Oulun Seudun Ammattikorkeakoulu

For sure buy bike, second-hand one (about 50e, not more!!!) Tallinn, Riga - great places to see. Quite cheap flights - www.Blue1.com, www.ryanair.com. Use every offered possibility to do something, to travel somewhere.....spend the time in Finland actively.

Take personal and possessions insurance out before coming... it may end up saving you a fortune. And get to know the both local and exchange students... life here is so much more fun when you've got friends to do things with.

Once in a while, at night, go on the balcony, have a smoke, althow it could be -25 C ... but it is very likely that you could see the Northern Lights (Aurora Borealis) ... it is such a beautifull thing !!!

When coming to Finland use Finnair to get a standby ticket to fly from Helsinki to Oulu. You need to be under 25 though. Put money aside to travel to Russia and Estonia. Dont worry about the weather. It does get to -30 at times but its not usually too bad ! Also, it really isnt dark all the time here in the winter, if you are from a northern European country it isnt too different. The sausages here are awful. Really awful.

There are a lot of sight/places to visit (North Cape, Helsinki, Stockholm, Tallinn, Finnish cities, et.), but it takes a while to get there, since the distances are quite long. There a so many other exchange students -so a lot of fun - but it would have been good to know some tutor students before (by e-mail). The weather is not so bad, as you might imagine before - it is not that cold. The darkness in the winter feels strange and I don't think that you can get used to it. You get used to not understanding a word of Finnish, but almost everybody speaks English very well. So you don't necessarily need to learn more than the basics of Finnish. Buy a bike to get around in the city - everybody uses it (even in the winter)!

i am very happy to went there. The language is the only problem because most of finnish are little shy to speak in english with foreigner, but it is not a generality.