Happy Independence Day, and my thoughts on Salibandy

Although I'm a day late, Happy Independence Day to all my lovely Finnish readers! I don't really understand Independence Day, and it doesn't matter much to me, but I hope you all enjoyed it, whatever you were doing.
My weekend, including yesterday, was spent being forced to watch Salibandy on the Yle website. I understand the world championship is being held in Helsinki this week, and Jussi is very keen. I didn't really see much difference between this sport and indoor/field hockey, and as I went to an all girls school, I've played a lot of hockey.
Finland beat Canada 12-2 on Sunday; the best moment was when the Canadian goalkeeper, rather than moving the ball away from the net as he should do, smacked it right into the goal, and let Finland score. Other than that, I most enjoyed it when the commentator was interviewing some guy, and some cheeky kids were standing behind him waving, dancing and sticking their fingers up at the camera. Nice one.
Yesterday I was made to watch Switzerland play Poland. It was funny that when Finland played the arena was absolutely packed, but for this game there were about 10 spectators. I don't think anyone outside of Finland actually cares about Salibandy. I'm told there is a British team, and that they're actually pretty good, but I'd never heard of them until Jussi mentioned them. To be honest I'd rather watch the football or a nice bit of ballroom dancing.

Ooh-er

I've just noticed this lovely little blog has been viewed over a 1000 times now, and in only about 6 weeks.
Thank you all.

Amendment

Yesterday I wrote about Little Britannia, and claimed that the price of two bottles of Lucozade and a packet of crisps was 16 euros, and therefore a complete shocker. I would now like to clarify that the 16 euros on the till was change from 20 euros, making the prices reasonable, and me a moron.
This was clarified to me on Facebook by the genius man who opened the shop, and although the cost is still a little higher than the regular British prices, it's hardly unreasonable considering the import costs and the fact that food prices generally are higher in this country. So if anyone was put off by the prices, it was my mistake and had nothing to do with the actual shop.

Today the snow has gone completely bezerk, and even Jussi was saying he'd never seen anything like it. Overnight it went from nothing except ice and sludge to about 10cm depth, and it continued to snow until about an hour ago...

Little Britannia and the Kauppahalli

I've been to the Kauppahalli, which is a very sweet indoor market type thing. It reminded me of Covent Garden market, but with more food. Most of the kioskis and baby sized shops were selling fresh cheeses, bread, meat etc, and there were also some foreign shops and delis, such as Chinese, Indian, and British!
Kauppahalli is where Little Britannia, the British food shop is. My timing is perfect because it only opened last month. I've actually been in Turku longer than the shop has! Oh my god, it was lovely! I only got Lucozade and Walkers Salt & Vinegar today, but that was enough to put a massive smile on my face. They also had Monster Munch! But no pickled onion flavour today. They had loads of Cadburys products, including Dairy Milk and Whole Nut, shortbread biscuits, and lots of other British sweets. They also had canned haggis, custard and corned beef. Not for me.
I'd like it if they had more things like canned soup, but as they're new they probably don't have a full product range yet. The downside is the price - two bottles of Lucozade and a packet of crisps cost €16, as opposed to about £2 in Britain. Maybe it's not a surprise as everything is directly imported. However, it was so nice to see some familiar products and brand names, and really nice to have some comforting food from home.

This is the happiest day of my life!

Today has been insane! I was woken up by Emma telling me "I'm sorry, you have to get up now, you have a job." So I thought, what the fuck? Our friend Suski works for a company that buys and sells stamps to stamp collectors, and her boss had asked if she knew anyone who could help out around the office, doing stuff like filing and putting things into envelopes. Thankfully, she thought of me, and language wasn't an issue.
So Emma and I walked over there, and in I went. Obviously, on the first day in any job you have to have an embarrassing moment, and here's mine: I met the boss, whose name is Tatu, and when I was introduced to him he just said "Tatu." At first I thought he was speaking to me in Finnish, then I thought he was talking about tattoos. Eventually he said "That's my name." I apologised, but thankfully Finnish people always think the language barriers are their fault.
We had a chat for a while, and it became apparent that that guy fucking loves stamps! On a slightly insane level. Then it gets better.
He said "I have an idea, and I think you're the only person who can help with that." So my immediate thought was, oh shit... Then he asked me to teach him English! Which is a coincidence, as I'd placed adverts online earlier in the week as an English or art tutor. He asked how much money I would expect for doing that, and I hadn't really considered that. I suggested he could help me with my Finnish in exchange for me helping with his English, and his response was "Yes I'll do that, but I also want to pay you." So I'm not arguing with that. Now, I'm working in the office for €9/hour, and teaching him English most mornings for €10/hour. How ironic that the shittiest job I've ever had is also the most highly paid.
After about an hour of chat I was put to work, and all I had to do was fold invoices in half, put them in an envelope, seal said envelope. And they're paying me a shitload to do a monkey's job. I don't really see how I can fuck up such a simple task. This cannot possibly go wrong! (Famous last words...)
The work might not be that regular, because I'm only there to help out with general, slightly shitty jobs, and he said that if things aren't very busy I might not need to work. That's ok though, because I'd like some time to do my own things rather than having to work constantly. I'm going back tomorrow at 8am to teach him English for an hour, then do the office work for the rest of the morning. On Monday it's Finnish Independence Day, so there's no work for anyone, but next Tuesday I only have to teach for an hour, then on Wednesday to Friday I'm working full days. This is pretty sweet. I'm very proud, even if my work is very modest, at least I'm working and contributing like a normal person, and I'll also be able to have a social security number, which as you all know will solve a lot of problems for me.
After work Suski and her boyfriend took me for a drink to celebrate, so today worked out very nicely for me. I have Suski to thank, because whilst she was arranging work for me I was fast asleep. I haven't worked for this at all.

She also showed me a picture of a pre-prepared salad she's been eating recently - the brand name is...Tamsin! It's available in Siwa. I apparently taste delicious and crunchy. I guarantee that the jokes about eating me are never, ever going to get old.
So I hope tomorrow will be just as good and that the teaching will go well. I'm really really happy.

Rule Britannia

Turns out there's a British grocery in Turku! I'll be there tomorrow! I've looked at their message board on Facebook and various people, both British and Finnish, have requested a lot of products I'd like to buy, such as pot noodles, Paxo stuffing, Quorn, salad cream and Cadburys. I don't really miss England but it would be so nice to have something from home.
I'll spend a fucking fortune in there!
And in the Irish pub tonight I got salt and vinegar crisps! They tasted dead sexy after all my cravings. The guy working there tonight was English, but he seemed like a twat so I didn't want to ask him about working there. I'll email the owner tomorrow when I'm not drunk. I think it's bedtime...

Damn the doctors

As predicted, the trip to the doctor was an experience. I didn't even get as far as the doctor. Just an elderly assistant with a very limited knowledge of English - thank god Emma was around to translate, if I'd been alone I'd have been screwed. Even when she asked for my date of birth Emma had to translate the month and year for her. Even the names of the medication were a problem, because although the name is the same it's pronounced differently - in Finnish "y" is generally pronounced as "oo".
The EHIC card actually is useless here, but the assistant also claims there's not enough time to treat the Finnish patients, let alone the dirty immigrant skanks. She probably didn't use those exact words but whatever. Again they had to check we were in the correct place, and didn't seem to have a clue, no one seems to know what's going on.
As things were so awkward, her only suggestion was to ask my doctor in England to contact a pharmacy in the area and arrange to send a prescription for me directly to them. When we got home Emma called the chemist to find out if this would be acceptable, and they said no. Because my doctor has no license to practice in Finland his prescription would not be legal here, plus they've probably never even seen a British NHS prescription, so how could they possibly know if it was genuine? Someone could have knocked it up on a computer for all they know. I think it's completely understandable from their perspective, even if it's annoying for me. To be honest I'm feeling ok so maybe it's not that important to get the proper medication after all, and I don't think I really need to be taking the contraceptive pill right now...
But really, communication within the health service here seems to be shocking, and none of the staff seem to know what's going on. I cannot possibly be the only person in this country who's ever needed medical attention and didn't have social security, and I'm quite shocked that the provisions for such people are so pathetic. For now I'm not worrying too much, and I guess if things get too bad I can go to the emergency department and cause a big old scene. At least I don't have a problem like diabetes for example, where going without medication could be a disaster. Have I really found a health service worse than the NHS?
I'm still applying for jobs and advertising myself:http://www.finlandforum.org/viewtopic.php?f=37&t=49813 and http://www.finlandforum.org/viewtopic.php?f=37&t=49812
Bloody Finns don't seem to be taking the bait though. Although there is an Irish pub here and the majority of bar staff are English, so tonight we're going there because it could be a real option for me. I've been there once for a drink and it was quite nice, they even show the Premier League matches! So let's hope for the best, because if I'm working I'll get social security and Finland will treat me like a real person.
Finally, today it's only 0 degrees, and I really was comfortable in that, I must be adapting. On the day I arrived Jussi and I went to get food in market square at 2am, it was the same temperature and I was freaking out. I think when I go back to England and everyone else is in winter coats I'll probably be skipping around in flip flops. I'm very glad the temperature has increased and that I'm more comfortable, last week it was getting extremely painful for me to be outside.