Different weather, new perspective

Finland the winter wonderland and magical sunset. It is really different from my country in weather and nature but actually it’s extremely  beautiful . I’m a 22 years old Egyptian girl from Pharos University in Alexandria, Egypt  and I have been in Finland for 4 months as pharmacy exchange student in University of Eastern Finland. It’s my first time to leave my city Alexandria for such a long period and I was so excited to see the snow for the first time.

I arrived to Kuopio in the first days of February, I was very surprised about how wonderful is the snow, it covered nearly everything. Then, I started to register my courses, so I had 4 courses and one lab work in the university . I remember my first day in university eating in Canthia with my helpful Russian tutee .

During my courses I saw many different devices that have more technology than my home university devices and the courses were taught by the very helpful Finnish doctors.

In the beginning I was scared because I haven’t experienced any temperature below 0 as in Egypt it’s nearly a tropical climate, but I became a snow lover and I also had snow ball fights with my friends and it was so funny!

I have made lots of friends from many different countries Italy, China, Hungary and many others, we made lots of dinners and I discovered other countries’ food and traditions.

I also had conversations with Finnish people, they are a bit shy but all you have to do is just to start the conversation and they will be very talkative, remember the world kittos you’ll hear it a lot when talking with them. I also tried Finnish food in the restaurant of Smoked Sauna in Rauhalahti and I liked it so much. I also remember the wonderful Aurora nights when we all ran in the cold heading to the lake to see the northern lights.

I also went to some trips organized by the Erasmus student association Kisa .We visited Lapland, we went to the Santa Claus village in Rovaniemi, take a safari with reindeers and huskies and I saw the best Northern lights that we spent more than 2 hours to see it.

We had a day trip in Koli National Park in the beginning of February and I was surprised with all snow around I also went to some trips organized by the Erasmus student association Kisa. We visited Lapland, we went to the Santa Claus village in Rovaniemi, take a safari with reindeers and huskies and I saw the best Northern lights that we spent more than 2 hours to see it. We had a day trip in Koli National Park in the beginning of February and I was surprised with all snow around.

I also went to Tampere with my Hungarian friend and we visited the tower of Tampere  and Moomin museum, it’s a museum inspired by the most famous cartoon character in Finland.

In May, when snow melt I become addicted to the charming sunset and I almost went every day to the lake with my friends to see the magical moments sunset. We made BBQ with sausages and marshmallows .

I was surprised because Finland have only 3 hours of night in May and all the people told me that in June there’s no dark. I also had the same pictures in many places to see the difference between snow and spring but Kuopio is really beautiful in both.

I left Kuopio but I am sure I will return again to this wonderful Wonderland.

Sandra Mechreky