Day 25 Business ideas in Finland

Coming up with new business ideas is one of my favourite things to do, when I am on the bus, when I have nothing to do and when I am alone in my room. I have always thought that foreigners in a country may do particularly well in making money off the local people because they always seem to have a newer perspective to things that seem routine to locals.

Here in Helsinki, I have come up with some business ideas, they are for fun, of course!

"Slippery road ahead" sign

Roads here are super slippery! especially when you enter an indoor area and there is melting snow right on the edge. Seriously, I have slipped like multiple times in situations like this, and funny enough, I have yet to see a single "slippery road ahead" sign here! Making these signs may not be possible because I will have to compete with factories in China that most likely employ child labor. But still, I can buy cheap from those Chinese factories and sell them here. I bet like every single store here needs one of these!

Diet food

Here in Helsinki, I don't really feel the diet craze. The Fins eat carbs, like lots and lots of carbs here, e.g. bread, pasta, rice and potatoes. In school cafeterias, you can take as many pieces of bread as you like in a buffet-style table. Oh, and they love butter as well, like lots and lots of butter! Funny enough, if you go grocery shopping, even in the city centre, you rarely see any diet products there.

So I am thinking of starting my own health brand here, it will be much like the US's weight-watchers or something. I will also have my first-mover's advantage too (haha, that's business school for you, I know all these fancy words!). just an idea. People here are not obese or anything, but the idea of dieting is something you can embark even when you are stickly thin!

I will leave the two ideas here, and more to come! but I don't want to bore you with it!

Day 24 Snow sledding day!

I love the snow.

I love it when it is snowing. I love it when it is on the ground. I love it when the wind blows it onto my face. I love it when it gently falls onto my jacket. I love it when I walk on it. I love it when I run on it. I love it when I roll on it. I love it when I fall on it. I love it when I lay on it. I love it when I make snow angels out of them. I love it when I kick a heap of them and feel how soft and light they are. I love it when they stick onto my glass window and make tiny snowflake shapes. I basically love everything about the snow, absolutely everything, even when they become all muddy on the road. I STILL LOVE THE SNOW!

To further embrace the snow, we went snow sledding today. And it was so fun and awesome!

(photo: this is me sliding down! WooooHOOOOoooo! I went for the head-down style, it was AWESOME!)

(photo: weather today was not that good, no blue skies or anything, but still, this is one of the prettiest scene from the top of the slope.)

(photo: I am always speechless here. Why? because everything is just so perfect here, and every single day I am just so grateful that I am here! I believe attitude is the key to feeling good, I am quite relaxed here, that is why I am always happy!)

(photo: I looked up the sky as I was taking the photo above me, and I find this flock of bird flying by. I captured the moment.)

(photo: This is my first lottery ticket here. As the Chinese saying goes, "you don't know if you are lucky if you don't gamble". This is not gambling, I am trying my luck!)

(photo: I met up with my apartment-mates for a dinner cook-out! We initially wanted to go to the Asian market by taking Tram No. 6 (can take no. 9 as well, heading left of the Central Railway Station), but it closes early on Saturday. We then met up for dinner. I cooked some broccoli with garlic and mushroom stir-fry! It was delicious, I am starting to like cooking!)

Day 23 A day in art galleries

Weather in Helsinki has been extremely tough lately, not only was it freezing, it was also snowy and windy. well, basically, not a good weather. But that does not stop my sight-seeing here in Helsinki. Today, we went to the art galleries in the Design District to check out art works, chill and relax.

(photo: we walked to about 5 galleries, this one is the first one, and possibly my favourite one of all. There were some intense photos of old men there, and I thought they all looked interesting.)

(photo: me in the cold.)


(photo: this is one of Finnish popular bakery item. It is called, I think it is called rice cake because the inside is all stuffed with rice!)

Day 22 Can life get any better than this?

Before going on exchange, school/life was so stressful that I felt as if I was entering a stage before mental breakdown and going completely crazy. All I could hope, was for someone to miraculously stop time, or better yet, to bomb the school (no one gets hurt of course) and the entire school could stay at home, rest for a week or so (with no studying of course). I was a little depressed at that time that I thought going on exchange is merely one of the requirements I need to fulfill in order to graduate from my university and successfully get a degree, making my 2-year of so-called "study" not go into waste. I was feeling so "life-less" at that time that I was sure I am just going to stay in my dorm room, do exercise, study a bit, watch TV, eat like a pig and sleep like one as well. Basically do nothing during my exchange.


Surprisingly though, being here in Helsinki, every bit of those depressing thoughts just disappear like it never occurred in that crazy and huge head of mine. It is like as if right now I am living the moment. Everyday I am just so glad that I am here in Helsinki, in a completely different world. I look out of the window of my apartment, and I think to myself, am I even dreaming here? how can life get so good all of a sudden? (I was so sure that my life will continue to stink like hell, like in Hong Kong)

Am I escaping from the real world here? Even if I am, I have reasons to. It is not like I choose to go on exchange. My reason for going on exchange is, I have to do it to get my bachelor degree. This is a legit reason for escaping from the real world.
(photo: Taking photos at night would never happen in Hong Kong, because everyone is rushing to places and there is no time to relax and enjoy life. Everything in HK has to be done with a reason and with a reasonable reason only. But here, in Helsinki, in exchange, I can actually stop and enjoy life. Oh man, can life get any better than this?)

Day 21 Shopping for ice-skates: FAIL

I haven't been doing much sports/exercise since arrival in Helsinki and I can feel my muscles aching, my shoulders screaming for a nice work-out ever since. I have decided that since I am in Finland, where it is cold, there is snow and winter sports are popular, I should engage into some kind of winter sports.

The first thing that came to mind is ice-skating. Why? Because there happens to be an outdoor ice-ring very near my apartment, like less than 5-min walk away. Someone told me that a pair of ice skates costs less than 30 Euros, which I think is really worth buying because going to the ice-ring is convenient and I will be ice-skating a lot during my stay here.

I went shopping for ice-skates today. Saw plenty of cheap ones, but they don't have my size =.=!!! ARGH, I now wish my feet were smaller so I can fit into those tiny sizes. (photo: this is one of the sports equipment stores I went, it is called the Stadium. Still, I could not find my size in there. My plan now is to go to a second-hand sports equipment store to get a pair.)

After failing to find ice skates that fit me, I went to the grocery store to stock my fridge up with healthy food, i.e. veggies and fruits. (photo: WOOHOO!! now I don't have to starve!!!)

Day 20 Sun, snow and moonlight

Helsinki surprises me every single day. Well, most of the days.

I was going to school yesterday at around 2 pm and the sun was hanging pretty low. As I looked out of the window of my bus, the sun was shining right in front of me. The bus seemed to be chasing after the sun, all of it was so pretty that I could not resist taking photos of this magnificent scene.

(photo: this is just a simple snapshot of the sun, the snow and the road. But already, it is so pretty! Sorry if you think I am exaggerating, but I am from HK, where there is no snow, no clear skies (most days), so I think that this is already very pretty from my standards!)

(photo: pretty, ain't it?)

The moon also does interesting effect to the snow at night. Just when you think there is nothing to see at night, well, open your eyes and observe, and there on the surfaces that are covered with snow, you see shinning little dots on them, they are like diamonds sparkling in the snow. The surface of the ground would be glittering, like angels sprinkling glitters to the surface of the Earth.

(photo: This photo cannot accurately depict what I see at night, as you cannot really see the glittering snow. Please imagine yourself.)

Day 19 Finnish class & "mbar"

I was told that Finnish people pride themselves in being punctual, but same couldn't apply to my Finnish teacher in Finnish Language and Culture class. Class was supposed to end at 7.45 pm, but she went on and on and on and on and on until it was almost 8 pm and the class was extremely exhausted.

So what did we learn in this Finnish class? well, today we covered some Finnish names and numbers. She went on for about 60 mins about Finnish names, and made the entire class spell Finnish names. After this class, we pretty much know her family background and history, as she used his family members' names to illustrate the pronunciation of Finnish names.

To sum up: His son Mikka Knuuttila went on exchange in the United Kingdom, and there he saw the famous Finnish soccer player called Sami Hyypia, "Hyypia" is not pronounced as "Hipia" but as "Hupia". Mikka said the entire standium pronounced Sami Hyypia's name wrong. Interestingly, "Knuuttila" is not her husband's name, but her ex-husband's name, she was divorced and vowed to hold on to her maiden last name, so today she is known as Merja Hietaharju-tuuri, Hietaharju is her maiden last name, and Tuuri is her now-husband's last name.

After the class, Barbora and I went for a drink in at an interesting and sheek bar near the Central Railway Station, it is called the "mbar". (photo: I like the atmosphere of this place, it is so nicely lighted and the picture hangings are nice.)

(photo: I wish in Hong Kong I have time to chill and relax in places like this!)

Day 18 I JUMPED INTO THE ICY WATER! TWICE!

Jumping into the icy water did not happen on Day 18, but I feel that this is such an important event that I have to put it into a whole new another topic.

Yep, I did it! I jumped into the icy water! HELL YEA! I have seen people doing it before, I have seen those travelling channels showing it before. But I never really think I would actually do it, still, I did it and I am so freakishly proud of myself! BOOYA! I have a feeling that I am going to brag about it, er. like FOREVER in my life. Seriously, for those who haven't experienced below 10 degrees Celsius Hong Kong people, this is like a suicidal act. They will be so impressed by this, and I am seriously considering enlisting it into my resume. My resume would read: 23 Jan, 2010 Tanya Tse Jumped into icy water in Helsinki, Finland. Land temperature about -25 degrees Celsius.

So how did it happen?
Well, at about 12 am in the morning, we decided to go into the Sauna. So I went, along with like 20+ exchange students, crowding the Sauna room. Seriously, if you were there, you would have thought you were in a gas chamber or something, the Sauna was way too crowded. Then, after 20 mins or so, I felt that I couldn't take the heat anymore, and I ran all the way to the icy lake, they have already dug a hole near the lake, so I went into the water.

Surprisingly, it wasn't extremely cold, my feet however, were freezing. So numb that I couldn't really feel it as I ran back from the lake to the Sauna room.

Dissatisfied with the first experience of entering the water (because I thought it wasn't cold enough), I waited for a good long 15 mins, then I went again to the lake. This time, fully immersing my HEAD into the icy water. And that is DA REAL SHIT. You feel that you cannot really breathe because it was so shockingly cold. I think my adrenaline went high and I felt so good afterwards.

(photo: This is the icy water hole. They specifically dug it for people to jump into it after the Sauna. It was so slippery at the edge that I slipped like twice, and cut my foot =.=!!!)

(photo: I am so proud of myself! I think this is like a once-in-a-lifetime experience here, I am so glad that I did it!)

Day 17 Into the wild.

This weekend, we headed to a KY-organized event, the cottage weekend. And there, I witnessed the beauty of mother nature.

I have really no idea where the cottages are, but I assume we went north from the city centre, Kamppi, to get there. (photo: on the bus to the cottage!)

(photo: this is the view on the bus, it is pretty eh? Just as I thought mother nature couldn't get any prettier than this, upon destination, I was in for a pleasant surprise! The view was like 5 times more magnificent than this!)

(photo: the dining hall/ main area)

(photo: settling down in the bunk beds.)

We went there at about 1 pm, settled down, and after a quick lunch of meat-balls, salad and mashed potatoes, we headed out to the woods for group games. We were divided into 10 groups, and each group has to compete with each other. These games/ competitions were pretty lame actually, e.g. "throwing Nokia mobile phones into a rubber boot", "throwing a rubber boot" etc. But I think I get to experience what it is like, to be in a snowy woods for more than 2 hours. It was freezing! Your fingers feel numb, you cannot feel your face anymore.

(photo: the woods.)

The trees were seriously pretty. I am not kidding. Back at home, I would only imagine that this scenery would only be seen in movies or national geographic channels, but I really get to see it for myself what it is like, to be surrounded by pine trees, all covered with snow, much like Christmas trees. It was so incredibly, unbelievably beautiful. I wish all of you were there with me to witness this scenery. I always complain about the cold here, but I think the cold is part of the reason why I am here in Finland.

This place keeps surprising me. Just as I thought the scene couldn't get any better than the woods, we found an iced lake. It was so incredibly beautiful, everything was so peaceful and calm.

(photo: this is the view of the lake at day-time. This is only like one angle of it, now imagine 360 degrees of this scene. Everything was so quiet and calm. As I was looking at the incredible view, I forgot about the city, Hong Kong, where I am, who I am, mother nature just took over my chains of thoughts, and all I can think of is, is this place for real? how could it be so pretty and undisturbed?)

The iced lake in night-time is simply incredible. Barbora and I laid down on the ice and looked up to the starry sky and shinning moon. We made snow angels. I did not take any photos of the lake at night-time because I think no matter how good my camera is, it does not capture the climate/ atmosphere of it. Mother nature just doesn't allow your cameras to spoil her scenes, you have to be there to witness the wild.

Day 16 Exchange life is TOUGH.

Everytime back at home, in HKUST, I looked at the exchange students, and I thought oh man, life must be so easy for them. But being an exchange student myself, life could be quite tough.

First would be the piles and piles of homework/ assignments/ exercise sets/ readings (okay, I am exaggerating, but they do have homework). They are so different from those at HKUST, hence, it is quite difficult to adjust. Not only is it different, the courses I am taking are quite difficult as well, so that's double the toughness. Yesterday at around 6 pm, I was still at school, using their computers to do the exercise set. It was a Friday. FML.

Second would be finding time to do things. There are a lot of things I want to do here, but I have to juggle with school, hence, I have to delay everything. ARGH. Hate that. I just want to do it when I want to do it, without having to wait for school to end or anything.

Third would be having to do things ALL BY MYSELF. I miss Sulaika so much! I don't have to do the laundry by myself, clean the room by myself, back at home, I can just do things that I want to do, and leave the rest to someone else. But here, it is different, it is always DIY (do-it-yourself).

BUT, I guess that is exchange! So BRING IT ON! TANYA TSE IS SO READY FOR THIS.

Day 15 Pasilla cook-out!

Today I experienced my first snow day! It was a really light snow though, not like heavy snow dropping onto your head and body, but like snow flakes randomly sticking onto your hair and clothes. I think I am a little surprised at the texture of the snow flakes, I initially thought it would be denser or something, but they were only flakes not larger than 2 mm in diameters. The surface of the ground was all covered with nice, fresh and flaky snow, simply beautiful!

(photo: I took this picture as I was walking from school to city centre, Kamppi. The snow was most visible under the streetlight.)

And I was invited by Barbora to a delicious salmon dinner in Pasilla! It was so exciting! We first went shopping at K-market in city centre, then carrying an enormous/ heavy salmon and some other stuffs, we headed for the commuter train to Barbora's apartment, which is in Pasilla. It was actually quite near the city centre, only 10 mins away by train ride!

(photo: this is the end-product! Everything was so delicious, and healthy as well. We have some potatoes, greek salad (with feta of course), and salmon. The salmon was really tender, and it was soooo delicious! Thanks Barbora, you are such a good cook!)

(photo: Here is the rest of us eating the delicious dinner.)

Day 14 Air parcel finally arrived!

Finally, it came! I have been waiting for this air parcel from Hong Kong since last week. I missed the delivery last week, so I had to arrange for them to deliver again today. And I am SOOO glad that I didn't just go to the post office to get it, because it was pretty heavy!! i don't think I can move it, in the cold, in the snow, in the dark.

but mind you, I did went through a lot, A LOT, to get this parcel. I first called the post-office, only to discover that everything was in Finnish, so I pressed like any number on the keyboard, to get someone to talk to me. Then, they said, "oh you speak English, please hold.", so I held for like more than 10 mins, then thought it wouldn't be too wise, because I am using a pre-paid card, and I am sure they charge me a lot on this. Then I called again, again. Third time the charm. I successfully talked to someone who speaks English back, and got everything straightened out.

I had to miss class today though, because the parcel didn't arrive till afternoon, hence, I missed class. But still, I am just happy to get this out of the way and not have to worry about this anymore.

(photo: yay! finally! thanks mum!)

Day 13 Helsinki's fish market

Today I had class at 2 pm and Barbora, Karin had class at 12pm, so seeing we had nothing to do in the morning, we decided to take the no. 6 tram and head to the flea market. We went there, and the place was empty. We asked around and they said that it is winter so nobody is willing to sell things in the cold. Hence, we should wait for summer to come and visit. ARGH. Seeing we had nothing to do, we got onto the no. 3T tram and went to the fish market.

The fish market was indoors, and not only does it sell fish, it also sells all kinds of herbs/ vegetables and other delicious food.


(photo: I am just so happy that I got this, with a decent price! I am so sure that I will have so much fun with it!)

Day 12 Finnish's McDonald's: HESBURGER

Our Finnish language and culture class is on every Monday till 8pm, which is pretty late. Today was the first class and we were pretty much starving at the end of the class. We quickly left class and went hunting for food in Kamppi, the shopping district of Helsinki. We originally wanted to have pizza hut, but it was closed, so we opted for Hesburger.



Hesburger is commonly known in Finland as Hese, it is a fast-food chain based in Turku (the old capital of Finland, before Helsinki). It is also the largest Finnish hamburger restaurant chain, with a larger presence in the Finnish market than U.S.-based McDonald's. (GO HESE! DIE MCDONALD'S!)

(photo: Barbora thinks this burger is greasy-er than burgers in McDonald's, and I have to agree, the sauce was quite rich!)

I didn't want to eat so heavy for dinner, because I know I won't be doing much exercise, so I only had a cheeseburger, with no fries or drinks of course. It tasted pretty much like any fast-food hamburger chain. ARGH. globalization of McDonald's! well, at least this is not McDonald's, it's something Finnish!

Day 11 Real Estonian pancake!

Because almost everything opens at 11 am, we woke up at about 9 am in the morning, Estonian time.

First thing we did was eat breakfast:
(photo: this is real Estonian pancake. It was pancake with smoke trout. It tasted really good, there was smoke trout with cottage cheese inside a thick pancake. It was really rich though, so almost none of us (except for Glen) can finish the entire pancake.)



(As uninteresting as it sounds, old buildings, trees and snow actually make a very nice photo. Here is one of them, I have another 100+ of these photos with this combination.)

(photo: our Estonia trip came to a perfect ending, as I witnessed one of the prettiest skies I have ever seen. This is taken when we were on the cruise back to Helsinki. The sky was purplish red, with a tint of orange/ yellow, mixed with sky blue. Simply pretty!)

Day 10 Helsinki's shenzhen: Tallinn, Estonia.

My 10th day on exchange and I left Helsinki to celebrate this important anniversary. I went to Tallinn, the capital and the largest city in Estonia. It took us about 3 hours to travel by sea to this place. The general impression of Tallinn is much like Hong Kong-ers' relationship with Shenzhen. For those who are not familiar with Shenzhen, it is a place where a lot of Hong Kong people go to get cheap stuff/ fake LVs/ inexpensive spending. In Tallinn's case, people in Helsinki travel there to get cheap booze, cigarettes and other things.

(photo: I originally thought we would be travelling in small yachts, much like going to Macau on those water-jets, but nope, it was a full-sized cruise. I looked outside the sea and it was pretty much all frozen, the boat cracked the ice as we went. I thought it was really scary, imagine if I fell into the water, I would have absolutely NO chance of staying alive.)

(photo: Don't be fooled by my seemingly relaxed smile there. It was actually windy and freezing out there! But the view was really pretty, so I thought I should take a photo of myself.)

(photo: I am not kidding, it was a full-sized cruise, with slot machines everywhere and restaurants.)

(photo: This is the street of Tallinn. Imagine a moderate-width pavement with mildly coloured short buildings along both sides. Now, imagine about 100+ streets like this. Well, there you go, That is Tallinn. Almost everywhere is seen like this. But there are also some attractions, such as the old town wall and catholic churches.)

(photo: this is the old town wall. It is quite pretty, we took so much photos on the outside, because the wall was closed when we got there. But we went there the next day.)

(photo: this is where we stayed. It was a hostel called the Tallinn's backpackers. It was really a nice place! The bathroom especially was really properly furnished and it was much much much better than the bathroom in my apartment!)