SOULANTA experiences
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SOULANTA experience
Haltian Products Oy Company
“Let’s kids be kids with Snowfox to explore the world.”
A student friend who studies at the Business School has chosen the lecture “Strategic Marketing Management” during the period A. Thanks of the partnership between the university of Oulu and the company Haltian Products Oy (located in Oulu), Gabrielle Naud realized a market study to analysis the possibility of setting-up in the United Kingdom, according to the culture of the country, the family practices… The main objectif of this lecture, was to make the analysis by group, sub-shape of challenge. Gabrielle and her team, 4 others persons, have won the competition.
Snowbox is a trackerphone for kids and seniors. It permits to see where they are, be there for them, and know what happens. This first child’s first phone helping with the first moments of independence. But it can also help old people to live an active and more independence life. Thus, it is useful in family’s daily life. You can know where you lowed ones are and how to reach them.
It develops 3 functionalities. The first one is used to sends their location to the snowfox smartphone in real time. Then, call snowfox from the smartphone application at any time. The last function is necessary to send notifications automatically when the user arriving or leaving a place. The application has up to one week battery.
This is the end of my semester in Finland, so my last post on this blog. I hope after having followed all our adventures, we have given you the desire to come and do your exchange here. If you have any questions don’t hesitate. See you later !
Welcome to Tallinn
Situated on the coast of the Baltic Sea, Tallinn is simply loveable, a jewel of the Baltic state. This medieval city is a capital of Estonia. The city center was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is easy to visit this atypical city, distances are short, and you can discover much in just a weekend or even a day. One of the oldest fortresses of Europe surrounds the city and reflects its past. You will see for yourselves how charming and beautiful Tallinn can be with its merchant’s house, cobbled streets, colored facades and red tile roofs.
If you are lucky like us to visit Tallinn during Christmas time, you could see the beautiful Christmas market, and degusted an excellent mulled wine.
Inari reindeers farm
During a trip in Inari (in finnish lapland), we visited a reindeer farm in a sámi family. The second generation of the family offers several activities. When we arrived, we have fed reinders, we had the possibility to touch them and the grandmother gave us a lot of information about them. After that we satisfied the examinater of ability to drive a reindeer sledge. With the licence, we are allowed to move, with due care and attention, in the wilds of Lapland. This licence is valid for 5 years.
Then, we were able to try sports activities and for example the assault of a fault reindeer. The grandmother offered us a coffee in a typical hut. She had explain us how suomi people live whether it is finnish suomi, norway suomi or sweden suomi. Moreover we learnt what are their rites, their professional activities, their language and their clothes. On other woman, sang us famous songs around a fire.
At the end, it was possible to buy souvenirs on the shop where made of traditional sámi materials reindeerantler, sheep wool and northern wood adjusted to modern use (create cup).
Direction Stockholm
On 13 and 14 november, ESN organised a famous event with name “Pirates of Baltic sea”. That doesn’t tell you Nothing, but the principe is to gather more than 1000 Erasmus students who come from Finland or the countries of Eastern of Europe to make the crossing on a ferry. Several activities were organized during the journey which lasted from 17:30 to 8:30. And in the early morning, we arrived in Stockholm (Capital of Sweden).
Snow in Stockholm
The city consist fourteen islands
It was fantastic because there was snow everywhere on the city, and some people skied or sledged in the park. The city has very nice buildings but what I found the cutest was the old centre with pretty colorful buildings. We also visit the Stockholm Cathedral and we assisted at the changing of te guard.
Pretty colorful buildings
The old centre
Husky safari
Last week, I went to Lapland with ESN. It is a wonderful experience, and I think it is one of the best times of my life. There, the days are short and snow covers the ground but do not worried you have enough time to do many activities. My favorite experience was the visit of the husky farm. Dogs are of rare beauty, with their blue eyes and their fur. We did have the opportunity to see some puppies, I wanted to adopt them! It was a truly experience, and I had a chance to be a musher. In pairs we rode a sled drawn by a dog team. It had no words to express my happiness.
Exam at NHH
Hi folks,
Today was my first exam day and here are few funny facts about exams in Norway.
#1: Norwegians are so conscious of environment, property and rules. First of all, for the exam, they gave us carbon copies with gather the original sheet, the duplicata for them and the third one for us, in case we want to check our work later. That’s pretty smart actually! Than, regarding the number of people passing the exams, we were placed into the gym building, on the basketball field, and since they don’t want any dirt, we had to wear plastic bags over on our shoes… Super weird…
#2: No watch, no suspected things, it is like you enter naked into the room 😮
#3: Norwegians tend to bring as many Redbull cans as they can, like it would change anything…
#4: When it isn’t special rooms like the gymnasium, Norwegians feel the need to take off their shoes to be like, more comfy… Even at the gym or at the library actually. It’s pretty weird the first time you witness that, but I’ll confess I tried it once and I like it! 😀
Well, this pretty much I noticed today, maybe I’m going to see more in a few…
See ya!
Enjoy your holidays
There is an advantage with the University of Oulu… we have holidays in October. For me, the period A ends on the middle of octobre and period B begins the 1st november. So, it gave me time to visit the north of Norway.
We booked a car for 5 days and we driven during all the night to go to Nordkapp at 900 kms. After 12 hours, we arrived at the time of daybreak. In nordkapp there is a center with a variety of facilities like the Nordkapp panoramafilm whose presenting the Nordkapp region in four seasons, historical exhibitions, St.Johannes Chapel, the Cave of Light (explain the appearance of the Northern Lights), souvenir shop, the world northermost post office, restaurant and cafes. But you have to pay for the entrance. The steep mountain cliff rises 307 meters above the Arctic Ocean, and marks the end point of the European continent.
The second steps was Alta. Alta is the largest city in the county of Finnmark and is famous to be the city of Northern Lights. In this city we visited the Northern lights Cathedral built in 2012-2013 and during the night we show lot of northern lights on the road.
Then, we went to Tromso located at 350 kilometres north of the Arctic Circle and is the largest city in Northern Norway. During one day, we appreciate discover the charm of the city center with the typical Norwegian architecture. We enjoy it to visit the Perspektivet Museum, and the Artic Cathedral. At the end of the afternoon we took the cable car. It’s Tromso’s most popular tourist destination. This cable car runs from Solliveien in Tromsdalen up to the mountain ledge Storsteinen (421 meters above sea level). From the viewing platform at the upper station, you can enjoy spectacular panoramic views of Tromsø and the surrounding islands, mountains and fjords. It was a wonderful landscape!
For the 4th day, we drove to Svolvaer (Lofoten Islands). It’s in this small city where we hike during 5 hours to admire the Fjords from the top of the mountain. It was necessary to wear shoes adapted because the trails were very slippery and sometimes not very suitable (so dangerous!). We knew that the sun was setting at around 5pm, we had to be careful to go back down before the night comes.
Last steps was Reine, at 125 kms from Svolvaer. The breathtaking village of Reine is located on the island of Moskenesøya on northern Norway’s Lofoten archipelago. The village has earned a reputation as “the most beautiful place in the world.” On the middle of fjords, there is a a quite village with red and white fishermen’s huts at the edge of the shoreline. A picture of this village appears on the front page of all the tourist brochures of Norway. Reine is our favorite destination on the Lofoten Islands. It’s possible to hiking there and many of the best hikes on the Lofoten Islands begin in Reine.
At the end, we made more than 3500 kms.
Welcome to Helsinki !
Helsinki, the beautiful capital of Finland, is a vibrant and bustling metropolis! The city is surrounded by the many parks, forest and island. The atmosphere is both relaxed and stimulating. Helsinki is a functioning city, and can easily be seen on foot. Its architecture, cultural offering, many shops, bar and restaurant make the city more attractive.
Sibelius Monument, Suomenlinna, Helsinki Cathedral, temppeliaukio Church and Uspenski Cathedral are not to be missed if you visit in Helsinki.
