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.

Helsinki (english version)

Hello again, this week there is no other comment from me about Pori. I will give you a break from Pori and talk about the wonderfull city of Helsinki. Me and one of my friends from France (who is also an intern at SAMK) decided to do something different for the weekend, so we took a train to Helsinki. Comming from Pori we thought it was colder yet we were not ready to bestow any judgement just yet since we had only been in the city for 1 hour. From the minute we stepped out of the train station we saw that the city is far more like bigger cities in Europe, it sort of reminds me of Lille, France with a little bit of an american touch yet completely unique in its own way. (my comparisons are only there to help those who have never been here, not an opinion just an observation to say so)

At first we did not have a hotel or a reservation of any sorts so we walked through the city in order to find a hotel or a hostel. We were unsuccesful, it seemed that it was all rented and when we asked in every single hotel they just said it was due to a conference in the city. We thought we were out of luck and that we needed to go back at nightime, but in a hostel the told us that maybe after 6 we could get a room. So after walking all over the city (around 4 hours) we decided to go to the cinema and watch Star Trek(which was actually great) soon after that we went back to the hostel and lucky us we had a room waiting for us!

One of the main advantages of doing an exchange, wherever you are you always know someone from that city (ok maybe not all but in a lot of places) Here in SAMK I have been so lucky to make friends from all over europe, and even in Mexico I had the opportunity of meeting people from SAMK and other parts of Finland. Well in Helsinki as soon as I got into FB, there it was a message from some friends from Helsinki teling me that me and my friend were welcome to watch Eurovision and then go out with them that night. So after Pizza Hut and a shower we were off to look for her appartment in Kallia (it is hard to move around, trams are so confusing).

We were so lost, and then as we were looking at the map and angel (actually a really friendly finnish gal) asked us where we were going and soon after we told her where she said, I'll take you there. As we got to Kallia we found out that there was no buzzer for the appartments so again she saved our lives by letting me use her 3G phone to check my facebook for my friends phone number and then called her on her phone! I am so impressed with people here, I would never expect something like this to happen in a capital city anywhere in the world! I do feel that this experience in SAMK and in Finland will help me be a better guest in other countries and host to people from other nationalities in my own country.

Even though Finland did not win Eurovision and as the night carried on and ended up in a Kebab joint. I know that experiences like these are more than worth it and all the people involved will always be present in my mind. As an intern here I have access to all of these awesome experiences so I am more than glad I chose SAMK and happy to have chosen Finland!

Bloggin my way to Summer

Hello everybody well it has been a while, so many things have been going around that I have been so busy after my internship meeting awesome Finnish people and learning about Finland, here are some of the coolest things I have experienced so far:

Hola a todos, me ha tomado un poco mas de tiempo de lo que crei regresar y escribir de nuevo, pero es que la verdad me la he pasado tan bien que no sabia ni por donde empezar, asi que lo hare por los eventos principales:

Prom
The event was organized by the SAMK Business School of Business and in fact it was real nice, everyone wearing nice suits dresses and tuxedos, there was a band playing Finnish rock hits, they were real good! I didn't understand anything they were saying but I was jumping around. This was my first taste in Finnish school social life, great success.

Este evento fue organizado por la asosicacion de la escuela de negocios de SAMK, en verdad me gusto much ya que todos iban super bien vestidos y la musica finlandesa (que yo no conocia para nada) era super buena y movida (imaginense timbiriche mezclado con algo asi como linking park , si ya se extrano pero cool)

Rowing Competition with SAMK (which we won!)
So here in the office and in the Coffee break room we had been talking so much about a rowing competition, and I really didn't know what to expect really. As the day of the competition arrived we got ourselves downtown and there they were these long rowing boats a la Ivy league school. Then as we got ourselves to the boats we found our coach and as we went into it it got easier and easier, and what do you know our office beat the other school without even sweating it. It was such a great experience, and I can't wait for summer when I get to do this again!

La competencia de Remo, se organiza cada año entre la universidad en donde estoy haciendo mis practicas y la rival que se encuentra enfrente del rio. Cual seria mi sorpresa al vernos ganar con tanta facilidad siendo su escuela la que se encuentra frente al rio, pero weno supongo que nosotros teniamos un mejor equipo y mejor uni ..hehe, no puedo esperar ya , quiero hacerlo otra vez, espero que en verano tenga la oportunidad de remar otra vez.

Vappu!!

So that same day the competition had taken place was the day this spring day celebration started, Vappu. Well I didn't know anything about it but when we finished the competition as I was heading to my bike I saw an international guy from belgium that lives on my same floor so I went there to say hi. As we were talking a girl randomly asked us where we were from because she heard french, to make the story short I ended up going with her and all her friends from bar to bar for like 3 hours so they could get a patch from the student association for their "school" party pants...... ok confusing right, well here in Finland they have a special set of overalls they use for every school organized party, in every party they can get a special patch that you can only get that one time, they all have different colors so the sight is quite cool.

Ahora es tiempo de hablar de Vappu, esta es una fiesta finlandesa para festejar que la primavera ha llegado. Oficialmente es el 1 de mayo pero los estudiantes comienzan las fiestas un dia antes. Para estas fiestas todos se visten con overoles de multiples colores que varian de escuela a escuela, los overoles estan cubiertos de parches por todas partes y cada parche es de una fiesta en especial.

Ahora va la parte simpatica del asunto para mi, despues de la competencia de remo pues iba en camino a mi bici y al pararme a hablar con uno de los chavos de belgica que vive conmigo una chava de aqui se nos acerco para preguntarnos de donde eramos... (no es la primera vez, aparentemente no hay muchos extranjeros, en especial latinos)... al final no se ni como acabe con ella y todos sus amigos haciendo el tradicional recorrido de Vappu por los bares de Pori tratando de conseguir stamps para obtener el parche del dia.

Well I've come to learn that the reputation Finnish people usually have of being shy is not quite true, yes they are quiet at the beggining but if you show interest and really wish to, you will be quite surprised how much they open up.

En mi experiencia mi manera de ver a los finandeses nunca ha sido de timidos, sino de cautelosos al hablar con gente nueva. Me da mucho gusto el ver que aunque sean un poco timidos al principio despues de un rato se abren y en verdad es facil de llevarse con ellos.