Changes

1. I won't be getting my pay check a day before as I am already in the correct time zone. I was almost happy about receiving it a bit before hand, but ah, I had forgotten that that will not be the case. Oh well. 

2. Unemployment ahead. 1,5 more months and my work is done. 

3. No more living alone. Living with my sister and I need to take them into consideration. What I mean that I can't sleep in nor stay up late. So far I have done a few odd things in the house to help them out. 

4. Stores are all gone. No more easy access to downtown or malls. The closest store is about 3 km away, and in this weather I do not think I will be going out walking anytime soon. 

There are the main changes that are affecting me at the moment. I know that soon I will need to start looking for an apartment where to live. I don't even know yet if I want to stay in Finland or not. So far I have applied in China, US, Canada and Finland. I think I will take a closer look at the jobs in Europe, as it might be easier for my friends and relatives if I don't live that far away. Having been taking others into consideration for so long, and not having the same respect shown to me is making it more difficult. My sister says the same that everyone in the south wants us to come visit them, but none of them want come up north because it is so far away. Excuse me? It is as far for us to travel from here to there as well. We are just willing to make the sacrifice. 

Getting a bit off the course in there. But yes, I have a decision making time ahead of me. Where to live, to quit the school (if joint doesn't go through) or not and how to plan the summer. The summer is a big question mark because so far I do not have a job, but I have promised to travel with my niece. Once the dates are finalized for our travel, I can choose my own travels. If my sister needs me here and I do not have a job, I am going to help her out. If I find a job from Finland, it means that I am not able to travel for few years. I am not very happy about it, but I just have to wait and see. So many changes happening now and in the near future that making plans is so difficult. 

Tuesday (4.3) and the rest of the week

I had to wait at the station a bit before my sister arrived. Luckily she too was early! She was surprised to see me waiting outside with my luggages. We were in luck in the sense that she did not need to park the car in the parking lot but could pick me up from the curb. So she stopped at the curb and helped me pack the car. Once inside the car I had to finish up dressing (I really did not want to call her to come pick me up from the next station...) and then we could continue. We left before the train left.... That is how early we usually are. We have to wait for the train to come, usually... 

When I arrived at my sister's place, my niece and nephew were waiting for me. They were so exited to see me. My niece had made a song for me with a picture of squirrel. My nephew sang me a song that probably is not for kids. Not sure where the limit is, but it was kind of a funny birthday song. Probably someone told him at the day care (another kid) from a joke book or something. Well it was pretty funny anyway. After that we had some breakfast. It might have been the other way around, but I was a bit jet lagged at the time so I might not remember the correct order of the events. 

Nothing big after that. Just tried to stay up Tuesday and go to bed in the evening. So far the changing time zones was easy, just staying up till at least eight and no naps. On Wednesday I noticed that in the morning I was hungry after I had eaten. Luckily that has since stopped. I still do feel hungry just before falling asleep, but I expect that to go away in the following month. 

The rest of the week went with a bit of work and a bit of helping my sister. Also a bit of shopping and seeing a friend. I was able to stay up the days and not take naps. I had energy to write my joint assignment during the weekend. With help of my friends I hope that it will pass the next time my teachers will see it. I really wish to graduate in few months. 

Monday (3.3)

I landed in Finland a bit after 1 pm and was out of the airport closer to two. My friend had surprised me and informed me that she will be picking me up from the airport with her small baby. I traveled with three luggages and a laptop bag so the pick up was highly appreciated. As it was Monday, I knew that most of my friends would be working the whole day. This is why I asked the one friend I knew would be at home, if I could spend few hours at her place. Luckily she was not away (I was not sure if it was a skiing holiday week i.e. spring break like people in other countries call it) and I could spent the few hours there before my train left the station. 

We talked, walked and ate. We had good time :) I stayed up the whole time, just to make sure that I would sleep in the train. I had bought a night train ticket, because there were no day trains going up north. Also I would have more space to have my luggages in sleeping compartment (if there were no one else with me). The time flew by, and my friend (and her boyfriend and the baby) dropped me off to the train station. She helped me to get my stuff on board (I waited at the right spot, but the wrong car stopped in front of me. Luckily it was just one off so I just hopped in) and we said our goodbyes. It was a bit of a hassle to move in the small corridors, with other people waiting for their door to be opened. I got a bit injured while getting all my luggages and I to the correct car and room. 

The conductor had locked the door (they used to be held open the last time I traveled) but luckily I saw him just as he checked the corridor and he heard me (I was not that quiet while moving all my stuff). Once I got to the correct door, he already had it opened and marked me as arrived. He also helped me with my luggages by lifting one to the room and other down small flight of stairs. While I was making sure that all my luggages were inside the room and that I would be able to close the door, I overheard that the reason the rooms were locked (only to be opened by the conductor when the ticket is seen). Apparently someone had gone in to a compartment/room without having bought a bed and had waited there, sitting on the bed, for a conductor to arrive and the bed had already been sold to someone. This means that the bed was ruined and could not be used.

After I had settled down, I went to find the restaurant car. I was not sure of the direction so at first I went to one direction and then changed my way as someone told me it was in the other direction. Then when I had walked through a few cars again I asked from a person coming out from a room if they knew, and they told me that  it is in the other direction. So I got my evening walk, by walking up and down the train. Luckily once I got the restaurant car there was no line and I was able to get something to drink (tea for the night and juice for the morning). I went back to my bed and went to sleep. I did not sleep through the whole night, I did wake up once in a while, but as a whole it was a good night. 

In the morning my alarm clock informed me that it is 6:15 in the morning and it is time to wake up. I started to dress up and noticed that the train was slowing down. My first thought was that we must be late as we are not supposed to arrive to Kemi in another 13 minutes. To my surprise we were there! I had just woken up and we are at my destination. First I thought that my clock might be wrong, so I just hurried and carried out all my luggages. Luckily (well I bought the bed really close the door...) I did not need to carry my luggages far. I just put my clothes on and made one last check before jumping out of the train. 

My clock was right... The train had just been early! This is so weird! On time or late. That is what usually happens. So I was outside waiting for my sister to arrive... 

Icelandair

My trip back to Finland was done with Icelandair. It is the cheapest way to cross the ocean to Finland at the moment. You will need to pay the food (with credit card only) but you can take your own food into the plane. The food prices weren't too bad, about the same as it would be at the airport. You do not need to worry about drinks as non-alcoholic drinks are usually free on long trips (charter flights were a different). You can take two 23 kg bags with you which helps if you are moving to another country. 

The entertainment system works with your own headset, so you do not need to buy one. The entertainment system has a big screen (biggest I've seen so far) and quite a good collection of movies, TV series and music. Unfortunately I had seen most of the movies already, so on my second flight I had to opt for an classic movie (that I had seen before) Singin' in the rain. One other good part is that the entertainment system does not stop before you start to land, but it is carried out after landing. No need to get bored in the last 20 minutes! Very good feature indeed. 

I do recommend Icelandair on all european travel, as it is cheaper than the others and with one layover to Iceland you can access all of Europe. The one hour layover was plenty of time to go through the security check, passport check and toilet. I even had to wait a bit before the boarding to the next plane started. All my bags were on board and I collected them from Helsinki. So no luggages were left behind. 

Last weekend

Saturday morning we slept "late". During the day we hunted down a DVD box set which seemed to be sold out in all the stores the day before. We were in luck as the first store we went into had one copy. I don't think we shopped around that much during Saturday as we had plans to go to the birthday party later. Keep in mind that driving around took quite a long time compared to Finland. It would be the same as driving from Lahti to Kouvola to pick something up and return right away. So hence while we did not do much, it took us time to do the little things. So thinking of the the day before, and all that we did then, you can imagine that on Saturday we were feeling a bit tired. 

In the evening we went to the Birthday party, where we stayed for about three hours. Just before we went there I was given a warning that the greetings might a bit more welcoming than what the normal Canadian or Finnish way of greeting is. It is good to have such a warnings so you will not be startled when someone suddenly hugs you. I do have experience of that too. Not going to describe the celebrations too much, most of the time would go describing a friend of a friend of a friend etc. When it was time for us to leave, it had started snowing. The roads were all white, with tire marks. Because of that we drove slowly back to my friends place. Her husband got worried as we had not informed yet that we were back home, so he tried to call us. Unfortunately we were still on the road at that time. We did make a pit stop at Tim Horton's which delayed us a bit more, but we did arrive safely albeit very late.

Sunday morning came on its own accord. I made some last minute changes to my bags and then we went to buy some Icewine for my sister. My sister had asked to have it as soon as I had told that I had bought some for my aunt. I did not have any room in my old luggage, so I had not bought it earlier. I had thought of buying it at the airport, but I did not want to loose it in Iceland. So now that I had bigger luggage, I was able to squeeze the bottle in, so I had to go and buy it. When we were in LCBO, the teller asked ID. She was not able to find an end date from my drivers license, so I showed my passport. At first look, she said that my passport is not valid anymore, as it is past its validity by two years. I almost laughed at her, but instead I pointed out that the date she was looking is the date it was given to me and the date next to it is the date she is looking for. Then she said that there is no end date in my drivers license unless it is the one ending in 52 (she was saying it like a joke) to which I replied "Yes, that is it".  So I almost did not get the Ice wine because the teller thought I looked younger than 25. (They check your ID if you look under 25.) 

Back home we went. After checking that I have all I need, we packed the car and off we went to find last Tim Horton's. I could not believe that I was actually leaving. My brain refused to believe it. I did not feel like I was moving or even traveling. First time ever, I did not expect and were not exited of flying. The closer to the airport we got, the funnier the idea of leaving came. We even joked that it was not me actually who was leaving but it was my friend. I was hoping for bad weather, as that would mean that the airport would be closed. I did not have such a luck. Minute by minute, hour by hour the time came closer when I had to board the plane and leave. 

Last Friday

The Friday was so action packed that I am sure I am forgetting something. In the morning we had breakfast (me, my friend and her husband). I ate my own food, that we had brought from my fridge. We had such a fun time with it. After that it was time to pack the items we had brought better as now they were just in smaller bags and boxes. We carried the boxes downstairs and left shopping. My bags were all full, so we decided to try to find a new luggage for me, one that would be a bit bigger than my medium luggage. Also I needed to find something for my nephew as a souvenir. 

First we bought two vacuum bags for my linen and then we hunted for the luggage, and we were in luck. We found a luggage that was about the same size as my bigger luggage. The colour was perfect, and it had four wheels. So I bought it. This now meant that I had more room for my stuff and that I would be able to buy more stuff if I needed to. Then we went to find a birthday present for my friends nephew-in-law (? not sure if that is a real thing or not). As we did not know the item right away we had time to go shop in other stores. I found a jacket in Old Navy for my nephew, while almost having given up with the size when my friend found xs for 5 years. The 5 years in the xs size was bigger than the 5 years toddler size. 

After that we went to Toys-R-Us to buy the toy. While my friend picked up the toy she needed, I found some hot wheels for my nephews. They were light and now I had room in my new luggage, so I could buy them. Then we headed back to her place and I switched my bags. Then I think we packed even further, with all my plates and bowls going into my now empty luggage and all pillows and blankets into vacuum bag. 

Then we might have eaten something. Oh, no we went to Tim Horton's to pick something up and went to see my friends hubby. We ate there and then I was promised that I could drive a bit. So we went to pick up another car for my friend to drive while I drove her car. Due to the traffic, we had to drive around a bit and we decided to go check if there is a store near by to find second part of the birthday gift. We were told in the store that the item we were looking was online only and not in store. Off we drove to see if the traffic was any good. My friend has some car trouble so we drove slowly through the smaller roads, and dropped the car off her hubbies work to be fixed. 

After that I think we went back to her place. I think that might have been it... At least that was it outside her place :) We did enjoy some chips and watched TV in the evening. I am just trying to remember if we did something after driving. It was such a busy day, that when we talked about the day before it seemed so far away. 

Moving out

Last days in my apartment were full of action. I did a post of the leak and because of it we had to cut the water. The water was cut for the night and in the morning the pipe was fixed (for the first time). I turned the water on after 30 mins and closed it right away. The second time the pipe was fixed and we agreed that I would wait 1,5 hours before turning the water back on. Well I did that and turned the water back on. And turned it back off. The pipe was still leaking. At this point I had to go out to meet with a friend. While I was gone the third and I think the final fix was carried out. When I got back the water was still cut. I did not touch the water but waited until someone would come and tell me to put it back on. I think the water was off about 5 hours and then my landlord's mom came to tell me to put the water back on. I complied and turned the water back on. We were glad to see that the water did not drip anymore, sadly there was no water coming through. The kitchen and shower did work, and the only pipes not giving any water were the leaky one (the hot pipe was the leaky one, but the cold pipe did not give any water either). 

After meeting with my friend I informed my other friend that I will take her offer to pick me up that day. I had not told her and others that the air mattress had stopped working couple of days before and the last two days I had slept on the floor. So all this made me change my mind and I decided to move out the day before I had to. My landlord did say that I could stay till Sunday as at the moment there was no-one coming in. When my landlord came home from work, she invited me to eat with them, and we broke the news to her mom that I was actually leaving that night and not the next day. I got fed and I got a present from them. Best Landlord ever!

When my friend arrived, my landlord came down to help us pack. She said that we did not need to take the garbage out nor clean as they were going to do it. She went back upstairs while we did a bit of dishes and packed the last items. Then she came down to help us pack the car. Her brother arrived from work just in time to help with the last few items. Then I said my last goodbyes to them and off we went. It felt so wrong to move out. To keep at least some of the traditions alive, I took my friend to Hortons (well she drove us there) and bought little something to eat. After that we went to her place and unpacked everything from the car. It was just a few minutes before the midnight when we were done. 

This was my last official day in Canada with permission to work. The next few days I was just a visitor. 

Lärjungen

This is the movie why I was going to downtown in the last post. The CFF (Canadian friends of Finland) organizes movie nights once in a month or so I think. This month the movie was called The Disciple (in Engllish), Lärjungen (in Swedish and the original title) and Oppipoika (in Finnish). The premise of the movie is set in an island in the Baltic sea (I think it is Baltic sea) in 1939. There a lighthouse keeper is sent a disciple. In the island lives also his wife, son and daughter. The movie reveals how difficult the life was and what obstacles people had to overcome. 

It is not a feel good movie. I would say it is quite basic Finnish drama, but if you are not used to it, you might consider it as borderline horror/thriller movie. I would recommend you all to see it, just so that I would hear what you think of it. As it is a Finnish movie I do not think quite many of you have the opportunity to read it unless you live in Finland. Not too shabby movie, a bit slow at moments, but if you are interested in the history it is worth watching. It is not a true story, but it will give you a quite good idea of what the life was like.