Day 7 in Helsinki

This time, it was really in Helsinki. The day started with us going to the kids' school for a end of school ceremony. I attended the one at 8am, which was for the 1st to 3rd grades. Helmi and Eliel are in 1st grade, but different classes. There were performances, which were mainly students singing and playing simple musical instruments. And then there were trophies to be given - not to students with excellent grades, but with good personalities. Each class will vote for their favourite friend, a boy and a girl, and these boy and girl will be awarded with a trophy. It's pretty refreshing if you ask me. For once, it's not about grades and everything academic. It's about how you live as a person. Helmi got a trophy. She's a great kid. She's very helpful although manja at times. But then again, she's the only daughter at home. She'll ask if you want food or drinks most of the time she gets herself something, she'll get some for her brothers too if they ask and she won't complain...and she'll get extra if it's something they like. She's a sweet girl.

Helmi with her mom's sunnies

Bought a Finnish SIM card for €6.90, took a bus to Helsinki, which cost €8.10, called my mom on the way to Helsinki and finished up my €11 worth of credits in 15minutes. Thanks ah, Ma. Half of them time, she talked only.

Mom: *Yak yak yak about my car at home and still arguing about how I did not reply her text msgs* So how's your life there?
Me: Yeah, it's good. I'm going into the city now.
Mom: You're going out alone?
Me: Ye-ahhh...(otherwise? you can't expect the family to take me to everywhere)
Mom: Aiyooo then you leave the kids alone at home ah?
Me: Er, it's Saturdayyy...the parents are home. I haven't been out of the house for 3days, I need to get out.
Mom: Haven't gone out for 3 days must go out now la?
Me: Uh, yeah? There's nothing much to do at home...(and besides, it's a cultural exchange programme for a reason)
Mom: Don't you need to look after the kids or the house? (wth Mom, I'm not here as a maid)
Me: Not really. They're quite independent. Normally, when they come back from school, they'll just play games or go out to look for their friends.
Mom: Go out? How old are they?
Me: 8 and 12...
Mom: 8 years old only wor!
Me: Uh yea, it's pretty safe here. So it's ok for them to go out on their own. They'll walk to school, walk back, cycle to their friends' place and most places nearby.
Mom: But they're only 8!
Me: Yes la, it's ok wan la! It's pretty safe here...(also not like our first graders back at home so kecik)
Mom: bla bla bla...*toot toot toot* *guy's voice in Finnish starts speaking* yadi yadi yada *call again* *guy's voice in Finnish again* OMG WAS THAT 15MINUTES CONVERSATION 11 FRIGGIN' EUROS?! T.T

Mom texted: Can you call home again?
I replied: No.

Hah. No lah, I replied not until I get more credits. I'll see if I can get Skype credits. That'll be cheaper.

Reached Kamppi bus station. Took the metro subway to Ruoholahti. Anu told me I could buy a one-hour ticket that's valid for all metros, trains, trams and intracity buses. I saw no ticketing counter and the escalators to the platform were not gated. So I just walked la. Boarded the metro, no one checked for tickets, before I knew it, I've arrived at my destination (anyway, it was only one station away, which took 2 minutes). Wow, I'm so Asian. I just got a free ride and made dunno about it...sort of.

Kamppi bus station: at the intercity bus terminal

Kauppakeskus Rouholahti: Rouholahti shopping centre.
That's an ice cream stall on the right.

The Finns cycle quite a bit.

Went straight to Verkkokauppa.com, an electronics store Angeline recommended me to go. Was damn happy when I found the camera that I wanted to buy after seeing it on their website, thinking €69.90 for a 12mp Olympus was a bargain. Check, check, check, no batteries. Oh well, cheaper cameras do not come with rechargeable batteries. Ok, how much is a pack of rechargeable batteries? €19.90? Ok, put it in. Tried to put in the micro SD card adaptor which I thought was an SD card. Oh! It doesn't come with an SD car as well? What about other cameras, do they usually have one? They don't? Ok how much is an SD card? €9.90 for 4gb? Okayy, put that in...Oh dear, I need to use it now, so I'd need some alkaline batteries now. Sigh, throw that in too, will you? €1.90? Yea ok, that's fine. The guy tried to fit in the SD card into the camera. Cannot fit! Oops, wrong card. But payment all has been done! Guy apologised. Sorry, my mistake, he said. I'll change for you. Oh, okay! =D He came back with the right card, this time smaller memory size - 1gb. Oh well, that's fine. At least he discounted for me. Spent €101.60 in the end. =( Tu lah padahnya tak baca betul-betul. But still, I have a new camera! *snap snap snap*

Helmi said: You've got a nice camera cos it's white and black

It was a cold day today. I wore long sleeves and wrapped myself up like a bachang. Wore a cap too cos the wind messes up my hair and it's damn sunny. Damn malufying today when the strong wind blew my cap away while waiting for the tram and it landed on the car lane. An oncoming car was kind enough to stop for me to pick it up. That aside, drivers here prioritise pedestrians.

I hate to camwhore by myself but I just
had to do so =( and I'm quite a failure at it

Coming out from Verkkokauppa, I didn't know where to go. I'm so awesome la. I googled about Helsinki, where to go and what's happening, but not HOW to go. But it was an adventure. It's my time to explore anyway. I was totally clueless to even which direction I should go, lest I get lost somewhere far, far away, because looking at the map I was provided with, Helsinki did looked like a big city, although in reality, it's actually not. The map just had too many lines criss-crossing each other and everything was in Finnish. Just too confusing. I spent almost half of my time reading the maps. After a while, I realised, it's actually not that hard. It's quite an interesting adventure actually.

Maps of Helsinki from different sources: map book, Google and tram.

Omg I is so tired. I've been walking a lot here. There are lanes for bikes and pedestrians and everywhere in town is possible to reach by foot. The family has a car for me though. I just need to go get my license translated and then get used to left hand drive. I'm loving all the new experiences I'm getting man.

I've got tonnes of photos actually. Maybe tomorrow. Stay tuned for a long post then. I beh tahan already. It's 3am and the sun is rising. I'd like to get some sleep, thank you very much. Every night, I try to come in to my room at about 10pm, blog, spend some time at the computer but tonight, somehow, at 10pm it felt like afternoon to me. Maybe it's the weekend fever. We have a guest over tonight. Anu's friend. I went for sauna and then they invited me for a salad and wine supper. It was superb. Omg ok sleep. -n-