After high school I went to the Kotka School of Maritime Studies. I liked cooking and wanted to be near the sea,
so it was kind of "the first" choise to me. After a nice and meaningless (read: boring) student life (3 years!)
I graduated as a ship cook at spring ´95.

In January 1998 I began my studies in Fellmanni Institute in Lahti, to become a hotel and a restaurant manager.
The next couple years were hard; I had to study and work at the same time. And it wasn´t always easy!
I did my practice - 2 months - at Keskuskeittiö (Kouvola´s Central Kitchen, free translation...) We made food for 4800 people
each day; and it was delivered for example to the other schools and kinder gardens. Finally in May 2001, I graduated as a hotel
and a restaurant manager. During my practise time, I also completed that HTML course I mentioned earlier.

My job

I worked for five and a half year as an economic assistant in a cargoship called Railship 1. We travelled between
Turku and Travemünde (between Finland and Germany) - yes, all those years... I was quite fed up with it at the end, actually.
I was working for 3 weeks (every single day from 6.00 am to 18.00 pm) and then I had a 3 weeks holiday too. I liked that a lot!!
The holidays I mean... :) Railship was build in 1979, and there were no discos or bars etc. Railship was a little bit over 170 metres
long. As a cargo we had for example trucks, train wagons, containers, trailers etc. There was also 12 cabin place for
passangers, they were mostly truck drivers. My job included -for example- taking care of the passangers and their wellnes during the
journey. I was also a waitress and a cleaner, and I helped in the kitchen if it was needed.
Sadly, Railship 1 was sold in July 2001 in to Bangladesh.

Then I worked as a cook in a chemicaltanker called Kemira - I started here in August 2001. Our homeport was in Kokkola
(sometimes we went to Uusikaupunki too) and we delivered different kind of acids for example to The Netherlans (Vlissingen),
Danmark (Kolding, Fredericia) and Sweden (Helsinborg, Köping, Gotland). The rumour said, Kemira had even been in Germany and Great Britain too!
Kemira was much smaller than Railship -lenght is 112 metres. I was quite shocked when I saw it for the first time. :(
But it was very fun to be there! We had a crew of 14 people -I was the only woman again of course - and the boys were just great! =)
In May 2004 Kemira was sold and now it goes under a new name, Sinbad. I got fired, like many other crew members too.
After May I worked in a big passenger ship called Finnpartner till the end of the year, I was doing my term of notice there.
Finnpartner travelled between Helsinki and Germany.

In the beginning of year 2005 I was unemployed for a month and a half until I started working as an economic assistant in a
ship called Finnoak whose owner is a shipping company called Gustav Erikson. Finnoak freights for example containers, trailers etc.
from Helsinki and Kotka to Gdynia, Poland. It also has 12 passenger places for truck drivers. Right after my job at Finnoak
was regularized in July, I was offered a new job as a cook in my old company Finnlines. Now I am working on ship called Rider
- it was known earlier as Railship II - and once again I am travelling between Turku and Travemünde. I am 3 weeks on the ship and
then I have 3 weeks holiday too. Our cargo is mainly trucks, train wagons, containers, trailers and new Porsches. :)
So you can see my friends, the circle has closed. :)

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