My first week in Helsinki

It has been exactly one week since I moved here. ;)

Good time to post my observations and first experiences.

Actually, I am very lucky to have come here before: I knew what to expect, at least for the first time. And, then, the internnational students community is vey friendly here. We stick to each other :)

About my university. Well, for now I am satisfied. Of course, you wouldn't call it perfect, but still, it's much better. And what I like here is the students' motivation and approach, which turns into a completely difefrent approach from professors (or vica versa). And then, the university stuff here aims to help you in the most ways possible.

And, BTW, I am getting more and more motivated by the NGO idea for education development in Ukraine/Uzbekistan (basically, it's about setting a link between the corporate sector and universities). Here it really works. Slightly different from what I've heard about Asian universities, but still, very effective. Almost everything here is financed with the help of companies. Almost all courses include practical implications from the sponsoring companies. Universities conduct research for them. And even thesises may be written based on a company's request for investigation. And then there is the practice of alumni financing their universities. And that all besides governmental subsidies.

Nokia... Nokia is almost everywhere here. It's not only phones, much more. It's a kinda national symbol. They recall it on each and every class :) I think you won't find any person here who doesn't know Nokia :)

One unexpected fact was that marketing (in all meanings) is unpopular here. :) Can you imagine? They appreciate engineering, medicine, construction, innovation, but not marketing. According to some survey it's one of the least popular professions here (second to TV-show hosts:)). And another thing is that they don't get attracted by working in advertising agencies (while I was searching for marketing people in Ukraine I had a notion that most marketers from Ukraine prefer to work in specialised agencies instead of marketing departments in other industries).

Coming back to my life: it's becoming incresingly balanced and scheduled. I hope one more week of getting used to the studies and it will be totally balanced :)

Stay tuned!

P.S. I will start preparing the NY party from the next week ;)