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Everyman's right  is a legal finnish concept in Finland to allow people of all nationalities to enjoy the countryside with a lot of freedom. The people can walk around vast forest, many lakes and rivers. They have the possibilities to pick freely flowers, wild berries and mushrooms during their expedition in the forest. But there are also many restrictions like :

You may not

· Disturb people or damage property

· Disturb reindeer, game, breeding birds, their nests or young

· Cut down or damage trees

and other thing ,…

In my country you have also the same concept because people can walk in every forest with a lot of freedom like here in Finland but they are also restrictions like pay attention to nature or also do not cut trees without permission. We have just some forest where people cannot walk freely because there are hunting. To access to these forests you need a hunting license.

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The education in Finland is very different compared to Belgium. In Finland, the education is based on group work. As in every class the number of students is not high the teacher have the possibility to have an interactive approach with each student. In Belgium is totally the opposite we are 100 students per class so the teacher don’t have this possibility. It’s very sad because if you don’t understand something, you have only low possibilities to ask the teacher for that. In fact you have to find the answer by yourself.

Moreover XAMK university required a lot of group work. In fact we have many projects to do during the semester in group of 2 or more. Follow me, it is very a good idea because like that, each member of the team motivates the group. A group work also increases your responsibility. For me, we can achieve more thing when we are 2  than when we are alone.

In Finland the education is based on T word. It means that in Finland the education in school or inside each family are based to the trust. Thanks to that, the students have their responsibilities and try to do their best without any stress. I love this way of thinking because for me it’s the best way to learn in life. That’s one of the reasons why I’m here because, sadly, in Belgium it’s not the case. The teacher doesn’t trust us and he is putting pressure on us to succeed all the time.

Another thing is that each lecture is given with a power point so like that it’s easier to understand and remember the course.

Finally , I really love the education in Finland because the semester is not only judged by the final exam or something like that. Here the teacher takes into account all the work that has been done throughout the year.

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Verla was a factory located in the northern part of  Kymi valley. It was a wood and cardboard processing plant.

The factory was funded by Hugo Neuman in 1872. This factory had been operating during 100 years and during this time more than 160 workers was employed .

In 1964 Verla ceased all the activities but all the machine and other stuff  were preserved in their places and are still intact.

Since 1996 the site was protected by UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Today, Verla is converting into a museum of board mill technology. It’s possible to visit this beautiful factory and also have a guide tour to explain the history of this paper factory. Furthermore, you can sleep in the older verla cottage where the worker slept after their works. During the summer, inside this factory, there are now a lunch coffee, handicraft shop and wine shop with a lot of specialties like organic wine.

I haven’t visited  this place yet but all my finish friend said to me that I have to do it. As I stay 4 months in Finland I will manage to keep time to visit this beautiful place before I will come back in my country.

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Before I read this article I just know few thing about finnish past.

In my point of view, Finland was greatly influenced by Russia in the past. That’s why for me the building or the design of the town are looking very cold and austere.That is also the reason why I was thinking that Finns were strict.

After the reading of this article I learned a lot about Finland past and I was very surprised about :

-   Finland is The first country which had a female president

-   The first country which had the female right to vote.

-   Finnish is one of the 2 official languages in Finland the second one is Swedish which is spoken by 5 % of the population .

-   About the language

➔      There are western and eastern dialect
➔      there is not future tense
➔      there is no grammatical gender
➔      no article like “a” or “the”

About demographic aspect in Finland,  I made some research and I saw that nowadays there are  5 510 976 inhabitants in Finland. The percentage rates of male and female are almost the same. Moreover, in 2017 there was 47 238 natalities and about 42 629 mortalities .
According to Statistics Finland, 34 905 persons moved to Finland in 2016.
More than 93% of the population of Finland is of Finnish origin and about 6% is of Swedish origin. In addition, a minority of the population, less than 1%, are of Russian or Estonian origin.

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I’m also surprised that here, you only can buy alcohol in a specific shop. In fact, supermarket chains like K-supermarket or Lidl for example are not able to sell alcohol with more than 9% of alcohol. This allows the state to control the alcohol distribution, to put higher taxes and then to reduce the consumption of it. Moreover you have to show your ID card when you want to buy alcohol in this shop. In general you need to have 18 years old to buy basic alcohol and 20 years to buy alcohol with more than 9%.

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Before coming to Finland, people around me said that the country was safe. After, I did some research and I could see that Finland is in the top 5 of the most safest countries in Europe with a safety index of 86%. Now I have the proof. In fact each morning and each night I can see lot of kids who are going back home alone with their school bag. In my country parents would never dare to do that.

In the other hand, there was a murder in Mikkeli 3 weeks ago and an other one in Kouvola last week. In the first time we could think that Finland is not a safety country but after some discussions with Finnish people, I realized that this type of accident happened rarely and they are also astonished. So I still thinking that Finland is a safety country . Because for me sadly, today, this kind of thing happens every day…But it's not a reason be scared and stop going out of the house. Exactly, you can life your live  at 100% and that's what I'm doing here.

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Actually we are on December and the winter is coming. But to my astonishment, people continue to take their bike ! That is impossible for me because when it was not snowing I fell 3 times… so let’s imagine with the snow. But actually here the people felt good with their bike. The people even walk with their infant when it's  minus 10 degree. I was able to exchange with one Finns and she described to me the weather conditions when she was a child and how did she manage to fight against this. she told me also that it was to accustom her child to the cold since the youngest ages.

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Finnish efficiency has particularly drawn my attention. In fact in the supermarket for each checkout there is a separator. Thanks to that, Finnish people don’t lose time. It’s quite the same in the cafeteria at university where there are 2 queues so when one person finnish to pay, the cashier asks the person in the other queue to give time for the first one to tidy his/her wallet and leave.

In my country we have just one queue so it’s very bad because we lose a lot of time in this queue and sometime we give up our purchase because it's too long.

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Next, I’m very surprised by the technology owned by each classroom.

There are, in most of the class, two projectors thanks to students can see the screen, no matter where the student is located. Inside the school we have WIFI so we have the possibility to connect our phone and laptop whenever and wherever you want. After lectures or during the weekend, thanks to our magnetic key, we have also access to the university and their computer classrooms to finish a work. In the library we have the possibility to read your book in a traditional way or to rent an iPad to read the book on it. Another thing is that each lesson was done with a power point so it’s easier for us to understand the lesson and also to remember it.  I did some research about that and I realized that technology industry  in Finland  is the most important export industry in this country. “Nearly 300,000 Finns work in technology companies, while a total of around 700,000 people work in the technology sector either directly or indirectly.”
( http://teknologiateollisuus.fi/en/technology-finland-0)
That is surely the reason why universities are so connected.

In my country it’s totally the opposite , after class we don't have any possibilities to work inside the school. Moreover we haven’t WIFI in all the school, just in the cafeteria… I really love the education in Finland because they make huge efforts to make the student felt good and to have the opportunity to work and relax anywhere in the university. With that, we went to school with a lip smile and good mood.

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I was very surprised because when I’m going to the supermarket for the first time, there was some people who were playing at a game machine. So I talked with the cashier and she said me that having a game machine in a supermarket, it’s quite normal in Finland. After their shopping in the supermarket, most of finnish people play this game which  are reserved for people who are over than 18 years old.

That’s incredible for me because in my country you must find game machine only in casino and no in the supermarket.

I don’t try it yet but I’m fear to begin because if I love that I will spend all my money in  this game :D

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Hey everyone , it is now more than a month that I’m living in your country but I still struggle with your schedule to eat because it’s very early for me . I remember my first school day when the teacher told us at 10:30  it was time to have lunch, I thought it was a joke because in my country 10:30 it’s breakfast time . For me eating  lasagna with potato or chicken at 10:30 is really hard to understand. I spoke with my tutor and she tell me in her country the breakfast is very early, the time for dinner is between 11h to 13h and dinner time is around 5h to 6H but I think even after 1 month I’m still not use to it :D
I was also surprised with the time table differences between here and my country, because in Finland we have 45 min of course and 15 min of break. It’s very different compared to my country because for us 15 min of break is very long. In my school in Belgium I have just 5 min break after 1 hours of course and sometimes (even often) the teacher does not even take breaks .I’ve been reading some articles about the educational system in Finland and I think it’s an productive way to stop after 45 min because we have time to concentrate to be more effective after. However sometime the schedule is very weird because for example : my marketing course is between  11 until 3 pm so with the break of 15 min  I have no time to eat my meal.  It’s challenging for us because in my country at 12 pm we have 1 hour break to eat every day. I have also spoke with my tutor about that and she said to me that she eat before and bring sometimes with her some food during the 15 min break but she also said it’s how the system work in Finland. They are not having long breaks in order to finnish school earlier and have time for themselves. After reflection I find that this system is not bad because in Belgium we come home at 5pm with still a lot of homework to do and we don’t have a lot  time for us.

In addition to that, I am very happy to discover a new educational system and especially your education because for me it’s the best, the teacher is like a coach to bring you to success and not here to reduce you. There is much practical activities to explain the theory. I love it.

See you :)

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1 week ago I was in Helsinki with my parents , we spend a good time together. This city is very beautiful with a lot of museum and building to visit .

However When I walked around the city I was very surprised to see a big  platform inside the port with 2 big Olympic swimming pool, one natural swimming pool and naturally a huge sauna .

I was really astonished to see people bathing in the pools while it was 10 degrees outside, for me is impossible to do that .

After I red some article about this unusual place  I understood  that this is a popular place where every kids, women and men could spend a good time swimming in two swimming pools heated to 27 degree or even go directly in the Baltic water, and could also spend their time in several wonderful  sauna all in the middle of Helsinki. The name of that place represents it well because The name of this place is called L’Allas Sea Pool and “Alla” represent “swimming pool” . I know that in Finland sauna has become a tradition, today there are almost 3 million throughout the country but having a sauna right in the middle of a harbor, for me it was amazing. Unfortunately I could not go, but if I go back to Helsinki during my Erasmus I would love to try this crazy experience which is quite natural for Finns.