University of Oulu

This was the best period of my life. I'm still homesick for good old Oulu and all the wonderful people that I got acquainted to. No way I would have wanted to miss this experience. I will always remember it and have become even more certain that there's nothing in the world more satisfying than travelling around and to get to know other cultures and the people who represent those different cultures!

**Leave your inhibitions at customs! Finns are not modest about their bodies, a thing to remember in the saunas. **And try sauna! It's such a wonderful experience. **Get a host family. Opportunities are available at the beginning of the study period. **Take advantage of travel opportunities while you can (and be sure to stop by Tallinn, Estonia, for a few days). **Finns are quiet by nature, so they may be hard to get to know. Don't think that they are cold and rude if they don't say much. **Get ready for snow and cold weather! **Keep an open mind--about everything. **Fazer chocolate is amazing. **Be sure to see the Aurora Borealis (as if you could special-order it...). **HAVE FUN!! This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, so make the most of it!

No need to buy textbooks, as the library is very good. Count on buying sheets, but maybe you can get a blanket from the interntional office. If you want a phone, be prepared to pay a huge deposit and not small monthly bills.

Not really.

The buildings are old, so sometimes things fon't wrk like they should, and they are really ugly, but it's no big deal. The part we will remember fondly is the people, not the building.

I took survival Finnish courses, but the courses were very unstructured and didn't motivate you to learn the language. Even though the language of instruction for my courses on the university was Finnish, there was a special English-speaking group for international students, so I couldn't attend to the lectures (they were in Finnish), but that was not a problem because I had my own English-speaking group