Ponderings on the New Year

For some of you the New Year might conjure feelings of anxiety or bewilderment, or perhaps excitement of new possibilities and new determination towards new resolutions. For me, my only hope for the new year is that it will be LESS INTENSE than the year 2011.

Let me spell it out for you.

January 2011 we receive a phone call from our landlords that they are going to sell our apartment. After months of apartment hunting in fall 2010 we have just decided that since the spring will be so intense, we will put off apartment hunting until the following autumn. Then, amidst dealing with water damage due to snow and ice, we also have to search for an apartment. January 29th, my 27th birthday we find and fall in love with an apartment that we place an offer on. Our offer is accepted. We have also just begun planning for our upcoming wedding in July.

February 2011 after negotiations with banks we sign the agreement and take on mortgages. We become home owners. The radiators in our rental flat stop working, and we are plunged into freezing cold temperatures outside (-30c/-22F) and inside (+11c/52F). We are exiled on the weekends so that our landlords can have viewings all the while sporting an attractive drying device in our living room, while trying to pack. I'm also writing my thesis and trying to finish my last master's studies. L is in the middle of an interview carousel for a new job.

March 2011 doesn't differ much from february, but the pressure to finish my studies builds and it is quite cramped in our apartment due to moving boxes, the drying device and just us. L lands the job.

April 2011 we move in the beginning of the month to our new flat. A day later, while we are still without lamps, with all of our belongings in boxes, L starts her new job. I have less than a month to turn in my thesis. I don't remember much of this month, as I was typing away furiously. I'm attending wedding gown design meetings. And working on other wedding-related things.

May 2011 I barely finish my thesis on time and am able to attend my orchestra's 10-day European tour. I have just a few more weeks to finish my remaining essays. It then turns out I have missed the deadline to submit my request for graduation and am nearly turned down and forced to wait until September. Somehow, the lady on the phone feels really sorry for me (I cry and beg), and she finally gives me the ok. There's wedding gown fittings, meetings with our maids of honor, planning planning and more planning.

June 2011 I graduate at the end of the month, after spending the entire beginning of the month focused on the wedding. Graduation is on June 28th, and only then can I really believe this is over and I finally have my master's.

July 2011, three days after my graduation we have our beautiful wedding. What can I even say. The most beautiful day of our lives and filled with dear family and friends. We manage to take one week off this month until I delve into job applications.

July-November 2011 It's job applications and more job applications and continuing my work as a group fitness instructor at SATS and working in sales at Helsingin Sanomat. I decide that if I don't get a job by the end of November, I'm applying to law school.

December 2011 I move to Sweden for my new job at Studentum.

So that's a few things this year. I'm most looking forward to finally getting a vacation with L and not being so tired all the time.

Wishing all my three readers a Happy Happy New Year 2012!

Week one

I have officially completed my first week of my first real job. And lived to tell about it :)I was absolutely knackered after last week since when everything is new starting from your home, to the city, to the people around you, not to even mention the new job... Can I just say I experienced that: "my brain is hurting" pretty much every day last week. But, there's more to it than just exhaustion:

I think I really like my new job!

After the first few gut-wrenching, blush-inducing, heart-palpitation-causing phone calls, I seem to have relaxed and am starting to understand why people love this place so much. The work environment is very supportive and encouraging, and each time one of the sales reps closes a deal the whole team celebrates. And that is something very wonderful. Today I got my first deals in, and some people from other teams stopped by to congratulate me (even though we compete against each other!).

Our office is all decked out for the holidays, and I swear I'm going to punch something if I hear Michael Bublé's Christmas album one more time... although surprisingly I'm feeling really excited about the upcoming holiday, and not just because of the opportunity to spend a whole week with L.

Stockholm is full of elaborate christmas lights and despite the lack of snow, there's something kind of elegant in the way the city prepares for the holiday. I can't quite put my finger on it, but it's somehow less forcing the commercial crap down your throat and more of decorating the city beautifully (and having a skating rink and giant fir tree at Kungsträdgården near the office) giving you the chance to approach it yourself, in your own time, in moderate sized portions. I feel like I get to turn on my christmas spirit when it feels the best.

A weekend home in Helsinki was restful and in ways only increased my exhaustion. Sleeping in my own bed, next to L allowed for me to relax completely. Once completely relaxed, the full extent of the heaviness of my first week made itself known. Saturday was Mikko's defense for his PhD dissertation and the most fun I have had so far at the fancy evening celebration, karonkka. I am blown away each time by the abilities and brilliancy of my friends! Congratulations!

More to ensue in a few days. But now, to bed!

First post

Background photo from Tripadvisor

Well, I've arrived.

This is the first post in my new blog about my sudden new life in Stockholm, Sweden.

This is how it all happened:

After graduating last June, I started seriously looking for work, but despite my most valiant efforts, no leads ended up being too fruitful. I'll tell you: I got really good at writing job applications. So good, in fact, that I was invited to many an interview. And so, hopeful, I'd preen and perfect my look and did pretty darn well, I thought. Turns out the first interview I went to, which I had thought to have aced, ended up being fruitful after all.

About two months ago I received an e-mail from the regional manager of Studentum.fi, saying they had received my information and CV from the sales manager of their sister site, and that they were also looking for a person to fill their opening for account manager. Stunned that I surely could not have just received a job offer, I called L to see what she said. Her response was: "Great! When do you start"?

Well, this started the interview process: one in Helsinki, one in Stockholm, and then the job was mine! Tomorrow is my first day as an account manager toward the Finnish market at Studentum.fi. Wish me luck!