9 posts tagged “finland 2007”

What decision changed the course of your life? 
Submitted by Ally.

Quite a few major ones throughout my life so far, but a recent one will be this: Moving to Finland.

Well, I'm still in the process of making it happen, but the decision has been made. As for how it will change my life, the story is yet to be told. Stay tuned.

Had a chance to relax and hang out with R2, Henrikki, and Stefan last weekend. Porvoo is a one-hour bus ride east of Helsinki. Aside from some hardware issues (ok, me wearing the wrong shoes...) I had a lovely time. Parts of my memory was erased by the combination of beer, cider, wine and sauna. From what I remember, I had a lovely time. LOL. Anyway, some pics to jog my memory...

Pretty much the theme of my first week here. I think all 4 pics were taken on July 4th.

The flight from Frankfurt to Helsinki was uneventful. I had the window seat again, and in the middle seat next to me was a pretty blond little girl. There was a gentleman in the aisle seat but he wasn't related to the girl. I wondered if she was travelling with someone and it turned out her mom had the middle seat in the row behind us. So I swapped seats with the mom so they could be together. Since all I did was nap-eat-nap on that flight, I didn't mind the middle seat.

Anyway, touchdown Helsinki! I don't know why even though this was my third time in Helsinki airport (well ok fifth time since there are two on each trip), I don't remember much of it. Maybe because the previous two trips I was travelling with other co-workers and we were probably either chatting or rushing. When I'm by myself I tend to slow down and observe more.

(1) Like this wooden sculpture thing in the airport terminal towards the exits. I never noticed it before.

(2) My work is at the Tampere office, so I had to take a train from Helsingin rautatieasema. This pic was taken from a seat on the Pendolino train leaving from Platform 7 that would take me there in less than 1.5 hrs! (usually close to 2 hrs)

(3) Tampereen rautatieasema (railway station). The hotel I'm staying at is right across the street from it. This was taken at MIDNIGHT on my second day here. No, I didn't turn on night shot mode. Yes, it was still quite bright out!

Gosh this is long overdue. I've already been here for almost 2 weeks. Oh well. Better late than never, right? Or is it the other way around?

Before I go on, guess who else is in Finland? Hehe... this is probably old news already considering the speed they travel on the Internet. Stefan surprised (to say the least) the mobile blogosphere with his one-way-ticket to Finland, and made many of us envious (yes even those of us who work for Nokia... or at least me) with his visit to Nokia Headquarters. This guy has guts, and apparently lots of determination and luck. Stefan my friend, I really admire you for what you're doing.

I, on the other hand, am here on a much less grand scale for an integration camp for work. And it's really WORK. Which might explain why I haven't blogged for a while. So anyway, back to the photo story...

(1) Good morning Europe! First light of the day. Beautiful view out my window seat. I think we're approaching Ireland at this point.

(2) Passport control in Frankfurt. It was a crazy, and I mean CRAZY connection. Remember, the flight into Frankfurt was delayed. Plus the connection time was only an hour. Running from one terminal to another, going through security with two laptops... not fun. Tried to capture a video of my journey through the terminals, but I was panting so hard I sounded like.... never mind. Wanted to take more pictures, but they basically came out like the next one:

(3) Blurry! Image stabilization probably won't have helped. Note to self: next time don't wear high heeled boots for short/tight connections. They look great with short tight skirts however.

This is what's delaying the flight. They couldn't refuel earlier when the storm clouds were over the airport.

Image2101

Flight is delayed half an hour. Not good news. Let's see what happens... Stay tuned!

Image2100

Time to get away from the stormy weather in dallas. Guess where i'm going? ;-) Hmm... Hope the impending storm doesn't delay the flight!!

Image2099