It’s incredible to live on my own. It’s so similar to the life I’m used to living, but I don’t have to run around cafés to get work done or just warm up my feet in between meetings. I don’t have to worry about catching the last bus and I can completely shut everything and everyone out when I feel like doing that. I save and incredible amount of money just on eating here and not out, and I don’t have to worry about when and where and how many friends I can have over. I’ve had people here literally every day. On the 30th, when my family drove me and some of my first things, Marie came over and helped me clean the place. On the 31st, Emil and my parents helped me move pretty much the rest of my stuff. Emil and I carried my big bookshelf, a new smaller bookshelf and my new bed all the way up to my 4th floor apartment. I would have just brought my own, but Mom sponsored a new bed since she wanted my old one to be there in case I wanna come over. Which I guess is a pretty smart decision.

Venla came on over to help me and Emil put all my things in their places and building the new small shelf. I asked them, as a joke, to arrange my books in alphabetical order, and so they did. I’ve always taken pride in having my precious books organized, so that was a heart-warming deed. Elina also came over to help out and we all had some fun going through my boxes looking for scissors and tape. Later on (still New Years’ Eve) we went out to get some cheap pizza and Märt tagged along, while Elina left to see some other friends.

Then I kind of left the three of them alone in my apartment (I was supposed to be gone for a bit over an hour) to go surprise Matilda, who turned 21. We had some wine and played some games at their apartment, and I happened to arrive back to my place 3 hours later. At this point, my dear friends had already gotten quite over-refreshed on the beverages I had stored in my fridge. We walked down to the Senate Square (just about 10 minutes from my place!) and took some pictures and celebrated the new year together with 35 000 others.

When we got back from the Senate Square, Mikk, a friend of mine who was visiting from Estonia, came over with 3 of his friends. I finally managed to open my champagne bottle and we celebrated for a couple more hours.

Emppu and I hung out yesterday, visiting Ikea just before it closed and then eating and chilling at my place. Mikk came back to get his scarf before going out with Benkku, a mutual friend of ours, and then they happened to come back later for a glass of wine and just a chill evening. When they (finally haha) went home, there was a cat and a guy sitting on the stairs outside my apartment. The cat had probably been let out from one of the apartments, and the guy was on his way home from visiting a friend in the building. We sat down and talked since we didn’t know what to do with the cat. And after a while, as we had hoped, the owner came out looking for it.

It’s so weird and awesome.

Since I want to remember all these details and either look back and laugh at my foolishness or look back and remember how organized I was back when, I’ll give you a short review of my apartment.

I live on the fourth floor of a quite old building on the corner of Lönnrotinkatu and Fredrikinkatu, a 5 minute walk from the central bus-station and 10 minutes from the Central Railway Station. On the ground floor you’ll find a stripclub, a very local bar and a nutrition store. On the fourth floor you turn to the right and on the first door it says Tuominen. That’s me. They’re gonna change it.

My apartment is 25 sqm and has an okay view to the north-west inner yard. On your left as seen from the door, you can find the bathroom. It’s quite big in comparison to most of the apartments I looked at. My washing machine will arrive on Thursday! If you continue straight through the tiny hallway you arrive in the bedroom, living room, working space, library and dining area. I bought a small white table online and 4 black chairs that I went all the way to Espoo to pick up, alone with the bus. Then on the right I’ve got a tiny little kitchenette with a gas stove and oven. It’s really small and cute and it’s the perfect size for me, but trying to fit anyone else in there is impossible. I get to live here only until August, so I got the rent down to 700 € /month, plus water (20 €/month) and electricity (2.80€/month plus 0.045 € per kWh) and then gas for 10 €/month. That’s about what my salary covers, and then my parents pay for my food and clothes until I’m 18 (mainly because it’s their fault I can’t have any student support from the state). And if I want to do anything fun on top of that, I either have to work more, eat less, use my savings (meant for further studies however, but it’s good to have if my washing-machine breaks or something).