A Typical Day at the Office

Once my morning commute has concluded, I enter the MTV3 offices to begin my workday. I am first greeted by this cutie-pie retro owl in the stairwell:

MTV3's owl logo has changed many times throughout the years, and the different versions are painted all over the building. This one is my favorite -- how shocking that it's the one from the 70's.

I pass another dope logo mural after the stairwell on the way to my desk:

Then I enter the main area for the web content team. It has been accurately compared to the Studio Line from Loreal design:

My desk is in an adjoining room off to the side:

At 11:00 sharp (sooooo early!!!), we all go for lunch in the company's cafeteria. We line up like good little girls and boys to get our meals:

There is a buffet-style line with about four different food choices: a type of meat dish -- usually chicken, lamb, meatballs, etc. -- a fish entree, a vegetarian option and a salad of the day. These usually have to be translated for me, which makes me feel even more like a five year-old.

And, in case you're wondering why I've gained about 10 - 20 pounds the next time you see me, one of the reasons is this bread/dessert station. So not necessary, but soooooo hard to resist:

Then we all sit together and eat as quickly as possible because...

... afterwards we grab coffee and gather around the common area to watch (and make fun of) music videos for the rest of our lunch break!

As promised, here are all my super-cute co-workers. Some of them weren't too keen on having their photo taken but oh well. They'll get over it :)

Look, I'm actually drinking hot coffee! Not my first choice, but I'll take what I can get. I think I've only had iced coffee twice since I've been here.

Oh, and we do actual work as well, but I'll cover that in an upcoming post. Just wanted to show you where I spend my days.

My Baby Takes the Mornin' Train

My usual "commute" in Orlando consists of jumping in my Ford Focus, driving 15 minutes or less (usually about two or three songs, max), parking and walking about a minute to the office. It's a tad different here in Helsinki, so I wanted to show you my journey to work each morning through photos. (Warning: I am far from a photojournalist.)

Before you're quick to point out the lack of continuity in these photos, please note they were taken on different days. Some days were breathtakingly beautiful, others were Dreary McDrearyington -- just think of it as a glimpse into capricious Helsinki weather, which I'm starting to realize I will never figure out.

First, I catch the #10 tram about a block from my house. I pass at least three coffee/pastry cafes on the way, and have to contain the urge to drop $8 - 10 on unhealthy goodness. (This cannot be controlled in hangover situations.)

I sit behind this guy. (Well sometimes. Okay, maybe just the once.) We do the traditional Finnish "I-won't-look-at-you-no-matter-what. No-seriously-there's-no-way-I'm-making-eye-contact-or-politely-smiling-whatsoever" greeting before taking our seats.

About 10 minutes later, I am dropped off here ...

... which is by Helsinki Central Station.

I catch the M train, which is usually *just* pulling away as I run up to it.

Right about here, while I impatiently sit on the train drumming my fingers and wish we would just leave already, I start to contemplate the fact that, at home, I would definitely already be at work by now. But no... I'm just sitting... waiting... totally helpless and being an antsy, control-freakish type American who is used to having a car. Then I make myself chill, turn up my music, read my book and am thankful that I don't have to deal with driving and traffic.

Once the train (finally!!!) leaves, it's not long before I get off at the second (semi-pronounceable) stop: Ilmala, where the MTV3 headquarters is located. I get my morning workout on the stairs:

And pretty much every day, while hiking up this hill, I have one of those "Holy $h!t, I can't believe I live in Finland" moments. I think you can see why (cue Stevie Wonder singing about God or something equally inspiring):

Then I take a self-portrait:
And get ready for the most challenging part of my commute: this stupid footpath I have to conquer every morning and afternoon. (Sure, I could walk around but that would take, like, an extra two minutes or something. Also, pretty much every MTV3 employee uses this, from the humble janitor to the mighty CEO, and peer pressure can be very powerful.)

The path is very steep and narrow, and this is the point when I'm glad I'm not wearing boots with heels. There are also fun obstacles to jump over, like rocks and pipes and branches! Oh my!

I know it doesn't look so bad in these photos, but if you know me at all, you understand that my clumsy self shouldn't be up this high and balancing, with no trace of a safety barricade to keep me from plummeting to my death. Ok, so maybe I wouldn't die if I fell, but casts and/or stitches would definitely be in effect, and I have enough scars, thank-you-very-much. (Good thing Finland has national healthcare, though, I guess?)

To give a better sense of steepness, my co-workers demonstrate the afternoon part of the trek. This is the part that scares me the most, especially when it's rainy and muddy. Their favorite thing to say to fuel my 'fraidy-cat fire: "Oh, this is nothing! Just wait until it's snowing and icy!" Yep... can't wait.

After I've survived the shortcut, I pass a water-treatment facility, which has this random statue/water contraption out front:

I climb down one last flight of stairs to reach my final destination: MTV3.

This all takes about 45 minutes to 1.5 hours depending on how long I have to wait on trams and trains. Definitely not something I'm used to, but also an exciting experience.

Photos of the inner-workings of MTV3's web content team coming soon, including my ridiculously good-looking co-workers (no, really, they're all super cute!), our "Studio Line from Loreal" styled office, the owl-adorned stairwells and much more.

Stay tuned!

A Powerful Cover Line

One of these kids is doing his own thing, one of these kids just doesn't belong.


Nice to see some things transcend language barriers. Like hunks. From Scandinavia.

On a related note, these guys were in the office today:



I didn't get to meet them but my co-worker did, so that's news-worthy, right?

Confessions...

So I probably have a million ideas waiting to be shaped into snarky blogs, along with a plethora of touristy photos to post. It's all coming, I promise. (Twss.)

And if you're wondering what's been keeping me from doing so... let's just blame a vampire named Eric for taking up all of my free time lately.


Now if you'll excuse me, I've got a third season to devour.

I'm Not a Celebrity, Get Me Outta Here

Oh, celebs. Who doesn’t love immersing themselves in shallow, self-centered Hollywood folk? This girl. But in the last two weeks, I have been forced to become a celebrity whore.

Helmi, the website for which I am now a web editor, mostly reports on celebs and how they relate to specific areas of the site (beauty, fashion, weddings, etc.). That means it’s now my job to know everything they do. I definitely wish I had paid more attention the US Weeklys that used to collect dust on my desk. No worries: the mag has an RSS feed -- as does Radar, TMZ, People, et al -- that I check about 20 times a day.

I am now abreast of every minuscule detail happening in famous-people world! Heidi and Spencer: will they divorce or won’t they? Will they actually make the big move to Costa Rica? It’s a good thing Spencer apologized on his Twitter account before he was arrested with a firearm. Oh, and that judge that called Snooki worse than Lindsay Lohan? That was a low blow, but she totes deserves it. (Loving her new look, btw. Bangs are such an improvement over the poof.) Britney’s bodyguard was pretty outta line with all his accusations of sexual harassment -- I’m so glad K-Fed stood up for her. I wonder if Bristol Palin will keep her promise about not wearing a revealing outfit on Dancing with the Stars. Do you think Jersey Shore’s “The Situation” will be any good or will he have two left feet? OMG - did you see the VMAs??? Kanye West and Taylor Swift certainly had some words for each other, eh? Did you see that Katy Perry had her beau, Russell Brand, on her fingernails? Talk about a man-icure. Lady Gaga totally wowed in her Alexander McQueen, didn’t she? Can. you. believe she draped herself in dead, rotting flesh, though? What a statement. She is sooooo fashionable. And asking Cher to hold her meat purse? Classic! (PS... check out my picks for best and worst dressed! No, seriously I made it. And it was kind of fun.)



So, as you can see, working here has forced me out of my comfort zone -- something the GROW program is all about. Bring it on, LiLo.

Do You Like American Music?

There are two questions I get asked a lot. The first: “Um, why did you come to Finland of all places?” Almost every Finnish person I’ve met has asked me this but I will over-analyze why in another blog post. For the second most-popular question, let me recap a convo with a co-worker:

Her: So what’s going on in America right now???
Me: Um, there was just an oil spill that totally sucks. They’re letting gay people get married in California now. And some idiot in my state is talking about burning Korans.
Her: Noooo, like, what’s popular with music?
Me: (blankly) Music?

How could I know what was popular with music in America? I spent the last month researching new songs for the Worst Music Party, finding forgotten gems like this and this. Stevie Wonder and Earth, Wind and Fire rule my world, not Lady Gaga or Katy Perry. I try to keep at least 100 yards away from anything with an auto-tune, including the ‘On a Boat’ spoof. The last two magazines I bought had Barry White and The Beatles on their covers respectively. The cd I’m listening to on repeat right now is D-Train’s Music (totally dope, btw). I might not be the best person to ask about the subject.

But instead of admitting any of that, I just mentioned Lady Gaga. That seemed to work. Besides, I'm starting to realize the Finns know more about American music than most actual Americans. At least, that's what I tell myself so I feel better about my small-minded music snobbery.

Week in Review - Photo Style!

It's been such a crazy week, I haven't had time to even think about blogging. So here's pretty much everything that happened:

TUESDAY:

We decided to "go for one drink" at Aussie Bar

Mojitos with Leena and Silja:

Which turned into strawberry margaritas and Princess and the Frog fortune telling cards:


We kept getting the Big Daddy card.



And just when you thought you could get away from football, the other kind of football creeps in. At least they had fun hats!

WEDNESDAY

Awesome Finnish hair metal band, Reckless Love, played at Bar Loose \m/ This time Heini joined our partay!

THURSDAY

Post-work happy hour to welcome yours truly at Bakers, where they serve champagne for 1 euro per glass. (Dangerous!)







After stumbling out of Bakers, we went to the Parliament House -- apparently they have one here, too? It's pretty different from the one in Orlando, though. ;)





I tried Salmiakki, a type of Finnish candy (and also a shot) that is supposed to taste like licorice. I think it tastes more like soy sauce.



And apparently Helsinki had a fireworks competition going on, so we watched them - score!








Yep, I am a happy girl :)


I never thought I'd say this, but I was actually looking forward to the weekend so I could recover from all this. But I am totally having a blast! Stay tuned....