Lapland Wonderland: Exploring Levi & Ylläs

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The Corona Bubble in Finland and Dealing with Being Homesick

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My Favorite Restaurants in Helsinki

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What I Miss about Los Angeles

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Is Santa from Finland?

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Cost of Living in Helsinki vs Los Angeles

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Audrey on a rooftop bar
Los AngelesTravel

Final Days In LA

by Audrey
written by Audrey

Los Angeles is such a massive and diverse city that it’s easy to get lost and overwhelmed with all the choices. Luckily that means there’s something for everyone here. There are always so many things going on, but contrary to popular belief, we Los Angelenos also tend to stay inside during the winter. Cold is relative, and our definition of cold is just… let’s call it different. There aren’t too many outdoor events in the winter, but now that spring is here, you’ll find tons of outdoor activities. I like to check Timeout for what is currently happening in town. As my days are dwindling in LA, these are sort of my must-do’s before I move to Helsinki.

Soak in the Sun at a Rooftop Bar

One of my favorite things to do in LA is having a Sunday Funday on a Rooftop bar. During the spring and summer, some of them even have pool parties. My favorite rooftop bars are: Perch, Broken Shaker, The Standard, and High Rooftop Lounge. I love having a cocktail while soaking in the sun, dancing to whatever DJ or live band is playing, and watching the sunset over the downtown skyline or Westside beaches.

Get a Tattoo with my Bestie

Me and one of my best friends, Mike, had always talked about getting matching friendship tattoos but never got around to it. With me moving, he reminded me of our little pact, so we did it! His idea was to have a compass with an arrow pointing North East to represent me in Finland and an arrow pointing South West to represent him and LA/home. I added the symbol of a North Star for me and a sun for him. Now I have a little piece of home with me everywhere I go and he has a daily reminder to come visit me in Finland!

Go to a Concert

One of the best things about living in LA is that we have so many concerts going on all of the time. Tons of musicians have LA as a home base, so you’re bound to find a concert going on any given day of the week. I am really passionate about music, and played piano for most of my childhood and teen years. One of my favorite artists is James Blake, and lucky enough he was performing a few weeks before I left. That was my 4th time seeing him and he never gets old. The best part is I got to share it with some of my best friends. I’m also going to see Michael Bublé tonight and then Darius later this week. If you don’t know Darius, do yourself a favor and check him out. He’s a French producer with a disco house vibe, which is my favorite type of electronic music to dance to. If you’re ever in LA, check Songkick for what concerts are in town.

Go on a Hike

If you’re not from LA, you might not know that it’s a great city for hikers. We have quite a vast amount of wilderness areas. My go to local hike is the Culver City Stairs. It’s a great uphill workout and has a panoramic view of the city at the top. If I have a bit more time, I like making the trek to Malibu Creek State Park. Since we got a lot of rain this winter, you can actually see several waterfalls too. This is the first year since 2011 that California hasn’t been in a drought, so we’re also getting the beautiful super bloom in many areas. Below are some hiking guides I like to reference when I’m looking for a good hike as well as a guide to super blooms. The app AllTrails is also really helpful and will let you know what hiking trails are around you, the level of difficulty, distance, etc.

Ride an Electric Scooter Along the Beach

Electric scooters have taken over LA. We have Bird, Lime, Jump, and I’m sure more that I don’t know of yet. They actually go pretty fast, and can get scary when you’re riding next to cars on main streets so be careful! I have the most fun riding them along the beach (away from cars) and going from one beach city to the other, or simply to hop to another spot rather than taking a Lyft or Uber. You’ll most likely catch me going from Abbott Kinney in Venice to the Venice Boardwalk and towards Santa Monica.

Oh man, this post is already making me miss that LA weather and my favorite beaches!

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Helsinki

How to Get a Residence Permit in Finland

by Audrey
written by Audrey

Job Market in Finland

Before I go into how to get a residence permit (work visa/permit) in Finland, I thought I’d give a little glimpse into the job market in Finland. I can’t speak to all job types, but for marketing, communications, and business jobs, I found that most of them require you to speak Finnish. This makes sense since most of the marketing and collateral will be done in the local language. That really narrowed down my options, as I couldn’t really work for any local companies, and had to move my search to international companies that had market focus outside of Finland and did business in English.

I was lucky enough to find one of the few international tech companies that was from Helsinki. Because they were focused on selling on a global level, English was the official language of the company and all of their marketing. At international companies, having English as your native language, was definitely an advantage. I also got lucky that this company does several trade shows in the U.S., which allows me to travel back home every now and then.

Once I got the job offer, I just needed a written contract from the company to apply for my first Finland residence permit. I’m not sure what the process is for other companies, but for this job, I was in charge of taking care of my application, which meant I had to pay for the application fee out of my own pocket and submit the application on my own. My company was very helpful though and gave me all the information I needed to fill out the application. It’s a pretty straight-forward process, and the Finnish Immigration website is very informative and helpful. They even have a chat feature if you have any questions.

Types of Residence Permit Applications for Working in Finland

1 Month Processing Time (350 EUR)

These are the residence permits that you can get in about 1 month.

  • Specialist – This permit is if you’re a specialist, consultant, teacher or belong to the top or middle management of a company. Your gross income must be about EUR 3,000 per month.
  • EU Blue Card – This is what I got. I didn’t even know this was an option until HR told me. The best thing about this type of residence permit, is that it allows you to move to a 2nd European Member State. Kimmo and I have thought about living in other cities in Europe, so this made the most sense. One thing to note about this permit, is that you need to have a gross income of at least 4,732 EUR per month.
  • Other Types: Internship, Researcher, Season Work, Religious Community or a Non-Profit Association

Over 1 Month Processing Time (350-400 EUR)

  • Employed Person (TTOL) – Must have a signed contract and (1-4 months processing time)
  • Entrepreneur – You must have a profitable business and you’ll need to enter your business in the Trade Register maintained by the Finnish Patent and Registration Office (6-10 months processing time)
  • Start Up Entrepreneur – You’ll need a  positive statement from Business Finland and secure means of support of 1,000 EUR/month for living costs (2-5 months processing time)
  • Volunteer – Your volunteer work must be arranged through an organization that runs volunteer programs (Maailmanvaihto ry – ICYE Finland). Max volunteer time is 18 months (2 month processing time)

There are several other types of residence permits available, but those are the main ones. For the full list go to: https://migri.fi/en/working-in-finland/applications

What You’ll Need for the Application

I can’t speak for the other applications, but for the EU Blue Card, here’s what I needed for the Online Application:

  • Employment Contract – Must state your job description, salary, and start date
  • Proof of Higher Education Degree – I submitted my college transcripts and diploma
  • Copy of Passport

After you fill out the application online, you’ll need to prove your identity. Luckily there is a local Finnish General Consulate in Los Angeles that I was able to go to. Here, I had to bring:

  • Passport
  • Employment Contract
  • Passport Photo adhering to these guidelines. By the way, this is different than the standard US passport photo, so places like CVS, Walgreens, and UPS can’t take these photos. Every country has different requirements, so make sure you check if the photo place can do passport photos for Finland. I went to Santa Monica Camera where the owner happened to have a Finnish wife and 2 children who have dual citizenship, so he was very familiar with the requirements, and even gave me tips on the Finnish Consulate in LA. What are the odds? Oh and one more thing, you must have a “neutral face” which means you can’t smile in the photo. That was so hard for me! And now my photo looks like a mugshot.
  • Official Copy of Higher Education Degree – I brought official college transcripts
  • Prepaid Self-Addressed Envelope – This is so they can mail you the decision documents and your residence permit card.

The process was so quick for me. I went to the Consulate on a Tuesday to prove my identity, and got a decision via email by Thursday! I must have been one of the few applications in the queue. Guess there aren’t tons of people stampeding to move to Finland… yet! My residence permit card came about 2 weeks after that. I’m ready for you Helsinki!

Residence Permit and Work Visa
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Audrey at rooftop
HelsinkiLifeLos Angeles

LA Moves to Helsinki

by Audrey
written by Audrey

Okay maybe not all of Los Angeles is moving to Helsinki, but at least this girl who was born in LA and lived there her entire life is, along with her pup, Rambo. My name is Audrey by the way. To my Americans reading this, without looking at a map, do you know where Finland is? Did you know that Finland is part of Europe? No? Well neither did I!

The land of Helsinki, Finland

Let me start by giving you some context into the size of Finland. Land wise, the country of Finland is 338,145 sq km which is about the size of California (403,882 sq km). California though, has a massive population of 39.5 million within that land. Finland’s entire population is 5.5 million, not much bigger than Los Angeles, which has about 4 million people. Helsinki, which is the capital and where I’m moving to, has about 600,000. Last year there were 250,000 people just at Coachella. So what I’m saying is, there’s tons of available land in Finland, come on over!

I’ve always dreamed of living in Europe, but this wasn’t exactly what I imagined. So, why would I move to a country I’ve barely heard of?

The story begins at Burning Man

Well back in 2016, I met a Finn at Burning Man. At first it started off as rendezvous in different countries. One great thing about cross-continental long distance relationships is that you get to have dates all around the world. Somewhere along the way though it became serious, so we both started looking for jobs in each other’s countries. During one of Kimmo’s visits to LA back in February 2019, I got a job offer from a tech company in Helsinki. The stars aligned for us that week and that’s why I’m packing up and heading to the North Pole… I mean Finland.

Introducing LAxHEL

This blog is going to be about my journey moving to Finland and the fascinating differences between living in LA and Helsinki. You’ll probably also occasionally hear from Kimmo, and my French Bulldog, Rambo, who is making the move with me. We hear a lot about what it’s like living in major cities like London, Paris, and Rome, but you rarely hear much about Helsinki… maybe except for the occasional article that Finland is the happiest country in the world and Trump saying they don’t have forest fires like California because they rake their leaves. Yup that’s our President, which also makes it a good time to leave the U.S.

Anyway, I thought it would be fun to record my experiences and give the world a glimpse into Helsinki from an outsider perspective, as well as give Finns an insider look into LA. I’d also love for this blog to be interactive and collaborative. That means I’ll welcome any tips from Finns and for my LA people to keep me updated on all things Los Angeles. So let’s find out if Finland really is the happiest country in the world. I sure hope it is!

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