13 September 2012 - Settling in

The night was simply freezing! I needed to rub my knees warm once an hour. I hardly slept and I woke up as my phone rang a little after 8 in the morning. Lady from the estates department told me that they’d been expecting us only on Friday. So they did have our keys ready but not yet at the porter’s room. We packed, I carried my bag down to Hanna’s room and then after some breakfast we headed towards the estates department. The hospital is slightly confusing with all the constructions going on.

We got our keys and to my horror I noticed that the rooms were in the flat one floor above my previous room. That meant that I had to carry my 30-kg-luggage back up again and one floor more. We are currently in a flat without a fourth flatmate. We might get one – or we might not. We’ll wait and see. At least we are now housed together.

Below is a picture of my room before I had time to unpack. I bought a duvet and a pillow from Tesco today. I will not have a cold night like the last one ever again! I'll post more photos of our flat on a day when nothing else happens.

Like any self-respecting Finn would do, we got ourselves a draining rack.

In case someone wants to send us snail mail the address is:

~Name~

Block 9, Flat 46, Room 3

Prince Charles Hospital

Gurnos Estate
Merthyr Tydfil
CF47 9DT

Wales, United Kingdom

We were also told at the estates department that the taxis are probably a cheaper way to travel between the hospital and town than the bus. The bus ticket is £1.90 per person. We tested this theory in the evening – after getting our local SIM cards and some shopping. And it turned out to be true. The taxi was £5 from all three of us so we ended up saving about 23p each and some walking and waiting. Not bad since in Finland we pay 8.70€ just to sit inside the taxi.

My new number is +44 (0) 77 6592 0469 but I’ll probably get a new one in a couple of days since I can’t text or call overseas. As I’m a foreigner, it’s slightly complicated. But I’ll inform you of the number change.

The evening was spent watching and listening to Justimusfilms production, unpacking the bags and then cleaning and scrubbing the flat. The oven was disgusting! We have no idea how people have been able to make anything with it. It smelled like burnt food. All in all, the conditions of these flats are not quite within the Finnish standards but I think we can make it feel like home in three months. Susanna and Hanna even bought some plants. And Hanna found a painting in our cloaks closet. I think it’s pretty hideous but she put it up on her wall. Oh well, as long as it stays in her room. Susanna found a watch and a pencil case in her room while cleaning. I got the watch. It’s plastic and therefore I can wipe it clean and use it at work. We still need to figure out what we’ll do with the pencil case…

The painting. I'm certain it's haunted...

Hanna and I have heaters in our rooms. I’m hoping that Susanna won’t freeze tonight. I told her to come and steal my heater or my blanket at some point during the night if she can’t sleep. She promised to do so if necessary. When it gets colder we have agreed to move the beds from one room to another so at least two people will be sharing a room and a heater. The stone walls are already radiating the coldness.

Tomorrow I can hopefully sleep a little later than 8am…

This is Susanna being introduced to Jorma, Reino and Fabio for the very first time.

And below is the video she was watching. The name “Rantaleijona” literally translates to “Beach lion” but basically means "Adonis".

Since Hanna forbid me to use the video of her demonstration of "Heiluvat kassit" (="Wobbly balls") you just have to settle with the original video (and get back to me on the Hanna version later):

UPDATE: Hanna gave her permission to post these videos here after all so do enjoy! :)