Vol 21 Issue 10

INSIDER 30.11.2018 | VOL. 21 | ISSUE 10

STUDENT MAGAZINE OF XAMK

SONG WRITING

RECIPE

STUDENT PARTY

SLUSH

REINDEER KEBAB

INDEPENDENCE GALA NIGHT

A TRIP TO PRAGUE PROFILE

EDITORIAL STAFF

Polina Vishnya Kouvola Current Affairs

Marija Marash Kouvola Current Affairs

Alisa Kivirian Exchange View Affairs

Leif Heflin Kouvola Current Affairs

Van-Trang Le Kouvola Current Affairs

Elizabeth Akinlabi Kouvola Current 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

Chào các bạn, chào các bạn, This week, our Lizzy shares with you her experiences in trying Reindeer Kebab, which is a very Finnish specialty.

Slush is coming next week. Will you join one of the largest events for tech-heads in Europe? They are arranging a large number of side events to motivate and help volunteers to expand their network and have fun.

Furthermore, let’s have a look at the newest student party that our Marija reported.

And the recipe she brings will blow your mind.

Our Leif is working on his masterpiece in music industry. He is telling about his journey, which I bet will take a lot of efforts, time and motivation.

If you are a travelling-head, a trip to Prague from Polina, hopefully, gives you helpful tips and must-see and must-go destinations for your next vacation in Czech Republic.

One more, Finnish Independence Day is ‘coming to town’. A Gala night will be organized by Kupla on 4th of December. We will report what happens that day in the next issue.

Let’s wait for us.

Long Nguyen 3

RECIPE

Okay, so this is the first time I am writing a recipe for Insider, so take it easy on me if it does not turn out like it was planned.

I think it will though because this is something I cook very often and to me is pretty easy.

What you need: • 3-4 big bell peppers. (the number of peppers depends on the number of people that you want to feed.)

• 300 gr of feta cheese • 100 gr of yoghurt • And if you want you can add some white cream. The white cream will make it less thick, but personally I like it when it’s thick.

• Salt/pepper/garlic and any other spices that you want to add.

Preparation: Cut the top of the bell peppers and clean them carefully so the inside does not have any seeds. In a bowl put the feta cheese and squish it with the fork until it is in smaller pieces, after that add the yoghurt.

Mix it together and add the spices. Personally I love garlic and paprika. Also, vegete, but I do not think you can find that kind of spice here. As I said above it depends on you if you want to add the cream or not. After you mix all of these together, get the peppers and start to fill them in. Do not fill the full because from the baking the level of the cream will increase. Put the oven in 250 degrees and put the peppers in. Personally I am not sure how many minutes it should be in the oven because I can see it with my eye when it is ready. I would say around 30 minutes.

There it is. The tastiest bell peppers you ever tried! Enjoy!

Text and photo: Marija Marash

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SLUSH

Photo by Slush

In case you haven’t heard the name Slush, it is the one of the world biggest startup events and is spreading wider and wider. It has partnership with all kinds of big companies: Google, Samsung, Microsoft, PwC... you name them. Me and a few others from our school are volunteering in Slush and have plenty of chances to explore the business world and improve our abilities since we will be getting to know new group mates with tons of different skills and potential and are willing to share their experience as well as meeting all the biggies I’ve just mentioned above. This is first time I get this excited ever since I got to Finland.

17.11 was the Slush’s Volunteering day when almost 2300 volunteers gathered in Aalto University to meet their groups and get to know the people who they are gonna work with. Different groups are placed together into six batches and each batch will have its own schedule to go around and find out what they’re gonna do in the events. The groups in each batch would also in turn take pictures of their group and get to know each other more. We also heard speeches from inspirational people and it was amazing. They all kind of gave me a boost to continue explore and search without being afraid to fail.

After the speeches was the time for party. We had a small pre-party, which was not so small, inside aAalto University for around two hours then we moved to a night club in Kamppi where people basically lost themselves and went wild. Slush people are party animals. I counted all the parties I’m about to have with Slush in the future and the number currently stops at 3. This is gonna be fun haha.

4-5 of December are gonna be the two main days where countless events, speeches and pitches taking place. We volunteers have the privilege to join any activities we want to as long as it is outside of our shifts. Can't wait for it.

Text: Trung Dao

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SONG WRITING

A story outside of time Dear 你, It has been a wonderful few years of getting to know you. We have gradually moved up the ladder of compatibility and I look forward to each new step, even if I do not know how tall this ladder may reach.

Soon we will be parting ways for an indefinite amount of time, and I wanted to express my thoughts and feelings in a way which can be reflected upon until time ceases to exist; through music. I will put this message on your night stand before I leave. I just hope the wind doesn’t take it from your sight, else I look like an ass. Please read it before taking an action which cannot be undone. What follows is a collection of my thoughts condensed into a week, for brevity’s sake:

Day One

What am I passionate about at this moment? What is driving me crazy with desire? What is occupying my entire mental space? One word, many feelings attached to it. It’s time to transform this word into fifty. I’m setting a timer for five minutes and writing one word at a time continuously until the time is up.

Now it’s a bit too much – I’ll narrow this list down to the fifteen most important. One sentence or memory per word – the foundation is being built.

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Day Two

The chorus should be based around the central thought or action and the verses can act as support.

Feeling is the most important factor to decide ordering of words and if they should or should not rhyme.

The tricky part is to use unique words so that the imagery is vivid and tickles the brain but the more unique it is, the harder it will be for the audience to identify with. I’ll start complicated then simplify, like the word list.

Day Three

After googling “musical key characteristics” I found a list which matches key signatures with emotions and even horoscope signs. Given the subject matter I went with C# Major (Db Major). I launched Ableton Live on my 2010 Mac Mini and hooked up my USB MIDI keyboard. Because I never took any piano lessons, I am not very good at playing the instrument, so I’ll just wing it. However, I want to make sure I am playing the notes, so I’ll put some masking tape on the piano keys which are in the key I have chosen (C# Major). I experimented with some tempo changes, tapping on my desk while looking at my lyrics to picture at which speed, I would be comfortable with singing.

Next came the pressing of the piano keys until I came up with an 8-measure phrase which just sounded right and catchy. I used the mouse to click in chords which coincided with the melody and attributed this to another track. Because I haven’t studied much music theory, I used pianochord.org to figure out the right notes to click into place. Add a drum beat starting with the bass drum and then add the snare on the half beat, with hi-hats and shakers in between to create movement. Lastly, the introduction of the bassline – basically the bottom notes of the chords but with the rhythm of the drums and some flare between each measure to accentuate the movement.

For the final task of today I will add spaces around the chorus so that the verses have somewhere to cozy up in to.

Day Four

Today is the most frightening of all - I’m back to working with the lyrics. I’ll set the melody to loop while I practice the lyrics out loud. The words are changing, and I am running out of or am lacking syllables for the verses. The same themes are retained but the exact words change for almost every line. Now I must record the vocals – RIP me.

Day Five

To make the chorus stand out, I’ll add some highlights and pop. Next, I’ll add some transitions between parts, like extra hits on the snare drum when the slow part changes back to the fast part, or lo/hi pass filters to fade between tracks without adjusting volume. Now I just need to add an equalizer to each track to cut out sounds which hurt my ears. Adding reverb sparingly and panning some tracks to the left while others are on the right, can help to create space and make the sound “bigger”. I have been using speakers this whole time so now I will switch to headphones, so I can hear the subtler differences. To limit the range between the loudest and quietest moments, and to compete with modern music, I added a compressor to the master track.

Day Six

Listen to it on the way to work a few times then let it go until tomorrow.

Day seven

Make last touches. Put a limiter on the master track, boost to 0db and export as an MP3 with tags.

Upload to SoundCloud and hope she likes it.

Best Regards, 我 Text and photo: Grayson Heflin

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REINDEER KEBAB

Do you think you know Finland well? Your answer may be Yes, or No. I am a foodie but I’ve you ever heard of Reindeer Kebab? Not until when I came to Finland. Finland is so blessed with a beautiful nature, lakes, ponds, forest, etc. So, while exploring Finland, I’ve been to Helsinki so many times but apparently this last time all I wanted to eat was a Reindeer Kebab. In so many countries, people eat a lot of weird things. For example, French people eat frogs, Nigerians eat cow legs, Chinese eats insects, bee larvae, silk worm etc. I became so interested in Finnish food, so I travelled down to Helsinki. Oh! I love Helsinki, its markets. You will find all type of food. Finnish fried fishes, potatoes, salmon, etc. Finnish people eat Reindeer Pâté. I decided to have to walk down into the Old Market Hall near to the Harbor.

First, I was so amazed about this market Hall, so many food and even books about Finnish Food. You can even find bars and restaurant in it. There are so many sandwiches offered at that time. You could get a Reindeer Kebab for 6€.

Tasting the Reindeer Kebab: It tasted really different. It juicy and it has less fat in it. The taste felt really weird at first because I think it a bit salty for me. However, it was a great experience to discover and eat Finnish Reindeer Kebab.

Text and photo: Elizabeth Akinlabi

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STUDENT PARTY

Hello there!

As you have noticed lately we have had a lot of student parties, or at least gatherings as we call them here. This time there was no occasion for a party, but ehem who needs a reason to party? Kupla comes up with different names and very unique ones for the parties. This time the name of the party was: The weekend after. Wonder why they came up with that name. Anyway except the dancing which was nonexistent i don’t know why, maybe people were not in the mood at least until I was there, there were plenty of other things that you could do. Play pool (which is what I did), blackjack and the slot machines.

I tried one of those for the first time and thank god I did not lose. LOL. The party started at 9, but you know students: usually the will show their faces later. For example around 11. The price as usual: 3 Euros with a student card and 4 Euros without. Also an extra 1 euro in case you wanted to leave the coat in the hangers.

Uh almost forgot: there was a contest where a student could win a VIP table for the party in January worth of 250 Euros. It was not clear to me though what we should have done to participate. Overall, the party was nice and we had fun hanging out with our friends.

Text: Marija Marash/ Photo: Kupla

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EXCHANGE TO CZECH REPUBLIC

A trip to Prague As I mentioned in my previous articles, travelling is one of the most exciting parts of exchange period. For many students, it is also a key motivation to go on exchange as you can explore unseen and taste unknown world right there waiting for you!

In the next few articles I am going to tell about my experience of travelling to different countries and share that unforgettable truly incredible feeling of freedom and discoveries.

My first trip was to Prague in early March. I met a guy from Bosnia and Herzegovina during orientation week who has invited me to join his friends group and go to Prague for a weekend. It is all about networking, isn`t it? My group left early in the morning and I caught up with them later in the evening in Hostel IBEX. By the way, I would never recommend you staying in that hostel, it is pretty cheap, but very inconvenient.

Seems like only weird people mostly stop in there. In my friend’s room fully booked with people, there was a guy laying almost naked. In my room one insane girl woke up a few times during the night talking nonsense and asking not to disturb her from sleeping when shew was the one annoying everyone in the room.

with different personalities but sharing the same goal – to explore.

Every night we have been slipping through several clubs, dancing till the early morning and then coming back to sleep just for a few hours. Clubbing in Prague is really on point! Clubs are located all around the city centre in a walking distance to each other. Prague night life is damn alive, tones of people are lining to different clubs on every corner. If you go to experience night life in Prague, you should definitely stop by Chapeau Rouge. It is one of the most popular clubs with three floors and four bars. You can stay in the bar area and enjoy the smooth beer in very authentic atmosphere with your friends or go to the live underground venue and dance under the flashes of lights.

Going to be continued…

Anyway, we gathered together in Hostel lobby grabbed a few beers before going to the club and get to know each other. I met two wonderful people from Lebanon who later on became my close friends and Italian guy, he can speak six languages including Russian. That is something extraordinary to me! I must say it is really fun to travel with such a multicultural group of people Text and photo: Polina Vishnya

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PROFILE

STUDIO 123 Kymenlaaksonkatu 1 45700 Kuusankoski 044 375 3686 www.studio123.fi 30.11.2018 -06.12.2018 STUDIO 1 THE GRINCH (DUB) (7) | 11€ | 1h26mins Sat, Mon 17:00 BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY (S) | 12€ | 2h15mins Every evening 18:50 Sat - Sun 14:30, 18:50 VIIRU JA PESONEN – VIIRU MUUTTAA (S) | 10€ | 1h22mins Fri, Sun, Tue - Thu 17:00

Where are you from?

I am from Kyiv, Ukraine.

What do you study?

I study Business Administration at IAE Brest, France.

Why did you come to Xamk for study?

I was interested in the Business program proposed here in English and, also I wanted to visit Finland. then decided to go on an Erasmus exchange program.

STUDIO 2 OMA MAA (7) | 11€ |1h49mins Mon - Weds 17:10 Sat - Sun 15:00 FULL OF LOVE (S) | 11€ | 1h14mins Fri - Sun, Thurs 17:30 IHMEOTUKSET: GRINDELWALDIN RIKOKSET (12) | 12€ | 2h14mins Every Evening 19:20

STUDIO 3

What do you miss about Ukraine?

I feel comfortable here in Finland. I like this country. Even though we can’t find some Ukrainian products. Hopefully, in less than three hours we can get to St. Petersburg to get Ukrainian products.

What do you like about the Finnish People?

Finnish people are helpful and almost everyone speaks English very well.

Text and photo: Elizabeth Akinlabi

OLAVI VIRTA (12) | 12€ | 2h05mins Sat - Sun 15:00 SWINGERS (12) | 11€ | 1h26mins Every Evening 17:40 KESÄ (12) | 11€ | 2h08mins Frim Sun, Tues, Thurs 19:30 THE WAY OF THE DRAGON (16) | 12€ | 1h39mins Sat, Sun, Tues, Thurs 19:30 Students/armed services, pensioners 1€ discount on all full priced tickets of 10€ or more

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INDEPENDENCE GALA NIGHT

Event: Finnish Independent Day. This event allows you to raise a toast to Finland’s independency.

Date: 4th of December 2018 Time: 7PM Dress code: “Black Tie translates into a black tie translates into a dark suit with a bow tie for men, and a long evening gown below the knees for women.

NOTE: This event will be held in Finnish, but you are more than welcome to join us to spend an amazing evening with great dinner and music.

AFTER-PARTY: We will continue the evening after 11pm at Brooklyn Restaurant. For the participants of the Gala the after party is free, but if you want to join us for the after party, you can do it with the price of 3e at the door. Our bubbles are already chilled, and we’re ready to wish all students welcome to spend this special night with us. More info will soon follow on the event wall!

SEE YOU ALL THERE!!

Text: Elizabeth AkinlabiPhoto by: Opiskelijayhdistys Kupla Ry

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