The Calm That Changed Every­thing: Ananya’s Sto­ry in Oulu 

When Ananya Thakur board­ed a flight from Del­hi to Fin­land in July 2023, she wasn’t just cross­ing con­ti­nents, she was step­ping into a com­plete­ly new ver­sion of her­self.

At 21, she had just com­plet­ed her bachelor’s in bio­chem­istry and was deter­mined to pur­sue a master’s degree abroad. She didn’t know much about Fin­land, and even less about Oulu, but some­thing about the oppor­tu­ni­ty felt right. 

– I didn’t know any­thing about Fin­land or Oulu. My father sug­gest­ed Helsin­ki, and then I found out that I could apply to oth­er uni­ver­si­ties in Fin­land at the same time.  

– I got through the first round for Oulu, then I had an inter­view. I was inter­viewed by the dean of edu­ca­tion. I real­ly liked how he approached the inter­view and what he told me about the uni­ver­si­ty.  

She and her par­ents looked up Oulu on the map and saw how far north it was. Nat­u­ral­ly, there was hes­i­ta­tion, but her instinct told her to go. 

– I just knew I want­ed to come here even though I hadn’t researched much about the place.  

A New Life Begins 

Ananya arrived in Oulu in late July, just two months after fin­ish­ing her bach­e­lor’s degree in India. She was step­ping into the unknown, alone for the first time in her life. Luck­i­ly, the wel­come she received from a stu­dent tutor at the Uni­ver­si­ty made a last­ing impres­sion. 

– He came and helped me get from the air­port to my apart­ment and showed me around to the gro­ceries and every­thing. I was only in Oulu for 2 hours before get­ting a phone num­ber. 

The tran­si­tion wasn’t easy. The weath­er, though mild by Finnish stan­dards, felt cold to her after Delhi’s sum­mers, and the inde­pen­dence was over­whelm­ing at first. 

– Nat­u­ral­ly it was very dif­fer­ent from where I came from. I had not had much expe­ri­ence with being alone and han­dling things on my own. It took me a cou­ple of days to adjust and get famil­iar. 

– It was my first time liv­ing alone when I came here. I got through every­thing because I had this one tar­get of doing my mas­ter’s, and I was ready to do what­ev­er it takes: I just went with it. 

She laughs now at the small cul­tur­al dif­fer­ences that once con­fused her, like how to catch a bus.

– When I want­ed to get the bus on my own to get gro­ceries, I was just stand­ing there and no bus­es stopped for me. It wasn’t until some­one else came and put their arm out to get the bus to stop that I realised what I had to do.

A City That Is Bustling with Calm­ness 

After set­tling in and find­ing her feet, Ananya quick­ly realised that Oulu was a city that moved at a dif­fer­ent rhythm. It was one that matched her own in ways she hadn’t expect­ed. 

– I was very hap­py to see that it was bustling with calm­ness. It was just qui­et. Even when I come from Helsin­ki to Oulu, I know when I’m close. You can already see the things chang­ing and I think it’s some­thing in the air. 

The silence, the space, and the still­ness gave her some­thing she didn’t know she need­ed: room to grow. Being in Oulu for some impor­tant years of her ear­ly twen­ties meant that she has felt able to become the per­son she always felt she was. 

– There is no noise here. No dis­trac­tion. This real­ly allowed me to grow as a per­son. Since it was my first time being on my own, def­i­nite­ly these two years have helped me mature. I’ve had the oppor­tu­ni­ty to work on my self-devel­op­ment, under­stand­ing and mind­ful­ness. I don’t think I would have got­ten the oppor­tu­ni­ty to work on those things any­where else. 

Con­nec­tion With­out Lan­guage 

One of her most touch­ing mem­o­ries hap­pened by a lake, in a moment of unex­pect­ed con­nec­tion. She found her­self hav­ing a lengthy con­ver­sa­tion with a Finnish speak­er, even though they didn’t speak the same lan­guage. Using a pen and paper and a trans­la­tor app, Ananya man­aged to com­mu­ni­cate with­out need­ing to speak out loud. 

– That was real­ly mag­i­cal. You don’t get to expe­ri­ence this in any city. Peo­ple don’t have the patience or the time. Prob­a­bly I wouldn’t have had the time to sit there either, but here I did. 

Even with that expe­ri­ence, and a real­i­sa­tion that you can get by quite eas­i­ly in Oulu speak­ing only in Eng­lish, she shared her fond­ness for the Finnish lan­guage. 

– I real­ly like the lan­guage, I real­ly enjoy lis­ten­ing when some­one speaks. Pho­net­i­cal­ly, Finnish is very pleas­ing to the ear. I did not have much time dur­ing my mas­ter’s to study it, but now I have grad­u­at­ed I plan to study it. 

Snow, Art, and Self-Dis­cov­ery 

“Just like the heat of a kiln strength­ens the clay to become strong pot­tery, chal­leng­ing times shape us into a bet­ter ver­sion of our­selves.”

Com­ing from India, Ananya hadn’t expe­ri­enced tem­per­a­tures below 0 °C before. How­ev­er, when think­ing about the win­ters in Oulu, she spoke fond­ly of the mem­o­ry of see­ing her first snow­fall. The child­like excite­ment of look­ing out the win­dow and see­ing a blan­ket of snow is a moment she won’t be for­get­ting any time soon. 

– I had nev­er seen snow in my life… The day I looked out my win­dow and it was snowy I could not believe it. I called my fam­i­ly straight away and I had them on video call. 

The qui­et win­ters and slow­er pace of life helped her recon­nect with her cre­ative side too. She had always enjoyed paint­ing and draw­ing, but the hec­tic rhythm of life in Del­hi left lit­tle room for artis­tic pur­suits. In Oulu, how­ev­er, the calm envi­ron­ment and more bal­anced lifestyle gave her the space to return to her brush­es and sketch­books.  

– I enjoy paint­ing and draw­ing but I couldn’t find the time when I was in Del­hi but here, I could do that along with my stud­ies… The envi­ron­ment here helped me recon­nect with my artis­tic side.  

Her renewed ded­i­ca­tion to art even led to a mile­stone: one of her paint­ings was exhib­it­ed at Pik­isaari Gal­le­ria. It was a mean­ing­ful step in her cre­ative jour­ney and a reflec­tion of how much her artis­tic side had grown since mov­ing to Oulu. 

She also found joy in nature, often vis­it­ing the Botan­i­cal Gar­dens in Lin­nan­maa and walk­ing through the forests. 

– When you’re inside the Botan­i­cal Gar­dens, you feel like you’re in ‘Lit­tle Red Rid­ing Hood’ or some fairy tale. 

Ananya believes that even the dif­fi­cult or uncom­fort­able moments of mov­ing abroad have been essen­tial to her per­son­al growth, with each expe­ri­ence shap­ing her into who she is today. 

– You might not like every­thing that hap­pens to you, but that helps shape you into the beau­ti­ful human being you are meant to be. Just like the heat of a kiln strength­ens the clay to become strong pot­tery, chal­leng­ing times shape us into a bet­ter ver­sion of our­selves. This is some­thing that always helps me to take on chal­lenges and to get through them.   

A Place to Belong and Con­tribute 

Despite hav­ing a clear focus and main goal of com­plet­ing her mas­ter’s here in Oulu, Ananya didn’t just study. She also became part of the com­mu­ni­ty. Through Vil­la Vic­tor, she joined a knit­ting club, gave a sci­ence work­shop, and attend­ed a few dif­fer­ent cul­tur­al events. She says that find­ing con­nec­tions in Oulu has been quite straight­for­ward and hasn’t found it dif­fi­cult to reach out and make friends. 

– If you approach some­one for the right rea­sons, def­i­nite­ly they will talk to you. When­ev­er I’ve tried to ini­ti­ate some­thing, it has always been sup­port­ed. 

She now works as a research assis­tant at the uni­ver­si­ty and appre­ci­ates the trust and flex­i­bil­i­ty she’s been giv­en in her role. 

– I real­ly appre­ci­ate that if you’re doing some­thing, peo­ple will trust you with what you’re doing. You have your space so you can real­ly give your best. The oppor­tu­ni­ties for growth are direct­ly pro­por­tion­al to the extent to which you are will­ing to expand your­self. Even if you want you can approach a senior researcher with ideas; there’s no hier­ar­chy. 

Advice for Oth­ers 

For those con­sid­er­ing a move to Oulu, Ananya offers thought­ful advice root­ed in self-aware­ness. 

– Con­sid­er your­self and what you want, and see if the new city or coun­try aligns with the lifestyle you want. I real­ly like to immerse myself in my work and have the space and time to think deeply. Research work requires deep focus, and I real­ly want to excel at what I’m doing, so I need and love this qui­et space. If some­one is into that and wants to explore them­selves, then Oulu could be for them. 

She’s found not just a place to study, but a place to become who she wants to be. 

– I real­ly some­times can’t believe there is a place like this, and I’m liv­ing here where the trees have sil­ver trunks, and the flow­ers have gold­en petals.

“It’s straight out of a fairy tale.”