Nelson’s Bliss­ful Tran­si­tion to Life in Oulu

Nel­son Otieno swapped the fast-paced streets of Nairo­bi and the hot, humid air of Kisumu for the calm and crisp air of Oulu, and he hasn’t looked back since.

A sec­ond-year master’s stu­dent at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Oulu, Nel­son Otieno is study­ing Edu­ca­tion for Glob­al Futures while also pur­su­ing his pas­sion for events as a pro­fes­sion­al MC and host.

His inter­ests span project man­age­ment, star­tups, arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence, and organ­i­sa­tion­al devel­op­ment, mak­ing him a dynam­ic part of Oulu’s inter­na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty.

Why Oulu?

Nel­son dis­cov­ered Oulu while search­ing online for a master’s pro­gram in Fin­land. The course he found matched his ambi­tions per­fect­ly, and soon he was pack­ing his bags for the north. A year lat­er, he describes his expe­ri­ence as noth­ing short of bliss.

– I came to Oulu to pur­sue my mas­ters stud­ies, Edu­ca­tion for Glob­al Futures. The past one year has been pure bliss!

Before arriv­ing, Nelson’s image of Oulu came from YouTube videos, city web­sites, and Inter­na­tion­al House Oulu’s social media.

It looked like the ide­al stu­dent city – qui­et, safe, and wel­com­ing. The only thing that gave him pause was the win­ter, which he admits he ini­tial­ly dread­ed.

– From look­ing online, Oulu seemed to be the per­fect stu­dent City. I was drawn to its qui­et envi­ron­ment. Inter­est­ing­ly when I land­ed here, I wasn’t so sure about the win­ter, I dread­ed it.

Life in Oulu

For Nel­son, Oulu offers the best of both worlds. It’s a city where he can find peace and qui­et for study­ing, but also a vibrant inter­na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty and plen­ty of social oppor­tu­ni­ties. He appre­ci­ates the bal­ance and the abil­i­ty to choose the lifestyle that suits him.

– I find this place very con­ducive for my stud­ies. This is because you get what you want. If you want peace and qui­et, you get it. If you are a life of the par­ty, you get it. The inter­na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty is vibrant.

One of the biggest sur­pris­es has been the lev­el of safe­ty. Walk­ing at night with­out fear and recov­er­ing lost items from the police sta­tion were experiences that felt almost unbe­liev­able com­pared to Nairo­bi or Kisumu.

“Here you walk in the mid­dle of the night, and noth­ing will hap­pen to you.”

– Here you walk in the mid­dle of the night, and noth­ing will hap­pen to you. OMG the secu­ri­ty is great! You lose your stuff; you are sure to get it at the police sta­tion. I lost my ATM card and three days lat­er I found it at the lost and found it with the police.
He also noticed cul­tur­al quirks, like Finns’ love for per­son­al space… even on a bus with emp­ty seats.

– I am par­tic­u­lar­ly amused by the Finnish cul­ture. One thing is the way Finnish peo­ple like their own space. Case in point in the bus, some­one would stand even though there are emp­ty seats with only one per­son.

Nature and Fresh Air

Hav­ing worked in two bustling cities, Nel­son finds Oulu’s nat­ur­al envi­ron­ment ther­a­peu­tic. He enjoys walk­ing in forests, cycling to lakes, and sim­ply breath­ing in the fresh air. Kuiv­asjärvi beach, close to his apart­ment, is one of his favorite spots.

– If I com­pare it to Nairo­bi, then this is a very slow and qui­et and safe place. Nairo­bi is the oppo­site, a lot of human traf­fic, can be noisy and the air is not as fresh as Oulu’s. Every­one in Nairo­bi seems to be in a hur­ry and you must ensure your own safe­ty or rather watch your back. Oulu on the oth­er hand gives you safe­ty, fresh air, forests, great cycle lanes and so on.

Get­ting Around

Nel­son loves Oulu’s size and mobil­i­ty. The city is easy to nav­i­gate, and its cycling lanes are among the best in Europe. He cycles often but also uses bus­es and trains, espe­cial­ly with stu­dent dis­counts that make trav­el across Fin­land afford­able and con­ve­nient.

– There are arguably the best cycling lanes in Europe here in Oulu. This makes it easy to move around with­in the city cen­tre and out­side. I love using the train when­ev­er I am trav­el­ling out of Oulu.

Lan­guage and Inte­gra­tion

Learn­ing Finnish has been a chal­lenge, but Nel­son is com­mit­ted. He has com­plet­ed sev­er­al begin­ner cours­es and prac­tices with friends, apps, and trans­la­tion tools. For him, lan­guage skills are essen­tial for inte­gra­tion, job oppor­tu­ni­ties, and build­ing deep­er con­nec­tions with locals.

– Finnish lan­guage is the eas­i­est lan­guage on earth! Kid­ding, I find the lan­guage a lit­tle chal­leng­ing but it is pos­si­ble to learn with a bit of inten­tion­al­i­ty and time.

Work-Life Cul­ture

Nel­son com­plet­ed an intern­ship at Mul­ti­cul­tur­al Cen­tre Vil­la Vic­tor. This gave him a taste of Finnish work life, which he found refresh­ing­ly bal­anced. Cof­fee breaks were a nov­el­ty, and he quick­ly learned that stay­ing late isn’t the norm.

Host­ing the Wel­come Oulu event dur­ing his intern­ship stands out as one of his best mem­o­ries, some­thing he con­sid­ers a mile­stone in his career as an inter­na­tion­al event host.

– We do not have cof­fee breaks in Kenya. I am used to work­ing from morn­ing to lunchtime then to evening and back home. Here, dur­ing my intern­ship, I realised Finnish peo­ple love cof­fee, they take the breaks seri­ous­ly. I tried stay­ing back longer hours after 4 PM and my super­vi­sor was like, Nel­son you need to go home.

Com­mu­ni­ty and Net­work­ing

Events have been Nelson’s gate­way to build­ing a strong net­work.

– I love events. There are a lot of events going on in this city, I can­not attend all, but I choose what’s most valu­able to me and attend them. I become very inten­tion­al when I book them in my cal­en­dar. My first net­work­ing event was at the Inter­na­tion­al House Oulu boardgames event. With such events I have been able to net­work and know more peo­ple with­in and out­side the Uni­ver­si­ty.

He even runs a mul­ti­cul­tur­al book club as part of a well­be­ing pro­gram. The club organ­is­es activ­i­ties like bar­be­ques, nature walks, board games, and movie nights, cre­at­ing a sup­port­ive space for inter­na­tion­al stu­dents to con­nect and unwind.

– The mul­ti­cul­tur­al book­club I run helps me to ease the pres­sure from school­work and being in a for­eign coun­try. It also helps every­one with their men­tal health as we get to check on each oth­er every month as we read books. I have gained very mean­ing­ful friend­ships from Kitabu Cul­ture Book Club.

Advice for New­com­ers

Nel­son encour­ages any­one con­sid­er­ing Oulu to take the leap. His advice is sim­ple: pack your bags, bring plen­ty of deter­mi­na­tion, and be ready to fall in love with the city. For him, Oulu offers a unique mix of calm, com­mu­ni­ty, and oppor­tu­ni­ty that is hard to find else­where.

– Pack your bags, what are you wait­ing for? In that bag, ensure you have some SISU! Be ready to fall in love with this place. At least no one warned me about that.

As he approach­es the end of his master’s pro­gram, Nel­son feels grate­ful for the friend­ships, net­works, and sense of belong­ing he has found in Oulu. He believes life here can be what­ev­er you make it – peace­ful, vibrant, or a mix of both – and he looks for­ward to what the future holds.

Text: Sophie Platt

Arti­cles you may be inter­est­ed in