How's it going guys!
It is now time to apply for the Finnish programs we have in our school. This might not concern you that much, unless you're a Finn reading this, or why not a foreigner who happens to know enough Finnish to appy :) nevertheless, just wanted to remind you guys!
One thing I also like to rise up is that parties are happening in Lappeenranta a LOT! It's kinda cool to see people connecting and getting to know each other - even forming couples. What I have spotted from Facebook, a lot of this events are completely open for everyone, because we here believe that everyone can behave themselves. We have this thing called "Skinnarilan henki" which translates to "Skinnarila Spirit" (not related to booze, always). This basically means that we have some unwritten rules here; mainly they are about behaving nicely towards everyone, respecting the area and enjoying student life. Good rules in my opinion!
Hope this is conforting to you, Lappeenranta is really a place where people are friend and welcome you to have a good time. I have to say that Finns are slow to warm, but once you win their trust (or our trust), we are good people to hang out with ;) stay tuned for more!
What’s happening my international people!
Winter has finally arrived to Lappeenranta, and at least I am fully enjoying it. Today and yesterday I went out for long walk with my girlfriend’s dog, when the sun was shining. I have to say that sunlight really gives you energy – this was easy to notice after almost two weeks without a glimpse of the sun. Now we have had a few good days with a lot of light, waking up in the morning is much, much easier J
We had a nice party on Friday the 27th for our new exchange students, in Skinnarila, Lappeenranta. Our tutors had prepared plenty of fun games and activities for students to get to know each other. We didn’t get quite as many students as we hoped, nevertheless it’s always great to see people acquainting and enjoying some good old, traditional sauna. One cool activity would be to do some traditional outdoor sports, for example cross-country and downhill skiing. I’m sure those are something that will be awaiting our new students.
Nothing is more awesome for me than to see people settling down to Finland and making new friends. That is also something I’m waiting to do myself in autumn, if I get the chance to go to the US for exchange (fingers crossed!). Going to exchange is in my opinion a once in a lifetime opportunity, that everyone should seize. Don’t miss out on your chance to have a great time, I promise that coming to study here in Saimaa UAS will be totally worth it. Keep reading this blog; we will keep you informed on all the awesome stuff that is happening on the international sector. Morjes!
Hello again,
Hope you have been actively reading our blog and your interest has risen towards studying in Saimaa University of Applied sciences. As I promised in the last blog I wrote, I will give you a small sneak peak to the activities that we do besides studying :)
So I would like to start sharing my personal experiences about the student activities in Saimaa University of Applies Sciences. As all Applied Sciences in Finland have their own student union, we as well have our own. Our the Student Union of Saimaa University of Applied Sciences, better known SAIKO, arranges each year the spectacular get-together happening, freshmen party. The main idea of this freshmen part is that all first year students get together and race in teams. Teams can be selected by student’s own choices and all first year students will go trough a checkpoint race. This checkpoint consists of different tasks and teams are there to succeed in each point as well as they can. The checkpoint keeper will evaluate each performance. In this checkpoint the group motivation, working together, achievement and especially team spirit will be evaluated. It cannot get any funnier than this!
I have taken part to this competition three times already, once having my own team and twice being the arranger of a checkpoint. Checkpoints have different tasks that test the humor sides of student as well as logic! And as we are the students of Saimaa UAS, we have these both things handled! When I took part of this race; our team consisted of multicultural people, from Spain, Germany and Finland! This race proved to us how much fun we can have and how well the international group works together!
Below you can see a picture from the checkpoint race, where we were, believe it or not, wearing pajamas!
Next time I will share you with some details how the school routine actually starts to work! Keep yourself active, more posts coming up soon ! :)
From my behalf I also want to wish you a better year 2012. My name is Essi Pennanen and I am also a third year student who studies in the degree programme of hotel, restaurant and tourism management. As I, at the point of having my final year going on, I think I can give to you, potential new applicants, good inside view of studying in Saimaan University of Applied Sciences, and the student life in Finland. As Mika also wrote we are the ones giving you some inside stories what has been happening and what will happen in the future.
During these last 3 years of studying in Linnala campus in Saimaa UAS has taught and given me a lot. In addition to a comprehensive overall picture over tourism industry, I have found several good friends from the fellow students. This has made the studying way more colourful and created an awesome value add to free time activities.
As my main study campus is Linnala, I want to share some thoughts of the studying atmosphere there. When entering the main doors you can immediately feel the variation of different nationalities by hearing the multiple different languages used. By this multicultural atmosphere, we all stand in the same line, share our experiences and get more specified knowledge of countries as these are shared daily. Linnala campus is small, but offers great facilities for studying. As a community we are also small, but even closer. I would describe our Linnala campus student community to be more family like where all are willing to help each other and share the unique experiences with each other. This all can also be applied to the relationships that are created between the students and teachers.
Atmosphere counts in every studying community and I can say that in our school it rocks! Keep yourself posted about the blog because it will be continued! In the next blog I will share some personal experiences about student activities arranged last year, 2011.
Terve, my international people! I guess for starters it would be polite to introduce myself. My name is Mika Lempiäinen and I’m a 3rd year IT student. Besides studying I have been quite active around student union work, for example last year I was the correspondent for international activities and thus got to organize quite a lot of cool activities, mainly with you, international people. For now, I continue my work as a tutor, try to keep the focus more on my studies, but also keeping you up-to-date on all happening in the international sector, via this blog!
At the moment I have been quite busy with new exchange students, we got to have around 50 new awesome students to our school. It has been a tradition to set up an evening, where they have a chance to hang out and meet with fellow exchange students – and also get to know the true Finnish sauna!
The atmosphere in our school, both in Imatra and Lappeenranta, is really open between international people. I love seeing that people don’t have a huge barrier in between each other, as I sometimes find that Finnish people might have. Take everything out of your time here; remember to dress up warmly, because it seems that winter is finally reaching us. Come say hi to me any time, I’ll be happy to let you know on what’s cooking in the international sector!
Saimaa University of Applied Sciences Skinnarilankatu 36, FI-53850 Lappeenranta, Finland Telephone: +358 2049 66411 Telefax: +358 2049 66505