Exchange student interview

Text: Emma Forsman

Bild: Katherine Ramos

Last fall semester Hanken welcomed a record breaking number of exchange students from all over the world. Katherine Ramos, a bachelor’s student, arrived here in September and is staying at Hanken for a whole year. After being here for one semester already, Katherine will tell us how her experience in Helsinki has been so far.

Hi, I’m Katherine Ramos. I’m from El Salvador and I study in China. I study Global BBA at Renmin University of China and I’m in my 3rd year of my Bachelor’s degree.

Introduce yourself

I chose to come here because I have always been interested in Nordic countries and have never been to a Nordic country before When applying for my exchange I saw that Finland was an option so I decided to apply here

Why did you choose to come to Finland?

I already knew that Finnish people are more distant than people from my culture, however when I came here it was a shock how distant people here really are. I rarely see people asking for help or talking to strangers. Another surprise is the cold, but in a good way. We were told when we arrived here that the Finnish winter was going to be much colder so it was better than I expected.

What surprised you the most about Helsinki or Finland?

Very different In China all classes are mandatory, and every class has homework every week. You have multiple assignments and presentations on top of finals that all contributetothefinalgrade.Wealso have classes for a full semester instead of having periods like you havehere

What has been the best and worst thing here so far?

The best thing here is that you get the feeling that you can live at your own pace, you don’t feel rushed at all. The worst part by far is that everything here is expensive

What are the main differences between Helsinki and your home city/country?

One main difference is that in El Salvador, you can’t go anywhere without a car. The traffic is also horrible and it can take hours just to drive a short distance. Public transportation is basically non-existent there Here you don’t need a car if you live in the city because of how good the public transport is Another difference is the amount of people you see outside, in El Salvador you always see people outside, even at night. Here however you don’t see anyone, especially later at night.

What do you think about the accommodation here?

I like it because it’s very accessible, it’s close to the train station in Pasila, and there are buses and trams close by as well. It feels centric but still not centric enough for you to feel rushed and in the middle of everything which is nice It’s also cool because everyone living at Hoas in Pasila is an exchange student, so you get the chance to meet new people there, even some that are from other schools and not only Hanken

What do you think about the exchange activities?

I like EC because they organize many trips for us to see different countries as well as Lappland, where you can spend time with different exchange students. There are so many of us that it can be otherwise difficult to connect with everyone I also like that they have a lot of events for exchange students, and they send us weekly calendars of the events that will happen. However sometimes they send the information a bit last minute which can make it difficult in case you have to sign up for the events Other than that the exchange activities have been good so far.

What has been the most memorable part of your exchange?

The most memorable part of my exchange has been my first trip to Tallinn as well as my first trip to Stockholm. I will always remember these trips because of the people I met and the adventures we had.

What would you still like to experience during your stay?

I saw that there is a food cruise in Turku, and an overnight cruise to Tallinn where you stay on the cruise all night and get back to Helsinki in the morning. They both seem like they would be very fun things to do Another thing I would like to experience is the Finnish summer because I’ve heard a lot about it