The Oulu Effect: How Varghese’s Fam­i­ly Found Their Finnish Rhythm

Jose Vargh­ese and his fam­i­ly have fall­en in love with Oulu. His sto­ry is a tes­ta­ment to the reward­ing life that awaits those will­ing to embrace the chal­lenges and oppor­tu­ni­ties of relo­cat­ing to this Nordic par­adise.

Jose Vargh­ese relo­cat­ed from Ban­ga­lore, India, three years ago in search of a more peace­ful life and bet­ter oppor­tu­ni­ties for his fam­i­ly.

Dri­ven by the desire for a more peace­ful life, supe­ri­or edu­ca­tion­al oppor­tu­ni­ties for their four chil­dren, and the allure of Fin­land’s renowned hap­pi­ness index, Vargh­ese and his wife embarked on a jour­ney to forge a new life.

As the first among his extend­ed fam­i­ly (includ­ing all his cousins and rel­a­tives) to ven­ture abroad, he was deter­mined to embrace this new cul­ture and pro­vide his chil­dren with a broad­er world­view.

Adapt­ing to a New Rhythm

The tran­si­tion was ini­tial­ly chal­leng­ing, with the fam­i­ly of six adjust­ing to a new cli­mate and cul­ture.

Vargh­ese recounts his ear­ly experiences with Finnish sauna cul­ture with a chuck­le, remem­ber­ing his sur­prise at encoun­ter­ing one at the Ouluhal­li swim­ming hall.

Work­ing at Nokia

Oulu’s rep­u­ta­tion as the “Home of Radio” (due to Noki­a’s long his­to­ry of pio­neer­ing radio tech­nol­o­gy research, devel­op­ment, and man­u­fac­tur­ing in Oulu) impressed him while decid­ing to relo­cate to Fin­land.

His rela­tion­ship with Nokia began in India. Now, in Oulu he is a Sr. DevOps Engi­neer.

Vargh­ese thrives in his role, lead­ing a team that devel­ops and main­tains an automa­tion plat­form for con­tin­u­ous test­ing of wire­less sig­nal per­for­mance.

Finnish Work-life Bal­ance

He has come to appre­ci­ate the Finnish work-life bal­ance, which allows him ample time for his fam­i­ly, triathlon train­ing, and his chil­dren’s hob­bies.

He has been train­ing for three years now, often joined by his chil­dren, who share his enthu­si­asm for an active lifestyle.

– There is time for every­thing, and no domi­no effect, he says, point­ing to a metic­u­lous­ly planned fam­i­ly sched­ule.

This bal­ance is a stark con­trast to his pre­vi­ous expe­ri­ence, where work stress often fol­lowed him home.

Embrac­ing the Oulu Lifestyle

Oulu’s infra­struc­ture has also impressed him. He prais­es the effi­cient pub­lic trans­porta­tion and exten­sive net­work of bike paths, which cater per­fect­ly to his pas­sion for cycling.

The city offers a wealth of oppor­tu­ni­ties for hob­bies and activ­i­ties, con­tribut­ing to a ful­fill­ing lifestyle.

Beyond the prac­ti­cal­i­ties, Vargh­ese val­ues the sense of safe­ty and inde­pen­dence that Oulu offers. His chil­dren con­fi­dent­ly nav­i­gate the city on their own, attend­ing school and pur­su­ing hob­bies with a free­dom that is less com­mon in many coun­tries.

He also high­lights the social sup­port sys­tem, which has empow­ered his wife, Jisha Vargh­ese to pur­sue her own career aspi­ra­tions after a long break.

Thanks to gov­ern­ment-fund­ed inte­gra­tion cours­es and fur­ther edu­ca­tion at the voca­tion­al school, OSAO, she is now train­ing to become a prac­ti­cal nurse spe­cial­iz­ing in child and ado­les­cent care.

He also empha­sizes the sense of accom­plish­ment that comes with home­own­er­ship, a mile­stone he and his fam­i­ly achieved six months ago. Despite the increased expens­es asso­ci­at­ed with own­ing a home, Vargh­ese finds it man­age­able and con­sid­ers the expe­ri­ence invalu­able.

Find­ing Com­mu­ni­ty

While the lan­guage bar­ri­er ini­tial­ly posed a chal­lenge in form­ing friend­ships, Vargh­ese has found com­mon ground with fel­low sports enthu­si­asts, con­nect­ing through clubs and train­ing groups like Oulu Triathalon Club and Trib­ase Coach­ing.

His Finnish lan­guage jour­ney has been grad­u­al­ly pro­gress­ing, he notes that his col­leagues and train­ing part­ners are always accom­mo­dat­ing, read­i­ly switch­ing to Eng­lish.

But he remains com­mit­ted to improv­ing his Finnish, rec­og­niz­ing its impor­tance in deep­en­ing his con­nec­tion to the com­mu­ni­ty.

Advice for Fel­low Expats

Reflect­ing on his expe­ri­ence, Vargh­ese encour­ages those con­sid­er­ing a move to Fin­land to embrace the oppor­tu­ni­ty. He advis­es learn­ing some basic Finnish before­hand and invest­ing in high-qual­i­ty win­ter cloth­ing upon arrival.

To com­bat the win­ter blues, Vargh­ese rec­om­mends stay­ing active:

– Oulu has pub­lic gyms and out­door activ­i­ties like ski­ing, and ice-skat­ing, find some­thing that inter­ests you and keep mov­ing.

Text: Man­ju Krish­na