Our Founder and CEO will be sharing excerpts from her diary that she kept while living and studying at University in Tampere (2011-2012) and Oulu (2013-2015). The following covers arriving in Tampere and getting to the hostel the day before moving into her student room for the semester.

August 11, 2011

Uff da and make it a double uff da! Arriving at Tampere’s airport we found it to be “deserted”. Mom was freaking out. I asked in Finnish (score!) when and where the bus would be. We for some reason thought that Stockholm and Finland were in the same time zone, so that really confused us. Mom kept wanting to go ask for more help, but I insisted that a bus would be coming and it eventually did.

Good thing we didn’t walk from the airport -- it was a loooooong way in. GPS turned out to be not as slick as we initially thought it would be. In fact, we got pretty confused. Going up one street and then coming down it and realizing we weren’t going anywhere. Again, Mom was desperate for help, but before she sought it out herself, a woman approached us and asked if we needed assistance. YES WE DID! We explained where we needed to go and it turned out to be on the same street she was heading for. Mom was a bit skeptical. After talking to her for a while, we discovered that her name is Marie and she is from Germany and is studying abroad too! We will definitely be meeting again, she was so helpful!

After finally checking in (buzzer beater style), we realized we were too exhausted to go anywhere else. Good thing we brought plenty of snacks! I swear a shower has never felt so refreshing. Too bad connecting to the internet isn’t working! Well, it is kind of warm in our room and the window doesn’t have a screen. Let’s hope no “angry birds” find their way in come morning! : )

Elizabeth “Helvi” Brauer