snigel50plus

The speksi tour was a lot of fun! I learned at least two new Finnish words: käärme ja paratiisi (snake and paradise) The tour had the theme paradise since one of the stops was a spa named Eden. The people that were organizing the tour had then found a song containing basically two words; snake and paradise that were played every so often. It resulted in someone always humming on it and Friday night one of the sound guys made a dubstep version of it!

I now know why Finnish students do so well in international rankings! I am convinced that it has to do with how teachers are viewed in Finland. In order to teach in Finland you have to have a masters degree. And in order to get in to a teaching program you have to belong to the top 10 % of your class. On top of that, if I have understood it correctly, the standard is tree teachers per twenty students.

Being a teacher in Finland is a high status job compared to for example Sweden where weiges and the attitude towards teachers is awful. Not to offend anyone, but when you chose to become a teacher in Sweden, I feel like the case more often is that you do not know what you would like to do, compared to making the choice because you are passionate about teaching.

Estland is just 2.5 hour away by ferry from Helsinki. The stereotypical Helsinki-Tallinn cruiser travels with a  suitcase on wheels - empthy on the way there, filled with cheap alcohol on the way back. Seeing the old parts of Tallinn made me realize how young Helsinki is. Everything in Helsinki is basically built around the same time where as in Tallinn almost every building is totally different from its neighbor. It makes it a pretty and charming city with lots of character :)

This is an ad for one of the campus lunch restaurant where they serve spaghetti every Wednesday. Rumors say the portion sizes are humongous. I have not been yet so this is something that I still have to investigate.

 

It seems like students here have a greater value for the working industy. Besides recieving all kinds of discounts companies are keen to hire you. Most of my Finnish friends are working with something related to their studies parallell with studying. Actually I do not think I know of anyone who does not. This often lead to extended studies. The average study time for finishing a five year university program is seven years. In one way it is kind of nice that people are not in a hurry. They study, work and enjoy student life.  I have a lot of classes with six year students. Sometimes I feel rather unexperienced.The other day I started talking to a guy that was on his 11th year! But I am pretty sure he belongs to the extreme.

Yesterday I walked around in the residential area Kallio or Berghäll as it is called in Swedish. It is an area in Helsinki, a little oustide the very centre. I have visited a couple of cafés and bars there before, and travelled through it a bunch of times to get to the Aalto arts campus in Arabia, but this was the first time I really explored Kallio. I do not know why I have not done it earlier. Kallio has a lot to offer. It is a former workers district,with interesting architecture, bars and music, ethnic restaurants and small shops of all sorts. In tourist guides it is often compared to Kreuzberg in Berlin. In Kallio you are guaranteed to find both alcoholics and hipsters. Kallio is infamous for its public drunkenness (drunks wandering the streets in daytime) and sex shops, but those phenomena live side by side with old grannies, families with small children, vintage stores and trendy organic cafes. It is an odd mix.