02 April 2004 - 5:09 pm

The airport was no problem, apart from queuing at gate 43 as the ticket instructed, only to find when we were about to go through that our gate had changed and we'd actually been queuing to go somewhere so foreign I'd never heard of it! But we got on the right plane eventually. Had a bit of an embarrassing moment on the plane. I was sitting right next to the emergency exit doors and therefore had loads of legroom. There was a sign saying that children must not occupy these seats. So what did the air hostess do? That's right, she came over and asked me how old I was! I looked at her in silence for a good second before answering "19..." and then she walked off. I wasn't TOO bothered because I know I look young for my age etc etc and I did have pigtail plaits, but to make it worse, all the other students who were sitting all around me started laughing and going "ahhh don't worry about it Gemma" "ahhh poor you", patting my head etc all very patronising and annoying and it got me so hot and cross it's a good job I was buckled in because I was very tempted to get up and punch them all. Anyway we arrived in Tampere and got the bus into the city centre. After we had got off the bus I asked the driver to point me in the direction of the Hameenkatu (high street) as that’s where our hostel was. The man was so nice, he told us to get back on the bus and that he’d take us there! How kind of him, he didn’t charge us or anything. It was a good job because it would have taken about half an hour to walk it and I had a 2 stone backpack on my back and a 1 stone bag in my arms, which were hurting so much I could barely pick up my toothbrush at bedtime. I was sharing the room with the other 4, which was ok apart from when they decided to get up at 1am and start singing and dancing around the room – thanks guys.

Let me tell you about my travelling companions. I don’t think I could possibly hope for worse companions.

Chris – A laddish rugby player. His pastimes: Ogling blond girls with big tits; getting drunk; bragging about being British; farting; flirting with Lynsey

Simon – Means well, but is totally annoying. Very goofy and dorky, thinks he’s clever but he’s not; makes stupid jokes and breaks out into song all the time. Probably the kindest in the way that if I fell over he’d be the one to catch me, but very annoying all the same.

Lynsey – Townie slapper. Favourite things to say: ”I’m a good girl really...hee hee...”, ”I’m well known for being a prick tease”, ”Blokes only talk to me because I’ve got big tits”, ”I can fit my whole fist into my mouth”, ”yes you can sleep with me tonight Chris” etc. She isn’t even pretty – she looks like a horse.

Catherine – I’m sharing a flat with her. She’s fine on her own, but I don’t like her when she’s with the others. She doesn’t seem to have a mind of her own and will just go along with whatever anyone else says. She is best mates with Lynsey – have no idea why.

I had assumed that we would all travel to Oulu together then just do our own thing, but they are all intent on doing absolutely everything together, and out of politeness they include me, and I feel it would be unwise at this stage to completely detach myself from them. So until now I have been going along with their plans and not been enjoying it too much. I think they would think it was very strange if I refused to do things with them at this early stage, but soon when I am feeling more confident and settled I aim to drop them like hot potatoes. They are all very immature together, throwing snowballs at every opportunity and thinking it’s hilarious to shout out ”don’t eat yellow snow!” every five minutes. It’s like hanging round with a bunch of 14 year olds. They are also constantly making stupid rude jokes and sexual inuendos at EVERYTHING which gets so tiresome after a while. I don’t laugh at the jokes so I think they all think I’m a terrible prude! I just have a more sophisticated sense of humour.

So why aren’t I with them now I hear you ask?! We came back from a meeting and returned to our flats. Catherine and I are sharing a 2 bedroom flat in a block of flats 8 floors high with about 5 rooms on each floor. The boys and Lynsey are in the block next door, which Catherine is very sad about as she feels left out of all the action. I’m glad that I’m sharing with her, because when I stop hanging around with them I will still have her as a link back to them if I need one. Anyway I went into my flat to go to the toilet and they told me to meet them in the other flat. So after 10 minutes I went across but they had left without me – HURRAH!! I think that was the happiest I’d been all week when I finally realised I’d lost them. So I went to the shop, went for a walk to the lake etc, it was fantastic and I definitely intend on losing them more often!

Backtracking now a little... when we arrived at Oulu train station, a student was supposed to meet us there. The silly woman decided to look for us everywhere but at the actual station building. So instead of being taken to university (Yliopisto) we had to make our own way there by bus, which was quite fun really. We got there and it took 2 hours to track down the student who had our keys, but we got into our flats eventually. I’m on the 3rd floor and it’s got a pretty good view. My window overlooks a nursery playground so I can watch all the little kiddies playing in the snow! Goodness knows what the hell a nursery is doing in the middle of university accommodation, but there are a lot of weird things like that round here. The campus is a 15 minute bus ride from Oulu city centre and it’s pretty much in the middle of nowhere. It is surrounded by loads of very tall trees and that’s about all. The campus is huge, and it’s like a little village, it’s great. Just behind our flat (which has a sauna in it) there are 2 supermarkets, 2 bars, a pizzeria and maybe one or two other places as well. The main supermarket is amazing, it’s like a french supermarket, selling everything from food to clothes to tools and kitchen cabinets. I got dragged along to one of the bars last night by the others with an English girl who’s already been here ages. She’s very annoying too. Where are all the nice, normal people? Beer is about double what you’d expect to pay in Britain – I think that was my first and last pint!

The temperature is –4 which isn’t actually that bad. EVERY single building is so very warm inside, much warmer than in England, so it heats you up nicely for braving the cold. I wear my coat, hat, scarf and gloves everywhere and that’s enough. There is snow everywhere (isn’t white such a beautiful colour?) apart from on the roads and some paths. It’s deep enough in some places, such as grass banks, to go up to your knees if you sink into it. It’s great, apart from I couldn’t feel my toes whilst being shown around the city today by our Student! There is a huge lake nearby but that’s all frozen over and covered in snow.

Everyone is leaving the computer room; maybe it is closing soon. I think I should stop typing now anyway. We were supposed to spend next week in school then have a week off, but it’s been changed around now. We have the whole of next week free, then we start in school on Tuesday 13th non-stop til the end of May.

I will write again soon!

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