I am feeling as if my life is progressing beyond a lightning speed, and before I could truly admire and appreciate the beauty of London, I am again on the move and preparing myself for the next destination relocating to another country - Finland. Having controlled and suppressed my buying desires and practicing minimalism during my years in London, I was lucky to have only 3 boxes + 3 suitcases of items to be shipped.
Adapting to a new lifestyle and a new environment is never easy, this includes but not limited to:
- Getting used to the third type of keyboard with different layout (on top of the Asian and European version, here comes the Nordic one).
- Went for groceries shopping without understanding the labels as everything is either in Finnish or in Swedish. I have therefore befriended a new mate - the Google Translate app which has become my life saver in many instances.
- Getting used to the different notes and coins in Euro (€) which is rather different compared to Pound Sterling (£).
- The sun that sets at 10.30pm and rises again at 3.00am (and the sky never really gets dark in between the hours) + the upcoming darkness with only 6 hours of daylight per day.
- Most of the websites doesn't come in English.
- The confusing means of transportation in getting around and the difficult name of each stop and station.
- Receiving all documents (housing insurance, electricity bill and letters) in Finnish and not being able to understand a single word from the papers.
- Changing from a 3-pin plugs country to a 2-pin plugs kingdom is always a problem requiring extra converters for every electrical item.
Definitely there are some unavoidable hiccups and surprises that tagged along as a package in my journey:
- The shipping company that I have selected provides terrible services and I ended up with a full page of complaint in respond to their customer survey.
- Trying to soothe my heartbeats as everything in the Nordic countries comes with a higher price tag compared to London. (Sorry London…I will never complaint that you are expensive ever again!)
- Shopping is definitely not as convenient without the efficient delivery services. For someone who has been the loyal customer of Amazon Prime, a > 72 business hours processing time became rather annoying and intolerable.
- Some research suggested that 66% of the Finns speaks English, but looks like I am “lucky” enough to have bumped into the remaining 34%.
- The electricity could only be activated once someone has literally “moved-in” and time was wasted while waiting for the activation.
- The rented apartment/flat comes without a ceiling light and I have to install my own lamps. This is the time when my height posted an issue because I could hardly reach the ceiling even when I am standing on a stool.
- Almost all automated phone features operate solely in Finnish. I tried calling the groceries shop due to some issues with my home delivery order and the Management Office due to the water leakage in the bathroom, but nothing is in English and even when the call gets through, apparently the guy who answers the phone doesn’t speak English and he therefore interrupted my sentence abruptly with some alien languages (Finnish) and immediately hang-up.
Further stress was added when:
- I am living without a proper internet connection for the first 3 weeks and the phone reception wasn’t great inside the house.
- I am not able to open a local bank account before receiving my resident permit, hence I am forced to use my UK bank account to survive and every purchases with the credit card comes with an extra 2.75% non-sterling transaction fee and an addition of £4.00 for each debit transaction.
- The water in the heating bar started to leak just after 15 days of staying in the apartment/flat.
- The sound proofing in the building was extremely poor and I could even hear the water flow from the bordering units, and needless to mention the midnight movements of the inconsiderate neighbors.
- The winter jacket has become my temporary blanket for at least 1 week before I received my duvet and bought myself a mattress.
- The luggage bag has as well became the counter to place my laptop and the food plates before getting myself a proper table.
- Some ex-UK colleagues who constantly asking for extra supports and favors forgetting the fact that I am no longer working for their entity and I do have my current workloads.
However, I was grateful and glad that:
- I have now a place for myself and without the frustration of having someone entering my room without permission and using my things without even bother to ask.
- I could fully enjoy the kitchen without someone stealing my foodstuffs and messing up the area with unwashed dishes and food-stains all over the floor.
- I have finally the mixed tap in the house and no longer facing the very typical British problem of having the cold and hot water flowing from 2 separate faucets.
- I could now enjoy the free flow of hot water without depending on the old-style boiler with limited output.
- A nice taxi driver who fetches me from the airport and helped me to figure out in getting into my apartment.
- A Malaysian colleague who met-up with me for dinner on my first day of arrival and the Chinese cuisine we had was surprisingly good.
- The cashier in one of the shop willingly exchange some goods for me despite that I messed up the receipts and have presented to them the wrong one.
- The very kind parents of a Finnish colleague who offered to bring me the inflatable bed since the apartment came totally empty. In addition, they were very attentive in preparing as well the kitchen towel, bedsheets, oven gloves, toothpaste just to ensure that I could settle-in comfortably.
- Some friends (and merely these few who cares) that had taken the time to frequently check-in on me just to see if my relocation was fine.
- The water is not as hard as UK and there will be less lime scale to clean.
- The handsome shipment delivery guy who helped me to move my parcels all the way up to my apartment’s floor rather than leaving them at the ground entrance.
- With the convenient and nice coffee machine in the office, I guess I could not escape from being a coffee addict once again.
- The cafeteria in the office building is offering delicious lunch options, and I could finally get a healthier and balance diet.
There is always something new to learn in life and I am certainly blessed with another chance to restart my life. I hope that this move will be a great experience for me and eventually be another wonderful path to shape every aspects of me in becoming a better individual.
