Erasmus Turku

1. Make a presentation of yourself.

My name’s Armando, I’m 25 and I’m a biochemist. I’m currently trying to continue my scientific career, mostly by getting some kind of funding to do a PhD. I’m very interested in reading, traveling, meeting new people and learning languages.

2. Describe briefly the place you are from.

I come from Asturias, in Spain. The most characteristic thing I can say about this place is that it’s completely unlike any idea you have about Spain. Our landscapes are green and mountainous, with lots of valleys, but also with beautiful hidden beaches, excellent gastronomy and a Celtic background (we even have bagpipes!). And most important of all, every outsider that comes here always remarks how nice and welcoming all Asturian people are.

3. Tell us how the city where you study is.

I carried out my studies in Oviedo, the capital of Asturias. It’s a hilly city (the campus is at the top, makes it rather hard to get there in the mornings), and most people who have heard of it is because of three main reasons: the Principe de Asturias prizes (who some call second to the Nobel), being the hometown of the future queen of Spain, and being also the hometown of F1 driver Fernando Alonso. The city itself is rather dull, in my opinion, with an old population, but the university students and the increasing amount of Erasmus who choose it make up for a cool nightlife.

4. What do you think about your home university? (Before you go on Erasmus) Be honest ;)

It’s rather disorganized and the bureaucracy is a real pain. The quality of teaching is quite good in some areas (engineering, chemistry, medicine). The fact that the campuses are spread over 3 different cities make it difficult to have real “university life”. Most people are from the same region as the university, but those who come from outside, I’ve always wondered how they manage, because there are no dormitories or anything, you gotta find lodging on your own, with rents that can get rather expensive. But the parties that students organize as fundraisers are really great and renowned all over the place.

5. What encourage you to go on Erasmus? Reasons, etc..

Mostly, that I have always loved travelling and visiting places and discovering new cultures, languages and people. Also, because in my year, the Erasmus was strictly for the final research project, which would reduce the pains of organizing the learning agreement and finding equivalent subjects and all that stuff that usually becomes a mess when you’re on Erasmus. But mainly, for the experience. I didn’t manage to do it during my Chemistry studies because of other compromises, but during Biochemistry I was free to do it.

6. When you decide that, what countries / destinations you had in mind and why?

Well, my university fixes a certain list of destinations for each degree, and in my case (Biochemistry), the available destinations were: Leiden (Netherlands), Greifswald and Osnäbruck (Germany), Cagliari (Italy) and Turku (Finland). I discarded Cagliari automatically because it would’ve meant being stuck in Sardinia most of the time (also the quality of that university for sciences was not good). Greifswald is a great university for humanities, but not for sciences. And Leiden sounded awesome, but from the experience of years before, apparently in the Netherlands they will never give out high grades to a half-year project such as mine, not even if you discover the cure for cancer, and they were too many credits involved to risk a low grade. The decision was between Turku and Osnäbruck… and apart from Turku sounding really “exotic”, my other classmates going on Erasmus asked me if I could let them have the Osnäbruck places together.

7. Once you know definitely the destination

a. How did you feel?

Kind of “oh my god, I’m going to Finland, to the freaking North Pole, to the opposite side of Europe, to the half-year-long night!”. That was the first impression, then I started learning about the place and the country.

b. What did you think about the place?

Well, I saw it was in the south, so I thought “ok, then it won’t be that cold” (it still took some time to sink in the idea that I would be going from March to July, which is spring-summer and would make the weather much better and days much longer). Also about the time I finally got the place, football player David Beckham suffered an injury and was taken there, of all places, to be treated, so I looked around on internet and saw it was apparently a good place for biomedical and biotechnological research.

c. What your closest people (family, friends, colleagues ...) told you or thought about it?

The most common opinions were: “I’m not gonna go visit you, it’s fucking cold there!”, and also “that’s rather far, isn’t there any lowcost flight?”. In the end no one could actually come visit me, because of the lack of good and/or cheap flight connections, but thanks to my photos, they all were jealous of me.

d. If you had a choice to choose another one, what would have been?

I do not repent in the slightest about the choice I made of going to Finland, it’s been the best time of my life so far. From the destinations that were available for my degree, maybe Osnäbruck would’ve been good. And if I could have chosen any place, I would still have gone north, maybe a Baltic state or Sweden.

8. For how long is / was your stay? Do you think that's enough? Would you have liked to have stayed longer? / Would you like to stay longer?

Mine was just 5 months. I wish I could’ve stayed longer. If I had had enough funding, I would’ve willing to stay a whole 12 months there, but no scholarship can maintain you that much. Still, I think I made good use of my time.

9. How did the paperwork, formalities, etc..? What do you think about all this?

The paperwork in Finland was next to nothing, always very quick to be solved and the secretaries always willing to help… quite unlike my home university, to which I had troubles getting the papers every time, regardless of sending by fax, email, traditional mail or phonecall. Makes you feel ashamed of your country, I mean, you can be more inefficient, but the difference between the paperwork, in amount and difficulty, between Spain and Finland was abysmal.

10. How is the city where you live or you used to live during your Erasmus?

Wonderful. Turku has under 200,000 inhabitants. For Spain, that means a rather small city; for Finland, it’s the third city of the country, which means the cultural offer is rather interesting, especially since that year it was holding the “European Capital of Culture” title together with Tallinn. Aside from that, it’s a very important college city, home to a university (Turun Yliopisto), an “university of applied sciences” (Turun Amattikorkeakoulu, where they teach degrees like engineering, nursing, journalism…), and the country’s only Swedish language university (Abo Akademi). This translates in a very young population, a lively nightlife and lots of offers, discounts and activities for students.

11. Where did you stay (residence, apartment, dorm)? Explain how it is.

Most of the Erasmus live in the residential complex called Yo-Kylä, or in other of the TYY’s housing spaces, but Yo-Kylä is the preferred one, since it’s closest to university and city centre. It’s the biggest residential complex of all Finland, with capacity for about 30,000 people (counting the other spaces the organizing agency possesses all across the city). I got a room at Yo-Kylä despite arriving late in the semester, you get your own room with bathroom (and furnished: individual bed, desk, chair, mini-fridge, cupboard and wardrobe), and the kitchen is shared for the 12 people living in the same floor, which, in my opinion, and taking into account that the kitchen is quite big (with doubles of all cooking spaces), is a nice arrangement. The cost of this way of living is of 280 euros/month, which, considering what I know from residence halls on other countries, and Finland being a rather expensive country, is not that much.

12. Well, what about the Host University? How it is? What do you think?

My university was Turun Yliopisto, and it was a good one. Not that it makes much difference, because Turun Yliopisto and Abo Akademi, the two “universities” (the applied sciences university is not considered a “real” university by the Finns), allow you to take courses with one or the other or both with no problem (except, bear in mind always to check the language of teaching, for it may be Finnish, Swedish, or English). They also have several dedicated research spaces (BioCity, PharmaCity) of great quality both in human and material resources. Also, the most immediate thing the university did upon receiving my candidature was to assign me a student-tutor, someone from the same major as me who could introduce me to Finnish life, help me with all the paperwork, speak on my behalf and all around aid you in the transition to the foreign country (my tutor also took it as a personal goal to introduce me to as many Finnish events as possible, such as parties, disco parties, sauna parties, sitz parties…).

13. Compared to your home university, what advantages and disadvantages do you get when compared to the host university?

Finland has the highest standards of education in the whole world, so it’s difficult to find fault in it, and it’s shameful to compare it to Spanish university system. Despite this, I’d say the very system can be a bit difficult to navigate if you are not used to it, or plainly, if it doesn’t suit you, because it works in “small quantities”, that is to say, each course lasts for, at most, a couple weeks. Barely anyone goes to the classes because you’re supposed to do the studying on your own, and the only times you will see a class with some people in it is when it’s a problem-solving class. The Finns, of course, are used to this, but Spaniards are much more used to the “magistral class” system, which the Bolonia agreement is trying to abolish. This didn’t really affect me, since I was there for a research project, so all I had to do was to show up in the lab and do my research, but I do know people who had trouble adjusting to this “self-study” system.

14. During Erasmus, it is common make trips taking advantage of the staying in other countries and places. Did you already make a trip? Got one in mind? Where do you want to travel? Where have you gone?

I made quite a lot, and for rather cheap prices. The ESN (Erasmus Student Network) is very active in Turku and organizes several trips; I missed the Lapland one because it happened before I arrived there, but I did go to Saint Petersburg with them during Easter on a cruise. Then, on my own, with friends, I went by boat to Stockholm and Tallinn for the weekends, took a flight for only 15 euros roundtrip from Tampere to Riga for 4 days, spent a couple days around Helsinki, bought an Interrail ticket to spend the weekend in Rovaniemi and Oulu (couldn’t leave the country without going to visit its most renowned citizen, Santa Claus), visited several places around Turku such as Naantali, Ruissalo and Kaarina, and went with the members of my department at the university to visit a Viking village in Rosala and the Bengtskär lighthouse in the middle of the Baltic Sea (which, by the way, is a “team-building” exercise I have never seen or heard of in a university in Spain, going all together for a trip).

15. Finally, the most important. Tell us as Erasmus generally is in the place you are or were (as applicable). How the partys, the other Erasmus, social life, student organizations, associations Erasmus, are and so on (The more you can write, the better!).

The party life in Finland is awesome. Of course, I went there during the “high” season (everyone said during winter things are gloomier and less fun, with lots less party life), and thanks to my student tutor, I got to not only enjoy the Erasmus parties, but also the Finnish parties. I was invited to many sauna parties, blacksuit sitz dinner parties, and I spent the whole Vappu with my Finnish classmates (Vappu is the greatest party of the year, and for a whole week at the end of April, there are celebrations, parties, dinners and alcohol running all the time, culminating on May 1st). The ESN also organized lots of parties in several pubs around town, with different themes each time, and each of the student organizations (almost each college of the university has at least one) also organized themed parties. ESN also organizes trips to many places, and lots of other activities like weekend outings to the forest and lakeside camping, barbecues, film nights… And of course, the very own Erasmus students organize their own parties, whether it be in private flats, in the common kitchen, in the open square between the buildings, or in the city centre, down by the river shore. Definitely, there’s always something to do, somewhere to visit, some place to party… you never run out of options in Turku!