A day in Helsinki
В понедельник, 25 мая, я был в Хельсинки, где сдавал вступительный тест по языкознанию. По-моему, тест я написал хорошо. Затем я погулял по городу и даже увидел премьер-министра Финляндии. Вечером я сел на поезд и поехал в Россию.
On Monday morning I got up early, at 4.15, because I had still a lot to do before leaving. I carried the rest of my things to the basement, copied my data from the school's computer network, ate breakfast and cleaned the room.
At 7.10 I left the school and went to the railway station, carrying a rucksack and two bags. I missed the train, which I intended to take. Fortunately, there was another one 20 minutes later, so I still got to Helsinki on time.
The test in linguistics
From the railway station I walked to the address of the test (Georgsgatan 18). I came at 9.15, the start of the test, and got two tests papers: one for a test in linguistics and the other one for a test in French (that one was not obligatory), according to the programmes for which I had applied. I was told that I had 6 hours, which was quite enough for one test.
The linguistics test was in Swedish, as the book, which I had read for it. The questions were about related languages, prosody, language change and language death, etc. Also I was to analyse a few texts. I answered all questions providing details and examples.
In the French test I did only one part, grammar, which was a multiple-choice part. Other parts, such as translation from Swedish into French, were too difficult for my exhausted brain.
In Helsinki
At 2.30 I handed in the test papers and went back to the station. There I bought a train ticket to Russia. As before, I bought tickets for two trains: one to Kouvola, a city in 1.5 hours from Helsinki in the direction to Russia, and from there to Moscow. This is because on trains inside Finland I travel with a student discount (50%), so by going first to Kouvola and changing there I make a small economy (5 euro).
I had three more hours to spend in Helsinki, so I went to the Kamppi shopping centre. There I bough food for the trip, looked at books in a bookshop (books are very expensive in Finland, so I usually only look at them) and deposited money on my bank account.
On the way back I saw a familiar face. Then I noticed a poster nearby and yes, that was Matti Vanhanen, Finland’s prime-minister! I saw him there talking to somebody for only about a minute. Then they went in the direction of Kamppi. The poster carried Vanhanen’s photo and the text "Matti Vanhanen here at 16 o’clock". The time was already 17.30. This was probably his meeting with votes as part of the current election campaign to the European Parliament.
Unfortunately, I missed the chance to take a photo of the prime minister. It was the second time I saw him live. The first was in the Parliament, a year ago, when I was on an excursion there.
At 18.00 I took the train to Kouvola. There I waited half an hour, then got on the Leo Tolstoy train to Moscow.
On Monday morning I got up early, at 4.15, because I had still a lot to do before leaving. I carried the rest of my things to the basement, copied my data from the school's computer network, ate breakfast and cleaned the room.
At 7.10 I left the school and went to the railway station, carrying a rucksack and two bags. I missed the train, which I intended to take. Fortunately, there was another one 20 minutes later, so I still got to Helsinki on time.
The test in linguistics
From the railway station I walked to the address of the test (Georgsgatan 18). I came at 9.15, the start of the test, and got two tests papers: one for a test in linguistics and the other one for a test in French (that one was not obligatory), according to the programmes for which I had applied. I was told that I had 6 hours, which was quite enough for one test.
The linguistics test was in Swedish, as the book, which I had read for it. The questions were about related languages, prosody, language change and language death, etc. Also I was to analyse a few texts. I answered all questions providing details and examples.
In the French test I did only one part, grammar, which was a multiple-choice part. Other parts, such as translation from Swedish into French, were too difficult for my exhausted brain.
In Helsinki
At 2.30 I handed in the test papers and went back to the station. There I bought a train ticket to Russia. As before, I bought tickets for two trains: one to Kouvola, a city in 1.5 hours from Helsinki in the direction to Russia, and from there to Moscow. This is because on trains inside Finland I travel with a student discount (50%), so by going first to Kouvola and changing there I make a small economy (5 euro).
I had three more hours to spend in Helsinki, so I went to the Kamppi shopping centre. There I bough food for the trip, looked at books in a bookshop (books are very expensive in Finland, so I usually only look at them) and deposited money on my bank account.
On the way back I saw a familiar face. Then I noticed a poster nearby and yes, that was Matti Vanhanen, Finland’s prime-minister! I saw him there talking to somebody for only about a minute. Then they went in the direction of Kamppi. The poster carried Vanhanen’s photo and the text "Matti Vanhanen here at 16 o’clock". The time was already 17.30. This was probably his meeting with votes as part of the current election campaign to the European Parliament.
Unfortunately, I missed the chance to take a photo of the prime minister. It was the second time I saw him live. The first was in the Parliament, a year ago, when I was on an excursion there.
At 18.00 I took the train to Kouvola. There I waited half an hour, then got on the Leo Tolstoy train to Moscow.