Verena Hausmann — Tue, 24 May 2011 07:19:11 +0000

Our last full day in Finland has already started. Tomorrow we will start our way back home. Today we will go shopping for the last time, pack our stuff together and in the evening a friend is coming to say goodbye. Time went really fast the last days, but we are also looking forward to see everyone back home.

Johannes H. Glitsch — Mon, 23 May 2011 19:00:44 +0000

Today we said goodbye to our Finnish Friendship Family. For our last meeting we got some Turkish-Finnish kebab. Double meat, i.e. about 1.7kg each of the two kebab rolls … It’s been nice to get to know the four of them and to spend some time discovering Finland aside from all the exchange student stuff. Even though we didn’t make it to the cottage while we were here, we are looking forward to the next meeting, e.g. in Germany?

Greetings and thanks to our friendship family – and take good care of my cactus

Verena Hausmann — Wed, 18 May 2011 05:28:22 +0000

status: green

todays program: starting bike tour through the Archipelagos; first day = approximately 70km

note: we know we have to report about a lot of things here, but right now we don’t find the time. We will be back on Sunday and hope to get by with our blog entries by Tuesday.

Verena Hausmann — Sun, 01 May 2011 20:07:44 +0000

Vappu, what is that all about?

Here in Finland there is a lot happening around the first of May. This day is called Vappu . It is a national holiday and a day for the spring, the students and the workers. The tradition comes from the “Walpurgisnacht”. Especially student celebrate Vappu with different events sometimes starting already one week before.

We started celebrating Vappu on the 29^th of April. As everyone we were wearing our overalls (haalarit) from then until the 1^st of May. In the afternoon there was a little get together for all the exchange students. As the weather was nice we were sitting on the grass at the hill of the art museum, just enjoying life.

The 30^th then got more interesting. A lot of students met in front of Educarium (one of the university buildings). There was free punch, a band was playing and we got the first balloons for that day. At around 5 pm students started to gather on the hillside in front of the Turku Art Museum. There were so many people. We didn’t know that Turku had so much! From each faculty there was one student carrying a flag, a band was playing, more balloons were distributed and everyone was happy. At 18:00 o’clock one of the students gave a short speech (in Finish) and then all Finish students put on their white student caps (ylioppilaslakki), which they get when they graduate from high school, all at the same time. After that everyone went down to the river. The dentist students then cleaned a statue, which is there, with a big toothbrush and the statue got a cap as well. In the evening we cooked together with a big group in one of the student village’s kitchens.

On the actual Vappu day, 1^st of May, everyone went to the Vartiovuori hill for a big, big picnic. Again a band was playing and everyone had a blanket, some food and drinks to have a nice day around friends.

Verena Hausmann — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 19:01:59 +0000

This evening we took our bikes and drove to another student place nearby. We met with a few people and had barbeque together. It was really nice and we had a lot of fun playing Frisbee, even though it was really hard as it begun to get dark… We then realized that we are in Finland. The day before was really warm, but that evening it got really cold again so that we already left the place at 9:30h.

Verena Hausmann — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 13:00:28 +0000

Today the International Office of the Turku School of Economics invited all exchange students for a get together between 12h and 14:00h. Munkki (Berliner) and sima (mead) was served and in the end there was a lottery and a group photo was taken.

Verena Hausmann — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 16:51:09 +0000

At the main street which leads to the student village there is Posankka sitting in the grass, the pink mascot of the housing association which is supposed to be a mix between a duck and a pig even though we don’t know where to find the duck parts :). In anticipation of Vappu (we will explain it later) which is on the 1st of May he today got his student cap. After that the Ikituuri had open doors. Ikituuri is a new building here in the student village. It is a very high tower with a round shape. From the top we had a really nice view over Turku and the student village. We got a patch for our overalls, a balloon and had some juice there.

Verena Hausmann — Sun, 17 Apr 2011 18:00:54 +0000

This entry is long overdue, but we wat to share it with you anyway …

The weather has been beautiful again and we decided to ride to the harbor on our bikes. As the day before there were lots and lots of people on their feet around the city. Awesome, how busy Finland turns with just a bit of sunshine. At the harbor we decided to go a bit further. There is an island just behind the harbor that was formerly known as an island of villas and a recreation area for the rich (?) – Ruissalo. It has many foot- and bikepaths that you an take through the woods and over the fields, which makes it really nice to visit by bike. And we even got to see some toads on their way to a pond.

Verena Hausmann — Sat, 16 Apr 2011 14:00:29 +0000

The Mall Mylly is supposed to be one of Finland’s largest commercial centers. As it is only 9km away from where we live we thought it would be worth going there. So we took our bikes and started our tour. Arrived there we expected a few nice hours of shopping. But, we are in Finland and “one of Finland’s largest commercial centers” doesn’t mean that it is big! We visited a few shops but did not buy anything and were ready in less than 45 minutes. As the ikea was quite close we than decided to have a chocolate and a cake there. On our way back we again visited the market at the river as we had to try this Finish crepe with marmalade and cream we saw the day before. It was really tasty!

Verena Hausmann — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 19:03:26 +0000

As people from Germany are telling us since a few weeks how nice the weather is, how often they barbecued already and how nice it is to be outside we were really looking forward to the spring in Finland. Even though that in a few areas you still can find a little bit of snow today was the first spring day in Turku. Not only that we had 14°C (!), but it was a totally different day in all areas. It felt like there was a change in people’s minds and behavior today. It might sound funny, but we now really understand what people were talking about when saying in summer everything is different.

Because of the nice weather we started our day with a little bike tour through Turku. We drove to the open air pavilion and the mill they have here. When coming back to the river we saw that there was a market along it. Walking over the pedestrians’ bridge you could see a lot of nice planted jonquils (Osterglocken) and there were plenty of people on the street. The market was really nice and nearly half of the booths sold fish, pastries or honey. So we had lunch there, sitting outside and enjoying the day. In the afternoon we saw a lot of kids playing football, families collecting “Weidenkätzchen” and people running along the river…

It was so nice to experience this day. Finland seems to be a totally different country again.