Sentenced announced the “funeral tour” about 10 months ago – after more than 13 years the band would eventually split up. The first record was released in 1992, and in 1998 (after a new singer joined the band and the old one left) the record “Crimson” was released (and was given to me by Thomas as birthday present: thank you!).
This was my first contact with the band, and a few weeks after getting my driver’s license, Thomas and me drove to Austria to see Sentenced in concert – it was the first tour with the new singer (and we met him at the toilet without recognising him).

The concert was the last out of three in Helsinki, and there are only 5 more to come (all in Finland, the last two in Oulo, where the band comes from). First a few words on Finish concert culture: The place called Tavastia opened at 9pm, so we were there at 9, and nearly alone. The concert hall opened at 9.30, and we ran into the hall to get good places, but all the Fins just sat down at the chairs, drinking beer and smoking. So we sat down, too, and waited.
Till 10.00.
Till 10.30.
Till 11.00.
Meanwhile we talked to some people who said that concerts usually don’t begin two hours after opening, which normally means 11pm…
and then it started :-)

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The university of Helsinki has ~10 so called UniCafes in the centre of the city (there’s really no place from where it takes more than 5 minutes to the next UniCafe), and a meal there costs 2,35 Euros. Let’s see what I took today:

1) The “main” meal: potatoes, zucchini, aubergines, olives, in a spicy tomato sauce. Tasty, quite much, simply good.
2) A glass of water and a glass of juice. Yammy …
3) Salad. A full plate of salad. And if you want more, just take some more. You have different salad ingredients, just take want you want.
4) Bread, you can probably choose between around 6 different types of bread. Just take what you want, and as much as you want.
5) Butter/Cheese: You want something on the bread? Self-made garlic butter? Cheese? Just take it. As much as you want.

For 2,35 Euros.

PARADISE!

EDIT: I totally forgot to mention, that you can – of course – take as much potatoes or rice as you wish …

So here is the promised video (85 mb!!!, quicktime, really bad resolution).
That’s my flat. 4th floor, room 405. 17 squaremetres, I already bought some basic equipment for cooking and eating, most things at IKEA or the fleamarkets in Helsinki. See my cool teapot? 1 euro. Or the small plates? 2 euros for all 4 of them :-)
For some reason, I have those scary and terrifying monsters in the bathroom, and I’m somehow not able to get them off the walls… no idea what to do about them (I hate them, and fear they come for me in the night …).
The curtains are terrible, let’s see if I can burn them down without damaging the other furniture. And I have started to collect pizza box, let’s see how much I can eat in 4 months …
And I did this video on very tough painkillers (Ibuprofan 800, which is an elephants’ dose for a broken leg or something), and yes, I know it’s weird and psychedelic.

I’m a little bit ill, but due to the painkillers I feel somehow better than before. University started today, I had my first course in medieval history, quite interesting.
I also booked my trip to St. Petersburg and Moscow, and I will go to Tallin in 2 weeks with a mate who lives here in Helsinki.

Bah, going to sleep now.

I came here over a week ago, and some things happened meanwhile.
First of all, the university life here seems to be great! You are free to go to whatever courses you like, I personally think everything is quite organized, the computers are great, the housing is perfect, and Finns use to party a lot. I found out that one of the reasons for my disliking of bigger parties is the bad music – here, in Finnland, even in the normal pubs and bars they play Iron Maiden, Nightwish, and even really really hard stuff :-), which means that also on student parties the music is more rock/metal than other things.
We had orientation courses this week, every day about 5 hours, gathered a lot of information, were assigned to tutor groups, and even have by now several mobile phone numbers of Finnish contact persons who we can call in cases of questions.

The Finns I met are very open minded, polite, and not reserved at all. I saw extremely many (compared to Munich, and even compared to Leipzig) strange people, dressing really unusual (which seems to be usual here) – strange and weird colours, hairstyles, clothing.

Helsinki, at least the center, is rather small, thus the orientation is by now fairly easy, I even know (how to write …) most of the street names. The accomodation is, as I wrote earlier, very very good, and my “buddy” list (columns: name, room number) is growing from day to day. I had to force myself the first days to “party” a little bit, but in the end it was really funny. There are so many different people from different cultures, there is so much to talk and to do … I already bought concert tickets for Sentenced, Children of Bodom, and today I bought festival tickets (7 euros for 5 bands: Ensiferum, Kiuas, Omnium Gatherum, Elenium, Collarbone). I already have at least 4 people who are really into going concerts and will join me in these occasions mentioned above.

What else? I bought a crappy (really crappy) bike for 20 euros, which is … to be honest … really cool :-). The food here is more expensive than German food, but compared to Norway it is slightly cheaper (~ 25%). Helsinki itself is not a “beautiful”, but a very cultural city with lots of things to do.

I have a new mobile phone number, btw. Write me an email if you would like to know the details; when I arrived here I bought a prepaid card, no costs (costs the same amount that it has money on it), and you pay incredible 6 cents per message, to every country in the world, and 16 cents per minute to Finnish numbers (does not matter if mobile or not). I have done most of the official stuff (post office, magistry, alien police, bank account, unicard etc.), and tonight there is … of course … a party.

I will try to post a quicktime video of my flat soon.

worth living today:

You have been accepted as an exchange student according to a bilateral
agreement with our universities.
Congratulations on your student exchange placement! Attached you will
find your Acceptance Letter in an electronic format.

Rocking :-)