Vol 20 Issue 14

INSIDER 09.02.2018 | VOL. 20 | ISSUE 14

STUDENT MAGAZINE OF XAMK

GUITARPLAYING  UPCOMING EVENTS  BOOK REVIEW  PROFILE

THIS WEEK

 BUS STRIKE  GUITAR PLAYING  MOVIE REVIEW  RECIPE

EDITORIAL STAFF

Stela Demaj Kouvola Current Affairs

Lingli Jing Profile

Hafsa Farah Kouvola Current Affairs

Van-Trang Le Kouvola Current Affairs

Minh-Trang Le Recipes

Long Nguyen Layout Editor

Trung Dao Kouvola Current Affairs

Nikita Munenko Kouvola Current Affairs

Hugh Clack Editor in Chief

INSIDER STUDENT MAGAZINE South-Eastern Finland University of Applied Sciences Paraatikenttä 7 45100 Kouvola Editor in Chief: Hugh Clack INSIDER ISSN 1457-1587  /INSIDERSTUDENTMAGAZINE 2

PHONE +358 44 702 8758 WEBSITE insider.xamk.fi EMAIL insider@xamk.fi

EDITORIAL

Hello chaps!

It’s been a long time since my last editorial. I am back with a new identity. Well not exactly, but since we welcomed two new members of Insider, I got my middle name added to my usual pseudonym which you always see on my articles. This is purely a coincidence, I swear us Vietnamese have numerous other kinds of names.

Either way, in this issue, we proudly brought you several very fresh articles from our staff members. If you are fond of playing guitar, Trung’s article might pique your interest. Long and Trang covered some of Kouvola’s current events like Kupla Hangout and Startup Passion. So you can conveniently check out what activities are going on around campus. As usual, Lingli is back at it again with the introduction of another interesting face in our XAMK community.

There are movie & book reviews as well, respectively from Nikita and Stela, and of course another lovely recipe, this time from Hafsa.

I also took my chance to cover a nation-wide issue that happened last Friday.

So please take your time to check out all of these articles that we worked really hard on. Our ultimate goal is always to bring y’all the best pieces of news and intriguing, useful topics in our day-to-day life. Enjoy!

Minh-Trang Le 3

HANG-OUT 31.01 BY KUPLA

Students in Finland are usually celebrating the end of each month by gathering around and chit-chatting while enjoying alcohol drinks. Following that, on the 31st of January, monthly Hang-out was held by the student organisation Kupla Ry in Meduusa Studio. It would be more fun if you bring your classmates and your friends here. A variety of board games were arranged with some tables and chairs, but some people just wanted to sit on the floor for more convienence. To my experience, this was the first time I have ever been to an event like this, quite small and well-invested but happy and relationship-oriented.

I had chances to play 'beer-ball' which is a bing-bong-based game but with glasses filled with coke or liquer. Singing karaoke was a part that you would not. miss in this day. You, your friends and even strangers were sitting together and singing. No matter how you sing, people, at the moment, do not mind to judge you. After that, they went to a bar in the center of Kouvola and had more fun until the sun is rising. If you have or have not experienced, take your overall on and feel the beat whenever you see the event announced. To get more information about theme events and parties, you can like Kupla fanpage on Facebook or Instagram, or you will see advertising posters and flyers around school. See you there next time.

Long Nguyen

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START-UP PASSION

Hi XAMKers, it is February and do you all realize that the sun is shining a little bit longer? It is time to recharge your energy after such a long period of darkness. Let start with your brain. Something new have just come up in your mind? Or maybe traveling to other countries for just a few days seeking some new experience? How about both?

The answer is here: Apply for StartUp Passion Hackathon now!

APPLICATION DEADLINE MARCH 5, 2018 StartUp Passion in Baltic Sea Region (STARPABS) is a 4 years project from 2015-2019 aiming to raise the awareness and get university students interested in entrepreneurship by helping them to build international teams, develop their business idea and attract new entrepreneurial talent.

No previous experience is required, no idea must be prepared beforehand. Of course, it is great if you have, otherwise don’t worry because StartUp Passion warmly welcomes everyone. Finnish, international or exchange students… again no matter who you are, all you need is the curiosity about entrepreneurship and a creative mindset ready to create innovative solutions for everyday problems. Participate in the program and get the chance of working and getting advice from the cross-border Baltic community of mentors, teachers and businessminded youth which will definitely inspire you much. And hey, IT IS FREE! Travel and accommodation costs are covered by the project partners of the StartUp Passion project.

This year program: March 13-16, 2018 Estonia: Hackathon April 10-13, 2018 Latvia: Kick off April-May 2018 online: Pit stop June 25-29, 2018 Estonia: Bootcamp Autumn 2018: Competition & from business to success Some facts about STARPABS: Duration: 01.09.2015 – 31.08.2019 Implementers: Cursor Oy, South-Eastern Finland University of Applied Sciences, Tallinn University of Technology, SSE Riga, Creative Industries Total budget: 1 799 982 € For any further information please visit the website startuppassion.eu or contact our funny and zealous local country Project Manager Sabine Suorsa via email sabine.suorsa@xamk.fi Van-Trang Le

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BOOK REVIEW Fates and furies is an American novel by Lauren Groff. It is his third novel and it became a bestseller within the year it came out, 2015. The location where the novel takes place is New York, US. The main reason why this novel got my attention is because of the way every

relationship

has

two different perspectives.

At the core of this very successful and interesting novel, its presented the story of a marriage where the secrets between the two partners make the marriage stronger than the

truths

When

themselves.

you’re

22

and

deeply in love, it seems as if the roller-coaster of life can only go up from there on, but with a very thrilling turn out Lauren shows us how wrong the thought of that can be. Page by page you get to understand how

perfection

is

not

real and how things are always more complicated than what they look at first sight.

Stela Demaj

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PROFILE

Jenni Viljasuo

For this issue, I interviewed Jenni Viljasuo, one of our IB17 students, and she is a member in the board of Kupla.

When do you start working for Kupla ?

I started in august, and from the end of December I've been a member in the board of Kupla.

What do you do in Kupla?

I am the communication officer. I manage Kupla's facebook and instagram accounts. I post events and pictures frequently to Kupla's social media accounts. I also response to emails. I make the facebook events for example whenever we are holding a student party or other activities.

How do you like your experience in Kupla?

This is an awesome learning experience. I get to work with fun people and we have a great team spirit there. It's really cool to see what it really takes to arrange a student party.

How do you like your experience in Kupla?

This is an awesome learning experience. I get to work with fun people and we have a great team spirit there. It's really cool to see what it really takes to arrange a student party.

It's really cool to have the theme parties. How do you guys manage those events? Like from the ideas to the actual activities First of all we decide the theme. Usually we get ideas from our students. This year we are trying out some new themes that Kupla has never done before. And I think that's really awesome, cause we want to make something new happen here in Kouvola, to attract more students. After we have the idea we decide a date and a place.

After that we can start figuring out what kind of decorations we need and are we gonna held any competitions for example. The actual planning doesn't really take that long, cause there's a lot of us in Kupla and we all have a lot of ideas. And we all usually participate on the party planning. You can also add kuplas facebook and instagram accounts there if you want to btw!

Lingli Jing

7

BUS STRIKE

A vacant bus stop in Kouvola on Friday.

It’s me again with another rather unusual article. I reckoned this should be covered since it is an issue that had affected the whole Finland last Friday.

Everything began when the government put out a new rule which is said to cut the benefits of unemployed citizens by 5%. It immediately stirred up controversy among politicians, unions and both employed & unemployed people. The majority of Finnish people strongly opposed this law and thus, voluntarily participated in a protest which was held in Helsinki

by SAK – the biggest blue-collar labor confederation in the country. This protest had resulted in a nationwide public transport strike where bus, train, metro and tram stopped working from 3am the day before till 6pm on February 2nd. Supermarkets and convenient stores were also impacted as the usual trucks which deliver fresh products (meat, milk, etc) were out of service in order to participate in the protest as well.

The important thing here is this public transport strike did not only affect the Helsinki regions but also in other cities across Finland. This might not have been a problem with people who own cars and other transportation devices. However, with students and workers who mainly take the bus or train everyday, it has been proven to be one tiresome day as they have to find another way to go to school/work. And the most common but at the same time, dreaded option was to go on foot.

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I, myself, coincidently, had to get out of the house on Friday after a lengthy week of canceled classes to go to school for an important interview. It was one of the longest days of my life, which predictably involved lots and lots of walking. To increase the fun, it was roughly -8 degrees that day. The only comfort that I could find which was there was no wind.

I believe this protest was handled quite peacefully.

However, according to yle.fi, the cost of the strike is estimated to be around 120 million euros. This goes to show what the people can do if the government is careless and illogical with the laws. Finns might be quiet, but the impact they can create is incredible, indeed.

Minh-Trang Le

GUITAR PLAYING

You see people” carry guitars on the streets, play them in theaters but does anyone notice how attached a player is to his or her guitar?

I have loved music for as long as I can remember and in those songs that I have in my phone, there’s always some guitar in them. If not electric then it’s acoustic or bass. Before I got myself an actual guitar, I always see one as just a plain musical instrument without any depth of its own and every piece of music that I listen to, it’s the rhythm that matters, not how the instruments are played. I wanted to sing along those songs so I asked my mom for a guitar and practiced the chords myself. Then I realized, there’re a bunch of frets with 6 or 12 different strings, why only limit myself with just a few basic chords and not explore any further? I then had my first proper guitar lesson in a small class back in my home town at 15. It’s been 4 years and my passion for guitar has not reduced.

I started my proper learning with some musical theories, stretching fingers exercises and learn some classical music. It was boring and I didn’t even understand why there are people who are so passionate about these stuff. That’s why I became even more curious and believed that there’s got to be something so tempting, so appealing about the guitar and its music. I paid more attention on the music notes, the sound and all the complex theories that I learnt to later found out

the magical charm of the instrument. The slow tempo and rhythm of a classic piece of music played with sound of a nylon guitar is just something so beautiful and somewhat romantic. I got addicted to it for a while until I found out something even better: A guitar is not only a guitar. A guitar can be a drum or create the high sound of a flute through something called “Percussive Fingerstyle” Percussive Fingerstyle came to my notice after wandering a while on YouTube looking for the best guitar players. There are several people who played the guitar in ways that I have never seen before left me at awe. They created the bass, the flute and the sounds of seemingly two guitars in just one instrument. They even created the music without picking the strings, just pressed their fingers on the instrument neck and played it like a piano. I wanted to one day be able to play like them, to cover the songs as how I wanted with all the beats, all the magical things I saw on YouTube.

My fondness grew day by day until I notice how my fingers feel so itchy after just a several day not touching the guitar.

That’s how I got attached to my guitar.

Trung Dao

9

NACHOS WITH CREAM CHEESE

How to make it: -

Preheat the oven to 200 °C.

- Next line the oven pan with foil or spray it with cooking spray.

- Get a skillet and cook the ground beef over medium heat for 5-15 min than add oil, ketchup, water and season it with pinch of salt, pepper and chilli powder. Stir the mixer until it has semi-thicken. After that set it aside to cool it down.

- Next, moving into preparing the salsa. Chop and combine the tomatoes, onion, jalapeno, coriander, and paprika. Also fill free to add vegetable of your own choice or what ever is in the fridge.

- Now we are moving into preparing the cheese sauce. So, get a pan and melt the butter and the cream cheese in a low heat. Add milk than add salt, chilli powder and shredded cheese of your choice. Stir them together until its fully mixed. After that set it aside to cool it down and transfer the ready cheese sauce into small bowl. You could use it as a dip.

-

Now the grand beef, salsa and the cheese sauce are ready. Our

next step, we are combining everything together.

- So, take the earlier pan that you foiled or sprayed it with cooking spray and spread the tortilla chips evenly on the pan. Then top with ground beef mixer and salsa.

-

Finish it off with shredded cheese and little bit of the cheese sauce.

-

Put it in the oven for couple minutes or until the cheese has melted.

-

Take out of the oven and serve the nachos with the cheese sauce.

- Enjooooy..

Hafsa Farah

10

Ingredients: Tortilla chips – of your choice Ground Beef Mixer: - 300g Ground Beef - 2-4 Tablespoon Ketchup - Water - Salt - Pepper - Chili powder Salsa: - 1-2 Tomatoes - Onion - jalapeno - Paprika - Coriander Cheese sauce: - 96g Milk - 225g cream cheese - 25g butter - Grated cheese - Salt - Chili powder Length: Preparation:10 minutes Cooking: 20 minutes

THE DISASTER ARTIST

STUDIO 123 Kymenlaaksonkatu 1 45700 Kuusankoski 044 375 3686 www.studio123.fi 09.02 - 15.02.2018 STUDIO 1 SUPERMARSU (S) | 10€ | 1h26min Fri 17:00 Sat - Sun 15:00 Tue, Thu 17:00

DIRECTOR: RIAN JOHNSON WRITING: SCOTT NEUSTADTER, MICHAEL H. WEBER/ BASED ON THE BOOK “THE DISASTER ARTIST: MY LIFE INSIDE THE ROOM, THE GREATEST BAD MOVIE EVER MADE” BY GREG SESTERO AND TOM BISSELL LEADING ROLES: JAMES FRANCO, DAVE FRANCO, SETH DRAMA, TRAGICOMEDY, BIOGRAPHY / BUDGET: $10 MLN

THE SHAPE OF WATER (16) | 12€ | 2h32min Fri - Sat, Mon, Tue, Thu 18:45

This movie will not get the Oscar

STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI (12) | 12€ | 2h32min Sun, Wed 18:45

…Or any other big awards. The Disaster Artist is nowhere near movies that aim for them. It is not about black people, gay, or other Oscar-winning “masterpieces” that only the Academy critics seem to enjoy. It is not about growing up either. Has there been any other idea that brought the golden statuette to a movie in the past 7-ish years? Probably not.

The Disaster Artist is, however, a masterpiece and it’s likely to be James Franco's best movie, both as an actor and a director. It is definitely the highlight of his career. The other actors, including James’ brother Dave and Seth Rogen (whom we are used to seeing in comedies playing hilarious characters), did their best to shine, but the light (forgive me the metaphor), emanated from James, easily destroyed all Dave’s and Seth’s attempts to impress. Don’t get it wrong, they both played really well. Now just imagine the level of performance shown by the lead actor. It’s difficult to remember something as amazing since Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine in Logan.

As a director, James Franco worked on all the details so hard that you don’t need 3D or anything to actually BELIEVE that the story is real. It’s not outstanding because of new solutions or neat tricks. It’s outstanding because it’s so… simple and good.

The movie tells us a story of Tommy Wiseau, the man who is famous because of The Room (2003), the movie that is known as one of the worst films ever made. The Disaster Artist shows us all the stages from creating the idea and pre-production to what happens after The Room is filmed.

The Disaster Artist is a perfectly written, beautifully filmed and brilliantly played tragicomedy that you will absolutely enjoy with an incredibly low budget for Hollywood. Even if it isn’t going to win any statuettes and awards, it will totally win your hearts. Five stars just because the printer can not print six.

 Nikita Munenko

FANTASTINEN NAINEN (12) | 11€ | 1h44min Sat - Sun 16:40 KEDI (S) | 10€ | 1h20min Mon, Wed 17:15

STUDIO 2 STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI (12) | 12€ | 2h32min Sun, Tue, Thu 18:10 KAIKKI OIKEIN (S) | 11€ | 1h26min Sat - Mon, Tue 17:15 VELJENI VARTIJA (12) | 11€ | 1h40min Wed 17:30 Sat - Sun 15:45 Tue - Wed 17:30 THE DISASTER ARTIST (7) | 11€ | 1h44min Sun, Tue, Thu 19:30 FIFTY SHADES FREED (16) | 12€ | 1h45min Fri - Sat, Mon, Wed 19:30

STUDIO 3 HE JÄIVÄT (12) | 11€ | 1h50min Sat - Sun 15:00 Wed 19:10 IDÄN PIKAJUNAN ARVOITUS (12) | 11€ | 1h54min Sat, Tue, Thu 17:15 CALL ME BY YOUR NAME (12) | 12€ | 2h12min Fri - Sat, Mon, Wed 19:15 THE FLORIDA PROJECT (12) | 11€ | 1h52min Sat, Tue, Thu 19:30 THE GREATEST SHOWMAN (7) | 11€ | 1h45min Fri, Mon 17:15 SOLSIDAN (7) | 11€ | 1h45min Mon, Wed 17:15 Students/armed services, pensioners 1€ discount on all full priced tickets of 10€ or more

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13.-16.3.2018

TARTU ESTONIA

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