Our first few days

We’re here, we made it, it’s absolutely beautiful, and we’re so jetlagged it’s hard to imagine. Yesterday was a holiday (the Epiphany) and nearly everything was closed, so we couldn’t get much done, but we moved into our apartment, got everything unpacked, went for a quick walk downtown to pick up some essentials, and continued to catch up on our sleep. We won’t have an internet connection for at least another day until all our forms are processed, but we thought we’d log an account of our travels thus far and catch y’all up on how we’re doing. The trip overall went really smoothly, but for your amusement, we’ll be focusing in on the little bumps along the way.

We were barely two minutes onto Finnish soil when we committed our first Finnish faux pas, though admittedly we may have been – well, specifically, Jaime was - breaking rules. After the plane had touched down, people began standing up, stretching, and gathering their belongings, though the “fasten seat belt” light hadn’t exactly been turned off yet. At Elizabeth’s provocation, Jaime prematurely slipped out of her seat to reach the overhead compartment containing our shoes. As she swiftly rummaged through the compartment, a flight attendant stalked up, pursed lips and drawn brow saying it all. Unfortunately, Jaime was not facing the flight attendant, and was definitely a bit startled when she heard a sharp voice behind her bark, “You sit in seat NOW.” Incidentally, not being the most experienced international traveler, Jaime may have forgotten the cardinal rule that “items in overhead compartment may have shifted during flight.” With Elizabeth snarkily giggling nearby, seat belt still fastened, Jaime obediently listened and slipped back into her own seat, but not before the overheard compartment managed to deposit a bag smack into the arms of the flight attendant. Oops…

After leaving the Helsinki Airport and successfully catching the bus to Tikkurila Train Station, we purchased tickets to Jyväskylä via Tampere. Unfortunately, Finnish train tickets are less than comprehensible to your average non-Finnish speaking American, and we stood for five minutes trying to figure out which platform our train was leaving from. Finally, we decided on the train marked “Oulu Tampere,” and boarded. It turned out to be the right train, but our difficulties were not yet over. Finnish trains, much like planes, offer overhead areas to store one’s luggage. That is, luggage that is significantly smaller than 90 pounds. Not confident in our abilities to hoist 45 pounds above our heads four times, nor the ability of the luggage to actually fit in the compartments, we elected to store our bags in the two seats across from us. Little did we know that Finnish train seats are assigned, and our errant luggage was commandeering the seats of two elderly Finnish ladies. When they boarded at the next stop, they expressed their displeasure in rapid Finnish conversation featuring words such as “Americans” and “(something)sakki” (sacks – bags – luggage), and nasty looks in our direction. While Jaime smiled innocently at them, Elizabeth intensely contemplated the scenery out the window. In retrospect, we could not have looked more guilty. Regardless, the scenery out the window was beautiful, with expansive boreal forests and quaint little houses dusted with ice and snow.

When we finally arrived at Jyväskylä Train Station, we hauled our luggage inside and chose a table at which to scan the station for our Finnish tutor, whom we believed would be meeting us there to give us the keys to our apartment. Though Jaime had bought and activated a “global phone” from Verizon so we could contact our tutor, the phone declared itself functional for “Emergency Use Only,” and would not allow us to place any calls out. There was also no available wireless. We waited for about 40 minutes, eyeing down every Finnish college-age girl who walked into the building, but with no luck; we therefore decided to see if any particularly generous English-speaking Finns would be willing to lend us a cell phone to make a quick local call. Jaime first asked the middle-aged couple at the table beside us, and after a little halting English and lots of rapid Finnish, they directed her to the Hesburger, a local fast food chain. There, she tried again with a group of four girls about our age. This time, one replied with a crisp but lilting, “yes, I do speak English.” After explaining the situation to her, Jaime waited while the girl stared her down for a moment. Her eventual reply: “Yes… I do have mobile phone… but I not give to you!” Ouch. She did, however, point Jaime to the counter where a friendly Finnish guy lent her his phone, though the phone number didn’t work. Cold, it being -2 degrees and snowing outside, hungry, with no food since that morning at 7, and tired from only a scattered hour or two of sleep on the plane, we retreated to a nearby hotel and, after successfully contacting our tutor and making new plans over Skype, passed out.

A solid 17 hours of sleep later, we made our way downstairs to find breakfast. We were a little nervous at first, expecting minor atrocities such as whole fish and raw potatoes. Ok, that’s not really true, but we didn’t know what to expect. We were pleasantly surprised to discover eggs, barley oatmeal, bacon, pastries and fresh fruit. There were also some more odd choices including lettuce, tomatoes and lunch meats and cheeses. We thought our breakfast was going splendidly, having not eaten a real meal in the last 24 hours (breakfast on the airplane) until Elizabeth tried her scrambled eggs only to discover that they lacked a little bit of flavoring. Reaching for the single shaker on the table she then questioned where the pepper was, only to look around the room and notice the solitary salt shaker at every table. Resigned to her pepperless fate, a single tear glistened in the corner of her eye as she abandoned the eggs for granola, yogurt and fruit.