Just me, myself, and my 400lbs of baggage...

I left San Francisco last Wednesday, January 6th, with surprisingly little apprehension besides a bit of concern about how United would handle (and charge me for) my 5 enormous and overweight checked bags. I wasn’t thinking about how I would handle the transition, just how I’d handle the bags myself when I arrived in Helsinki. Turns out this was an unconscious and strategic diversion because, I can tell you that three days later now, it was just the calm before the storm …

I arrived in Helsinki’s Vantaa airport on the evening of January 7th after 20 hours of travel, excited but exhausted. I channeled my very dear Gramps as I looked out the window while landing using one of his famous phrases to describe what I was seeing, “This place is darker than the inside of a dog." Dark, yes, but covered with snow and quite well lit considering it was darker than dark at 5:40pm. For those of you who don’t know, Finland is home to Santa’s actual address and the well lit streets and highways – there’s so much darkness for such a big chunk of the year that the Finns obviously know how to get lighting right – amidst thousands of evergreens and tons of snow seemed to make it a very appropriate choice for Santa. It was quite beautiful, actually, and I was excited to meet my new home city.

I had made it out of my apartment with all my bags, completed all of my to-do’s before leaving the states, said goodbye to (most of) those I had wanted to see before I left, and lasted through 13 hours of flights and a 5 hour layover – this was the homestretch! All I had to do was get my bags through Customs and to the taxi driver on the other side and I’d be pretty much home free. Well, considering I literally had at least 350lbs of luggage to pick up and move through Customs, this was going to be quite a task. I’ve had many people ask me over the years why I would work out so much and with so much intensity, was I training for an event or something? My reply was always that no, I wasn’t training for an event, I just really love moving and being active. It turns out I was wrong all this time – I was clearly training for this very moment and the event of getting all of my bags singlehandedly out the door of Helsinki's airport. I was already exhausted, and was already carrying probably 60-70lbs with me on the plane, so I knew this was going to be a tough one. I grabbed a luggage cart and stood up against the wall in baggage claim to avoid the chaotic mass that was everyone else trying to get their bags. I had forgotten that Europeans are used to less space and, more specifically, less personal space. It was not the first time since I first landed in Frankfurt that I felt crowded and wanted people to back-off (I want more personal space than the typical American even so I’m a bit extreme here). I decided to wait until some of them had cleared out before attempting to get my bags but after 30 minutes of waiting and now watching my bags circle around a few times, I couldn’t take it anymore and had to push my way through…5 times, picking up a larger bag than the previous each time I went back to the belt (the smallest being a 55lb duffle bag). Not only did I have the most bags, I had the 5 largest bags of the entire flight and by about trip 3 to the baggage belt, people had noticed. The good part was that they started parting ways to make room for me and my bags; the bad part was they all stopped talking and started staring….oy.

Next came the task of loading as many bags as I could on the cart. I did this, under the constant stares of most of the people in the area, and managed to muscle 4 of the bags on the cart. In the process I ripped off a fingernail lifting up one of the 75lb’ers and starting bleeding. What a way to begin! I then had to hold my carryon in my left hand while also using it to pull another big bag, and then push the 300lb cart with only my right hand. It was a slow, precarious progression to Customs and all I was thinking was, “I can’t believe I have to unload and reload these bags again.” Turns out that as strict as Finland is about shipped items going through Customs (they do not accept “personal effects” so every shipment must be classified as a commodity to be sold and is then taxed at 22% of the declared value – yikes!...I had to classify some used clothing as “textiles” and pay the tax before I realized what was going on and started declaring low values for Customs), they don’t care at all if you’re dragging it in yourself. So, to make a long story short, there were no Customs and while I was prepared for another baggage battle, I only had to go about 40 yards before I saw a taxi driver holding an “Ostby” sign. When he said, “I can help you with your bags.” I almost kissed him.

The driver took me to the Helsinki BCG office where we met the Office Coordinator, Marika, who has been helping me with logistics and preparations for the past few months. Once we got my bags into my apartment (5 minute drive from the office), Marika offered to take me to the grocery store both so I would know where the closest one was and also so I wouldn’t wake up in the morning with nothing to eat. The grocery store is only about 4 blocks away which is nothing….unless you’ve been up for 30 hours and it is 0°F. We finally make it to the store and Marika proceeds to give me a very detailed tour of the place down to how to choose eggs (a “0” at the front of the stamped number means the chickens are “free” and are fed only “bio-dynamic” feed; a “1” means the chickens are free but don’t have special feed, a “2” means that they care caged but can still move around, and “3” means they cannot really move – Marika recommended I get the “0’s”) and milk (the red one is the “fatty” one, the blue one is the “medium fat” one, the light blue is the “no taste – half milk, half water” one, and the one with stars on it was milked at nighttime when there is “something extra in the milk that is good for you because the cows are calmer when milked at night” (seems a little counterintuitive to me but who knows?) - I went with the US standard, “no taste” skim). We also stopped to look at the pickled fish section - mostly pickled halibut and herring, I think - I haven't tried it yet and am trying to keep an open mind but, I have to say, that stuff looked horrible! Marika told me this is a summer dish though so I have a few months to get used to the idea. Marika was absolutely wonderful to help me out and, considering that everything in the supermarket is written in 3 – 4 languages but very rarely is one of them English, I was very grateful to have her with me for the first trip! Even after this tour and great amount of help from Marika it took me 30 minutes to find the parmesan a couple days later. My efficiency has officially bottomed out.

Marika sent me off to walk my four blocks home and finally went home herself (she had stayed late to meet me and then was sweet enough to take me to the grocery store – so nice!). I proceeded to somehow get lost in below zero weather even though I only had 4 blocks to go. It took me about 20 minutes to get my act together at which point I was cold, even more tired, and really sick of carrying my groceries. (I have had the thought on both trips to the supermarket that I should probably start eating less…just so I don’t have to carry it home from the store!) This was the point at which I reached my low. I was exhausted, overwhelmed, and, suddenly, felt really isolated and alone and proceeded to start crying. I got it together and started unpacking some things in the bathroom and couldn’t find a power outlet…and started crying again (How am I supposed to blow dry my hair?! I can’t exactly let it air dry in this weather! Don’t even get me started on my power toothbrush…). Then I found the sheets for the bed but they had stains all over them and didn’t match. More crying. Then I started noticing how dirty the apartment was – inside of the fridge was gross, dust everywhere, lots of trash left for me to take out, etc. It was nothing that couldn’t be remedied but I just couldn’t quite deal with life at this point. Harder crying. Then I tried to make myself some toast before bed and had to look inside the fridge again (yuck!), there was no bread knife and the others were totally dull, there was no toaster, and the bread I had just bought smelled funny. Louder crying. I finally had to sit down, load up some Skype credits, and call my mom for some phone therapy. God bless Skype and my parents! They collectively kept me off the edge that first night. (Side note – I called my aunt Karen yesterday to say hello and fill her in and after the crying story she said, “Well, you may have gotten yourself in over your head this time!” and then proceeded to laugh. Thanks a lot, Fonda!)

I calmed down after an hour on the phone, during which my parents couldn’t help but laugh as I told them all the ridiculous things that had made me so upset, and then proceeded to sleep for the next 12 hours. (I’m blaming sheer exhaustion for at least a bit of my freak out!)

Day One was sunny (I woke up at 12:30pm) and reached a balmy high of 1°F and Day Two (today) was -6°F at 1pm – yikes! Thankfully, I came well-prepared from the states and had plenty of coats, hats, gloves, and boots (although I will be adding long underwear to my daily wardrobe arsenal tomorrow – jeans just don’t cut it out here in these temperatures!). The arctic air doesn’t seem to be bothering the Finns much but I, on the other hand, just try to make it from building to building. One nice surprise has been that while the sunlight is short-lived, it is bright. We had beautiful blue skies today. Granted, it’s too cold to enjoy them for long but the fact that the sky was bright and the sun was shining was huge for me. And things are looking up on the weather front– it is supposed to be in the 20’s (°F) on Monday and in the 60’s by June.

So, my first few days have been hectic and stressful but that is to be expected. I have found a Catholic church (no idea if the services are ever in English but will try it out), have a gym and a yoga studio in mind to hit tomorrow, and am planning to head to the Marimekko headquarters to replace the stained sheets very soon. Apartment was cleaned (the cleaners which were sent ASAP at my very adamant request finally asked, “Can we go now?” after I had followed them around and made them re-clean several items / areas) and I’ve got new towels (the ones in the apartment were also old and stained) and pillows so I’m feeling much better. It’s amazing what the little things can do for you. I’m still working on beating jet lag, which I’m notoriously bad at handling, and start work in the Helsinki office this Monday. The Finns are quiet per their reputation, and not outwardly friendly on the street, but any that I’ve actually spoken to have been extraordinarily nice, helpful, and down to earth.

A friend asked me yesterday if I liked it here and I replied, “Not yet.” Not yet is fair…but I’m getting there!