Today I’ll be embarking on a four month academic exchange term at the University of Oulu in Oulu, Finland. While I’ve done some solo traveling in the past, having worked in Calgary and California, this is the farthest away from home I’ll be going for this long. In an attempt to consistently keep track of my adventures, I’ve decided to post about my travels as often as possible.
Oulu, before you look it up, is Finland’s fifth most populous city, and is located about 600km north of Helsinki, Finland’s capital city. While my courses will be in English, Finnish is one of the official languages of the country. Besides knowing that Finland has one of the highest coffee consumption rates in the world, 100% literacy rate, and some very happy people (5th happiest country in the world, to be precise), I don’t know much else about the country often called the “Land of a Thousand Lakes”.
For those who know me but maybe haven’t spoken to me in a while, you may be surprised to hear that I’ll be going to Finland next term. For the last year I’ve been meticulously planning every detail of completing an academic exchange in Singapore at the National University of Singapore. But two applications, two acceptances, and two terms of lacking equivalent courses later, I was left with the option of staying at the University of Waterloo for my 3A term, or going to the University of Oulu. While it’s not what I was expecting, I’m still grateful for the opportunity to immerse myself in a new culture for the next four months. I’m finally coming to the realization that life often doesn’t go as planned, but sometimes the best experiences are the ones we least expect.
While I’ll still be taking the same courses I would at Waterloo, I’m looking forward to spending my free time exploring Finland and its neighbouring countries. Everyone I know who has gone on exchange has told me it has been the best experience of their lives, and I’m excited to see what the next four months have in store for me!
-Pallavi