Erasmus to Seinäjoki

Trip & first impressions !

Hello dear readers !!

After two weeks in Seinäjoki, Finland I finally have some time to tell you how my erasmus goes. First thing first you should watch the video I made about my trip to Seinäjoki just down bellow. You should also subscribe to my YouTube channel, more videos are coming soon !!

This is the video I made about my trip to reach Seinäjoki, the finnish city I am studying in.

Life here is so peaceful. The contact with nature and people are everywhere. We are living nearby a huge lake and we already went there several times (a YouTube video is on is way to show you how awesome this place is !).

The university give us free access to a gym which is super cool, I can maintain my shape thanks to that ! We also sign up to SAMO, the student association of SeAMK (our university). With our subscription we have access to a lot of various activities (sport, parties, …) and also reduction all around the country.

I cannot wait to share with you more of my adventure,

Take care,

Romain.

Vaasa

Hey everyone, and welcome back to our trip in Finland. Today, we went to the city of Vaasa !

A little bit bigger than Seinäjoki with 60,000 inhabitants (Seinäjoki has arround 40,000 inhabitants), Vaasa is located at 50mn by train (about 7€) near the sea.

Fortunately, we had the chance to see the city under the snow and the sea complitely frozen !! Indeed, it was around -3°C when we were here, but it’s not even that cold for a city of this area… The average temperature in February is -12°C, and the minimal record was -38°C !

This is Romain testing the solidity of the frozen sea

But even with all this ice, people keep doing activities like fishing : they drill an hole in the ice and there you go.

In Vaasa, you can also visit museum such as the Osterbottens Museum or the Vaasa Car & Motor Museum.

Vaasa Car & Motor Museum (Vasa, Finland) - omdömen

And as any good French, we ate some local food …

See you soon ! Nähdään pian !

Tervetuloa Seinäjoelle

Hyvää Huamenta!!

Welcome to Seinäjoki, our stay started about 2 weeks ago during the winter period. After being at the immigration office and the exchange student registration, we visited some local place with our personal tutor.

First of all, we have seen the principals place for incoming people in a new place. Yes it is the market 😀. There are 3 main markets near our flat in Puskanti 38 which are K-Market, S-Market and Lidl. You can get whatever you want at Lidl and is the most cheaper market. But if you don’t find what you are looking for at this 3 places you can go to Ideapark which is a big mall

We also went to the most famous nightclub which is karma. It’s a place very frequented by students. Each Wednesday there is a school party there. Everyone enjoy this place

To finish my visit of famous place at seinäjoki, I went to the frozen lake. It was no longer totally frozen, but it was still beautiful.

I am waiting for the spring to find new beautiful places, until then we will enjoy the place.

Nähdään!!!

Is Finland in Scandinavia?

When I say to people that I’m going to Finland for my exchange programme, they say: “Oh Scandinavian countries are so beautiful!” But I remember to read a thing about Finnland is not part of Scandinavia. It was time for me to make some researches.

First of all, I decided to find the definition of Scandinavia in a dictionary. The Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary & Thesaurus says:

A region of northern Europe that includes Denmark, Norway, and Sweden.
Definition of Scandinavia from the Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press.

BUT the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary says:

A cultural region in NW Europe consisting of Norway, Sweden and Denmark and sometimes also Iceland, Finland and the Faroe Islands.
Definition of Scandinavia noun from the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary.

I was lost. Are Iceland, Finland and the Faroe Islands a kind of Schrödinger’s cat?

"Phèdre", Clément's cat. — Figure 1. “Why am I in a box AGAIN?”
Photograph of my cat Phèdre by me.

I decided to not despair and to deepen the subject.

In fact, geographically, the peninsula of Scandinavia only covers Denmark, Norway and Sweden. Moreover, those three countries share a common history and have a very close language. They are called Scandinavian countries. If you want to talk about all the countries situated in the north of Europe, you should say “Nordic Countries”. And fun fact, this world might come from french “les pays Nordiques” (situated in the north). So Scandinavian countries are included in Nordic countries. Do you catch it? You can summary all of that in a very helpful map:

Figure 2. Scandinavian countries are in dark blue. Nordic countries are the Scandinavian ones plus countries in blue.
From “Scandinavian states with flags” by Maciek17, 2008 (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Scandinavian_states_with_flags.png). In the public domain.

After this article, I hope the difference between Nordic and Scandinavian is clear for you!

See you soon!
Clément

Sources:

Definition of Scandinavia from the Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press. Retrieved from Cambridge Dictionary: https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/scandinavia
Definition of Scandinavia noun from the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. Retrieved from Oxford Learner’s Dictionaries: https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/scandinavia
MAPES, T. (2019, September 15). The Difference Between Scandinavian and Nordic. Retrieved from tripsavvy: https://www.tripsavvy.com/difference-between-scandinavian-and-nordic-1626695/

Student Life

About life as SeAMK student at Seinäjoki
To start, the university of sciences of Seinäjoki assign to each of us a student tutor on our arrival at the railstation who will be responsible for directing us to our accommodationand present to us the city.
University being renowned for these foreign students who will thus be able to meet students from several horizons, almost all of whom are housed in student residences offered by the establishment but you have to make a reservation in advance in order to get the choice you want 2 or 3 people to a flat (or alone if you like). Have little imagined the friendly atmosphere that can resign.
Although there are many social events and extra-curricular activities organized by the establishment, the town of Seinjoki is full of places where students could meet or of the place to visit, in particular.

Lake Seinäjoki

The stroll along Lake Seinäjoki, the lake that separates the city in two and also what is between our residence and the university.

The Municipal Library of Seinäjoki

The municipal library of Seinäjoki which has encountered not only a large number of books but also electronic books, music CDs, films and even console games.

There is also some discotheque for night owls, the most frequented by students is Karma.

Karma Discotheque

Karma opens its doors on Fridays and Saturdays until 4 a.m. there is also karaoke available from Wednesday to Sunday. Karma is located in the heart of Seinäjoki, at the edge of the market square, next to Sokos Hotel Vaakuna.

Many things await us in this city we can’t wait to get there to live its experiences.

See you soon.

Freud

source
https://www.s-kanava.fi/web/eepee/toimipaikka/karma-seinajoki/1310796
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biblioth%C3%A8que_municipale_de_Sein%C3%A4joki
https://www.seamk.fi/