Are you deciding or have you decided to go
to the university of Helsinki for exchange? Are you worried about beating the
long cold dark nights in Helsinki? Then you have come to the perfect place for
tips, tricks, and more to overcome these foreseeing problems.
For greater insight about Helsinki, I
interviewed Steffi who had personally been there on exchange and was so kind to
give me details about her experience as well as some useful tips about getting
around. One of the main emphasize was the crazy amount of money you would be
spending on food and of course can’t forget the alcohol. As the Finnish love to
party and have their own drinking games and funny songs they sing. However, to
beat the insanely high grocery prices the university campus offers great food
for affordable prices. Can you believe it that you would be able to get a side
dish, main course, two drinks, and as much bread and butter that your heart
desires all for only 2.50 euros. I could hardly believe it myself, but this is
due to the government subsidizing the food so that students do eat healthy. But
come on 2.50 for a proper meal is almost unreal. For all the extra food you
might buy there are local grocery stores, however, this is hardly necessary due to
the great food service on campus.
As for transportation in Finland, you
usually use the overpriced metros, trams, or trains to get to and from
university or city center. However, it is also possible to obtain housing close
to the university, which is conveniently also located about 2 minutes from the
city center. Therefore, walking is also accepted by the local people as a
normal thing to do. Furthermore, this does mean that you will not need to own a
bike to get around and run less of a risk that you will fall off while heavily
intoxicated from all the fun drinking games you might attend. As for housing
concerns, the Exchange office located at Erasmus university helps students
find a place in Helsinki. Steffi explained she got her housing
close to campus and the city center through the Exchange office. Therefore, you will not have the stress of
finding something in a different country and not knowing where you might just
end up. As we might all have had difficulties finding a place to live, this
relieves you of this burden and lets you focus on more important things at
hand.
As for me, Finnish would be considered a
problem because I simply do not speak the language. However, I was comforted by
the fact that Finnish people are very open minded to foreigners and speaking
English for them would be no problem. While learning of this fact, I also
learned that they are more open to foreigners then to their own kind. Traitors
in a way! As for the written language I would not even attempt it, Steffi
explained that they sometime just have a bunch of a’s with accents and a couple
of h’s and y’s and that would be a word. I would not even be able to begin
saying the word or even understand the meaning. Moreover, Steffi was
able to understand some Finnish, due to her German background.
Unfortunately as humans we seem to always
fall ill at the worst moments. Well no worries you are in good hands in
Finland, because getting an appointment at the doctor’s office is no problem. You
simply call the doctor and schedule an appointment. It is as easy as 1, 2, 3.
This is mainly also cause you are a foreigner, for Finnish residents it is a
different process. They would have to call a call center and explain their
problem. Then this call center would let you know where you have to go to the
doctor’s and at what time. This leaves for very little say in when the time
would be good for you, but this is of no concern for you (just a little funny
fact).
As for fighting the cold, there are a lot
of shopping centers which are all connected through underground passages. Now
this might sound confusing but it seems very handy. As you are shopping or just
hanging out you are able to travel from different locations without the hassle
of getting cold every time you go outside. Also the cold could be due to the
short light that presides during the winter. As Steffi explained, you had to
keep yourself motivated to continue and not go to bed early because it is dark
out again. If you love fashion, then visiting the Design District would be
perfect for you. This is the place where all little unique boutiques are with
their own brands and some of the new hip designers have stores there. Some of
these designers have become so famous that they have even gone internationally.
Of course, if you are looking for the Zara, H&M, and those types of stores
they have plenty of them as well. The range of shopping stores is amazing and
should definitely be checked out while on exchange.
These were the tips and tricks for
Helsinki. Please enjoy and great thanks to Steffi for providing me with this
information. More posts will be coming soon.
--- Rebecca Regeer
