It’s quite common that Finnish summer cottages situate on islands with a dense forest. Those white dots near the shore are summer cottages.
Mökille is the must-do for Finns in the spring and summer, it means going to the summer cottage in Finnish. Finns crave Mökille all year round. Why is that? There’s a joke about the real reason – so Finns can avoid people. We all know Finns love personal space and don’t like small talk. So once a while, they need to be left alone in the middle of nowhere.
EntryPoint Mentoring Program is organized by the Helsinki Chamber of Commerce once every year. This is a great program for international students or graduates who’d like to stay in Finland to build a career. This program matches mentees and mentors in the same or similar fields.
I joined the program from Jan till late May 2020. It’s a 5-month journey full of inspiration. I highly recommend international students and new graduates to participate in this program. The new application is open now till Aug 31, 2020. Apply for it quickly.
Today I would like to tell about the concept of Open University at Aalto University.
Open University gives an opportunity to non-students to attend interesting courses, learn something new, and gain valuable skills. Courses are open to everyone regardless of their background or age, and you can participate in online courses even if you are abroad and not in Finland.
It’s mid-July and the first Mustikat begins to ripen and show their characteristic dark blue color between the conifer trees and the marshes. It’s the start of the berry-picking season and one of my favorite places to find blueberries is the Nuuksio National Park.
Nuuksion kansallispuisto was established in 1994. It’s only 30 km from the city center of Helsinki and easy to reach with public transport. From Aalto University you can take the metro and bus to Esbo and from there the 245A bus will take you right to the start of Nuuksio’s hiking trails.
Temppeliaukion Church
One of my biggest leisure in Finland is to visit museums and see exhibitions. It is an excellent way for me to get to know the local history, knowledge, and get some inspiration and reflection on design.
You can find all kinds of museums in Finland, and you would definitely be impressed with its sheer range, diversity, and depth.
My single room in the HOAS shared apartment.
I remembered when I received a student housing offer from Hoas and there was not much information about how a shared apartment looked like. I was worried that it’s going to be my first home in a foreign country and what if the roommates are not nice.
Lucky me, those are unnecessary worries. I liked my room immediately when I first arrived. Windows were 4-meter wide, looking into a small green bush. Two Finnish roommates were friendly. The first roommate I met in the hall wall noticed that I just moved across countries and had nothing but two suitcases, kindly offered me to use all her kitchen stuff.
There are only couple of weeks of summer vacation left and then we all get back to studies or work. However, the weather is still amazing and we should take maximum advantage of these sunny days, because well, “winter is coming”! So here are few ideas on how to spend the last days of summer near campus:
Enjoy some water sports in Keilaniemi. In sports center Laguuni, you can try wakeboarding, SUP boarding, kayaking or have fun in aquapark. I love SUP boarding, it challenges your balance and activates your core! I hope to try wakeboarding in the upcoming weekend as well!
More info here: https://laguuniin.fi/en/
Human Impacts on Marine Species (Waste Dumped in Ocean)
How do we design for both human and non-human stakeholders?
This course was one of the most thought-provoking courses that I have taken in Aalto. The course offers an opportunity for students from multiple disciplines to work together, to study and develop new products, services, and businesses based on blue economy principles.
The course began from 10 days of field research in collaboration with the Kristineberg Marine Research in Lysekil, Sweden.
I have recently graduated from Real Estate Economics (REC) program so, today I would like to tell about this program and share some insights and pieces of advice.
Even though the name of the program sounds like it would belong to the Business School, it is actually organized by Engineering School of Aalto University. The program consists of major studies (60 ECTS), elective studies (30 ECTS) and Master´s thesis (30 ECTS) and by standard should take you 2 years to complete. Major studies will educate you on the management, valuation and investment analysis of commercial real estate, market analysis, real estate law and land management. You can check the full curriculum here.
