COINNO kick-off
The course is called COINNO- Collaborative Innovation Management. It is done together with a company where a company representative will take part in the course. The course is for master/doctoral level so I am expecting it to be quite challenging. I have been assigned Rolls Royce and will be working with developing their workspaces for 2020. We will probably go and visit the company in Ruukka already next week.
The course really jump-started today with both course intro, guest lectures and project work. Big + for the course staff providing us with coffee, sandwiches and fruit sallad! Awesome surprise with a second breakfast. Especially suitable after beeing up since five finishing the prereadings and packing for the speksi tour.
Speksi activities
!
Speksi premiere tonight!
bakslag
Spring suffers severe set back :(
Another fire alarm
dripping from me. Because one morning it might actually be a hazard and not just another exchange student burning their breakfast.
The Finnish Parliament
Spontanious daytrip to Tallinn
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 :)
Some video footage might show up later this week.
Disney sit-sit
Winnie the Pooh and Genie in the bottle was also there :)
They were quite generous with the Koskenkorva.
Well executed desert!!
Team Sweden
Man stabbed at campus
One of the news articles about it: http://hbl.fi/nyheter/2014-03-05/576596/esa-saarinen-knivskuren
YES WE CAN eat more spaghetti?
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.
Ingenious chair
Whoever modified this chair was super clever! Soooo comfortable and you can slide around as you like :) @DesignFactory
Kallio
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. 
Yrjönkadun uimahalli
I belive that I have told most people about Yrjönkadun uimahalli, nude swimming place. It is kind of a funny story. The sign outside the buliding says simhall, the Swedish word for a public swimming place, so that is how I found my way there the first time.
When I was standing in the line to pay for the entrance that first time I noticed a map with the floor plan.
It seemed like the place had an unusually open floor plan for being a swimming place. Before I got the chance to pay I had time to think "where should I change?". But then I discarded that though and was happy to discover that they had student discount. 2.50 EUR just like student lunch! I payed, took my shoes off en entered through a curtain. When I stepped through the curtains I immideiatly ended up next to the pool.
First though: "WHOA! Finns are really open with nudity!"
Second though: "Ok, if they do it, I can do it."
Third thought, after looking around a bit and taking it in: "There is only women here and some are actually wearing swimming suites".
I think Nordic people are quite open about nudity but a mixed nude public swimming pool might be a bit of a stretch. It turned out that Yrjönkadun uimahalli is a place with seperate days for women and men where you have the option to by nude or not. So by accident I arrived there on a correct day. I guess they would have denied me at the cash register otherwise. I played it safe the first time and kept my swimming suit on. The second time I went I ironically forgot my swimming suit there. So since then I have been going nude. Seeing people with a swimming cap, goggles and then nothing more is quite a funny sight!
When Maria visited me during the fall we went with our Finnish friend Rosa and tried a package deal. It was quite an experience. The package included:
- a bath robe
- a one time sauna towel
- access to the second floor where they serve drinks
- your own booth with bed where you could get changed and relax
AND besides the electric sauna downstairs, access to the more luxurious steem sauna and the wooden sauna. According to our Finnish sauna expert, Rosa, the wooden sauna is the best one!
I have to say that I have really learned to appriciate this strange place. It is a peaceful place. Besides Rosa, few of my Finnish friends seem to know about its existance.
Sometimes this sign will be on the door. Then you can rent a swimming suit for free. Haha :P
