Welcome to My International Year Abroad blog

Hi, I am Mirela, and welcome to my adventure as an exchange student and intern in one of the coldest places on Earth, cold in a fun way of course!

In August 2022 I flew north and began a new unexpected journey in Rovaniemi as a graphic design exchange student at University of Lapland for a semester until December. Reflecting back on it, there are multiple valuable lessons accumulated on the course of these 4 months. From finding strenght to travel and take planes all by myself to adapting to new circumstances to socialising with people from various backgrounds and embracing every different academic aspect of a new university.

The first few days were introductory, helping us digest everything that was happening around. Lots of students events were organised in order to encourage getting to know each other and the place.

As expected, exchange students tended to stick together, and that’s why Finnish personal tutors were assigned to each one of the students, to guide and befriend us in our new environment, which I thought to be a pretty smart strategy. This way, it was easier for us to learn more about the country, traditions, culture and people living here.

During the first uni day, we were offered a tour of the university and presentations about the life as a student here. Culture shocks were not that strong, I got used to everything relatively fast simply because every new Finnish innovation we discovered made perfect sense to exist.

The “shocks” were mostly disguised as happy surprises most of the time, like discounted lunch meals within the faculty building, the Finnish recycling and eco culture, every man’s right law, free sauna and campfire places, recycling rooms for new students to reuse house gadgets from past student and a deep admiration for nature, they all made sense to be just the way they are.

Time as an exchange student in Finland was definitely something I never saw coming, however i’m so glad it did. Tag along to discover the true beauty of the whole experience!