Letter home - Susanna Leppänen

Being as an Erasmus student on summer semester 2018.

1. In what country and University are you studying?
I was in Czech Republic, Pilsen (Plzeň) in University of West Bohemia.

2. In what Study program are you studying at Centria?
Business Administration in Finnish.

3. What are the courses like at the host University?
I was studying at faculty of economics. I took courses mostly about marketing. 
A habit of way teaching was sometimes quiet boring. Some courses was lectures so only listening and looking at the board where was PowerPoint. I had two courses where professors were asking many questions, I like it but I didnt want to be involved in conversations because something always happened in lessons and I totally forgot how to speak English. 😁

4. Describe the study culture? / What is the corporate culture like?
I think czech people are very dedicated to study. I didn't meet many Czech people at classes because many czech students hadn't take courses in English. I met some Czech girls and guys and they are very shy about speaking English. Otherwise, I think Czech people are pretty similar with Finnish people. Like we do have our personal spaces. We don't hug people when we meet at the first time. But I did this to my buddy (tutor) because I thought it's polite but she was surprised. 

In markets and shops it depends how they act. In markets i got first hey from the cashier, but of course they spoke to my in Czech. I started to say greetings in Czech and I was able to answer for the questions yes or no. Czech is so hard! 😅

5. What is your study group like?
We had a very multicultural Group. From Europe and Asia. I think there was around 100 Exchange students, part of winter semester and we new students for the summer semester. There was 5 students from Finland included me. Two from Turku and two from Oulu.

I recommended to go for abroad not with the friend. You'll have change to get more friends and you are not hanging out only with your friend there. Unfortunately there was people who came with friend(s) and they were only groups and barely i saw them.

6. Please describe what the everyday life is like in your host country? What do you like in particular?
I had three days of week lessons (from monday to wednesday). So my weekends started much earlier. Everything was close in Pilsen. Public transportation was easy to use. Tramstation and bus stops were next to our dormitory. We had a pub next to our dormitory, so we were there every monday. playing table soccer, talking and drinking. There was ESN Pilsen = Erasmus Student Network, which organized to use some events for example trip to Prague and bowling, and events which I liked the most was Culture Evening. Winter wasn't long in Czech Republic so after snow and temperature gets more warmer, we went to park which was also next to dormitory. Borsky park is so big and there is so much Place to play soccer, baseball and frisbee and much more. We also did picnics.

Cathedral of St. Bartholomew

In Pilsen

Okay this sounds I havent studied there. But yes, I studied there and i spent so many hours with my laptop just doing assignments. We had Group tasks almost in every course so we needed to meet at library and do presentations and seminar papers. 

7. What has been challenging? Why? 
During  the whole exhange the difficulties was the Czech launguage itself. In the capital city, Prague, everyone speaks English there but when you are going to another city or town, they hardly speaks English. This situation made many things harder. Only in restaurants they spoke English but it was also struggeling sometimes. Professors spoke very good English except for a few. Anyway we always survived somehow. Luckily I had my own buddy like a tutor who helped me with everything what I asked. 

Sitter in the dormitory didn't speak english if you wanted to wash the laundy, I needed to use a google translator or to ask my roommate for help me with the Czech part. Sometimes sitters were angry at me because I didn't understand Czech and they didn't understand English. 

8. What has been the highlight of your exchange so far?
The highlight in my Exchange period was to have so many friends from so many countries. I got also two best friends from there. I haven't been this glad ever. You get to know them and their culture which was one of my wishes to have in abroad. 

D-I-E Poland

Assingment (2) during exchange - Describe - Interpret - Evaluate:

 

1. DESCRIBE:

  

In my exchange period, there's no such a situation that confused me. However I will tell a story that I find it quite interesting and a little bit weird at first. As we all know, the World cup was held on last summer , my friends and I went to the city center to watch the matches. And funny story when I was preparing to come back home, 1 Polish guy looked at me and said shit words, his crew also glanced at me and show their dirty finger.
I just didn't get it at all and my friends told me to be back, dont care about that bull***t. Then I left because the match also ended, suddenly I met an old man, I think he's Polish cause he came into me and spoke a lot in Polish with happy mood, like he's so exited to meet me. After that he made a handshake with me and left, didnt forget saying goodbye to me.
And then I was really confused what happened.

 

 2. INTERPRET:

Firstly, when the young crew seem hate me, I thought they're just racists. Or maybe because Poland lost that match to Japan so they hate any Asian guys. However when the old man come, I was in a crying state.
I just smiled after the old man leaving. Finally, when I met my Polish friend, she explained anything. It's mainly because I was wearing a Polish football team scarf but there're actually  2 teams in my city so the old man is fan of the team whose scarf I wore and the young boys are the fan of the other team :> 

 

3. EVALUATE:

Eventually, I think that people there just too crazy about football. They love the sport so much that sometimes too overreacting but that's also very cute in some angle, they show their feeling like a kid, so emotional and naturally.
If I was a member of the host, I'll notice the newcomers about this because it might be a fight if you cant control your temper. Anyway, it's unforgettable memory.

Letter home - Quan Hoang

1. In what country and University are you studying? /
Where are you doing your internship?

- I was going exchange in university of Lodz, Lodz, Poland.

2. In what Study program are you studying at Centria?

- I'm an IT student in Centria from Autumn 2016.

3. What are the courses like at the host University? or What has your work placement been like?

-The courses in Lodz are quite flexible and the content has some similarity like in Centria.

4. Describe the study culture? / What is the corporate culture like?

-As most of Europe Country, like in Finland, study culture there is not so stressful.

5. What is your study group like?

-The class normally has around 10-12 students, some just have 5 or less because they organize just for mobility students.

6. Please describe what the everyday life is like in your host country? What do you like in particular?

-I lived in the school dormitory, it's so close to my faculty so i just need to walk everyday to school. In the weekend, they organize events to visit the historical parks, museums or some entertaining places.

7. What has been challenging? Why?

-Some dormitories there dont have good quality to live. We have common kitchen for the whole floor. And there's no fridges in dormitory, if we want, we have to buy one. So I need to buy fresh food almost everyday, that's my most challenging while living there.

8. What has been the highlight of your exchange so far?

-hmm, not much but I think the best I got there is I have many new friends and the memory hanging out with them there was unforgettable.

D-I-E France

1. Describe
During my stay in La Rochelle, the city had 2-3 days of snow in January. It was quite exciting for me since it has been almost a year I hadn't seen snow. However, I was quite surprise that the city was almost shut down during these days. The school was closed, the buses stoped running, most of the restaurants, cafe, shops and supermarkets were closed. I found it really strange because snow is not somthing abnormal in France, especially, the amount of wet snow in La Rochelle is very little.

2. Interpret
After talking with my host family, I knew that was the first snow in La Rochelle in 20 years. The coastal city is usually humid and La Rochelle is quite in the South of France so it has less snow than other parts in the country. The people also find it difficult during the daily activities like driving, walking or shopping, many old people had to go the hospital since they fell on the ice. On the other hand, people got excited with the snow. For example, my host family, the 60-year-old couples went out to the backyard and enjoying the snow with their grandchildrens.

3. Evaluate
This experience recalled my first time in Finland: As a girl from a tropical country (Vietnam), I was thrilling when seeing snow the first time in Kokkola. I think I can partly understand how the people here feeling. Even though I found it strange at first, I had fun with my host family, I built the snowman with their grandchildren and all of us enjoyed the hot chocolate beside the fireplace at night.

Letter home

1. Where are you doing your internship?
I'm doing my internship in Toronto. It's huge town which located in Canada.

2. In what Study program are you studying at Centria?
I'm studying community educator. This is third year I am studying at Centria University of Applied Sciences.

3. What has your work placement been like?
I work with the youth in Agricola Lutheran Church, in confirmation classes, other youth work and will participate in other work in the congregation.

4. What is the corporate culture like?
Working culture is little bit different than in Finnish congregation. Church members are more active in congregation.

6. Please describe what the everyday life is like in your host country? What do you like in particular?
My day off are usually on Friday and Saturday. Usually I spend my free time exploring this exciting city. Work days I wake up before seven o'clock. I start morning with breakfast and same time I read messages from phone.Then I go to work. After a day of work, I often go jogging. I especially like this multicultural city, and of course, I have met nice people in Toronto.

7. What has been challenging? Why?
The most challenging thing is to move from one place to another in a big city. It is difficult to estimate the time you need for this. During rush hour you spend more time in traffic lights. If you use a subway, it can be full. So, you have to take next one.

8. What has been the highlight of your exchange so far?
Couple weeks ago I travelled to Niagara Falls. It was very beautiful place.

6.10.2018

2 kuvaa - Näytä albumi

D-I-E USA

1. DESCRIBE:

One instance was when Spring break came, and everybody left school to go on a vacation, but I stayed at the dorm during the break. There were couple of us that stayed there, but most of the students were gone during that week.

2. INTERPRET:

Most who left were from other states or cities, or they just had planned other vacation plans. I know that at least couple guys from our corridor left to have a vacation near a beach so they could just relax on the beach, but there were so many people around the US and world that they left for their home or just sightseeing. I had made plans of having couple adventures in Arkansas, so I decided to stay.

3. EVALUATE:

I felt it was similar to our ‘hiihtoloma’ in spring. Actually, it was almost at the same time, too. In Finland many people during the time off go back to their parents or have a vacation abroad or just go sightseeing around the country. What I heard from other peoples’ plans, their plans were similar to what people here would do during their vacation; going to the beach, visiting parents and other relatives, going on a cruise, things like that. Some also just worked during that time, which is also what I can imagine lots of people doing in Finland.

Lobby which normally is full of people

Afternoon outside my dorm

Letter Home - Pasi Karjalainen

1. In what country and University are you studying?

I was studying in United States at University of Central Arkansas

2. In what Study program are you studying at Centria?

Information Technology.

3. What are the courses like at the host University

The courses at UCA are somewhat similar to courses at Centria, at least in Computer Science department. Classes can be small but also fairly big with 20-40 students. My classes had 10-30 students. The classrooms are about the same size as in Centria, but they also have small auditoriums where they also teach, those were the best kind of classrooms

4. Describe the study culture?

Study culture is also somewhat similar, a bit more study oriented than in Finland. In our classes people started to do the assignments right there when they were assigned if the professor gave permission to do then, libraries were always full of people studying and people would do projects on groups even though the projects were for individuals.

5. What is your study group like?

I usually studied alone but occasionally did assignments in groups, then it was usually me and couple Americans. They were great people, our thinking process matched and it was pleasant working with them.

6. Please describe what the everyday life is like in your host country? What do you like in particular?

Somewhat similar to Finnish life. There were some differing things, like people would use shoes inside their houses, streets didn’t usually have means of transport other than cars, or other motorized vehicles, church was big thing as lots of people went to church on Sundays and the church was apparent in many local afterschool events. Food there was interesting as a Finnish: Instead of potatoes there were usually sweet potatoes, meat was mainly beef and often food was greasy.

7. What has been challenging? Why? 

As I liked being alone often, going to stores were most challenging. Nearest store was Kroger in maybe about 2 kilometers away, but the roads to it were mostly roads for cars, so cycling was interesting. To be fair, cycling wasn’t dangerous, but it was still scary to cycle with cars. Usually I took a longer trip to Walmart where I could take a local cycling path which started about half a kilometer from school. Sometimes talking were hard, I could think of something I would want to say in Finnish, but because I wasn’t experienced English speaker, it was sometimes hard to come up with some words or good way to say what I wanted.

8. What has been the highlight of your exchange so far?

Highlight was probably all the trips I took with my good American friend, Aaron.  We met almost immediately when I came to Conway, I believe it was on the same day or at least the next day. 

We took couple trips outside Conway during the spring, one to Petit Jean state park which was really beautiful and cool place, but when we were there, there was a heavy fog, so we couldn’t see any scenery but the trails we walked were good and we had a good time. Petit Jean State Park | Arkansas State Parks

Other time we had an adventure where we cycled to Little Rock from just outside of it totaling to about 41 kilometers. Took us 2 and half hours but it was worth it.