The First Day
"Assistant Research Engineer". That's what it says on the contract I signed today, and that is what I'm going to be until 20th November 2007, when said contract expires.
The day got off to a wobbly start - I'd been told last night by the hotel that there were no free rooms for tonight, so I'd packed my cases in readiness to check out. I was informed by the receptionist that two spaces had in fact become available for Shruti and I, so we were able to stay in our rooms for one more night. Shruti was told something completely different by a different receptionist, however, and ended up lugging all of her stuff into my room as she had to check out. When she tried to do so, they explained that there had been some crossed wires, and in fact she could stay for one more night in her room, so we lugged all of her cases back up to her room.
Taking the tram to the Nokia Research Center (NRC) was fun - it's only about 10 minutes away. Helsinki seems small enough that getting from one place to anywhere else in the city probably won't take more than 20 minutes by public transport, and it's not hugely expensive either.
When we arrived at NRC, we were shown upstairs to the area we'll be working in, which is really nice. We were given a grand tour of the building, which is really impressive. It's only about 8 years old, and it shows - everything is still shiny and new. There's a gym, a library stuffed with geeky books and magazines, a canteen which serves up delicious and cheap food, saunas, etc etc. One thing that impressed me at lunch time was the Finnish system of cleaning up your tray after you finish lunch. Instead of simply shoving it on a rack and expecting somebody else to deal with it, you take your tray to an area where you seperate out the items yourself. Leftover food goes in one bin, paper towels in another, and all other litter into a third. Cutlery is thrown into a waiting crate, crockery is placed in racks, and finally the empty plastic tray is added to a pile. I guess this is nothing extraordinary to the people accustomed to it, but it struck me as a really good idea.
The day's work consisted of not very much at all - most of my team were away today, so the real work begins tomorrow, when everyone is back. I had to get my laptop setup by the PC tech guy, and it was seriously impressive to watch him fix three peoples' laptops while giving phone support to a fourth. He seemed to take it all in stride though, and didn't appear in the least bit stressed by the situation. Good stuff!
I visited the apartment today, and it looks every bit as good as the photos I'd seen previously. We negotiated a slightly more sane price with the estate agent (Kiinteistomaailma - I've gone from a country whose language uses too few vowels to a country whose language more than compensates...) - 600EUR/month which includes gas, water and TV license. We're moving in tomorrow! Now we've just got to argue over decide who gets what room. :)