CBU Spring School 2010 - Petrozavodsk - Part 1

So, it was an early May morning, when we took a mini-bus for a time travel to our neighbors in Carelia. The trip to the Finnish border was quiet, yet the best part was still to come! But first, the Russian customs! Värtsilä is a small post, which usually serves the locals, so already my Italian and Sini's Swedish passport caused some panic .. could we pass through? The lady officer seemed more nervous than we were. After have called some colleague and clarified the issue, she returned our passports, apologizing and smiling. A completely different and more friendly attitude from the most trafficked Välimaa border: it was a good start!

Immediately when we entered the border roads become more and more challenging ... bumps and hole everywhere. But our driver was a indeed a professional on such forest roads, driving 130km/h and then suddenly breaks, apparently for no reason, pass over a certain bump and then accelerate at the same haste as before! For all of us, if not the first time in Russia, it was the first time in the "provincial" Russia, and so a continuous discover! The border area was anyway a jump 50 or 100 years in the past: old factories and wooden houses in endless forests and marshes ... we had some discussion on how beautiful the nature was, the possible reasons why the Russians do not build their "dachas" here instead of buying them beyond the border and how different could have been Finland and Finnish identity if Carelia remained part of the country.

Only reaching the road S.Petersburg-Murmansk we finally headed more comfortably towards Petrozavodsk, arriving at the dormitory when the sun was already set, after over 12h travel. The area wasn't of the most appealing at first sight: old wooden houses with stray dogs, but we got used to it very quickly and came to like it! The dormitory was nice and well furnished and from there we had 40min walking to the university, faculty of Social Science, every morning, that wasn't a problem, thanks to the coming sunny weather.

The first week of courses were more international and cooperative than expected! In cooperation with a Finnish university network it was organized the "Karelian International Summer School" which focused on the trans-regional cooperation in North Europe and North-western Russia, with some hint on the Arctic areas. We had a lot of other international students from Iceland, Norway, Estonia and the UK, and the days were divided into morning lectures and workshops in the afternoons. Tough schedule once again, but extremely inspiring!

We had also time to experience some "city-life": Finnish-Russian play in the national theater, and folk rock evening in "Porshen'" with the group Sattuma, awesome white nights :) We got to know the city at its best!

CBU Autumn school 2009 - Tampere

We knew already before starting studying in Tampere that we would have some weeks of courses altogether with our Russian colleagues. However, the fact that the first of these "schools" was to take place already in mid October did not really reach our minds. For this reasons, I do not even have any picture of those weeks, and all memories group together as they were a dream. Moreover for us, students from Tampere, there was not much of a change. Buildings were the same, almost same professors, the novelty were the twenty more Russian students in the class, which was overcrowded!

They were particularly intense weeks: many courses from the common curriculum, plus the personal ones, days really flew by. The most useful and demanding one (which will also haunt us for the whole next semester) was 'Theories and meta-theories of International Relations'. People like me had finally a firmer grip on the theoretical background of the discipline. Our coordinator asked us to possibly involve the Russian in other activities downtown, but we were ourselves freshers so we organised something in the few free-time we had: sauna evening with Politologit (Tampere's student association of political science), the most Finnish swimming in the lake Näsijärvi, with public sauna, evenings in pubs and clubs, and shopping in the center (they told us that some products are cheaper in Finland than in Russia!).

However, we were just starting to get to know each others, that the School was already over and our friends had to go back home, either by train or mini-bus. We were going to follow the same routes in the next years, trips which will be also much more documented with more pictures and impressions.

Student Life in Tampere (beside studies)

How's life in Tampere as a student, then? It can be very lively and active! One just need to look around. The city is the third biggest in Finland and you can find almost everything you need to divert sometime from studying. Not just many bars, pubs and discos, but also gyms, sport and swimming halls, libraries, parks and lakes ... but even much better, are active student associations, which luckily, in Finland are really almost an institution.

And here I'm not talking just of the Student Union, which every Finnish university has and every student has to be its member, but also faculty and hobby associations, which you can voluntarily join, following your interests, and get to know new people and activities.

The Student Union of the University of Tampere (Tamy, www.tamy.fi) is a great help especially when starting your studies: you get the first information and even some starting packet for the first year. But the famous "student card" (opiskelijakortti) entitles with public transportation and lunches discounts which are valid nationally. But other general support and advice, even legal, can be provided by the Union Office, whenever needed, since its purpose is to watch over the students interests, propose benefits and organize various events during the academic year.

Under the Student Union are the various student associations, which are organized around a specific discipline or hobby, and in my opinion, one of the most valuable side of Finnish student life! Here being active and positive yourself, you can get more easily contact with other Finnish and international students and through them know of the various opportunities in town, 'cause most of time information flows faster by individual word of mouth.

I'm myself member of ISOT, International Students Of Tampere, which represents the international and internationally minded students of Tampere and organize events to help international students to face cultural shocks and get to know Finnish culture, but also have some fun! A great happening, we are going to have is a "Tampere Rock" evening where there will be music form different Tampere's bands, mixed all night long [Tampere is somehow considered as the Finnish Rock Capital, and thus we honor such tradition :) ]. Other important function of the association, as said before, is spread information on what's happening in town, so that everyone can possibly look for and find the activity he/she wishes. English bulletins are also issued weekly by Tamy.

Anyway, my point here would be to be active and curious yourself: there are various opportunities and possibilities to continue previous hobbies or start brand-new ones, and help and advice can be found by other students and associations! Just ask them!

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P.S. If you want to know more why I really choose Finland to study and the CBU Master Program in particular, then you can read a my interview made last September for Osaaja-lehti. You can find the article in English at the last page of the journal available at

http://www.europass.fi/verkkolehti/

just click "Lataa PDF-lehti 2010" and then turn to the last page :) It was nice that they eventually published it in English. Hope you'll enjoy!