Sanne discovers the Finnish life

Last update

2009-06-29T05:26:00.000-07:00

Hi everybody!!

This is probably my last update about my life in Pori, since I will be leaving home again on Friday, sadly enough... I wish I could stay a bit longer, because the weather is soooo wonderful, the Pori Jazz Festival is coming and because I want to spend more time with my friends! But on the other hand I am really excited to go home, to see my family and friends again! So... Mixed feelings!

Last week I spend almost every evening in the parc at the river with friends, because the weather was so good. At my internship I was brainstorming about questions for a quiz, the exchange students who will study here next fall will have to do this quiz I made! Besides that I am having email conversations with for example the guy who will do his internship at the International Office in the fall, I like that a lot! The last day has been a bit hectic in the office, because people are going on their holliday, people are leaving, etc.. But fortunately enough I have enough tasks to do, so I am satisfied.

Last weekend I went to Turku, with some Finnish friends. The parents of one of my friends live there, so we could stay in there house which was great! Turku is such a wonderful city, especially in the summertime. There is a river going through the city, and there are like six boats on them, like really huge boats where you can drink something. In the night time everyone is dirnking and partying on the boats! During the day we did some shopping and I love Marrimekko, I don´t know if I spelled it right, but it is a typical Finnish design and it´s beautiful. The next day we went to the beach in Turku, because it was over 30 degrees Celcius! I got sunburned but the water was really nice and the beach was gorgeous.

Okay, right now I am going to the parc again to lay in the sun with my friends and listen to some music! I love the Finnish life!

I discovered that I love Finnish people, the culture, the cities (especially Turku!), the work... I discovered that I really, really want to come back here soon, it feels like my second home right now!

Thursday is my goodbye party and that is going to be really sad, since I am going to miss all my friends so much... But I am sure I will see them again!
Thank you all for reading my blog, I hoped you enjoyed it!

Kind Regards,

Sanne

Moi!!

2009-06-22T01:05:00.000-07:00

Hi everybody!

It is Monday so it means that Midsummer weekend just passed! We were hoping for nice weather at the office sooo bad, but it didn´t work... It rained two days in a row, constantly! It was aweful.. On Sunday, after the midsummer festival, the sun was shining again and today the weather is lovely.

On Thursday evening my boyfriend arrived and I showed him Pori , I introduced him to my friends and tomorrow we want to go to Yterri. Like I told you guys before, this is a beautiful beach and since the weather is so great I would like to spend my last day with him over there. Because he is leaving tomorrow evening already, that makes me sad!
But, after he is gone it´s only 1,5 week that I will be discovering the Finnish life... I feel so bad when I think about saying goodbye to all those wonderful people I have met over here!! I am so convinced of the fact that I will be back here soon to see everyone again, because I am going to miss it so bad. On the other hand I am also very excited about going home, to see my parents, family and friends again! Back to reality!

With midsummer we actually were planning to go to the festival, but since the weather was so bad and the tickets were quite expensive, we decided just walk around town a bit. On midnight (friday night) they made a bonfire at the river, so we drank something over there and watched it, it was nice!

This week at my internship I continue with uploading the scanned documents in the programme, so that would obviously take me some hours!

Moi moi!

2009-06-17T04:14:00.000-07:00

Hi everybody!

Here I am again at the International Office at SAMK! It´s good to be back but I miss the Summerschool a lot, it is a wonderful memory!
Saturday I went to my friends place and we went in the sauna with six girls, it was so much fun and lovely! After that we made dinner and we went out downtown. It was very much fun and it was really good to be back with my Finnish friends again. On Sunday I didn´t do much, I was still very tired from the whole Summerschool trip and ofcourse of the night before.. at Monday my internship started again! The tasks that I got are quite interesting. Do you guys remember that I had to scan two huge maps filled with forms? Monday I got the task to upload all of them in a programme at the computer. Since the programma was in Finnish, someone had to translate it for me first! But now I am learning Finnish words like: browse, upload and save as... haha, very usefull! I also got the task to make a quiz for the incoming (exchange) students for next year. The quiz has got to do with Finland (Satakunta) so I am brainstorming about that.
Tomorrow is the last day of the week, because on Friday it is Midsummer!!! That means that the sun won´t set on Fridaynight and THAT means that this is a national holiday! I am excited about that, although I have seen the brightness in Lapland already (Oh my god, that was so weird!). There will be a Midsummer festival in Pori for three days where different kind of (Finnish) bands will perfome. Like I said before, my boyfriend is coming over tomorrow (yay!!) so I think we will hang out there a lot!

The last three days the weather in Pori was really, really bad! It was cold, 8 degrees and it was raining all day long.. But the forecast for this weekend is better (19 degrees!!) and the sun is shining today, so I am relieved!

Tomorrow we are going to a bar where a Finnish band will perform and I have to say that I really like Finnish music, especially the Finnish reggae songs! I feel bad that I can not sing along, but I love the language. And I love it when Finnish people speak English, there accent is beautiful, I am so jealous. I am fully aware that Dutch-English (how I speak) is really ugly. Some girl in the bar asked me, Where are you from? And when I said that I was from the Netherlands she said: Ohh that is the most ugly language I have ever heard..

Oops!!

Oh and then she asked me if the Netherlands was close by Holland. So... Ehhhm. :-)

Ok I am going to continue scanning, just needed some distraction!

Moi moi!

Rovaniemi

2009-06-12T11:47:00.000-07:00

Hi there!
Sorry that it has been such a long time, but I have been quite busy lately and had no access to the Internet in my room! Anyway, the last day in Pori was great! We had our final presentation that went quite well and after that we went rowing in the river. I loved it! It was such a nice weather and so much fun! After that we had diner together and after that I went to see my Finnish friends again.

On Monday we went to Rovaniemi, Lapland, by buss. The accommodation was perfect, we lived in dorms; eight girls in one apartment, a shared living room and kitchen; it was so much fun! Cooking together, watching movies… The first week we had lessons and the topics from this two weeks were wellbeing, marketing and tourism. We had to make a marketing plan for a business who had as target group the Russian market. This was very interesting and fun to do, since we have been to Russia and it's an interesting culture. We learned a lot about marketing but also about the economic crises. One teacher showed us a documentary about how it all started and what the consequences were for the rest of the world. Very informative!

After the first week we went on a Nature Trek weekend. We went hiking, rafting, we visited Sweden and in the evenings we had a campfire were we ate fresh salmon and were we did funny games! We learned a lot about Lapland, especially about the tourism. The nature is so beautiful and I certainly want to go back when it’s winter time. When we got there it was around 6th of June, that means that the midsummer starts! It lasts for 1,5 month; it means that the sun won’t set for 1,5 month! Is really amazing when you look outside at two in the morning and it’s just as bright as it was like two in the afternoon. The rafting part was by the way the best part, it was so much fun! Oh and on Saturday evening I had to arrange a evening program! I made up the game: Scavenger Hunt and it was lots of fun.

On Sunday evening we went back to Rovaniemi and on Monday we had lectures again. It was quite exhausting because lectures were starting at 8.30 every morning but of course we wanted to hang out with each other as much as possible: there were only a few days left! Result: 10 hours of sleep in three days; ai!
For example on Tuesday: we had class until four, then we went to the Zoo (polar bears! I LOVE them) and after that we went out for dinner. After that we went to an Irish pub and played pool and then all of a sudden it was 2.30 AM. Oops! But we had so much fun, the group is so awesome, so I wanted to spend every free minute that I had with them. Maximizing the time!

On Thursday night we had a goodbye party and we had one more last drink in the Irish pub. Then we had to say goodbye to everybody and that was so hard! It’s like, you got to know each other so well in these four weeks. You see each other so much, you go to school together, eat together, go out. It’s intense, so the friendships you make are intense as well. I made so many good friends all over the world and I’m so happy with that!

Like I said before, there were also a few American teachers who gave us lectures and all. But they also participated in the activities like visiting the Irish Pub ;-). Willie, my favorite teacher; he is so much fun! Is going to visit the Netherlands in October so at least I’m able to see him again soon!

Ohh I would recommend the Summerschool to everyone, because you learn so much about different cultures, about yourself, the lectures and the projects you do are really interesting and of course you make friends for life. A life time experience!

After a long train ride, I’m back in Pori now! Tomorrow I will see my Finnish friends again and I’m really looking forward because we have planned a sauna night! And next week my boyfriend is coming over for a few days, so I am really excited about that too!
On Monday I start with my internship again and I’m already looking forward; I’m excited about the tasks I will get! I will tell you about that more next time, because I’m really tired right now and I’m going to sleep!

Moi moi!!

2009-05-28T05:49:00.000-07:00

Moi!!

I said Tuesday was my update day right.. Oops! Have been too busy I guess ;-).
Oef I've got a lot to tell, but I try to keep it short!
Last weekend we went to Russia with the Summerschool. We went there by buss and it was quite a long ride... We had to wait at the border for two hours or something, but the weather was good so everybody was laying in the grass while we were waiting to get across the boarder. When we were in Russia we drove to our hotel (which was beautiful!) in St. Petersburg and we had dinner together. After that everybody went to sleep because it has been an exhausting day. The rest of the weekend we visited a couple of museums, we went to the Chamber of Commerce and we visited an University to talk with Russian students. I liked that a lot, it was very interesting to see how their educationsystem works and all. On saturday we went to a Spanish restaurant and had the best meal ever, haha! St. Petersburg is an amazing city, I was really overwhelmed! The buildings are so beautiful, the churches, everything is amazing. I want to recommend everyone to go there once, you have to see it!

We got back on Sunday evening and on Monday we had tutorials at the University again. Everyone was exhausted, haha. On Tuesday we went to the beach after school to go windsurfing and to barbecue! It was so much fun, the weather was great and everyone was there, so it was amazing! But on Wednesday the tough part started... We had to do our final presentation from our Business Case on Thursday, so we worked on our presentation the whole day!
Today we had our presentation and it went very well, so that's a huge relief!
Now I have to finnish some essays and prepare another presentation for tomorrow, but I'll manage.

I learn so much from this Summerschool, it's unbelievable. I feel like the level of education is really high. We have tutorials about intercultural communication and presentation skills. Especially the last one I really enjoy! I feel like my presentation skills already developed.
Besides that, I also learn a lot from working with other cultures in a project group. My groups consists of two Americans, one boy from Taiwan and me. It's a challenge to cope with those different cultures and you have to adapt, but it's a lot of fun!

Tomorrow is our last day at the Satakunta University of Applied Sciences in Pori and then we go to Rovaniemi on Monday! I'm looking foward, I'm really excited about Lapland!
Tomorrow the final presentations will take place and after that it's finally time to relax! I'm going to see my lovely Finnish friends again (I feel like I have abandoned them the last two weeks ;-)) and hang around in the parc, because on Sunday it's going to be 28 degrees!

That was it for now,

Bye!

Summerschool

2009-05-19T07:39:00.001-07:00

Moi!
Everything is still going very well, I'm having the time of my life in Pori!
Last week was the last week of my internship, before the Summerschool started. The last week went by so fast, you can't even imagine.. On Friday I helped out with the preparations for the Summerschool and that was so much fun! The tasks were very diverse. For example, I had to go to the store with Wade (an American intern) to buy bed linnen and pillows and stuff like that, haha.. And I had to prepare the bags that the students were going to get when they arrive here. Anyway, I liked all of it! In the weekend I was hanging out with my Finnish friends again and it was so much fun! We went to the Night of the Art at Saturday; the museum was open until 1 am! I'm not really into art, but actually I really loved it! The next day was such a beautiful day since it was something like 22 degrees, so bright and sunny that we went to the parc by the river. We bought ourselves some food and drinks and spent the whole day there, it was great!

On Monday the Summerschool started. I was really excited and a bit nervous, all those new people... But it was great actually! I had to give a tour through the building, since I've been here for three weeks so I know where everything is. After that we had some introduction classes and then we went on this city tour with a little train, I felt like such a tourist, haha...
After that we went back to school and we played typical Finnish games. One of them was "Throw the boot!" There was this boot made of rubber and you had to throw it away as far as you could. I was pretty good actually! ;)
After that we did this game: "wife carrying". The guys had to carry the girls and run as fast as they could.. It was so much fun! Then we went inside and we got divided in teams. There was this competition: "Who is able to drink or eat typical Finnish snacks the fastest?". It was also so much fun and after that we were having dinner together.
It was a wonderful start of the Summerschool, since you were able to get to know all the people so well. The groups consists of people from America, French, The Netherlands, Germany, Nepal, Ghana and Japan! So that's quite multicultural, isn't it? ;-)

On Tuesday we had lectures. My main subject is "Business case". The task is that you analyze a company, in a group of four students. But there was a special way of dividing these groups...
I hope I can explain it properly, since it's quite confusing.
Everyone had to pick a card. Three of the cards said: "You may pick first." That meant: three of the students of our group, could choose their own groups. But how can you pick someone, if you don't really know them? So everyone had to give this very short speed-interview (60 sec) where you had to sell yourself. You had to tell which competences you have, why they should pick you instead of someone else and so on.
It was so fun to do and so informative! I'm not really good at selling myself, it feels a bit like bragging. But I had to go through it and it turned out pretty well. My group is really nice and fun to hang around with and I think it's a great match! The group consists of one American guy, an American girl and one guy from Japan. They are all so kind and I'm sure it will work out well!
But can you imagine that it was quite an unusual situation? I have never experienced something like that!
After the groups were divided, we had lunch together and brainstormed about the project. After that we had a trip to Rauma, to visit the company we were about to analyze. We got this presentation about the company and it was very interesting!

Tomorrow we have more lectures and on Thursday we are going to Russia for a weekend, I am so excited!

That was it for now!

Bye!!

2009-05-12T00:27:00.000-07:00

Hello there!
It is Tuesday again and that´s the day of updating my blog!
Last week I wanted to do the interviews, but lots of the students are finished with school already. So it was kind of hard to reach them! So I did two of the interviews by email and after that I wrote an article about them. I got feedback and they said it was great, so I was really glad!
Ofcourse there were some things I had to correct and now it became a nice article!
This weekend I met my Finnish friends again and it was wonderful!! They introduced me to some others friends of theirs, so my network is increasing ;-). Everyone is so excited to meet foreigners, it´s great! And somehow every Finnish person can see I´m not from here. It´s like it´s written on my forehead!

Yesterday my day at the office was really nice. After lunch I got a task that had to be done as fast as I could... I loved it, a bit stressed and concentrated I worked on that task and time flew by. I got a list from all the countries from where students are applying to go to the SAMK and I had to organize this in Excel.
I really like to do tasks that has to be done in a short amount of time, I love to work with a bit of stress.

After work I went to the Ytirri (I´m sorry if I spelled it wrong) beach with some friends. Wow!!! I loved it! It was so beautiful! There was nobody around and the weather was really nice. I really enjoyed it, can´t wait till the summer begins and I can swim in the sea as well.

That reminds me of something! I have already been here for almost three weeks and I´m only staying for ten weeks! Time is going by so fast!! My last day of internship is at the third of July, but that is a week before the Pori Jazz festival starts! So I already had the offer to stay in a friends apartment in July, to see the festival... I´m thinking about that, since I really love being in Pori but I kind of miss my family, friends and boyfriend so it´s a difficult decision. Fortunately I have still some time to think about that..

This was it for now!
Moi!

2009-05-05T04:41:00.000-07:00

Hi everybody!

I woud like to update you about my life in Pori on this moment. Last Friday we had a day-off, because of Vappu ofcourse! I really love Vappu, I went out and met a lot of Finnish people. They were so friendly, hospitable, open and fun to hang around with! I live in Etappi, that´s a student dormitory with only Exchange students from all over the world. That´s nice, of course, but I prefer meeting Finnish people because I´m in Finland!! I want to get to know the culture, the people and the best way is to integrate with Finnish people. So I met lots of nice people and they are going to take me to Helsinki next week! I´m very curious! They have been there before ofcourse, so they can show me the nicest places around there so I´m very lucky.

On monday I started with my internship again. Anna-Maria is my mentor during my internship and she is at the same office as I am, so does Paivie. But they both were out of town, they had this conference in the North of Finland and they would be back at thursday. So here I am, after one week of internship, all by myself at the International Office!!! I like it a lot! Lots of people are stepping by with questions or just a little chat and that´s nice.
I had the task to digitizing the Bilateral Agreements. That sounds more exciting than it was, because I had to scan all of them. I scanned 159 pages! So that wasn´t that exciting, it took me hours.
Fortunately, Tuesday was a better day. I interviewed a Finnish student and it was very nice, he was really kind and we had a very nice chat. After the interview I wrote an article about him and I´m waiting for the feedback from my mentor.

This weekend I will hang out with my Finnish friends again and I can´t wait!

This was about it for now.

Kind Regards,

Sanne

2009-04-29T01:45:00.001-07:00

Hi everybody!
It’s Wednesday now, so I already had a few days of internship, that’s why I wanted to update you. I started on Monday, at 9 and Anna-Maria, my mentor, showed me the building. It’s so beautiful, there is a fitness complex and a sauna in here! I met my colleagues at the International Office and they were really kind.

I had a meeting on Monday with Jenny, Project Manager (International marketing), and with Anna-Maria, to talk about the tasks that I would get. Me and Alberto, that’s another intern from Mexico, already brainstormed about things we could do. We thought about making a guide for exchange students, so they won’t be having a culture shock. We wanted to discover the Finnish culture, the Finnish people with their habits and so on and describe that in the guide. So that’s one of our tasks, we’re going to set up a plan how to make this guide. We are aware of the fact that there is already a “Survival guide” available, but we want to make the guide more student-for-student and exposed on the internet, on Facebook for example. That brings me to another task I have: managing the Facebook account. I’m inviting all the incoming students to become a member of our group and I keep everyone up-to-date about upcoming events. My plan is to get in contact with tutors from Rauma and Kankaanpaa to involve them in the process of Facebook as well, but I’m working on that.

Another task that I got, is taking interviews with several Finnish students. Likely to be: one person who has experience in studying and doing his internship abroad, one student who is an international tutor and one student who is taking part of an international course. I really like this task, because I can get to know the Finnish people better. I’ve send a few students an email if they wanted to help me answering the questions and based on that, I will write an article for the Vaihtoon!-leaflet about those students. The goal is to stimulate other Finnish students to go abroad, become an international tutor or participate a international course. It’s a challenge writing this article and I’m really excited!

I have to say that I really like Finland, although right now I’m seeing only a small part of it called Pori ;-). But I love the weather, it’s around 20 degrees and it’s so light! The sun comes up around five and goes under around ten, so the days are so long and I love that. I also like the Finnish people, I have to say that they are so different than Dutch people!
There are a few things that I’ve noticed, as a Dutch girl (I don’t want to generalize but this is my experience after nearly a week, so please don’t judge me for this ;-)).
- Finnish people pick up the phone with just their name and then start the question they have. In Holland it’s like: “Hi, this is Sanne speaking! How are you doing? What have you been up to today? Hey I have this question…”. So Finnish people are more direct and I kind of like it.
- In Holland it’s common to greet nearly everyone you see when you walk down the street, especially in small towns and when there no other people walking the street. I did this the first day and based on their look, I think they thought I was insane ;-).
- People in the bar, like bartenders, are getting nervous when they notice that you speak English. Although they speak English very well, still they are getting nervous and get scared of making mistakes. But hey, my English isn’t that good either! That brings me to the next point;
- Everyone wants to help you and are trying to speak English. Most of them are quite good at it!
These are a few points that I’ve noticed in nearly a week, the list is getting longer when I’m here for a longer time I guess ;-).

That’s about it for now!
Ciao!

My first day in Pori

2009-04-25T03:28:00.000-07:00

Hello again!

I arrived in Pori yesterday, so I wanted to update you! The journey was fine, I had to get up around 5 o’clock in the morning so it was quite exhausting! From Helsinki I took the bus to Pori and the bus driver was so kind! He was joking all the time and he spoke English so well! So my first meeting with a Finnish person was really good ;)!
From the bus station, my tutor named Sari, picked me up with her car and she brought me to the “Etappi”. She was also very kind and explained me some things about Finland and showed me the University. When we arrived in the Etappi, she introduced me to some people and that was really nice, because of course I don’t know anyone around here yet.
I live in a apartment with a Spanish girl and we share the kitchen and the bathroom. I have my own room which is great! The Spanish girl, named Irene, took me to a birthday party so I could get to know more people who are living here. Unfortunately a lot of the people who are studying here right now, are leaving in two weeks.
Monday is my first day of my internship and I met a guy who is doing the same internship like me, so we had a nice chat! I also talked to Sanne, a girl who is doing her internship right now and she’s leaving on Friday so I will do some of her tasks. They were excited about the internship so I can’t wait until Monday!
The environment is nice by the way. The weather is great, the sun is shining so I’m about to take a walk to the city.

I’ll keep you all up to date about my internship!
Kind regards,
Sanne

I would like to introduce myself :)

2009-04-11T09:44:00.000-07:00

Hello everybody!

I would like to introduce myself. I’m Sanne, a 21-year old girl from the Netherlands. At this moment I’m studying People & Business Management in Sittard, “Hogeschool Zuyd” and I just finished my second year. I wanted to do an internship in a foreign country and I was really excited about Finland, since my best friend went there last year and she was thrilled! I contacted Anna-Maria Moiso and she was so helpful, that I’m really enthusiastic to come over to Finland. My internship will last six weeks in total. I’ll start at 27 April 2009, until 15 May and I will be working at the International office. On the 18th of May the Summerschool, organized by Satakunta University, starts and I will take part of that! Four weeks studying with other students all over the world, that sounds wonderful, doesn’t’ it? After those four weeks, there will be three weeks left and I’ll be working at the International office again.This is, short said, what I’m about to do when I’m in Finland and I would like to keep you all up to date! I hope you enjoy my blog and please feel free to comment :-).

Kind regards,

Sanne Theuws