Good bye Joensuu

Cervantes of Joensuu

I have moved now away from Joensuu and I am staying in Kuopio for three weeks before going to Spain. While studying in a university I have been mostly hanging out in a different group of friends every year. First year I was with freshmen of business students, second year with exchange students, third year with friends in Spain and fourth year with different exchange students. Next year in Turkey I have find again new friends to hang out with.

Visa to Turkey

I have received now my visa to Turkey in two weeks after applying it. Finally it did not take two months like I wrote in the past post. Still I need to get a residence permission once I have entered to Turkey to have a permission to stay in Turkey. I did not need an insurance to get the visa but my host university in Turkey obligates me to get an insurance.

Celebration

Finally I had a chance to witness Finnish celebration after Finland won the championship of ice hockey. Ice hockey is the number one sport in Finland like football in Spain. Compared to Spain very few Finnish were wearing the colors of Finland. People did not have either Finnish flags painted to their cheek. After the won match also Finnish went wild like Spanish but Finnish did not have many songs to sing like Spanish.

Eyes

Here is a photo of six pairs of eyes. I think it is not hard to guess which eyes belongs to me. That means that the other eyes belongs to some Spanish person. As you can see it is also possible that Spanish person has blue eyes. You can also see in the photo if Spanish have bushy eyebrows.

One beer please

Getting alcohol is much harder in Finland than in Spain. In Spain you can get beer in the cafeteria of the university or in McDonald's but not in Finland. In Finland you have to go to a special shop Alko to buy alcoholic drinks which are stronger than beer. When buying alcohol or tobacco in Finland your id is asked always if you look younger than 25 but in Spain id is asked very rarely.

Applying to Turkey

I have arranged my second exchange year to Turkey by myself because I am not allowed to get Erasmus scholarship for the second time. To get the place I sent email to the coordinator of Gazi university. she replied very fast and wished me welcome. There was no problem as University Finland and Gazi university are part of the Campus Europae network. Next I had to fill an application form.

After receiving the confirmation letter I have presented the letter to the coordinators in my university. Then I have applied to freemover scholarship which required various attachments. To be a student in Turkey you need a visa. To get the visa I have to go to Turkeys consulate in Helsinki, present the acceptance letter, my passport and pay 60 euros. Handling the visa application will take two months.

Paper work for internship

Participating to the exchange programs means always some paperwork. Here I will explain what kind of paper work I have been doing so far before going to Madrid.

The internship offer in Madrid I found from the folder of internship offers in my university. First I sent my Curriculum Vitae with cover letter by email to the company. After for a while they emailed me back and said that I am welcome to do a internship in this company. Then I had to prove to my university that I have a placement in Madrid by showing document with signatures. Later my university granted me a scholarship and I had to fill scholarship agreement, information document, training agreement and copy of insurance or European health card.

Not that much paper work but waiting for the replies and documents to be accepted takes time. I sent my curriculum in December and the paperwork will be finished tomorrow which means that it took five months. In the next post I will explain about the paper work what have to be done to go to Turkey for exchange.

Back to Spain

I have booked now my flight to Spain. I am going to land to Spain on the 22nd of June. I will go one week earlier before my internship starts because I want to find a flat to stay for three months. I have found a good webpage to look for flats in Spain.

Spanish names

In Spain the names for women end mostly to letter "a" and names for men end to letter "o". There are of course names which are not following this rule. For me it is quite strange that someone can have name like Jesus the name of the son of the god. Or Àngel and the female version of it is Àngela. These names can be translated but are not used as names in Finland.

On the other hand Finnish names Nino and Nina must be strange for Spanish because Spanish words niño and niña means boy and girl. Or Finnish name Mira which means in Spanish look.

Catalans

There are many Catalan exchange students among the Spanish exchange students. Most of the Catalans spoke Spanish well already before coming to Joensuu, but there are some who have not been speaking much Spanish. It was very curious to hear that some Catalans have improved more their Spanish than English during their exchange year.