Vali­a’s Expe­ri­ence: Embrac­ing Life, Growth, and Com­mu­ni­ty in Oulu

I first came to Oulu in 2012, which was also my first trip to Europe. I came straight to Oulu to vis­it some friends, and now I’ve been here for nine years. When I first heard about Oulu, all I knew was that it was very far away and close to the Arc­tic Cir­cle. I expect­ed to see a lot of snow, and when I arrived, it def­i­nite­ly didn’t dis­ap­point!

My first impres­sion of Oulu was that it was a busy city, with events hap­pen­ing no mat­ter the sea­son. The very first event I attend­ed involved rein­deer at Tori Ranta, and I got to expe­ri­ence a sleigh ride for the first time in ‑15°C weath­er! It was such a mem­o­rable intro­duc­tion to the city.

As for life in Oulu, I would describe it as both bustling and calm. The city is very active, thanks to the hard work of the munic­i­pal­i­ty, asso­ci­a­tions, and cul­tur­al cen­ters. There are so many free hob­by groups and com­mu­ni­ties where peo­ple can con­nect. At the same time, Oulu’s exten­sive net­work of cycle paths keeps traf­fic man­age­able, so it nev­er feels over­whelm­ing. Per­son­al­ly, I’ve start­ed walk­ing in the for­est as a hobby—just putting on my head­phones, lis­ten­ing to music, and wan­der­ing through the trees. It’s incred­i­bly peace­ful, and it’s one of the things that makes Oulu feel like a great place for fam­i­lies. It’s safe, and chil­dren can move around freely, often by bike.

Liv­ing in Oulu has had a big impact on my life. It has giv­en me peace of mind as a moth­er, and I’ve been able to watch my daugh­ter grow up inde­pen­dent­ly in this city. I even start­ed a Span­ish club for chil­dren so that my daugh­ter could learn the lan­guage while social­iz­ing and play­ing with oth­er kids who speak Span­ish. Oulu is home to many for­eign­ers, so it’s easy to find peo­ple who share your lan­guage and cul­ture. My daugh­ter is involved in sev­er­al hob­bies out­side of school, and our week feels well-orga­nized and bal­anced, thanks to what the city offers. I would love to see some­thing sim­i­lar hap­pen in my home­town one day.

One of the things I love most about Oulu is how close we are to nature. If we’re bored in the after­noon, all I have to do is walk a short dis­tance, and we can have a sausage cook­out in the for­est! My favorite activ­i­ty right now is being part of the Oulu Span­ish-speak­ing asso­ci­a­tion, where we orga­nize events and activ­i­ties relat­ed to our lan­guage and cul­ture. It’s been won­der­ful to see how well our events are received in the city.

Regard­ing the Finnish lan­guage, I believe it’s an impor­tant tool for inte­gra­tion, though it depends on how immersed an immi­grant wants to be. Many peo­ple here speak Eng­lish, so for some, learn­ing Finnish may not feel urgent. But if you want to work out­side of the cap­i­tal region, Finnish is essen­tial. For me, learn­ing the lan­guage took time. I start­ed study­ing dur­ing my preg­nan­cy, but after a year off, I had to start over. I took inte­gra­tion cours­es, but I always felt like I wasn’t pro­gress­ing fast enough. Even­tu­al­ly, I real­ized that start­ing to work was the best way to improve my Finnish. Being in a Finnish-speak­ing envi­ron­ment helped me over­come my fear and improve my skills.

Oulu has offered me oppor­tu­ni­ties I might not have found else­where. Through my inte­gra­tion course, I was able to do intern­ships and meet peo­ple who have been impor­tant in my jour­ney. These con­nec­tions helped me demon­strate my skills and con­tin­ue to guide me.

The beau­ty of Fin­land, and espe­cial­ly Oulu, is that it allows you to dis­cov­er or devel­op new skills. I’ve met many for­eign­ers here who dis­cov­ered tal­ents they didn’t know they had. There are so many short cours­es avail­able, rang­ing from one to three years, offer­ing plen­ty of options for for­eign­ers. My own intern­ship helped me build a net­work and ulti­mate­ly led to employ­ment in the same place.

One of my best mem­o­ries from Oulu is from my mater­ni­ty leave in the sum­mer. My moth­er came to vis­it, and every day we would take the bus to explore the city, vis­it the beach, and attend var­i­ous city events. It was a spe­cial time, full of adven­ture and bond­ing.

If I were to give advice to any­one con­sid­er­ing a move to Oulu, it would be to stay open to new experiences. There’s always some­thing hap­pen­ing, and it’s a great way to meet peo­ple who share your inter­ests, whether they’re Finns or fel­low for­eign­ers. When I first moved here, I didn’t have a job or a place in school, but with­in a week, I met some­one who intro­duced me to vol­un­teer­ing with the Red Cross. It was a love­ly expe­ri­ence that I con­tin­ued for years.

As Pres­i­dent of El Patio, I warm­ly invite you to join our com­mu­ni­ty and fol­low us on SoMe, where we share updates about our events and activ­i­ties.

Our Café en español meets month­ly at Pekuri Yhteysti­la, pro­vid­ing a great space for any­one look­ing to prac­tice Span­ish or make new friends. For book lovers, we also host read­ing events at the Pekuri Library every oth­er month.

For our younger mem­bers, we offer Club de español every Tues­day at MLL Per­hep­esä in the city cen­ter, a wel­com­ing place for kids to enjoy Span­ish-lan­guage activ­i­ties.

We’re thrilled to offer unique experiences through­out the year, like our day trip to Vir­pinie­mi in Feb­ru­ary and a sum­mer pic­nic at Hol­li­ha­ka park in May. This year, we also host­ed a Mex­i­can food work­shop and are plan­ning more culi­nary events fea­tur­ing cuisines from across the Span­ish-speak­ing world.

In Sep­tem­ber, we joined the Oulu Days cel­e­bra­tion, pre­sent­ing a live­ly con­cert with the band Mac­chu Pic­chu at Valve Sali. Look­ing ahead, we’ll be cel­e­brat­ing the hol­i­day sea­son with our Pikku­joulu on Decem­ber 1st. This is an open event with lim­it­ed capac­i­ty, so please reg­is­ter by Novem­ber 1st if you’d like to join us.

Whether you’re inter­est­ed in prac­tic­ing Span­ish, learn­ing about His­pan­ic cul­tures, or sim­ply meet­ing new peo­ple, we wel­come you to become a mem­ber of El Patio!

Insta­gram: @el_patio_oulu

Email: elpatio.oulu@gmail.com

Text edit­ed by: Jes­si­ca Segu­ra Polo