“In Belgium the crows are completely black. Here they are grey-black, and smaller. I didn’t know what they were until someone told me.” After a small pause she remembers something else, too: “You guys have no waves at the sea! That’s odd.”
Sonnaert’s life in Finland differs greatly from the one she leads in Belgium, where she lives with her parents, and 30 minutes cycling from the city. After school she goes home, eats, and studies until she goes to sleep.
Sonnaert finds studying in Finland to be completely different than studying in Belgium. Here her classes have 9-60 people.
“After I stop studying around 11pm I really don’t feel like taking my bike and riding to the city to do something fun.”
“In the big universities in Belgium you might have classes with 600 people in them, so for most Belgians these would be small classes. I come from a small university where most classes have maybe seven students, so for me this is a lot of people,” she explains.
Because she studies in a different city than she lives in, she doesn’t belong to any student organizations which are usually the main activity organizers.
In Belgium they have a completely separate period for exams. “And we don’t have to write that many papers, which I think is really nice,” she laughs. Sonnaert thinks that students in Finland have to be very independent. If you want to learn something, you’ll have to do it yourself. She also thinks that most students do. “In Belgium, if a teacher asks you to read a text for class, half of the students won’t, but I have the feeling that here people do.”
Apart from studying Sonnaert has been playing theatre, having a party and trying to visit other cities and places in Finland. “But if you can only miss two classes on a certain course I feel uncomfortable missing those two classes because I took a trip. Then if I get sick I can’t stay home.”
“Here I’m enjoying myself a bit more and studying less. I used to be a good student but that has changed,” she laughs.
Lastly, Sonnaert has a few questions on her mind that puzzle her. “I don’t understand why Finns don’t walk around with umbrellas when it’s snowing. I mean, you do get wet and the snow gets into your eyes. It’s annoying.”
She wonders also why people in Finland don’t go to play in the snow, at least not spontaneously. The exchange students do. “And you can always recognize the exchange students, because they go around wearing snow boots, skiing jackets and waterproof, windproof clothes. And you guys are walking about in high heels and running on the ice. How on earth do you do that?”
Saga Arola
15 [sic]