Traveling

music: red hot chili peppers- aeroplane
mood: feeling weird (too much computer, should stop soon!)

I booked a flight from Frankfurt to Helsinki and then to Kuopio and back because it is way cheaper than a one- way ticket. Thought about going with a letonian airline but don't trust them, also heard that Finnair is the most secure airline in the world. I really didn't want my family to accompany me to the airport because I hate crying good-bye scenes (had this before!) but my mom had switched shifts at work so she would be able to go. So we stuffed us together with my suitcase, which took up all the room in our trunk and my 11kg-hand-baggage-bag in the small Ford Fiesta and went for Frankfurt airport. I learned today that a purse is suggested to be part of a woman's body, that's why it's allowed to be taken along with the other hand-baggage. We were really concerned because weather report said that it would start snowing really hard this weekend throughout middle Europe, but luckily it started only saturday, having more than 150 flights from Frankfurt cancelled. Daddy joke: Finnish aeroplanes go with snow chains on their wings. I guess around here nobody would be scared by a little or a little more snow. At the airport, my stomach knotted (love the expression!) with excitment, but I made it through the good-bye scene without crying. I was a little late at the security check, though, which made me totally nervous. Learned that a laptop should always be on top of the bag because electronic devices have to go through the scanner alone. So I had to unpack my whole bag to reach it which made me even more nervous. Almost lost my watch while packing everything again. The plane had some hour of delay and I waited along with many Finnish people (mostly blonde and doing crossword puzzles). At the gate, I overheard I funny conversation of the employees there: "What- everybody is here, who are these people? They don't even have their boarding pass yet, they are lucky that we have delay!" - "What are they even thinking, arriving at the airport 10 minutes before takeoff? We're not in Rovaniemi here!"(Footnote: Rovaniemi has some kind of funpark and is supposed to be the place were Santa Claus lives) The plane was quite small with about 100 seats, I had two places for me (which really helped storing my big bag) right next to the wing so I could watch the de-icing and the movement of all kinds of flaps. I fell asleep almost at once but only for some quarter of an hour. When I woke there was a chicken sandwich lying next to me. I suppose they didn't bother to ask "Ham or cheese"... Stole the plastic fork and knife as I was quite sure there wouldn't be anything like this in my flat. At least, I woke in time for coffee. Somehow, the stewards tried to talk to me in Finnish which really didn't work out too well... There were a lot of clouds so I couldn't see too much but as we approached Helsinki, the sun began to sink and the whole land covered in snow began to glow red... awesome! My first impression of Finland from the air, which I veryfied later, is that there is a lot of room for 5 million people. The towns are really spread out, houses are far apart, there are always small parts of forest and lakes in between even what is supposed to be town area. Or rather the town is embedded in nature. Nice encounter: I could watch a dog running through the garden to greet its owner from above. Planes = big brother? It certainly felt like spying upon something intimate... Helsinki airport is nice, pretty much like every other airport. I went through the duty-free-shop and found out that Finlandia Wodka costs more than 20 € without tax. I think I will stick to Glögli to get drunk or have my parents send me some... Fazers Wodka Filled are 6.30 € but right now I am kind of mad at myself for not taking them because here I didn't find them anywhere so far. I guess I have to go to some alko store (was too proud to give in to my lower instincts like drinking to go there just yet) to look.
Things I saw at Helsinki airport:

1. Moomins store - watched them on TV when I was a child, guess they are pretty popular here
2. Reindeer skin
   
3. Asian people
4. Cosmopolitan in Finnish
5. Business lounge
6. Electronic devices store - Nokia is not the cheapest mobile phone you can get around here!
7. Some small kind of shower thing next to the toilet- wonder what that is for (we have it in our bathroom, too!)
   

I was pretty bored and tired and you couldn't even sit down next to my gate so I basically wandered around keeping me from buying 3€-coke or reindeer skin. The flight to Kuopio was mostly occupied by let's say "business people" who seemed to go home from work. There was free choice of seats which I had never encountered on a plane before. I came to sit by the window next to a Belgian guy (pretty old) who started talking to me only when we were landing but was quite eager to look out of the window past me. Couldn't see anything anyway, it was dark! The flight took about 35 minutes. Kuopio airport is maybe as big as a regular Hessian train station, not even as big as the main station in Frankfurt. One rolling field, we could walk across it to the building, one baggage claim, one taxi stand, one information counter and that's it. It was quite easy to make out my peer tutor Jenna who came to pick me up. She is pretty nice AND has a car! Again, lucky that my stuff wasn't lost like about twenty other suitcases on each flight. She gave me my keys and offered to lend me some sheets. I thought about borrowing some from the housing company but their office is only open on monday and I couldn't have possibly fitted any into my suitcase. We went to see my apartment, which has 4 rooms, two were locked, one was empty and one is mine. The furniture is ok, I have a little reading lamp and this awesome leather armchair which is the most comfortable I ever had and currently sitting in. My matress is really thin and it feels like sleeping on a piece of wood (guess that is true, under the matress is a board, no lath floor). Stole the trash can and an additional blanket from the vacant room. It has two matresses and a carpet so I think we are even now. My next assumption is that the locked rooms are occupied as the kitchen is pretty well- furnished with pots and decorations and everything. I also found a pair of running shoes in a wardrobe or storage-room or whatever it should be called. Nobody appeared so far so there is no certain proof of that. After snuffing through the flat Jenna and I went to her place to get sheets and meet her dog (really cute) and after that we went shopping to this huge super-mega-market Prisma where you can get just about everything. I wanted to buy skates but they were sold out in my size. It took me a while and a lot of Jenna's patience to finish my shopping. I'm quite a random shopper at home and without having anything, nor knowing where everything is, nor knowing about products or prices or any idea what I want it was rather difficult. Afterwards, Jenna got me home (cheers for that!) and left me with my lonely flat. I got to rummage through the internet, unpacking my stuff, cooking pasta with eggs (forgot ketchup, such a shame) and dropping dead into my uncomfortable bed quite at the same time. At least it felt like this as I couldn't really decide on any order to those things so I did it simultaneously. So much for traveling to Finland and my first night here.