than mine).

I'm completely at a loss for where to begin this post. So far, I've unpacked most of my stuff but don't have enough furniture to say I put it all in its place. I went to the bank and opened an account. The woman asked if I was studying here and I said not yet. So she said: so you're doing nothing. And I politely replied: well nothing official yet I suppose.
Later she asked me where I was applying to school and I told her. Later I realized that it's the first day back to work after the holidays so it was nice to see every out and about around town.
I tried getting a SIM card with a plan but was told I need Finnish ID issued by the police to get a place so... I think I have to go to the maistraati to register as an inhabitant of Tampere but even then, I'm not sure they'll randomly issue me an ID just because I need a phone. If that doesn't work, I'll have to get a prepaid phone... which I'm trying my best to avoid because 7 months of prepaid phones in Germany was 7 months too much!

My list of things to do is an entire page long. I don't mean point form in only the left margin. I mean a full page with spaces filled in inbetween. Some things are more pressing than others but I found it easier to focus on what was directly in front of me. I guess it also helps that I have an extra 7 hours if I'm comparing anything to Canada so my Canadian-related day doesn't really need to start until about 4pm or so.

Left on the list of things to do today is eat lunch, go grocery shopping, go pot and pan shopping and other household items shopping. I put on some music while unpacking to befriend the space... as random as that sounds, but it was especially because we don't have enough light in the apartment and need more lamps! And if I don't get a chance to go today before it gets dark, I'll go photograph the city and building surroundings tomorrow. There is a ton of snow here and it looks lovely! But the apartment will have to wait until it is clean before it can be photographed.

I was sitting on the plane yesterday fidgetting like crazy. 2 minutes would go by in what felt like half an hour. Copenhagen airport was unimpressive but alright. I took a picture or 2 of this long corridor that connects the different gates: A, B, C etc...
Everything is great so far but I'm at a loss for words because it doesn't feel like anything is out of the ordinary but my brain tells me I should be freaking out but all is well! Somehow the distance doesn't feel so big and it's really nice semi-knowing my way around town.

I'm looking forward to having more to say soon.
Finnish word of the day is free - as in complimentary- velotuksetta... and if that's wrong, then shame on me for messing up the word of the day!