What a beginning...

It’s my first day/second night here in Finland and let me tell you, it was an emotional roller coaster.

It was exciting and somewhat terrifying during my flight from Montreal to London. I wasn’t able to sleep on the plane so I was already dead tired when I arrived in London. Once I arrived to London, at that point, I just wanted to get to Helsinki ASAP. I had to pass through security again, they took nearly everything out of my bag to find out that I had left my hand cream in there. I put everything in my bag except my computer charger. Heathrow airport is huge so they display it on screens  on the gate of your flight within the hour the gate itself closes.

My gate closes at 11:00. It wasn’t until 10:20 that I realized that I had forgotten my charger while looking for my wallet. So I ran back all the way to security to look for it. Needless to say, I ran around like a madwoman for a while because the staff was anything but useful. Until one lady actually decided to look for it with me, it took 2 mins. And then I ran to my gate, which was placed in a random place so I had to ask around for help. I got there with 15 mins to spare. Ouff. I was tired, hungry, parched  and sweaty- It was now 8 degrees in London.

Finally, when I got to Helsinki more fuckeries happened but I’ll spare you the details.

What was good about the trip was that I met up with other international students and my roommates seem to be very supportive- probably due to the state I was in. They’re super nice.

The following day, I got lost a few times in my own suburb because I arrived at night so it was hard for me to visualize where my apartment was located. Luckily, the people there were nice enough to show me the way, I had to use some occasional sign language but oh well.

Now what was really interesting/traumatizing/creepy/etc. is what happened while I was waiting for my student tutor at the market place today.

I was waiting and there was this middle-aged man that walked up to me. This is pretty much how it went:

Man:leuraskfasdlkafashrfwhefsadlfah asiduasrawesldifjas eoifdjfnas

Me:… uhh No?... English?

(Idem X 3)

Man: (shows his hand)

Me: (thinking: is he asking for money?) No.

Man: shows hand again.

Me: (Puts my hand on his.)

Man: (Holds my hand, kisses it and puts leans his head on it).

Me: (WTF?!?!)

Man: (Gives me a hug)

Me: (omg how the fuck do I get out of this? I can’t just runaway…)

Man: (doing some gestures requiring me and sleep).

Me: (thinking: is he saying that I need sleep?) Yes.

Man: (doing the same gestures again)

Me: (is he suggesting that I sleep at his place??!?!! OMG) No.

(Idem)

Man: (takes my hand kisses it, and leans on it again).

After that he left me alone. He went to bug some other lady and she rejected him coldly. He left her alone. Maybe I should’ve done that. I was smiling and being polite the whole time. I should’ve been a bitch. I told this to my tutor when we met up and he laughed and said it was interesting. Finns are normally shy and reserved… Now I think that there’s two reasons this might have happened. Mind you, this happened at 2:20-30 pm:

1.         This guy was excessively drunk.
2.       He thought I was a prostitute.

It was creepy as hell, but harmless. Kinda traumatizing, actually. I was at the marketplace, the downtown of Turku, so there many people around. I don’t think he would’ve attempted anything…

On another note, Turku is colder than I thought, even if there’s no snow yet. My experience here should get better. Needless to say, it feels kinda lonely here and I miss everyone back home. I’m experiencing culture shock. This ain’t no joke.

Let’s see what the next few days have in store for me.

Kippis