Category: In English

Hi, 5 ways to survive the holidays while living abroad

Whether you celebrate Christmas, Winter Solstice, Hanukkah, or any other fancy happening, you will have some free time during the December holidays. Some people are fortunate enough to return home and visit their families, but others will be staying in Oulu, in some cases for the first time. If you are one of those who won't be able to go home for the holidays, here are five ways to keep your spirits up during the festive season.

In English

TEKSTI Marcelo Goldmann

  1. Keep a routine

One way to keep your mind off the downer of not going home for the holidays is to keep your schedule as regular as possible. We humans are creatures of routine, and we tend to feel the most comfortable when sticking to our routines. Do what you normally do and go on about your day as usual. Take showers, have lunch, meet some friends for coffee, go shopping.

 

  1. Treat yourself a bit

And on the matter of shopping: nothing raises your spirits quite like getting something you like. Maybe you crave a new pair of shoes, or that game you have been meaning to play all year, perhaps some sports gear, or even just a nice dinner outside. Treating yourself will not only make you feel good, but will also provide you with a mini-adventure. The whole process of going somewhere to get something you want will motivate you and the payoff of finally obtaining it will be very satisfying. If you are like me and prefer online shopping, you can still have fun window-shopping as you try to find what you want.

 

  1. Start a project

Now that you will have some free time, you will have the chance to use that time in anything you like, and keeping your brain productive is a good way to keep your mood up. Start going to the gym, take up an instrument, build a model airplane, make a painting, catch up on all those series that you like. If you keep yourself occupied and more importantly, entertained, you will feel great and energized.

 

  1. Get together with others

Perhaps the best way to cheer up during the holidays is to find other individuals who are also not going home. You can get together and have your very own celebration and have a dinner where everyone brings something typical of their hometown. I find this method to be the most effective. Having not returned to my hometown for years, I can say that getting together with friends and having a nice dinner and laughter has always made me feel better about staying abroad for the holidays.

 

  1. Travel somewhere close

If all else fails, you can always travel somewhere closer (and cheaper) than your hometown and having a grand old time. At the very least you’ll not be confined to your apartment and you’ll get to know a new place or revisit a place that you already like. It doesn’t even have to be another country, you could travel inside Finland. Adventure could be waiting for you around the corner.

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Marcelo Goldmann

A Doctor of Chemical Engineering from the University of Oulu. "Life is like a rubber duckie, you gotta keep it afloat to see its splendor." Instagram: @marcelogman

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All candidates from Kontinkangas electoral alliance elected to the council, the Alliance of Academic True Finns in Oulu join the council as a new political group

In Finnish. The results of the Student Council Elections have been announced on Tuesday, 7th of November. The Centre Party students managed to increase their tally by two seats, that is, from one seat to three seats in the student council. With one seat, a new electoral alliance, the Alliance of Academic True Finns in […]

In English Yleinen

TEKSTI Anni Hyypiö

KUVAT Anni Hyypiö

In Finnish.

The results of the Student Council Elections have been announced on Tuesday, 7th of November.

The Centre Party students managed to increase their tally by two seats, that is, from one seat to three seats in the student council. With one seat, a new electoral alliance, the Alliance of Academic True Finns in Oulu (Oulun Akateemiset Perussuomalaiset), were elected to the council.

TeTa (The Coalition of Technology and Business Students) heads the poll with a number of 1,051 votes. With this result, TeTa keeps its 13 seats in the student council.

HuKa (Humanities and Pedagogy Students’ Coalition) gains nine seats and thus loses one seat in the council.

All five candidates of the Kontinkangas electoral alliance make their way to the student council. The Alliance of Science Students (Tieteelliset) increases their tally by one seat, that is, from four seats to five. The Green list keeps their one seat at the council.

National Coalition Party Students (Kokoomusopiskelijat) as well as Green-left Alliance in Oulu (Oulun Vihreän Vasemmiston vaaliliitto) did not win any seats in the student council. Furthermore, Joonas-Veikko Härmä and Antero Metso, the two uncommitted candidates, were not elected.

27 members of the elected student council have not acted as members of the student council before.

Altogether 3,191 votes were cast during the elections. 15 blank votes were cast.

 

All Kontinkangas electoral alliance candidates elected to the student council

Eelis Palokangas of the Kontinkangas electoral alliance (Kontinkankaan vaaliliitto) received the greatest number of votes in the elections (230 votes), with Sonja Mehtälä of the electoral alliance of the Economic Sciences (Kyltereiden vaaliliitto) coming in second (98). Third most votes went to Sebastian Tynkkynen (75) from the Alliance of Academic True Finns in Oulu (Oulun Akateemisten Perussuomalaisten vaaliliitto).

The big winner of the elections, Eelis Palokangas, a third-year student of medicine, was visibly pleased with the results.

”All the candidates from our alliance got through. That was unarguably our biggest victory. One can not help but be pleased with the results.”

All Kontinkangas electoral alliance candidates will be first timers in the student council. According to Palokangas, their goal in the council will be to bring the Student Union (OYY) closer to Kontinkangas campus.

”We can provide a bit of an outside perspective to the decision making.”

Sebastian Tynkkynen, who also scored big in the elections, said he felt elated after the results came in. He also has a clear vision in mind.

”Naturally I am enormously happy now, we had such an increase of votes when compared to the last elections! Our goal now is to steer the student movement, which we have seen as representing  green left values, towards a politically more neutral direction, and force it to focus on looking after the interests of the students.”

The brand new student representative of the Humanities electoral alliance (Humanistinen vaaliliitto) Silja Lahdenperä said she is both happy and surprised to be elected.

Lahdenperä, a fourth-year student of information studies, told she decided to run in the elections because she wanted to increase the votes for the Humanities alliance.

So far, she has not set herself any large goals in the student council.

”Being a member of the council will no doubt require some learning. Very interesting things are about to happen, with Oulu University of Applied Sciences (Oamk) moving in for example.”

 

Turnout percentage drops slightly

The turnout percentage of the election remained a little lower in comparison to the 2015 student council elections.

This year, the turnout for the election was 28.46% whereas in 2015, the turnout was 29.3%.

Liisa Komminaho, the chair of the Central Election Committee, says she had hoped for an increase in the turnout percentage this year.

”I had hoped the turnout would be a bit higher to what it was in the previous elections. But after hearing the turnout percentage of the advance voting (ca. 21%), I’m happy.”

2017 saw the voting carried out for the first time electronically only. In the 2015 Student Council Elections, a traditional ballot box voting was an option alongside with electronic voting.

According to Komminaho, ”only slight problems were encountered” in the electronic voting this year.

”There were no attacks, or attempts to attack the electronic system. The electronic voting was cut off for a few minutes’ time on Tuesday. No other breakdowns occurred.”

 

In the Student Council Elections, students of the University of Oulu elect representatives to the student council consisting of 37 members. The representative council is the highest decision-making body of the Student Union of the University of Oulu (OYY). Among other tasks, the Student Council decides about the amount of annual subscription for university students. Furthermore, the council outlines how the Student Union’s funds are to be expended. 

 

Members of the new student council  

Kontinkankaan vaaliliitto (Kontinkangas electoral alliance)

Eelis Palokangas
Leo Jämsä
Pyry Pitkänen
Onni Kumpulainen
Heikki Eränen

 

Vihreä vaaliliitto (The Green list)

Mirja Mustapirtti

 

Tieteellisten vaaliliitto (The Alliance of Science Students)

Anri Kinisjärvi
Emmi-Kaisa Molkkari
Teemu Virtanen
Toni Sandvik
Jussi Vaara

 

Humanistien ja kasvatustieteilijöiden vaalirengas (Humanities and Pedagogy Students’ Coalition) :

Humanistinen vaaliliitto (The Humanities electoral alliance)

Emilia Käsmä
Kalle Parviainen
Lauri Moilanen
Silja Lahdenperä

 

Kansankynttilät vaaliliitto (The Educational sciences electoral alliance)

Bruno Gioia Sandler
Tino Nissinen
Reeta Mäki-Pollari
Mihaela Ivanova
Tuomas Soini

 

Tekniikan ja talouden vaalirengas (The Coalition of Technology and Business Student):

Kyltereiden vaaliliitto (Economics electoral alliance)

Sonja Mehtälä
Olli Joki
Oona Väärni
Lauri Piirainen

 

Prosessi-tuotannon vaaliliitto (Process and Industrial Engineering and Management electoral alliance)

Oula Virtanen
Sakari Huhtelin
Sallamari Tolonen

 

Sähkö-tiedon vaaliliitto (Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and Engineering electoral alliance)

Zacharias Hellberg
Jori-Pekka Rautava

 

Ympäristö-kone-arkkitehtuurin vaaliliitto (Environmental and Mechanical Engineering and Architecture electoral alliance)

Santeri Siira
Valtteri Johansson
Erno Oikarinen
Elisabet Shnoro

 

Keskustaopiskelijoiden ja sitoutumattomien vaaliliitto (Centre Party Students and uncommitted candidates electoral alliance)

Miriam Putula
Marjut Lehtonen
Eveliina Leskelä

 

Oulun Akateemiset Perussuomalaiset –vaaliliitto (The Alliance of Academic True Finns in Oulu)

Sebastian Tynkkynen

 

Read more about the results at the Student Union’s website.

 

Translation: Tiia Kokko.

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Oulun ylioppilaslehden entinen päätoimittaja. Twitter: @AnniHyypio

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The number of candidates in the Student Council Elections rose – but will the students vote?

In Finnish. A total of 159 candidates are running for the Student Council, slightly more than the 155 there were two years ago. Before this fall the amount of candidates was steadily declining: there were nearly 300 candidates in 2009, 190 in 2011 and 172 in 2013. The alliance with the most candidates is TeTa, […]

In English

TEKSTI Anni Hyypiö

In Finnish.

A total of 159 candidates are running for the Student Council, slightly more than the 155 there were two years ago.

Before this fall the amount of candidates was steadily declining: there were nearly 300 candidates in 2009, 190 in 2011 and 172 in 2013.

The alliance with the most candidates is TeTa, the coalition for technology and economy (69 candidates). The runners-up are the coalition of humanities and education students HuKa (29) and the Scientists’ coalition (19).

You can see all the candidates, coalitions and parties here.

Can voter turnout be increased?

We managed to curb the decline in the amount of candidates this year, but how can we get the students to vote?

According to the chair of the Central Election Board Liisa Komminaho, the first step in activating the students to vote is letting people know there’s an election coming up. Social media, Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat have been used to reach people.

This fall the council elections are arranged with electronic voting, the paper ballot voting isn’t used at all.

Liisa Komminaho doesn’t believe this choice will affect the turnout one way or the other.

“Last election cycle we used both, and the amount of paper ballots was fairly small. I believe the students will find the online voting page as easily as the traditional one.”

That’s not necessarily good news, because the majority of students still don’t vote. According to Liisa Komminaho, the voter turnout can be increased.

“When there are so many of us, there are also a lot of people who aren’t interested or don’t know about these things. There is potential to grow, and the worst pitfall is being content with the current situation. If we believe we can raise voter turnout, we can.”

According to her, all Finnish Student Unions are struggling with the same problem: only about 20-30% of the voting eligible students actually vote.

“If people believe their vote counts, they vote. This is a little paradoxical about the council elections: the voter turnout is so low, one vote can make or break a candidate. If you don’t decide, other people will do so for you”, says Komminaho.

In the Student Council elections, students elect 37 council members and their deputy members to the Student Council, which is the highest deciding body in the Student Union of the University of Oulu. Among other things, the Student Council decides how much the student union fee will be and how the Student Union uses the money. The advance voting begins on Wednesday 1.11. at 9 am and ends on Monday 6.11. at 4 pm. On election day 7.11. the electronic voting is open between 9 am and 4 pm. Read more at the Student Union website.

Translation: Elli Lassila.

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Hi, 5 ways to improve your winter biking skills at -20 °C and below

Finnish winter is no laughing matter, particularly when it comes to riding a bicycle on snow or ice. This can be especially challenging if you come from a place without snow. May the next 5 tips make your riding safer.

In English

TEKSTI Marcelo Goldmann

  1. Use winter tyres

Winter tyres are compulsory by law for cars during winter. This is not the case for bicycles. However, winter tyres are essential if you plan on taking on those treacherous snowy and icy bike roads. Not only will the winter tyres allow for better handling of the bike, but also for a much safer ride. If the cost of the tyres scare you (35+ eur), then you should at least get one for the front wheel, even if you don’t change the tyre of the back wheel.

 

  1. Lock Oil

At freezing temperatures, it can become difficult – sometimes impossible –  to open the lock to your bike. The moving parts will freeze and can ruin your day. All you need is a special blend of oil and solvents called “lukkosula” (lit. lock melt) in Finnish. You can buy lukkosula at any convenience store. This magic substance will not only defrost the inside of your lock, but will also protect it for some time against freezing again.

 

  1. Avoid sharp turns and brake slowly

One of the hardest things to learn when riding a bike on snow or ice is unlearning to bike on dry pavement. Before making a turn, make sure to decelerate in advance and to make the turn broadly. The reason for this is that snow and ice provide much less friction than dry pavement. When you make a sharp turn, you are producing more force on the ground than when you make a broad turn. Thus in a sharp turn, the dry pavement can provide enough friction against the tyre to keep you up but the snow or ice cannot, causing your tyre to slip.

This is also the reason why you probably don’t want to brake suddenly, but rather taper your braking slowly over time. A sudden braking will create too much force on the snowy or icy ground and even if your wheels are not rotating, your whole bike (and yourself) will slip and keep going.

 

  1. Wear a helmet

It might not be the most fashionable accessory, but a helmet is the best way to protect that precious head of yours. Even a relatively small fall can have devastating consequences to your noggin if you hit it against the ground. The last thing you want to take home from your time in Finland is a concussion. Be safe and wear a helmet, at least until you’re a pro at winter biking.

 

  1. Choose clothing wisely

The “layers, layers, layers” rule applies here. Choose your layers properly: a base layer, a second layer, a third layer if necessary, and a windproof layer on top (e.g. ski pants and ski jacket). A beanie is also necessary to keep your ears and that head of yours toasty and protected. If you cannot stand the wind on your face, you might want to wear a scarf or facemask. As you bike, your body will get warm, really warm, even at -30 °C.

However, the two parts of your body that will likely remain colder are your feet and your hands. Thus, remember to give these two parts special attention: wear warm socks, winter shoes, and windproof mittens.

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A Doctor of Chemical Engineering from the University of Oulu. "Life is like a rubber duckie, you gotta keep it afloat to see its splendor." Instagram: @marcelogman

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Hi, 5 Tips to survive being a student in your 30’s

For whatever reason you are in your thirties and doing your Bachelor’s or Master’s degree. Firstly, that’s great! No matter if you took a break before or are just starting, it’s a wonderful challenge you have accepted. Secondly, student life in your thirties can sometimes get tough. We collected five ways to make your autumn easier.

In English

TEKSTI Marcelo Goldmann

  1. Plan, plan, plan

Balancing your personal and student life is not easy. Since studying and working are already challenging tasks on their own, finding time for both of them can be overwhelming, especially if you have family to support. Get a personal planner or calendar and plan your schedule carefully. Writing things is not only a good way to plan, but also a way to relieve stress. Seeing things written will give you a sense of purpose to replace the sense of suffocation.

 

  1. Don’t stress if you fail a test

Everyone flunks every now and then and it is nothing to be ashamed of. If you had a bad exam, don’t worry! The Finnish university system is forgiving and allows you to retake exams without losing course progress. If you already passed your exam, you can even aim for a higher grade on the next exam opportunity.

 

  1. Don’t be afraid to mingle

Interacting with your fellow students is not always intuitive, especially if there is a large gap in years. At the University, interaction is more straightforward as you all have similar goals, such as passing the courses. In settings that are more informal, things might get trickier. You have presumably been there and done that before; however, it doesn’t mean you can’t still hang out with other students and party. You might even end up having a good time and making many new friends.

 

  1. Don’t be afraid to say no

If partying is not your thing or you are otherwise occupied, you can also say no to parties. Even when your friends are going out to rock this city to the ground, if you’re not up for it then it’s better to live to fight (read: party) another day. Alternatively, you can also find student groups that fit your interests, such as board games, climbing, singing, and martial arts.

 

  1. If you do say yes, be wary of alcohol

If you do party, remember: a drink or two can relieve some tension. However, 20 beers, 10 jägerbombs, and a bottle of ‘jallu’ will very likely kill you; and if you are (un)lucky enough to survive, you’ll have deal with the dreaded and legendary many‑day hangover. An 18‑year old can recover in a day, but anyone above 25 will experience a living nightmare.

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A Doctor of Chemical Engineering from the University of Oulu. "Life is like a rubber duckie, you gotta keep it afloat to see its splendor." Instagram: @marcelogman

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Campus Shop closes, Juvenes’s Café Hub to sell paper and writing supplies

Campus Shop closes in October. Juvenes is not going to open a campus shop of their own at Linnanmaa. Instead, Café Hub is to sell writing supplies, such as pens, erasers, folders and notepads.

In English

TEKSTI Anni Hyypiö

KUVAT Anni Hyypiö

In Finnish.

Uniresta’s Campus Shop at Linnanmaa is closing in October. From January 2018 onwards, the shop’s premises will serve as the location of a new juice and smoothie shop operated by Juvenes-Yhtiöt.

According to Kaija-Liisa Silvennoinen, CEO of Uniresta, lack of suitable new premises at the Linnanmaa campus is the reason for the shop’s closing.

”We were keen on looking for new premises at the campus area, and were making enquiries. The university asked us to contact SYK Oy (University Properties of Finland ltd.). Their response was that currently no premises are available.”

Seppo Wiik, property manager at SYK Oy in Oulu, notes that there are no premises vacant that would be suitable for a shop specifically. It is not worthwhile to establish a shop in too remote a location.

”There could be room in the upper floors of the west side of the campus, but on the first floor, along the main hallway (väylä), there is no room. We will let Uniresta know if suitable premises turn up. Unfortunately, this is the situation right now.”

Campus Shop sells for example office and paper supplies, small gifts, course books and entrance exam books, as well as the university’s own branded products. Furthermore, the shop has been selling snacks, such as coffee, tea, sweets, salads and sandwiches.

Campus Shop will be open till week 42. The shop is scheduled to close down on Friday 20.10.

”Of course, the decision to close down the shop is a pity. We have received a vast amount of feedback from our clients as well as questions regarding where one will be able to buy pens for exams, or small gifts when needed,” Silvennoinen says.

Paper and pens can be bought at the campus in the future as well. Juvenes-Yhtiöt is not going to open a campus shop of their own. Instead, Café Hub is to sell office and paper supplies, such as pens, erasers, folders and notepads. In addition, the selection is going to include greetings cards. Books are not going to be part of the selection, says Katja Holm,  campus- and event manager from Juvenes-Yhtiöt.

”There has not been a decision concerning gift items. I can drive the idea forward if there is a demand for them,” she says. Furthermore, sweets are going to be included in the new juice and smoothie shop’s selection.

According to Holm, the current plan is to offer paper supplies only in Café Hub.

In April, the University of Oulu decided to end the tenancy concerning the premises of Campus Shop (formerly Paperikauppa, ”Paper Shop”).

The reason for terminating the tenancy agreement was the future need for more restaurant capacity as the Oulu University of Applied Sciences moves to Linnanmaa campus.

According to Kaija-Liisa Silvennoinen, the shop has been working in Linnanmaa since autumn 1973, and before that, in the city centre.

 

Translation: Tiia Kokko.

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