Jone has landed and trying to cope with jetlag in the big city

Almost a week has passed since I made the long journey to the other side of the globe. The flight went relatively fine considering the length of it. Of course, I didn’t sleep much as usual during flights, but the 9 hours’ time difference took its toll anyway. The knee was ok as I tried to move it every now and then while sitting. In addition, I had isle seat for both flights, so it was easy to get up when needed to stretch more. Originally from the online check-in I didn’t get isle seat for the longer flight but luckily friendly person at the check-in counter got me the aisle seat and in the second floor of the A380 plane.

After the couple of hours of dozing off and number of movies I finally arrived at the destination. I just had to make sure, that I filled the immigration card with great care, so I wouldn’t end up in the TV show Border Security: Australia’s Front Line that is more known to the Finnish audience by “Australian rajalla”. I had some chocolate, nuts and rye bread in the bags, but they should be fine if I’m just honest in the card. I also knew before hand that they are careful not to let any foreign soil getting in the country from the bottoms of the shoes. I had my hiking shoes with me, and they still had dirt from summer vacation Lofoten hike in the bottoms. In the desks that are known from the series, they kindly took the shoes from me and cleaned them up in the backroom. After that I just bought a prepaid sim card for the phone and took a cab.

When I got to the Airbnb place, where I would be spending the first month, there was in addition to the host a very friendly cat greeting me called Blanco.

I settled in and went for an evening stroll into my new home city as I was hungry. Luckily, I got the place a walking distance from the CBD (Central Business District) so it was an easy walk. As I walked amidst the skyscrapers, I noticed that also this city has its typical phenomenon of a big city, homelessness. Many streets had people sleeping on the curb that are called rough sleepers. Those are however just tip of the iceberg as they represent only 7% of homelessness.

Following night, I first slept just two hours as the jetlag was a bit heavy. No wonder as the time in Finland when I got to sleep was just 16. Couple hours awake and then few more sleep. I took the Monday off work as a moving day. I had opened a local bank account already in Finland and just had to go to the local branch to finalize the opening and get a debit card. Moving in the CBD area was made easy as all the trams were free to use.

The four-day work week felt heavy as in the afternoons I had a regular four o’clock afternoon coma, but I managed through it. I also managed to go check out first two inspections of apartment candidates, but I don’t think they hit the mark just yet. I guess the first apartment was a good choice, but it was likely it wouldn’t still be available at the end of the month. Now after six days I feel that the jetlag has been won. I guess now it has finally kicked in that I really am here for a year. Well as some of the rental apartments have 12 months of minimum rental time, it might be that I’ll be here 13 months total.

As I mentioned the friendly cat Blanco, I have found out that it really likes the company. Usually after workdays I have rested in the bed and Blanco comes laying on top of my stomach. 😊