So yesterday the Fuksiaiset for the international students took place. This time we did not wander off into the forest but stayed in the city centre. I guess the event can best be described as a happening for freshmen who want to have some fun an get to know each other. This is how it works: we were divided into seven groups of circa 8-10 people each. We had to go through different stations to complete different tasks. Each group had to take a selfie, fill out a questionnaire about Finland, run around the tutors screaming and try to get as many rounds as possible, reconstruct a painting of a Finnish lake landscape with swans, a lake and trees in it, and try to exchange a red paperclip into something more awesome by asking people what they're willing to give in exchange...so basically we had to make a fool out of ourselves and be creative about it. This is what it looked like: | Two tutors introducing us to the concept of a Fuksiaiset. |
The beautiful senator square in front of the Helsinki Cathedral.
The running while screaming challenge. Our tutors explained that two people would have to skip this challenge because we were such a big group. I happily volunteered.
Our interpretation of a Finnish lake landscape with swans and trees and a lake, obviously...I recognize 2 swans..but I have no idea what those trees thought they were doing....
I love that there is always a seagull sitting on a statue. No matter which statue in Helsinki you look at, you can be sure to find a seagull doing its business on top of it. There's even a joke about it:
For decades, two heroic statues, one male and one female, faced each other in a city park until one day, an angel came down from heaven. "You've been such exemplary statues," the angel said, "that I'm going to give you a special gift. I'm going to bring you both to life for thirty minutes, during which time you can do anything you want." And with a clap of his hands, the angel brought the statues to life. The two approached each other a bit shyly and dashed for the bushes, from whence there came a good deal of giggling, laughter, and shaking of branches. Fifteen minutes later, the two statues emerged from the bushes with wide grins on their faces. "You still have fifteen more minutes," said the angel, winking at them. Grinning even more broadly, the female statue turned to the male statue and said, "Great! Only this time you hold the pigeon down and I'll shit on it's head!"
Afterparty in the student union house, and announcement of the winner group. We won in two categories: our lake landscape was apparently simply breathtaking and we were able to exchange the lousy paper clip into an awesome sparkly e-cigarette. Yeah. It was a process. We went from paperclip to a disgusting, chewed-on pencil, to a Russian coin of ten rubles to the e-cigarette. It's pretty cool that the student union owns a house which basically serves as a location for student parties. So when a faculty wants to throw a party they can just book a floor of the student union house and don't need to rent a place.
Let me tell you, Erasmus in Helsinki is not at all like Erasmus in France, for example. We actually have to do something for those credit points. I'm pretty much already flooded in work: I have tons of texts to read, learning diaries (!) to write and essays to prepare. And it's crazy to think that the first term of autumn semester is already over in 5 weeks. After that we have to sign up for new courses for the second term. Weird system. You know what else is weird? The laundry systems in the student housing apartment buildings! If we want to do laundry we have to put enough money on our cell phone card (?!), so we can call a service number to pay for the laundry service. When the call goes in, three buttons in the laundry room start blinking and we have to choose one laundry machine an press the button to pay for using it. Could they have come up with a more complicated system?! I singed up for laundry tomorrow morning at 8, so I'll stop for now.
P.S.: I just found out today that there is a cat café (café where you can drink coffee and pet kitties) in Helsinki, so hope I'll be able to report about that soon. <3
Let me tell you, Erasmus in Helsinki is not at all like Erasmus in France, for example. We actually have to do something for those credit points. I'm pretty much already flooded in work: I have tons of texts to read, learning diaries (!) to write and essays to prepare. And it's crazy to think that the first term of autumn semester is already over in 5 weeks. After that we have to sign up for new courses for the second term. Weird system. You know what else is weird? The laundry systems in the student housing apartment buildings! If we want to do laundry we have to put enough money on our cell phone card (?!), so we can call a service number to pay for the laundry service. When the call goes in, three buttons in the laundry room start blinking and we have to choose one laundry machine an press the button to pay for using it. Could they have come up with a more complicated system?! I singed up for laundry tomorrow morning at 8, so I'll stop for now.
P.S.: I just found out today that there is a cat café (café where you can drink coffee and pet kitties) in Helsinki, so hope I'll be able to report about that soon. <3