Below is a taster for some of the sights I’ve taken in on my first few days in Turku:
If you want to see more, browse to the gallery located here. The gallery also contains photos of my apartment and the street where I live.
On my last official day of employment I had to hand back the Orange C600 Smartphone that Avanade provided me with. This took a lot longer than it should have (grr). Seriously, I could have written everyones phone number down faster than it took to copy my contacts off.
I found that the software I was provided with the phone no longer worked in Vista (ActiveSync) and that ActiveSync had a new name in Vista - Windows Mobile Device Center. But it just does not want to play ball unless you synchronise with Exchange server. I hadn’t updated the settings on my phone since work had changed their e-mail system and I really didn’t want my contacts synced to Exchange in the first place. OTOB the phone didn’t appear to offer any means of exporting contacts. I came across this neat little program called ‘Export Contacts’ (http://www.wm-soft.com/products/export-contacts), but did that solve all my problems? Not quite. It required an updated version of the .NET compact framework to run. This is where I am a bit of a n00b because I’ve never updated the .NET Compact Framework on a mobile device before. It wasn’t until I stumbled across this article on MSDN blogs that I realised I had to find the appropriate CAB file on my computer’s (not my phone) operating system install of an up-to-date version of the .NET Compact Framework .
After copying over and running the appropriate CAB file I was able to run Export Contacts on my phone and successfully exported my contact list to my computer. And, I’m glad I no longer have a Windows Smartphone 
So what about Turku? I am guessing that most of you have never heard of the place until you heard I wrote about it on my blog. Am I right? Some of you may recall I took a trip to Turku in May which I blogged about here. Does it seem at all suspicious now that I went on holiday to Turku before I moved here? 
I may be going over some facts I’ve already covered but anyhow, Turku is a city with a population of about 176, 000 which in Finland, is considered a large city. Turku is officially a bi-lingual city which means Finns are forced to study Swedish in school whether they like it or not. Turku is Finland’s old capital before the capital was moved to Helsinki and is Finland’s oldest University Town. Turun Yliopisto (University of Turku - where I am enrolled) is the second largest Uni in Finland. Although I already have a bachelors degree I’m quite possibly under-educated by Finnish standards because most Finns typically go through to masters level - but that’s OK, I am making up for it now! Other instituations of higher education in Turku include the Åbo Akademi (that’s where the Swedish speakers go!), Turku School of Economics and The Turku University of Applied Science.
Turku is not far from the coast - an overnight boat trip away from Stockholm, Sweden (a trip I’m very much looking forward to doing) and also situation near one of the largest archipelagos in the world. Every year they have a rock festival called Ruisrock on one of the islands.
So how did I end up choosing Turku? The course I wanted to do was offered in two cities: Turku and Tampere. Tampere is perhaps equal distance from Helsinki as what Turku is and is situated inland amongst lates and is well known for it’s industrial heritage. I have never visited Tampere so really, choosing a city was based on what I had read about each city. But I do look forward to visiting Tampere to see if I made the right choice
And as a reminder, if you haven’t seen my photos of Turku yet here is the link to the photos I took from my visit in May.
I have safely arrived in Turku, Finland and have spent my second night here! I flew with Finnair from London’s Heathrow airport on Thursday evening to Helsinki and took a connecting flight to Turku. Turku is about a 2 hour drive/train trip from Helsinki so the flight was only about 20 minutes. We were fed a Nordic-style meal on the flight from London to Helsinki - Meatballs with mash, rye bread and a Fazer chocolate (local Finnish chocolate company). As I arrived quite late, I spent my first night at the Sokos hotel that overlooks the market square in central Turku. The University assigns international students a ‘tutor’ to help acquaint them with life in Finland. My tutor is a lovely Finnish girl named Riina who was kind enough to pick me up from the airport when I arrived. Before dropping me off at my hotel she also gave me a whirlwind tour of the city.
The next morning it was straight down to business. One of the first things I had to do was visit the local Maistraati to register my address details (Maistraati looks after population information). Next I went to a mobile phone shop and got myself a Finnish mobile number. The contract is all in Finnish… I hope I know what I’m signing up for After a coffee break where I sat outside in the warm (yes, warm) sunshine we headed towards TYS (student housing association) to collect the keys to my apartnment and the University so I could register my arrival where I had to provide proof of my previous degree. We took a detour via Riina’s apartment where she gave me a small gift - some kind of herb growing in a pot but I’m not sure what we would call it back in Australia. Setting up a bank was done with ease compared to the UK! Whilst at the bank I also paid my student union fees (85 euros) - the only fees associated with University education in Finland. Tuition is free (yes, free) even for those who are not Finnish!
After obtaining proof of having paid my student union fees I was able to purchase a cheap lunch of only 2e60 from the student cafeteria. For the time being I’m living in a shared apartment in the Räntämäki area of Turku. At the momennt a previous tenant is in the process of moving out who happens to be a non-English speaking Finn which kind of makes life difficult but she seemed pleasant enough when I told her good morning in Finnish Riina took me to Ikea in the afternoon where I spent about 180e on the bare living essentials. I am living in furnished flat but it comes with only the most basic of household items. I have to supply my own mattress, curtains and even light fittings! I had no idea about the light fittings as it’s all too foreign for me so I opted for buying a lamp - and will figure the rest out later.
I attempted to take myself to the supermarket last night but took a wrong turn and realised I wouldn’t make it there before it closed at 9pm so I went to the local kioski/grilli but English wasn’t spoken there and I couldn’t read the menu… but I was at least able to order some hot chips and purchase a couple extra minty Tupla choclate bars and a drink. This morning I managed to go to the supermarket for real! In the supermarket you have to weigh your own fruit and veg and I had to hunt down an English speaking shop attendant to tell me how the system worked. Also the supermarket didn’t appear to have bags so it was lucky I bought a bag with me!
Overall the level of English spoken for most services (eg the bank, mobile phone company and University) is substantial. I think I’m doing OK at making myself understood with the very little Finnish I do know. I made the lady in the bank smile when I told her she shared the same name as my Mum. And another thing which may make it difficult here is that I look just like a Finn according to some Finns I have spoken to so they are going to assume that I can speak Finnish Having a Finnish passport though, has certainly made life easy for me since I arrived. In Finland, all citizens have a personal identity number (which is on their passport) so most of the processes and paperwork I’ve had to do so far have been easily complimented by showing my passport.
I don’t have the internet connected in my room yet but there is a neat system over here when you can use your mobile (assuming you have a contract with a Finnish mobile company) to pay for and access wireless internet. But until I get it connected, I’ll have a limited internet presence.
My last holiday whilst I am still technically employed (other than an overnight stay in Bath - which I will write about later) was 4 days in France with Matt’s parents, Peter & Michele. Unfortunately Matt couldn’t make this trip but it was still a nice opportunity for me to get to know my future in-laws!
The main purpose of the trip from the point of view of Peter was to visit the war grave of Matt’s great grandfather’s (Peter’s grandfather) war grave just out of Lille. So on the first day of our trip we took the Eurostar to Lille and jumped in a hire car and drove out to Trois Arbre Cemetery. From there we drove to Bayonvillers where we stayed in a B&B that was a converted farm.
We spent the next couple days exploring the surrounding areas: The Australian Memorial at Villers-Brittoneux, and the nearby town of Amiens. On the 3rd night of our trip we decided to chance it and took off to the town of Bayeux (not far from the Normandy Coast) and booked ourselves into a random hotel. Much to my delight it had a pool but to much my disappointment it was outdoor, not heated and the weather was windy and cool with the odd shower. In Bayeux we went to the famous Bayeux Tapestry (a some 70 metre long tapestry that depicts the history of events leading up to the Norman invasion of England in 1066) and visited the nearby ‘Ohama’ beach which is well known in history for the D day landings.
Here is the link to the France gallery.
I have booked my ticket to Finland and I am leaving London this Thursday. As my last bit of fun before I leave, David (Tassie) and I have plotted for this Sunday a circle line pub crawl so I hope to see some of you at least one of the stops! Contact me for the details if I haven’t told you about it.
I’m heading to Bath today so I should have plenty of pictures to put up at some point because I also just spent 4 days in France.
Here is the link to the gallery of some photos taken at the London Wetlands Centre in Barnes. Matt and I went there for a day of cute a few weekend ago on a lovely 27 - 28 degree day. The wetlands centre is partially natural wetlands and partially ‘themed’ wetlands area to give visitors a feel for wetlands around the world.
… and like I said there was plenty of cute to be seen!
Today is my last working day of work (I have holidays planned and excused absense after that) and all I feel like doing at the moment is going home and curling up in bed! I’ve had a busy week - firstly with a gig on Sunday night at the Electric Ballroom to see Norwegian EBM (or more precise ‘aggrotech’) act ‘Combichrist’. Fellow Tasmanian Dave joined us and funnily enough we bumped into another Tasmanian, Sam - a guy I knew from uni. It was a great gig, I had a good dance and I’d see them again! On Monday night we caught up with Dave (the British one, not the Tasmanian one) and Karen for a BBQ and met their lovely little newborn girl - Francis. Wednesday night was the Great British Beer Festival! Apparently, the London Linux user group (Lonix) were holding their meet there (way to go!) which is how I heard about it but in the end we got a group together and gave the Lonix crowd a miss. I saw many a geek t-shirt in the crowds. The Beer Festival was held at the Earls Court Exhibition Centre and Dave (Tasmanian) had the cheek to complain about where all the cold beers were… I’m sure my Dad would have been impressed with the selection of ales on offer. There was a range of British food on offer including pies, bangers & mash and pork scratchlings in which I observed with great curiousity as to how something that sounded so bad was so popular - but it was actually pretty good! Matt’s parents, Peter & Michele arrived in London yesterday and we caught up with them last night. Us living in London was incentive for them to take a holiday to the UK and mainland Europe.
So to those who I said we would have drinks on my last day of work, I’m sorry to bail but I’ll make sure to catch up with you before I leave for Finland. I am holidaying in France from Sunday for a few days so I’ll catch up people when I get back.
Before leaving full time work for student life I thought it would be an ideal time to cash in the rest of my benefits from work and purchase a new laptop. As people my know I like to game on the odd occasion so a machine with a good video card was on the cards. I was looking for a machine with an nVidia 8600GT or similar. For the amount I wanted to spend I was comparing to models: The Asus G1sN or the Dell M1530. In the end I went with the Asus G1sN because although the XPS initially appeared cheaper by the time the memory and screen were upgraded to the same as the G1sN, extra years warranty applied (Dell offers 1, Asus offers 2) and accessories purchased the Asus appeared to be the better buy. The other pursuading factor is that my previous gaming laptop was an Asus A6T - and it’s still cranking.
The specs are:
At the time of purchase I was comparing two models of G1sN: AK014C vs AK047C. The latter boasted more memory and larger hard disk drive at a cheaper price except the deciding factor for me was the CPU (the T8300 over the T5750). After doing a bit of reading I discovered the GeForce 9500 GS was much of a likeness with the GeForce 8600 GT.
So how am I finding the machine? Great so far. And being a gaming machine it looks the part with carbon fibre trimming and glowing green panels (Asus Direct Flash - activated during graphic intensive moments)… OK well it looks a bit ricey but the build is very good with the chassis very similar to that of the A6T. It has the Asus Direct Messenger to alert you to messages and events on a little display on the machine to alert you to events (eg IM messages) when you are in game and the accessories include a Logitech gaming mouse and backpack. It set me back £870.
Now for the big question: how does Linux run? The only problem I experienced so far with Ubuntu Hardy Heron was that the drivers for the nVidia 9500 GS have only just been released and I couldn’t get Ubuntu to run with the drivers active (I would get a blank screen after loading). This is something I will look into further…
By the way if anyone is looking for a nice second hand laptop that runs World of Warcraft quite nicely my A6T is for sale. It’s still a perfectly good laptop, only reason I’m selling is because I wanted to upgrade before I left work.
Here is a photo of a piece of work by well-known graffiti-artist Banksy taken whilst Matt and I sat at the Blue Posts pub in Newman Street, in London’s west end. This particular piece is inside the Royal Mail grounds. This particular day Matt came shopping with me in Carnaby, a famous shopping street in London. All of these places are in close proximity to where I work in Soho. Perhaps I’ll take a photo of where I work before I leave!
