I have tried to maximize my time in Finland by learning as much Finnish as I can. Some people said that they were impressed by how fast I was learning it, so I started to be impressed by myself too! 🙂
I even booked an airline ticket on a Finnish-only language website to France (for a paper I was going to give at a conference on culture and technology – where I am now).
Pretty impressive, huh? I was kind of proud of myself.
So I showed up at the airport in Helsinki on June 23rd, and I wondered why my flight didn’t show up on the screen. I went to a help desk and asked the lady if it was still scheduled or if they canceled it for some reason.
She kindly informed me that it was still scheduled, but that I had booked it for November 23rd!!!
So, to make a long story short – a couple hundred Euros and a couple hours later I was booked on a plane to Berlin then to Barcelona, and then took the train to Nimes, France.
And I obviously need to study my months better! 🙂
[Despite my humbling experience, at least it has been a great conference – well worth the effort, and I will try to post an entry about it later.]
Been there, done that. In my case I got to go to Spain twice. One in October and another in November, marraskuu or something confused me badly…
Love it =o)
Wow that must have been quite a shock. The trip you had to take instead sounds more scenic though. At least you got to see the French countryside. 🙂
Good try Clint. My Norwegian friends told me that Finnish is incomprehensible to them, given the fact that the two countries are so close to each other..perhaps Finland is more deeply influenced by the Russian cultures..hence its language.
Wow–you are good at Finnish! This experience sounds like one of those dreams where you forget your locker combination or walk out the door without pants…except you really showed up to the airport without a flight!
okay – this is a good lesson to pay close attention too. i appreciate it – esp. as i think about learning arabic. glad you made it to the conference 🙂
🙂
Ha ha!!! Thanks for sharing! Most people would be too embarassed to share… I’m glad you’re able to find humor in it!
I kinda had the same expirience but on a much smaller scale…
I wanted to show off at the coffe house and asked waitress for a cup coffe in Finnish (how simple is that?). But when I was paying my bill, I understood that I ordered two cups instead of one…
🙂
Haha! That reminds me of the time in Joensuu I also tried to order “hot chocolate” – only they misunderstood me and brought out 5 “hot shots”!