Never Stop the Madness: Freshman Year at a Glance

Never Stop the Madness: Freshman Year at a Glance Emmi Kaitarinne

It’s a peaceful Monday morning in the Student Village. Due to a certain deadly virus, all teaching has been canceled and there is not a soul on the streets. Thus, I’m in no hurry to get up and speedwalk up the University Hill to make it to class on time. However, lectures are not the only thing that have been canceled. All kinds of leisure time events have also been canceled until the end of May to protect everyone from the Corona – both the virus and the liver-damaging beverage, it seems.

As we all cope with our disappointment by making bad jokes, I can’t help but to think about the wonderful year we’ve had so far. When I moved here in the middle of August, I had no idea what I had to look forward to. I remember looking around in my tiny apartment and wondering if I would make any friends here, or just study alone at home all day every day. Ah, what a clueless little piltti I was.

The first couple of weeks were packed with all kinds of fun activities and get-togethers organized by our amazing student tutors. At first I was a bit unsure whether to take part in anything but I’m glad I did. The atmosphere was always relaxed and we had a great chance to get to know one another outside the lectures. After the city tour I had already gotten to know many fellow Anglicans and a bit of my new hometown. It turned out that I had really made the best decision of my life when I chose to study English in Turku.

Another thing that took me by surprise was that there are parties here literally every week. Coming from arelatively small city (or just straight-up lande), I was honestly not prepared. Partying can be exhausting. But what do you know, next Thursday you find yourself at the counter of the same bar as every week before, and the bouncers are already beginning to consider you a regular. As a side note, I really don’t want to know how much money I’ve spent on such entertainment this year...

I’ve also found that there is so much more that student life has to offer than just regular parties. The events range from casual movie nights and boardgame nights to riotous sitz parties and pub crawls to Villa weekend and Not-GOOM. They are all so different in nature that I can’t simply choose one favorite. However, among my favorites were Turku Survival and its counterpart, Revenge of the Freshmen, and their afterparties. Only after Turku Survival do you become a true Anglican, and it is Revenge of the Freshmen when you get to pay back for everything the oldies made you do – with interest, of course.

There are admittedly many things we didn’t get toexperience this year, but at least we got to witnessone important historical event. You see, this year wewere lucky to celebrate the 100th anniversary of ouruniversity. The carnival in February was truly magical and made me feel really proud that I’m a student of the University of Turku.

The madness may be on hold because of the coronavirus but I assure you: it will never stop. Hopefully next year we’ll have better luck. Stay safe and hang in there, dear Anglicans!