Today was fairly successful. I found a smallish grocery store, and then noticed a sign for a larger one across the train tracks. Maybe I will go there tomorrow. I had spaghetti for lunch. It was nice to have a warm meal other than airplane food.
I went to Ikea again and got some more things, mainly for my bed. My room is coming together slowly. I'll probably go there again this weekend to get some bulkier items.
The orientation group for exchange students of economics had its first meeting tonight. There is only one other master's degree student there - she is from Korea and is very nice. We talked about how beautiful the big island of Hawaii is. I felt kind of stupid since everyone in the group (about 15 were there tonight) spoke at least 3 languages. I really need to learn Finnish. I was spoiled this summer by hanging out with Swedish-speaking Finns, all of whom spoke perfect English.
The "tutors," or orientation leaders, gave us a list of meetings. There are like 10 of them, it was information overload. At least tomorrow they said they would help us get bank accounts and find where to buy clothes and other useful things. They did say they are going to try and take us on a trip to Lapland around Christmas time, and we are going on a cruise from Turku to Stockholm with just Finnish and Swedish economics students.
I feel kind of out of place and don't know how to do anything, but I suppose that might have been the case as well if I had moved to Boston or NYC.
My internal clock is still out of whack - it feels like 5 pm to me. Time to get in bed and watch an episode of The Wire.
Good luck learning Finnish - I'm sure it'll come to you slowly. Don't feel stupid for not knowing languages - many people in foreign countries are used to speaking them, but we have no use for them here. You've studied Spanish and Latin, though! I think that counts.
ReplyDeleteYou'll get it soon.