It was August 2017 when I moved to Kuopio with my long-time friend Otto. We played football on the same team a few years back and went to high school together.
I was thrilled when I heard he was applying to Savonia. I remember the day like it was yesterday, I was driving home from practice and my phone rang. It was Otto and he told me he's going to Kuopio to do an entrance exam and asked me if I wanted to join him. Of course, I said yes, I had nothing better to do. Plus, I hadn't seen him for a long time because he still had few mornings left from the army back then. We had a fun trip together and fortunately, we managed to get to the same class. I was extremely happy, that I had someone from my hometown that I could start the real student life with.
My Autumn semester was a bit shorter compared to others. Or, in other words, it was delayed - a lot. I jumped out of the school wagon and flew to California and further on to Hawaii to celebrate my father's 50th birthday (he can't handle the truth, so he says he's thirty if you ask him). So, I missed quite many exams, but actually last week (11th of April) I managed to complete all of them. It's funny that on the same day, I made my first exam of spring when I finished the last exam of Autumn.
On the first day of school, I felt nervous. What kind of people I'm going to meet? Does it differ a lot from the Finnish side? My first presumption was that people on the international side would be more open since there are (or at least might be) people coming from different countries. You know - kinda like this "we're in the same boat" -thing - lots of new people from different cultures and a new environment where to get used to. There weren't as many foreign people as I have imagined. But I was right, that people were more open there. We developed a good team spirit among us and I made friends quite quickly.
he first few weeks were kind of what I expected. Just wobbling around, checking the campus area and the new classmates, little bit partying (I'm lying, there were too much partying, according to my wallet) and starting your engines for the upcoming school year. I was expecting more theory based lectures and especially maths (I don't know why maybe because I like figuring out problems?). But the truth was kind of the opposite. I was waiting for a drop to reality in September when the lessons started, such as early mornings and stuff, but it actually never happened. Going to school was surprisingly easy and it felt really flexible. Of course, because my latest experience of the school world was from high school, where the schedule was more strict and teachers somehow had an eye on us - although we were responsible for our own studies, especially during the senior year and A-level tests.
The classes in Autumn offered basic level information concerning the business environment. Getting familiar with different cultures, basic IT-programs and the essential words, phrases and customer service skills in English and business world were the themes of the first semester. At first, I thought "Ugh, what is this? These things are so obvious, I basically know everything already."
I didn't.
Before you run, you have to learn how to walk, right? The same phrase works with business studies also. You got to understand the basics before proceeding to harder matters; knowing is not enough. That is actually the most important fact I learned during Autumn.
The course topics we went through were more like a warm-up for the spring - not so hard on the brain, but still, things each of us had to assimilate. In retrospect, that was a good way to get used to the idea of going to school every day - again.