Week one in Finland

Today marks one week since my arrival in Finland, but it seems like I've been here much longer. I get frustrated when I can't find my way around the city as much as I'd like to, but then I realize it's only been a few days that I've actually been exploring here, and then it feels like I'm actually doing quite well.


I was supposed to get a residency permit for Finland before I left the US, but to do that you have to send your passport to the Finnish Embassy in Washington, and it can take up to 12 weeks. I didn't receive my acceptance letter from the University of Helsinki until about 4 weeks before I had to leave. So I was just hoping with all my might that I could get it when I got here and they wouldn't try to deport me or hold me in one of those little rooms at the airport and Bill Clinton would have to come rescue me or something. And so for every point in my trip that could involve customs, I held my breath and tried to look like the kind of person you would welcome into your country. When I got off the plane in Austria they stamped my passport (it says WIEN SCHWECHAT) but didn't ask me where I was going or how long I was staying or any of the questions I had spent the whole plane ride thinking of elaborate answers to. And then, since my flight from Austria to Finland was all within the EU, there wasn't so much as a "Tervetuloa to Finland! Have some herring and a Nokia phone." Nothing. But not having this residency permit is still hanging over my head, and it's preventing me for getting a lot of things done for fear that I will be "found out." So I spent today getting all my documents in order, cash out of the Otto (atm) to pay for it, and passport pictures taken (16 euros = $23 for the worst photo of me ever taken EVER). And tomorrow morning it's off to the police station to hopefully get a permit, and not just turn myself in.


I also hung out at the main City Library in Helsinki for a while. I checked out some really cute children's books in Swedish (I figure I'll just stick with learning Swedish and not even bother with the Finnish). Now I just need a Swedish - English dictionary so I can figure out what they say...


It's been so gray the last couple of days. It makes it really hard to get up and out and do stuff during the couple hours it's actually "light" out. It also doesn't help that pretty much everything is only open from 10-3. It's like the whole city just kind of hibernates during winter.


Apparently I'm not the only one who's been having a hard time with the old grocery shopping thing. The University is offering a Shopping Survival Tour on Saturday. The advertisement reads:

"Do you feel confused every time you go grocery shopping? Did you buy sour milk instead of regular milk? Are you interested in getting to know fair priced products and ingredients in Finland? We'll be going to Itäkeskus  store and taking you on a tour of the most important products: dairy, vegetables, fair trade, organic food, spices and tips on cheap cooking. You will also receive a sort of Finnish-English food dictionary for products that don't have english names on their packaging and such."

So I will soon be a Finnish shopping master! But even so, I made a pretty nice dinner from 100% local and cheap Finnish food:

Potatoes, carrots, "food peas" (which I'm still not sure what they are), onions, parsley, chives, yogurt, and butter. And Finnish rye bread.

I figured out how to post the laundry movies. I really wanted to combine the separate videos into one continues movie, but I decided taking hours trying to learn how to merge video files wasn't the best way I could spend my time in Finland. So now there is part 1, 2, and 3.







Not quite as exciting as I had hoped, but nonetheless, I now have clean clothes.