Spring Semester 2006

These last five months have been simply amazing. My first semester on exchange here at the University of Turku in Finland has had so many highlights that I would have to write a multi-volume encycolpaedia to describe all of them. I've met so many great people from so many different countries and I have had such great times with many of them...but I can't mention all my experiences, so I'll only describe a few.

My Corridor

My fellow exchange students on 3A 3rd Floor of the Student Village were really the people that made this semester so memorable. I won't be able to fully describe the coolness of my friends on this floor, so I'll dedicate an entire entry to them that will follow this...so you can read that if you want to see photos and read about them and our random, crazy, out-of-control and insane adventures and experiences. They really were such a fantastic bunch of people.

Turku

I must admit, that when I first came to Turku I was not overly impressed. But the laid back and quiet nature and small-town charm of Turku has really grown on me. It really is a beautiful little city. Turku was founded during the 12th Century by the Swedes and was the first town in what is now Finland. It was the capital until about the 1800's when Finland was conquered from the Swedes by the Russians. The Tsar at the time decided to move the capital to what is now Helsinki as Turku was too close to Sweden. Hence, there is a great rivalry between the two cities...almost like that of Sydney and Melbourne. The Cathedral and the Castle are the main attractions of Turku...in fact, you could say that the Cathedral and the Castle are the only attractions. Turku is not really a tourist haven. But both of these were nice in their own right.

Turku is situated on the edge of a massive archipelago which I mentioned in my Cottage Weekend entry. Just off Turku there is an island called Ruissalo which is effectively a nature reserve. On this island there is a traditional Finnish sauna which you can go to. Sauna is an integral part of Finnish life in the winter; many Finns go to the sauna about twice a week. After the sauna it is common to run outside (in -10 degrees) and then jump in the icey water, which is truly cold (about 1/2 degrees). While talking about the sauna, I must mention how crazy the Finns are in this environment. The way the sauna gets hot is by putting water onto hot rocks to create steam. It is a running joke amongst exchange students as to the amount of water Finns put onto these rocks...it is unbearable. They just keep putting water, water and more water until you're almost suffocating in the heat. That's the exact point when you give up and run outside into the ice water. I'll never forget one idiotic exchange student (not one that I knew) who was in the position of putting the water on. He did not want to be the subject of fun for the Finns by being "weak" and not putting on a lot of water. As a result, to save his pride he just kept putting heaps of water on repeatedly every 2min until even some of the Finns were not able to take it. I just sat there struggling...almost too paralysed with the heat to even get out the door :P Ruissalo is also great in the summer time. I went there a couple of days ago with my friends and we just hung out there next to the seaside relaxing. It was the perfect environment for some cricket; the sand of the "beach", the pristine water, the warmth of the sun. So I found a stick and broke it into the length of a bat and taught a couple of them how to bat and bowl. I felt like Don Bradman hitting that tennis ball with a stick. It was cool to introduce something integral in Australian culture to these people. Top cricket all round, that. My friends are becoming more Australian by the day; they've started using some of the slang that I use and now repeatedly say the "Aussie Aussie Aussie...Oi Oi Oi!" chant.

The University of Turku is also great and I was able to do some interesting courses. Though I still have no direction with what I want to do with my law and commerce degree, it was really great to do some different units here. The most interesting unit I took was on International Armed Conflicts. We anaylsed conflicts such as those in Somalia, Rwanda and the current situation in Sudan (to name a few) and studied international laws and organisations (such as the United Nations). Similar units are not offered at Murdoch, so it was great to study a new area of law... especially one that may actually help people. It opened my eyes as to what was happening around the world; I didn't know that so many people are suffering and have suffered while we all just sit around and watch.

Amazing Turku City Race

The organisation that organises events for exchange students here conducted an "Amazing Race" to be completed within Turku (like the TV show). Our team was called "The Others" due to the infatuation some of my friends have with the other TV show "Lost". The day consisted of drinking and running around the city...so though it sounds simple it was quite fun. At every stage we had to do an activity, after which we got a clue to get us to the next stage. I felt like I was in an alcohol-induced Dan Brown narrative. You get graded on how you performed the activity, and the group with the most points wins. The most memorable activity was when we incorrectly answered a question (something truly ludicrous like how many cafes are there in Turku). So then we had to perform an act that resembles some aspect of Finnish culture. We decided to imitate the Finns and the aformentioned extreme heat of the sauna. So right next to the river, in -2 degrees, all six of us ripped of our jackets and shirts to sit down half-naked with Travis imitating a Finn putting on ridiculous amounts of water. People just stopped and stared at us. When we realised that the two flustered girls who were grading us gave us 8/5 points for this, we decided to get these bonus points at every possible situation. For the next 2 activities we again stripped to earn bonus points...and we succeeded as the aroused and awestruck girls that were grading us also felt compelled to give us a hefty tip for our services. It may be interesting to note that I only found out after the Race that one of our team members (Lewis, who joined us because he didn't have another group) was gay... which explained why he was always so eager for us to always to donn off our shirts. I must also mention the hammering that my gloves took that day. Early in the race I fell down a muddly hill which resulted in my gloves being totally covered with dirt. A few hrs after that I accidently spilt a bit of my precious amber fluid of the gods (beer) on one of my gloves. Lastly, I dropped one of my gloves through a narrow gap in the jetty after our first striptease, after which it got covered in even more dirt. It was an interesting day, and we were all completley exhausted by the end of the 4.5 hrs worth of walking we did during the race.

Easter Sunday

This was probably the best Easter I've ever had. I woke up on Easter Sunday morning to immediately find a feast layed out for breakfast consisting of food that we made the day before (well...really Anita made it). Anita was the one who spearheaded our Easter celebrations, and it was a really amazing day. After the breakfast feast, we went for a walk along the Aura River away from Turku, which was peaceful and relaxing. We brought the soccer ball and just kicked it to each other while walking. After returning to the Student Village I went to the Cathedral for a Church service which I thought would be in English....but was not. So I sat there just there, dwiddling my thumbs and singing tunes in my head, while the service continued in Finnish. I was not able to understand a word, except for numbers like kaksikymmentä (which is 20). After I came back we started the Sweets Feast, which unsuprisingly consisted of a ridiculous amount of sweets. The most lethal were these things that Seb and Travis made that only consisted of water, butter, sugar and sugared coconut...one single bite could provide you with twice your advised daily intake of calories. After that we played a bit of poker after which we started cooking for the Massive Meat Attack. This was the dinner feast which consisted of a meat dish Stepan made and a pasta dish Anita made... they were both really tasty. Then we had a few drinks before concluding an excellent Easter where our corridor was able to further closely bond together.

There were so many things I did this semester that were really fun. Just hanging around with the other exchange students also produced many great times which I won't go into here. This first semester had everything; great friends, great parties, great activities and even great units at university. I have no regrets from this semster and I had such an excellent time, and I can only hope that the Autumn Semester provides me as many great moments as I had this semester.

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