INSIDER 14.09.2018 | VOL. 21 | ISSUE 01
STUDENT MAGAZINE OF XAMK
THE FRESHMEN CAMPUS TOUR 2018
CLASSIFIEDS PROFILE RECIPE EVOLUTION ORANGE MOVIE REVIEW CRAZIEST THING IN FINLAND BOOK REVIEW
EDITORIAL STAFF
Stela Demaj Kouvola Current Affairs
Leif Heflin Kouvola Current Affairs
Marija Marash Kouvola Current Affairs
Van-Trang Le Kouvola Current Affairs
Polina Vishnya Kouvola Current Affairs
Hugh Clack Editor in Chief
Minh-Trang Le Kouvola Current Affairs
Long Nguyen Layout Editor
Trung Dao Kouvola Current Affairs
Nikita Munenko Kouvola Current Affairs
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
Welcome to the first edition of Insider this autumn semester.
Last semester we started a Mikkeli version of Insider but unfortunately we have not been able to find a team there this semester. My thanks to all of What a wonderful summer we had here in Finland, the Mikkeli editorial team for last semester, there the longest and warmest that I have experienced were some really great articles, and wonderful to in all my years in Finland. Speaking of which, 22 see the student life in Mikkeli. If you and a few years ago today (14.9.1996) I arrived at Helsinki friends in Mikkeli would like to take up the challenge airport knowing nothing at all about Finland. of producing a Mikkeli edition this year, let us know However, I soon came to appreciate the nature at insider@xamk.fi as soon as possible. and beauty that is Finland, and the great quality of life that can be experienced here. We have a couple of additions to the Kouvola team this year, and hopefully a new Editorial Another anniversary is also coming soon, that of Assistant starting their internship at Insider. In Insider itself. On February 9th 1999, the very first case you missed it, there is still time to apply for issue of Insider, that first issue named “Business the position, suitable for anyone from any campus, Department News”, came hot off the photocopier. more information can be found on our website and We were a small, young, and inexperienced team Facebook page. in those days. A lot has happened with Insider since that time, and therefore we are planning a That’s all from me this week, I hope you will have big celebration in February 2019 where we will a great autumn, on or off campus! invite everyone that has been a part of Insider since the beginning. More on that closer to the time, but a heads-up to those ex-editorial staff that are reading this – make a date in your diary for February!
Hugh Clack Editor in Chief
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THE FRESHMEN CAMPUS TOUR 2018 Summer is over, let’s get back to school and study hard but do not forget to enjoy your student life! As annual, orientation week is well-prepared for new students as an essential part of the study programme. During this week, students will get chances to make new relationships and be exposed to digital learning environment at XAMK. They will be introduced how to utilize school services and supports to their studies such as Healthcare, Student Intranet, Library, Moodle, Tuudo and so forth. Organizations for students or by students also participate in spreading information to new students, namely Kaakko and Kupla Ry. Based on programmes, students will have slightly differences in their schedules. On 23rd of August 2018, there was a ‘phenomenon’ happening right in Kouvola Campus. Tutors in Liiketalous (LK) and International Business (IB) in co-operation with Kupla Ry held the FRESHMEN CAMPUS TOUR for ‘newbies’ in both programmes. There were approximately 70 students in total joining the game. They were formed in groups of 5 people – 3 LK and 2 IB students. The game rule was easy. Each team received a map of checkpoints located around the campus - some in small, dark and mysterious corners that you may not visit even once. In each checkpoint, there was a challenge that students need to overcome to get points. The team with highest points won the race.
Broken egg: Failed!
Drawing challenge
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The Map.
CPR Challenge
Ping Ball Transportation
This is not only a fun and healthy activity, but it also brings students a lot of benefits.
1. Make friends
They could expand their network with newly formed groups between Finns and international students. The aim is that they can be friends after race and have fun together.
2. Communication skill
The map was in Finnish only. The first thing they needed to do was communicating between Finns or Finnish speakers to figure out what they should do next.
3. Team work
As a team, they should work together to overcome the challenge as smoothly as possible.
4. Intelligence Quotient
There were some challenges required scientific knowledge related to math and physics.
5. Flexibility
Newbies could train their physical healthy by running or walking around the campus in order to find checkpoints and complete them all.
6. Knowing more about the school
Students might have a school tour with tutors, but this race would be another chance for them to spot out amazing places of our XAMK. We – Insider staff – hope you all have a fresh start with your studies. And remember to live as You Only Live Once! Long Nguyen
Rearrange badges by time
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PROFILE
Hortense Bruneau
Since it’s the first issue of Insider for this year I would like to introduce in this issue of Profile a very special person, Hortense Bruneau. She used to be an exchange student from last year’s spring semester but decided she wanted to continue her studies in Xamk for her last year. 1. How did you find Kouvola when you were studying and back in France and did you have other opportunities besides Finland? To be honest I didn’t find Kouvola myself, the university I was studying back in France did. Of course Finland wasn’t my only opportunity, but the other universities didn’t have an English program. 2. What’s the best thing that has happened to you in Kouvola? I would say that the opportunity to come back was the best thing, because I made a lot of good friends that I wanted to spend more time with 3. What do you miss the most about your hometown? It's actually funny but I mostly miss the supermarkets. 4. What’s one thing that you don’t miss at all about France? French people from my hometown. They are a bit rude and judgmental. 5. do you plan on staying in Finland after your studies or go back? I don’t particularly like France, so I wouldn’t like to go back. I will do my best to find a job in Finland or perhaps another European country. Stela Demaj 6
172 HOURS ON THE MOON For my very first article of a new academic year at XAMK, I decided to review a book that I have read this summer, a thriller by Johan Harstad which tells the story of “the trip of a lifetime” of three protagonists – where an attempt to go back on the moon was made through a seemingly meticulous and groundbreaking process. However, as many books in the same genre, the story carries a predictable twist. Forty-five years after the legendary moon landing, a world-wide contest was being broadcasted by NASA in order to find three teenagers who will get an opportunity to travel to the moon and stay there for 172 hours. This seems like a once-in-a-lifetime jackpot for anyone who gets picked, so it has resulted in millions of youngsters all over the globe trying their lucks. At the end of the contest, three teenagers were picked: Mia from Norway, Midori from Japan and Antoine from France. However, as Midori and Antoine applied by choice, Mia was being signed up against her will; and she later became the most-focused characters of all three, who receives the most profound character development and storyline. The main plot of the story is, NASA is fully aware of a paranormal phenomenon which they have encountered during the last moon landing; thus, this so-called trip was purely a test to see whether that unknown force is still there, which means all the attendees were destined to not be able to come back alive. The protagonists each received unsettling signs which creepily foreshadow the fate of their trip but only when they landed on the moon that everything went south. Death after death, soon the three started coming to the realization that something sketchy was going on. The secret that NASA had been hiding for all these years turned out to be: every person who has been sent to the moon had a doppelgänger; and they would eventually be killed off by those creatures. Mia, Midori and Antoine tried everything they could to get back to Earth; but the moment the readers thought that we have won over the doppelgänger, it was actually the opposite. Before buying the book, I was genuinely intrigued. However, after turning the last page, I was only trapped with this empty feeling. I felt like the author tried too hard to give readers “the chills” with surreal details, while throwing in too many redundant sub-stories at the same time. The whole book revolves too much around Mia and her backstories that it seems a tad biased, where the other two are the embodiment of stereotypes. Personally, I think the plot idea is amazing, but the execution was not done properly. Perhaps my expectations were too high, thus I had more strict criticism, but the book turned out to be quite average. This is it folks, see you next week with another article! Minh-Trang Le
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CREAMY SALMON SOUP
Moikka moikka kaikille Insider is back after a historic summer of Finland. Days of the heat have gone giving way to the season of warm soups, sweaters and fleece blankets. Do you notice that recently the salmon price in supermarkets is surprisingly lower than before with lots of discount? It means time for salmon soup! Let’s do it:
1. Heat up the pot, add some oil or butter then stir the onion for
aroma.
2. Pour in water and vegetables, bring to boil and simmer. Add allspice, salt and pepper to taste. 3. Add salmon and cooking cream, bring to boil again. When the
soup is well cooked, chop the dill and put into the pot then turn off the stove.
4. Garnish with some dill and chili flake. Enjoy the soup with your
favorite bread! Van-Trang Le 8
Very simple ingredients: - Salmon or rainbow trout - Potato, carrot and root vegetables of your choice cut into cubes; celery, leeks, onion - Dill - Cooking cream, butter or cooking oil - Whole or ground allspice, salt, pepper and condiments of your choice
EVOLUTION ORANGE
Orange. You have likely seen this color more often these days. Vibrant tangerine-painted bikes are hard to ignore. These ominous two-wheelers are part of a company called Donkey Republic: a Danish bike sharing system spanning 11 European countries (and two states in the United States). According to their website, the name is derived from the most rudimentary form of transportation – the donkey. I’m saddened that they didn’t go with the synonym for donkey and name their company “Ass Republic”, but they probably thought it would be too cheeky. D.R. is a friendly protest to the automobile-congested streets of the present with an adamant focus on sharing, promoting exercise and environmental awareness. Just open the app to find a nearby bike, divulge your digits, unlock, and ride off into the sunset – or since this is Finland, the daytime darkness. It’s that easy… in theory at least. Sifting through the comments on the Play Store however, there are many instances of the GPS mechanism being a bother. Equally enraging is the need to place the bikes in certain locations; While this does help to keep the city tidy, it severely diminishes the convenience aspect. Considering the majority of Europe is cycle-friendly and most of the population has their own bicycle, is there really a need for this service? The prices vary from city to city with Tampere being on the lower end of the spectrum coming in at €0.75 for half an hour, cheaper even than in their hometown of Copenhagen at €1.85 for the same amount of time. Kouvola is not listed on their website for availability in Finland, but the price lands in the middle at €1.50 for 30 minutes and the discounts only start to surface at the 6-hour mark. If you have cash to throw into a pile with a match and gasoline, then go for the two-week rental at €81.00, but at that point it would make more sense to buy a used bike for about €100. A bus pass (for a student) is roughly €40 a month but then again, the time table is rather limited. Will it work in Kouvola where the only thing that will get stolen is a bike? Is it worth the money when bus prices are 75% cheaper? Think of it as a morning after pill: you hope you will never have to use it, and if you plan ahead you likely won’t, but when you desperately need it, the alternative can be catastrophic. Leif Heflin
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THE WEIRDEST/CRAZIEST THING I HAVE DONE IN FINLAND. Hello there, I have been living in Finland for three years now and I have seen and heard so many experiences from the other students, but we all know that for most of the international students Finland tends to be “weird” and “crazy”. So, why not share these weird experiences that actual students have lived here in Kouvola? Would it be weird to say that I have been in Finland for 1 year and I have never gone to sauna? - A.M Well, me and a friend of mine once went to a karaoke bar and guess what? We decided to sing and the person that was in charge to put the song on put a gay song because he thought me and my friend were a gay couple. Another weird thing that I have done in Finland is going to a designated area in the countryside to wash carpets. - L.H Going to a student party, get super drunk, dance until 5 am and then suddenly deciding that I was hungry so I and my friends walked an hour in -30 degrees while wearing heels to go to MC Donald’s. After finally getting there we realized that they only had take away food and the place was closed. X.N The weirdest thing that has happened to me is getting locked outside my room, without a phone or keys, only with my Pjs. While it was snowing outside I had to climb the emergency stairs in my pjs, because luckily I had left the window open and the emergency stairs were next the window. This happened twice btw. - S.D Before coming to Finland I have not even thought about the crazy thing I did when I was here. First I went to sauna and after that outside and jumped in a very cold lake. I am not sure how many degrees it was but for sure less than -10 degrees. Anyway I enjoyed it.- S.P Getting lost in Finland might be pretty hard especially when you have destroyed your phone because you dropped it inside a pot. I had to go 10
to Turku from Helsinki and it was my first time in Finland and I was with no phone. People were waiting for me, but oh well no one would help me. I asked a lot of people if I could borrow their phone, but you know Finnish people they are shy and I guess it is hard for them to trust a stranger with their phone. Finally I got some help, but if this was my country I would have gotten help without the need of crying. - A.TH One day I was fishing at a faraway pond and I saw a couple of heads floating around near the place that I was standing. After a while I noticed that all those people were totally naked the moment that I caught the fish near them. So yeah that was traumatizing for me.- L.G Marija Marash
STUDIO 123
THE MEG
Kymenlaaksonkatu 1 45700 Kuusankoski 044 375 3686 www.studio123.fi 14.09 - 20.09.2018
DIRECTOR: JON TURTETAUB WRITING: DEAN GEORGARIS, JON HOEBER LEADING ROLES: JASON STATHAM, BINGBING LI, RAINN WILSON HORROR, SCI-FI, THRILLER, ACTION / BUDGET: $130 MLN
STUDIO 1 OOPPERAA: AIDA (S) | 23€ | 3h07mins Sat 12:00 Tue 18:00 INCREDIBLES 2 (7) | 11€ | 2h06mins English Sun 14:40 Mon, Thu 19:20
ONCE UPON A TIME, JASON STATHAM FOUGHT THE MEG.
OMA MAA (7) | 11€ | 1h49mins Thu 17:00 THE PREDATOR (16) | 12€ | 1h48mins Fri - Mon, Wed - Thu 19:40
Hello again, dear students and welcome back to our movie review.
STUDIO 2
Summer is over, and although we are not able to go through all amazing movies that were released while we were away (sorry, Ant-Man and the Wasp), let’s jump to those released this Fall, and spoiler alert: there are quite a few!
HOPEATÄHTI: MARIA BY CALLAS (S) | 7€ | 1h53mins Thu 13:00
We will start with The Meg, where our beloved British savior of the planet, Jason Statham, fights a huge 23-meter tall shark. It is not the first encounter with the Meg for Jonas Taylor, whose role is played by the Brit, as he already has an experience of fighting this monster. First, Jason Statham once again plays himself. Even though this genre of underwater thriller is kind of new to him, he stays Jason Statham. But that’s the reason we all love him, isn’t it? Second, it is not a great movie by any means. You probably won’t want to see it again in the upcoming months once you’ve seen it for the first time. And yet, it’s packed with some cool action scenes and Statham goes all-out to show us that he is not just a pile of muscles with strong English accent. He is filled with emotions in this movie, and he is quite good at it! The Meg might be put in the very middle of the quality list in Jason’s career. Not a failure, not a total win either. Not enough F-words said by this actor! Nikita Munenko
NUORI ASTRID (12) | 12€ | 2h03mins Every Evening 16:45 ILOSIA AIKOJA, MIELENSÄPAHOITTAJA (12) | 12€ | 1h58mins Every evening 19:00 Sat - Sun 19:00
STUDIO 3 THE NUN (16) | 11€ | 1h37mins Every evening 17:30 PAPILLON (16) | 12€ | 2h13min2 Fri, Tue - Wed 19:20 DEEP RED – VERENPUNAINEN KAUHU (16) | 12€ | 2h02mins Sat - Sun 19:20
Students/armed services, pensioners 1€ discount on all full priced tickets of 10€ or more
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CLASSIFIEDS Participants Needed for Thesis Experiment Hello, I am conducting an experiment next week at XAMK for my thesis research. My topic is “How does leadership style affect productivity?” There will be five or six tasks to accomplish, each with varying styles of leadership. The leader will be picked at random for each task. The entire experiment will be recorded on video, for research purposes only. In total the experiment will last between 1 and 2 hours. The room, exact date and time, have not been decided yet but will be posted on the Facebook group once they are determined. At the end of the experiment there will also be a short survey. If you would like to participate then please join the Facebook group “Leif’s XAMK Thesis Experiment”. Refreshments will be offered in return for your help. Note: Professor William Nyman (pictured above) may not be attending. https://www.facebook.com/groups/326466301247526 Leif Heflin
Help Wanted in Kouvola Wage: €10.50 per hour Hours: 2 hours on Fridays, 6 am or 8 pm (may increase later) Description: Cleaning offices Finnish language required: No Location: Kauppalankatu 14 Contact: aija.laitinen@dastia.fi Head to Vero in the city center to get a tax card if you don’t already have one! 12