Summer in 2 paragraphs

Well summer is almost at its end. It is already august, rain has fallen, hot days have past and Pori Jazz and Sonisphere have gone by. The month of July was really interesting and it was truly a crazy month, a lot of events in the beach and in the city. With Pori Jazz, Sonisphere and a the Soccer tournament at Yyteri there was a great influx of tourism in the city which changed it for a while. People from all over Finland and abroad flooded the streets as tourists and as performers too. It was exciting to see this great bands like Metallica, Linkin Park, Dela Soul or even Erikah Bahdu and Duffy come perform here.

Not only big famous groups gave these events a great atmosphere; I was surprised when a band called Polka Madre (whose band memeber were from Mexico, the US and Finland) played at this venue called Barco which indeed is a Barco (spanish for ship). It was a really interesting mix of Cafe Tacuba style mexican rock with russian and finnish folk music. It was quite the experience and my friends really liked it too. In the Yyteri soccer tournament I got to meet a lot of people form all over and even though it wasnt that hot it was still nice outside and super crowded.

Sunny hot days followed by rainy days are part of the finnish summer, now august is here and the weather is actually nicer now and we are getting ready to receive the new international exchange students.

Yteri

Well it is definitively summer time, the nice hot weather and the sandy beaches of Yteri have proven to be quite the weekend getaway. Yteri beach is located around 15 km away from Pori and it is the only white sanded beach in Finland. The beach lays there next to the forest and it is quite a view indeed. As I got to Yteri I saw so many people leaying around soaking the sun as if it were the last day of summer. It is not really surprising that it seemed that all of Pori was there, since it is the best beach around and it's the weekend.

One curious or maybe a normal trait in beaches like Yteri is that it is mainly a local venue. Ok there is some people from other cities and maybe some internationals yet it remains a local hangout. In Mexico and even the US most beaches are crowded with resorts, hawain tropic, corona and budweiser publicity stands and crazy inflatable things. Yteri seems like a nice place to relax even on its most crowded day and its refreshing to actually not have to hear to a VJ yelling that its wet tshirt contest time every 15 minutes. I have nottin against commercial beaches and I do enjoy the crazyness but when summer is such a precious commodity as it is here in Finland it is nice to know that the beach is actually a nice place to go and relax.

Juhannus Eve

Here in Finland summer is like christmas, its the same kind of great atmosphere. Summer is usually a break for students back home where you just try to do as little as possible outside because of the hot weather.

Here in Finland they have the perfect temperature on summer it never gets too hot and never freezing cold, yet its not only the temperature or the long days with barely any darkness its the attitude that people have that makes it awesome.

People have come alive since the sun started to shine and the snow melted away, now you can see they are in summer bliss planning boat trips, nature treks and even picnics wherever the sun hits the ground. On summer it is a little bit more quiet than it regularly is and that is due to the fact that school is out and students are working or the lucky ones traveling.

It is so nice to see how everybody is so happy about Juhannus, oh yeah, Juhannus is the name of the summer festivity. This weekend here in Pori there is everything from concerts, a rock festival, and of course the traditional bonfires. It is also a great advantage to live so close to Yteri, because for what I have heard the bonfire there is going to be awesome, according to my friend Yannik.

Think the summer spirit has hit us hard already so me and the remaining international crew will most definitively take advantage of this holiday and enjoy the finnish take on summer!

The Forest

Yesterday I had the opportunity to go to the Kullaa forest in the Satakunta Region as part of the recreation day in the office. It was a lot of fun, I am not particulary the nature tipe of guy Im more of a city dweller, yet I liked it and think I might change my city ways.

It was a 7 km trek, it was quiet interesting to see wat our guide told us to be land mass that was underwater just 2,000 years ago. Finland has amazing landscapes and it is great to have the chance to trek through them because it is indeed a whole different world. Im kind of excited about going back there later on summer because they told me that its filled with color and people go there to boat and swim. Part of the experience was to deal with mosquitoes, yeah annoying yet not as bad as if you were in the jungles of any central american country for sure.

For lunch we had barbecued sausages and boy they were great after walking so much, the nice couple that served as our guides also made the best fire cooked crêpes i've ever had, oh ok these were the first ever but still amazingy good. And to top it off we ate in a Tippee, yeah a tippee in the middle of the Finnish forest, real cool right?

Well here at SAMK you can seriously take advantage of nature and do things like this, which I seriously never ever thought i would do or even think i would love it!

Yeah, yeah nature is real cool and yeah I should have probably done something like this before, but i'm glad I started here in Finland on my internship at SAMK.

So globalization is a phenomenon that has undoubtedly changed the way we live, or it at least has done so for my generation. There is not a time where I can actually say that I havent been in contact with people from other parts of the world, and right now during my internship at SAMK its no different.

During this past two weeks the International Summer school has been under way. People from the US, Japan, Taiwan, Nepal, Holland, France and of course me have been living under one same roof and have learned so much from each other. It is not easy to have many nationalities, temperaments and beliefs under one single roof, but here at SAMK it has proven to be interesting and rewarding overall.

With experiences like the one I am living here in Pori as an intern for SAMK you realize how important it is to actually to interact and learn from others in situations that will be foreign for you. These experiences will determine the way you learn to relate to different cultures, and maybe even do business in a future if that is what you want to do for a living.

During the summer school here in Pori we had the chance to interact in school organized activities as well as in day to day things like watching movies, cooking and even making crêpes in the common kitchen. On sunday we had an outing, we went to the beautiful city of Rauma, it is one of the oldes cities in Finland and according to our guide it is special because it is still a living city, meaning that the downtown area is a fully functional cartier. It was fun running around with americans and a french dude around the city, it was all pretty much closed because it was a sunday yet that didn't stop us from having fun.

Later that day we went to a small creek where we had the opportunity to tan! Yes tanning in Finland. The temperature reached the 27¤C mark which made it totally enjoyable. It was a nice outing organized by the University and the visit to the Rauma Maritime Management SAMK campus was really interesting. We got to go to the ship simulator in which we cruised the waters of St. Petersburg (until Brian crashed the simulated boat). Right now everybody has left for the second part of the summer school in Rovaniemi, but new people always arrive and as summer is closer and closer I know that my adventures here will be as rewarding and cool as the ones before.

Internacionalizacion

Hola a todos, esta vez comienzo el nuevo post en español. Esta semana pasada tuve la oportunidad de conocer a un gran grupo de estado unidenses durante su estancia en Pori para la escuela de verano que organiza la Universidad de Ciencias Aplicadas de Satakunta. Fue una semana en la que no solo yo sino los practicantes de Francia, Holanda y los mismo estudiantes tuvimos la oportunidad de interactuar de manera extensiva tomando parte de actividades organizadas por la escuela y por nosotros mismos.

Nuestra generacion sin duda es una generacion internacional, si bien para muchos de los que estaban aqui era su primera vez en otro pais, estoy seguro que no sera la ultima. Las actividades organizadas por la escuela iban desde visitar otros campus hasta ir a una pequeña playa para una carne asada el domingo. Las actividades o mas bien las reuniones que teniamos nosotros eran sin duda novedosas para los estado unidenses ya que nos dedicamos dos noches a hacer crepas, a ver peliculas y discutir un poco de politica y nuestros planes a futuro.

Todos los estudiantes en este curso de verano vienen de escuelas que tienen algun tipo de convenio con esta universidad y sin duda es una excelente manera de introducir a lo alumnos a Finlandia. Parte de la experiencia que la Universidad busca para los alumnos de la escuela de verano es sin duda la conivivencia dia a dia con estudiantes de tantas partes del mundo como se pueda.

El sabado tuvimos un dia libre y muchos de nosotros decidimos salir de Pori por el dia para explorar un poco mas de Finlandia. Un grupo se dirigio a Tampere y nosotros nos dirigimos a Helsinki. Esta no era mi primera vez en Helsinki pero si la primera vez con una estudiante de estados unidos y un amigo de francia. La ciudad es vibrante y me recuerda un poco a Paris y un poco a San Francisco. Esta ciudad sin duda no me deja de sorprender y es una grata sorpresa encontrar siempre a amigos que hice viviendo en Monterrey y estudiando en la UDEM ahora en conjunto con amigos nuevos de SAMK.

El domingo fuimos a Rauma y tambien es una ciudad muy bonita, y es increible pero nos pudimos tirar al sol y broncearnos! Quien iba a pensar que esto era posible en Finlandia. El verano ya esta aqui y todo esta cambiando, todos estan mas activos y sin duda hay mas cosas que hacer, no importa si es Helsinki, Pori o Rauma el verano se ve muy prometedor en Finlandia.

St. Petersburg

As an intern at SAMK this summer I have had the opportunity to join the summer school class in a trip to St. Petersburg, Russia.

This experience of crossing the border between Russia and the EU reminded me so much of the process to cross the mexican-american border but with stricter controls. The wait was not actually long but the fact that everybody has to get out of their car for inspection and for passport and visa control makes it quite slow.

As we crossed the border we could see the difference, Finland is a little bit like Celebration Florida (a Disney created suburb in Florida where people can live in a small town of sorts with strict rules and indeed looks perfect due to its strict rules of conduct and how houses, shops and streets should look) while Russia is more like in my eyes a little bit chaotic and messy like Mexico or Spain. It is indeed a whole different world from Finland or even the US, yet there are McDonalds and Carls Jr's all over the city. St. Petersburg is really cosmopolitan and you can see the great diversity the city has to offer; from architecture to food, to fashion and music. Posters for upcomming concerts in the city let you know how international it really is, Mylene Farmer from France, Madonna and Korn from the US tourists from France, Saudi Arabia, Emirates and China as well as restaurants that range from the Spanish tapas bar to the Shisha Bars where you can smoke arab pipes.
Another of the cool things we got to do was to visit this one university called Engecon where after the formalities we got to talk for a brief time at least with some russian students which indeed had a different point of view from the rest of the europeans I have met. It was refreshing to see that they are actually

Part of what made the experience even more enjoyable was the fact that I went with a really cool group of people from the summer school from SAMK from the US, Netherlands and one german, one japanese and one chinese dude. Looking at the people and their reaction to this new country for all of us made it real cool, we took the subway and even wondered off through the not so touristic sites and it was a great way to actually see what a day in a russian everyday life is like.

It is weird but my favorite building in Saint Petersburg was actually a mosque and my favorite restaurant was a spanish restaurant called Las Torres, the architecture in general was amazing and the museums and the people were great too. Seriously this summer school trip blew my mind and I do think that these kind of experiences helps groups bond and people open themselves to new wonderfull different cultures in a way regular schoolwork does not.

*ESPAÑOL

San Petersburgo es en verdad una ciudad maravillosa y elhecho de haber ido con los alumnos de el curso de verano me ayudo a ver 4 culturas completamente differentes reaccionar ante este nuevo lugar de manera distinta. En cuanto a el shock cultural, creo que la Federacion Rusa es en su manera un poco mas parecida a America Latina de lo que cualquier pais europeo lo es.

La religion, el trafico, la importancia de el trato personal refleja una mentalidad mas colectivista y la manera de ser es sin duda algo que los latinos podriamos apreciar ya que nos es mas que familiar. El viaje en si fue una experiencia muy buena ya que no solo conocimos la ciudad sino que para los chavos del curso de verano fue una pausa y un cambio radical despues de una semana en Finlandia.

Finlandia es muy bonito, paisajes espectaculares y gente muy cordial asi que al llegar a Russia y ver un poco de caos resulta un poco radical, pero por lo menos por mi parte algo bienvenido ya que estoy acostumbrado a las ciudades mas grandes como esta. Ver el contraste entre Europa y Russia es muy bueno para entender como dos sistemas tan diferentes viven lado a lado de manera pacifica a veces, pero tambien violentamente de vez en cuando.