Lisa Matusova: Helsinki

The first week of my stay in Finland has passed!

There are lots of impressions already. The first that has amazed me was an apartment which was rented for me by organizers of the GROW program. I most likely could have managed a half of this apartment for it is so huge for such a petit girl, as I am: 65 sq. m. In this apartment I have everything that can be necessary for living except for perhaps a teapot.

Then came a time to explore an area, and I was convinced that it is really solid. I live near to the area which is called «Five Corners». It's interesting, that in St. Petersburg there is also a place called "Five Corners" and it's also very close to a city center. It was found out a bit later that it is only 10 minutes of a slow walk to Helsinki centre from my apartment. I like it a lot.

My colleagues are, as well as I am for these 3 months, employees of a department of interactive TV of the most popular channel in Finland - MTV3. The first letter does not mean an accessory to musical television channels, as I thought before, but is the initial letter of a word, which can be translated from Finnish like "advertising". By the way, Finnish is a very difficult language which does not have anything in common with the main European languages because it concerns to Finno-Ugric language group.

And so, my new colleagues have appeared as extremely friendly and hospitable people who are caused to help and feel awkwardly if it seems to them that it is awkward to me. As to the process it is improbably interesting as you can expect from work on TV. The command works on two channels, being a part of the organization MTV Media: MTV 3 whoch I mentioned earlier and Sub, which is more calculated on youth. Both channels broadcast round-the-clock and the main part of shows are of own production. The others - TV hits from other countries, which by the way are not dubbed as it occurs in Russia, but are shown in original with Finnish subtitles.

The main product of both channels is a reality show: BIG BROTHER. Start of a new season has occurred in the end of August and it is already clear that this season will become the most successful. This show is extremely profitable and easily covers the expenses on a round-the-clock broadcasting and the work of more than 150 persons.

One of the brightest impressions of the last week for me was the visit to the House of Big Brother. It is very interesting there, but a little ominously. Peeping is obviously one of the most favorite human pastimes in 21st century.  By the way, Finns show participants of reality show when they are showering. Even Russian scandal reality show «House 2» has not reached that yet.

On Friday I did a presentation for my department devoted to my work in "Delovoy Peterburg". I think it should be pretty useful for finding a best adaptation for my skills.

Also on Friday my first visitors from Russia came to see me - my oldest girlfriends whom I madly love!

We visited Helsinki molls and a local karaoke-bar. It is even more popular here than in Russia - there was a huge crowd. Weather is as in St. Petersburg - cloudy, but warmly enough. So I enjoy my stay a lot.

Watch some pictures from my first week here!