Impressions of Finland
So, I left Freiburg on Thursday evening and arrived in Finland on Sunday evening and in Tampere on Monday morning. My journey here was quite eventful.
I left Freiburg with the night train around 19.00 and arrived in Copenhagen at about 10.45 the next morning. I had a contact in the city (a son of a cousin of a husband of a cousin of my mother, haha) but he never answered his phone the whole day. Around seven o'clock I started looking for a place to stay and basically all the hotels were full and there were lots of people wandering aroudn looking for a room. Around half past eleven I finally found the last room in a grungy hotel in the red light district behind the train station. I had a good time in Copenhagen, though. I walked around the city the whole day, got to see the Little Mermaid statue (and a half-naked Brazilian lady who was making some movie about how she swam all the way there from Brazil to ask the Little Mermaid to teach her Danish or something weird like that) as well as the Danish government buildings and a bunch of other cool things in the city.
On Saturday around 12.30 I left Copenhagen on a train to Stockholm, arriving there around 17.30. I met up with a girl from Couchsurfing and she let me use her shower and made delicious vegetarian dinner for me and we drank wine and talked and stuff.
Sunday morning around 6:15 I left her place, took the metro downtown, and had to take a taxi to the harbor because I couldn't find the bus that drives there and nobody would explain very well to me where it was. At around 8.00 my ship left Stockholm and traveled for eleven hours through the Åland Archipelago, landing in Turku, Finland around 20.15 local time, which is an hour ahead of Germany and eight hours ahead of Iowa. I met another person from Couchsurfing, we went to a Mexican restaurant (my first in over a year) and I was for the first time hit by how expensive Finland is. Meals were like ten euros and a beer was about five. I got an appetizer for €3.50 and drank the water that was on the table.
The next morning, Monday, I woke up around 7.30 and left the apartment about 8.10. I ran basically all the way through Turku from the apartment to the train station with my violin, guitar, and heavy backpack and suitcase and finally got to the train station and climbed on the train about thirty seconds before it left. When I arrived in Tampere around 10.45, my two Finnish student tutors were standing on the platform though, and helped me very much. They paid for a bus ride to my building, gave me my keys and a bunch of information, helped me open a bank account, and showed me around the university. I went back home for a while, started unpacking, and met them around 20.45 for a beer at an Irish pub in the downtown. I got Czech Budvar, and it cost €4.90 for half a liter... I paid about €0.40 for the same thing at a bar in České Budějovice and maybe €2.00 or so in Germany. Then I went back to my building and met a German guy and some Americans and a Czech girl and a Polish girl and a Russian gril and we drank a lot of vodka.
The next day I went to orientation stuff at the university, started getting settled in, finished unpacking and stuff, and then went to the kitchen to eat dinner. The American girl Libby and the Russian girl Margarita were there and they wanted me to get my violin and play, so I did, and then an Italian guy came into the kitchen and said there was a party upstairs and I should bring my violin. I asked if there were a lot of Italians there and he said yes, so I walked into the upstairs kitchen playing Bella Ciao on my violin and all the Italians started singing along. It was a pretty hilarious evening full of vodka and not-so-great but very expensive Finnish beer (€1.20 or so for .33L bottles). I also got my computer and amplifier and kinda DJ-ed music the whole night, and at the end was playing my guitar. I met a lot of people, lots of Germans and Italians and Portuguese and French and Belgians and Russians and Polish and Czech and Americans and Mexicans and I don't know what else. There was one Finnish guy there too, but he's super weird. He has this watch that takes pictures, and he kept asking people if he could take pictures of us and then he'd like get a closeup on your face and make a picture. One German guy called him a "Sammler und Jäger", collector and hunter, and it fits, and he also guessed that he studies computer science... the next day I learned that he actually does. I went to bed again very drunk but very satisfied after having met very many people already.
The next day I didn't wake up until very late, like 13.00 or so. I went to the university, did more orientation stuff, learned about classes to take and whatnot, I dunno. I basically spent the evening in my room listening to music and setting everything up, though. I needed a break after two or three months of constant party in Germany and then those first two nights here in Tampere.
Yesterday, Thursday, I got my computer info for the university and bought a cell phone and stuff, and then went shopping for things and bought silverware and a plate and bowl and cup and frying pan and stuff, as well as some basic staple groceries like flour and sugar and oil and whatnot so I can actually eat. I had dinner with two Portuguese and a Polish girl, and then tried to find the way to the big lake nearby with a Portuguese girl but we got totally turned around and lost and ended up walking the opposite direction from where we thought we were heading. After being lost for like two hours we finally found our way back home and realized we had been going exactly the opposite direction from how we thought we had been. It's funny, because the lake is really close to where we live but we had such a hard time finding it and actually never did.
This morning I made pancakes and coffee for the Portuguese and Polish I have been hanging out with and they were very happy. Then I came back to the university, did some more stuff, went to the police station to register and whatnot, and here I am. It's been quite an eventful week, actually, haha.
So, my impressions. First, Finland is extremely expensive. The general rule is everything costs about twice what it does in Germany. A beer in a bar averages about five euros, whereas in Germany it's like two fifty. The same three frozen pizzas in a package that cost €1.39 or so at Lidl in Germany cost €2.69 at Lidl here. The only things that are cheap are meals at the university cafeteria, which is €2.35 for a huge main dish with salad and bread and a drink, and also tobacco is like half as expensive as it is in Germany.
It's also very cold here. I always knew, yes, Finland is cold, but I never imagined this. Right now it's about the warmest time of the year in Iowa. I always remember in school the first couple weeks (which is basically right now) we would often have school actually cancelled because it was too hot. But here it's so cold right now that I have to wear my thick jacket to go out, and at night a hat is absolutely necessary. It also rains a lot. I'm farther north than Anchorage, Alaska though. It's pretty weird being this far north, it's kinda hard to wrap my mind around actually.
So, for the place I live. I really like my building. It is full of international students; I have only met two Finnish people there so far. But almost everyone I have met are really good people. It seems like if you want to party, there's somebody having a big party and/or going out every night, but if you want quiet or want to be alone, there's always one kitchen where there is no party and if you go to your room and close the door nobody's really going to even bother you. I've already made a lot of friends (or rather, I guess, acquaintances, because we really don't know each other at all), mostly German, Italian, Portuguese, Polish, and Czech. I feel very comfortable in the place I live. The only bad thing is that it's a half-hour walk from the university and the downtown, and I don't know how comfortable that will be in the winter; luckily there are busses but I can't get the bus discount card until I get my student card, which won't happen for two weeks or so, and I am not going to pay two euros per ride twice or more every day.
The city is very nice too. It is between two very big lakes and there are many other lakes in the area, and basically wherever the city isn't built up it's thick pine forest. The city center is full of old red brick industrial buildings that are remnants from the turn of the century when Tampere became a booming industrial center because of the power provided by the rapids falling from the lake to the north into the lake to the south through the city center. Everybody is really friendly, like, when you ask them where something is, they give you a very detailed description and then say that they really hope you find your way. And for the language, pretty much everybody speaks enough English at least for me to get by even though I don't know much Finnish, the only secret is you have to not ask them first because when you ask them they get scared and don't want to speak English. My Finnish is pretty bad, although better than most of the other international students here. I carry my dictionary around though and whenever I see signs I look up words to try to understand them and am already expanding my vocabulary. And yesterday I asked a man on the street, in Finnish, how to find something and he understood and pointed me in the right direction, and I also asked a lady in a grocery store if they had something and she showed me. So it's working out.
I also feel pretty comfortable at the university here. I am planning to take a Finnish language class as well as Russian and Polish classes, and a course in English linguistics (grammar of noun and verb phrases) and a course about cross-cultural communication issues. Everyone at the university has been extremely helpful and are very understanding of the fact that I don't really know Finnish (yet).
The weirdest thing though is that these first couple days I have been feeling like I have to re-learn English. I basically spoke, thought, and lived only in German with a little Spanish, Czech, Polish, whatever for the past couple months and English as little as possible. It's getting better by now, but the first couple days here I was having to pull out my German-English dictionary quite often and look up how to say words in English and not really even being satisfied with the result most of the time. It's really very odd having to remember how to use my own native language again.
In conclusion, I like it here so far. So yeah, okay.
I left Freiburg with the night train around 19.00 and arrived in Copenhagen at about 10.45 the next morning. I had a contact in the city (a son of a cousin of a husband of a cousin of my mother, haha) but he never answered his phone the whole day. Around seven o'clock I started looking for a place to stay and basically all the hotels were full and there were lots of people wandering aroudn looking for a room. Around half past eleven I finally found the last room in a grungy hotel in the red light district behind the train station. I had a good time in Copenhagen, though. I walked around the city the whole day, got to see the Little Mermaid statue (and a half-naked Brazilian lady who was making some movie about how she swam all the way there from Brazil to ask the Little Mermaid to teach her Danish or something weird like that) as well as the Danish government buildings and a bunch of other cool things in the city.
On Saturday around 12.30 I left Copenhagen on a train to Stockholm, arriving there around 17.30. I met up with a girl from Couchsurfing and she let me use her shower and made delicious vegetarian dinner for me and we drank wine and talked and stuff.
Sunday morning around 6:15 I left her place, took the metro downtown, and had to take a taxi to the harbor because I couldn't find the bus that drives there and nobody would explain very well to me where it was. At around 8.00 my ship left Stockholm and traveled for eleven hours through the Åland Archipelago, landing in Turku, Finland around 20.15 local time, which is an hour ahead of Germany and eight hours ahead of Iowa. I met another person from Couchsurfing, we went to a Mexican restaurant (my first in over a year) and I was for the first time hit by how expensive Finland is. Meals were like ten euros and a beer was about five. I got an appetizer for €3.50 and drank the water that was on the table.
The next morning, Monday, I woke up around 7.30 and left the apartment about 8.10. I ran basically all the way through Turku from the apartment to the train station with my violin, guitar, and heavy backpack and suitcase and finally got to the train station and climbed on the train about thirty seconds before it left. When I arrived in Tampere around 10.45, my two Finnish student tutors were standing on the platform though, and helped me very much. They paid for a bus ride to my building, gave me my keys and a bunch of information, helped me open a bank account, and showed me around the university. I went back home for a while, started unpacking, and met them around 20.45 for a beer at an Irish pub in the downtown. I got Czech Budvar, and it cost €4.90 for half a liter... I paid about €0.40 for the same thing at a bar in České Budějovice and maybe €2.00 or so in Germany. Then I went back to my building and met a German guy and some Americans and a Czech girl and a Polish girl and a Russian gril and we drank a lot of vodka.
The next day I went to orientation stuff at the university, started getting settled in, finished unpacking and stuff, and then went to the kitchen to eat dinner. The American girl Libby and the Russian girl Margarita were there and they wanted me to get my violin and play, so I did, and then an Italian guy came into the kitchen and said there was a party upstairs and I should bring my violin. I asked if there were a lot of Italians there and he said yes, so I walked into the upstairs kitchen playing Bella Ciao on my violin and all the Italians started singing along. It was a pretty hilarious evening full of vodka and not-so-great but very expensive Finnish beer (€1.20 or so for .33L bottles). I also got my computer and amplifier and kinda DJ-ed music the whole night, and at the end was playing my guitar. I met a lot of people, lots of Germans and Italians and Portuguese and French and Belgians and Russians and Polish and Czech and Americans and Mexicans and I don't know what else. There was one Finnish guy there too, but he's super weird. He has this watch that takes pictures, and he kept asking people if he could take pictures of us and then he'd like get a closeup on your face and make a picture. One German guy called him a "Sammler und Jäger", collector and hunter, and it fits, and he also guessed that he studies computer science... the next day I learned that he actually does. I went to bed again very drunk but very satisfied after having met very many people already.
The next day I didn't wake up until very late, like 13.00 or so. I went to the university, did more orientation stuff, learned about classes to take and whatnot, I dunno. I basically spent the evening in my room listening to music and setting everything up, though. I needed a break after two or three months of constant party in Germany and then those first two nights here in Tampere.
Yesterday, Thursday, I got my computer info for the university and bought a cell phone and stuff, and then went shopping for things and bought silverware and a plate and bowl and cup and frying pan and stuff, as well as some basic staple groceries like flour and sugar and oil and whatnot so I can actually eat. I had dinner with two Portuguese and a Polish girl, and then tried to find the way to the big lake nearby with a Portuguese girl but we got totally turned around and lost and ended up walking the opposite direction from where we thought we were heading. After being lost for like two hours we finally found our way back home and realized we had been going exactly the opposite direction from how we thought we had been. It's funny, because the lake is really close to where we live but we had such a hard time finding it and actually never did.
This morning I made pancakes and coffee for the Portuguese and Polish I have been hanging out with and they were very happy. Then I came back to the university, did some more stuff, went to the police station to register and whatnot, and here I am. It's been quite an eventful week, actually, haha.
So, my impressions. First, Finland is extremely expensive. The general rule is everything costs about twice what it does in Germany. A beer in a bar averages about five euros, whereas in Germany it's like two fifty. The same three frozen pizzas in a package that cost €1.39 or so at Lidl in Germany cost €2.69 at Lidl here. The only things that are cheap are meals at the university cafeteria, which is €2.35 for a huge main dish with salad and bread and a drink, and also tobacco is like half as expensive as it is in Germany.
It's also very cold here. I always knew, yes, Finland is cold, but I never imagined this. Right now it's about the warmest time of the year in Iowa. I always remember in school the first couple weeks (which is basically right now) we would often have school actually cancelled because it was too hot. But here it's so cold right now that I have to wear my thick jacket to go out, and at night a hat is absolutely necessary. It also rains a lot. I'm farther north than Anchorage, Alaska though. It's pretty weird being this far north, it's kinda hard to wrap my mind around actually.
So, for the place I live. I really like my building. It is full of international students; I have only met two Finnish people there so far. But almost everyone I have met are really good people. It seems like if you want to party, there's somebody having a big party and/or going out every night, but if you want quiet or want to be alone, there's always one kitchen where there is no party and if you go to your room and close the door nobody's really going to even bother you. I've already made a lot of friends (or rather, I guess, acquaintances, because we really don't know each other at all), mostly German, Italian, Portuguese, Polish, and Czech. I feel very comfortable in the place I live. The only bad thing is that it's a half-hour walk from the university and the downtown, and I don't know how comfortable that will be in the winter; luckily there are busses but I can't get the bus discount card until I get my student card, which won't happen for two weeks or so, and I am not going to pay two euros per ride twice or more every day.
The city is very nice too. It is between two very big lakes and there are many other lakes in the area, and basically wherever the city isn't built up it's thick pine forest. The city center is full of old red brick industrial buildings that are remnants from the turn of the century when Tampere became a booming industrial center because of the power provided by the rapids falling from the lake to the north into the lake to the south through the city center. Everybody is really friendly, like, when you ask them where something is, they give you a very detailed description and then say that they really hope you find your way. And for the language, pretty much everybody speaks enough English at least for me to get by even though I don't know much Finnish, the only secret is you have to not ask them first because when you ask them they get scared and don't want to speak English. My Finnish is pretty bad, although better than most of the other international students here. I carry my dictionary around though and whenever I see signs I look up words to try to understand them and am already expanding my vocabulary. And yesterday I asked a man on the street, in Finnish, how to find something and he understood and pointed me in the right direction, and I also asked a lady in a grocery store if they had something and she showed me. So it's working out.
I also feel pretty comfortable at the university here. I am planning to take a Finnish language class as well as Russian and Polish classes, and a course in English linguistics (grammar of noun and verb phrases) and a course about cross-cultural communication issues. Everyone at the university has been extremely helpful and are very understanding of the fact that I don't really know Finnish (yet).
The weirdest thing though is that these first couple days I have been feeling like I have to re-learn English. I basically spoke, thought, and lived only in German with a little Spanish, Czech, Polish, whatever for the past couple months and English as little as possible. It's getting better by now, but the first couple days here I was having to pull out my German-English dictionary quite often and look up how to say words in English and not really even being satisfied with the result most of the time. It's really very odd having to remember how to use my own native language again.
In conclusion, I like it here so far. So yeah, okay.