About jdpenk

Currently Lives:

Aliso Viejo, CA, United States

Citizen of:

Australia

Some Forum Posts:

Finland: Furnished accomodation in Finland:

Does anyone know of, or can recommend, a company that can help me find furnished accomodation in Finland? I am moving over there in early 2007 (not with Nokia!) and need to find a home for my family for a year. Most of the websites I have seen are for furnished apartments only, but I need a 4 bedroom omakotitalo (stand alone house) or rivitalo (townhouse) in the Espoo/Helsinki area. I know my way around Finland, I lived there for 4 years, but I just need to go back for a year and don't want to fully relocate.

Finland: English Kindergardens in Helsinki:

I lived in Finland for 4 years from 1998-2002, and I am actually moving back there next year for another 12 months. You have 2 choices really: put your child into 'Esikoulu' which is Finnish speaking kindergarden, and they are located everywhere. You will be surprised how quickly your child will learn the language, and it is a great opportunity for you to meet other parents and get to know Finlad better. At kindergarden in Finland the kids don't learn so much, at least they don't teach reading/writing and give homework like they do to my 5 year old here in California. The other choice is to go to the International School in Helsinki, which is private and costs money (I can't rememeber how much but I am finding that out). At the international school they will provide more or an education, and it will be in English. I dont know of any other kindergarden that is in English. I am moving there again myself, so I will probably put my son into the Esikoulu, because it's a hassle to drive into downtown Helsinki to take a 5 year old to kindergarden and pay money for it. At his age, Esikoulu will be just fine. I'll post this site again when I find out the cost of the International School for Kindergardeners (my friend works there).

Finland: Banking while in Finland:

This is always a problem, and there's no easy way to get around it. You can get charged by your bank in the US to send it, and then again by the bank in Finland to receive it. I typically expense these fees back to my company. The way I have handled it in the past is to do fewer but larger transactions, or use a US issued debit card and make ATM withdrawels in Finland (but there is a EUR2 fee per transaction typically). That way you can pull a few hundred Euro's a day from your US account. My prefered way to handle expenses in Finland is to use a US credit card to make all purchases, then have my US employer direct deposit my expense refund into my US account, then use the internet to pay off the credit card. There's no fees for any of this, but credit card can't be used in Finland for all expenses.

Date Joined:

10/20/2006

Total Posts:

3

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