First week of school

This is terrible. It's been 5 days since I last wrote. I'm totally failing my New Year's resolution already... But it has all been for good reasons: classes have started and I've been busy hanging out with my New Friends.

So when we last left off, I was freaking out because UH had changed it's course schedule since December, and a lot of the classes I had been planning on taking had straight up disappeared. Mark, Alex, and I (everyone who came over from NC State) were up until midnight on Sunday trying to come up with a new schedule. We all ended up in the same classes, which is great for figuring stuff out, and will be good for studying since we all live in the same building. So the courses I'm taking for this term (the semester is divided up into 2 terms) are: Ecological Models of Growth and Yield Dynamics, Multi-Attribute Forest Planning, and  Metsänhoidon Vaikutukset Kasvihuonekaasujen Päästöihin ja Biokemiallisiin Biertoihin (which I believe translates to something like Silvicultural Effects on Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Biogeochemical Cycles, but its doesn't have an official English name). And although we had to pick out the classes we wanted to take, we still didn't have our student ID numbers, so we couldn't actually register. We decided that, come Monday morning, we would just show up at the class and hope for the best.

If I may interject briefly: I just found out that Finland doesn't sell alcohol after 9pm. This is an annoying fact that I wish I would have known about 40 minutes ago, or at least before venturing out into the -17 degree weather. grrrr. 

Monday morning arrived and we left in the dark before dawn (about 9:30) for our 10am class. Our class schedule was such that we had class straight from 10-2 and then from 2-4. Quite an intense day, and we ate a huge breakfast in preparation for having to skip lunch. We were relived to find that our two classrooms were near each other, so it shouldn't be too much of a problem getting from the first class to the second at 2:00.

It's 10:00 and we are waiting outside the door of the classroom for Ecological Models for Growth and Yield Dynamics. And then it's 10:05. At 10:10 other students start showing up. At 10:15 the professor arrived and the class began. It turns out in Finland (and I think all of Europe, but I'm not sure) they use something called "academic time," which means that all classes start 15 minutes after the listed time, and end 15 minutes early. It's also assumed that classes that span lunch time give you a solid hour to go eat. So our 4 hour class suddenly became a 2.5 hour class. Not bad.

That first class was pretty uneventful (lunch was terrific!), but it was that second class we were all a little worried about. According to the course catalog, it was only offered in Finnish. But Alex swore someone had told him they would be teaching it in English this year. We were all counting on that. We showed up at 2:10 (feeling like hotshots for knowing about "academic time") and took a seat at the huge circular table in the classroom (Group Discussion style setup). As more and more people arrive it become clear that EVERYONE else in the class is Finnish. This is not looking good. We start to talk among ourselves about what we should do in the awkward event that the class is in Finnish. We would just have to get up and leave, which would be quite obvious given that everyone is sitting at the same table and all. The professor comes in and says some stuff in Finnish to everyone. We all look at each other and brace ourselves to stand up and walk out. But then he says "Now, this class is supposed to be offered in Finnish, but I've had a request to teach it in English. Is there anyone here that wouldn't be able to understand if I spoke in Finnish?" The three of us sheepishly raise our hands. "Okay, 3 people." He says, "Now let me just ask the Finnish students how they would feel about that." Although Finnish is the hardest language in the world to try and guess at, it was pretty clear that they were not happy. The professor then announced to everyone, "I will teach it in English, but the native Finnish speakers may ask me to repeat anything they don't understand, and can turn in their reports in Finnish. Now I know some of you are not happy about this, but it will be good practice for your English skills." Terrific. So now everyone hates us because an advanced level course that was supposed to be in Finnish will now be in their second language thanks to us. A great way to make friends your first day of school. To make matters worse, the professor announced at the end of class that we would be working on a project in teams of two throughout the course, and he wanted the "non-Finnish students" (i.e. us) to be partners with the Finnish students, since they were more experienced with what we were doing. It was total "New Kid At School" syndrome. Everyone immediately paired up with their friends (as I probably would have done too), and in a matter on seconds, we were the only ones left without partners. We had to go up to the professor after class and say "We couldn't find anyone to be partners with..." He said at the next class he would make an announcement, and maybe we could just be the third member of a group. Poor us. But this Greenhouse Gas class (as we call it since there is no way we are saying Metsänhoidon Vaikutukset Kasvihuonekaasujen Päästöihin ja Biokemiallisiin Biertoihin), was also supposed to met the next day from 10-2, but the professor went ahead and canceled the next meeting and gave us a reading to do instead. We were thinking, "Wow, this is going to be a heck of a reading if it's supposed to replace a 4 hour class period." It turns out to be 6 pages. And those 6 pages are the only assignment/homework I have from this entire week of school. Yay Finland! After our taxing first day of school, we decided to splurge and treat ourselves to some Finnish wine. Plus our class the next day was canceled. Why not party?

On Tuesday Mark and I went into the city to run some errands. I opened a bank account at Nordea bank, and we went to the UH bookstore, hoping to get some school supplies that said University of Helsinki on them. This was very disappointing as the only thing they had was a lanyard for €4.90. I almost bought, but then made the wise decision not to. I can't remember what I did that night now. I KNEW I should have stayed more on top of this journaling!

Wednesday was Multi-Attribute Forest Planning class. It feels so good to be taking classes again that I'm actually interested in! I took so many notes. The Finnish students don't seem too engaged. Maybe it's a cultural thing. I was definitely the ONLY person who asked any questions in any of these classes. But I'm really excited about the pace of all of them; Challenging and interesting, without feeling overwhelming. After class we had a few hours to kill before a meeting with all the Atlantis students and coordinators to go over logistics. So I had my first cup of Finnish coffee. Woo boy! That stuff is strong! Now I know how the Finn's get through these dark cold days. I felt like I could run a marathon (apart from the fact that I'm still using a cane and have a good limp going on). The meeting was funny since it told us everything we had already figured out, but none of the stuff we were worried about. Like they showed us how to browse for classes in the course catalog (if we hadn't already figured that out by this point we'd be in rough shape), but didn't tell us how we could actually register for these classes, since it just said "registration period has ended" every time we tried. Oh well, no one seemed too worried about it.

That night we went to Baker's again with the huge group of European embassy/lawyer people who I'm becoming very good friends with. Then everyone went to this Finnish karaoke place. I had my doubts, but it turned out to be really nice! A small cozy place with a wooden bar and a very Nordic feel. I spent almost the entire time talking politics and getting the European perspective on things. It was very interesting. I really like all those people a lot. I can already feel I'm definitely going to make some lasting friends here. I would go out every night if the cheapest drink you could buy wasn't $9. And they don't even fill the pint glasses all the way up...

Okay, I still have 2 days to get through before I'm caught up, but it's after twevle, so I think I'm gonna call it a night.

Hyvää yötä!