May 29th and 30th
I didn’t do much my first weekend in Tampere. I purchased basic things like cleaning and kitchen supplies, along with bed sheets and a towel. I also bought a SIM card for my cell phone. One interesting thing I noticed is that in the shopping place in Hervanta, where I live, there are three different supermarkets right next to each other. All two are comparable in price and product selection (K Supermarket and S Market) with one budget place (Lidl). I still can’t understand why three different supermarkets are within a 30 second walk within the same building…
May 31st
I was not sure if I started working on Monday or Tuesday, so I decided to go to the university around 9am. I had absolutely no idea where I was supposed to go, so I found the information center and ask where a certain professor had his office. He was the only person I knew about. When I arrived to his office, I saw a note that he was on vacation and would be back the next day. I wasn’t going to let the day go to waste, so I knocked on office doors next to his until someone knew about me. Two researchers knew I was working on their project and showed me around the university.
One other interesting thing I noticed was how early people have lunch at the university. My colleagues and I went at 10:30am! After that, I filled out some more papers and went to the bank to open an account so I could get paid. I also went downtown to get myself a bus card, so I don’t have to pay €2.50 for every bus ride. With the card, which is pre-loaded with cash, it only cost me €1.10 since I am under 25 years old.
I had talked with my co-workers about going orienteering in the afternoon, so I changed clothes at home and walked back to the university. After driving for a while, we parked and each bought our own map. I decided to do the 5km route, since I did not have a compass and was following a co-worker. The other one was doing the 7km… The route was in the forest, which is much thicker than I expected, and filled with mosquitoes and mud. I had a great time! I just wish I had pants, instead of shorts, and a long sleeve shirt to avoid the mosquito bites.
June 1st-5th
The rest of the week was not as eventful as Monday. I met with the two Finnish girls that are organizing events and helping foreign trainees out for the summer. They were really nice and the other trainee (A girl from Austria) and myself around the city center. On Friday we went walking around Pyynikki, which is a sort of park area near one of the lakes. It has a sort of tower in the middle, which we went up and looked around. We also had some sort of local pastries which were really good.
On Saturday, I went walking around the local public market and found a few shopping centers in the city center. I also found one of the movie theaters and watch the movie Harry Brown, which I enjoyed.
Photo of part of the city from the top of the tower at Pyynikki.
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