What Oulu Taught Diana About the Things Most Peo­ple Ignore

Diana Temer is an inter­na­tion­al with a mul­ti­dis­ci­pli­nary back­ground — the kind of pro­file
that tends to fol­low oppor­tu­ni­ty wher­ev­er it leads.

Diana came to Fin­land for her mas­ter’s stud­ies, and a decade lat­er, she is still here. Near­ly four years ago, she moved to Oulu when her part­ner got a job here. What she found was a city that sur­prised her: large and well-con­nect­ed, with strong infra­struc­ture, good trans­port links, a con­ve­nient loca­tion and, per­haps most unex­pect­ed­ly, a gen­uine sense of calm. The kind of calm that is hard to find in a city that size. It was­n’t what she had antic­i­pat­ed. It was bet­ter. And some­where between that first impres­sion and today, Oulu stopped being a des­ti­na­tion and became home.

From oppor­tu­ni­ty to belong­ing

Diana holds a master’s and PhD in Chem­istry, and a mas­ter’s in indus­tri­al man­age­ment, with expe­ri­ence across acad­e­mia, research, devel­op­ment, sus­tain­abil­i­ty, and start­up envi­ron­ments; it is a com­bi­na­tion that has tak­en her in many direc­tions over the years.

It was dur­ing her mas­ter’s stud­ies that she first heard of Oulu – from a flat mate who was orig­i­nal­ly from Oulu. Curi­ous, Diana looked it up and was sur­prised by how far north it was. But geog­ra­phy was­n’t the whole sto­ry. Oulu turned out to be one of Fin­land’s largest cities, with a strong tech­nol­o­gy sec­tor and a rep­u­ta­tion as the coun­try’s Sil­i­con Val­ley. For some­one with her range of inter­ests, that com­bi­na­tion of scale, good infra­struc­ture, and indus­try was hard to ignore. This city seemed to her to be a place where her back­ground could real­ly be use­ful: where dif­fer­ent fields of knowl­edge met, rather than com­pet­ing. That thought didn’t leave her mind. So, when the chance to move there appeared, it did not seem like a gam­ble. It seemed like the log­i­cal next step.

A city where nature is part of every­day life

Diana keeps an active life. She goes to the gym, plays vol­ley­ball, and hikes reg­u­lar­ly. And in Oulu, that kind of lifestyle fits nat­u­ral­ly. The city makes it easy.

Above all, she loves the forests. She calls them her ‘place of pow­er’ — a space to slow down, clear her head, and breathe. Hav­ing lived in Brus­sels and Lon­don, she knows what larg­er cities can and can­not give you. Oulu’s forests offer some­thing those cities sim­ply don’t. The silence there is real.

That still­ness shows up in oth­er ways too. On clear nights, she does­n’t need to trav­el any­where or plan any­thing in advance, as she can watch the North­ern Lights from her own bal­cony. It sounds like the kind of detail that belongs in a trav­el mag­a­zine, but for Diana it’s just a Tues­day evening.

She also notices the wildlife. Birds, rab­bits, hedge­hogs – they appear in ordi­nary moments, on a walk through the for­est or a path she has tak­en many times before.

-Some­times, when I walk through the forests and see birds, rab­bits and hedge­hogs around me, I feel like a Dis­ney princess, she laughs.

The effect on her health has been real. Since she moved to Fin­land, she feels health­i­er than ever. She explains this with clean air, clean water, high-qual­i­ty food and a rhythm of life that leaves room for relax­ation. The work-life bal­ance is real here, not just a phrase that peo­ple use. She notices this most of all when she returns from trips abroad. in Oulu, just the air alone speaks for itself.

Build for an active lifestyle

One of the first things Diana noticed in Oulu was the cycling infra­struc­ture. The net­work of bike paths is exten­sive, the sig­nage clear, and the flat ter­rain makes it effort­less. Cycling has become a nat­ur­al part of her dai­ly rou­tine in sum­mer and in win­ter as well. Cycling through win­ter is nor­mal in Oulu, and Diana does the same. The only days she leaves the bike at home are when it gets tru­ly freez­ing or too windy.

Oulu also makes it easy to stay active in oth­er ways. Out­door fit­ness parks are every­where around the city. They are free, well-equipped, and easy to find. Diana uses them reg­u­lar­ly. Gyms, sports facil­i­ties, and trails are all close by. She appre­ci­ates that keep­ing an active lifestyle here does­n’t require much plan­ning or mon­ey. Every­thing is sim­ply acces­si­ble.

There is a social side to it too. Cycling or spend­ing time out­doors is some­thing she enjoys with friends. How­ev­er, she equal­ly val­ues the solo moments. A ride through the city alone, or a qui­et trail with no par­tic­u­lar des­ti­na­tion, mat­ters just as much.

For some­one who loves to keep mov­ing, Oulu is the right place to be.

Explor­ing Oulu, one sea­son at a time

One of the things Diana loves about Oulu is that the city nev­er looks the same twice. Each sea­son has its own per­son­al­i­ty: sum­mer brings warm days, end­less day­light, and the city in full bloom; autumn shifts the forests into deep reds and oranges dur­ing Rus­ka; win­ter cov­ers every­thing in snow and turns the land­scape into some­thing qui­et­ly mag­i­cal; and spring feels like the city tak­ing a long breath after months of dark­ness.

When the warmer months arrive, she often makes her way to Hailu­o­to, a small island just out­side the city. She goes there to walk and enjoy the still­ness. Close enough to reach eas­i­ly, far enough to feel like a prop­er escape.

Every­day life in Oulu is also just easy. Shop­ping cen­tres and essen­tial ser­vices are spread across dif­fer­ent neigh­bour­hoods, so every­thing you need is near­by.  There are no long com­mutes, no unnec­es­sary com­pli­ca­tions. The city is well-organ­ised in a way that qui­et­ly saves you time and ener­gy with­out you even notic­ing.

Finnish as a path to belong­ing

Learn­ing Finnish was nev­er option­al for Diana. It was some­thing she sim­ply decid­ed to do. She took cours­es, stud­ied on her own, then threw her­self into it ful­ly by work­ing in Finnish all day, every day. Evenings went to study. Grad­u­al­ly, the lan­guage stopped feel­ing like an obsta­cle and start­ed feel­ing like a key.

Today she reads the news in Finnish, runs meet­ings in Finnish, and speaks with peo­ple with­out the low-lev­el stress that fol­lows you in the ear­ly stages of learn­ing a lan­guage. The lan­guage opened up the cul­ture too. She under­stands how peo­ple think, fol­lows what is hap­pen­ing in the coun­try, and com­mu­ni­cates with con­fi­dence. When Finns in Oulu keep the con­ver­sa­tion in Finnish instead of switch­ing to Eng­lish, she appre­ci­ates it. It keeps her sharp, and it makes inter­ac­tions feel more nat­ur­al.

She feels more Finnish than for­eign now. That did­n’t hap­pen auto­mat­i­cal­ly; it came from the lan­guage.

Her favourite Finnish word is no niin. It is almost impos­si­ble to trans­late, because it can mean almost any­thing depend­ing on how you say it. “Let’s get start­ed.” “Well, I was right.” “Alright, mov­ing on.” “Oops.” The mean­ing shifts with the tone, and some­how Finns always under­stand each oth­er per­fect­ly. For Diana, it cap­tures some­thing essen­tial about the lan­guage and about the cul­ture.

Diana’s advice for mov­ing to Oulu

Diana’s mes­sage to any­one con­sid­er­ing a move to Oulu is straight­for­ward: ask for help when you need it. The city has a sol­id net­work of organ­i­sa­tions sup­port­ing inter­na­tion­als with lan­guage cours­es, career guid­ance, and inte­gra­tion ser­vices. They exist, they are acces­si­ble and there is no rea­son not to use them.

Build­ing a social net­work mat­ters too, espe­cial­ly through win­ter. The dark months can be long, but hav­ing peo­ple around you changes the expe­ri­ence entire­ly. Com­mu­ni­ty events, new con­nec­tions, shared activ­i­ties: these are what car­ry you through.

But her most per­son­al piece of advice is sim­ple: when things get hard, don’t give up. Mov­ing to a new city, learn­ing a new lan­guage, build­ing a life some­where unfa­mil­iar – none of it is easy. Diana knows this from her own jour­ney. The dif­fi­cult moments are part of it. Just keep going, even when it feels hard.

Look­ing back, she would­n’t change any of it. Oulu gave her what she was look­ing for, and along the way it gave the things she had­n’t thought to look for at all. That, she says, is the best kind of sur­prise a city can offer.

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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