Friday, September 14, 2007
First week @ Helsinki
i took a 2 hour train in holland to reach amsterdam airport so as to fly to helsinki. it was my first time doing all these by myself and in a foreign land. it was really scary! but well, there's always a first time for everything! the train ride was okay, thanks to Jo's uncle for helping me map out everything well.but then, problems always occur during travelling... and so when i was checking in... the girl didn't allow me to bring in this bag pack (which i hand carried for my flight from Singapore), and so i had to check it in! and so, all in all i had an excess baggage of 15 kg! the baggage allowance was only a freaking 20 kg!!! anyhow, i paid for 10 kg in the end which cost me freaking 50 euros! i was so so so upset! it just totally ruined my day!
me with my excess baggage payment receipt!
so well, what an unhappy incident for my first time flying with finnair.. bad impression left.anyhow, the tutors from the school picked me up from the airport to my accommodation area... the first day was like really really lonely because i knew no one and so i ended up eating my cup noodles in my room. how sad was that.
the second day was a Sunday and i went out to the city centre with these other 4 girls. three of them stay in the apartment above mine and one of them is my roommate, carin. all the shops were closed on Sundays and it was so boring so we just walked around.
pictures at helsinki city centre...
me, catherine (Canada), maria (Mexico), denise (Czech republic)
they have like really dark clouds but a very blue sky behind.
the famous cathedral/church of helsinki. their iconic place. not sure what it's called though.
nice flowers.
stockmann area...
first nokia shop i see in helsinki.
and well, contrary to Finland being "nokialand", their nokia phones are like NOT CHEAP at all. it's so much cheaper in Asia! omg. this finnish guy told me that the only thing about nokia and finland is that the CEO is finnish... haha other than that their phones are mostly made in Asia and that is where they probably made most of their money. i thought that the people here would carry like the newest models of nokias and be like so tech-savvy in terms of mobile phones. however, i was wrong! apparently people here change their phones like once in 3-4 years. unlike in asia, or at least singapore where people mostly change their phones in like 1-2 years. so imagine the amount of difference it would make for the profits of the mobile phone company! anyway, i saw some people use my old model of handphones... and i was just totally shocked. those types of phones are like.. extinct.. okay, more like endangered species in Singapore. it's hard to see people carrying those models!anyhow, there was this small chinese restaurant near my housing area. i made friends with these 2 hongkong girls who were picked up from the airport together with me. so we decided to go try out the food there! our first chinese meal in helsinki!
Thursday was orientation day called Mursujaiset. it was a long day that started at like 8 am in the morning. we were told to meet in school and this was what we were entertained with early in the morning. this band playing really loud music inside the building.
then we had breakfast and was given a vodka shot early in the morning. the breakfast was okay... though i wouldn't say fantastic. anyway we were made to wear this garbage bag thing for the whole day. it looked like we were gonna go do corrective work order or something.kelly(hk), vicky(hk), me and wei-in (taiwan).
us with lewis (taiwan).
me with daniel (switzerland) from my tutor group. he's a really nice guy.
us with the two china girls, jessie and michelle from tsinghua university!
the back of the garbage bag.
me with the garbage bag. yay!
we were told to bring a toothbrush... to scrub this statue apparently. i forgot to bring mine... and luckily i didn't!
me and markus (germany) from my tutor group. he's the first german i met out of the many many germans that are present in this batch of exchange students. they are seriously the majority population amongst us all... like almost 10% i believe.
maria (mexico), carin my roomate (sweden) and me!
we had to go around with our tutor groups to different stations to play games. it was quite fun honestly... but very cold though. we get to know each other better and well.. build team spirit! :)my tutor group.. the two in green overalls are our tutors anu and katsu.
back: anu, daniel (switzerland), filip (denmark), alex (germany), me
front: katsu, jessie (china), timor (sweden), markus (germany).
the cheapest stuff around here are probably bread, milk, yoghurt and pasta!! here's the first dinner that me and kelly cooked! it's a fusion of east and west with spaghetti noodles and chicken stock soup with some chicken wings!
we went to ikea on saturday because there were free buses. unlike the ones in singapore where they have like blue buildings with yellow words, the one here that i went to had a white background instead. it looked weird and it really wasn't nice... haha but still, inside was nice and relative the same as the one in singapore. but as always, it's good to shop at ikea! :)
their meatballs! all in finnish though.
here's some shots of my room... it's nice having your own personal room! i totally love the privacy and not having to put up with another person! haha. my set of bedsheets were from ikea! i got it from the kids area... haha but who cares, its 9.95 euros for the whole set!
my very handy ikea laundry bag!
okay, that's it for now. will upload more next time! :)
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