In Finland already

Hey everyone, I'm blogging from Helsinki, Stadion Hostel. Just had hell of a day but the problem is I only have 26 minutes as of NOW (typing this line) of internet access. It's paid access ( E2 for 20 minutes WTH!) and I don't wanna waste money.

Frm the airport we took a bus to nearby our hostel and then walked to the hostel. At first it seemed damn near, but when you are freezing your ass of in sub zero temperatures and dragging a huge piece of luggage, you just wanna take a cab to the hostel. But we perservered and now Zhengmin, Weiling and I have something we call the ´Walk of our lives´. HAHA!

All is well, we booked in and at first thought we shared the room between the 3 of us. Unfortunately, it wasn't so and we were sharing the room with a few others. A couple was occupying one bed together haha =P Then after throwing all the luggage in the room and storing the more important ones in a locker, we left for the city centre, preparing to start the journey in Finland.

Well in the day, the cold is still bearable. We took tram 3B to the city centre and shopped around in the city centre and went to various shopping malls such as Stockmann, Forum ,Sokos, Zara. Of all of them, only Zara appealed to me cos of the good and cheap prices. The clothing there was fantastic too. Might buy some clothes over there to blend in with the local crowd, since our clothing made us look like some TKKs walking around in Singapore. One thing that struck me was that in general, Finns are very hospitable. Many extended their help in giving us directions, and that of course left us very grateful. 'Thank you' in Finnish is 'Kittos'. Many thank yous were exchanged today. Hee =)

Me at Stockmann.

Thereafter, we took tram 7A back to the hostel and went to unload some stuff. After eating some food we bought from the S'market (a local supermarket), we went back to our dorm to rest a while (er like 20 mins before ZM wanted to go to a club to drink. But then his attention was caught by some people entering a building next to our hostel. So we went to explore. By then, it was around 7pm in Helsinki. We decided to dress down. And that was the biggest mistake I committed since I entered Finland. I was so freaking cold that I was forced to walk back to the hostel to get on one more shirt. Dammit the nights are damn chilly man. And the winds are unbearable. I can´t describe further except to say that my whole face went numb, especially the ears and nose. So next time, MUST buy ear muffs and a beanie that can cover your face from the wind. My beanie was good =) But no ear muffs. (Never mind Zara is nearby HAHA!)

I didn´t get to set up my bank account today cos I forgot to bring along my letter of admission to the Oulu Uni. So those coming over pls dun forget (OK I am a dork. Remembered everything except that.)

So all´s well now. Hope to blog in a better environment on MY laptop. The keyboard I am using sucks. I miss sunny Singapore already.

In the Stadion Hostel. Pretty comfy eh?

one more week to Finland

It's one more week left to Finland and I am partly excited, partly frustrated (with packing and other stuff), partly sad to leave my family and friends in Singapore.

Got my packing list, but somehow there's a nagging feeling that I left something out.
Now will need to come up with another list to pack all that shiet into the hand carry luggage (for essentials) and the check in luggage (and non-essentials).

Then I will need to think about how to occupy my time in Finland for the first few days. Heard winter is very boring cos I will need to stay indoors (of course lah, I can't EVEN tolerate 16 deg airconditioning.) So I will need some DVDs and some VCDs to occupy my time =S.

And songs too! My library of > 700 songs will keep me sane in Finland.

Yliopistokatu 16 as 103
FI-90570 Oulu

So anyone who wants to stalk me or get me a New Year present can so haha!

Finland, I'll be coming soon =)