Hyvä matkustaja...

Heippa hei tytöt ja pojat, :)

here my first blog post from Tampere City.

I had a very smooth trip two days ago and everything went very well. The aircraft was quite small and actually there were only 15-20 people inside... quite empty and a lot of room for me. :)

In Helsinki I had problems to find the platform where the express bus leaves so I asked a Finnish woman. It was pure luck since she orginally comes from Finland but currently living in Frankfurt so she spoke German very well. She helped my by asking a bus driver in Finnish where the bus goes to Tampere and some minutes later the bus came. The trip took approx. 2,5 hours and then I finally arrived. Then Karolina (the substitute of my tutor Emil, who wasn't in Tampere at this time) picked me up with the school car (Yes, the TAMK has own cars!) and drove me and another girl from Latvia to Lukonmäki. I got my keys and the survival kit (a box that includes bed linen, dishes and so on) then we went to a super market nearby to buy basic stuff. The prices are quite high since a bottle of water for example costs around 2,30 Euros. As you probably know in Germany you can buy it for 20 Cents.

During my trip the most common Finnish words in plane and bus were "Hyvä matkustaja" - Dear passengers... And then they told something about arrival times, security instructions and so on. Some things I understood even though they talked quite fast. :)

After my arrival I called Sonja, another German girl that I met on StudiVZ, and we went together with a third German girl (Annika) to Keskustori. (Translated: Central Market). There we met two Spanish girls - Ciés and Bea. We talked a bit and after that we went home because we all where incredibly tired. Poor Ciés didn't have her luggage these days since it was still in Madrid. So she had no clothes and no bed linen the first night. Fortunately today she got it. :)

Yesterday I picked up Sonja at the UTA (University of Tampere) where she attends the Erasmus Intensive Learning Course (EILC) - a Finnish course for exchange students. Then we went to R-Kioski, a small shop very you can buy drinks, magazines and the most important: phone cards. I bought it and the operator is called Saunalahti. I've already mailed you my new phone number. The German one is still valid but I won't use it here. So just use the Finnish one please. :)

After that we went to Keskustori again where we picked up Ciés and Bea and went to an office where we bought a month ticket. It costs 30 Euros for people under 25. Lucky me I'm still 24. :D It was quite funny since it's been like in a job centre. You have to draw a number and wait until the number is shown on the display. In Finland this is very common.

After that me and Sonja went to IKEA to buy different stuff, e. g. curtains, a sheet, a broom, scented candles (of course :P) and some other things. Fortunately I can use my Sparkassen-Card to pay here. We had lots of fun there even though this IKEA was in the middle of nowhere at the end station of the bus line 3.

Going by bus in Finland is a real adventure. There's nobody who tells you at which station you're and there's also no display that shows it. So you have to look carefully when you have to get out, otherwise you'll be somewhere else. :D Another important thing is that you have to wave your hand when you wait at the bus station. If you don't do that the bus won't stop and you have to wait another half an hour for the next one. The busses here in Lukonmäki, where I live, go every 20 or 30 minutes, depending on the time. The strange thing is that if you go by bus at night you have to pay another 2,50 € even though you do have a month ticket. It's a night fee between 0 and 4 o clock. So either you have to party all night long or you go home early. During the weeks the last bus leaves at 23:30 and the first one at 4 o clock. At the weekend the busses leave every hour all night long.

On my first day my flat was empty so I had some time for my own. Yesterday a french girl arrived and she seems to be very nice. Let's see when the other girls will arrive. The flat is quite okay. My view out of the window is great... There are only trees and nobody can look into my window. Yaay! I've already decorated a bit but still have to do lots of things. I'll take photos as soon as I've finished it. :)

Today I'll meet a girl from Greece to go down town to buy some stuff and I also want to go to LIDL with Sonja... and hopefully tonight we will finally have our first drink. Day 3 in Finland and I haven't been to any pub yet.

That's it so far. School starts on Monday and I don't know much what will happen there excluding time and room. :)

The exchange started...

Moikka,

Sylvi