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Tuesday, August 31, 2004
 To get to Oulu, I had to get 3 flights (PORTO-FRANKFURT-HELSINKI-OULU), so you can imagine how my day was. Certainly not ordinary... I left Porto at 7:40 and arrived in Oulu at 21:30. My first impression of finnish people couldn't be better, and I'll tell you why.
In Helsinki, I asked this lady on the waiting lounge for a short translation, which she did, and then we started talking about what I was going to do in Oulu, and that I was a student and I was going there for 4 months, etc. It happens that she herself had two daughters in Oulu University, and because in Finnair domestic flights the seatings are free, we sat together and talked the whole trip. Once in Oulu, she told me that she and her husband (who picked her up) would give me a lift to Linnanmaa (campus area). I was really astonished. There I was, in god-knows-where in the North of Europe, at night time, all by myself, and a couple who would give me a lift as soon as I hit ground. Well I just went for it, after all, it's Finland... And it would be easier to find the street with their help (the world famous Yliopistokatu).
finally ... FINLAND
After being dropped off, my kind Kummi-student (it's like a student tutor), Kirsti, was waiting for me at the bus stop. She showed me my building (16), flat (3rd floor), room (305) and introduced me to my new two flatmates: Andreas from Austria and Emmanuel from France. They looked like nice guys, and we got acquainted pretty fast. But deep inside I was thinking "Who the hell are these people? Am I supposed to share a flat with these two?!? I'm screwed." And they surely thought:
Andreas - "Who is this guy?!?"
Emmanuel - "He looks like a fresh one, we can play some tricks on him!"
My room was pratically empty (only one bed, table, chair and wardrobe). For that I would like to thank the previous tenant, Mr. Cristoff (also world famous for never being sober :) ). Every time I checked out the other rooms, I felt like the most unlucky guy, because all of them had something left by the other inmates!! Also, my window view was to the trees of the back of the building, so I had the chance to see some squirrels in pure action...
 
my lovely window view (Sep and Dec)
The next day I met Aaron, the 3rd and missing flatmate. Here's our amazing dialogue:
Aaron - Hi! I'm Aaron. I'll be your flatmate, I guess.
Eduardo - Hi. I'm Eduardo, from Portugal. Are you american?
Aaron - Yeah... easy to tell ah?
Wow! My first contact with an american ever! Now I could put in practise all the slang I learned in movies and tv-series that we import from them. It turns out he studies film-making. How cool is that? Quite talented too!
Well, these flatmates of mine really turned out to be great people. I'm going to miss them a lot...
Posted at 11:53 pm by edcarpediem
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EDU IN OULU is a weblog about the stay of Eduardo Gouveia in Oulu for 4 months in the Fall 2004 as an exchange student under the Erasmus programme. It includes the relevant stories of this experience and it may be useful for those considering to go to Oulu as exchange students in the future. Please enjoy! :) To see some nice pictures about it, click below ;)
Any questions, anytime to:
edcarpediem@hotmail.com
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EDU IN OULU - 4 Months in Northern Heaven by Eduardo Gouveia - Porto, Portugal
