another chance like this in my life so I wanted to go to a completely different place. Other reasons that helped me to decide were music and girls. The first one because I was amazed how a country with so small population could possibly have so many metal bands, which is the music style I like most, the latter because, you know, I had heard that there are plenty of beautiful girls in Finland.
The academic year started in late August but I couldn’t arrive until mid October because I was doing my practical training in a Basque Technology Center Tekniker. Just after arrival we arranged a party in our house. It was a great chance to get to know people. Iñigo helped me a lot in the first days. In the end of November I went on a trip to Rovaniemi and as it was on my birthday, I think I will never forget it.
During the Christmas break I was alone in Raahe. Luckily I met a Basque girl in Oulu and we decided to stay for some days together. We were lucky because a Finnish girl I knew invited us to spend Christmas Eve with her family in Kuivaniemi and that’s another thing I will never forget in my life. With the new semester a new student came to the house, Krzysztof. Now we have more contacts with people in Oulu and that is helping us to enjoy more our stay in Finland. Right now, for example, we are planning to go to the North Cape during the winter break.
Lessons in Raahe Institute of Technology and Business are more relaxed than those in my home university and as courses are shorter they seem to be easier to pass. The number of students in a class is low and that makes it possible to have contacts with other students; I didn’t expect to learn to know so many Finns here. There are only a few exchange students here, but lots of people from all around the world to study for the whole degree. It’s a great experience to know people who live so far. One of the things I like at Oulu Polytechnic is its Student Union Osako, who organises very interesting activities and gives us opportunities to visit many places and to get to know people.
In Raahe I can’t see anybody walking on the streets and it makes me feeling alone and there are not so many pubs and bars to go out at night, I would appreciate more variety. The house we are living is perfect: cheap, close to the campus, big and well equipped. Here the distances are very long, not only between different villages, but even inside Raahe, it would be better if everything were closer.
Finland: I’m not going to talk about the coldness because it’s obvious it’s not as warm as the Basque Country. What has affected me more has been the darkness. In December we had sunlight for few hours and the light didn’t have so much power so I spent most of the time at home. The biggest difference compared to my country is that there are no mountains here, it’s completely flat. That makes life easier, but sometimes I miss to look up and see something else than the sky. One thing I really like about Finland is that almost everybody understands English, that’s a great help for the foreigners.
It’s amazing how Finnish girls dance in bars, I don’t usually dance in my country but here I can’t stay sitting down, I want to be as close to them as possible! Before arriving to Finland I thought that it would be very hard to know Finnish people and to talk to them, but I was wrong, they are not so different compared to Basques.
andonisuomi.blogspot.com (mostly in Basque)
www.flickr.com/photos/andonisuomi (just photos)
