Vol 21 Issue 06

INSIDER 02.11.2018 | VOL. 21 | ISSUE 06

STUDENT MAGAZINE OF XAMK

ANALOGUE

CIAO ITALIA NEW TOY

TAMPERE CZECH EXCHANGE

TAKE ME TO BANANA ISLAND GLOBAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP WEEK

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

Alisa Kivirian Exchange View Affairs

Minh-Trang Le Kouvola Current Affairs

Long Nguyen Layout Editor

Trung Dao Layout Editor/ Kouvolan 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

Welcome back welcome back welcome back!

How was your holiday?

We hope you had a great holiday in Finland or abroad and the-best-ever Halloween night on Wednesday. Now there are interesting articles that you must read in this issue.

Ciao will give definitely you a real-like experience through words and beautiful photos of Italy. Additionally, there are tips and hints for you in Venice, Rome and Vatican City to maximize your experiences and to avoid tourist traps.

If Italy is quite far away from here, a journey to Tampere will please travelholics like you. Hopefully, it will be an inspiration for you to try-out one of the biggest and most proactive cities of Finland.

Have you ever heard about Banana Island? If the answer is yes or no, check it out anyway.

Exchange to Brno now comes back again. Let’s wait to see what is coming.

For people who love photography and cameras, you should not miss the acrticle about Trung’s new toy. It will absolutely blow your mind.

If you have any suggestions on what we should write, please send it through our email or FB page.

Thank you. Have a nice day.

Long Nguyen 3

CIAO ITALIA

Ciao ciao!

It has been a while since my last article for Insider. The reason is that I was longing for something interesting and fascinating enough to get me start typing. It came quite late though, but definitely my trip to Italy for the autumn holiday has given me and my friends so many up and down experiences.

Our 5-day-trip covered 2 destinations: Venice and Rome; if Vatican is also counted then we covered 3 places during our holiday. It was a pity that we also wanted to visit Florence while getting in depth about the other two cities but only got 5 days. From a more optimistic perspective, it means another trip to Italy is waiting for us!

Venice

One of us incessantly said with a joking tone when we were planning for the trip: “Wherever is optional, but Venice is a must, guys it’s gonna sink real soon!�.

True that, the lagoon city is facing the threat of permanent submersion in a few generations as a result of the groundwater pumping decades ago which has been stopped and the sealevel rise. While the city is still in its time, we got the chance to get lost and admire the aesthetic vibe of turquoise canals, moist atmosphere and the Venetian 4

Gothic architecture. I highly recommend whoever planning to visit Venice to take a Gondola ride that offers you a chill tour on water with guiding information about Venice or whatever you want to know. A bonus point is that those Gondoliers are really cool and funny so let’s try talking to them.

Rome

Welp, this is definitely a tourist city. Tourists everywhere at anytime. Trevi fountain as an example of a beautiful spot but packed with cameras and human beings. For those fans of Roman mythology, a visit to Pantheon should serve you well. Next thing you should do in Rome is to have an overall view of the city and the best way to do it is by visiting Castel Sant'Angelo and go to the top of this cylindrical building. From here you can see almost all important wonders of the city: the Roman Forum, Pantheon, Vatican city, …

What’s more, there is a restaurant here with very quality food where you can have #lunchwithaview to all these beautiful sceneries. I was always wondering how human back in the time can manually constructed such meticulous and giant structures.

Vatican City

A must while staying in Rome. The queuing before entering St. Peter’s Basilica is not that long as I expected. The line kept moving and you don’t have to stand in one place for more than 15s.

For the lucky ones, you might get a chance to see the Pope in flesh during your visit as we did!

Once inside Vatican City, you should not miss the Sistine Chapel and prepare to be wow by its ceiling paintings as well as other masterpieces of High Renaissance art by Michelangelo.

Some ups and downs #wheninRome

This is a sad part but let be realistic: Rome is a tourist city that filled with thieves and pickpockets.

Some of us were the victims of bad guys there and partly this has affected our impression on the city negatively. While travelling around Rome and Italy in general, you really should be aware of your surrounding and people around you. If you are unlucky and get robbed (backpack, wallet), be calm and try searching around as the bad guys don’t always take everything. They only take cash, valuable things and leave your documents (passport, RP) somewhere to avoid being caught red handed Text: Van-Trang Le, Photos: Trung Dao 5

EXCHANGE TO CZECH REPUBLIC

Example of weekly events program notifies by email.

Czech Rebublic is a great place to go for exchange and just as a traveling destination. In this part I am going to talk about entertainment in the city of my student exchange - Brno. I have previously mentioned ESN (Erasmus student network) organization in my last article. It is voluntary organization that unites exchange students and arranges plenty of various events such as parties (hard not to mention that one), sport activities like swimming, volleyball, dancing and futsal, board games, quiz nights and so on. Those activities were organized constantly, but in addition to that students could participate in special events which differ every week. Mostly those were cultural events like Wine tasting, International Students Ball, trips abroad, hiking, Opera, visits of museums, Brno underground, science center and many more.

It also organizes different international events where people share information about their country and its traditions, talk about country features and prepare traditional food and drinks, so that everyone can get a taste of their country’s culture. One of the examples are country presentations that are organized weekly and students prepare presentations and talk about their own countries. It is not that boring as it sounds cause guys where not talking only about serious stuff like history, geography and culture, but also making fun of some weird things common in their countries and making jokes about stereotypes. In the end of the semester they have organized voting for students to choose the best country presentation and the winner got ONE HUNDRED BOTTLES OF BEER. Best award ever, isn’t it ?!

Quiz nights were especially fun and interesting at the same time. Students get together in a bar and divide into small teams. Host of the event was asking questions about different topics like music, geography, movies, latest news and etc. Goal of the quiz was to answer to those question and then team which gets more points for correct answers wins. Those kind of events like board games and quiz nights give people a chance to meet each other, talk, make friends and just have a pleasant time.

Students received weekly emails notifying about the events of the coming week. Also, all of them were posted in ESN group on Facebook.

It will take eternity for me to mention all the events that were going on during my semester in Brno, but I hope that this article will assure you that if you go there you will never get bored!

Stay updated with news about exchange in Brno from Insider and let me know if you have any further questions on your mind!

Polina Vishnya 6

NEW TOY

So erm, I got a new toy, just as the title said. It’s a present from me to myself for basically no special occasion, unless birthday counts as one.

I spent quite an amount of time to think whether I should get it because well, I’m almost old enough to buy alcohol in Finland already but dad still doesn’t want me to have one since I might get addicted to it. Once I get addicted to it, there’s no turning back and I’d probably spend a fortune buying it to satisfy myself even more. Mom didn’t voice any opinion on whether I would own one of those so-called toys. Anyway, I went to Helsinki just to find out the last product was in Tampere’s store, so I went home and order online instead. It took around 4 days for me to receive my order, but it was worth it. My Nikon FE with the lens I bought are here, along with four rolls of films. I couldn’t help myself running around the apartment like a maniac to later sigh in distress as the camera didn’t have any batteries in it. I was planning to go out and take a few random shots, but it turned to be a trip to S-market to get some ammo for shooting instead. By the time I got the batteries, the sun was already down and all the rolls I bought were ISO 200, so I went home in sadness.

Poor me.

I finally got the chance to go out and take some shots, but holy Christ, developing and scanning takes a fortune… well, in Finland at least, I don't know about other European countries. In Vietnam, the process is 1/16th as cheap. Still, R.I.P to my wallet. Now I understand why dad didn’t want me to have an analogue camera. Anyhoo, here are some shots I tried on my friends lol. Quite okay I believe.

Trung Dao 7

TAMPERE TRIP

This is my third autumn break in Finland, and only now have I decided to visit another city in this very country (other than the hectic capital); and let me tell you, that is one decision that I will never regret.

Perhaps when us kids first got into a university in a smaller town, we all had the impression that the rest of Finland will all be the same, just a tad more people and supermarkets. But the experience I had in Tampere these past few days was none like any other.

Being one of the largest cities in Finland, Tampere is undoubtedly lively. The vibes that I got from this lovely city is extremely unique. It is not as massive as Helsinki, so everything was in walking distance.

Plus, the Airbnb we were staying is in the heart of the city, so it was pleasantly convenient to go to places.

First night in Tampere, me and my pal decided to try the notorious chicken wings at Hook Ravintola. I am pretty sure I just had a dream about those wings last night, they were THAT good.

Afterwards, we had a stroll alongside Tammerkoski river for about fifteen minutes before the weather began acting like a cockblock. And that marked the start of the following rainy and windy days.

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Nonetheless, we did not let that stop us. We embarked on a journey around town the next day, start by going to the Metso Library AKA the Peacock Museum. And since we heard that having lunch in Kauppahalli is a must, we headed there and ordered ourselves a giant burger each.

Afterwards, the whole afternoon was dedicated for a Vapriikki Museum tour. It is basically an amalgamation of different museums. We had a ton of fun learning about the history of Posti, the infamous life of Marilyn Monroe and playing Mario Kart in the Game Museum segment.

Last day was spent specifically for the Moomin Museum – as it is a must-see when one visits Tampere. It is one of the most aesthetically pleasing museums I have ever been to. After that, we stopped at a small cafÊ nearby, which has a bunny therapy room and a 3D printing corner, which fit right into our interests.

All in all, despite the unwelcoming weather, everything else has made this the most memorable autumn break I have had. If you are still looking for a place to go for your next trip, why not Tampere?

Minh-Trang Le 9

TAKE ME TO BANANA ISLAND IN FINLAND #HAAPASAARI/ KOTKA Heiii Kaikii!!!!

Oh yes! We have banana Island* in Finland. It isn’t even called banana Island, I just named it that way If you don’t know. Imagine an island where only 10-20 people live, they have only one shop, a school, a church, some warehouses and so many military things. Strange, isn’t it? My question is how do they survive?

Let’s go on this trip with Yasmine, an exchange student from Germany. She has been studying here in Kouvola for two months now. And guess what? She is a travel freak!! She wanted to see something new. So, thanks to our Erasmus tutors for organizing this trip to Haapasaari.

Train tickets from Kouvola to Kotka cost only 4€ with the student card. Pretty cheap right? We got on the train at 8:am sharp in the morning, winter hat on, scarves and jacket. While arriving Kotka, we began to marvel, and we got so much excited and curious about discovering the #bananaisland in Finland.

Jasmine Ohlendorf- Exchange student from Germany

On getting to Kotka, we walked down to the harbor, and here we are!!! We were all speechless admiring the nice view. There were little restaurants near-by, the smell of their fried fishes attracted us to go into them. But unfortunately, the fishes sold were raw. Haaapasari Island is very known as a tourist place in Finland. It is a place to be! The inhabited island can be visited at any time of the year. There is a boat service to the island. The voyage from kotka takes just over an hour. Please check the timetables before planning your trip, as the timetable changes in winter and summer time.

You can check that with this website: https:// www.finferries.fi/lauttaliikenne/lauttapaikat-jaaikataulut/kotka-pyhtaa.html.

Guess what happened?? We didn’t take note of this, as we approach the harbor, we checked the timetables, and then, there was no ferry!!! What! Jasmine's heart skipped a beat. But with this beautiful whether, we decided to visit Kotka. There is a marine museum “The Maritime Museum Vellamo”, nice restaurants where you could eat lunch for just 9€ during the hours of 1pm to 3pm.

We then decided to visit the beautiful city of Kotka. We got to a spot close to the harbor, we found tall granite stones, they were about more than twenty of them. This strategic place is called “Sapokka Water Garden”. This water garden It has all the different type of granite stones in Finland. You can touch them and feel their different textures. These stones were used and recycled in various ways in 10

this water garden. We hereby learned about different rock types in Finland and how they can be used. Beneath this area, you will find a beautiful waterfall!!! It’s a cool place to chill as we were already tired after the long walk.

STUDIO 123 Kymenlaaksonkatu 1 45700 Kuusankoski 044 375 3686 www.studio123.fi 02.11.2018 - 08.11.2018 STUDIO 1 OOPPERAA: LA FAVORITE (S) | 23€ | 3h00mins Sat 12:00, Tues 18:00 PÄHKINÄNSÄRKIJÄ JA NELJÄ VALTAKUNTAA (12) | 11€ | 1h40mins Fri - Mon, Weds - Thurs: 17:15 BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY (S) | 12€ | 2h15mins Fri - Mon, Weds - Thurs: 19:15

STUDIO 2 “Antti Huuki, Taisia Simpanen (Our Tutors) visiting the tones in the Water Garden”

"Katariinan meripuisto Park - Kotka" From left to right: Antti Huuki, Marcus Flentje and Jasmine Ohlendorf

Jasmine conclusion concerning this trip: It was a nice sunny day. Of course, I was disappointed about the missing trip to the island. But the city is worth to visit once, nevertheless the city is quite small and the train station too. You can also have fun without spending a lot of money, just because of the beautiful environment, especially at the parks and the sea.

OMA MAA (7) | 11€ |1h49mins Fri 16:45, Sat - Sun 14:30, 16:45 Mon - Thurs 16:45 VALMENTAJA (7) | 11€ | 1h52mins Sat - Sun, Tues, Thurs 19:00 OLAVI VIRTA (12) | 12€ | 2h05mins Fri 19:00, Sun 14:45(s1) Mon, Weds 19:00

STUDIO 3 PIKKUJALKA (7) | 11€ | 1h37mins Fri - Sun, Weds - Thurs 17:00 A STAR IS BORN (12) | 12€ | 2h16mins Sat, Mon - Thurs 17:00 HALLOWEEN (16) | 12€ | 1h45mins Sat, Mon, Thurs 19:00 ILOSIA AIKOJA, MIELENSÄPAHOITTAJA (12) | 12€ | 1h58mins Sat - Sun 14:30 Mon - Tues 16:45 VENOM (12) | 12€ | 1h52mins Fri - Sun 19:35, Mon 19:40 Students/armed services, pensioners 1€ discount on all full priced tickets of 10€ or more

“……We hereby decided to visit “The Sapokka Water Garden”.

Elizabeth Akinlabi 11

GLOBAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP WEEK

GEW – INTERNATIONAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP WEEK IS COMING AGAIN! JOIN THE GLOBAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP WEEK 2018 Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW) is an international entrepreneurship week, which is organized globally in November – also in Finland. This year the week is held during 12 -16 November 2018.

GEW Entrepreneurship week gathers together students, lecturers, interest groups and people interested in entrepreneurship.

The basic idea of the week is to increase the knowledge of entrepreneurship and inspire people to engage in entrepreneurial activity. GEW partners are The Federation of Finnish Enterprises (Suomen yrittäjät) and national YES network, which supports entrepreneurship education. South-Eastern Finland University of Applied Sciences (Xamk) is the coordinator of the week in Finland.

During the week there will be events for students, entrepreneurs and all people interested in the topic. The week includes info sessions, lectures, workshops and speeches from inspiring speakers.

• • • •

THE AIM OF GEW is TO

promote entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship education, encourage to entrepreneurship, share information on entrepreneurship and bring up positive images of entrepreneurship and bring up inspiring stories and people.

You are warmly welcome to join the GEW week!

Further information: https://genglobal.org/finland Director Anne Gustafsson-Pesonen Small Business Center, South-Eastern Finland University of Applied Sciences anne.gustafsson-pesonen(at)xamk.fi phone: +358 40 834 4217

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