Pur­suing Dreams from Brazil: Eduardo’s Path of Gra­ti­tu­de

Meet Eduar­do Tomi­na­ga, who’s been living in Oulu for almost 5 years now. He’s a PhD stu­dent at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Oulu, con­duc­ting research on wire­less com­mu­nica­tions as part of the 6G Flags­hip team. He’s ori­gi­nal­ly from Flo­ria­no­po­lis, Brazil, an island off the coast of Brazil’s main­land.

Befo­re comple­ting his bachelor’s degree in elect­rical engi­nee­ring in Brazil, Eduar­do Tomi­na­ga expres­sed his inte­rest in wire­less com­mu­nica­tions to his pro­fes­sor and his desi­re to pur­sue furt­her stu­dies abroad. For­tu­na­te­ly, his pro­fes­sor in Brazil had con­nec­tions in Oulu, as one of his pre­vious stu­dents is a pro­fes­sor at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Oulu.

Eduar­do had always dreamt about stu­dying abroad and acqui­ring his mas­ters. Fol­lowing a few Sky­pe inter­views with his professor’s for­mer stu­dent, he was accep­ted to the Uni­ver­si­ty of Oulu.

Thoughts of Oulu

Remi­niscing about his ini­tial arri­val in Oulu, Eduar­do recalls percei­ving Oulu as sig­ni­ficant­ly smal­ler com­pa­red to his home­town and that it was excep­tio­nal­ly cold even though it was plus 6 degrees. He men­tio­ned that even though Oulu is a small city, it holds bene­fits from both big and smal­ler cities, the­re are nice bars and the people in Oulu are welco­ming.

For Eduar­do, Oulu is a won­der­ful place to live, and the best place to research and work in the telecom­mu­nica­tions field. The only con living so far up north is being far away from other places and as he loves tra­vel­ling, it’s a struggle having to tra­vel to Hel­sin­ki first befo­re tra­vel­ling out­si­de of the count­ry.

Eduar­do thinks of Oulu as a safe, won­der­ful place and even though it’s far up north, the­re are a lot of inter­na­tio­nal people. He’s met people from all over the world here and has made friends with people from dif­fe­rent cul­tu­ral backgrounds for which he is gra­te­ful for. When it comes to the Fin­nish lan­gua­ge, he has taken cour­ses during his master’s stu­dies and would like to con­ti­nue lear­ning the lan­gua­ge but says he’s able to navi­ga­te dai­ly life using English alo­ne.

A Day in the Life of Eduar­do

Eduar­do has a varie­ty of hob­bies, but his favo­ri­te hob­by is hit­ting the gym; he proud­ly calls him­self a “gym rat”. His day typical­ly begins with an ear­ly mor­ning gym ses­sion las­ting about an hour.

Ini­tii­al­ly he would then attend lec­tu­res at the uni­ver­si­ty, but as his focus shif­ted to research, he now deci­des between wor­king at the office or from home. After comple­ting his tasks for the day, Eduar­do enjo­ys mee­ting up with friends for cof­fee or din­ner.

Reflec­ting on the dif­fe­rences between wor­king sty­les in Fin­land and Brazil, Eduar­do notes that Finland’s work cul­tu­re is more orga­nized and relaxed, with a strong emp­ha­sis on main­tai­ning a health work-life balance.

He apprecia­tes the lon­ger paid holi­days and finds the ove­rall wor­king envi­ron­ment to be less stress­ful. Gra­te­ful for the oppor­tu­ni­ties Oulu has pro­vi­ded him, Eduar­do expres­ses his desi­re to con­ti­nue living and wor­king in Fin­land even after comple­ting his research.

Having Good Sup­port Around

Eduar­do has expe­rienced some chal­len­ges during his time here, but thanks to the strong sup­port sys­tem around him, he’s mana­ged to overco­me them. Whi­le he ack­now­led­ges the dif­ficul­ty of lear­ning the Fin­nish lan­gua­ge, he’s gra­te­ful for the many English-spea­king friends he’s made, as well as the surpri­sing disco­ver of a lar­ge Brazi­lian com­mu­ni­ty in Oulu.

The­se con­nec­tions have pro­vi­ded him with a sen­se of belon­ging, making it feel like a second fami­ly away from home.

“Oulu has made my dreams come true.”

One of Eduardo’s pri­ma­ry chal­len­ges revol­ves around his men­tal health. Alt­hough he occa­sio­nal­ly grapples with the thoughts of quit­ting, he tells him­self to per­se­ve­re and remem­bers that great outco­mes come from hards­hips. He explai­ned that it’s impor­tant to find hob­bies that bring you hap­pi­ness and keep your men­tal health strong, for example his love for wor­king out has hel­ped him throug­hout the dif­ficult times.

Addi­tio­nal­ly, he emp­ha­sizes the impor­tance of sur­roun­ding one­self with sup­por­ti­ve indi­vi­duals who can pro­vi­de com­fort and com­pa­nions­hip during chal­len­ging moments.

Gra­te­ful for Fin­land, Eduar­do recog­nizes that Oulu has made his dreams come true, fos­te­ring a deep sen­se of apprecia­tion and com­mit­ment to giving back to the count­ry.

Text: Adrian Cana­les