Finnjumping

Bachelor thesis finished & internship starts

// January 17th, 2010 // No Comments » // Study, internship

Long time no posts here… In the last weeks and days I was really busy with writing my research based bachelor thesis with the title “Virale Recruiting-Videos als Unterstützung des Employer Branding klein- und mittelständischer Unternehmen am Beispiel der Akquise von HochschülerInnen “. On Tuesday I was finally finished with it!! *cheers* After printing and binding it to a book I will hand it in tomorrow or the day after tomorrow… let’s see when I have time. I hope I’ll get a good grade for it so that all the work was worth the trouble ;D

Tomorrow my 15-weeks long internship at PDAgroup will start. This is a medium-sized company offering enablement trainings for SAP business partners nearly all over the world. I’m already very curious about my workplace and the people there and of course about my given tasks! :)

Things I miss about Helsinki and those I don’t

// December 30th, 2009 // 1 Comment » // Semester abroad

I’m back home now since over one week and it still feels strange. Everybody here is in his/her daily routine and it seems that I’ve never been away for four months… very strange… Here are some things I definitely miss about Helsinki and people that became important to me during my four month long stay abroad. No particular order.

- My flatemate Marielle from The Netherlands with whom I had great conversations and did many activities so that it became never boring.

- My flatemate Betti from Hungary with whom it was a pleasure to share the appartment and who opened a few times my eyes for prejustices.

- Alessandra from Carinthia, Austria, with whom it was a great honour to work in a project group and to keep up Austria’s christmas folkway of baking cookies.

- Melina from France who is the nicest French I’ve ever met and with whom I speeded down on Lapland’s ski slopes.

- All the people from all over the world I’ve met in Helsinki.

- Helsinki’s public transportation system which saves a lot of precious time.

- Living only two minutes away from university which extended my sleeping time.

- Drinking dry cider when going out.

- Trips to St. Petersburg, Tallinn, Lapland, national parks, Porvoo, Lahti etc.

- Hours- and kilometers-long hikes in Finland’s national parks.

- The Finnish language although I didn’t learn it to full extent.

- My small and more or less tidy room at Junailijankuja 5A.

- Tuesday morning’s swimming and sauna session together with Marielle.

- Simply Finnish Sauna which helps me to stay healthy against the Swine Flu.

- The shopping possibilities in Helsinki – when growing up in the countryside this is special for you!

- People’s habit of staying on the right side of the escalator so that others can pass them easily.

- That Finns try to keep distance most of the time, except they are drunk.

- The huge number of women in high positions and the pronounced equal rights in general here in Finland.

- That Finns drink milk when eating lunch.

- Fazer chocolate, especially the Geisha edition.

- The possibility to see a lot of great music bands playing – btw Sunrise Avenue was amazing!

- That Finns get crazy on Stockmann’s Hullut päivät (“crazy days”)

- That 90 percent of all people in Helsinki have a small reflector for safety on their jackets or bags.

- The friendly voice in the train that always says “Hyvää matkaa” (finn. “Have a nice trip”).

to be continued…

And here those things I do not miss, but not many ;)

- Drunken Korean girls trying to bawl a Spanish song when you want to sleep in the room next to it.

- Our messy kitchen

- Our messy flat

Merry Christmas

// December 25th, 2009 // No Comments » // Personal, internship

I wish you all a merry Christmas!

Christmas candle

A Christmas candle is a lovely thing;

It makes no noise at all,

But softly gives itself away.

- Eva Logue

Weekend in the Heart of Lapland

// December 21st, 2009 // No Comments » // Semester abroad

I spent the very last weekend of my exchange semester in Finland together with my flatmate Marielle in Rovaniemi, the heart of Finnish Lapland. It was a good decision to go there for three days, otherwise I guess we would just sit around in our flat and start to get depressive because the days went so slowly… ;)

Sleeping in the night train was a real challenge because the small cabin was heated up to 27 degrees!! Uff, it felt like sleeping in a sauna.. Unfortunately the train to Rovaniemi was also in delay so that we had to stay in there two hours longer than expected. But finally we arrived in Rovaniemi.

Rovaniemi is the administrative capital of Finland’s northermost province, Lapland. The city is situated near the Artic Circle and at the meeting point of the rivers Kemijoki and Ounasjoki. Therefore Rovaniemi is and was an important trade center and settlement. During World War II the city was destroyed, after the war the Finnish arcitect Alvar Aalto designed the new face of Rovaniemi.

Well, and now to our stay in Rovaniemi. On the first day, on Friday 18th of December, we looked around in the city making some pictures (as long as it was bright *g*) and then we went to the Arktikum museum. I’m really excited by the museum as it is very comprehensive and gives a lot of information about Finland’s and the world’s Arctic regions including the melting of glaciers, the phenomena of Northern Lights and the indigenous population. Moreover the museum was designed very interactively so that people don’t get bored.

At the evening we did another walk through Rovaniemi up to the ski resort at the Ounasvaara hill. Afterwards we were too tired to do anything else.

On the next day, on Saturday, we had booked a snowshoeing trip. Orginially the trip should be in Korouoma National Park, 100km east of Rovaniemi. But there was too less snow, so our guide Hugues decided to drive more northwards where there was enough snow for snowshoeing. Oh, it was a lot of fun! :D There was just forest and snow and silence around us! A real paradise! The way up the small hill.. äh “mountain” (how the Finns would probably call it) was worth to take because from the top of it we had a great view although it was very cloudy and foggy on this day. But we had luck and for a short time the fog disappeared so that we could overlook the huge lake nearby. On the top Hugues made a fire and we grilled some Makkara (Finnish sausages). On the way back we walked over the frozen lake which is even larger than I thought! This day was absolutely great! And I can’t imagine how Lapland will look like when there is more snow and sunshine *dreaming* One day I will return…

On Sunday, our last day in Rovaniemi and Finland, we walked on our own thorugh the hills of Rovaniemi towards the top of Ounasvaara where we found a wonderful view northwards. The colors the sun made on the clouds were very impressive! The last three hours Marielle and me spent in the city by drinking hot tee and eating a bit. At 17:17 we entered the night train back to Helsinki where we headed to the airport and back home on the next day.

Summa summarum it was worth coming to Rovaniemi. I guess we have seen a lot more of Lapland and Finland in general than most of our other fellow Erasmus students. And I took a fancy to snowshoeing ;D

Enjoying the last days in Helsinki

// December 15th, 2009 // No Comments » // Semester abroad

It is incredible. The day that seemed so far away at the beginning of the semester abroad is now just around the corner – the day of going back home! I stayed now four months here in Helsinki and the time here was absolutely awesome. I met so many different people from all over the world and I made a lot of new experiences, good and bad ones, but I don’t want to miss any of them! I experienced the Finnish way of life to the fullest: the sauna, swimming in an ice hole, the change of seasons, sunshine, rain, snow, being part of the educational system that is so famous through the PISA-studies, and so on. I also learned to live on my own and how it is to share an appartment with people from six different cultures – worlds collided! :D

Finland fascinated me since a few years. It started with the interest in ski jumping together with my sis Carmen, and of course we cheered for the Finns. In summer 2004 we visited Finland for the first time and it was a dream for me to come back.. one day. Of course interests change, so today ski jumping is not that interesting anymore for me, but the wish to return to Finland stayed. I’m very happy that life offered me the possibility to do my exchange semester in Helsinki and, of course, that all my friends and my family supported me to make my dream come true! All in all I think that in this semester I learned and progress a lot, not only in view of my study, also personally! I see that the experiences I made here are not someone else’s, they are my own experiences and they make me to what I am now. :)

But enough about this now. I have still a few days in Finland left. Until Thursday evening I am here in Helsinki, doing my last presentation and saying good-bye to most of the people here. Then I will leave with Marielle towards Rovaniemi where we want to spend the very last days of this semester. We are going to make a snowshoing trip to experience again the Lappish nature (this time hopefully with a bit more snow and more winterly temperatures!) and a visit in the Arktikum museum. On Sunday evening we’ll take the train back to Helsinki where we will arrive early on Monday morning. Then I will put the last things in my suitcase and finally leave towards the airport to catch the aeroplane to Vienna at 3 p.m. You can expect me in Innsbruck at 10 p.m. – I’m looking forward to see you there!! ;D

At the end a few words about the climate here in Finland now. It finally got winter!! Real Finnish winter! The last days we enjoyed temperatures between -10 and -15 degrees and sunshine! Well, the sun itself is hardly to see at the moment, although it is cloudless. That’s due to its low level..