I actually happen to have a friend like that here in Finland. If I would not have met her in the very beginning, when she barely spoke any Finnish, I would not have believed what she could do already after 3 or 6 months. After 9-12 months her Finnish probabaly surpassed mine and she was speaking fluently. Regarding the accent I'm not so sure. I think after one year she didn't study it that intensely anymore, but well.. she could already speak by then.
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Travelling from Germany to FinlandI had chosen the option of taking the train+ferry because of all my luggage. I had (rough) made a calculation for both ways together* that resulted in the ferry being around 150€ cheaper than a plane due to the amount of luggage. (Two suitcases, one of them weighting more than 23kg).
*Booking one-way plane tickets is so much more expensive, that comparing only one-way tickets would have led to an even larger difference.
So at the first train station the escalator I needed was broken. Luckily someone offered me their help, when I was trying to get up the stairs. (You basically need two hands to get the heavier suitcase up the stairs, so it was pretty obvious I needed help.)
The first train was of course delayed, half of the wagons had a broken air condition and therefore were closed for passengers. But I had estimated such a delay when booking the ticket, so I didn't have to worry. There was only one wagon left for disabled people and bicycles (meaning there's more space where one can also put some luggage) and I was a bit worried that this might be completely overcrowded, but it was okay. I could a least sit comfortably on the floor and later even got a seat. (I remember situations, where there wasn't enough space for people to sit on the floor.) Surprisingly I felt quite relaxed in that train.
The second train and the bus to the ferry were not making any problems.
On the ferry it was extremly windy, making eating outside rather difficult, but inside there weren't really any good places to eat your own food either. So this resulted in a small discussion with some crew member (note: my Finnish skills decline immediately when I'm feeling stressed). I'm still considering to make a complainment to the company, not about the crew member, but about the fact that there's pretty much no suitable space left. (They had changed the interior a bit since I took the connection the last time. Back then the situation
was better, plus it wasn't so windy, but that's not the company's fault.)
But the other passengers were nice. No incidents here. In total I spend a lot of the time inside the sauna and the whirlpool, because there's not much one can do otherwise. (And in contrast to food on board, this is always included.)
Not so much to say between the arrival at the harbour and the flat. I already wrote something about the afternoon/evening.
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Now I signed my work contract, had a visit at the registration office and got a tax card.
Did all that in Finnish.**
I didn't feel stressed and got answers to all my questions. Especially the person at the tax counter was really helpful.
Btw. it was interesting to see, who was talking in Finnish to the officials and who used English.
** Except one official telling me immediately in English that she was busy. (She obviously was.)
Later I kind of ran into my new flatmate again and really had struggles finding all the words in English, they only came up in Finnish and maybe German (unfortunately the flatmate doesn't speak Finnish).
What about the feel? It's like being welcomed to a big nice family, that is not stressing you out, but supporting you. I feel home again. There's also the smell, the birds singing and the sea nearby. My heart is telling me, that this is just right thing here.
I'm really looking forward to how my first work day will be tomorrow.