visit europe

I’m in Finland! :)

Just wanted to tell you, since I have a few faithful subscribers, that if you want to hear about my trip, check out Emilia’s page because we’re mostly doing our little updates on her page. In fact, she’s the one writing everything. And you know how well she writes. :)

I haven’t looked at my subscriptions page for 5 days now, so sorry to you all if I didn’t leave any cheers or comments. I’ll have some catching up to do at some point for sure. For now, you can get the main idea of what it’s like when you reunite brother and sister in Finland, and add some really cool people around, like Tiina, Antti and Juho (for now, because there is still Laura and Sanna to come), on Emilia’s page.

And please, comment!!! :D

^{Picture by sweet honey Emilia.}

I thought that weight would be a problem when it came to my luggages. But damn! I’m like 8 kg under the maximum for my checked luggage, and I’m not even talking about my backpack! It’s light like a feather!

Everything is ready now. The only things left to do now is to wake up tomorrow, have a 5 hours long drive to Montreal and get to the airport.

... and I am getting more and more nervous every passing day.

Which is not that nervous. Or maybe I just don’t show it. Because I do feel like I’m pretty nervous!

I’m super hyper excited!!!!!!!!! :D

Quebec to Finland

So, I will be leaving Montreal from Pierre-Elliott Trudeau airport at 21:45 (local time) on August 2.

I am arriving at Heathrow airport in London at 09:05 (local time) on August 03, and will spend 9 hours in the British metropolis!

Leaving London from Heathrow airport at 18:05 (local time).

Arriving at Helsinki Vantaa Airport at 23:00 (local time) on August 03.

Finland to Quebec

Leaving Helsinki Vantaa airport at 14:10 (local time) on August 23.

Arriving in New York, at JFK airport at 15:50 (wow, not even two hours to cross the Atlantic! No wait… local time.) and will wait there for a bit more than an hour.

Leaving New York at 17:05 for Montreal. I should be at Pierre-Elliott Trudeau airport around 18:45.

Now, we know that there’s no turning back. I AM going to Finland! :)

^{Sorry Emi if I didn’t text you, but it’s 5 in the night where you are right now, and I’m pretty sure you’re sleeping. I’ll text you tomorrow morning if you haven’t commented on this. :)}

So, tomorrow night I’m gonna print those prices for the interesting flight I’ve found. It’s a flight with Finnair, very unexpensive, with a transit through London. I’d be able to spend 9 hours in London (and meet Gemma! Yay! :P).

And it’s much less expensive than the first flights I checked with KLM, or Northwest Airlines, or Air Canada, etc…

So, the most unexpensive flight, in addition of a very interesting transit, equals VERY INTERESTING!!! :D

So I’m printing them tomorrow night and I’ll visit the travel agent my parents refered me to Monday afternoon. If she can make the same flight be even less expensive, or find something as interesting for less expensive, I will consider it. If not, I’m buying those tickets from the Finnair website.

In either cases, the tickets will be bought this week. :)

I will probably buy my plane tickets next week. :)

Only two months left. :)

I’m more and more excited every passing day. I’ve been planning a lot lately, and budgeting, and I know that there are still many things to plan. Like… I feel safe about Tampere and Jyväskylä because I know I have a place where to sleep in both cases. About Helsinki, I don’t know…

Also been budgeting about how much I need to bring with me. I don’t want to bring too much, but I do want to bring enough so that I don’t have to worry. What’s bugging me a bit is that I have no idea of the life cost in Finland. Tiina kindly gave me some information about the prices for transportation, trains and buses between Helsinki and Tampere and Jyväskylä, and boats to Tallinn. That helps. On the other hand, I know Emilia has a LOT of ideas and projects in her mind and for now I have no idea what they are, so it’s a bit more difficult to plan on this too. But I’m starting to believe that if I bring around 900 euros I should be okay. Makes me spend an average of around 300 euros a week, which seems to be a lot.

I also need to start thinking about what kind of gifts I’m gonna bring for my Finnish friends, and what kind of souvenirs I’m gonna bring back for my family. Some experiences not that long ago made me realize it can be sometimes difficult to choose a souvenir for someone… ^{Ask Emilia about it… :P}

First of all, I want my vacation time set and official, and it will probably be done this week or early next week.

Today, I met one. I’ve been drifting between thoughts and frustration all evening long.

There is no problem about the trip, so let’s not worry. It’s just about the length of it. I asked for three weeks plus two days (23 days off work) so that I could visit Finland. My boss told me today that I could get two weeks maximum.

I didn’t know what to think exactly, especially that she sent me this information by e-mail, instead of telling me on the phone. I had dinner with my parents and told them about it. My parents are… like the complete opposite of me, and sometimes it’s a good thing. I’m just way too calm sometimes, too quiet, and they have the strenght of character. My mother got completely furious, because she knows I’m working extremely hard so that my plans all succeed, and that I’m also giving myself at 100% in my job. There is also the fact that whenever my bosses leave on a vacation (they are a couple), it’s pretty usual that they will leave together for like 2 weeks, and then I end up not having a single day off work for 15 days. And do I bother? No. Do I say anything bad about it? No. What do I tell them, when they return?

Something like “So, did you enjoy it? How was it? Tell me about it!”

But I NEVER FUCKING COMPLAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I’m sick of seeing people taking advantage of me, as I’m working my ass off just to please everyone! I’m sick of being the kind guy who sacrifices himself all the time! Whenever my bosses ask me to work when I’m supposed to have a day off, I always say yes! Sick or not, feeling well or not, tired or not, it doesn’t fucking matter! I’m always present. They know they can count on me!

And what do I get once I ask something? Pfff… shit.

She says she’ll have to hire someone else if I take a vacation. She never hired anyone when SHE takes her vacations! No, she just makes us work like slaves, and we never complain! But hey, my boss would never work a weekend. Nooooo!!! That’s not human, she can’t do that. Who works the weekends? The stupid guy with the shading glasses, he’s so naive, he does everything we ask him.

Now, the reason why she says I can have two weeks, is because she convinced the part-time employee to work two weeks full time during August. She can’t go for three, though. And she would NEVER work a few hours more for a week, noooo…

Fuck! If she had to ask me something similar, I wouldn’t even hesitate and I’d say yes, to help her! A favor, that’s all! What do I get in return, when I need something?

I’m gonna talk to her this week. I fucking want my three weeks, and I’m gonna get them. With all the overtime hours I worked, I’d be able to have four weeks if I wanted! But I won’t, because I know it’s completely abusive. I don’t want to put her into trouble… but then again, maybe I’m just a bit too kind.

Ahhhh… I don’t know. Reason, emotions, reason, emotions…

And I asked for my three weeks!

It’s not confirmed yet, and can’t be. The problem is that if I’m leaving for that much time, she will have to hire someone else as a temporary/partial employee. And once I’m back, I’ll see my number of weekly hours a bit diminished. Which is not very interesting.

There is one possibility though that Danielle, a part-time employee, might be able to work a bit more in August, but it’s hard for her to know that early. My boss will ask her if she might be able to kind of reserve this time for the business, but there is nothing sure yet.

I’ll know more in the next few days. There are no other problems though and if she absolutely has to hire someone else, it’ll be my decision if I accept to work a few hours less a week or not. So far, I think I still prefer leaving for three weeks. But, we’ll have to see.

I removed those that were too expensive. I still keep the whole list though to check later, maybe they will have some flights for less expensive in a couple of months. Who knows? But for now, these here are the ones that look the best.