Third day at work

Rather bad weather so far. Mostly we get this light rain which keeps everything wet, a constant annoyance. They're promising better for next Friday though and I'm hoping it'll keep to Saturday, when I should be going on my first parkour.

I'm already rather comfortale with all my work mates and it seems I've also reached the pace I'll be keeping all summer. That means I can finally begin planning how to use my free time in a blog-worthy manner.

Out.

First day at work

First day at work. Started very nicely, with perfect weather. After lunch however we got a bit of rain; hail even. We went back for raincoats, and by the time we were done it was so late we might aswell go home.
Seems to be a very lax pace at this job, which I think I'll enjoy. Friendly, easily approached people too.

The study-info centre closed early today as an exception. I'm having absolutely rotten luck with that. The banks in this place close at 16:00, so I didn't have enough time left to visit one to find out what my credit limit on the Visa card I ordered will be.

Gonna go home and study Japanese.

Expat out.

I'll probably get the Nokia E61 so I can get reliable net access.

Got several posts for the blog written on my laptop and a lot of pictures, but I can't get that online yet.

Expat out.

Found a connection. Still alive. Looking for libaries. Hi mom!

Out.

T minus 4 hours

2h 30min until my parents drive me to the airport. I'm almost completely confident that airport security will harass me for an hour at least, so it's a good thing we leave early.

It's a warm, sunny day with clouds lazily drifting over the sky. Sundown at 22:09, so the pilot will have the sun in his eyes the whole flight. But with some luck I might be able to catch a pretty picture or two. I might be a bit hot in my jumper and leather jacket, but the jacket weights too much and is too big to be carried with me any other way. Plus the jacket is just so cool. :D

Backpacks, 7.2 kg and 20.7 kg. Managed to fit the laptop plus bag into the Burton, so its houldn't be too cumbersome to carry.


To be continued...

Caveat blogger

Just noticed Blogger is raping my images. By raping, I mean mercilessly violating them by vastly increasing the JPEG compression rate. I'll probably host my images on Imageshack from now on, or at least I'll do so if I have something which requires even a bit of detail or color fidelity.

Your's Truly

T minus 27 hours

Pack it up, pack it in,
let me begin...

Got my gear mostly in order. The muy importante stuff is all done. I'm ready to say goodbye to my parents' house, like so:
...And be a big boy in a big world.

But the real reason I'm moving is of course the current sordid state of the bathroom:


Well, maybe not quite. But I'll be glad I won't have to suffer showering in the bath tub anymore.

Peace

T minus two days

Got everything done in good time and made the 15:15 train from Vasa. Took 17kg worth of stuff with me down. On the plane I can have 20kg worth of luggage and 8kg hand luggage, and I plan on using everything.

Tired now. I can hear the shower and bed calling me...

Time's 22:28. Expat radio signs off.

Poker

1:40 says the clock. I'm tired. Bro invited friends over to play Texas hold-em and they're still at it. Usually I play with them, but I didn't have time today.
I need a shower before I go to bed, but running around half-naked with people you don't know that well in the house isn't really proper. Though I'm fast appraching the point of not caring.

Got my stuff packed. Just need to disconnect the last electronics and dismantle the rest of the furniture. This will however happen tomorrow, lest I electrocute myself or mortally wound myself with a screwdriver.

I hear something now... Maybe they're done, finally.

Expat signs off for the night.

T minus three days

At writing moment I'm in Vasa, finally done with the last task before I can begin packing. Got to disconnect all my electronics, bag my clothes, dismantle the IKEA furniture and probably do a bunch of other unforseen things. The electronics alone will take serious effort. I'll have to say goodbye to my beloved computer too. But then again we need time apart in this relationship. Plus I'll have that old laptop to cheat with. No games or photoshop though.

Yes, photoshop. Did I mention I'll post lots and lots of pictures of The Expat Experience? I'm a wannabe photographer and got a camera that knows more about the art than I do. Been at it since xmas and I think recently my shots haven't been all bad... That, or my subjects grew some tolerance against it.
Post-processing will however be limited to Irfan View on the laptop, so don't expect much quality, kay? My desktop system will however somehow make its way to Sweden sooner or later, and then I should be able to post some pretty pix.

Just to actually have a picture in this blog, any picture, I'll post this one of the building my bro and I have been living in. We've been renting an apartment on the top floor on the left part of the building. You can see the sea from it if you lean out from the balcony.

Can't complain about it. Aside from the rather high rent. We're located very close to anything you could call a CBD in Vasa so the location is nothing short of stellar. But I still refer to our place as a penthouse since it certainly feels as if we're paying for one...

Tomas, AKA Tosse, AKA Ceriel Nosforit, AKA Nos - out.

T minus four days

Looks like I'll be getting on the 22:15 from Helsinki and landing five minutes earlier in Stockholm, monday, May 22nd. I've still got the funding for the first month to make the final arrangement on, for a sum of about 6000SEK; about 640€. I'll unavoidably have to loan a bit of the money but fortunately not for a long time.

I'll be working at Stockholms Entrepenad, gardening. Hopefully I'll manage to get weatherbitten during sunny summer days instead of soaked to the marrow in endless rain. But this punk does feel lucky. I think I'm on the beginning of a long roll.

Tomorrow at dawn I'll be getting on a train to Helsinki where I'll visit a market to see what fifth-hand useful gear I can pick up. Then I'll be getting on another train for a 450km trip North-North West to Vasa, where I need to pack my stuff so that they're easily transported back South on the 27th by my bro and dad. I've been living with my bro in a rented apartment up there for the past two years and this summer we're both moving out, the weekend after I've already left for Stockholm (henceforth known as Sthlm). Dad is as per usual helping with the move.

...Aaand I just got off the phone with my uncle who's been living in Sweden for the past 40 years. He'll pick me up from the airport, and I can sleep over at their place the first night. Then he'll drive me into Sthlm, where he too works. Smooth.
Now I just need to hurry up and remember what important details I'm forgetting.

This expat signs out.