After flying from New York to Helsinki overnight on Wednesday, spending five hours in the Helsinki airport and then taking a short flight north, we have arrived in our new home in Jyvaskyla, Finland! We've only been here for twenty-four hours but have already done so much!
Tea and Talia were total troopers for the trip overseas. They each were tasked with carrying their own backpacks and dragging their own rolling suitcases, which held all their travel toys and games and a few changes of clothes...and of course Meow and Stripey (her two favorite stuffed cats) for Talia. They did an excellent job following our directions and helping us at the airport. We were very thankful they were so cooperative for all of this. Everyone got a little bit of rest on the plane except Tea. The draw of the television screen and mommy and daddy not limiting her to just one twenty-two minute show was too exciting for her. She watched three movies in a row - I think it might have been better than Christmas for her! We arrived in Helsinki and found the airport to be extremely quiet. There was amazingly no line at passport security and we breezed right on through, but unfortunately didn't get a stamp on our passports. After wandering the airport, looking for something recognizable to eat and relaxing for a bit, we took our short flight to Jyvaskyla. My mentor, Olli, from the Niilo Maki Institute picked us up and took us back to our house and we began to settle in for the night.
Adam braved the cold and the new setting and went out in search of food. He found a tiny grocery store and brought us home some pasta and marinara sauce along with two containers of yogurt and some bread and butter. Then we ran into our first major roadblock of the trip. We simply couldn't get the top burners on the stove to light up. Adam and I tried in vain and turned every knob in every direction, but eventually had to give in to our two whining daughters and we fed them toast for dinner. We offered them yogurt, but it "tasted different" than what they are used to so they declined. So, off they went to bed with just toast for dinner. I was not going to let the stove beat me on my first night in Finland (and I was not going to bed with just toast for dinner), so I turned to the most obvious solution: Facebook. I posted a picture of the stove and a cry for help to boil some water and had people chime in from all over the world. I think my pot of water became the most watched pot for a little while - it had its very own fifteen minutes of fame! As I tried the various suggestions I was able to finally figure out how to use the child lock on the darn stove, not use the knob on the left and just turn on the burners to boil the water and make my pasta! Success!! Of course along with the helpful comments there was no shortage of sarcasm from those who know that I rarely (ok, never) cook anything...so thanks for that, too! I'm sure many people were entertained by reading through the posts but the most important thing was that I ate! It was the most tasty bowl of pasta ever...and was served as breakfast to my children.
Today we knew we couldn't stay in all day and had to accomplish some initial tasks, so after spending quite some time trying to figure out which bus to take to the city center we put on our snow boots, layered with our long johns, zipped up our coats, pulled on our hats and gloves and trudged off to the bus stop. We hopped aboard and made it into the city.
Let me just say, it is REALLY cold here. Most people's first comment when they heard we were moving to Finland was about how cold it would be and I usually laughed and said that if I could survive nine Skiff Mountain winters in Kent, CT I would be ok in Jyvaskyla. Well, we just happened to arrive during the record breaking colds Finland is experiencing. Here's a picture of the thermometer outside our kitchen window.
Yes, -23 degrees Celcius was the reading this morning around 11:00AM. For those of us needing the translation into Fahrenheit that's a whopping -9.4 degrees. Despite the absolutely frigid weather, we were able to register with the Ministry, find our way to the library to get library cards and buy some more groceries while we were downtown. We made it home, conquered the oven and had pizza for dinner and now everyone is in for the night. It's been a busy two days, but so far it's all been amazing!
Here's some of my initial thoughts and observations I've made since arriving:
- While it is true almost everyone speaks English, almost none of the signs anywhere are in English. While walking downtown and in and out of stores and streets, we noticed almost no writing in English. We went to the main library branch today and all the signs are in Finnish with no translation. This led to me returning a book to the library that I meant to check out. I noticed an area that clearly had a scanner and printer for receipts so I foolishly thought this might be the self check-out. Once I put Tea's copy of Invisible Stanley down, the conveyor belt started moving and took the book away and printed the receipt to indicate the book had been returned. Oops! I saw another area with scanners and found that THAT was the correct place to check out books. So we only came home with Pippi Longstocking. Invisible Stanley will have to wait for another day! Similarly, all the food is labeled only in Finnish, or Finnish and Swedish. We are going by pictures and hunches to get and cook the food we need but seem to be doing ok so far. I am definitely looking forward to learning a little more Finnish over the next six months!
- There is an amazing system for drying plates. Their plate cabinets are right above the kitchen sink with just wire bottoms. The plates get stacked sideways and the water just drips right back into the sink. No drain board needed! Why do we always put the kitchen sink under the kitchen window in the United States? Genius design here!
- Our home has a sauna! Of course this is nothing unusual in Finland and some of my Finnish Fulbright friends have already tried theirs out and we will be making that effort this weekend. We are looking forward to finding another way to warm up.
- The grocery store charges money to buy plastic bags if you don't have your own. I love this! Adam and I had our book bags and figured we would put our goods in those bags, but bought more than we could fit. We looked around for bags and asked the cashier if there were any and he indicated the bags but then said they would cost 20 cents ($.22) each. We had no problem paying the 20 cents for one bag this time, but will certainly bring more reusable bags next time we shop. I know the US has considered this measure and perhaps some stores do it, but I thought twenty cents was a pretty high price and a great way to encourage greener living. Also, when we throw things away we sort them into "bio-waste" and regular garbage and recycling. Bio-waste is all the food remains that will quickly break down. It goes in a separate container and is processed differently. Another "green" initiative here in Finland. This all makes so much sense. Also interesting is that the garbage collection doesn't happen regularly. Olli explained last night that we just put the garbage out and it will get picked up eventually - not on a specific day or date...just when the trucks come.
We plan to bring the girls to check out their new school on Monday and they will either start that day or the following day. I hope to start my first day of work, whatever that will mean, on Wednesday. This has been an amazing adventure so far and I am feeling ready to get out and see even more. I don't have any amazing deep thoughts that I want to write about now, but I promise my blog will get more insightful once I start doing some school visits. Right now we are working on surviving and thriving. Thanks for following along on our journey. We are safe and happy (and warm when inside)!