The rythm of routine...

Over the last few days somewhat of a variable routine has emerged from the perpetual rhythm of Finnish life, and the fading of the light into dark and then back again at a surprisingly early hour. Wednesdays and Thursdays seem to be the best nights to go out, with Amarillo providing €1.60 beers and ESN providing an Erasmus party every Thursday night. However, amidst all the fun I am having, it has become apparent to me that University involves work.

Thus, and I cannot explain how I arrived in this predicament, I found myself with a group presentation on the history of Finnish art to complete, and given the second experience of turning up to a Finnish lesson with only 4 hours sleep and a sleep inducing blood-alcohol significance level, it has occurred to me that doing some learning outside of lectures wouldn't have been the stupidest choice I've ever made. The result of this is that I actually have something to do when I get bored. Which is never.

Amongst all this 'fun' has also emerged the opportunity to go to Lapland and St. Petersburg, the latter of which has been booked and will happen at the end of October. Unfortunately, subject to my teacher being accommodating, I am unable to go to Lapland before Christmas due to my Finnish language exam, although I'm sure they wont notice if I skip it. One other thing to mention which I feel is of great importance, is that the other day I cleaned my floor! Until next time...

A word about Spaniards...

After the long day spent in Estonia, a late start was necessary, as believe it or not, students do need to sleep sometimes....or at least I do. For those reading this were with me at these times, please forgive my inaccuracies, as my memory is somewhat foggy. Later in the day I had my first attempt at learning a Spanish card game which is somewhat of a nation treasure, called Mus. Gonzalo taught Alba, Yanyan and I how to play, and it instantly became a 'must do'.

It seems appropriate now to mention that of the Erasmus population present, the majority with whom I am friends are girls. Victor and Gonzalo are two really cool guys with whom I can share some banter with, so a shout out to both of them. Thanks guys!

Another week of lectures, including one gruelling Wednesday evening from four until eight about the history of Finland since the 1300s, read in a dulcet mono baritone by a professor who is otherwise a really cool guy. Last night we went to Amarillo, a Spanish themed place with criminally cheap alcohol. Needless to say, four hours sleep isn't the best prerequisite for getting up in the morning for a Finnish lesson. However, I achieved this and proceeded to sleep for a few hours in the afternoon, barely aiding me in the eviction of the cold from my body.

Here is something I forgot to post in an earlier entry, but in one of the orientation lectures we were shown this video, which is somewhat amusing... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pN2ZJBh92SM

So I am finally up to date with recording my activities, and will continue to post every week, or when necessary...

Studies begin, lack of sleep continues...

As the days began to blur into a conglomerate haze of fun, the stabbing reality hit me that I was here to study. My initial reaction to the problem of trying to find courses was that of fear, as I did not realise that each semester is split into two periods, where different classes are taken in each. I was happy I wasn't going to have a 30 hour week, to say the least. Due to the lack of courses presented in Social Psychology, I was implored to look outside the box and choose some modules that interested me. The Finnish language course was, of course, a necessity, and various other interesting topics presented themselves. Thus, studies had begun...

It became apparent to me over the next few days that 2 hour lectures were guaranteed, and 4 hour lectures were likely. Not something I really wanted to hear, but it actually makes things easier. Another problem arose, that being the demand of payment of rent. As im sure it is obvious, IBANs cost a charge from England at least, so I set up a Finnish bank account. This makes life much easier for me, with no charges.

After the first couple of days studying (which included a very amusing statistics lecture with my German friend Isabelle - note to self: don't ever watch binocular football during a lecture, its very rude!), the opportunity arose to go to Tallinn, the capital city of Estonia. The term 'booze cruise' comes to mind, and is indeed correct, as many Finnish people hop over the Bay of Finland to the port city of Tallinn for the near half price alcohol. Old Tallinn is fantastically beautiful, looking something not dissimilar to that of a medieval town within a castle, right down to the old fashioned clothes the waitresses wear. And hot chocolate that is other worldly.... Whilst many people slept on the return trip, I played an energetic card game with the Spanish contingency, and by the time we got home it was dark. As I went to sleep that night, I thought to myself "another day never to forget in this seemingly endless adventure in the place I would come to call home in the next months. Of that I am sure...."

Orientation...

After around 45 minutes on the bus (getting confused why cars were over taking us on the left hand side), we arrived at the train station, where we found some lockers to put our bags until we had time to collect our keys. Then we made our way to orientation, thoroughly tired from the journey. We arrived at the building, where we signed our names and began tours of various buildings and lectures, the final one in which we were split into our tutor groups. These people were to be our friends for the next few days as we acclimatised to the country. Laura, our tutor, was a Finnish third year Social Psychology student who was to show us around, how to get our student cards, library cards, travel cards etc... A long list to do indeed!

Once day one was finished we made our way back to the train station and then across the city to the accommodation office, where we received our keys. I opened the door to my room feeling like I wanted to die (40 hours awake helped). Once the initial euphoria of not having to carry 31 Kg of dead weight around with me, it dawned on me that I had forgotten a) my Ethernet cable to connect to the Internet, and b) I had no sheets for my bed. Needless to say, I spent the next two nights sleeping in a hoody with my towel over me. Funny, I know, but at the time not so much.

During the orientation I had made friends with some lovely people from many places, including Spain (with whom I am now re-learning Spanish - at the cost of a vice versa arrangement), Germany, Hungary, China, and Italy, and these formed the group with which we went to the first ESN (Erasmus Student Network) party. Pre-drinks of Finnish vodka and a whole load of 'I don't know what' formed a fantastic night out, the first of many I hoped. After hitting the bed at 3 am I awoke the next morning to the sound silence, that is Helsinki on the weekend.....

Arrvial...

My adventure starts as I sit in Gatwick airport, waiting for my friend Ben to arrive. Once he has, we proceed to check-in to find that our bags are overweight. Apparently if you want to take more than one bag simply purchasing the option is not sufficient; you muat also inform them of how many kilogrammes you want, which naturally occurs at a fee. We did not know this. I will neglect to mention the actual amount overweight my bags were, but at £10 per kilogramme over weight, it did not come out cheap. We continued to security, where a fairly small mountain of a man saw fit to touch me all over because I looked like some kind of terrorist. Scowling over my latest encounter, we boarded the plane. Many Finns, few English. I spent and hour and a half with the plane stationary and a rather moody looking man sitting next to me before we could take off. Apparently someone had checked in a bag for Helsinki when they weren't going there. I shouldn't really have been surprised...

The flight was uneventful, the only notable point being that when we came to land at Helsinki airport all that could be seen was a zigzag of yellow lines indicating the road lights, and not much else. "Great, no one actually lives here", I thought. After landing we spent the night sitting in the airport with a girl from Australia doing the same thing as us (except she was destined for Turku), and a Polish guy going to Amsterdam to sell the 'I Love ... t-shirts' finding out anything we could about what to expect. Facebook was also an option due to the FREE wireless internet service to which the Finnish government believe all people are entitled. "Not bad", I thought, considering in England you have to sit on a phone to customer services for 3 hours complaining before they will let you pay them for a connection! The hours passed and I got tired, so I treated myself to a Pepsi, which wasn't too cheap but that was justified by remembering my location. At 6 o'clock, the sun began to rise, and we went outside to catch the bus to Helsinki railway station (Rautatientori). Thus, the next stage of my adventure began.....