I'm in Finland

The You Tube method of teaching

2007-10-29T15:02:00.000+02:00

Terve! Hej! Здравствуйте! Hello! As you may have guessed this is hello in 4 different languages (English is of course included). I am studying three of these languages while here. Now you may call me crazy for doing so but here they are offered free to students and in Maastricht the courses can easily cost over €100. The language center here has a very unique fun way of teaching involving the internet. To let us listen to the language, instead of the boring standard exercises, we watch clips on Youtube. For example… this is the clip that we listened to first for the intensive Finnish course. WARNING: All these songs will stick in your head.

Unfortunately we haven’t had any songs or other things yet for Swedish, but Russian on the other hand:

Next up we have a comedy sketch on how to deal with Russian Police officers, or militiamen (милиционер)as they are known.

Apparently you can negotiate a price with the police in Russia.
Despite the corruption, I am really looking forward to the Russia trip coming up on the 9th of November. Russia is not the only other country I will have visited during my Erasmus. Last weekend I was in Tallinn, which was awesome. Pictures are up on the site. Tallinn is a very interesting city. The old town has perhaps the best preserved city wall I have ever seen, and within the wall you really feel like you could be walking in the past. The price levels are also good when compared to Finland (or the Netherlands for that matter). For instance, a three course meal including drinks didn’t cost more than €20, and the potions are HUGE. And the ferry is a definite must-experience attraction. It’s amazing to see how much liquor people can buy. Whole families were maxing out their duty free limits and filling their empty suitcases and trolleys with boxes and boxes of alcohol.
But I have to get back to studying for my exams now so: Nähdään! Hej då! & до свидания.

There’s no escaping the Dutch either!

2007-09-09T13:00:00.000+03:00

I’m not one to believe in stereotypes but when it comes to the Dutch… let’s just say you can spot a Dutchman a mile away. Not all Dutchmen are easy to spot but there’s a certain type of Dutch student (you know who I mean) that is easily distinguishable from others standing around them. I guess in Maastricht you’re just so used to seeing them that one doesn’t take notice anymore. Fortunately there are also other Dutch students here who are less easily recognized, but recognizable none the less. I guess what I’m trying to say is that it’s funny how one can so easily recognize the peoples they know best.
As you may gather I have been meeting new people. This is because we have just completed our orientation week and now all international and local students should have arrived to Jyväskylä. I couldn’t take art in all of the activities though because I already had to take my first course: “From Hegel to Marx.” Though the course was interesting let’s just say I am not a philosopher and by no means a Marxist and leave it at that! The course only lasted three days and we had a good time so it wasn’t all bad. It also finished in time for us to still be able to take part in the ESN pub crawl and not worry about having a hangover in class the next day.
Oh well the partying will have to die down a bit now, not only can my bank account not handle the price of partying here; all other courses including survival Russian and Swedish for international students start tomorrow.
Nähdään!

The (dis) advantages of living atop a hill.

2007-08-29T20:33:00.000+03:00

Though may seem obvious; however, I feel the urge to stress the advantages and disadvantages of living atop a hill seeing as though even the south of Limburg is flat compared to this area of Finland. I’m not complaining, and there are certainly no mountains here, the highest point in whole Finland is only 1328m above sea level. The advantage for me is that in the mornings on my way to the university I don’t have to cycle at all, I can just roll down the hill ready to brake at every side street. However, as you may have guessed the disadvantage is that I have to do the opposite on the way back! However, it’s not so bad.
So… on my life here in Finland, I’ve been quite busy studying for my Finnish exams so I haven’t been doing much this past week. However, as you may have seen in my photo album I spent the weekend before last at a mökki (summer cottage). All we did there was sauna, swim, row, eat, drink and sleep. I’m really glad we did that when we did because the weather has turned for the worse. Only Sunday it was still 27 deg. But today it’s 10, so there won’t be much more outdoor swimming. That’s pretty much all I have for now, I have to get back to studying for tomorrow’s exam.
Nähdään!

Why can’t the NS be more like VR?

2007-08-12T12:20:00.001+03:00

For those of you who don’t realize what I am talking about with the abbreviations, I’m talking about the Dutch national railways (NS) and the Finnish state railways (VR). I know the comparison is a bit hard to make seeing as though the network in the Netherlands is denser and used more intensively than here in Finland, but the Dutch could learn a thing or two from the Finns. For example, the train conductor will walk through the train after every station and collect only those tickets from people he hasn’t yet seen. Back in the Netherlands on a journey lasting over an hour I’m very lucky to see a conductor. I’m not saying that collecting tickets is the only thing they do. The role of a conductor is also to provide passengers with assistance and if they hide in the steering car for the entire journey and only come out when it’s time to blow the whistle and close the doors I need to be damn quick if I want to ask them a question. Here the conductor has his own booth in the restaurant (!!!) car of the train so that when he isn’t walking around anyone can find him (or her).
Enough complaining about trains, I’m here to share my experiences about Finland! Well yesterday I took the train to Tampere which is Finland’s second city, and I must say that the city is wonderful! There are a lot of museums and shopping centers as well as two lakes on which the city was built between, so plenty of parks and beaches. You can see pictures in my photo album. On the topic of museums, there is a museum dedicated to Moomins. I honestly have to say that a few days ago I didn’t know what Moomins were until some people told me to go to that museum while in Tampere! Oh well, now I know! If you still have no clue what I’m talking about here go to this site: http://www.moomin.fi and discover the Moomins!
E

p.s. Not all Germans complain, (see comments of last post). I apologize if I offended you in any way, don’t get me wrong I like Germans.

There’s no escaping Germans

2007-08-06T20:22:00.001+03:00

Terve! Mä oon Edgar. Mä olen kotoisin Bermudasta, mä olen hollantilainen ma puhun englantia ja hollantia ja ranskaa ja saksa. Mä olen opiskelija. Mitä Kuuluu? These are the first Finnish sentences I learnt today. Can you guess what they mean? If you want to guess, write a comment to this post and get some discussion going or send me an e-mail info@edgarvandermeer.com (if you are Finnish yourself, please write me if you find any mistakes).
Coming back to the title; there’s no escaping Germans, or saksalainen as they are known here. I thought my Erasmus would be an escape from the German invasion of university (no offence) but one of my roommates is German and there are three people in my language class alone who are German as well. Not to mention the group of Germans (well 5 of them, but who’s counting) who came into the bicycle store to all buy bikes. On the topic of bicycles, after having watched the shopkeeper deal with 5 nitpicking Germans who all had something to complain about so they could get a discount, I bought one! No, not a German, a bicycle (que Queen song: Bicycle Race) I’ll get some pictures up soon. Thank god it has gears because some of the ones I’ve seen people riding on don’t and let’s just say the hills are a bit more plentiful than back home!
Anyway things are going extremely well and I am really enjoying myself. But there’s no escaping homework either so I am going to get back to learning Finnish,
Hyvää yötä!
E

Don’t eat Finnish Watermelons!

2007-08-03T21:59:00.000+03:00

Maybe it’s because I bought it from the convenience store at the corner, or maybe it’s because I left it in the fridge overnight, but the water melon I ate didn’t go down well with my system. I’m guessing it isn’t common for watermelon to be so bad in Finland so maybe the title to this post is a bit over exaggerated, but let’s just say that’s one mistake I won’t be making again anytime soon. Besides my cucurbitaceous affair, I have been settling in quite nicely in my new home away from home away from home. I have gotten myself rabbit ears to be able to watch television, done the usual errands such as getting food and I have finally gotten internet (how else would I be posting this blog). And blogging is not the only thing I have been doing, if you check out my new and improved album on my website you’ll find some pictures of Jyväskyä and my immediate surroundings. So check it out!
E

Hi everyone,

2007-08-01T12:14:00.001+03:00

This will be my first entry in my Finland blog. I am writing this from approximately 30,000ft as I am still on my way to Helsinki. From there I will be taking a 25 minute commuter flight to Jyväskylä. The only drawback to getting here is the time at which we had to get up this morning. I guess the good thing about driving to the airport at 4:30am is that there’s no traffic which meant we arrived well on time.
Fortunately it’s a clear day over the Netherlands and there’s actually a view from the window. By the looks of things we’re flying over northern Germany right now, heading straight for Denmark (and cloud cover).
Right now there’s not much more to write about, however, I will keep you posted! If you want to drop a line please do so. Go back to my homepage and use the contact form; or just write me an e-mail.
E