Tervetuloa Suomeen : “Welcome in Finland”

Called “Suomi” by finnish people, the Republic of Finland is chated by Sauli Niinistö since 1 March 2012. Finland is a parliamentary democracy, and the prime minister is the country’s most powerful politician.

Finland numbers some 5.4 million people and has an average population density of 17 inhabitants per square kilometre. This makes it the third most sparsely populated country in Europe, after Iceland and Norway. About 85% live in towns and cities, and over 1.4 million people live in the Greater Helsinki metropolitan area. In Arctic Lapland, on the contrary, there are only 2 people to every square kilometre.

The official languages are Finnish and Swedish, but English language is important in Finnish education. Finland is a top performer in numerous metrics of national performance, including education, economic competitiveness, civil liberties, quality of life, and human development.

The Euro as their currency, but Finns don’t use the 1, 2 and 5 cents. They round off the amount in the upper euro for example if it’s 2,99€. As regards the cost of living, it’s rather expensive in comparison to France.

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What can we make in Finland?

– There are 3 main sports practised in Finland : hockey, baseball and football. But people love outdoor activities range from Nordic skiing, golf, fishing, yachting, lake cruises, hiking, and kayaking, among many others.

– Hiking on national parks : Much of Finland virgin as it contains 37 national parks from the Southern shores of the Gulf of Finland to the high fells of Lapland. Finland is often called the Land of a Thousand Lakes. A modest name, considering that there are, in fact, 188 000 lakes in the country (bout 10% of the country) and a similar number of islands. As many of these lakes are very large in size, a great part of Finland is covered in water. In this nature, we can see lot of animals like reindeer or bows bear (the king of the finnish forest).

– The Real Santa Claus : Everyone knows that the only Santa comes from Finland. His official hometown is Rovaniemi, where he greets visitors all year round.

– See Nothern lights : One of the most remarkable features of Finland is light. When the endless sunshine of summer gives way to dark winter, the Northern Lights appear like magic and lighten up the sky.

– See Midnight Sun : The white summer nights are perhaps Finland’s most iconic natural phenomena. In the very northernmost parts you can experience a full Midnight Sun from May to August, and the sun stays above the horizon for over 70 consecutive days.

– Finnish Sauna : Sauna forms a great part of their country’s heritage and culture. It is estimated that there are over two million saunas in Finland, so approximately  one per household. The sauna experience, is an important tradition which purifying both body and mind, and relax Finn.

Our exchange Erasmus takes place in the North of the finland, to Oulu. You will be able to follow our avantures in next articles. So, see you soon!

A master’s semester at NHH…

Before I applied to a semester abroad, I knew the Erasmus program had a lot to offer. Leaving the home country is not easy if it’s the first time, you must be prepared for several changes in your day life due to another culture, language, way of life and so on.

Hopefully for me, it wasn’t the first time and Norway is the kind of country I’ve never tried before. What really excited me was the exchange student life, completely different and exactly what I expected. I also wanted to discover to learn from another way of teaching, and to have another experience of “Business School”. On this specific point, NHH couldn’t have been a better choice and this is going to be my subject today.

Inside the walls of the Norwegian School of Economics, we can clearly notice a different o14542624_10210804405207601_158392222_nf spirit, comparing to the French schools and university I’ve been. Full of sport and animation clubs, the Norges handelshøyskole, the Norwegian name of the NHH, is complete and welcoming. We don’t feel any pressure or stress, but an enormous trust given to students. From the group study rooms you can book, the cafeteria, the basement’s nightclub to the auditorium and the hall, students are guided and well-served 14543531_10210804404207576_716152857_nto succeed in their studies.

But studies aren’t 100% of the student life, and this is particularly the case in Norway, where sports take a huge place. Thus, a lot of gyms and sports areas are proposed with sauna, pools et cetera.

These advantages are partly due to the enormous investments the government makes in education. What could underline my words is the unbelievable presence of technologies inside the school: magnetic and useful student cards, electronic doors, auditoriums fully equipped and so forth. I can also mention some benefits we have being in the most famous school of Norway. First of all, almost every courses are ran by experts, professional or Ph.D. student which is quite close to French business schools.

On the other hand, many lessons are taught by external speakers which once was the vice-president of Telenor, big Norwegian telecommunications company. Furthermore, recently, the Prime Minister of Norway came to address us a speech about current issues and concerns relative to the Norwegian and global economy.

So far, Norway brings us a welcoming framework to study in and this is just the beginning…

Brice LE GAC, M1 CG

The courses in Dundee

I’m going to present you the educational system in Scotland and more precisely the proceedings of the courses in Abertay University, which is somewhat different from France.

First of all, the price of the school is in accordance with the number of courses we choose. Each module is equivalent to 20 ECTS, so the EU students have to take 3 modules per semester to have 60 ECTS. And the price for 3 modules is £910, which is really more expensive than in France.

The organisation of the modules in Scotland is really different from the French one. The main difference is the number of hours of classes. We have just 9 hours in class per week!! So we really have some time to revise our courses that it’s important because we need more time to revise than Scottish students because our courses are not in our native language and their methods are different from France. But we also have time to go to sport, to go out with other students and to visit the country, which it’s also important to fit in with other students and to discover the country.

We have few hours in class because in UK they take into account the independent work, and we have to work outside class hours a lot! We can see an example of the distribution of the working hours for one module below. And to revise teachers incite students to buy the book they use and most of them buy it.

Each modules are divided in lectures and in tutorials as in France. Most modules are divided in 3 hours: 2 hours of lecture and 1 hour of tutorial, or 1 hour of lecture and 2 hours of tutorial. But it can be more.

– Lectures are with the whole class. Teachers use slides a lot and everything they say are in slides. Then they send us the slides so we can listen explanations of the teachers and we can understand better the courses.                                                                                                                                                                                                     – Tutorials are in groups. They are devoted to exercises about the last course.

We do some exercises in tutorials that the teacher corrects in class. But we have to do the rest of the exercises at home and the teacher sends us the correction. We can ask the teacher the next tutorial if we didn’t understand something.


Blackboard

Each students and teachers can access the blackboard via the website of Abertay University with a login and a password. In the blackboard we can find all the documents that the teachers send us: slides, tutorial questions and answers, and other useful documents.

¡Bienvenidos en España!

Spain is the country of Flamenco, Paella and Bullfighting. Generally, most people go to Spain to enjoy sun and beach. In fact, the country is the second destination for tourism in the world. The climate is good all the year and there are many beautiful villages and landscapes.

But Spain, also has a sizeable culture made from Roman heritage, making Spain one of the major Latin countries of Europe. Spanish life is marked by strong historic ties to Catholicism. Spanish art, architecture, cuisine, and music have been shaped by successive waves of foreign invaders.

In term of geography, the Spanish territory also includes the Balearic Islands, the Canary Islands and two autonomous cities in North Africa, Ceuta and Melilla. Spain is divided into 19 autonomous communities. Even if most of Spaniards speak Spanish it exists other official languages: Basque, Galician and Catalan. Spain has about 44 million inhabitants.

The political system is a Constitutional Monarchy. It’s a democracy which means spanish people vote for their politicians but they have a King (Juan Carlos) and a Queen (Sofia). Today, Spain has to face political and social tensions. It reaches a high level of unemployment (20%) and the deficit remains really important. Since the general elections of December 2015, Spain has no government. In fact, political parties are unable to agree on a new government wanted from Spaniards.

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Madrid’s Puerta del Sol

Madrid, the capital of Spain, is the third largest city of the European Union after London and Berlin. It counts 3.2 millions of inhabitants. Madrid is divided into 21 zones and each zone is split into different neighborhoods. The starting point is Puerta del Sol. There, you can find the famous point zero mark, the point where all streets in Spain part. It is also an important meeting point for the people of Madrid. The most popular neighborhoods in Madrid are located around Puerta del Sol: Sol, Huertas, La Latina, Chueca, Malasaña,…

There are many universities, mine is localised in Vicálvaro at 45min away by subway link from my flat. I live in the center (Sol neighborhood) and as the majority of Erasmus people in Spain, i have found a shared flat with three other roommates.

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Rey Juan Carlos University en Vicálvaro

Madrid is filled with parks; the tree population of Madrid is over 500 000, second only to Tokyo. The most popular park is Parque del Retiro which was one part of a place built for Felipe IV. The Atocha railway station has a 4000 sq meter indoor garden filled with tropical plants and the shops and cafes inside the station are always busy.

Madrid has seen an economic growth in 1980s and 1990s. It elevated the city position as an important industrial, cultural, economic and technological center for the entire European continent.

The city has some exquisite art museums. In fact, there are over 73 museums that contain exhibits that cover a wide range of human achievements and discoveries. The Prado Museum is the most famous, but the Reina Sofia Museum is the home of Picasso’s Guernica.

See you next week!

Welcome to Dundee !

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Dundee is a city in the North East of Scotland, it is the fourth largest city of Scotland with 148 210 inhabitants called Dundonians and it is also the sunniest city in Scotland.

Dundee city center is quite small and the campus of the Abertay University is right next to it, it allows students to enjoy a very animated lifestyle. The students accommodations are close to the city center which makes student life very easy. To comfortably settle into your new place you will be able to find two malls where you can find anything from everything at  the 1 pound shop to higher end shops.

One of the major benefits of living in Dundee as a student is that the cost of living is 14% under the average student life cost in the UK.

Dundee is a great starting point to discover Scotland, actually the city is very well linked to any major Scottish cities like Edinburgh or Glasgow for example, thanks to the very efficient bus network, taking the bus also allows you to visit the beautiful east cost of Scotland.

If you want to visit more of the UK, you can take the train, the train network is very good and it enables you to easily go to any cities in England or Wales.

In addition to the bus and train stations Dundee has an airport which leads to two different destinations : London and Amsterdam.

As everywhere else in the UK you will have to use the pound as the official currency, however in Scotland you might find surprising the note which will be given back to you in a shop. Actually in Scotland the banknotes look different from the English cash.

 

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There are two different universities in Dundee, The Dundee University and the Abertay University. I am studying at the Abertay University which is a small university who counts approximately 5000 students. The proportion of foreign students is very important in Abertay, oversea students represent 26% of the student population at Abertay. This enable you to meet people from all over the world during your studies.

Even though Abertay University is a quite small University, being a student here offers many benefits. The University’s infrastructures are very good, including : halls, gym, library and the student center.

 

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The Student Center

The student center is a building which accommodates a cinema, a shop where students can buy their stationery, sandwiches between classes as well as first necessity products and the Bar 1.

All the products sold in the shop are very low prices to adapt to the student customers.

The Bar 1 is the bar of the University where you can eat classic pub foods or drink a cocktail with your friends, once again the prices are very student budget friendly. The bar hosts a lot of animations such as the Wednesday pub quiz where you can improve your general knowledge.

In Dundee you will also be able to go to the Union which is a night club run by an association of University of Dundee and Abertay University students.

See you next week !

Welcome to Bergen, Norway!

Norway

The Kingdom of Norway is one of the 3 Scandinavian countries. Harald V is the actual king and the prime minister, a woman, is Erna Solberg. 5.2 million people live here and 16% of them are immigrants. The main language is Norwegian, but there are two different dialects: Bokmål and Nynorsk.

Norwegian currency is Norwegian Krone (NOK). With 1€ you have currently 9NOK. It’s a rich country due to many powerful economics sectors. Nevertheless, cost of living here is really high, one of the higher in the whole world. The GDP per capita is $70 000 so wages following cost of living. It’s just expansive for foreigners.

Considering welfare and wellbeing rate Norway is well now because of his high HDI: 0,944, first rank in the world. Norway also reach the first place of the OECD Better Life Index, Legatum Prosperity Index, Democracy Index and the Inequality Adjusted Human Development Index!

Oslo is the capital, with 658 000 capita. The second largest city is Bergen, with 250 000 Hordaland's flagpeople. It’s roughly the same numbers of inhabitants in Nantes! But Bergen is less concentrate than the French city. I’m currently living and studying in this wonderful city. So, Bergen is located in Hordaland, one of the 19 administrative regions called counties. We can see the flag of the county on children’s scholar bag.

Bergen’s surname is: The city of rain. The annual average of rain is about 2 250mm. Compared to Brest (France), there are “just’’ 900mm each year! But for the moment, we are at the end of September and I use less than ten time my umbrella in one mouth and half, so we are pretty lucky.

Bergen is surrounded by 7 mountains, and here, the purpose of many students is to climb each one. I live next to Damsgårdsfjellet, in the district of Melkeplassen, the milk place in Norwegian. Below a picture of my house! I live with one French guy and one Greek. They studied at NHH too.

My home is located next to a forest and between two mountains.

My home is located in Melkeplassen, next to forest and mountains.

Another important fact about geography are Fjords. Fjords are according to dictionary.com “A long, narrow arm of the sea bordered by steep cliffs: usually formed by glacial erosion.” Many touristic trips by boat, cars or even hiking try to reach the top of Fjords. The most famous one is Trolltunga, you can check it out on internet. These hiking are not so easy and at the school they tell to us: Be caution! Each year many tourists can not reach the top and people need to call emergency.

The city center is quite large. You can walk along the Norh Sea, there is a huge harbor where many ocean liners stop. If you can make a cruise in the fjord you will see amazing landscape, mountains, and houses in the middle of nowhere. During the welcome week, the International committee of NHH, a kind of ‘’BDE’’ just for international students organised one. It was marvelous.

The two most touristic places in Bergen are the fish market and Bryggen. In the fish market you can have a plate of salmon or other fishes for 250-300NOK, so nearly 30€.

Bryggen is on the UNESCO list for cultural heritage, it’s a series of typical houses. Most of them are now restaurants or commercial shops for tourists.

I will finish this first article by a culture aspect of the city. Bergen is the capital of street art in Norway. You can admire many piece in the city. One of the most famous artist here is Dolk. The city wants to preserve his piece of art by protective glass. The famous street artist Banksy come to Bergen too!

That all for the moment! See you 🙂