Embrac­ing Fin­land: My Sto­ry of Embrac­ing Change

The Begin­ning

Before com­ing here, I already knew that Fin­land is the world’s hap­pi­est coun­try for the last sev­en years and it is one of most beau­ti­ful coun­tries across the globe. So, I was look­ing for­ward to a new begin­ning with a lot of antic­i­pa­tion. But on the inside, I was also some­what scared — because I had nev­er lived in a for­eign land before and I was wor­ried about the idea of set­tling in a total­ly dif­fer­ent cul­ture. And to add to that, I heard about the infa­mous cold win­ter days of Oulu.

So, with a heavy heart of leav­ing the loved ones behind and the excite­ment to start a new jour­ney, I land­ed in Helsin­ki Air­port on one fine after­noon of Octo­ber 03, 2024. The first expres­sion that came to my mind was, “wow! It’s final­ly hap­pen­ing.” After com­plet­ing the immi­gra­tion pro­ce­dure, we start­ed our jour­ney to Oulu, my new home. Even before com­ing here, I used to look through google maps to see how my apart­ment in Oulu would look like and how the sur­round­ings are. There was a lake that I saw, and I used to think about sit­ting beside the lake in the sum­mer after­noons with some cof­fee. And the moment I final­ly arrived at my address, I real­ized that all the pleas­ant thoughts about my beau­ti­ful apart­ment are exact­ly the same as it showed. It is peace­ful, it is dreamy. From that day, Oulu has been in my heart.

Get­ting Start­ed

After some days, I start­ed to explore to find places where I can make myself acquaint­ed to Fin­land’s cul­ture and peo­ple. As my hus­band start­ed his uni­ver­si­ty days, I tried to fig­ure out where we could go to blend with peo­ple. Luck­i­ly, we made a few friends and togeth­er, we would search for events. That’s how I came to know about the Inter­na­tion­al House Oulu which is a great plat­form for the immi­grants and new­com­ers to exchange cul­ture and build com­mu­ni­ty.

Apart from this, I got involved with the Oulu Uni­ver­si­ty spouse net­work pro­gram and Vil­la Vic­tor where I start­ed meet­ing new peo­ple and mak­ing friends. I believe as a new­com­er, this is the best way to get involved with a new cul­ture and with­out know­ing it first, it is hard to cope in a new coun­try.

Sauna and Ski

I heard so much about Finnish Sauna and want­ed to try it at least once dur­ing win­ter. The spouse net­work pro­gram gave me an oppor­tu­ni­ty to par­tic­i­pate in one. It was a dark cold evening in Decem­ber. Every­thing was cov­ered with snow. We went to Sauna Fer­ry SMBoat in Kasarmintie to face the chal­lenge. I was so hes­i­tant at first but the Finns, how can I thank them, they were so jol­ly mind­ed and moti­vat­ed me to try that on. And with fear and excite­ment, when I dipped in freez­ing cold water after the Sauna, the expe­ri­ence was just amaz­ing. I thanked every­one for moti­vat­ing me and after that day, Sauna has become my rou­tine for the week­ends. That’s how it becomes more excit­ing to try oth­er win­ter activ­i­ties. I par­tic­i­pat­ed in a cross-coun­try ski train­ing course from where I now know that ski­ing is one of the most fan­tas­tic sports dur­ing the win­ter days. I fell down many times on the first day but got bet­ter with the pass­ing days. I would sug­gest every new­com­er to try it; you’ll feel superb.