Looking back at my first work experience

[ I wrote this a few weeks ago as a homework between interviews. The task itself was this: Describe your first work experience and your main learnings from it in 500 words or more. So I did. To be honest, it is not actually my first work experience, but the longest summer job I have had - so it had more of "the real job" feeling and experience, than the others. 

 As a friend mentioned that he would like to read it, I will share it also here.]

It was the summer of 2002, the end of July, and four kids, who had never met before, went to Finland to do some farm work. It wasn’t that they all had a passion for farms or any real interest in it, it was just a job – an easy way to earn some proper money. It was a temporary thing for one month.
 

We met on the day of the departure and had a 2 hour boat trip and more than 6 hours on a train, spending almost a day on travelling alone. Our bags were full and heavy. The salaries in Finland were higher than in Estonia, but so were the prices. Therefore to prevent any unnecessary expenses we took everything we needed with us. We had enough food to cover the time we stayed there. Mainly macaroni’s and cans with meat, but also some sweets in case you wanted to restore energy fast.
 

After the trip it was just the four of us. Four kids in the countryside of Finland, surrounded by forests, giant greenhouses and friendly locals. I shared a flat with another guy in our group and in addition to the rent, we also had to pay for electricity and water we used. We also got two old bicycles. While the girls in our group had a small cottage that was next to the farm, we had to ride for 20 minutes on bikes to get there. 20 minutes of riding every morning and 20 back every evening. But we also had a small benefit: there was a small shop next to our flat. While it was expensive, it was the closest shop there was.
 

Every workday started with “Huomenta” (good morning in Finnish) in the main house. Light breakfast and dark, even oil like, coffee was available for every employee. The coffee was really strong – after having a cup on the first day I stayed awake more than 30 hours. In Estonia I was used to drinking coffee, but I had never before had something so strong.
 

After the breakfast we got the instructions for the day. There was a language barrier - only one girl in our group spoke Finnish and the locals did not speak Estonian or English. Therefore a lot of tasks were instructed in Finnish with the aid of improvised hand signs and bits and pieces of English. Somehow it all worked.
 

We were extra helping hands for the busiest time period and helped out with anything they needed. On some days we packed dill and salad. First we grouped them by weight, then inserted the material to packing machine and after that collected all the ready products in a carton box. Sometimes we helped with loading trucks. On other days we collected sea buckthorns with “vahvad hanskad” (strong gloves). Even with gloves, it still took about a week for your hands to heal – the thorns were sharp and there were plenty of them.
 

Our group was not a group of friends, but a temporary collaboration – just as with the locals. In a way, it felt like exile, I was cut off from rest of the world. I did not have a mobile phone, but even if I had, it would have been too expensive to call back home. There was no internet and no computers. The only communication I had from the outside world was from my family via fax – they wrote me twice.
 

It was a long month, full of insight, solitude and thoughts. Surely I learned a lot about planning, dill, salad, packing and other farm work. I also learned not to trust Finish coffee, but I think the biggest learning I had, was about myself. How I can handle solitude and appreciate what I have, even if it is not a lot.