During this semester abroad, you are going to stay with a great family: the Erasmus relatives !

Directly after your arrival in your host country for the semester, you are going to meet wonderful people, who are, like you, experiencing this adventure !

To integrate you directly into the family, I recommend you go out and participate in the events as often as possible, this is how you will have the most fun and create a link, and at the same time, improve Your English!

In Oulu, there are so many Spanishs, they are part of my group of friends and it is by far the funniest and most friendly !

Also, Erasmus life helps you to know yourself, take a step back and think about your life and what do you want to do further. It is a real awareness and I recommend to anyone to make this experience, which allows to improve on all points.

When a crazy week end is over (so every week end), just sit down, sauna and relax !

Do not waste your time geeking on the computer, the adventure is far too short, then go out and profit fully with your roommates, your friends and all your new family !

Arthur Leblais

Arthur LEBLAIS

Today, i’m going to introduce you one of the largest agri-food companies in Finland: Fazer group.

                            This chocolate is so good !

Created by Karl Fazer in 1891, it was originally located in downtown Helsinki. Today it employs over 10,000 people in Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, the Baltic States, the United Kingdom and Russia.

The most noticable product of Fazer is the “Fazer blue milk chocolate”. In supermarkets, you can see tons of chocolate, everywhere. In fact, Finnish people love chocolate, they are the 6th largest chocolate eaters in the world, they eat 7.2 kg of chocolate per head per year ! (In comparaison, in France we are at 6.7 kg)

Furthermore, Fazer owns more than 65% of chocolate market share in Finland!

Its production is now divided into four sections:

• Fazer Amica, a chain of restaurants as I said in my previous post;
• A chain of bakeries;
• Candyking, a chain of candy stores and other sweets;
• Fazer Café, a chain of cafes, whose main establishment is in Helsinki.

Well, eat chocolate, it’s good for you !

Arthur Leblais

Arthur LEBLAIS

At University, we can lunch between 10.00 and 18.30 in up to 8 restaurants !

Restaurants are private companies. We paid 2.60€, there is no VAT. The real cost of the meal is 7.60€ but companies 5€ in receive state subsidies per meals served.

For this price, you can have :

A typical lunch at the Uni.

• Starter: a plate of various saladsand dressings ( Green salad, chickpeas, Tomatoes , cucumber,  , tomatoes, chickpeas, onion olive oil, several sauces).
• Bread:  (many varieties,up to 6) with butter, margarine or tapenade.
• Main course:  For example, pasta and tuna casserole, salmon in tomato sauce with potatoes and rice
• Water, homemade beer (really bad taste…), many, many kinds of milks (5 choices of milks, yeap Finnish love milk ! ).

Above, you can see the 6  restaurants managed by the company Fazer group: “The company operates almost 1,100 restaurants in Finland, Sweden, Norway and Denmark. The range of food services provided by Fazer Food Services includes e.g. student and personnel restaurants, cafeterias and restaurants in department stores, catering services at schools and public institutions, restaurant services at large-scale public events as well as organising festivities. Fazer Food Services is also responsible for catering at functions of its customer companies.”

When you want to eat healhy food, you can also try one of the three salad bar stand in the university !

Another restaurant is managed by Uniresta, This company provide the same restaurant services as Fazer food company, but this one is much smaller.

Oooh, yes, I almost forget to speak about dessert… When you want to have a dessert such as cakes, yogurts, you pay an additionnal fee.

.. Or you can go to the brand new Subway ! Yes, the world most biggest fast food in the world has got a restaurant inside the university. (unbelievable in France !)
For approximatively 5€, you can have a 12 inches Sandwich and a big soda.

Bon appétit!

Arthur Leblais

P.S: Don’t bother yourself trying to find the best desserts in the university, they are definitely the Subway Cookies ! 

Arthur LEBLAIS

Well, after exhausting week ends, there is only one thing you want to do on a saturday basis: Eat !

I will suggest you Pannukakkutalo. Thanks to Tripadvisor, it’s the first place to eat desserts. This pancake house is an institution here in Oulu, it is one of the oldest restaurant in the city centre and everybody here know this place. But what make this place so special ? Definitively the taste of pancakes, they are massive !
Big enough to satisfy your belly. ♥

For approxiamtely 10€, you can have a salt or a sugar pancakes. Personnaly, the Strawberries & Milk Chocolat pancake is one of my favorites. You can see a picture below.

Isn’t it gorgeous ?

Your stomach will appreciate. Enjoy !

Arthur Leblais

Arthur LEBLAIS

The previous week-end, I went to Kuusamo, a city in the northeast of Finland known for its natural park.
The program: hiking in the great park of 270 km and a weekend in a big cozy cottage: Chill and Sauna !

The team in Oulanka

Above, you can see our house, surrounded by one of the thousand lakes in Finland. In Finland, it’s common to rent a house with some friends for a week-end, it’s called “Mökki Week End”. During this week end, we enjoyed a hikking trip in the natural park of Oulanka and we had greats moments in our house doing BBQ parties and explore the lake with the little boat we had at our disposal. Note: Next time, take fishing rods.

… And YES, SAUNAS ! Not one but two saunas in our house ! Finnish people are in love with them.
So after an exhausting 12 kilometers hiking, we experienced several times Sauna and jump into the, pretty cold, lake ! We went from 80 degrees to 3 degrees in less than 10 seconds. Good for cardiovascular system they said, hum hum… despite the fact that we could not feel our feet, what an amazing experience !

This photo was taken after a little nap on the dock of the propriety, the nap was definitively advisable after this wonderful week end !

Below, you can have a panoramic view of our house, in the middle of nowwhere in the Northeast of Finland !

Lake – House – Sauna -Wood stock shed for the sauna – Lake again !

Arthur Leblais

Arthur LEBLAIS

We are lucky with the weather of Oulu, Almost sunny every days, although, it’s a little bit cold, for example, yesterday, the 5th of October, the weather was sunny but minus 4° Celsius.

However, there is something magic with the sky of Oulu :

Oulu’s harbor

During different times of the day, the sky changes color from light blue to finish on a rose, passing by a gradient of orange during sunset. This makes it an attraction for residents of Oulu who do not hesitate to go to the beach Contemplating the sunset during a sausage’s barbecue party for warming the body and chilling with their friends !

Nallikari beach: BBQ place!

If we are lucky enough we can see, during the night, Northern lights!

How Northen light are made ?

When charged particles released by the sun and carried by the solar wind reaches the Earth’s atmosphere and collide with gas particles, the “crash” create colors, dominated by green and ethereal roses.
These colors dancing in the sky during 20 minutes, it’s really beautiful ! 😉

Northen lights  from Oulu’s lake !

Arthur Leblais

Arthur LEBLAIS