15.03.2015

At work things are pretty much still the same. There isn't that much work, but there isn't really much that anyone can do about it. I've mentioned it to Almond and they can't move me anywhere since they have other students that need places to work too. But it's fine. The people at Recycling Plymouth are nice and I can just chat with them to pass time. There is this guy named Martin who has worked with computers for a couple decades now and he's always explaining new things to me. Besides there is only a couple weeks left, I think I can manage here.
So you would think that I have plenty of freetime to do other things, which I actually do have but I have to admit that I haven't really done much with my freetime here. I think it's because I don't know anyone here, I'm not as drawn to do things alone. On that note, people have been really surprised when I tell them that I travelled here all by myself.

My attempt to liven up the blog with a picture.

I've walked around the city just looking at sights like the Smeaton's Tower and the beautiful view that comes with it (in the picture).
I went to the cinema and at first it was a bit weird to watch a movie without subtitles, even though I could understand everything they were saying it did need a bit of getting used to to not look at the bottom of the screen all the time.
The language hasn't really been a problem anywhere else either. Except on the first day of work when I was told that work starts at half nine. My Finnish brain automatically thought it would be 8:30 since he didn't say half PAST nine. Well, turned out he did mean 9:30 so I was there an hour early.
I don't feel that my English has improved by that much. It was pretty good to begin with and even though my pronunciation of things might not be the greatest, people can still understand me and I think that's the ultimate goal of a language. To understand each other.

02.03.2015

I was told it would rain everyday here, but that really hasn’t been the case. Yes, it rains more than it would in Finland but still most days are sunny and up to 10 degrees Celsius. Which is great since I have to walk to work and back every day. Also the rain often happens at night so I have only once had to walk to work in the rain. Lucky me I guess.

Kind of related to the weather, or at least to the temperature. The water boiler broke down at the house I’m staying. This means that there will be no heating or hot water for couple of days while it gets fixed. I was kindly offered to move to another host family because of this, but I declined the offer since it doesn’t really affect me. I didn’t even use the radiator in my room because it’s already warm enough without the heating and they have an electric shower that heats its own water so I can still take warm showers using that. Petra told me that she will remember me as the one who didn’t need any heating. Not sure if that is the greatest thing to be remembered by, but I guess that’s just me being Finnish and used to a cold climate.

The problem with work right now is that there isn’t enough of it. I’m fairly certain I’m the first person to ever complain about the lack of work, but that really is the case. On an average day I might get a computer or two to install and prepare for sale and then do some little things on the side like taking apart few TVs or moving stuff around the “office”. But those things can’t really fill a full day’s work. Even though my days aren’t that long (from 9:30 to around 15:00), there is still quite a bit of just sitting around and waiting for something to happen or waiting for a computer to install updates. And there isn’t really much else for me to do, because I can’t really fix computers or TVs. I can assemble a computer, but that’s pretty much it since I’m more of a software type. And they don’t have the resources to try and walk me through the process of firstly identifying the problem with the machine and then trying to fix it (it’s different on every machine). There are two guys working with me there. Darren fixes the computers and Jason fixes TVs and vacuum cleaners, and they have barely enough work for themselves with those things. This means that the Recycling Plymouth is slowly dying. :(  I of course hope that it will never happen, but they do have other competitors and I don't know how many people are interested in used goods nowadays.

Recycling Plymouth

The first week went by so quickly. The first non-travelling day was all about me getting to know the place a bit more. I had a taxi waiting for me outside the apartment and it took me to Almond Vocational, where we had a bit of a meeting talking about this work placement and the city and so forth. After that I got to take a little walking tour around the city. We also took a quick visit to my workplace, Recycling Plymouth, and that was the first time I actually got to know at least somewhat what I’m going to be doing for the next two months. As you can probably guess from the name Recycling Plymouth, they recycle things. Most of the “things” are different kinds of electronics, from TV’s and computers to fridges and washing machines. 

 I’ve now got couple workdays behind me and I’m working in the computer section of the establishment. We take in old or broken computers, fix them and sell them for a reasonable price. So far my work has consisted of installing/preparing computers to be ready for sale and taking apart scrap laptops and televisions. The work has been enjoyable (at least so far), but they still keep telling me if I don’t like it or I get bored they can find me something else to do. Though I have to say that I have one complaint about the place, it’s as cold inside as it is outside since the place is basically a small warehouse. So you have to wear a jacket inside too. Other than that the work environment is nice and the people I’m working with are nice and very helpful. And the fact that the workplace is a walking distance away from where I’m staying isn’t bad either.

The Beginning

So here I am, in the Great Britain. Starting to write my first blog post, little bit late I have to admit because I’ve been here a couple of days already and haven’t written anything. This blog is going to be me telling about my experiences during my work placement in England, in the city of Plymouth to be precise.

The first time I heard that this kind of work placement abroad was even possible was when my sister was talking about doing her work placement abroad, couple years before I even started my current education. Then and there I already knew that someday I wanted to do that too. It seemed like the perfect opportunity that I just couldn’t miss. And now it’s here. Before I left Finland and took my flight here I’m not sure if I really had realized what I’m about to do, I wasn’t nervous at all and was just treating this as I would every other work placement. But no, this one is way different and way bigger. I’ve always been interested in travelling and seeing other countries, but I haven’t had many opportunities to do so. And now I’m going to be spending a pretty long time (around 2 months) in a totally foreign country. I would say this trip isn’t really about the work. Work experience is important, but I could be getting that in Finland too. I don’t have to travel all this way just for that. This more about a complete experience, living in a different environment and adapting to that, and getting general experience in life that way. So, yes, I am very excited to be doing this.

The first day was just me travelling. I got up at 4:30 having slept like 3 hours last night, but I wasn’t even tired. How could I be? I’m going to be travelling to a completely different country and living there, and it is happening today. My flight left at 8:00 Finnish time and arrived at 9:00 UK time. Since we time travelled 2 hours backwards the flight was 3 hours. That was only the beginning of my journey. After I landed at the Heathrow airport I had to wait for a bus leaving at 13:50, that’s 4 hours that I have to kill somehow. So I wait the very long and boring 4 hours and go outside to look for the bus, and I can’t see it anywhere. I though it’s not quite 13:50 yet so nothing to worry it’s going to come soon. When 13:50 hit and the bus wasn’t there I just had to ask a worker there for info, just to get the idea that I had missed it out of my head. He told me that it’s being a bit late, just wait a couple more minutes and the bus is going to be here. Turns out the bus was over an hour late and that stretched my waiting time to 5 hours. And I had a 5 hour bus ride ahead of me. After the bus ride I arrive to Plymouth, it’s already dark outside and I have been 10 hours in the UK and all I have done is sit and wait. The rest of the night was more relaxing, I just unpacked my stuff and got to know the host family (Petra and Mark).