Whew! Well I am now in Finland and working at Suvimaki. Thank goodness! The trip here was not one of my best...the worst part was the flight between NYC and Amsterdam. The woman in front of me put her seat back righ after take off and did not return it to its upright position until we were about to land 7 HOURS later!! I tried to put my own seat back down to give me more space but it wouldn't move! Needless to say I was happy when I switched planes in Amsterdam! The train ride from Helsinki to Jyvaskla was fabulous though-I had more leg room then I knew what to do with:)
Kati was there at the train station to pick me and take me to my new digs. The apartment is on University Road (translation from the Finnish) and is about a mile from the clubhouse. It has the worlds tiniest elevator, but the apartment itself is beautiful. There are big bay windows in each of the main rooms and a decent sized balcony overlooking the town and the lake below. It is very well situated! I am so excited to live alone, although I know I will get lonely sometimes. After Kati and I put my things down, she and I walked into the center of the town where we were going to meet Anna Maria and Ulla from Suvimaki. I have met both before when they came to NYC for training and it was really good to catch up with them. We were all very tired from our various activities the day before so we ate and then departed ways.
Kati was going to come in the afternoon to drop off the bike she was loaning me while I am here and I planned to do a little bit of exploring of the town after. I was also planning on getting up early but of course (and for those of you who know me well should already guess), waking up sooner then I absolutely have to is difficult indeed. In fact, I woke up just in time to only have time to go to the grocery store down the block. My first trip to the grocery store was not so bad as I would have thought the day before. I made a decision to only buy things that I knew I could make without looking at directions (as they were in either Finnish or Swedish). Pasta and frozen pizzas in hand, I made it through the check out lane and was almost home free when I realized that I didn't get a bag to put my groceries in (something I had not thought of until that moment). In Europe, you have to either bring grocery bags from home or buy them at the store. I don't know if the check out girl had thought I was a Finn until that moment (probably not) but my cover was definitely blown when I asked for a bag in English. D'oh!
I spent the rest of the day riding around the main lake (there are two large lakes and many smaller ones within the city limits) and getting to know the city. I was starting to get nervous about the coming day. I knew at that moment that I had underestimated the need to know more then just the basic Finnish before coming here and I was afraid everyone at Suvimaki was going to hate me because I was an arrogant American who demanded everyone to speak my language. Not a good way to start the next two months!!
But alas! All the worry was for not...everyone here is certainly at different levels of English proficiency but everyone is trying and the fact that I am trying to learn Finnish has endeared me to them. The spirit is the same as Fountain House and the atmosphere is so relaxed and friendly that I have not felt so anxious or uncomfortable as I did the first few minutes of Monday morning. These last three days have felt like one big whirlwind, what with all the people I am meeting and the town I am getting to know and of course, learning the language. But I feel so fortunate that I have been given this opportunity and so I am going to mik it for all that its worth;)