Advertisement
Published: January 29th 2006
Tupa Kuusitoista!!
In other words, "Room 16!!" Most of the other guys in my room are about 20 or so. They're a good bunch, my bed's on the left near the window, top bunk.I'm really not sure how to start writing this journal. Right now I'm in Finland, and due to my Finnish citizenship, doing 6 or so months National Service in the Finnish Navy. Yeah, I know, it sounds kind of random if I hadn't told you already.
So yeah, I got here about 3 weeks ago. The trip took about 50 hours, I had to stay overnight in Darwin on the way, such a pain. I also managed to pick up a stomach bug and a case of diarrhea on the way though, I think it was from some water at Bangkok airport, but you never know. I spent the weekend at a friend's house in Riihimäki, about an hour drive north of Helsinki. It was great to have somewhere to recover and people that I knew around me. I had a pretty rough start when I got to the base on Monday. Apart from the stomach bug, I was jet lagged, tired from the trip, freezing and had no idea what anyone was saying. That was before I even had to deal with the culture shock of being in the military and trying to get use to the regimented lifestyle
Elke's Hostel - Darwin
I stayed here overnight on the way to Finland. While I was there it rained like I haven't seen in a long while, the drenching downpour you only get in tropical areas. It was a bit of a shock going from the heat of summer in Darwin to the cold of winter in Finland. that they have here.
I swear, this is the last time I ever put myself in this sort of situation. They say that whatever doesn't kill you only makes you stronger; well I don't care. Give me a nice soft life and I'll be content. I'd quite happily trade this for Northern California right now.
Ok, so enough complaining. We have been doing some pretty interesting things here, the kind that you really don't get to do anywhere else. For the first week we basically did a lot of boring basic education about military life, like learning a lot of rules, how to march and what the commands meant. We also collected our rifles from the armory, they're essentially AK-47's made in Finland that are more accurate and made to work in very cold weather. So they've taught us how to clean and look after them, load the magazine, shoot accurately and so on. I can pull it apart now in about 5 seconds and put it back together in about 15.
We've been to the shooting range a couple of times, learnt how to throw hand grenades, set anti-tank mines, fire a bazooka, the usual stuff!
The local winter rally.
The day I arrived we went and watched a local rally for a little while. They were driving to fast for winter roads in my opinion. When I got home that afternoon, I was feeling a little off, then started vomitting etc. Not good. This week just gone we've spent more time doing fitness training, like hiking, exercises etc. Last week it was about -20 or so here, which was cold even for people who live here, but now it's a much more comfortable -2 or so, nice and balmy.
For the first 8 weeks we have basic training, which everyone does. Then we move to a specific area and stay there for the remainded of the time. I'm still not sure where I want to go, right now anywhere indoors sounds good, but it should be warming up soon, I hope. So then this should all look a lot more attractive.
I'm also looking for an apartment in Helsinki at the moment. The military pays for it so I have somwhere to stay off-base on the weekends. So if anyone's coming though Scandinavia in the next while, let me know, hopefully I'll have a place for you to stay. I'd write more but honestly, I'm too tired right now. I'll try and get some more interesting photos from around the base over the next while.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.071s; Tpl: 0.014s; cc: 11; qc: 32; dbt: 0.0363s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Annette B.
non-member comment
Who wouldn't want to live in North California!!