Meeting

Today I went to Kuopio for a meeting. This way I am participating student politics in the University of Eastern Finland. It was my first meeting as a student representative because last year I was in Spain and I could not participate. The meeting took six hours and it was quite tiring. We discussed about the strategy of ISYY, finding two councils, budget for next year and ETC.

Award

This week I received a nice surprise from Campus Europae. They awarded me some money for successfully learning a new language. It was a very nice surprise because I was not expecting anything. I have passed B1 exam in Spanish but I think that my level of Spanish is higher than that. All of Campus Europae students in Alcalá should have taken this language exam but just a few actually did it. There was some problems with organizing it. The professor did not arrive on time because she had problems with her car therefore people who wanted to do the exam missed it. Many students were not even interested in doing the test and did not show up at all.

All the studies recognized

Time to put together all the studies what have been recognized. I received 49 credits from business courses, 4 credits from sports course and 9 credits from language studies. This means in total 62 credits. At least four courses I can use to put the together my minor studies in management and leadership. Languages studies are part of my bachelor degree. With the rest of the credits I have to see how I can include those to my degree.

Cash counter

In Spain cash counters were much smaller than in Finland from the both ends. Therefore you have to be packing your bag while your products go through the cash counter. The exchange was always counted to your hand to prove that they gave you right amount of money. Also in Russia the exchange was counted. In Finland the money is just slammed to your hand and you can count by yourself how much you received back.

St. Petersburg

The State Hermitage Museum

Catherine's Palace

I have now returned from Russia. It was great trip even the weather was rainy in the first days. We saw The State Hermitage museum which is so big that it takes seven years to walk it through if you want have a look of each piece of art there. We visited Catherine's palace which was very decorative. We saw also orthodox churches and other architecture in the city center. We explored the city by taking a limousine and boat ride in the canals of the city.

In St. Petersburg we used taxi, subway and our bus for transportation. It was very easy to take a taxi, you just had to stand one minute on the side of a road and unofficial taxi gave you a ride in the center for five euros. To use subway you had to go very deep under the ground. It took several minutes to take escalators down.

Very few people in Russia spoke English. For example the receptionist in our hotel did not speak English.

Trip to Russia

We are going by bus to St. Petersburg with 90 Erasmus students of Joensuu Tomorrow morning. The trip organizer have given us some instructions to survive in St. Petersburg.
1. Be careful with the russian traffic
2. Do not drink tap water
3. Do not move alone in the streets
4. Always carry your Id
5. Be careful with the pickpockets
6. Prices might be more expensive for foreigners

four day trip cost 235 euros which includes visa of 50 euros.

Student restaurant

I have discovered that Spanish people like to reserve their seat in the student restaurant before they go to take food. Finnish people take first the food and then they go to sit. For international students it is also strange that there are everyday boiled potatoes available.

Business studies recognition

My faculty have done recognition of my business studies in Spain. Three of the courses replaced courses what I could have done in Joensuu. These courses were Human resource management, multicultural management and global business and entrepreneurship. Rest of my courses were some other field of application in economics or special issues in management and leadership. In total they gave me 49 ECTS from these business studies. These courses were worth 55,5 credits in the academic certificate which university of Alcalá gave me. Therefore they did not consider them as ECTS credits. I was a bit afraid that they could give me even less credits. I am still waiting recognition of the sports course which I had.

Football tournament

Student union organized the traditional sports afternoon in Joensuu. We participated to the competitive football tournament which was played on a small field with five players and a goalkeeper. We had three group stage matches and won just one therefore we did not qualify. Our team was formed of Erasmus students and they could see that Finnish teams can beat them. Also other activities were organized like relaxed football tournament, trip to Koli, dancing and so on.

Video of the floorball final in Spain

I found a video of the second final match of floorball in Spain. Our team UHK Madrid played against CUF Leganés and I am playing with the number 35 in the yellow team. The highlights starts from 2:53 after the presentations. Now you can make your own opinion of the floorball level in Spain.