First day in Helsinki

I arrived safely in Helsinki around midnight last night with all my luggage and enough information for the taxi driver (in his leather seat Volvo) to take me to my new apartment. I could tell the Fins were some tough folks right from the start: After landing on the snow covered runway (and sliding a bit), instead of driving the plane to the gate, they just wheeled up an ice covered ladder and everyone climbed down and walked across the snow packed runway like it was no big deal. There is so much snow here! All the roads and sidewalks are completely covered. Plows come by every now and then just to keep it smooth. Here are some pictures of my neighborhood:

This is my apartment building. Each suite has a balcony that is covered in glass to keep the snow from coming in. This is my street.

The fire station.

The path behind my apartment that leads to the coffee shop. There are usually lots of kids sledding on it.
Today is Epiphany which is a national holiday in Finland, which meant everything was closed. I hadn't had a chance to buy any food yet, so I wondered around for quite a while before I found a convenience store type place that was open. I bought some ramen like noodles (I was afraid they would be herring flavored, but they weren't) something that I hope is yogurt, but I haven't tried yet, and my first Finnish beer (for 3 euros. gosh golly that's expensive):
This was one of the only items in the whole store that had writing in English on it. And since Finnish is not a romantic language, there is no guessing at a word. Which is why I washed my dishes after dinner with floor cleaner before realizing my mistake.

My room. Needs some decorations.
But check out that storage space!

Part of the common room. Note the non American sized TV.