Day 1 (Mon, Aug 08)

Due to my flight from Dubai to Frankfort getting late, i missed my original flight to Helsinki. Since it was my first time ever abroad, I was very nervous about the whole situation but I felt ok when i got me aboard the next flight. I landed at Helsinki airport at 2 pm. Got myself a taxi and went straight to the office, as Tommi was waiting there. I was told by a number of people that i wont get any language problems since i am good at English but no one ever told me about the strong accent that Finns have. The first thing i did was to go to the bank and make myself a bank account. I spent the whole day with Tommi. We went to some place for some pizza and i was not just astonished to see the size of the pizza but seeing the skinny tommi eating it all within a few minutes (if not seconds).

Day 2 (Tue, Aug 09)

Had too much stuff to do, spent most of the day hunting for apartments. In the evening we went to the small forrest/hill just outside tommi's apartment, from there we went to another hill a bit far away. Fate wasn't on our side and it started to rain. We got quite late on our way back and could only find one place open. From there, i bought a small burger that was not enough for my appetite, so i ate some of the pizza from the last day. That pizza even survived one more day as i was having it for my breakfast as well. Tommi was really surprised at that. On our way back, we met a friend/neighbor of Tommi, who talked as much as woman do talk. I was surprised at that since tommi told me that Finns don't talk much. Upon asking him, he said: "Well, she was a girl". :)

Day 3 (Wed, Aug 10)

Went to see some apartments we found a day ago. All of them were good enough for me but only one in the Lauttasaari was very near to the office. We showed interest in it and that guy managing the deals, told me that i have a bright chance of getting it. At night, tommi got his big screen which he was waiting for. We watched 'The Village' on it and it was fun. I don't know if it was the effect of the big screen or the movie was really good.

Day 4 (Thu, Aug 11)

I finally got the apartment in Lauttasaari. Here are some nice pictures of the area:

http://www.fma.fi/virtualboat/suomenlahti/05/lauttasaari.JPG http://www.kaupunginosat.net/kotikatu/galleriafi/lauttasaari.jpg

I moved into it as soon as i got it. Although I am yet to make a contract with the power department, they haven't cut the power yet. I also bought myself a cable Internet connection and they said that it would be functional as soon as i reach my apartment. Unfortunately, i forgot my laptop at tommi's, so i had to just go to bed. :)

Day 5 (Fri, Aug 12)

Now that i had my own address in Helsinki, i was eligible to apply for a social security ID. Tommi handed me a map and said that it's better i go there on foot. Although i forgot the name of the department/building, i still reached there safely. It was good to see that almost anyone i asked for directions, was willing to help me and was speaking English. The lady at the foreign registration office told me that I'll be getting my ID mailed to me the next week. In the evening, we had a party at the office, which was quite fun. I had to leave the office to buy some important stuff for my apartment. When i was back at office, some colleagues were going to a bar, so i joined them. That was fun too. Now that i had my laptop, the cable modem wasn't able to register itself, so i just went to sleep.

Day 6 (Sat, Aug 12)

I had 'more than' enough to drink the last night, i was feeling very bad. I think my stomach wasn't able to digest the beers. I called the Internet service providers and they promised to fix the problem for me. I went outside, found a Chinese restaurant and had my lunch there (at 5 pm). When i come back home, I was happy to see my Internet starting to work. So i wasted quite the rest of the day looking for some nice stuff to watch on my fast connection. But the only thing that worked for me was the Owen Taylor's Cairo presentation video from GUADEC.

Observations so far:

• Finns have a big appetite.
• They are very helping people.
• They try their best to speak English with foreigners, some survive this effort and some fail quite miserably.
• They don't seem to be in any way like the cunning, negative-minded, jealous and fanatically religious people that i have lived with so far.