While summer was quite rainy this year, autum started out at its best and most beautiful.

Von september 2008

Von september 2008

Von september 2008

At the beginning of the month I started a sort of "getting to know the place"-internship at the local hospitals adult neurology unit. There's an acute as well as a rehabilition ward; a neuro and a memory polyclinic. Besides doctors, nurses and psychologists, there's physiotherapists, occupational therapists, a speech therapist, social workers,...
Although it's (as I expected) quite hard to re-adjust from 2 months of being at home to 8 hour workdays, I'm quite excited. So far I have been spending a lot of time getting to know the place and the workers; getting an idea of what kind of patients there is, getting familiar with the "paperwork" that goes along with the job,...
The workers there have received me "with open arms". Basically everyone has been offering to tell about the kind of work they do. They also let me know not to be shy and ask questions as they come up.
Especially my direct colleagues have been taking a lot of time for me; discussing cases with me; answering questions, letting me watch in on their work if possible,...

Besides that, I have bravely signed up for 3 classes at the community college. The first one started on Tuesday; a combination of aerobics, muscle build-up and stretching for "the elderly, overweight and those who sit in front of the desk a lot". As I expected, I'm the youngest of the group. Besides me there's maybe 2 women under 60 years, but let me tell you, those "grannies" are in good shape! So far I like the class, since the teacher shows alternative exercises for those who have for example knee or back problems that keep them from doing certain exercises.
The massage techniques- class started on Thursday. It also seems to be quite good. The only problem is, that we're 11 people in the class and we practice usually in pairs. That means, there's always a group of 3 who has less time for practicing... and enjoying...
The sign language class doesn't start until the beginning of October. That's a good thing, since it's right after the massage class. Hopefully my hands can handle that...

During my 2 months at home my neighbor and I started a routine of going for walks with Seita together in the afternoons. So far, we've been managing to keep that up. I find it, a bit to my own surprise, very refreshing to go walking right after coming home, even though at that moment I feel more like sitting down and not taking another step outside.
And when I have the classes after work, my neighbor takes out Seita for me. I'm lucky.

After my trip to Germany last December, I hadn't seen any of my friends or family. It was one of those strange years - things just kept happening and changing plans.
But in the end of August, one of my best friends came to see me for a long weekend. She arrived on Thursday evening (almost didn't make the train in time; I had told her the wrong train station in Helsinki... Oops!) and stayed till Tuesday morning.
And even though the man was moving to a new apartment on the same weekend, we managed to have ourselves a good and relaxed time.
We spent hours walking through town or in the forest with Seita; had a barbeque on an island in the river (with the REAL thuringian sausages! ;p) and of course went to Bingo on Saturday. Where our "Bingo-granny" surprised everyone by announcing the numbers in German as well as in Finnish.

Von august 2008

Of course, we had lots of good food. Salmon with vegetable rice, a raclette evening,...
Sunday was the moving day. My friend spent the day with Tapsa and Seita. We walked to town together, where we met Tapsa, then I went to help moving. I was at the man's old place at about 12.30 and back home around 18.30. Everything went quite well, but I had a huge allergy attack in the evening. ;p Must have been rather funny looking.

Tuesday morning, very early, my friend left (and we found out that it costs an extra 6€ to order a cab for a certain time... On top of the nightfare the 6km ride to the train station cost 23€...!) and I went back to sleep for another 2 hours before starting my career at midday. ;D

For almost a year I was translating and explaining papers concerning my studies; trying to find explanations, what exactly my title means that no-one here has ever heard of; and was hoping that there would be some way around the 300,-€ expensive "Terveydenhuollon Oikeusturvakeskus" (National Authority for Medicolegal Affairs). Well, there wasn't, so I ended up sending half a kilo of papers to Helsinki to get them checked. And last Monday, after only 3 months of waiting, I finally got the answer: I'm now officially allowed to work in Finland, in my own profession!!!!

In the spring of last year me and Tapsa got ourselves new cellphones along with 2 year-contracts. From ELISA, one of Finlands biggest telecommunication companies. Unlike in Germany, where the phone itself is basically free with such a contract, in Finland the phones full prize is payed in monthly rates as part of the phonebill. 10,-€ in my case.

My contract was in Tapsa's name; as a foreigner I hadn't lived in Finland long enough to get my own contract.

Then Tapsa and I split up. Phone still in Tapsa's name, I still hadn't lived here for more than 2 years - so the bills continued coming to Tapsa's address. No problem, we thought, they come early enough and with enough time in between, that they'll find their way to me in time.

But unfortunately ELISA had started using a new billing system in summer. Being busy sorting out our lives, we didn't really notice that there wasn't cellphone bills coming for about half a year. well, of course we got internet and home phone bills - everything seperately - otherwise we might have noticed even then.

The bills that hadn't come in summer started coming in December, I think- about once per week, deadline immediately. Until I got them, there was usually already a second and third one. Well, I made sure to pay them all, though it was sometimes hard to find the money.

On January 21 tapsa and I went to a local ELISA shop trying to get the contract in my name. we explained the situation and the woman said, no problem. But then the computer didn't work, she took all the information down and promised to take care of things and send us the neew contracts.

The next 2 bills still went to Tapsa's, nor did we ever receive contracts. In the end of February Tapsa went to the store himself. After that, the bills came to my address - with Tapsa's name on them.

So on 14th of March we went to ELISA together. And surprise - the computer worked and we left with new contracts IN MY NAME. Cost only about 7,-€, which nobody ever told us. Oh well, as long as it works.

YEAH right.

Shortly afterwards Tapsa got a huge bill. At first we didn't understand at all, what it was, but turned out, it was all the remaining monthly rates for the phone at once. So again we went to the store to ask, what had happened. There we got to hear, that they can't help us with that. We'd have to call the customer service - preferably immediately after 9 a.m., because then we might get through in less than 2 hours. But of course, both of us were at work then.

Good thing, that a friend is working at the customer service and wanted to help. She got us a new contract, though still in Tapsa's name (for some reason it's impossible to get that into my name). So basically, I got to pay my 10,-€ per month again, just not along with the phonebill anymore. Or something like that.

Along with the contract came a list with the reference numbers for all the monthly payments. I payed the first bill 4 days ahead of the deadline - and got a message from the friend the next day: Don't pay, the reference numbers are wrong.
Well, too late. I had payed, it wasn't my mistake and I wasn't willing to pay again.

The new list arrived in time for the next rate, which I duely payed. And 3 weeks after that, Tapsa gets another letter along with another list, saying: the reference numbers were wrong again, wait for the new list.

The numbers on the list in the letter were the same as on the former one, so I didn't dare use them and waited for the new list, which never came. So the last rate of 10,-€ was overdue (2 weeks).

And Tapsa got a letter from one of those companies who collect outstanding money for other companies. Funny enough, the amount there was the original amount, including the rates I had already payed.

So we decided to try calling ELISA again. After waiting for only about half an hour, we even got through. The customer service woman was soon as confused as we were. Evidentially, there was tons of contradictory information in the computer. In the end, after about another 30 min, she said she'd sort it out and call back the next day.

Now it looks like I'll get to pay my monthly rates again, though the contract is still in Tapsa's name. They also said they'll take care of the collecting firm... Let's see.

is over even in Finland and so is a great, though exhausting spring. Today is the first day of my summer vacation. Lots has happened:
My internship was a great experience. I learned lots - for example (most surprising) that I like working with kids- and my finnish language got a huge boost. Somewhere along the way I quit the cleaning job. After that I was only 5 to 6 days a week at work, and that proved to be more than enough. I had been in the internship for 3 months when I got hired to write the testphase report (in finnish!) of a project I had already earlier (as part of the internship) been working in. The job was at the local university's continuing education center - exactly where my language courses had been - and was supposed to last about a month. In the end I got a new contract for another 3 weeks, which ends on Monday. Inbetween I was back in the internship for 1 week, taking part in a course for autism- and Asperger patients and their families. Besides all that, my last wisdom tooth was removed (in a surprisingly short time with surprisingly few problems afterwards and a shockingly huge bill for one who's used to free dental care). And about 3 months ago I sent about half a kilo of papers to Helsinki, hoping they will explain enough top convince officials that I'm well enough trained to go to work... So far the decision hasn't come (why should they hurry, it only costs 300€) and I'm starting to get a bit frustrated - I can't apply before I have it.
And now I have two days 'real' (as in 'payed') vacation, then I'll be unemployed. With a bit of luck I'll start another internship at the hospital in August, with even more luck, the letter with the decision arrives soon. In any case I gotta start thinking about where to apply to, get my CV updated and some applications written, so I can send them immediately when I'm finally hopefully allowed to.
Of course, most of all, I'll enjoy my free time with the man and Seita. Depending on the weather and how fast Seita gets used to walking next to a bicycle, we might even go for a short cycling trip.

After almost a year and a half of experiencing free weekends, I'm finally back to my (almost ) 7 day-work-week. And I like it quite a bit, though it's a little bit tiring. ;-)
I made it into the course that I had the interview for, and started an internship basically right away. I was a bit worried about how it would go, with the language and everything, but after almost 2 weeks there I have to say it's great. Very many different and soooo interesting things; I think I'll learn a lot. About myself, as well. In theory I spend 3 days per week there, 1 day at university and 1 day in my course. But since I also have the chance to go to schoolings, take part in groups and because I make my own schedule according to when & where there is something to do for me, those times overlap quite a lot.
And while it seems that work-related things are developing quite nicely, I'm also doing rather well in my personal life.

...winter seems to be coming. Finally! The weekend was rather coldish, around -15°C. And plain beautiful. Even though there's barely any snow, everything was frozen white. In combination with a (clear) blue sky and the sun- bummer!





Riding the bicycle ain't as easy anymore with those temperatures, I noticed. ;p But at least there's a great lot of fun in it for the old people at work- they were teasing about my red face all day long... Poor me. ;-)

Well, it's not quite that cold anymore, but we did get a bit of snow. Seita was very excited about that- she was jumping like a kangaroo, so in the end, I guess we both had a blast.





Other than that, I'm enjoying my more or less free days. Yesterday I had an interview for the next course that I applied for, which basically consists of job application training and internship(s). My online course in finnish language also started and I still have plenty of books and papers to read. It's nice, just the right mix of free time and something to do.

Being in Germany was fun- and stress. Getting home was good- and stressful... ;p I got to Joensuu at 9 p.m. on Sunday, and had to be at work at 9 a.m. on Monday. Good thing that I got to sleep at Virve and Keijo's again. The morning brought a nice surprise- there was two of us cleaning! And suddenly we had sooo much time. Straight from work I walked to Tapsa's to pick up Seita. Nice enough, Hanna, Niko and Hiisi were also there, so we actually got to spend some time together before they drove back to Helsinki in the afternoon. Together with Hanna and Hiisi we then went to the dog park, where we also met Virve and Niila. There was plenty of dogs there for a change, so they actually ran a lot.



Then Virve and I took my bags to my place, picked up cooking stuff, went shopping and back to Virve and Keijo's to start making the food. We made sushi and a salmon roll with cream cheese inside, cut tons of vegetables, had cheesecubes and pickles,... Schneemaennchen brought her awesome noodle salad- well, there was enough food.
The evening was great- just a few friends and our dogs, relaxed and fun.







At midnight we watched the fireworks from the big bridge. And suddenly it was already (not so) early in the morning and bit by bit we flaked...





About 3 hours later I got to go to work- fully awake of course, without breakfast and morning coffee... I managed surprisingly well, and for the first time even got done and had time left. Back at the apartment I finally got COFFEE. And food. And got shocked by Keijo, who's definitly the only human I know who can handle doing the dishes before breakfast.



And then I got a ride home home. ..
Today I already had an appointment at the employment office, then met with Irina for coffee. Because the weather was great- finally a bit colder (-8) and sunny- I walked home. Then I did lots of organisational stuff and now my REAL vacation can start. ;p If only a day or 2... Tomorrow I'll go for a looooooong walk with Seita.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!