Already Christmas?

Here in Finland there is already a lot of christmas decorations to find. The shop windows are decorated and the streets are decorated. And you can also already find some christmas trees.
Ofcourse in Holland we also have a lot of Christmas decorations, but now we are celebrating 'Sinterklaas'. A Dutch tradition where children get gifts, a bit like they do here with Christmas. So I'm not really used to so much christmas decorations in November. But I have to say, it is really nice. As the days are shorter and darker it makes the city look light and cosy. I'm also curious how they celebrate Christmas here. We spend the Christmas here so we will get to see that.

Puhua Myöhemmin
Emma

Hesburger

Something you will see all over in Finland is Hesburger. It is like the mc donalds but than the Finnish version. There are a lot of Hesburgers here you can spot them almost everywhere. Ofcourse we needed to try it, so we did. But I have to admit I didn't really like it. It tasted exactly the same for me as mc donalds. So it is not really special, but it was nice to try it once.


Puhua myöhemmin
Emma

Roadtrip part 2

After one amazing day of roadtripping it was time for the second day. We decided to go to Tampere, a city a bit more northern than Turku. We had still amazing weather so we were happy about that. But it was a long way to get there. It was just one straight way for 2 hours, so kind of boring. But with the right music on we made it a lot more fun.

Finally after two hours we arrived in Tampere, we didn't really know anything about the city, but a lot of people were really enthousiast about it and told us we really should go there. The city had a lot of beautiful buildings and everything was already in Christmas spheres. Unfortunately the Christmas market was closed, so we couldn't go there. But we went to a Bunny café, I had never heard of something like that before. There were different rooms in the café where they had bunnies and you just could sit there, drink your hot chocolate and cuddle with the bunnies. We didn't do much in Tampere, just a little bit of sightseeing.

After a few hours we were cold and a bit tired so we decided to go home. We went out for dinner at a nice Italian restaurant in Turku and returned the car.

I had a really nice weekend roadtripping.

Puhua myöhemmin
Emma

First snow

Yesterday the first snow fall here in Turku. It snowed all morning and now we have a winter wonderland. The sun is still shining so it looks amazing here. yesterday I went to the lake and that was also really beautiful.
Now one day later it is still really beautifull but also very slippery, so ofcourse, clumsy as I am I fell.
Also fun fact in The Netherlands they strew salt on the roads to make it less slippery, here they use little stones/rocks.

Puhua myöhemmin
Emma

Road trip part 1

Last weekend Aniek and I rented a car to do a little roadtrip. We wanted to go to a national park cause we never been to one before and Finland has so much beautiful national parks that we had to go to a least one in the time that we are here.

So we got on the road and we drove to Nuuksio National park close to Espoo. It was a 2 hour drive to get there and we had beautiful views. The weathers this weekend was also really beautiful, the sun was shining, blue skies and it was a little bit cold but not too cold, just perfect.

We chose to do a route that was about, we thought, about 8 kilometers, but on the way we changed our route cause we didn't have a good feeling about it. Cause it seemed like a one way route to an other city. Good for us we changed our route cause we looked it up and the route we were walking was a 20 kilometers one way route. So we changed and we direction and did a route that was about 7-8 kilometers. The route was a bit though with some high climbs but it was really worth it.



We came across beautiful lakes and because it has been freezing for a while, the whole lake was frozen. It gives a beautifull view with the bleu sky, the sun shining and the frozen lake. Also in the forest it was really beautifull and there were a lot of fire places where you can barbecue. Or just sit around the fire. That is the nice thing about Finland. They have a thing called 'everyman's right' it means that everyone has the rights to use those fireplaces, but also to walk and bike in the woods, pick berries and mushrooms in the woods and to camp in the outdoor.

If you are thinking about going to Finland, or if you go. The national parks are worth a visit.

The first day of our roadtrip was really fun, we did a lot of karaoke in the car, our voices sounded like crap in the evening, but we had fun.

Puhua myöhemmin
Emma

Public transport

In the Netherlands we have pretty good public transport, but most of the time we use our bike to get to our destination.
Here in Turku a lot of people use the bike but also a lot use the bus. I have a bike here but most of the time I go with the bus. I go to school with the bus, go to the citycentre with the bus, go to the store with the bus, go the gym with the bus. I just go everywhere with the bus. It is pretty good arranged here with the busses, you almost can get everywhere with the bus, so it is really easy. And if you go for a longer journey you can also take the train. Last weekend I took the train for the first time here to get from Helsinki to Turku. It was a little bit different than back home. We just get in the train and sit wherever we want, but here you get a seat. So the first time going with the train it was hard to find the right place. But I did and it was actually quite comfortable.

So traveling isn't really hard and there are a lot of options to travel from place to place.

Puhua myöhemmin
Emma

My favourite place

I think we all have a favourite place to be. For some it is at home on the couch, for some it is their bed and for some it is outside. Back home I have a favourite place, it's at the riverside, most of the time I go there when I take a walk with my dog. I just sit there and watch the river and the nature and just enjoy being outside. Here in Finland I also found my favorite place. It's a rock by the Littoinen lake. If you go really early in the morning on a sunny day, you can enjoy sitting in the sun there and just relax. It is a silent place and the lake is beautiful in the sunlight, a perfect place to relax and enjoy the beautiful nature of Finland.

It is also a perfect place to spot the aurora, but unfortunately I haven't seen it from there.





Puhua myöhemmin
Emma

Visitors from home

In my previous post, my family wrote something about their time here in Finland. So I'm not gonna explain tell that all again.
But as you read, my parents and brother came over for a weekend. I was really looking forward to this weekend.
We spend the weekend in Helsinki and I showed them all the nice places there and let them taste the best Finnish pastries.We also found some places, that were new to me
I also showed them Turku, the place where I study, and let them see my favourite place to relax.
It was a really nice weekend with beautiful weather and I enjoyed the time we had with eachother.

See you in 36 days!

Puhua myöhemmin
Emma

A trip to Finland

A trip to Finland, 16-19 November 2018

What do you do when your daughter and sister is in Finland for 4 months….? You visit her. And so we did!

Last Friday we took off for our trip to Emma. What a wonderful weekend it was. First and foremost to be together again for a few days and enjoy each others company. But of course it also was a great opportunity to visit Finland, especially Turku and Helsinki.

We booked a really nice and comfortable apartment at “Kaapeli”, The Cable Factory, built between 1939 and 1954, which once was the largest building in Finland and the most impressive industrial space in Helsinki, nowadays a culture centre. Located near the seaside and just 3 minutes away from the city centre, if you take the underground railway. So a perfect spot.

We rented a car at the airport. Luckely for the boys they only had a huge Skoda Superb Combi for rent, with pre-warming, enormous space inside, great sound system, parking system, driving smooth and very silently.

On Friday we celebrated our reunion with presents from friends and grand parents, Dutch cheese, cummin cheese, ‘pepernoten’ plain and with chocolate. Emma was thrilled with happiness about all these delicious surprises.

On Saturday we visited Turku - which is about 1:45 hours drive from Helsinki – to visit Emma’s flat, and to do some sightseeing. We also went to a nice small lake near Turku. Luckely the weather was great, cold but with a lot of sunshine. So it was great for a walk along the lake side.

We visited the lovely small marketplace “Kauppahalli Saluhallen”, where we drank a delicious cup of coffee and hot chocolate and tasted some marvellous sweet Finnish cakes… After strolling around the city for a while – Turku city centre is nice and cosy but not that big – we went back to our apartment in Helsinki, where we had a typical Dutch meal with potatoes, broccoli and steak. We used the relaxing sauna in the apartment – typical Finnish -, played some cards, had a view drinks and went to bed.

Sunday we planned to visit Helsinki. Arriving at the city center we were guided to The Espresso House, for a truly fine cup of coffee, of course accompanied by some tasty sweet cake. Emma guided us through the city and showed us some of the highlights, such as the Helsinki Cathedral, the market hall – which unfortunately were both closed – and the wonderful Suomenlinna Island, very recommandable to visit!

Oh, and we also ran into a Christmas Market! It just started this weekend. Of course we had to try the reindeer sausage, not bad at all!

Again the weather was fantastic this day, cold but all wonderful deep blue skies. With the sun shining so bright but staying rather low, the shadows and light effects in the streets were amazing!

Monday, time flies, was our last day in Helsinki. We had to pack our bags. Luckely our flight was at 6 pm, so we had still some time left together. Emma explicitely wished to let us taste another one of her favorite Finnish delights, the cinnamon bun, at the market hall near the seashore. So of course we couldn’t deny this. And finally we went to The Karl Fazer Cafe, world famous for its sweet confectionary products.

Here is where our Finnish story ends for now. At the train station we hugged and said goodbye. We had a great time together. Now we’re counting 38 days until we can pick her up at the airport again. Meanwile we wish Emma, and of course Aniek too, to enjoy an amazing time in Finland!

With love, Guus, Bennie and Anneke

Cross-culture

While being here in Finland you meet a lot of people, so that means a lot of new cultures. You meet Finnish people but also people from all over the world. People from Germany, Spain, U.S.A, Italy, Japan, North-korea, Ireland etc. I can make my list so much longer but I think you understand what I mean. All of those people have a different culture, what also means that they the communication is different. Especially in the beginning it was sometimes hard to understand eachother.

To prevent miscommunication it is good to know which culture someone belongs to. There is a model called the Lewis Model to help you find out the culture. Lewis says that people can be devided in 3 categories based on behaviour: Linear-active, Multi-active and reactive.

The linear group is the English speaking world: North America, Britain, Australia and New Zealand and Northern Europe, including Scandinavia and Germany

The Multiactive group are more scattered: Southern Europe, Mediterranean countries, South America, sub-Saharan Africa, Arab and other cultures in the Middle East, India and Pakistan and most of the Slavs. Even though all these cultures are wildly diverse, geographically nd in their religions, beliefs and values, they can be categorised as a group, as behaviourally they follow the same pattern with traits and have a lot in common

The reactive group is located in all major countries in Asia, except the Indian sub-continent, which is hybrid.

In this model you can see really good the distance between countries in cultural way. We as Dutch are linear-active and so are the Finnish people and I think while being here I haven't had much problems with communication with other Finnish (beside of the language barrier). But here in Turku also study a lot of Spanish people and I can notice a big difference. Spanish people talk a lot use a lot of body language. If I compare it to myself. I'm more quiet, I don't use body language that much, I'm a bit direct. I noticed that not everyone, especially people from the multi-active group can interpret being direct as rude. So I have to be a bit careful with that, and sometimes try to say things in a different way. 

To prefent miscommunication it is good to keep in mind that people have a different culture and different behaviour. This can be a bit hard in the beginning, but it is really nice to get to know different cultures and to learn from eachother.

Puhua myöhemmin
Emma

Sauna's everywhere

If you go to Finland you can't not go to the sauna. I have to be honost with you, I haven't been there. But here in Finland sauna's are really important and is a big part of their culture. There are almost 3 million sauna's in Finland, so that means an average of one per household. For Finnish people the sauna is a place to relax with friends and family, and a place for physical and mental relaxation as well. In the past almost all Finnish mothers gave birth in saunas.
Taking a sauna starts with having a wash, followed by a sit in the sauna room. When the heat gets uncomfortable it is customary to dive in a lake, sea or swimming pool or to have a shower. In winter it is really common to roll in the snow or to swim in the lake.

As I told I haven't been in the sauna here yet, but we will definitely go there. Maybe next week cause we have a lot of time. If I went to the sauna I will write about my experience how it is here, so keep you updated.

Puhua myöhemmin
Emma

Rainy days

Before we came to Finland we already heard that the weather here in Turku, in autumn and winter wouldn't be nice. It would be cold, rainy, windy and dark. Well we have had a lot of luck, we had beautiful weather till november. But they said october would be the worst month, cause it would rain everyday. Since we have been here it rained maybe 5 or 6 days. We still had a lot of sun, ofcourse it got colder, but there was still a lot of sun so I was happy.
But now the weather is changed clompletely. It is dark everyday and it rains everyday. And eventhough it isn't that cold, the wind is really cold. So going outside now isn't really a pleasure, but hopefully it will get a bit better. And I hope we will see some snow here.

Puhua myöhemmin
Emma

Only 6 weeks left

I'm already 2,5 month here in Turku, Finland. Time went by so fast. Ofcourse sometimes days are a bit hard and you miss home. But we do so many fun things and see so many things I would never have missed. And I'm looking forward to the trips we are going to make. There is one trip we are really looking forward to, our trip to Lapland! We will go to Lapland in 5 weeks, one of the last weeks we will be here. So a good final trip to end this exchange with. But that is in 5 weeks, so till then we have the time to do so many other fun things.

But how is it to live in Finland. Well Finland is a beautifull country, before I came here I wouldn't choose to come here for a holiday or whatever, but I have changed my mind about that. It is a really peacefull country and  Finland's nature is beautiful. The people here are really sweeet, yes, they are shy and also a bit quiet, but always willing to help you. And some just start talking to you, and even though you say you don't speak Finnish, they just continue. That's especially with the older people, but I think that is just sweet. In cultural way, Finland is quite the same as The Netherlands. The only thing is the language that is really hard. I have to say I can understand some words they say now and I can introduce myself to people, but it is still hard.

I've seen a little bit of Finland in these two months and I really want to explore more of this beautiful country. There are only 6 (and a few days) more weeks left till we are going home again and it feels like we have to do and see so many things.
I will keep you updated about all the things we do here :)

Puhua myöhemmin
Emma

Stockholm part 2

We only had one day left in Stockholm. We both woke up quite early, had our breakfast, checked out by the hotel and went to some underground stations. Cause in Stockholm you have some very special stations. All the stations have a lot of special wallpaintings and each station is different. So if you want to see all of them, we started at Sickla centre, you should take the underground and go out at each station. We found that out later but we saw 2 special ones. So the one at Sickla centre and T-centralen. So if I go back, I will go to the other ones.

As I told in my previous post about Stockholm, we wanted to see the change of the guards at the royal palace, It started at 13.15, so we stood there around 12.45 and it was really crowded already. But we quite a good place on the first row, so we could see a lot of the ceremonie. First someone tells something about the palace and a bit history and exactly 13.15 the real ceremonie starts. Someone plays something on the trumpet, and then all the 'old' guards come stand in line. Then the 'new' guards come marching to the square. Then

They kind of change there positions and the 'old' guards march away.

Then the trumpet player and the drummer play some music and that was the ceremony. If you are in Stockholm, I recommend to go here, and I heard that if you go on wednesday the royal orchestra plays a lot of music.

So after the changing of the guards we did again some sightseeing and just walked through the city. We came across beautiful buildings and other nice places of the city. Ofcourse we also had to do some shopping again. Stockholm is also a very nice place for shopping.

We had to eat a bit early to be on time for the boat. We came across a cute little restaurant, so we ate something there. After dinner we went back to the hotel to pick up our suitcase and we went to the harbour. On the way back we had a cabin included, so we had a bed and a own small bathroom. We had to spent the whole night on the boat, so I tried to get some sleep. Well I think I had 2 hours of sleep that night. The bed was really small and not comfortable at all was really small and a lot of noises. But we survived and after 12 hours on the boat we were back in Turku.

I can look back at an amazing weekend. We have seen a lot and we had a lot of fun!

If you are looking for a city for a citytrip, Stockholm is perfect for that. 

Puhua myöhemmin

Emma

Stockholm part 1

I don't know if I'm gonna make one post about this amazing city or maybe two, but let just start with this one.

Aniek and I went to Stockholm for a weekend. We heard from a lot of people that it's a beautiful city, so I had high expectation of it. But did the city meet my expectations? Well just read and I think you will find out :)

We left home quite early on friday morning, it was around 8 o'clock. We had to get to the harbour, cause we were going with the boat to Stockholm. The boattrip from Turku to Stockholm takes 12 hours. I was a bit scared I would get seasick (that happend before...) and 12 hours is a really long time. We didn't have a cabin, so we couldn't really sleep and after a few hours I was already bored. I donwloaded some movies and music, I read some books, ate a lot and tried to sleep a little bit. But that gets boring to after 8 hours. So the 4 hours we had left were pretty long. 

Some people would say, why take the boat? Well we are students and this is the cheapest way to get there ;)

Finally we arrived in Stockholm, but it was already dark so there was not much to see. We walked to the hotel, which luckily was close to the harbour, and fell asleep quite soon. The hotel we had was really nice. The bed was amazing, super soft (unlike my own bed here) nice bathroom, the breakfast was really good and there was a tramstation in front so within 15 minutes you were in the centre. 

So on saturday we just planned to do some sightseeing and we wanted to join a free citytour a friend of us recommended. This city amazed me right away, yes I almost say this with every city I've been to, but it is true, every place here amaze me. 

Aniek and I are always kind of unprepared when we do citytrips, also this time. we didn't look up some highlights beforehand or searched for things you need to do. We always just go and we will find out what the city brings us. The only thing we heard was about the citytour and that we had to see the change of the guards at the royal palace.




So I looked up when the change of the guards would be, so it said 12.15. We were standing there waiting and waiting and waiting and still at 12.15 nothing happend. So we were confused and a lot of other people too. Then we spotted someone from who worked there and asked if it was going to happen that day. Well apparantly 3 november is a special day so it would be at 13.15. We didn't want to wait another hour and we had to the citytour at 13.00. Luckily the change of the guard was also on sunday, so we had another chance.

Normally I'm not a person who does citytours, I don't really like walking with a big group of people, I just want to explore the city by myself. But as someone recommended this citytour we gave it a try and I have to say it was pretty fun to do. We did a tour through Stockholm old town. The guide we had was awesome. He interacted a lot with us and showed us the most important places of the city. For me it was nice to know the history of the beautifull buildings and from the city.

It was quite cold that day, so after 1,5 hours walking we were freezing. Cold weahter is a good excuse to go to a café and have a big hot chocolate and a piece of cake to warm up. That was most of what we did on saturday.

I almost forgot, we found an amazing candystore where the sell delicious Swedish candy and all kinds of chocolate. Ofcourse we couldn't resist to buy some of that. We bought some kind of swirled candy that they have in a lot of different flavours.
Oh and we ate a really good pizza for dinner and had some cocktails.

This is a already a pretty long post so I'm gonna write a part two of this amazing city soon for you

Puhua myöhemmin
Emma

Onneksi Olkoon

November 6th


Hyvää syntymäpäivää isä!!
Or as we would say in english: Happy birthday dad!

So today it's my dad's birthday. On days like this it is kind of weird not to be home to celebrate it with each other. And on those days I miss home a bit more.

But dad, I hope you have a great day, we will celebrate it when you are here in less than 2 weeks:)

Paljon rakkautta
Emma

Love my Friends 💓

As I wrote in my previous post, my friends came over. They told me on my birthday that they would come here to Turku. Since I knew it (16 september) I was counting down, especially the last 3 weeks before they came. 

They were here for a few days. On tuesday they came, so I picked them up from the airport. At the moment I saw them I was so happy, and I realised how much I missed them. On our way to the appartment we had already so much to talk about. It felt so good to speak to them in real-life, instead of whatsapp or skype. The first night we ate a pizza and we have been talking all night long.

Wednesday
We did some sightseeing in Turku and some shopping in Turku. I also showed them my appartment here. And took them to my favourite place here, the lake. We were really lucky, cause the weather, it were some sunny days.

Thursday
Turku is not that big, so I thought it would be nice to go to Helsinki and do some sightseeing there. So that is what we did, after a busride of 2 hours we arrived in Helsinki. In Helsinki I showed them the highlights of the city and ofcourse we did some shopping, cause Helsinki is a great city for a shoppingday.






Friday
This was already the last day they were here. The days went by so quickly, and I was a bit sad they had to leave already. But it is only 52 more days till I'm home again. I had some amazing days with my friends here, I'm really happy they came over! And I actually can't wait to see them again.

Puhua myöhemmin
Emma

Back again

Hey all, It has been a while since I wrote something on this blog. So this is a small summary of what I have been doing this month.

I had to finish my last week of practice on my second practical place. This practice was on a arthroplasty surgery ward. On this ward they do knee, hip and shoulder replacement. I also got the opportunity to see a knee surgery, what was really nice.
After I finished my practice there, I had a week off. I haven't done much in that week. Just a working out a little bit, whatch some series and movies on Netflix and just relax.

7th october

On the 7th of october there was something amazing. We saw the aurora!
¨It is at our building!¨ I opened my curtains, and yes there it was, The Aurora! Right there in front of building. I just couldn't believe what I saw.

I think we stood on the balcony for almost half an our, watching this magical light phenomenon. 



After my week off, I had to go to a new place for my practical. This was at the children infection ward. It was only 1 week, so really short. But I think this was the best place to end. I was never really sure about where I want to work after I graduate. But after this week in the children hospital, I'm pretty sure I want to work on a children ward. Ofcourse it can change but It was so nice to work with the children. I'm really glad I got the chance to work on a children ward here in Finland.

So now I finished all my practices and I passed for all of them :) The rest of the time here I will go to school to follow some classes.

I had another week off and this week my friends from home came over, but I will write another post about that. 

Puhua myöhemmin

Emma