The Expatriate Experience

2006-09-04T04:43:00.000-07:00

I am back home in Finland now, and a few moments ago I found out that I didn't get the job at Dell.

Going home

2006-08-30T23:47:00.000-07:00

I am currently at a 24/7 internet café in central Stockholm. In about four hours I'll be at Dell for a job interview, but before that I'll have to make a final check at the apartment I've been living in this summer, to see if I've gotten any mail.

Until Sunday evening I'm staying with my uncle, when I'll be traveling, hopefully temporarily, back to Finland.

I'm going to treat four people to sushi I'll be making myself on Saturday. Hopefully we won't be ending up ordering from a restaurant...

Expat out... hopefully not for good.

The Pot

2006-08-21T04:42:00.000-07:00

Grytan, Långholmen, Stockholm. This is from 17.06.2006, so quite old. I've wanted to do a better post-processing, but the frustration this laptop gives me is more than I'm willing to handle. I could do it, but I really don't wanna.

Click photo. See Flickr set. Easy? Yeees...

Tourist photos

2006-08-21T04:37:00.000-07:00

Some photos from the Kaknäs Tower here near Sthlm.

Click the image, see a Flickr set.

More in a moment...

Nicotine

2006-08-15T11:31:00.000-07:00

About a week or two ago I had the unusually dumb idea that one could, hypthetically, build up to start smoking by chewing nicotine gum. People use it to quit smoking so I, genius, determined that the process should also work in reverse.

It was funny at the time. We giggled a bit.
Now I did it.

Well, I didn't start smoking. I just bought the gum to try to find out why the heck people smoke in the first place, and maybe why they have such a difficult time quitting. It was cheap; only 25SEK, as compared to what, 80SEK for the stuff you get at the pharmacy? But cheap didn't mean it was any less potent. Having taken a handfull of bites into the gum I suddenly feel my brain shift down a gear. Stray suface thoughts ripple and dissipate, and I become more aware of my surroundings. The sound environment suddenly stands out for me, and I'm even aware of the silence inbetween the noises...
A very odd feeling, and I now realize how very potent a drug nicotine is; and how it works as a neural toxin. That people become addicted to the stuff is no longer a mystery, and a veil to the smoking culture has been lifted from my eyes.

I'm not addicted, of course, but I do feel that now at least I have a small right to even express vague opinions about addiction. People who scream bloody murder about the use of every drug on the planet but never even tried anything have always been the subject of my contempt. In my eyes it's like philistines critiquing abstract art, or butchers giving advice on how to perform brain surgery.
One needs to know what one is talking about. Now I can honestly say that nicotine has a use, and could be used for self-medication, but smoking a pack a day is comparabe to drug abuse. Use, and abuse. Two very diffrent things.

Expat out

Catching up

2006-08-13T10:36:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I was at the Royal Armoury to shoot some photographs of chainmail shirts to use for inspiration in my own design of a chainmail vest that I'm making. I learned how to do that on Gotland, which I visited with a Nordjobb group two weeks ago. I have lots of pictures of this trip, and I've been post-processing them a bit today. Today I have done little but work on the computer to catch up with all my online activities I've been lagging behind with. I won't be able to finish the post-processing today, but at least I'm getting somehwere. I'll probably be posting the images as Flickr sets and link to them from here.

There was a car parade yesterday too which I did a cover of, and last week I visited the Kaknäs tower and a museum with two other Nordjobbers. Got pics from that too...

This would be so muc easier if this laptop wasn't so frustratingly slow. =/

Vaminos,

Today only! Daily updates!

2006-07-26T12:13:00.000-07:00

Went on a shopping spree for clothes today. Oddly the exact pieces of clothing I was looking for both happened to be on sale. At the end of the day I got away with a surprising amount of clothes for a very reasonable sum of money.

Tomorrow, phone interview and packing. I'm going to Gotland with 26 Nordjobbers over the weekend. 4:45 in the morning is when a small group of us meet in the kitchen before venturing off to catch the meeting of the entire group at 5:30.
Thankfully I'm already used to rising early... Gotta prepare well tomorrow.

This is Expat Radio. The time is 21:17, signing out.

Summer in the city

2006-07-25T10:58:00.000-07:00

Hot town. I had to use all my tricks to stay comfortable today, even while I'm somewhat accustumed to the heat now. Though I'm beginning to suspect my skin is taking offence... Itches.

This morning when I woke up and checked my bank account it was still as empty as ever, but once I got home I found I had gotten mail from my employer. They had sent me a cheque. How quaint, I thought, but it is kinda cool to have a cheque for a large sum of money. I'll be sure to look suspicious when I cash it in at the bank tomorrow. Then... Shopping!

And in spite of a technical issue I have my job interview scheduled for Thursday. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a bit exited. It's only a phone interview, which might lead to an interview in person, but it's still a good step forward. If I get the job, I'll have effectively moved on to Phase Two of my Cunning Masterplan (TM), Phase Three being math ed. and Phase Four being world domination.

Provided I can get this damned can of salsa open without braking both my hands...

Signing out,

w00t!

2006-07-24T12:48:00.000-07:00

Went bowling today. Getting my first salary tomorrow. And an employer wants to do a phone interview with me! Joy!

Expat, exuberant, out.

I could be a weatherman

2006-07-09T11:35:00.000-07:00

Finally I found myself energetic enough to do a workout and go for a run. Right now I'm on a runner's high, so things couldn't be better. Funny how easy it is to forget to look at the bright side, even for an unfailing optimist like me.

Inspiration's where it at, and I seem to continously find it in Fred Perry's Gold Digger comic. The entire thing is a bit over the top and incredulous, both art and story-wise, but somehow it still appeals to me.

My legs held up just fine to the run, but my shin muscles have started getting tired easily. I doubt it has got anything to do with my injuries, but who knows.
One thing that did bother me was slight chest-pain, right beneath the heart. My ribcage has a slight deformation at the solar plexus, so I really hope that doesn't have anything to do with it. I've had the very same chest pain before, for a long time, so I dunno... Maybe I should visit a doctor at some point about it, before I manage to impale my heart on a stray rib.

Forecast says; things will be looking up

2006-07-06T11:17:00.000-07:00

I've received my personal number, after much ado, but it appears the number is only something temporary and will expire along with my contract. I'll have to apply again for a real number, it seems.
This is of course an unanticipated complication, but it isn't really a problem.

...I think.

I'm now eagerly anticipating my damned pay. It's been a lot of waiting and I'm more than a little tired of not even being able to participate in even smaller social events because I don't have the money to sustain myself through one. I've even felt a bit alienated because of that, but once I have a bit of cash to spend on a cider or two or a ticket for some event that is something which is going to change. I don't plan on going out of proportion and making the streets unsafe, but rather just... let loose a bit. I've been so tense because of my economic situation I haven't been able to enjoy the little things.

It's been very warm these past days; today especially so. But I've been at home, since two days ago I had to go home from work early because my nose kept clogging up and made working a real drag. What I did yesterday is a no-brainer, though half through it my nose cleared up
and it's been mostly clear since. I figured if I'm gonna get well, I better rest up properly so that I'm not always taking short sick-leaves. I'm set on working tomorrow.

Yesterday I had the stitches in my shin removed and borrowed a new book on Japanese. Today I've spent almost all my time applying for jobs in Tech Support in the Sthlm area. There seems to be a lot of possibilities for me, but the job at Dell seems the most interesting.

I read a bit about managing positions on the site I used to look for jobs, and I find that I'm oddly intrigued by it. If I get a job in a big multinational and am then able to just switch positions within the company in different countries I'd have a rather comfortable and secure way to continue my expartiate experience. Then with my experience increasing like that I should have a rather easy time advancing in a company.
A fascinating possibility...

This is it, from Expat Channel. Good night, and out.

Tuesday morning fever

2006-06-27T05:45:00.000-07:00

I'm at home today since I felt like I was coming down with a fever this morning. I'm still getting a little of that cold sweat and feeling somewhat lethargic, but the headache is mostly gone.

On the upside I've been in contact with the tax people and they said I could expect my personal number within the week. Hopefully I'll be able to get my salary this week too. Not getting my due pay was NOT part of my plans this summer.

I've also spoken with Amnesty in Finland and put my membership on a hiatus since I can't afford the fee. I'm glad that went as easy as it did.

Now to do some post-processing I've been putting off for way too long...

Soon in again, out.

Sport fans

2006-06-24T13:45:00.000-07:00

Lots of people have gathered upstairs here at the barracks, supposedly to view the football (Soccer, for you Amerikanski.) match. As you can see from these images, they don't particularly care about the match.

ED: I spelled Ritwik's name wrong on the image, but I'm too lazy to edit it.

Flickr

2006-06-23T15:23:00.000-07:00

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

City-limp

2006-06-19T10:57:00.000-07:00

Monday, day of writing, for once. This afternoon I made my way to the bank to hear about being able to log into my account over the net and check if the money my parents sent my have arrived. I made sure to walk as little as possible and utilize public transporartion to the maximum extent. By the end of the day I felt damned lazy.

Turned out that the money had been registered on my account but would for some strange, strange reason not actually be usable until tomorrow.
When I tried to log on to my account at home it turned out it still wasn't able to do so. I'll have to revisit the bank and ask what's up.

I also visited the Nordjob office to fetch some mail that had arrived for me. I was going to go to the tax-office thing and clear something up about my ID but they closed before I was done with my other tasks. I have already showed them my ID so I have no idea what's holding them. When I get there I'll have to ask them to hurry up as much as possible with my papers.

Still one post with pictures coming up from last Saturday, but I haven't post-processed those yet so that will probably be a task for tomorrow, or the day after. - When you have a lot to write about you don't have a lot of time to do the writing.

One wounded-but-still-going-strong expat signs out.

"Grytan", Saturday 17.06.06

2006-06-19T10:48:00.000-07:00

http://www.flickr.com/photos/nosforit/sets/72157594169691235/

What a weekend

2006-06-19T09:37:00.000-07:00

I have a hole in my shin the size of my thumbnail. The hole is sewn shut with I think three stitches. "Why?" you ask? Elementary, my dear Watson! - I fscked up. On a really simple thing too, which makes me feel as dumb as the shadow of half a rock...

On Saturday's Parkour jam I decided to photograph instead of participate. The jam was the stuff of legends and consequently on the jam on the day after I was really psyched about the whole thing. I was well-prepared and full of energy. And before we even get started I decided I was going to hop up with both my feet simultaneously on a ledge a bit higher than my waist.
It's probably no suprise; I bail. I screw up. My toes slip from the ledge and I crash down on the stone ledge with both my shins. This of course is painful, but not more painful than I'm used to so I think I just managed to scratch some skin off. I sit up on the same ledge and when I'm about to check for damage I notice the right leg of my pant has big spots of blood on it. Roll it up and violá; I can see what I think is bone through a deep hole the size of my thumbnail.

After the gang has taken a good look and everybody has confirmed I won't be participating today either plans are drawn up for getting me to a hospital to get it sew shut. Luckily for me a 'new' guy has got band-aid with him, so I slap on a full length of about 15cm of it, as no one brought scissors.
While this is happening we work out the theory that my right shin probably hit the ledge where two pieces of stone meet and form sharp corners on each side of the space between them. My shin probably got punctured by one of them.

Finally we work out that the nearest hospital is Södermalm and that it's easily reachable by the subway followed by the bus. A guy called Caspian from the gang kindly offers to take me there, and off we go. - Shouldn't travel alone when one's injured like this.

After having asked a security guard for directions we find the bus station, and luckily again the bus is quick to arrive. We go straight to the hospital and the ER. The sign-in is relatively easy since I just happen to have exactly the cards I need to get med-care for 'free' and then I'm off to the... waiting room.

After a while a nurse arrives and I show her my boo-boo. When she asks how I accomplished it I explain to her what Le Parkour is. She tells me she's seen it on TV and that it looks dangerous. I find myself agreeing with her. She runs off with the papers I got at sign-in.

I wait some more and a male nurse arrives and leads me to an op-room. He fetches a bed for me to lie on. A third nurse arrives and carts me out of the op-room and into a waiting booth. She bandages the wound and I explain to her too what Le Parkour is. She hasn't seen it on TV. She tells me the M.D. will be with me soon.

I wait.

I wait more.

More!!

I eventually start falling asleep and like a charm the M.D. arrives. I explain to him what Le Parkour is. He and the nurse cart me back to the same op-room I was in before and soon he's injecting painkillers around the wound and begins cleaning it. I find it funny I can still feel temperature while I can't feel anything else around the wound. He tells me that's because it's different nerves that deliver that info. (Can't figure out how or why they'd develop a selective painkiller for that though.) Soon he's sewing it shut and I lean to the side to try to watch. I really can't feel a thing even as he pierces the skin with the needle and pulls on it.
Throughout the whole ordeal the pain has been minimal too. It just hurt for short while just after I injured myself. After that the worse pain was when I pulled the band-aid off my hairy leg.

Plaster on, the M.D. disappears for a short while and returns with a recepy for painkillers. He tells me to wait in the op-room where someone's supposed to bring the pills.
Half an hour of WAITING later a nurse arrives and asks if a doc has already looked at me, hinting at the blood on the leg of my pant. I tell her I'm supposed to wait for some pills. She looks at my recepy and says that she thinks I should go get it at the pharamacy instead. I have the breif thought that doing that would probably cost me money, so I just basically say "the doctor told me so".
She runs off somewhere to look for the doctor. I decide I'm fed up with waiting and promptly split.

At the pharmacy I find out that the painkillers will indeed cost me money in spite of the recepy. And since my economy is next to extinct I'm left without pills. But it doesn't hurt to bad so I take the subway to the closest station and walk home. At home I take 400mg ibuprofen, which is the last pill I have.

Today I've switched the patch on the wound and there's still a bit of blood and plasma seeping out, but I think it'll close shut proper tonight. I didn't go to work today even if the M.D. told me when I asked that I probably could. It didn't feel right. I doubt he realized how much I move around at work, come to think of it...

Oh well. Pics from last Saturday on their way. I shot more than just Parkour that day. And I have some stuff from today to write about too.

Blog-lag

2006-06-14T10:18:00.000-07:00

Well, the last batch of images are fairly old and I have been a bit lazy in updating the blog , but I don't have much material to add either...

The last few days have been very warm, and I would not be surprised if the thermometer has reached 30 C more than once. I have become particlarly sensitive to the heat it seems, so I've been rather uncomfortable.
Today however, blissfully, hasn't been as hot. It even rained today and the current temp is a few degrees below 20 and dropping as the sun descends.
Still, I'm perfectly content sitting here without a shirt and the window open. Apparently I have not only become sensitive to the heat, but somehow actually grown resistant to cold.

My economy isn't really all it could be right now, and since my SS number still hasn't arrived yet I can't sign my contract and get paid. I have to, reluctantly, bowrrow a bit more money from my parents.
...Well, I should be overjoyed that I actually CAN borrow money. It's not a thing to be taken for granted.

I intend to pay everything I've borrowed back ASAP and postpone that purchase of the mobile phone I wrote about. The phone is a luxury I don't actually need right now, nor one I'd use to any greater extent, so it's easy to put the whole thing on hold. My parents on the other hand probably do need the money since they recently discovered that the water damage isn't contained to the bathroom, but actually extends to what amounts to half of the house. They've already started tearing up the floor.

I wish I could be there to help... but there's really no practical way for me to do that. I have to sit here on the other side of the pond and send them well-wishes.

Expat out.

2006-06-12T11:17:00.000-07:00

These images are from last week. 06.06.06 to be exact. It was Sweden's National Day. I'll explain more tomorrow, since the bed now awaits me. =)

Le Parkour pictures

2006-06-06T05:15:00.000-07:00

Took my camera to last Sunday's Parkour, to shoot rather than train. The result:

http://flickr.com/photos/nosforit/

Examples:

Nordjob's got something scheduled for us at 16:00, though I haven't actually bothered to find out what it is. Today's the Swedish national day, so it's of course somethig related. I guess I'll find out about the details when I head out.

Le Parkour

2006-06-04T03:06:00.000-07:00

I'm hurtin' all over. I think there isn't a muscle in my body which didn't get a thorough workout yesterday. But it was fun; a real blast. Apparently I'm not completely without talent for the sport even if I'm a complete newbie.
We kept at it for almost six hours, but half of us disappeared after we ate at Burger King. Today I'm going to tag along with more experienced PKists with my camera, and since the weather is very nice right now I can probably promise you some rather fine shots later this evening.

Retro-vision: Day Five

2006-06-03T12:33:00.000-07:00

Day five... Saturday. Already. Actually, no; not quite 'already'. Though it feels like I just got here, it simultaneously feels as if the days have absolutely crawled by since so much has happened. An odd ambivalnce. Time isn't just relative; it's quantum. The cat is both dead and alive at the same...time. - Hmm. Need to think about that some more.

Yesterday another Nordjobber like me knocked on my door and asked me to come out and chat, and lo and behold almost everyone in the whole building had gathered in the kitchen for a sort of multicultural amalgam picnic. The thought of Muhammed and the mountain came to mind, except both I came to the culture and the culture came to me. More than I bargined for, for sure. And I have pictures to prove it.
I actually knew about the picnic thing, but it kind of slipped my mind inbetween the cracks of everything I had to do. It didn't seem to concern me at the time, but obviously I was mistaken. Not that I really know how I would have managed to come up with something worthy to offer in a timely manner...
Well, after having chatted with a lot of the new Nordjobbers I had the time to talk with a Brazilian girl named Uana. She'd gone to an university in Sao Paulo (Spelling?) and was on her way on a career in some unspecific multinational when she decided that wasn't her thing, and then she traveled to Europe; an unspecific city in England, then Kopenhagen and then Stockholm. To memory, she'd studied electrical engineering in Sao Paulo and then something regarding the environment here in the Old World. She knew what biodiversity meant, and I used that term to say that in general Sthml has more of it than Helsinki. Though I could have said Sthml has more variety... But I digress.

As I had nothing to offer I felt it was inappropriate for me to participate in their feast, though in my book I'd already gotten plenty out of it. It was amazing to see how closely knit these people from all over the world have become. They're certainly setting a very nice example for us who are moving in to follow. While the location and housing is below par for sure, the spirit of this place is out of this world. I'm going to do my best to ensure it stays with us, requested or not. It'll be a thing to make this all worth remembering for everybody.

Uana seems to have left today. This morning I did have a chance to talk with her, but she must have assumed I knew since she didn't mention a thing. She left a message behind on our whiteboard saying she's left, along with her email address. - I'm going to email her the pictures I took yesterday. I think she'll like that.

Oh. My first day of work has been once again postponed; to Monday, 6:30. The pay will be better than I assumed and I'll probably be putting in quite a few hours, so that's mundo cash for me. Here's to hoping they'll be easily earned too. Hehe.

And finally, alas, I could not make it to this Saturday's Le Parkour. I was going to check the time and location at the State Library, but they opened at 12:00 and I couldn't get a time on a computer with a net connection until half an hour later. Then at scheduled time I found out that they'd started at 11:00. Better luck next week, I guess...

All I can think of for now. Time to study Japanese. Out, I sign.

Retro-vision: Sqeek!

2006-06-03T12:32:00.000-07:00

Sqeek! The rubber feet of my laptop go; the desk is so clean. The rest of my room is equally so, but getting it in this state was no small task. I first vacuumed, then mopped and even had to take a microfiber cloth drenched in soapwater to the floor before it stopped being icky. I can finally sit down to stretch my much over-used legs. (6h + 10h of walking two days and yesterday. No kidding.) I'm gonna try my outmost to have the cost of doing this professionally deducted from my rent, since I shouldn't need to do this in the first place...

I've also began studying Japanese again. Got a library card which might be good for all libraries in Stockholm and borrowed a book and a beginners course on the language. The book says it should take about two years before I'm for example able to read a Japanese newspaper without a dictionary. Still, my main short-term goal is to be able to communicate in a Japanese web forum, which is slightly easier since one has the time to look up the words one wishes to use. That's how I learned English proper and you may judge the result on your own.
My spoken English is not at the level of my writing, but that's mainly an issue of pronounciation. I guess I'll at some point make an Expat Experience in Great Britain... and by surmission eventually in Japan aswell.

I'm learning Japanese by reading books for people who speak English, and after having learned Japanese to a decent level I plan to learn Spanish. It thus follows that I'll learn Spanish through books written for nihonphones. And end up in a Spanish speaking country at some point too.
...Provided I survive Stockholm.

It stopped raining, so I'm out to go find something edible. And inexpensive.

Retro-vision: Day Three

2006-06-03T12:31:00.000-07:00

Ah, silence. Finally. I thought I was going to go insane yesterday when for some odd reason people stayed up talking and noisily walking past my door until 0:30 when I was trying to sleep. I finally gave up and ventured out into the Stockholm night in search of an open pharmacy that might have earplugs. There was a lot of people out partying as Thursday, today, is a holliday. It was slightly creepy walking around people making all that noise when I myself was tired as hell.

Eventually I did reach an open pharamacy and bought earplugs, but as I was about to return the subway had closed for an hour or two that night. Incidentally the subway was something else keeping me awake, since it runs maybe 50 meters from my window.

Retro-vision: Day One

2006-06-03T12:25:00.000-07:00

Finally over. I've done so much walking I at times felt my knees were going to explode into a gooy mess on the sidewalk, manifest the corporal form of anger and attack me with switchblades. But the essentials are at least taken care of. I've got a roof over my head, but I estimate that roof to be approximately two millimeters thick plastic. Same with the walls. These are barracs converted into corridors; where a whole bunch of us live down a long corridor and share kitchen, showers and laundry machines. Towards the summer there'll almost entirely us Nordjobbers here, which means we can pretty much do as we like. Provided we get along.

When I first saw this dump I immediately thought "Hell no" followed by trying to get the gods to tell me it's the wrong place. But I actually knew when I saw it. This is where I'll be staying for the summer. My vehemt complains amounted to formailty.
Then again, when I first saw the place I was dead tired. Now I've had the time to rest, talk with a few people here and take a shower that felt like being licked clean by silver tounged cherubs... and obviously my opinion has changed as a result. I now see the different possibilites, each holding vastly more value to me than all the problems. A bit of touching-up, something on the walls and the floor, and this place'll be just fine. Hopefully I'll be able to get authorization for the wireless network here, and then, with the world once again at my figertips I should be quite happy.
The previous resident who I estimate to have left in early April left behind a pair of those cheap plastic speakers you get with a new package PC, so I hooked up my MP3 player to it and now I've got sweet, sweet musak massaging my audiotory nerves. This previous resident, named Jing Ni, probably from China, left behind a bunch of other things too. These things include two pieces of mail (which I haven't decided what to do with yet), a book written with his native language, a bunch of magazines (no pr0n - checked), these stickers that give off various scents when scratched (they'll be fun), a bag of candy (For me? Edible?), and alas, a whole bunch of dirt and dust.

The place should have been clean when I moved in. That's the way it works. - When you move out, you clean the place up. - But he (or she, come to think of it, hence lack of pr0n) might have left in a hurry. (Maybe the book is pr0n...? I hear chicks prefer something left to the imagination.) I kinda get that impression.
Either way, (Or maybe he had a laptop like me.) I'm gonna ask to have the cost of cleaning the place up deducted from my rent. (Not that I have pr0n on mine. *Cough*) This is resonable, and as far as I know standard practice in Finland. My uncle is very kindly bringing me some cleaning supplies tomorro afternoon so I can fix the place up. Then I'm thinking... pastelles. (Spot the quote!)

I won't be able to post this until tomorrow at the earliest. Oh, right. I forgot about the plane ride. I've got lots of pictures of that too. Gotta post-process a bit...(And stop using so many parenthesii.)

It's 22:20 Sthlm local time. Started raining heavily again. Goodnight.

2006-06-03T11:30:00.000-07:00

Pictures!

And thus with spreading happiness I arrived in Stockholm. The posts I wrote in my offline days are now to follow.
Aplogies for the smashed continuity.

Online!

2006-06-02T13:05:00.000-07:00

This blog-station is fully operational!

Will begin prepping posts now.

Thank god it's Friday

2006-06-02T08:11:00.000-07:00

Finally, the weekend. Not that I think the work's bad, but if I got paid to waste time I'd of course rather do that.
Today was a bit of an odd day at work since some maniac(s) had sawed down a bunch of trees and barnches in a park. They certainly put a lot of effort into the wanton act of vandalism, but the purpose is a big mystery. All they've accomplished is cost the taxpayers money.

The newly graduating students are crusing around the city on lorreys, blasting music with at least three PA systems. We did something similar when we graduated, but not at this scale. The city's roads are also congested, so a lot of the time I spent at the wheel today was just waiting rather than driving. Quite a mess. I should have brought my camera.

Parkour tomorrow. Yay! I'm gonna stretch a lot this evening and make sure I'm ready for vigorous exercise. I'm actually somewhat excited.

Bouncing off,

...And fourth

2006-06-01T07:47:00.000-07:00

At the library again. Yesterday a guy living in our barracs and I conceived of a plan to arrange for us Nordjobbers to get online, and hopefullt he'll have news about that when I get back. The web works just fine here at the library, but it's web only; not the rest of the net. Would be nice to get Gaim up and running again. And post the pictures I've taken...

Also found out that my pay from my jobb is for some strange reason always delayed one month. I'll have to ask them to pay up early, lest I run outta cash.

Can't do anything 'bigger' money-wise without a social security number either. Consider this Lesson One that I've learned.

Time's running out.

Third day at work

2006-05-31T07:14:00.000-07:00

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

2006-05-29T08:23:00.000-07:00

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.

2006-05-27T03:58:00.000-07:00

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.

2006-05-24T04:07:00.000-07:00

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

Out.

T minus 4 hours

2006-05-22T07:27:00.000-07:00

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

2006-05-21T09:35:00.000-07:00

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

2006-05-21T09:14:00.000-07:00

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

2006-05-20T12:20:00.000-07:00

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

2006-05-19T15:21:00.000-07:00

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

2006-05-19T07:28:00.002-07:00

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

2006-05-18T09:07:00.000-07:00

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.