In four days time I am moving to Helsinki. In two days time I am going to Edinburgh for 24 hours. Yesterday, I returned back to the UK after 3 months in Mongolia. Am I ready to go? The short answer is no, and its kind of scaring me now.
Before today, Helsinki was just something that was happening in my life in the future. I've been doing a project with the Edinburgh Global Partnerships (EGP) society all summer which has taken me from Moscow to Beijing and back, hence the reason I haven't really paid that much attention to anything about Finland. My mum has luckily taken care of all of the admin and postal issues for me!
Yesterday I found out that I'm actually homeless until 1st September, which seems ridiculous considering international students have to arrive between the 23rd and 25th August. My mum has known for about two weeks but "didn't think it was a big deal" so didn't let me know whilst I was away. It turns out the university rents out my accommodation for June, July and August so I have to stay in a hostel until that is over. For which they are charging me 170 euros a WEEK, when I am only paying 300 euros a month from the 1st. And the 170 is for a shared room, if I wanted a private room I'd be paying in excess of 400 euros for the week. My seemingly complicated arrival in Edinburgh two years ago now appears perfectly acceptable.
Today I found out that hardly any of the courses I was assured would be running this academic year are actually running. At least, thats what I assume, but as the site keeps crashing I don't know for certain. If this is the case, my limited choices have become mandatory "options" as the anthropology selection gets smaller and smaller. I'm hoping that this can be sorted out when I arrive though, as we have a 6 hour (!!!) session scheduled with a tutor.
Right now it feels like tomorrow I will find out that the University of Helsinki is actually closed for the next academic year, given that I don't have a place to live or any courses to take!
On the positive side of things, to follow on from my last entry about feeling British and European- I think I found my Britishness at the Olympics. I have been in Beijing for the last week with the Union Jack on my face and my flag flapping everywhere. Having now sung the national anthem twice in 15 minutes when seeing the UK win 2 golds in the track cycling, I can safely say I have never felt prouder to be British than I did then. Which seems a great way to start an Erasmus year!
