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Saturday, September 04, 2004
 Fuksi stands for "1st year student" and Sauna stands for... Hell on Earth. Of course everybody knows what sauna is, but how many of you have tried finnish sauna? It's a whole different story. Sauna is actually the most famous finnish word in the planet. In Finland no one is "allowed" to use any kind of clothes during sauna, otherwise the "sauna spirit" would become angry. It also reaches 100 ºC easily, if not more. And that's what expected me on my 4th day in Oulu...
My coordinator, Juho, welcomed me to my new department's Guild (OPTIEM) by inviting me to this event they organized for "fuksis" called Fuksisauna (yes.. something about fuksis having sauna, you guessed it). After I met him, we walked for a bit around town towards Pikisaari, which is an island in the middle of Oulu where the Fuksisauna took place. When I got there, the fun had already begun. The students had divided themselves into teams, and they had to go through some strange competitions, like Relay Drinking and Running (I invented the name...), which consisted on each member of a team drinking a glass of beer (vodka?) and then running, going around a chair and returning to pass it on to another teammate, who would do the same thing. The fastest team wins..
Needless to say that I didn't get a word they were saying, but Juho helped me with that, and it took no big effort to realize they were surely having lots of fun. I had the idea that finnish drank a lot, but one thing is to hear about it and another is to witness it live! I learnt to respect that as time went by, and now I am very confortable with that aspect of their culture. Still, the initial impact was kind of surprising.
After the sun set down, we went indoors, where Sauna was happening. "Allright, my first finnish sauna! Can't wait to get in there!". Down the stairs I went, and.. Whoa! Girls changing! "Ok, now I screwed up... Hey!!, Juho, is it the girls' turn? Oh.. it's boys'... but the girls are changing here.. Can I change here? Someone said - Suuuure, noooo problem, just go! They don't care!" (what about ME caring...?). Well, nevermind, turned myself to a wall, changed (got naked to be accurate) and 5 seconds later a girl with a towel around her was already asking me stuff, having noticed I wasn't from those parts. She was very nice, although slightly altered ("better get used to this..."). So there I went, and as soon as I opened the sauna's door, I felt the most intense heat ever and realized this wasn't going to be good... Inside, all the guys were singing, happy, some really drunk.. and I was struggling for survival. It was really crowded too. Well, I managed to stay inside for 10 seconds or so... great premiere, ah?
One thing about saunas that foreigners should know... There are mixed saunas quite often, especially if it's a student party or something called "sauna-party". They have no problems with nudity at all! So, be prepared to leave your clothes outside and your prejudice at home. For me, who attended 2 or 3 of them, it was only a matter of survival (trying to breathe in and out) as my first saunas were. But don't be surprised to be invited to a thing like this, and after a while you will forget there are naked women in there, you will accept it as a natural fact...
After putting my clothes back on, I decided to socialize. It was so much easier now that they're all drinking. I saw how amazing the change of behaviour can be between sober finn and "happy" finn. It's radical! They really know how to have fun, believe me, and are the best people to hang out with after a couple of beers. I made two or three friends in a matter of minutes. I spoke about myself over and over and what was I doing there, etc. They all seemed very interested, and actually they were. That's another thing about the finnish people in general (yes I know it's dangerous to generalise). They are very genuine in their actions. If they ask you "Mitä kuullu?" (How are you?), they really want to know how you're doing, for example.
To end the night, Juho, Olli, Jarno and me decided to visit some pubs. (surprise!!!) We went to one called Never Grow Old. It's usually a reggae/latin music bar, but that evening there was a live band playing - The Lunatics. I was very eager to hear some music, as I am an amateur composer and guitar player (my website - by the way). The band played instrumentals and they just simply rocked. I loved it! Do I need to say that the lead guitarrist had some beers before performing? I thought not...
That night I discovered the most hilarious thing a finnish person can do: speaking bad words in Portuguese. You have to believe me, this was just awesome. I was literally rolling on the pub's floor laughing like hell as I kept hearing Juho, Olli and Jarno saying words like "caralh*, filho da put*, foda-s*". Ok, it may not sound like a big deal, but you just have to try it to see how funny it is.
Fuksis, sauna, girls changing, live concert, laughter attacks - what a crazy day... let's do it again sometime!!
Posted at 12:10 am by edcarpediem
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Sunday, September 05, 2004
Yliopistokatu and surroundings
Time to talk a little bit about the area I'm located in. Yliopistokatu means "University street", so you can probably guess what how far it is from where I had to go to take my courses. This place really gives meaning to the word "campus". Let's see: 4 tall buildings filled with international and finnish students plus laundry rooms and saunas, next to smaller houses (also for students), a Sports Hall, a secondary school, a kindergarten with playground, tennis courts, 3 big supermarkets, post office, techology companies HQ's, restaurants (mostly pizzerias), a bar, the University ("only" the 2nd biggest in Finland) and Technopolis. Also nearby, we have Tellervontie and Tapiontie (streets where more students live), 2 big lakes, the Bothanical Gardens, a library and guess what... a gorilla that knows how to read!!!
this is what happens when gorillas live close to schools...
Posted at 04:19 am by edcarpediem
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Tuesday, September 14, 2004
Students like parties. In Finland every reason is good enough to have some sort of celebration, and you'll know some of them as you keeping reading the blog. One of the most obvious is the beginning of the school year. This is 14th September and the event is called "Vulcanalia". The name has some edge to it, don't you think?
This was the time in which I learned that finnish students are quite the experts in saving money for partying. Here's what happens: they organize a "before-party" at somebody's flat, where people start drinking beer and other light drinks, just to get warmed up. Then at the real party, they can go to a club or pub, where drinks are usually expensive, and drink 1 or 2 beers that last for some hours.. until they all go to the "after-party", again at someone's flat, where the heavy drinking takes place. This way they save a lot of money and still have a lot of fun.
Vulcanalia was my second student party after Fuksisauna. We went to Meri's place downtown, and this was where I actually met most of the colleagues of my department. That's because I had already lost all shame and gained a lot of nerve. 15 days in Finland make you a less shy person because you really have to "do it yourself" if you want to meet anyone at all. So I started the usual and routiny approach:
- Terrrrve! Minä olen Eduardo, minä tulen portugalistaa. Mikä sinun nimi on? Hauska tavata!
me wearing the finnish tekkari hat
I realised that it is true that finns like that you speak finnish to them. They wonder why the hell should you even try to learn it in the first place, and I could tell they appreciate the effort very much. At least the ladies couldn't let go of my hand until we were finished talking (was it me or the beer I had before?).
Also, I saw the finnish students' hat for the first time. They wear it on several ocasions, like these student parties. It seems like a sailor hat (don't be offended, but that's what I think!) The "tekkaris" (technical students) however, wear a slightly different hat. It has a kind of "rope with a broom at the end" (can't explain it better than this). They tie a nut on that "rope" for each Vappu they went to. (Vappu is the biggest student party on 1st May).
There was a big concert scheduled for Vulcanalia in Oulu. Kemopetrol were playing. Another band I became a fan of. Singing in english helped, I guess. Unfortunately, I got off this "before-party" a bit too late and couldn't get in the concert. Well.. it was fun anyway.
Posted at 11:46 pm by edcarpediem
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Wednesday, September 15, 2004
I had the previlege to play football in the University league for our guild's team OPTIEM. Because I come from Portugal, my colleagues must have thought that I could play like Figo or Cristiano Ronaldo, or somewhat close to them. My responsability was huge! I could not let them down. I was so out of shape for not doing any kind of sport for several weeks, but I just can't refuse an opportunity to kick some ball around. No real portuguese can ever do that !! (otherwise the "football spirit" will be mad)1.
Niittyaro football pitches So we went to Niittyaro, a place in the middle of nowhere that had these 2 great football pitches, made for 7-player teams. OPTIEM played against REAL KROUVI. The weather was rainy and my sports shoes were not very "sporty", but I had to use what I had with me (aaah if I only had brought my football boots from Porto - but who expects to play football when going to Oulu?!?) After putting on my green team's jersey, they decided to place me as a striker. (Great! I don't have to be afraid to lose the ball up front, it's worse to lose it at the back...). We completely controlled the match, and were winning 2-1 at halftime. Then I received a pass from Aki (great football player, for a finn... just kidding, dude :)) , quick turn and GOOOOOAL!!!! Yes! I scored a goal for Optiem!!! How cool is that? I wish someone had made a video of it. I'm going to include that on my Curriculum. My moment of glory! Then we still made it 4-1. Easy.
I do feel the need to say something here. For those about to to play with Finns, hear me out! They are not soft!!! They kick ass (and the rest of the body too if it's in the way). I thought they played like babies, but soon I realized that they are actually great players, very tactical and physical. And they don't fool around. On our second game, we faced SIX PACK LIONS (how finnish is this name?) and I was very confident... until I got a taste of finnish harshness myself. Protecting a lost ball with my frail body, I couldn't stop a guy from trying to shoot it to our goal, as he was in full speed mode. Result: hard kick at my ankle and need to be replaced. Well... I got the chance to take some pictures and rest for a while until I got back in the game to try to prevent our 2-1 defeat. But without success. Needless to say I didn't play anymore, for I really got injured from that one. It was good while it lasted.
I think the team was highly dependable of me, because they didn't qualify for next round during the next matches. We, in Portugal, call that sort of team "Eduardo-dependent". Hey guys listen! I'm sorry I got injured and made you look bad. Next time I promise I'll kick some ass myself! Ok, now all of you must ignore this paragraph since... it's really not true...
1 please check the "Fuksisauna" article (Sep 4th) for the analogy...
Posted at 07:15 pm by edcarpediem
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Thursday, September 16, 2004
Finnish language - the whole truth
Terve! (Hello!)
Now I'll discuss with you the whole truth about the Finnish language. Many people say it's difficult to learn. Some foreigners are in Finland for 10 years and can't even order a meal in a restaurant. I say it's a matter of dedication and practising every day withouth being afraid to speak nonsense. Regardind Finnish as a learning language, we can name some characteristics:
Advantages:
- only one gender (neutral). There is no distinction between he and she (both are "han").
- there are no articles (such as "a" or "the").
- each word contains a lot of information, so sentences don't have many words (maybe a disadvantage..?)
- each letter of the alphabet is read in the same way in all cases. An "Ä" always has the "Ä" sound, as has an "O" or a "Y", for example.
- few verb tenses (it doesn't have the Future tense for example - weird ah?, a language with no future... :)
Disadvantages:
- Finnish has 15 declinations (considering that Portuguese has none and German has 4, that is a lot!).
- totally different language from any other in Europe. For example "Yliopisto" means University (Yli for "high/upper" and opisto for "study") and in other european languages we have: Universidade (PORT), Universidad (ESP), Université (FRA), Universität (GER), Università (ITA), you get the idea. And most words are similar to this case. You can hardly guess what a word in finnish means.
Curiosities:
- it doesn't have the word "please".
- repeated letters are very frequent ("tt", "kk", "aa", "mm").
- uses a lot of sufixes.
- many words sound like italian mixed with japanese (at least to me...)
Basic Sentences:
- Mitä kuuluu? (How are you?)
- Minä olen Eduardo ja minä tulen Portugalista (I'm Eduardo and I'm from Portugal)
- Haluan kahvia! (I want coffee!)
- Hauska tavata. (Nice to meet you)
- Yksi isotaksi, Yliopistokatu kussitoista, nyt! (one big taxi, Yliopistokatu 16, now!)
- On kylmä! (It's cold!)
How to pick up a girl in Finnish:
(never worked this way...but feel free to try it, at least you make them laugh...)
Haluatko tanzia? - Want to dance?
Sinä olet kukka ja kukka on kaunis, siis sinä olet kaunis... - You are a flower, and flowers are beautiful, so you are beautiful also...
Mikä sinun puhelinnummero? - What is your phone number?
Haluatko nukkua kanssani? - Do you want to sleep with me (sleep only)?
Meille vai teille vai metsäteille vai.. eriteille? - My place, your place, in the woods, or different ways?
- Eriteille! - Different ways!
Ei se mitä, Elämä on kaunis suomessa... - It doesn't matter. Life is beautiful in Finland...
Juoppoporo song by Eduardo Gouveia:
Oulun Naiset ovat kauniita!
Minä olen juoppoporo ja mä tarvin apua!
Torstaina Rovaniemellä, kolmetoista naista saunassa...
Minä tulen Portugalista,
ja suomi on kieli vaikea.
Mutta elämä on helpompaa
jos juon... sata olutta!!!
I dare you to translate this... maybe later I will :P
Posted at 11:54 pm by edcarpediem
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Wednesday, September 29, 2004
Life without a guitar.. not possible!
As some of you may have already read in these pages, I am an amateur musician and guitar player. The mere thought that I had to live without my electric guitar for 4 months was almost unbearable, but I was sure that I would be busy enough not to miss it.
But as days went buy and I the more I heard about these 2nd hand stores, it was only a matter of time until I decided to purchase one. So Juho (yes, again) drove me and Aaron (my flatmate who also wanted a guitar) to downtown and helped us choose a couple of acoustic 2nd hand guitars. For a really good price, I got a blue Squier (preeeetty). In Portugal I would never have this kind of equipment for this price. And it didn't seem "used" at all. Hyvää!! :)
The idea was to keep it in my room for the most boring times and practise some minutes a day, and even (why not?) compose new songs based on my new experience. But it turned out to be for some other purposes, like playing in parties and performing duets (dozens) with other guitar-playing students. It was a lot of fun. I took the piece everywhere and it played beautifully. I missed playing "live" for some time and now I had some chances to do it. It's the best thing!
My dreaming mind had this plan once that consisted on the following: taking 1 or 2 other students and go downtown (Keskusta), while snowing, and perform for some minutes. The repertoire included some popular songs (Cat Stevens, Bryan Adams, Nirvana, Radiohead...) and also some improvisation. Of course someone would have to make videos and pictures of the event (that goes without saying). I would call this thing "Keskusta Concerto". Unfortunately, it never happened due to lack of time (yes, it's true). I had all the songs prepared, with lyrics and all but I couldn't do it alone, so it was hard to get other people to include something like this in their agendas. It was my fault, because I waited longer than I should have to plan this. Anyway, thanks to all that agreed to it and to those whose enthusiasm got me going (yes you girls from ESN). Sorry to let you down :( Maybe next time...
Finally, I had to make the decision to sell it or keep it and bring it to Portugal. My dear friend Olli from Oulu liked the guitar so much that helped me make the decision, which was to sell it after all. So I did. I'm sure he'll take good care of it and give it really good use ;)
I'll miss that guitar, but Olli will let me play it when I return to Oulu some day...
(Won't you?!?!) :P
Posted at 11:10 pm by edcarpediem
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Thursday, September 30, 2004
Pages 1 2 3
Near the University there are the Oulu Bothanical Gardens, which is something worth taking a look, especially on a sunny afternoon (well.. it's still September..). It's pretty amazing the variety of plants, flowers and trees they have there. I am a total ignorant when it comes to bothanics or anything related to the "green" stuff, as I call it.
This visit introduced me to many species of living beings that I didn't even know existed. Rui and Lea came with me for a nice walk through it. Now... I haven't seen many mushrooms before, but I must tell you, these were the funnier ones, and are worth the writing of this article alone:
funny mushrooms
I actually took one of these home and kept it for as long as I could, and showed it to people all the time. I'm not used to this, so pardon my childish behaviour. :)
After this visit, later in the afternoon, it was Ice Hockey time. Check the next article. ;)
Posted at 01:50 am by edcarpediem
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In Finland, football is not the most popular sport (Guess why??). Unlike most european countries, it is number two, losing to ice hockey only, the kind of sport that we, southern europeans, are obviously very good at... (not). For those of you who watched ice hockey on television already, you know that it's a really rough game, and it's played at a very high speed.
So, one day, some group of students (including me) decided to go and watch a live game of the Oulu local team (Oulu Kärpat), who became national champions the previous season. The match was against Jokerit from Helsinki.
On my flat's TV (a present from Juho - kiitos!) I got the chance to watch some games of the Finnish league, but it always looked boring for me. I don't know why, maybe because I don't know all the rules or most times I don't know where the "ball" is (it's called a puck). So I was expecting some more excitement before watching a live game...
Tickets for students were 8 euros, but the seats weren't very good. One of the most interesting things about this game is actually the introduction of the teams to the audience. It looked like a "Disney on Ice" show, with some special effects and all. It makes you really look forward for the real action. But guess what, I still found it boring like on TV... the only exciting thing about it was that Oulu Kärpat were losing 0-1 and so they had to fight harder to win the game, which they finally did (2-1). But apart from that, it was still dull ... sorry finns, football is really my game.. :)
Posted at 10:12 pm by edcarpediem
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Friday, October 01, 2004
The amount of finnish bands I knew and listened to in Portugal had one thing in common: they sang in english! A suomi band that sang in their mother tongue was something quite unfamiliar to me. I was actually afraid of even listening to something like that, since my first impression of the language wasn't very good, and the singing might be scary.
I got an email on the exchange list telling about a concert of a band called Egotrippi at the Radisson SAS hotel in Oulu. They are supposed to be one of the most popular pop/rock bands in Finland. So what did I do, before buying the ticket and risking depression? I downloaded some mp3 of them to see how they sounded, of course (yes arrest me). At first I thought they were pretty ordinary, but like all bands, once you get to know the songs better, you start to enjoy them instead of judging them. So yes, I bought the tickets and went with 2 friends to the concert.
All of the songs were great and I became a fan of the band. One thing that surprised me, since this was my first "normal" concert in Finland, was how confortable they were with all the fans standing within 1m or less from the stage, and how easy it was to reach them and talk to them during the break before the encore, for example. I liked them so much, that I had to talk to them in some way, so the first time I had a chance I went to Mikki (singer) and told him I liked the band and asked to take a picture with him. He was kind enough to do it:
Mikki, the lead singer for Egotrippi
I would recommend this band to anyone, even foreigners. It is actually a good way to learn some finnish and some expressions. "Mikä sua vaivaa?" for example :) I even learned 2 or 3 songs for guitar and played them at some parties. It was fun. I still listen to this band in Portugal, it helps me remember Oulu and Finland in a way that only music can...
Posted at 01:18 am by edcarpediem
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Tuesday, October 05, 2004
I probably said this before, but Oulu nightlife is quite surprising and different compared to what I'm used to in Portugal. For example, clubs or pubs open at 9pm or 10pm and clubs close at 4am. So it starts relatively early. If you think that in Finland people have lunch at 11am and dinner at 6pm, you won't find this strange...
Downtown Oulu is very well organized and during the nighttime, students take it over. I mean...all people over 30 simply disappear. It's pretty amazing. The nicest thing is that all these places like pubs, bars or clubs are all quite close to each other. All one has to do is ride a bike or take a bus downtown and then just walk around. During weekdays the last bus leaving downtown to campus was at 1h40 (really bad) and on Fridays and Saturdays it would leave at 3h15 (better..). Still, whoever had a bike was ok. Sometimes, students called one of those big taxis (vans, actually). It is possible to put 15 or more students in one (I believe the record is still 19). They were the same price as the normal ones. So almost every student by October could already say the magic words on the phone:
- Yksi isotaksi yliopistokatu, nyt!
During 4 months I visited a lot of places, some better than others. And the place to go to depended on the day of the week. The prices of drinks and occasional parties had an influence on the choice. For example, many students went to a certain club at Wednesdays because they had 1 euro beer. I'll give you a short description of a few pubs, bars or clubs. Take into account that I'm not an "expert" on nightlife...
45 special - rock club, many concerts, 3 floors; it's the coolest place, in my opinion. Small, but the atmosphere is very nice. On Sundays there is the traditional "Jam sessions" where anyone is free to grab an instrument and join the others. Many bands, like 69 Eyes and Scenery Channel, performed there live during my stay. For those who like rock and hard rock, this is the place to go to.
Kaarlenholvi - quite different from 45 special. This one has no entrance fee, but usually the queue to get in is long and the bouncer is hard to please. But once inside, it looks good and also kind of "labyrinthic". It is easy to get lost if it's the first time you go. Usually the music is pop, rock, dance, quite normal tunes. No heavy dancing stuff like real discos. The dance floor could be bigger though. The slogan they use is somewhat curious: "Meille vai Teille?" - which means "My place or your place?". One thing is true, the prettiest women are to be found under this roof. And you can trust me, I was never drunk while in Oulu...
Hot Night Bar - ok, I have to say something about the name: change it!!! When I first heard about this club, I couldn't believe how "cheap" the name was. My first thought - erotic/strip joint. It turns out it's where most teenage boys and girls go to. Maybe the minimum age to get in being 18 helped to that fact. I could say a lot of bad things about it, but I'd rather let you decide for yourselves. Some things I should mention: the floor is sticky! (because of beer), the club is big (3 floors) and has space for everyone, it has a karaoke, after 2am the girls go wild and invade the men's wc. (actually stand in there just chatting, unbelievable), there is 1 euro beer at Wed, but everytime I went there with other exchange students I had fun. If it wasn't for that, I would never recommend it. Many people in Oulu don't like it, and I understand why. Still, with the right company, it can be nice.
Amarillo - it works as a restaurant during the daytime and as a club / bar in the evening. The lower floor is where the dancing takes place. I went there only once and liked it, but there's not much I can say about it. There are better places in Oulu...
St. Michael's Pub - the nicest pub in Oulu! On Sunday afternoons there is usually irish music played live (it is an irish pub). The look of it is quite traditional and warm. My first big mug of beer was taken here, where I got "dizzy" for the first time ever.
Caio - the only bar near campus. It is really incredible that in an area where thousands of university students live there is only one bar like this. And it's not even a "student" bar, since many normal workers go there. Anyway, if I ever want to open a business in Oulu, I know what to do. It has a "mexican theme" going on. It was probably the place I went to the most, because it was so near my building. Many parties and gatherings (ESN ones mostly) took place here. I recommend it, it's cozy and you can play some pool, and even choose the tracklist for yourself :)
Posted at 12:32 am 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
