INSIDER 9.10.2020 | VOL. 23 | ISSUE 5
STUDENT MAGAZINE OF XAMK
Featuring Tips/Tricks Traveling Online Meetings City of Kaliningrad Recipe Movies
STAFF
EDITORIAL
LIDIIA BENKOVSKAIA
JOONATAN BERG
AVE-LIIS KOOBAK
IKRAM BECHARI
MARIAN KEINAN
VLADA POLISHCHUK
EVA MOROVSHCHIK
INSIDER STUDENT MAGAZINE South-Eastern Finland University of Applied Sciences Paraatikenttä 7 45100 Kouvola INSIDER ISSN 1457-1587 Editor in Chief: HUGH CLACK
PHONE +358 44 702 8758 WEBSITE insider.xamk.fi EMAIL insider@xamk.fi 2
EDITORIAL Learn about the outside world in issue! Sitting in front of my laptop’s screen and not truly knowing where to start because, as a student, I’m living quite an overwhelming period like so many of you. In a way or another, this pandemic has been impacting us since March 2020. Not only has nothing remained the same anymore, but also we have lived unexpected shifts in our lives. Even traveling has been impacted. I mean, now we should make many different preparations and calculations before traveling. For sure, this week was pretty messy for many of our classmates since a significant number of them are moving to Finland. By the way, while you are reading this article, I’ll be taking my flight and start my journey. I don’t know why I am so emotional about this, but maybe it’s because it will be my first time leaving my beautiful family, lovely city, and Morocco. However, I firmly think that this sacrifice is for a good purpose, and I’m very grateful to continue my studies in Finland. Anyway, I’m so excited to be sharing with you next week my experience coming to Finland as a new student in this particular global pandemic. So stay tuned.
has mentioned three destinations that I find very attractive and beautiful, and I truly recommend them. Besides, Liidia will give you a tour of the stunning Kaliningrad city located between Poland and Lithuania. That’s all for this week. I hope you all a good weekend. Stay safe and stay tuned for our next week’s writing.
For now, I’ll give you an idea over the main issues of this week. In the film review category, you’ll find an article by Ave-Liis talking about Tove movie. You’ll find another healthy recipe by me in the recipe category, very easy and straightforward as always. I try to give you simple recipes to motivate you to cook for yourselves more often, and I know students don’t have much time to cook everything. So I’ll let you discover it. You’ll also find an article by Marian about studentfriendly travel destinations that are affordable. She
Written by Ikram Bechari 3
TIPS/TRICKS
How to deal with conflict in a team?
Misunderstandings may appear in any team, which eventually can develop into quarrels or passive aggression if not to deal with them. The core point is not to avoid conflicts but to learn to resolve them. Maintaining and strengthening the relationship, rather than “winning� the argument, should always be your first priority. Be respectful of the other person and their viewpoint. Any dispute provides an opportunity to strengthen the bond between two people. So what would you do as a leader of a team? Keep the situation under control Conflict is a contradiction. It can occur for internal or external reasons: a new person in the team and a mismatch of interests. It occurs whenever people disagree over their values, motivations, perceptions, ideas, or desires, and so on. In any case, the conflict cannot be ignored. The main task of a person is to control the process so that he remains within the framework of the discussion and does not move on to clarify personal relationships. The sooner you understand what is at the root of the conflict, the easier it will be for you to find a solution. There are two sides to any conflict. The first thing a team leader needs to do is understand who stands for a particular point of view and why. At the same time, there should not be personal contradictions between the parties to the conflict: sometimes clashes over work issues mean that people do not understand well their own and others' responsibilities. For a manager, a conflict 4
is always a reason to analyze and, possibly, make adjustments to existing instructions and norms. Don't get into conflict series of The role of the leader in "Fragments"the working discussion paintings is the arbitrator. Listen to the arguments of both parties, try to take the place of each participant in the conflict, but do not take sides and do not allow yourself to be involved in the process. This will only slow down the solution to the problem and aggravate the situation.
Try to distract the participants from the discussion of the circumstances that led to the conflict, and create conditions for finding a solution to the problem, and not sorting out the relationship between the participants. Don't close your eyes to the problem It is not enough to just close the work task. It is important that the parties to the conflict get out of this situation without feeling that their feelings and opinions have been neglected. Try to explain to everyone and the team as a whole how important it is to work together and find a solution together. Make it clear to each participant that their work is important. The more clearly a person understands what his contribution to a common cause means, the higher his assessment of his own role in the team and, ultimately, the result of work.
Written by Vlada Polishchuk
TRAVELING
Student friendly travel destinations As a student, you are probably often on the look for affordable travelling. Students have a lot of holidays during their academic years and traveling to another country is a great way to spend your free time away from school. Travelling offers a great way to expand your perspective in the world and it also teaches you about different cultures. Students think travelling is expensive but if you are smart, you can find great deals or bundles at any time of the year. For example, many websites offer last minute flights, and sometimes they even include hotels for a very inexpensive price. Some websites will gather all the traveling deals there are and list them on their website. You can sometimes find long-haul flights for a very low price. Here are gathered a few flight destinations that are very affordable for a student. Berlin, Germany Flying from Helsinki to Berlin can cost as low as 50 euros and many hotels in Berlin are inexpensive. If you are going with a friend group, it is better to rent a whole apartment through AIRBNB since this can save you some money. Berlin is a beautiful city with a lot of things to see. If you are into culture or history, check out Museum Island that consists of five different museums. Berlin also has one of the best nightlives. There are bars and clubs for anyone. Berlin is a very multicultural city so for food lovers, Berlin offers a wide variety of foods. All these mentioned activities and food are affordable since Berlin is known to be an inexpensive city. Podgorica, Montenegro Montenegro is a small country in southeastern Europe next to Croatia. It is not a well-known country but is a great affordable holiday destination. Flights are often pricy, but you can find good deals if you keep your eyes open especially during the off-season (august-may). When you land in Montenegro, you will be surprised how inexpensive the country is especially coming
from Finland. Hotels cost as low as 15 euros per night and often this includes breakfast. Food and necessities are also affordable. You can travel for two euros from the capital to the mountains of Lake Skadar and the views in lake Skadar are spectacular. If you are into hiking, you take a bus for six euros to the national park of Durmitor. Sofia, Bulgaria Sofia is a beautiful city in Bulgaria and is in the Balkan Peninsula. It offers many historical sightseeing's with student-friendly pricing. Food and accommodation are affordable as well. Many students have heard of Sunny beach since it is a very popular travel destination among young people, and you can take a train from Sofia to a sunny beach for 11 euros. You can often find travel bundles to Bulgaria that include flight and a hotel for a low price. As you can see, student traveling does not have to be expensive. There are many other cities in Europe that affordable too but the one mentioned above is one of the top student-friendly travel destinations. Written and photos by Marian Keinan 5
ONLINE
Surviving remote meetings in business
Having to participate in meetings remotely via Teams, Skype, Zoom, or any other online platform, is not relatively new. Even before the current crisis we are all facing, for many companies and their employees, this was quite often normal practice especially when people were in different locations that made face-to-face meetings impractical, costly, or even impossible. For decades before we were establishing telephone conference calls especially for international meetings. However, the main difference we are seeing today due to the Corona crisis, is that so many more businesses and individuals are being forced to turn to online (remote) meetings and seminars. Added to this, some businesses have turned to offering streaming services online through webinars or online instruction and classes, for example gyms and exercise classes. We also need to factor in the increased take-up of streaming media services such as Netflix or Amazon Prime, or online gaming, to replace the loss of access to entertainment venues due to the pandemic. All of this has meant a vast surge in the numbers of users participating in online activities whether for work or leisure time. If we consider the typical problems associated with our leisure time use of the Internet such as poor Internet connections, Wi-Fi dropouts, demands of other users, restricted bandwidth, etc., we get frustrated but continue to persevere as it is in our interests, i.e. we need it to work as we have nothing to do if it doesn’t. Also, as it might only affect ourselves and no-one else, then we sometimes give up and try again later, “that Netflix video can wait”. Apply the same scenario to the workplace when dozens if not hundreds of people are all invited to a meeting or seminar online, where previously it had all been face-to-face, and suddenly you run into major challenges. One of the biggest hurdles 6
I have experienced this year, is that many people have so little experience of using the meeting software. For many companies this forced activity of conducting meetings online, has meant that those with no experience of using such software, have had to learn how to use it by attending online meetings on how to use online meeting software, or put another way by “jumping into the deep end and learning how to swim”
For some people, this “new way of working” can be simply too frustrating, with an attitude, rightly or wrongly, of “if my employer wants me to work in this way, they have to ensure that it does actually work”. These people often feel so frustrated that they will not put up with the constant disruptions in connections when many people are in a meeting together, resulting in poor quality voice or video interaction. If we include the fact that some people either cannot, or do not want to, start their camera to show themselves to others during the meeting, this adds to the feeling of “remoteness” and feeling somewhat disconnected from the situation. Add to this the feeling of having been forced to work in this way in the first place, and people can sometimes feel that they weren’t given a choice, therefore feeling resentful of the situation before giving it a chance.
MEETINGS We also have to factor in the locations where people have been participating in online meetings, usually at home with all of the distractions of home life, families, pets, partners and children, etc. As I wrote in a previous article, during this current crisis, many other family members are facing the same issues, such as online meetings, or education. In my experience, I have noticed that online meetings that have disruptions due to the technology or even the user’s limited knowledge of the software they are using, usually go one of two ways. The first is that some participants get increasingly (and quite quickly) frustrated, to the point of dropping out of the meeting altogether citing it as a waste of time and effort – it is not their fault if they cannot then participate, it’s the software/other user. This is often the case when the meeting is not particularly important to that individual, i.e. it holds no specific value just for them, such as departmental or general meetings, even if their participation would be required if it was held face-to-face. This is synonymous with one-way communication, meaning the barriers to understanding cannot be broken down, even if the format of communication is meant to be two-way.
The second way is that despite any of the difficulties mentioned above, if the participant has a vested interest in the activity, i.e. it holds value for them, then they will continue and persevere to the end, as from experience, they know that
the technical issues will eventually be sorted and that the message will finally get through. This second attitude is much more in line with circular communication, which most of us try to use in our daily lives, breaking down any barriers to understanding until the message becomes clear Having recently experienced the above scenarios in both terms of frustration in private and business life, with family and friends, colleagues and students, I can say that there has slowly been an increase in the patience of online communication and an upturn towards a positive attitude when things don’t work as planned. Online meeting participants are slowly taking a “this is just something that happens in online meetings, especially when we invite guests”, so become welladjusted to the technical issues, and accepting them for what they are and understanding that they cannot easily solve the issue themselves. However, not everyone has a positive attitude, and for those I can say that we need to accept that we are living in an age where change is the new normal, and that change at the moment is fluid. Let’s concentrate more on the message that we want to communicate rather than blaming the technology when it doesn’t work. Let’s be more social than anti-social, turn your camera on s that colleagues can see you “live”, embrace the things that work and give us a positive feeling, let the negative issues get lost in the technology that sometimes causes them. You will feel better for it – and if all else fails and you are still annoyed when your meetings don’t go as planned, take a calm, relaxing walk in the forest – you will also feel a lot better for that!
vHugh Clack, Senior Lecturer Insider Editor in Chief 7
CITY OF
In secret to the whole world: Kaliningrad city Today I want to tell you about the Russian city located between Poland and Lithuania, this is the city of Kaliningrad (until 1946 the German Kรถnigsberg was the capital of East Prussia). Located on the Pregolya river.
During the war, the city was almost completely destroyed, and in the Soviet period it was rebuilt. However, there is something German ancient and mysterious in everything here. Kaliningrad is the birthplace of the famous German philosopher Immanuel Kant. Thanks to the grave of Kant, the main attraction of the city, the 13th century Cathedral, has survived.
Medieval European streets and Soviet 5-storey buildings, provincial warmth and metropolitan monumentality, this city combines opposites: past and present. Welcome to Kaliningrad!
Also in Kaliningrad there are a lot of German churches that have now been converted into Orthodox churches
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KALININGRAD Kaliningrad is undoubtedly famous for the sun stone Amber, which is mined there. I will tell you about the Amber Museum separately in the next issue.
While in Kaliningrad, you should also visit the famous Kaliningrad Zoo. During the war, Soviet soldiers fought fierce battles with the Nazis on the territory of the zoo, as evidenced by a commemorative plaque and installation.
the nature of the ocean. Today, the museum has been partially moved to a new modern building, the second wing of which will open in 2021. The museum is divided into the following expositions: ships SRT-129, R / V Vityaz, submarine B-413, icebreaker Krasin, as well as the exposition "World of the Ocean. A touch ...�, Aquarium and much more. 1. Top 5 interesting facts about Kaliningrad: 2. On the Kaliningrad beaches you can often find amber, which is carried to the shore by sea waves.Kaliningrad Oblast is the westernmost region of Russia, the only region that does not have a land border with its own country, but has a border with Poland and Lithuania. 3. The Cathedral, founded on September 13, 1333, was built for half a century. 4. Eminent German scientific and cultural figures worked here: composer Wagner, philosophers Johann Gottfried Herder and Johann Gottlieb Fichte, Immanuel Kant. 5. In the city of Tilsit (now Sovetsk, Kaliningrad region), the Peace of Tilsit was concluded between Alexander I and Napoleon. If you ask Kaliningraders what it means to live in Kaliningrad. Of course, this is philosophizing while sitting with a cup of coffee on the embankment, admiring the sea and trying fate in search of amber, going to Europe for the weekend, loving marzipans. And as the locals say: "Whoever has not been to the Baltic has not discovered the secret of happiness!"
Next stop is the Museum of the World Ocean. This museum was opened in 1990. The Museum of the World Ocean is a republican center for scientific research and scientific and methodological work in the field of studying the history of research and
And while now everyone's usual life due to the coronavirus remains limited, why not spy on the lives of others!
Written and photos by Lidiia Benkovskaia 9
RECIPE
Sugar-free pancakes
My motto is: “Never get too lazy to eat healthily”. Healthy recipes are the best and never get old-fashioned. Therefore, don’t stop yourself from eating your favorite sweets and treats because of the immense amount of sugar or fat in them. Instead, always try to find healthier alternatives. Today’s recipe, I call it “SOS recipe” simply because it’s quick and demands only inexpensive and easyto-find ingredients. Ingredients: • • • • • •
three bananas one egg Eighty grams of oats Four grams of baking powder pinch of salt pinch of vanilla or vanilla extract
This is how to make it Step one: Smash the three bananas in a bowl Step two: Add the egg and mix them all very well Step three: Add the oats Step four: Add the salt, the vanilla extract, and the baking powder. Remix them. Step five: Butter your pan. Step six: heat the pancake pan and pour small amounts of the mixture on it, until you get the size you want. Tips Cook each side for 1-2 minutes on medium heat. You can use any kind of oats in this meal. If your pancakes are not sweet enough, use the brown sugar. -You can use almonds or seeds as a topping and Maple syrup, brown sugar, or honey as a sweetener. -To change the natural banana flavor, you can add some cinnamon.
Written and photos by Ikram Bechari 10
STUDIO 123 Kymenlaaksonkatu 1 45700 Kuusankoski 044 375 3686 www.studio123.fi
9.10 - 15.10.2020 STUDIO 1 ELÄMÄÄ KUOLEMAN JÄLKEEN (7) | 8€ | 1h21min Thur 14:15 RISTO RÄPPÄÄJÄ JA VÄÄRÄ VINCENT (S) | 11€ | 1h26min Every evening 16:00 TOVE (16) | 12€ | 1h26min Every evening 18:00 STUDIO 2 HYVÄ VAIMO (7) | 8€ | 1h50min Thur 14:00 AALTO (7) | 12€ | 1h46min Every evening 16:30 METSÄJÄTTI (7) | 12€ | 1h28min Fri, Sun, Tue, Thur 18:30 AIKA JONKA SAIN (12) | 12€ | 1h45min Sat, Mon, Wed 18:30
MOVIE Tove Director: Zaida Bergroth Leading cast: Alma Pyösti, Krista Kosonen, Shanti Roney This movie was a drama, talking about Tove Jansson. All of this happened after the war in 1945. She was a bit of a rebel towards his father, with her modern arts and an open relationship with a married politician. Tough in the movie her free way of living gets tested when she meets a theater director Vivica Bandler (Krista Kosonen). She wants something back for the love she is giving her. While Tove is mixed up with her feelings, her career gets a turn. Her side projects are starting to go somewhere. The Moomin stories she told to kids during the war in the bunkers are being spread worldwide with theater and comics. Moomin is based on Toves own life and brings her financial stability. She finally has her artistic identity, but her love for Vivica is in the way of her true freedom. I really liked the movie and the development of Tove. It shows Finlands beautiful nature a bit and is captivating with the music and characters.
STUDIO 3 PALOMIES SAMI: TOIMINTATÄHTI! (S) | 10€ | 1h2min Fri-Sat,Tue,Thur 16:45 CHILDREN OF THE SEA (KAIJU NO KOMODO) (7) | 12€ | 1h51min Sun-Mon, Wed 16:15 NIMBY (16) | 13€ | 1h34min Every evening 18:30
Students/armed services, pensioners 1€ discount on all full priced tickets of 10€ or more
Written by Ave-Liis Koobak 11