The smallest thing
After my first day touring Helsinki, I tried to focus on achieving a few necessary tasks. Luckily my jet lag means that I’m up bright and early, with plenty of time to complete such tasks.
So my second morning I decided to start with a much needed coffee. I walked into the kauppahalli, and was immediately bamboozled about the coffee-purchasing process. There were 3 separate counters with different signs hanging over them. So I decided to return later after completing a different small task: opening a bank account.
At the bank, the lady managed to explain that I couldn't get a bank account until I had a job or a university place or a government payment approved.
So I went to Kela (like Centrelink).
I walked in and found that no signs were in English. I found a computer with a screen full of Swedish and Finnish. I clicked on the little FI button (that often gives you language preferences), but that button seemed to be for decorative purposes only. I stood in the middle of the room. I turned around. I looked at signs in Finnish. I looked at signs in Swedish. I felt confused. Finally another person walked in, and pushed a button on a machine, received a little piece of paper with a number and got buzzed into an office. I copied her.
At Kela the lady managed to explain that I couldn't get Kela until I had visited the unemployment office.
At the unemployment office the lady managed to explain that I need to fill out a form on a computer.
I started filling out the form with many typos thanks to the slight, but important(!) differences between the Finnish and English keyboard. A few painful form fields later, I hit a snag. I needed to write my email address. Could I find the @ symbol anywhere on the Finnish keyboard? I could not. I did not want to have to stand around waiting for a person so that I could ask where the @ symbol on a keyboard is. I laboured through the rest of the form. I returned to the email problem. I finally found the @ symbol on a random key and mashed the keyboard a bit until I figured out what key combination makes the @ symbol appear.
I finished completing the form just before the office closed. So I ended my very uncaffeinated day having successfully (I think) told the unemployment office that I don't have a job ... and they have my email address to contact me.
Multiply this day’s experiences by 2.5, and you’re basically up to speed with my Helsinki experience up until Thursday afternoon by which time my canvas of emotion is dominated by frustration with highlights of anxiety. After my fails, my frustrations, my lack of grace in the face of bureaucratic adversity, I found the one small thing to turn me back to a state of unfettered optimism: I found my shampoo.
Call me vain or materialistic, (you may well be right), but for years I've battled to find the right combination or hair products to sooth my crazily itching scalp, minimise the persistent dandruff, smooth out my matted tangle and perhaps not destroy the environment. In 2014, I had finally landed on the right combo with the aid of a South Australian brand of products. With shipping to Finland costing $40 per kilo, I had accepted that a move to Helsinki meant starting this search from scratch. And yet today I found a store selling that South Australian shampoo. I made my purchase and took a few moments to sit with my inner peace and gratitude at Temppeliaukion kirkko.
Temppeliaukion kirkko - Church of the Rock
