What is up people?! Long time no see! As the title describes, the spring semester has been wild.
So many things have happened that I don't even know where to start. But I'll try my best :)
The headlines of this blog post are mainly from Smash Mouth's song "All Star", which was not only my solo karaoke bravura, but can be also described as the song of the semester.
This section is about my school work and I'll call it...
I said yep what a concept
I could use a little fuel myself
Nuff said. Yep, what a concept!
In the early January we started a project that seriously had and indelible impact to my and possibly my groups professional know-how. Business project course gave us an opportunity to work alongside with the city of Kuopio and the brand new fully-electric city bikes.
For the whole winter/spring I worked closely with gentlemen Ville Simola and Sami Juntunen, and the lady of our group, Sanni Mustonen. The team chemistry was good and I genuinely enjoyed working with them.
In the beginning we didn't quite know what we were supposed to do with the project. A questionnaire? A campaign? A research? No. We did something that really got out of hand. We set up an event. A city-wide event. We planned it, implemented it, did the marketing, spent hours and hours getting sponsors and writing emails, went to interviews... everything. Even when I played Playstation with the boys we talked about some pain points we had concerning those matters. City bike was everywhere.
I can only imagine the stress levels of someone who organises global scale - or even nationwide events. Phew, respect!
As you can guess it had a downside. To be honest, it felt like I was not that much of a student, more like working part-time for the city of Kuopio. Although it was indeed an experience and very rewarding, it took all of my time and thoughts. Other school work didn't get as much attention as required and some assignments were made under oppressing circumstances. On the other hand, also diamonds are made under pressure, right? 😉 Despite the diminutive attention paid, I got through those with honor. I would say I actually did pretty well when taking the time factor into account. So far I have received two fours, so I really can't be unhappy!
I am proud to say that I get to be a part of something like this.
Aaand what comes to other courses, I basically missed two of them having no time doing anything (btw, dear teachers, if you're reading this, I apologise). But the courses I did have time to attend and learn the essentials, were really good. Special praises to our English lecturer Terttu, whose Professional Reporting course was very comprehensive, well structured, and by that extremely clear, and, most importantly, had actual lectures, not just online work. A prompt throwback to my earlier post. I have just raised a storm concerning the online education replacing the lectures. I mentioned...
"Online features should be used as an additional asset not as a replacement."
And in this course, it happened. Although the attendance in these lectures was around 5 persons per lesson, the lessons were still held. Not getting again into this subject, but I'm just going to say, that this is exactly how it's supposed to be done. I salute you, well done!
I also want to thank our BBA side's super duo Mrs' Hannoura and Göker, who offered their help to me and my fellow students everytime we needed guidance - or were just in deep s**t. I respect you.
For the record - and for the third time - I started studying French! In the international field, diverse of language skills are useful, and since I have studied it before, why not? C'est magnifique! The interesting thing is, that every time I've signed up for a French class I have learnt new words and phrases, although it's just the same basics! I consider this at least convenient. Big thanks to Anu, who understood my situation with projects and overlapping courses from professional studies, and let me accomplish the course anyway. Flexibility at its finest.
After 28th of April I just stated: I could use a little fuel myself.
Didn't make sense not to live for fun
I got an exquisite opportunity to get familiar with the Dutch culture during this semester. Like the headline implies, it was absolutely worth it. I have probably never had so much fun.
Chapter 1: The Kings of Puijonlaakso
In February I agreed to host one of the Dutch students from NHL Stenden University. I looked up the introductions our fellow Dutch wrote in our WhatsApp group. I randomly picked this one HR student among other BBA students.
All I can say, that Fortuna must have had something to do with this choice. Random Dutch person apparently named Roy, between friends Roy Orbison, was a total copy of me - Dutch Aku! We were on sync right away. That was both weird and cool at the same time. Roy is a great person, with common interests and who is honestly smart as hell. We became friends quickly with our own inside jokes. I experienced a lot with him and the other two guys from Puijonlaakso, Wesley and his host Sami. We spent a lot of time together and especially carpool karaoke became our thing. We had a blast singing and partying while driving. I even experienced and learned some things about the Finnish culture also and went ice swimming for the first time in my life. Never doing that again though. The Dutch people did attend to Oivalla fair. We didn't have much school related stuff with them in Finland, since me and Sami were both second year students and had already experienced Oivalla. However, I did attend Oivalla as a judge for the best sales pitch with Sami J. and Ville.
Sorry not sorry about the caption bro, you know I love you dog :)
All in all, the week was full of awesomeness! We also celebrated my birthday after Oivalla fair. I had an unforgettable day with a lot of fun - as long as I can remember :)
Well, the years start coming and they don't stop coming
Chapter 2: De Koningen van Leeuwarden
Watching Game of Thrones with cold beer and pizza in top floor apartment? Yes. Floating through canals in the center of Leeuwarden with sunshine and friends? Yes.
Biking to host's place in a thunderstorm wearing just a light jacket and ripped jeans? Yes. Singing Backstreet Boys and many other legendary songs in a local karaoke bar in front of the full crowd? Yes. Winning the lottery and returning home as a millionaire? Ye.. ok, no. Lottery of exquisite experiences? Very much yes.
The Netherlands was everything above and much more. I had a time of my life. What else can I say? There are no adjectives enough for that trip. I'm certainly going to Leeuwarden again in the future to meet all of those guys again. You can find some pictures of that trip from my Instagram.
After all it was an educational trip. We attended Innovation Week with environmental theme, where we had lectures about sustainable development and innovativity and some workshops/assignments concerning the subject, which is a really big deal now. We were there to help the Dutch students to get things started, so it was just a grass root level innovating from our side.
This bonus section is all about my blog and its named...
So what's wrong with taking the back streets?
Why named like this? Simply because I followed My Way. I know putting up a blog could've been done easily using the basic template, but wanted to make it all by myself and learn something about making a website. I executed the promised update concerning the professional outlook of the website and had the privilege to introduce it to Savonia's teachers.
What to what to what what?
To make it more clear I warpped up the past 5-6 months with French dashes (or whatever those are called).
I, Aku...
- visited the Netherlands
- got lifelong friends, and basically found a dutch version of me
- gained experience in the field of project management
- was given a lot of responsibility
- learned through doing
- got an internship place
- started looking for a good thesis subject
- learned a lot from myself
- turned a new page in my life
Moreover, I would like to inform that I managed to get an internship place from FinVector Oy for the summer. So far, I've enjoyed my job as an HR & Admin Assistant very much - choosing this company was a wonderful decision. I was also given a change to make my thesis for them, which makes me one extremely happy person!
Everything experienced this semester has changed my life and I could say that I have never been more ready to accept any challenges that come across me. I've grown as a person and of course continue growing.
I spread my network abroad. I made new, awesome and hopefully lifelong friends. I deepened my relationships with friends I already had. Some of those people play a huge role in my life right now and I wish it'll remain that way. Even when I'm older (talking about decades) I wouldn't mind sharing a couple of beers with these. I'm happy to call you guys my brothers from another mothers!
Life feels good!