Chapter 1: Getting out of Finland for the Holidays.

This is the first post of what will hopefully be a multiple-part entry about how the Christmas holidays unfolded on this blessed year, 2010. I use some sarcasm with the blessing, but I have to say that besides the actual travel, the time we spent standing still with the familiar faces I missed so much was well-worth the wait.

Our journey actually began a day early, on Monday December 20th. Juha and I woke up around 8am and headed to work. Between 7pm and 8pm, we both got home and were pretty lazy about packing. Actually, I'm pretty sure Juha got home and had to leave again. We did a pretty crappy job of packing ahead of time and we still had the company car to drop off and a puppy to visit. We ended up cat napping until about 12:45am, before Juha got up, had a shower and called us a cab. We took the 1:45am bus to Helsinki and got there around 4am. The airport doors were open but there was no one at any of the check-in counters to take our bags. We waited an hour or so before dropping off our bags and heading through the security check. Our flight was supposed to leave for Frankfurt at 6:30am but around 7am, the pilot got on the loud speaker and told us the weather situation was bad in Frankfurt. About 15 out of the usual 50 flights an hour were permitted to land so there was no way we were taking off before 10am. More details were to follow around 8am. Meanwhile, we got food vouchers of 10e each. Juha slept on the floor like a log...

We ran into a friend of mine from school, Oscar, and another from summer university, Tomas. Tomas, Juha and I went to have a second breakfast. At the same time, we were checking our flight status incessantly and couldn't help but notice it had disappeared from the board. We went to the transfer terminal to find out what had happened and we were told the 8:30am (or something) flight to Frankfurt had been cancelled. The 6:30am passengers were to stick around because there was still "hope" for our flight. Funny story... our flight got cancelled after everyone from the 8:30am flight lined up and no one even told us!

When the line cleared up, we talked to a Lufthansa person (the only competent and really nine one around, if I may add.) The people before us had pretty much exhausted all our options (and thank God we didn't pick up our luggage and line up at the ticket counter like we had been instructed to but didn't know.) We were told that there was no way to get to Toronto that day... so we started looking into ways to get over the Atlantic, if at all. It seemed that every single flight going from Europe to North America was booked solid. We were even told that getting to Vancouver on time, by December 25th, did not seem possible. We finally decided that the best option would be to fly to St. Petersburg, then transfer to Moscow before leaving for Toronto the next day. This was pretty much our only option, unless we wanted to go hang out at a hotel for the next week in Helsinki and end up nowhere. There was some concern about where we would sleep since we couldn't leave the airspace but we knew some airports had services to escort those without a visa to the hotel 500m away, where we could spend the night.

We picked up our bags and headed for the check-in desks in the other terminal. The woman at the counter couldn't get the proper tags to print so she wrote them by hand. I also bought a lock the moment I heard we were going to Russia; I didn't want to take any chances with my luggage. I was a bit nervous about this baggage tag issue too but figured it would work out. We were supposed to ask at the desk about our bags every time before boarding a plane, with the exception of the Helsinki to St. Petersburg flight.

So we got all our papers in order, went through security and passed through passport checks. We got on our plane to Russia and flew there... it was only 50mins. You could see the communist slabs of concrete from the plane... tall, blasphemous buildings from any architect's point of view. The city looked huge and the buildings were identical even when 20km apart. As we landed, I counted 9 trucks - at least 5 of them plows driving together down the parallel runway. I remember thinking: "We sure came to the right place. These people know how to deal with snow." We landed and walking into the terminal: a cold, enclosed space full of employees walking around in green uniforms. Not to seem ignorant, but it felt a lot like a communist country we'd just stepped into. The signs were unclear about where we should head and our only option seemed to be going through customs... which was not an option. We asked a lady at the service desk for help and she checked our passports. We explained our reasons for coming to Russia and she looked at us blankly, looked at our passports again and said "To Russia? Without a visa..." She didn't seem particularly concerned but there was no way we were getting through to Toronto via this route. We followed her down the stairs and watched as our passports switched hands about 7 times before someone came to talk to us. There were a few uniformed women around us whispering and gossiping in Russian around us, presumingly about us. At one point, another woman was calling us over in Russian and motioning towards the customs counter. We figured our passports were with her. She spoke to us in Russian and we asked if she spoke English. She said she did but looked at us with little patience... "Passports!?" (as if we were idiots.) We quickly realized we were not supposed to be there and turned away towards the terminal. The first woman came back and took Juha with her to the baggage claim area. We needed to pick up our bags with supervision because we were not allowed into the country. I sat and waited for Juha. When the two came back, bags in hand, we were asked us to sit and wait. A nicely dressed man came over from 'Russia' (the other side of customs) and spoke to us in excellent English. He was the representative from Finnair and apologetically, he told us his job was to escort us out of the country. We lugged our suitcases back up the stairs (the escalator was broken that day) before going through security again (it was especially intimidating considering our surroundings) and having our bags tagged and carried back on the plane. The plane was waiting for us since, by law, if you are denied entry into Russia, you have to go back on the same aircraft you came on.

What was first a fairly empty flight over ended up being packed on the way back. Juha got some shut eye, while I was entertained by a tiny 3 year old Korean girl who was fidgeting with her surroundings while her mom slept beside her.

We made it back to Helsinki within the hour, grabbed our bags, and went to line up at the ticketing counter for the first time that day. My friend Oscar was still there, and ended up being in that line for 13 hours that day before calling it a night and heading back the next morning. Luckily, we ran into the same woman who booked us to St. Petersburg. She was exhausted after being at the airport about as long as we had but before heading home, she booked us at an airport hotel for the night.

We later found out that there were 2 problems with the Russia plan (and the woman did try to call the Russian border guards but apparently they had the wrong number because no one who picked up spoke any English, let alone Finnish.) The first problem was that, although we are allowed to fly into Russia if we don't leave the airspace, we can not fly domestic within Russia. For that, you need a transfer visa. We had tried finding a flight direct to Moscow, but it would've arrived after our connecting flight left the next day and that would've been pointless. The second problem was that there are two different airports in Moscow... or St. Petersburg.. but I'm pretty sure the problem was in Moscow. Domestic flights land at one airport, and international flights at another. We then would've had to transfer within the city, outside the airspace, and that would've been illegal. Also, apparently even Russian people wouldn't do this because the cab drivers are swindlers and would rip off even other Russians... there's no good way to get between those two points... with or without a visa.

We managed to have dinner at the hotel - after not eating all day - and intended on going to the airport first thing in the... well, dawn. Sadly though, there were no buses between 1:30am and 5am and we didn't want to be the last to show up for the line up so instead, I stayed up late and called Air Canada on Skype. The first time I waited on hold in the queue for 45 minutes, I started falling asleep to the music so my dad offered to keep me awake by chatting. Finally, someone picked up and was very patient, considering the fact that he couldn't hear me at all. I'm guessing lots of people were calling over the internet that day and he understood that technical difficulties were an added problem. Finally, after 5 minutes of scrambling around, I hung up feeling defeated. All that time spent waiting for nothing... I tried to call my dad a few times before finally fixing the microphone... and I set about calling Air Canada again...

I also tried calling the Elite line to tell them that both my parents were Elite and that I'd already spent 45 minutes waiting. Turns out the number my dad gave me was the number for Aeroplan, Air Canada's frequent flyer program, instead. I tried to ask him for the number I was trying to reach and he told me it would jeopardize his career. I wrote him off as an asshole (though I kept that to myself) and tried to get off the phone with him as fast as possible. He did, however, gave me the number for the special hotline for stranded passengers, which wasn't available (or clearly visible) anywhere on the Air Canada website.

I called that number and chose to speak in French. I was quickly transfered to a really nice man, THANK GOD, who asked me about the origins of my last name. "Is it French?" I told him no, that I was Romanian, and he said "We can speak in Romanian then!" (in Romanian.) This was a great relief and he seemed eager to help too. We checked out our options and he said oversea flights were overbooked so this would be a problem. I asked him to look at less crowded airports, like Warsaw or any other less-known airports that would have direct flights to Toronto or anywhere in Canada or the US. He then came up with this itinerary: on December 22nd Helsinki - Tallin - Copenhagen - Zurich - and Toronto on the 23d. I also had his email in case we needed anything along the way, I could get in touch with him.

I then managed to fall asleep, reassured that we had at least some hope of getting home... but whether for better or worse, the plans would change again before we managed to get there...but that's another story ;)

Last Night. [The Strokes.]

So yesterday was a pretty action-packed day! We woke up around 8am, got ready and headed to the gym to play badminton from 9am to 10am.
Needless to say, with my current diet and the lack of carbohydrates, I was exhausted all day. BUT there was so much to do! I came home, showered, watched *****, my new TV show... which is just too embarrassing to reveal to the INTERNET and all of you who will lose all respect for me. Then I did a bit of Finnish with Nina through FB chat. Basically I asked her to give me 10 Finnish words in basic form and I had to say them in partitive singular and genitive singular. I did okay. And most importantly I now know that ring is: basic form= Sormus - partitive singular= Sormusta - genitive singular = Sormuksen!
[And if that's wrong then I guess I don't remember haha...]

Anywho! Then Nina and I met up and headed over to WokWok for some fabulous food and company! Donna, Lauren and I like to meet up there on Fridays for lunch. We also bring friends to widen our circle. This week I brought Nina; Lauren brought her friend Candice, who is visiting from Florida, and her husband Kimmo. Donna invited her son, who was going to join us after school but he never showed up. Either way, we sat around for ages, as we often do, and ironically both Finns had to leave before we did. [I say ironically because I have a feeling that hanging out in a restaurant for hours on end at lunch time is not a Finnish custom.] But I have to say that WokWok is very tolerant of our needs - nutritionally and conversationally. Service and staff alike, are super friendly.

I headed home after about 3 hours, bought some more almond flour and raspberries on the way [my obsessions] and came home to the boys [Juha, Jonne and later Ossi too] playing NHL 95. I was feeling pretty drained so NATURALLY I sat down and studied some Finnish... then my mind wandered over to my computer... watched a bit of ***** and then started browsing recipes. In light of equality day yesterday, I decided to bake the boys some brownies... but let's call them experimental brownies... there was indeed a disclaimer. I say experimental because I hadn't tried Irina-friendly brownies yet and the Stevia does add a rather odd sweetness to them. But they were okay. I had some last night and today too and if you're not used to Stevia then they definitely wouldn't qualify as heavenly but otherwise, a nice break from vegetables.
[BTW, I've been making the avocado salad like... everyday haha. Changing little things here and there. Still obsessed!]

I'd spoken with Anne about going to a gig at night and then everyone decided to join so it was nice to get a big group. Ironically, it appears that absolutely no one is single in Tampere. Anne and Jonne came with Kalle and Niina then Juha and I showed up with Ossi and Kaisa. And in the upcoming days we have a few dates with other Tampere-based couples haha... it makes me laugh.

The set actually lasted about an hour, if not a little more and I really enjoyed it. Some of the songs - maybe 2 - made me a little sleepy but I can't blame the band, I was exhausted as it was. The band was Kiki Pau [or according to me earlier on in the day Kaka Puu or Koko Pau/Puu... and other such combinations.] You should check them out by clicking here. I especially like "Just Real." [Great song!]

As a side note, the weather is getting pretty gross in Tampere. The snow is melting and it's wet everywhere and snow is falling off building and killing people and you have to be careful. [I don't think the death rates have skyrocketed or anything, just something to be aware of though.] We took a cab to the bar and home last night and the flat fee [before driving anywhere, the driving is extra] for a cab on a Friday night [prices change here depending on time of day - do we have this in Canada??] is 8e!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Luckily we were 4 people so nothing too drastic. But 8 euros is 12$... and then you presumably travel more than 5 meters.. anyway, I'll stop being cheap haha.

Alright, back to my Finnish so I can eventually post about the complicated stuff I'm learning. I just have to understand it first.
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N.B. Turns out I stand corrected! Two of the people we went out with on Friday: Kalle and Liisi [whose name I thought was Niina] are not a couple. Alas, there are still single people in Tampere!

Narration.

It's funny... I realized today that as I go through each day and events occur to me, I narrate them in my head as if life were a book. I'm not going to compare my life to a movie nor a TV series, because let's face it, people wouldn't stay tuned in for very long, but I think inside my head there might just be a book hanging out in there somewhere. So after being awake for 8 hours today, this is what I've composed so far...


I woke up at 9am this morning, a little groggy but nothing too serious. I started my morning routine much like any other day: bathroom, make coffee, stir yogurt, check Facebook, etc. Juha got up at the same time and started his own routine: bathroom, check Aamulehti [lit. translation is Morning Paper], drink coffee, eat breakfast, etc. He looked up from his computer at one point to announce that today is supposed to be slippery. Instinctively I told him to drive carefully.

My morning was a little boring but that boredom was necessary to complete some university applications. I had to write something called a degree supplement... basically, European schools are supposed to write this for you so you can send it to schools you apply to after you graduate. Since McGill is not a European school, I had to write my own and ask someone to sign and stamp it. The purpose of the whole thing is to describe the context of the education system in your country and the nature of the degree, program, its structure... etc. I thought it would take me the entire day but it turns out, it wasn't so hard. It just involved some copy+pasting from the McGill website and some linking information. I even found an awesome chart for the Canadian Education system that made me really happy! Click here to see this magical chart which won't actually impress you much.

After finishing the supplement, eating lunch, watching an episode of Secret Diary of a Call Girl, eating a snack and studying some Finnish, I headed to the university to print off all my application documents and photocopy my passport. Just as I was walking down this little hill on my way, I thought about how I haven't updated my blog. As if by pure coincidence, at that very moment I find myself sliding down this aforementioned hill smack on my butt and I can actually feel the wetness through my pants. Last time I fell, I felt embarrassed. This time I just felt annoyed. I brushed all the snow I could feel off and headed along. So much for driving carefully - try walking carefully when a thin layer of snow covers huge ice patches formed by the recent BLAH weather. This brings me to a new point about Finnish weather, after all the beautiful snow has installed itself all over the city, it has to go somewhere when the weather gets warmer. Since the sewage system can only take so much, once we start dancing around the zero degree mark, we also have to start dancing around pond-sized puddles and deep slush. This exercise and bit of extra caution tends to put people in a bad mood. Understandably since I don't think anyone likes to have their feet wet.

I made it to the university unscathed by any more ice patches, met Juha, printed all my documents and turned them in at the near-by post office. It feels SO good to finally have three-quarters of my applications handed in! Of course, I still need to provide them with proof that I did actually graduate, but I won't be getting my diploma until June 2nd anyway so no point worrying about that. What I am worrying about is my progress in Finnish. I've been learning a ton of words lately but honestly, who wants to discuss how wide, narrow, fat, skinny, long, short, etc, etc, a book, person or day can be? How about food in general? [as if I don't do that enough] Or even the weather... yes, I now am armed with at least a dozen adjectives that relate to weather, seasons and more! So yeah, I learned all those words and many more, but I don't really have active use for them at the moment. I could write some stuff on here but that would involve BEARING my soul to you all AND boring you to death. So for now, I'll just keep doing what I'm doing.

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.