Erasmus Turku

1. Make a presentation of yourself.
I'm a 24 year-old business student from Turku, Finland. I've been an exchange tutor for 3 semesters straight now and I'm planning to go on exchange myself after finishing my bachelor.

2. Describe briefly the place you are from & 3. Tell us how the city where you study is. 10. How is the city where you live or you used to live during your Erasmus?
Turku is a medium-sized city on the southwest coast of Finland and one of the biggest cities in Finland. It's home to 2 universities and 2 universities of applied sciences and, in many ways, a lively student city.

4. What do you think about your home university? 12. Well, what about the Host University? How it is? What do you think?
Åbo Akademi is not an elite university, but maintains a high standard on many of its fields, especially the internationally renowned chemistry and chemical engineering programs. It's also a big cultural hub for Finnish Swedish youths from across the country.

5. What encourage you to go on Erasmus? Reasons, etc..
Mostly all the different and energetic people I met during my time tutoring.

6. When you decide that, what countries / destinations you had in mind and why?
I probably want to go far away, to experience something really different from my own world and routines. My glutenfree diet might be restricting me on some options though, but I don't see most of those places as appealing to me.

9. How did the paperwork, formalities, etc..? What do you think about all this?
Especially paying the student union fee (mandatory in Finland) was problematic for a great deal of exchange students at Åbo Akademi during the past 2 years. In some cases the problems were caused by foreign schools and their bureaucracy, and not my school's. This, for instance, in case of some Italian universities.

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 didn't take part in any official Erasmus trip (apart from one cruise to Sweden), but I did take some close exchange student friends to Estonia and Stockholm.

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!).
There are good sides and downsides to an exchange in Turku. Finnish students and exchange students have difficulties in approaching and getting to know each other, and this results in most people sticking to their own circles. This even applies to many international students, who are here for a longer period, working on projects and degrees. The party scene is very lively though, even though a lot of it is limited to kitchen parties in the Student Village, where most exchange students are being housed. This is somewhat understandable, since albeit going, in many cases, against regulations, these are easiest to organise as they require minimum fuzz and connections from the people in charge. All in all, it's easy to get to know and be social with as many international people as you want in Turku, and if you are willing to be adventurous and go outside the ESN scope, you can bond and have lots of fun with many new friends.