Life on Mars

Time seems to be running through my finger's since I got here. I'm sure it was only a month ago when I got here but the calendar disagrees. It's been 3 and a half months since I got here. The initial culture shock has passed. So has the longest coldest winter for a while, it was minus 15C average in the day from December to the end of February 2010. The odd few milder days but they were few and far between. I have enjoyed the 3 months of snow just as I thought I would. Breaking my toe in January was a bit of a mishap that stopped my learning to cross country ski until late season. Now, I must wait until next winter to learn to skate!

I should really now focus my energy more on expanding my own social circle as the only person here that's not a mutual friend is Irina, from my Finnish course. There's my first thing to resolve, shouldn't be too hard!

I need to find another Finnish course and put more time into learning. At least I am starting to solve this getting up at 8am and I am still motivated to learn. It's actually a very interesting language to learn. Complicated that Finnish words don't translate to English words all the time and you have to translate the meaning not the words themselves. I am quite surprised at how much I have learnt on the course, my word count is definitely a lot higher than it was and now we have a few basic conversation rules! Eero is also proud that I'm learning which is always a good motivation to learn... we also have Finglish, the language I speak when I pronounce something Finnish with English letters. I do love him teaching me stuff though, it's fun.

When I moved here, we did decide there was no need for me to rush into getting a job. So the planned 3-4 months of not working are almost up. I think that would be a good time for me to start to find a job. Just to get out the house, earn some money (my handbag collection needs expanding) and be "normal".

Around seven weeks before I find out if I bet the competition for the master's degree. For once, I am actually unsure. Normally I know if I stand a good chance but in a new country, who knows. Time will tell!

It look's like a busy weekend ahead but I'm not sure it makes interesting reading though but at least it's a record of what goes on here!!!