“Here I Breathe Dif­fer­ent­ly” – Rana’s Jour­ney from Istan­bul to Oulu

Rana Toro, orig­i­nal­ly from Istan­bul, first came to Oulu as an exchange stu­dent and unex­pect­ed­ly found a place that felt like home. Through her jour­ney from stu­dent life to work­ing in Oulu, she dis­cov­ered the beau­ty of nature and the qui­et sense of com­mu­ni­ty the city offers. As she describes it, “Oulu has become a place where I breathe dif­fer­ent­ly.”

Hi, I’m Rana Toro, a 28-year-old Turk­ish woman who has slow­ly learned what it means to live in still­ness.

I like to call myself a “city girl in her slow liv­ing era,” because I was born and raised in Istan­bul, a city of near­ly 20 mil­lion peo­ple, where chaos and beau­ty exist in con­stant motion. Grow­ing up there meant being sur­round­ed by move­ment, noise, ener­gy, and con­stant change. Every­thing always felt alive, some­times over­whelm­ing, but always full.

Now, I live in Oulu, where silence is not emp­ty but full in a dif­fer­ent way. I am cur­rent­ly work­ing at Inter­na­tion­al House Oulu and Business­Oulu as a Com­mu­ni­ca­tions and Mar­ket­ing Assis­tant, and this city has become much more than a place I live in. It has become a place where I breathe dif­fer­ent­ly.

First encounter with Oulu through Eras­mus

I would like to start my sto­ry by shar­ing how I end­ed up in Fin­land. It feels like ages ago now.

While I was doing my Bachelor’s degree in Istan­bul, I had the oppor­tu­ni­ty to apply for Eras­mus exchange stud­ies. My pro­gramme had a part­ner­ship with the Uni­ver­si­ty of Oulu, and that’s how I first came across Oulu.

Look­ing back, that deci­sion was the begin­ning of many oth­ers that would shape my life in such a pos­i­tive way. In Jan­u­ary 2019, I land­ed in Oulu for the first time for my exchange stud­ies. It became a time full of mem­o­ries, laugh­ter, friend­ships, sad farewells, and hap­py reunions.

Learn­ing to hear silence

Before arriv­ing in Oulu, I had only pos­i­tive impres­sions of Fin­land: beau­ti­ful nature, an excel­lent edu­ca­tion sys­tem (which I was espe­cial­ly excit­ed to expe­ri­ence first-hand), the pos­si­bil­i­ty of see­ing the North­ern Lights, and a true win­ter won­der­land.

And in many ways, real­i­ty matched my expec­ta­tions, though with some sur­pris­es, such as the long, dark win­ter days.

Luck­i­ly, I was in Oulu between Jan­u­ary and May, which meant I expe­ri­enced both the long win­ter nights and the brighter spring days in a short time. That was enough for me to fall in love with both the city and its cul­ture.

Not long after, I found myself search­ing for master’s pro­grammes in Fin­land. Around the same time, the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic began, and the world felt uncer­tain. In that moment, I was try­ing to plan my future in a place where I felt calm and safe.

Even­tu­al­ly, I was admit­ted to the Learn­ing, Edu­ca­tion, and Tech­nol­o­gy Master’s pro­gramme at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Oulu, and moved back in August 2021.

Liv­ing in a small­er and more nature-con­nect­ed city felt very refresh­ing, espe­cial­ly dur­ing the pan­dem­ic.

I still remem­ber going for walks and real­iz­ing how qui­et every­thing was—so qui­et that I could hear nature itself. In autumn, I could hear birds and see squir­rels mov­ing through the trees. Those moments made me feel deeply con­nect­ed to the envi­ron­ment around me.

Over time, my short walks by near­by lakes turned into longer hikes in forests and nation­al parks.

Com­mu­ni­ty and every­day life

Oulu is home to many inter­na­tion­als, which makes set­tling in much eas­i­er. Almost every­one speaks Eng­lish well, and there are many free or low-cost activ­i­ties avail­able.

Peo­ple here are gen­er­al­ly friend­ly, open, and curi­ous. They often ask where you are from and how you are find­ing life in Oulu.

When I was a stu­dent at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Oulu, I joined dif­fer­ent stu­dent orga­ni­za­tions and com­mu­ni­ties, which gave me a strong sense of belong­ing and helped me build a social net­work.

My best advice for new­com­ers is sim­ple: go out and find your com­mu­ni­ty. Espe­cial­ly in a place like Oulu, where win­ters are long, dark, and cold, warm con­ver­sa­tions and shared moments make a big dif­fer­ence.

It sur­prised me at first how wel­com­ing peo­ple were.

Although Oulu may feel small com­pared to larg­er cities, it is actu­al­ly the fifth largest city in Fin­land. It offers both a city lifestyle and close access to nature. In addi­tion, the cost of liv­ing is gen­er­al­ly more afford­able com­pared to big­ger Finnish cities.

From stu­dent life to work

After com­plet­ing my stud­ies, I gained expe­ri­ence through vol­un­teer­ing and intern­ships. Hav­ing expe­ri­enced life both as a stu­dent and as a per­son work­ing in Oulu, I can say the city has a lot to offer in both stages.

As a stu­dent, there are many oppor­tu­ni­ties to join com­mu­ni­ties and events. At the same time, the city pro­vides numer­ous free or afford­able activ­i­ties for inter­na­tion­als.

At IH Oulu, I espe­cial­ly appre­ci­ate events such as the Board Games and Net­work­ing evenings. They bring peo­ple togeth­er in a relaxed set­ting where you can meet new peo­ple, lis­ten to inspir­ing top­ics, enjoy snacks, and play games. Whether you come straight from work or stud­ies, you always feel wel­come.

These moments make me feel part of some­thing mean­ing­ful.

Work-life bal­ance and well­be­ing

It is also heart­warm­ing to see how fam­i­ly-friend­ly Oulu is. In many pub­lic places, there are small play areas for chil­dren, which makes every­day life eas­i­er for fam­i­lies.

In work, I have also noticed how much employ­ee well­be­ing is val­ued. Work­ing hours are respect­ed, and tak­ing breaks—like cof­fee breaks—is encour­aged. This kind of bal­ance is some­thing I tru­ly appre­ci­ate.

What Oulu has taught me

Liv­ing in Oulu has changed my per­spec­tive on life.

I used to live in a busy city where I spent hours in traf­fic and had very lit­tle time for hob­bies or myself. Here, I can enjoy sim­ple things like walk­ing or cycling in peace.

After a busy day, I often go to a near­by lake, watch the ducks and swans, and sim­ply relax. These small moments bring calm and joy.

Oulu has taught me to appre­ci­ate quiet­ness. I have learned to enjoy slow moments, whether it is a win­ter walk in the dark or a warm sauna ses­sion.

If you are con­sid­er­ing mov­ing to Oulu, I would say: do it. Despite the cold and dark win­ters, there is always a warm sum­mer, and even more impor­tant­ly, a wel­com­ing com­mu­ni­ty wait­ing for you.

We’re look­ing for inspir­ing sto­ries from Oulu

If you know a per­son, com­pa­ny or com­mu­ni­ty with a strong inter­na­tion­al mind­set, let us know. We’re always hap­py to high­light local voic­es with a glob­al touch.
Send us an email: annakaisa.vaaraniemi(a)businessoulu.com

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