Damn you Suomen Partiolaiset

Today Suomen Partiolaiset (the guides and scouts of Finland) decided to have a big parade through Turku. Which is lovely and all but it was such a big thing that all the traffic was being redirected and getting across the street was near impossible. Why did I decide to go to the supermarket whilst they were parading around? I had to stand in the street waiting to cross the road for about 10 minutes whilst they all marched past. It gave me a chance to see the whole thing, but it took a very long time. I guess because of this the flags were out yet again. I think this week we've only been without flags for two days!
I'd also like to point out how happy I am that United Kingdom did so much better than Finland in Eurovision. I know we were far from winning, but as long as Finland did worse it doesn't matter. I was watching it at a party with a lot of Finnish people who didn't really appreciate me laughing at them. They admitted that if things had been the other way around they would have given me even more shit for it, so I think I was justified. I like the Azerbaijani song, so I'm happy with that, but my favourites were Iceland, Denmark, and Switzerland. I don't understand why two of those countries did so badly; I think Switzerland were actually in last place. I didn't even vote but I would have gone for Iceland, and UK just to be patriotic. I think Paradise Oskar should have done better though, he's very sweet.

Yesterday

My job interview was a success! Which is especially impressive as the person I was meant to cover for turned out to be the class teacher, not an assistant as I had assumed. I walked in, was put in front of a group of five year olds and told to teach them! It went ok though, and the girl acting as an assistant, who was a student on a work placement, asked how long I'd been working with children and didn't believe that I'd never done it before. Maybe this runs in the family or something. My mother was overjoyed to hear about this, although I don't think I want a teaching career.
Unfortunately, the job doesn't start until August, so even if they offer it to me I will be unable to take it. I've always intended to leave in September, plus I need a job right now. If it was starting next week or next month it would be perfect, and I would jump at the chance. I'm actually pretty disappointed because it seemed like a really nice place to work, and it appears that I'd also be good at the job. They are paying me for my work yesterday morning, which I'm very pleased about, it's definitely very welcome. I guess I deserve it because they basically used me as a substitute teacher.
For the rest of the day I just hung out at my friend's house and then with my flatmates. I was in a bit of a bad mood about the job. We watched ice hockey and the Eurovision semi-finals, and I'd like to remind everyone to vote for Finland. If you live in Finland vote for the UK!

This week so far

It's been a very hot, sunny week in Turku so far. My enthusiasm for being here is back, so maybe bad weather was the problem. I've been out today putting english/art tutor adverts in supermarkets, and it's disgustingly hot and sticky. As stupid as it may sound, it never occured to me that it would get this hot in Finland. Of course, there are hippies everywhere, wandering around and playing music in the street. It makes for a really great atmosphere. I feel like I'm somewhere a bit more exotic than Finland.
This week I've been reminded of how much Finland likes to get the flag out - they were on the flagpoles for the past two days. Sunday was Mother's Day, but I'm not sure what the reason was yesterday. In my country the flag doesn't come out so much. I think it's quite nice to walk down the street and see them everywhere. It can be a shock sometimes to go outside and suddenly be surrounded by lots of flags. I've also been told that when someone dies the flag on their building is often put up at half mast as a sign of respect, and I have seen that a couple of times.
However, the most exciting and important thing this week - I have a job interview on Thursday! I'm so pleased, and I'm very determined and motivated to get the job. I just had a phone call about it, and I have an interview and trial period in the morning. It's at an English language pre-school, and I'd really love to get that job. Luckily, my lovely mother works as a primary school teacher, so hopefully she can give me some professional advice on dealing with large volumes of small children. When I called my parents to see if she was at home my father's advice extended to "try not to kill them." It would be so great to have a proper, sensible job and be more secure. I'm determined to make myself absolutely perfect for the position. I'm even happy to sell out a bit and adapt my appearance, seeing as that's not as conventional as it could be, and frightening the lovely children definitely won't make me seem like Mary Poppins. This means tattoos will be covered, hair, shoes and clothes will be sensible, and I need to somehow get my lip piercing out, which right now is proving difficult. On Thursday I will boggle everyone with my brilliance. If that fails, I'll just baffle them with my bullshit.

Alko

I finally went to Alko yesterday! I've been here for almost seven months now but never needed anything from there, until yesterday when Minttu and I were going to the park and wanted a bottle of wine. Other people have always told me I need to go to there sometime, and the system it's part of is very different to in England.
For those who don't know: in Finland wine and spirits cannot be purchased at the supermarket. They are only available from a government controlled chain of off-licenses - Alko. Most large supermarkets have a branch of Alko next door. I'm told this is one of the measures, alongside alcohol only being available for purchase for 12 hours a day, to try to control alcohol consumption. I'll be honest, it's not really working. Norway seemed to have similar restrictions, and it wasn't working there much either. Still, it must provide plenty of money for the Finnish government, who own Alko, and therefore have a monopoly.
Anyway, it seemed to me pretty much the same as an English off-license, it wasn't that special. At least I've been in now anyway. I laughed when I found non-alcoholic wine on the shelf; that seemed a bit pointless. As always in Finland, there was a random drunk attempting to buy a bottle of vodka, who had it snatched from him by the lady on the till, and was shouted at until he wandered out and was jumped on by security staff. Standard. I'm not convinced to go there more often, beer is still a lot cheaper.
The other thing I've just noticed is that at the moment the sun starts rising at 3.30am. Not cool. I sometimes go through little phases of not going to sleep until around 3 or 4am, which is what's happening at the moment, and when I did try to go to sleep it was already light in the bedroom. It was a bit frustrating, and now I'm extremely tired but I don't want to waste the whole day in bed. It's not even the longest day yet! I think I'll have to sort out my sleeping pattern.

Itchy feet

I'm feeling restless. Maybe it's just post-holiday grumpiness, which I'm very prone to, but I thought it might not be an issue this time because my home is still a foreign place. Although, going away made me realise that Finland isn't that foreign anymore after all. It's quite comfortable.
It's not that I'm unhappy or I don't want to be here - I'd certainly rather be here than in England. In Oslo last week I would have killed to be back in Finland. I've been extremely fortunate here too. I live in a nice place with two lovely people, I've established a very good social life, and I've adapted to the culture of this country. Every time it's looked really bad something has happened to sort things out, at least temporarily. I can't believe my luck to be honest.
Maybe it's just because the weather wasn't so good until today that I've been in a bad mood. Right now I wish I could go somewhere brand new and do this all again. Perhaps I actually like having a certain element of discomfort in my life, or the feeling of everything being new, confusing, and exciting. Back in the day simply going to the supermarket was exciting because everything about it was unfamiliar. I suppose it's inevitable that that will fade away eventually, and maybe I just hadn't noticed until now.
I think my problem may well be that I now have to get back to the real world and start sorting out work/my finances again. On holiday I could completely forget about that and just have a good time. Plus with Easter falling the weekend before that, and applying for jobs at that time seeming a bit impractical, I had quite a long break from dealing with that stuff. Now I need to get back on it, and maybe it's just a bit of a struggle. I'll get there eventually, I'm sure. I hope.

Beautiful Bergen

Fjords, seen from the train

Fantoft stavkirke and the sunset by the harbour

View of Bergen from a mountain and view of one of the mountains

Me, trundling through a forest

But I still love Finland more.

I'm home

I got back to Turku last night, and proceeded to sleep for a very long time. I hadn't had a proper night's sleep since last Tuesday, so I desperately needed to catch up. I had a brilliant time in Norway and I'm really glad that I went. Later on I'll make another entry with some pictures because I have so many nice ones.
My sleep deprivation started last Wednesday. I had to get the bus to Helsinki at 5am on Thursday, so I decided to just have a short nap before leaving. As I'd drank a large can of Red Bull it didn't work out so well. The flight wasn't very long so I only slept for an hour, and then I landed in Oslo.
I didn't really like Oslo, but other people, incuding Norwegians, all told me they didn't like it either. It was quite pretty, but it wasn't very interesting. Luckily it was very hot and sunny so I spent my day wandering around, sitting in parks (of which there are many), and sketching. What I did like was that there were so many sculptures and statues, which gave me plenty of drawing material. The thing I absolutely hated was that there were so many beggars - I was approached by about 20 people throughout the day, which seemed a bit outrageous. If I'd only visited Oslo I would have quite a bad impression of Norway, and definitely would not be willing to return. Maybe if I'd been more energetic and hadn't been alone I would have had a better time. I had been given some suggestions of things to do, but I was so tired that I just wasn't in the mood.
On Thursday night I got the overnight train to Bergen, which took about eight hours. On the train everyone gets a little bag containing a blanket, inflatable pillow, eye mask and ear plugs, which was a good idea. Norwegian trains are quite comfortable, so at least I got some sleep then. I remember waking up at 5am when it was just getting light, and the landscape was so beautiful that I couldn't close my eyes again, despite being exhausted. I must have fallen asleep eventually because I woke up to the train conductor announcing that it was 6.30 and we would soon arrive in Bergen.
Immediately I found Bergen preferable to Oslo; it's much more beautiful, and is surrounded by seven mountains. I've never seen anything like that before. I met Selina and we took the tram back to her house. Originally we'd planned to have a nap but because we hadn't seen each other for so long we couldn't stop talking! The royal wedding was on that morning, so we decided to be patriotic and watch that, with snacks and alcohol. We played the now famous royal wedding drinking game, which lead to me finishing a bottle of wine by noon...not something I do on a regular basis. This was definitely the most drunken holiday I've ever had.
In the afternoon we walked to a forest, where there is a very beautiful church, Fantoft stavkirke. It's very famous for being the first one burned down by Varg Vikernes in the Norwegian black metal church burnings. It was rebuilt, and it was absolutely stunning. I can't believe anyone would want to damage such a lovely building, but then Varg clearly isn't quite right in the head. We sat in the forest and had a couple of beers, the weather was beautiful and it was a really nice afternoon.
Later we went into the city centre to have dinner. Bergen really is a lovely city, the architecture is quite old and most of the streets are cobbled. There's a mountain in every direction, and I really liked it. I can understand why Selina is so happy to be living there, I found the idea quite appealing too.
We met a couple of her Norwegian friends, and in the evening went to quite a dodgy club night. It was set up for the foreign exchange students, and I think most people were there because it's cheaper than a night out in central Bergen. Selina went to stay with her boyfriend but a couple of her friends looked after me, a Norwegian girl and an English girl, they were both very nice. She'd given me her house key so we went back there and at least got some sleep - about 8 hours which was the most I managed throughout the whole trip. At least I felt more lively when she came back on Saturday.
On Saturday afternoon we had a barbecue with her boyfriend and friends, which was nice. We were lucky that the weather was great all weekend, warmer than it was in Turku last week, and I've since found out that it rained over the weekend. I made a good choice to go away.
In the evening we went out to an Irish pub in the centre of Bergen, lots of Selina's friends, her boyfriend's friends, and friends of friends turned up, so there was a very good atmosphere and there were lots of new people to meet. I found Norwegians to be very nice, sociable people, and as they'd never met me before they were all keen to chat to me. It was a good night and I felt very welcome.
Sunday was a typical Sunday - very lazy. We just watched tv and chatted all day as Selina was hungover and I hadn't slept very much. The good thing about northern countries is that even if you go out quite late, there will still be light for a long time. We didn't leave the house until almost 9pm, but it was still bright enough to do things for a few hours. Selina showed me around the centre a bit more, and we took a tram up one of the mountains! I found the idea a bit mad, but when we got to the top all of Bergen was visible and we watched the sunset. It was amazing, and the view was unbelievable. On the mountain there is also a Norwegian troll, who we cuddled and took photos of. We went back down and got some food, and sadly that was pretty much the end of my trip.
After a few hours sleep I had to be up to get the train back to Oslo at 8am. At least this time it was the day, so I could see the beautiful countryside. Norwegian countryside is absolutely stunning - I saw mountains, fjords and forests, and some places were just breathtaking. What a lovely landscape! Then it was back to the airport, and home to Finland.
It was a shame to leave, but it was also quite nice to be back. I finally understand my mother's mantra that "it's nice to go away but it's nice to come home again." Being in another place where everything is alien to me made me realise how comfortable Finland has become for me. It was nice to see things written in Finnish and to be able to understand again. I got back to Turku at about 10.30 last night, and it was good to get home.
That being said, I'd really love to visit Bergen again. It's a wonderful city that I'd highly recommend, and it was also so lovely to see Selina again. Even before she went to Norway we didn't see each other much just because of circumstances, but we talk almost every day and it was great to actually be with her and spend time together. I'm very glad that I took the trip, I had an awesome weekend, and I hope that at some point I will be able to go back, probably without a day in Oslo. I still love Finland, but Norway was brilliant.