University life and a bike stroll

Today I wanted to talk a little bit about how different university life is in Finland, but I also took a lovely bike stroll. (It wasn't a "ride" because I had no destination.) So I'll include both in this post.

First of all, university students are not neatly divided into "undergraduates" and "graduates". Since Finnish students specialize earlier than American students, it's as if they finished all their breadth requirements before they even set foot in the door. They are more like juniors when they begin (and I had no idea that the freshman/sophomore/junior/senior division is a very American idea). They are expected to get their masters in three years; there's no penalty if they stop at the bachelor level, but, at least in my discipline (English and Translation), they probably need an MA to get the kind of job they'd like.

In order to get into university in the first place, students have to take entrance exams. They don't run through a checklist of high-school activities (SAT, volunteering, sports, letters of rec, grades...) in order to get the most possible financial aid at the best possible institution. University education in Finland is free. You take exams and are then given a spot in your chosen discipline if you score high enough. So my students will have already read books on translation theory and studied English, and they will have scored high on the tests.

Students have a lot of rights in Finland as well, and they are aware of them. One colleague warned me that I have to stand up to them. I'm going to wait on this one though. The students I had in Tampere were very accommodating and respectful.

University life in Finland is very hierarchical. I have gotten a lot of mileage out of having a PhD, where most people at South Eugene High School were probably barely aware that I had one, much less where it was from. I've had three people bring up my Yale education and I have lost track of the number of times I've been shown deference "because you have the PhD". There is going to be an opening convocation, and I have been urged to order a Yale gown to wear "because it will increase our prestige". This is a lot to get used to for me, though I suppose it could be fun.

There's a difference if a meeting starts at  9 or at 9:00. The former is 9:15, the latter 9:00 sharp. All classes start at 15 past the hour and end at 15 before. So a two-hour class actually takes 1.5 hours.

The last thing I want to talk about is the get-to-know-each-other event planned for the beginning students (so that's "juniors") and all teachers who want to go. It's a kind of retreat at a place called Mekrijärvi (Mekri Lake), where the University has a research station. You can see it here:

http://www.uef.fi/lumet/mekri

If I understand right, the retreat will involve advising activities, eating, hiking and sauna. Sauna! With students! Naked! This is going to get me quite a bit outside my comfort zone. And there was this note also: "omat saunajuomat mukaan" -- bring your own sauna beverages. Is this to be interpreted as alcoholic beverages for post-traumatic imbibing? The schedule for the next day, however, sounds more appealing: a hike to the cottage of one of Finland's most famous "runo"-singers, Simana Sissonen, on the shore of the lake.

Now for the bike ride. Today the sun was brilliant and I had spent too much time at the laptop, so around 3 I went exploring around the neighborhood. I went down my street in the opposite direction to the way I usually go to school. What a treat! Just around the corner, it became very woodsy, and after about a minute, a small bike path took me down towards the lake. There I saw the (in)famous "Joensuun jääkarhut" [Joensuu Ice Bears] swimming club. It was a sweet yellow wooden building, smaller than I had imagined, with a dock out into the water. Several people were there swimming (probably post-sauna, since it's Saturday). There was a beach next door that was open to the public, so I finally touched the water of Lake Pyhäselkä. Then the bike path meandered along the shore, going into areas of row houses and more expensive villas as well. Then out of nowhere, a brand-new market appeared. All of this was within about 15 minutes of my apartment.

I love the way city planning is done in the Nordic countries. They don't scrape the lots bare to put in houses -- they leave as many trees as possible. They take views into consideration -- not only the views from your house, but also the views from the street. There are plenty of walk- and bikeways with lots of room for strollers, and there are playgrounds here and there. Children are considered valued human beings, not shunted aside as unimportant like in the States. In fact, if you have a stroller or a baby carriage, you get to ride the bus free. What an idea!

Back to work. Until next time.