A New Semester

Helloooo journal!

So I've moved into my new apartment. I don't think the floorspace of my room is much larger than my old one, but its arranged in a more space-efficient manner. The bed is several orders of magnitude more comfortable, so I'm sleeping well every night! Fantastic. One morning I even went running, and was out the door by 6:45 am. It was about -6 C, so I was pretty happy about that. I had to take a nap afterwards though.

I bought these rather fancy sheets for my bed:

They're Marimekko, and remind me of the Blue Ridge Mountains. I feel pretty Finnish now.

My language skills are creeping along, or possibly going backwards. I should have studied more over break, but the partitive isn't that exciting. However, I've felt super inspired tonight. I've decided I'm going to do all the exercises in the workbook as soon as possible. Also, I've been more inspired about economics lately, especially since I've taken some pressure off of myself to do every single problem perfectly. For my classes, the problem sets just give you extra credit, but it's hard to break from the American mentality of doing school.

The weather has gotten all crappy. It's about 0 C out, and raining/sleeting all the time. I have been sick all week. It might have been the swine flu, but I'm almost all better (except for having no voice) so the diagnosis doesn't matter now. I wish Finland sold Dayquil!

Some Thoughts

Here is a list of things I never thought would happen before I moved to Helsinki (but they've now happened):

-Have 32 F feel surprisingly warm, and everyone in class is also remarking on the same fact
-Understand any spoken Finnish ever
-Be able to use public transportation
-See cats being walked on leashes outside
-Think candles are a necessity rather than just decorations
-Be away from home for more than 2 months and not be horribly homesick
-Drink outside and not get arrested (it's seriously great!)
-Stick out a whole semester living abroad
-Make Finnish friends
-See Sabaton!!
-Find a country that is more obsessed with Christmas than the US. Seriously. I see Santa walking around at least once a day. Usually more than that. There are indoor and outdoor temporary Christmas markets everywhere, I bought some really warm mittens from one. I don't know why Americans tell their kids Santa lives literally on the North Pole. There isn't even any land there! Finnish people get very offended when you tell them this, because he is (of course) from Rovaniemi. Where Santa flies away in a helicopter every year to go deliver presents. Pretty crazy.

End of the Semester

I finally had my last important test today. It was microeconomics, it went much better than part one of the course. On Thursday, I had econometrics, which would have gone much better if I had studied more. I think the darkness is having an effect on my motivation level.

There is a ton of snow on the ground - about a foot and half. On Wednesday I went to look at an apartment which is normally 20 minutes away from the city center by bus. Because of the weather, it took over an hour and half to get there! The current tenants must not have been too put off by my lateness, as they offered the room to me for next semester. I was getting worried I wouldn't have any where to live when I returned from the US.

I'm super excited to go back home! Finnair was on strike for 10 days, so I was beginning to get worried that I wouldn't be able to make it home for Christmas. They've finally resolved it, so I'm looking forwards to water fountains and 7-11s everywhere.

Next week is major Christmas shopping everywhere. I'm trying to get people gifts that are super Finnish: Marimekko and Iittala, mostly. They're super expensive though, being Finnish and all.

Tonight I saw Rare Exports, the best selling Finnish movie in history. It was really really good, and pretty hilarious.

Snow Time!

It's started to snow actual snow. There were flurries at the beginning of October, but it was still above freezing then. Yesterday it was 23 F. In the middle of the winter it's supposed to be around -20 Celsius, which is the current temperature up in Lapland. I need to buy some more warm clothes, especially if I'm going to keep up this running plan. Also, I need to remember to bring my camera with me everywhere and not be embarrassed to take pictures.

One of the people I met at the beginning of the year has decided to go back home already! He is from Colombia, and it sounds like the culture there is much more different from Finland than the United States' is. Also, the coldest it gets in Bogota is +15 C (according to him).

Finnish class is becoming difficult. We've started with the declensions - currently we are studying 7 out of the possible 15. So now I can finally say sentences such as "I am going to the coffee shop" (Menen kahvilaan), "I am at the coffee shop" (Olen kahvilassa), and "I am leaving the coffee shop" (Tulen kahvilasta). A coffee shop is a closed place, so these 3 endings are used. There are different endings for nouns if you are telling your friend you are on a street or in your backyard. Ahh!

Sometimes it feels like understanding what people are saying on the street will never happen. However, when I do hear a random word I know (today it was university = yliopisto) its really exciting and I feel awesome! Too bad that doesn't happen more frequently. I also have this urge to say Finnish words I see on signs out loud when I'm walking around or sitting on the bus. It'll be weird going back to the US and hearing everyone speak English.

I keep having a craving for Oreos, but they are over 6 euros ($8.30!) per normal sized package at Stockmann's. Same for Skippy PB. Why does no one else in the world like peanut butter??

Definition

From Urban Dictionary:

Finland: Home of high welfare and high suicide rates. Home of strong liquor and countless alcoholics. Home of high prices and high taxes. Home of the nightless night and dayless day. Home of asocial people and social welfare. Home of mobile phones and untalkative people. Home of bad yet popular music.

Also the most Americanized country in the world.

I love livin' in Finland.

Sweden

This past weekend I went on the first of what is hopefully many trips to Sweden. My main reason for going was for the cruise from Stockholm to Turku and back.

Lucky for me there is a bus that goes straight from my apartment to the Helsinki-Vantaa airport. I really like this airport. There are only 2 terminals and when I arrived there on Thursday morning it was nearly empty. Blue1 had switched my flight around, so I had to talk to a person at the desk. It took less than 5 minutes to get a new boarding pass, which was a nice change from my previous flight experiences this year.

Sweden is 1 hour behind Finland, so I left Helsinki at 12:30 and arrived in Stockholm at 12:30! I thought that was kind of cool. A friend whom I had met this summer at a music festival and who looks like a viking picked me up (we shall call him Henrik), and we went to the old part of Stockholm to do some sightseeing before the boat left. I saw the outside of the palace and some museums, but we were too late to take a tour of any of the buildings. I did get to see the center square of the old town (the Stortorget) where in 1520 the Danish king executed most of the Swedish nobility. Nearby there was this cool statute, symbolizing the Swedes defeating someone (I think).

It was drizzling and cloudy the whole day, so we went to "the medieval pub." Sweden uses the Swedish crown instead of the euro, so a beer was only $6 as opposed to $8 (yay). One of Henrik's friends showed up, and a couple of hours later we left for the cruise ship. It was the Silja line, and had a huge picture of two giraffes on the side. Not very metal.

We ate a quick dinner and then rushed down to “duty-free.” They sell pretty much every kind of alcohol possible here, along with candy and perfume, at about 50% of the price it would cost on land. After hanging out in another person's cabin for a couple hours, we went to the Dio tribute, which was even more hilarious than I'd thought it would be. Messiah Marcolin, among several other singers, was walking around doing the Doom Dance while singing Heaven and Hell. Pretty ridiculous.

Then we drank some more and ended up going to bed at around 4 am. In the US I'm used to going to sleep on the weekends at latest 3. However, here everyone is staying up past 6 am routinely. They seem very rested all the time too, I don't know how they do it. Some of the afterparties for Erasmus (the European exchange organization) parties go from 7 am until 12 pm. Seriously ridiculous.

Then, the next day I went back to Henrik's apartment and watched Sweden's Biggest Loser. So much for everyone in Sweden being a model :P

It was a good trip, and nice that it's so close to Helsinki. I'm doing it again on Dec. 2nd!!

A Window to My Life (Olut)

Here is an example of how Finland is different from the US:

For freshmen orientation in the US, you usually start with some awkward ice breaker game, and then have information sessions about various parts of the university presented by super hyped-up students. Then you go to bed early.

In Finland, the freshman (fuksi) orientation started with us divided into groups facing several containers of beer/cider drinks. We were supposed to, one at a time, run up and drink as much as we could and then run to the back of the line. So, a beer relay race. Afterwards, we went off to several bars in succession and did other games there. We went to bed around 3 am. I've come to find out this is fairly early - everyone here stays up until at least 7 am on the weekends.

The fall is dreary. It rains a lot and is windy, and there is very little sun even when the weather is nicer. Everyone says that the snow will brighten things up a lot. It's not cold yet, only about 50 C.

I have about a 30 minute commute into the central train station, and then its 10-15 mins to my classes. It would be nicer to be maybe 5 train stops closer, but I haven't been motivated enough to look for another apartment. Trains come about every 15 mins between 6 am and 12 am, and then a couple times an hour otherwise.

I miss spicy food. Nothing here is very strongly flavored, except salmiakki, this salty-sour licorice that is hugely popular. I've started Finnish class, but I can't say very much. There are 15 cases for nouns, and we have only learned 1. Additionally, spoken Finnish is not at all the same as written Finnish, so I can only catch a few words of what people are saying.

In 2 weekends I am going to Sweden for a Dio tribute metal cruise! Basically, you go on a boat and drink and listen to bands, and then get off when the boat stops sailing. This is a huge thing here, even though you would get essentially the same experience if you drank on land and didn't pay for the cabin...It should be fun though!

Last week I went to Estonia for a day. The capital, Tallinn, is only 2.5 hours from Helsinki by boat. We left at 8:30 and returned to Helsinki at around 21:00. It's a very pretty city. People kept saying "It reminds me of Brussels!" "It reminds me of Toledo!" "It reminds me of (some old European city)!" The buildings were interesting, but it seemed very touristy. Much more so than Helsinki. A lot of the Finns brought a little cart to take lots of wine/liquor back to Helsinki. Even with the lower taxes in Estonia, alcohol is still cheaper in the US (and Germany).

Tomorrow we are going to a flea market, and then to the birthday party of one of the German exchange students. Also I'm going to attempt to buy some nice shoes.