Csabi in Finland

Yesterday I finally signed my contract, I work 8 days in December and then I work full-time from January. Today I started the administration, at 8 I was already in the city. Please see this table for how successful I was in different offices.

All these are located in Helsinki center, I ran between venues as walking in -15C (during the day) is not comfortable

Name	Time spent	Plus/Minus		Surprising
Immigration Police	I arrived 10 minutes before opening, and had to stand outside in the -17 degrees, then inside it was my turn immediately, and I took 48 mins for them ...	+ Finally I got a paper which I could use to apply for personal ID - They did not register me properly because I do not have an address		When I said I at the moment stay at a friend's place in Espoo, she said in this case she will forward my application to Espoo immigration police and I can go there next week ... funny :)
Population register (Maistraatti)	No waiting time, procedure took about 15 mins	+ Everything is fine, and the woman was kind (and more cooperative than the police officer) - It will take two weeks to get my ID number :(		She checked my employer in the computer and did not find, but then on phone they clarified the situation with my employer, so it's ok
Vero (Taxation office)	10 mins wait, 10 mins process	+ Everything will be fine, but just after I have my ID number - As after 15th of Dec they issue new tax numbers for 2013, I can expect a huge queue on that week		There is customer service employee in Finland who speaks poor English
Sampo bank (Danske Bank)	20 mins wait (my number is 20 and when I entered it was 18, so I did not expect it, but i had time :) )	+ I have a bank account, and my the end of next week I will have a Visa Electron with a nice Finnish bird flying on it - I will have internet bank only after 3 salaries arrive to my account		There are three: 1. I got some gummy bears 2. She asked really a lot, just for statistics I suppose but still: education, family, savings, future plans, etc. 3. Not having an address was not a problem for a second

The administration will only really continue after receiving my ID number. Hopefully I will still have some days before going home for christmas, to do the tax number, the social insurance (KELA) and the housing application, although it seems that for January it's better if I find an alternative solution for housing. I am working on it.

Firstly I am awfully sorry my dear readers for the delay, it's not that I don't have time to write or I don't like to write, absolutely not, but in fact there is not much to write about at the moment. About the work, we fixed that I start working on the 10th of December, but only for two weeks because then it's Christmas (I already bought quite many presents btw., I have nothing to do and visiting CityMarket is a good way to kill time, especially that it's 40 mins walking away). I think I will go home for Christmas on "land" (Eurolines + train + ship (goes in the same level as land is :) ))

On Tuesday I will sign my contract, then I will have a bureaucracy-trip of visiting 3 different offices to get and give different papers. I hope I will make it in a day. And then, hunting for a flat not more than 750 euros and not more than 10kms away from my work (8 months a year I want to commute by bike).

Since Thursday it's quite snowy weather, for most of the time it's snowing lightly, and there is already about 20cms. Pictures taken in Espoo, mostly by Attila.

Only one more thing to mention, that for the first time in the history of our Stiga table hockey, Attila today beat me by the score of 9-7. And the worst in it is that I played well, just he is also getting to play well. :)

Let's don't play with your valuable nerves dear reader, I tell you the news of the week (month, maybe year), I will be an employee of Mapos Ltd (Oy) in Helsinki. From what time, well, this is a good question, next Thursday we are going to discuss with Eero, the development leader of Mapos. The company is in the center, near the western harbor, where ships to Tallinn depart from.

The company is making a system for organizing marketing campaigns and making reports about them, as I know I will be the first non-Finnish employee (but I am not sure). Their main (or most notable) customers are Nokia and Fiskars.

Next Thursday I will go and discuss the details, and then I go to police to register and to Maistratti to get personal ID number, and then (hopefully all these will happen in 2 days) I can apply for a flat. I will do it at Sato, a company where the deposit is only 250 euros and the rent contract can be canceled at any time (this makes me feel good, that if for some reason it turns out that the flat is not good, or there is a much better one available, I don't have to live in it for a whole year like with other companies).

That's it for now, until Thursday I get familiar with ColdFusion what Mapos is using as a platform, and maybe I also make a simple homepage for Julia's fathers company in Drupal (although he is not sure that he wants it :) ). Today I bought some christmas presents in Citymarket, there are cool discounts for some specific - typically useless, but not always - items. Of course all I bought are the exceptions :)