Text & Photos: Agnieszka 'Saari' Koczorowska                                                                 

Coming to Finland / Droga do Finlandii

For a long time now I've been fascinated with Finland, the cold contry far north from my home city, but which won my heart with the nature, interesting people, very strange but nice sounding language, great music and lots of other things. That's why I decided to give a try with the student's exchange thing at my school cause there was the possibility to go to my dear Suomi. I was surprised with how easily I got into the Erasmus program (people don't want to go there, well that's their problem). But leaving Poland appeared to be harder than I thought. The preparation time was long and tiring, there were many problems, and I had many doubts concerning finances and leaving my beloved fiance. But finally at 10th of February 2009 I managed to leave Cracow and start probably the biggest journey in my life.

Od dluzszego czasu bylam zafascynowana Finlandia, zimnym krajem lezacym daleko na polnocy od mojego rodzinnego miasta, ale ktory jednak zdolal podbic moje serce piekna przyroda, ciekawymi ludzmi, dziwnym ale milym dla ucha jezykiem, swietnym jak na warunki postepem cywilizacyjnym, dobra muzyka i mnostwem innych rzeczy. Z tego powodu zdecydowalam sprobowac swoich sil by zdobyc stypendium na wymiane studencka, gdyz akurat moj kierunek daje mozliwosc spedzenia kilku miesiecy w mojej drogiej Suomi. Bylam zaskoczona tym jak latwo udalo mi sie dostac do Erasmusa (nikt nie chce jechac, coz, wasza strata). Wyjazd z Polski okazal sie trudniejszy niz przypuszczalam, bylo wiele problemow z papierami i finansami, mialam wiele watpliwosci dotyczacych  funduszy i zostawienia biednego narzeczonego w Polsce samego. Jednakze mimo wszystko 10 lutego 2009 roku opuscilam Krakow i rozpoczelam prawdopodobnie najwieksza wycieczke mojego zycia.

The road from Cracow to Kouvola was quite a long one and tiring (1200km's of driving and 200 on ferry, 3 days of journey). The biggest problems was that I was in a hurry cause I was coming really late and I didn't want to make my finnish teachers angry because of more delaying. That's why I almost didn't stop, and slept very little. Which wasn't the very best idea of mine. Anyway.. that's the reason for which I have no pictures from the road. But I promise to make some of them while going back :)

 Droga z Krakowa do Kouvoli byla dosc dluga i meczaca (1200km jazdy i 200 promem, 3 dni w drodze). Najwiekszym problemem bylo to, ze strasznie sie spieszylam przez wczesniejsze opoznienia. Nie chcialam by moi finscy profesorzy sie denerwowali z powodu dluzszego oczekiwania. Dlatego prawie sie nie zatrzymywalam i spalam bardzo niewiele. Co nie bylo najlepszym pomyslem. W kazdym razie z tego tez powodu nie mam zdjec z trasy dojazdowej. Obiecuje zrobic jakies w drodze powrotnej :)

That's the ship on which I was going from Tallin in Estonia to the capital of Finland - Helsinki. It's name is Superstar, and it's quite a luxury ferry with lots of attractions inside to make people not bored, and even cabins with beds,  even though the trip lasts only 2 hours :P

Tym statkiem ja i moj samochodzik przeplynelismy z Tallina w Estonii do Helsinek, stolicy Finlandii. Nazywa sie Superstar i jak na prom, ktory plynie tylko dwie godziny, ma duzo atrakcji w srodku... wlacznie z kabinami do spania :P 

My last view of Tallin when the ferry started leaving the harbour. What's the funniest.. the view from the other side of the ship was much better cause I could see the old town from there... but of course this was the perfect moment for the batteries in my camera to die. And the new ones were in the car, which was on the locked deck. Oh well.. 

Ostatnie spojrzenie na Tallin w momencie kiedy prom zaczal odplywac. Co najsmiejszniejsze, z drugiej strony statku byl o wiele lepszy widok, na stare miasto, ale oczywiscie wtedy musialy pasc mi baterie w aparacie, a nowe byly w samochodzie, na zamknietym pokladzie.. No coz... 

Helsinki city was so complicated, and I was a bit fed up with all this driving so I didn't even stop there for a minute, just continued my journey till I've reached Kouvola. Of course I will check out the capital, but some other day. Here you have some shots of Finnish highways. Quite nice and safe :) But the picture making wasn't safe thing so don't copy my immature act :P

Helsinki byly bardzo skomplikowane do opuszczenia, a ja mialam juz troche dosc jezdzenia by chciec sie tam zatrzymac. Postanowilam wiec kontynuowac moja podroz az do Kouvoli. Stolice zwiedze oczywiscie, ale w innym terminie. Tu macie dwa ujecia finskiej autostrady. Ta akurat jest dwupasmowa, sa tez takie z trzema. Proces robienia zdjecia nie byl bezpieczny, ne powtarzajcie tego :P

The dormitory. Not very beautiful but a nice place (and cheap! :D). 

Akademik. Niezbyt piekne, ale mile miejsce (i tanie! :D).

The inside look at the dormitory. Common room (in the state of being perfectly clean, usually there's such a mess there that we can hardly even find a coach) and the kitchen which is not really that white and nice, but my camera decided to fix up that a bit :D I need to make a pic of my room too, but I forget about it all the time. I have only one with after-moving-in mess so I won't show it :P

Wnetrze akademika. Pokoj wspolny (apogeum czystosci, zazwyczaj przy tych ludziach to taki bajzel tam panuje, ze ciezko znalezc kanape) i kuchnia, ktora w rzeczywistosci nie jest taka biala i ladna.. to moj aparat postanowil troche polepszyc warunki :D Musze zrobic zdjecie swojego pokoju, ale poki co zapominam ciagle. Mam tylko jedno z poprzeprowadzkowym balaganem wiec nie bede pokazywac :P

I've met Anna for the first time here in dormitory. She's a very kind person from Chorkowka in Poland. She's the only one that's studying here social like me so mainly I spend time with her because we have same lectures. She was also the one who kept me trying to go when I felt tired and hopeless and wanted to resign xD

 Anne spotkalam tu na miejscu w akademiku. Jest to bardzo mila osoba z Chorkowki (kolo Krosna). Jako jedyna z Erasmusow studiuje tu Nauki Spoleczne tak jak ja wiec wiekszosc czasu spedzam z nia bo mamy razem zajecia. Ona tez wlasnie trzymala mnie na duchu e-mailami przed wyjazdem jak juz mialam ochote sie poddac xD

Here's some other people that you can meet in our dormitory.

Kilku innych ludzi, ktorych mozna spotkac w naszym akademiku.

From the left. Polina from Russia, Giulia from Italy , and Noora, one of finnish people who come to us and help :)

Od lewej: Polina z Rosji, Giulia z Wloch i Noora, jedna z osob z Finlandii ktore nas tu odwidzaja i pomagaja :)

Eamonn who's just loosing some hair from his beard, and Ross (on the middle picture) are from Ireland. Passi (next to Eamonn) is finnish. On the right picture there's Eliza from Italy :)

Eamonn, ktory wlasnie traci wlosy ze swojej brody i Ross (srodkowe zdjecie) sa z Irlandii. Passi jest Finem, a na zdjeciu po prawej mamy Elize, ktora podobnie jak Giulia jest z Wloch :)

They say that Finns are very silent and not smiling at all, closed and things like that. As for Erika it is totally diffrent. She's so nice, helpful and smiles and laughs a lot. Generally after two weeks of staying here I have to say that finnish people might seem really quiet and closed, but it's probably the matter of their shyness, not being sure about their language skills and lack of trust towards others. When Finns get used to being with you, they start to talk much and laugh quite often (at least women). And their speed of speaking in finnish is just outstanding. They talk like two times faster than polish people do.

Mowi sie, ze Finowie so bardzo cisi, zamknieci, nie usmiechaja sie w ogole i takie tam. Jesli chodzi o Erike to jest zupelnie inaczej. Jest bardzo mila, pomocna, sympatyczna i smieje sie czesto. 

Ogolnie po dwoch tygodniach przebywania tu musze stwierdzic, ze rzeczywiscie Finowie zdaja sie byc zamknieci, ale jest to prawdopodobnie problem z ich niesmialoscia, niepewnoscia co do umiejetnosci jezykowych i braku zaufania do innych. Bo gdy Finowie przekonaja sie do innych osob to mowia naprawde sporo i duzo sie smieja (przynajmniej kobiety). A ich predkosc mowienia we wlasnym jezyku jest niesamowita. Mowia ze 2 razy szybciej niz Polacy.

That would be it as for the presentation part...

To by bylo na tyle jesli chodzi o prezentacje poczatkowa...

 14.02 Ystävänpäivä <3

Finnish name of Valentine's day means Friend's Day. There was quite a big party this day at our dormitory. The preparations took almost all day (whole building was decorated with hearts, there were lots of things to eat) and many people came (like 50 .O.O.) I'm not very party human and also I still felt a bit tired after all this coming to Finland so I ran away from there quite fast xD 

Finska nazwa Walentynek oznacza Dzien Przyjaciela. Z tej okazji w naszym akademiku odbyla sie calkiem niezla impreza. Przygotowania trwaly prawie caly dzien (caly budynek zostal udekorowany w serduszka, duzo zarcia zostalo zrobione) i przyszlo wielu ludzi. Ja jako, ze imprezy tak srednio lubie i czulam sie troche zagubiona, a do tego jeszcze nie w pelni odpoczelam po podrozy to szybko ucieklam. Ale i tak zdarzylam conieco doswiadczyc.

Banana Guards were making sure that everyone has something red on them xD

Bananowi Gwardzisci pilnowali by ludzie mieli na sobie cos czerwonego xD 

 There's one cool thing about being from slavic country. With a little focusing and slowly speaking we can understand other Slavs easily. Those guys on the picture are from Slovakia and Czech. First one is a life-saver in Tatralandia in Liptovski Mikulas. The second one is living in Prague, his mother is from Poland and he speaks polish really well :)

 Jest jedna swietna rzecz w pochodzeniu z kraju slowianskiego. Przy odrobinie koncentracji i wolnym mowieniu mozna spokojnie innych Slowian zrozumiec. Ci dwaj na zdjeciu to Slowak i Czech, z ktorymi sobie troche pogadalam. Pierwszy jest ratownikiem w Tatralandii w Liptovskim Mikulasu, a drugi jest z Pragi, ma matke Polke i calkiem niezle po polsku nawija :)

There are diffrent ways of eating your pizza.. but this one I've seen for the first time in my life :D

Sa rozne sposoby jedzienia pizzy... ale taki widzialam po raz pierwszy w zyciu :D

 Guys decided to take a sauna and they wanted a pic on the outside. I still feel cold when I look at those pictures.

 Chlopcy postanowili skorzystac z sauny i zazyczyli sobie zdjecia na zewnatrz po wyjsciu. Do teraz mi zimno jak patrze na te zdjecia..

I tried to catch them when they were sitting on the snow but I failed to do so. They were running away too fast xD

Staralam sie zlapac ich jak siadali na sniegu, ale mi sie nie udalo, za szybko uciekali :D

15.02 The Beauty of Finland / Piekno Finlandii

At sunday I decided to leave my dorm and have a little trip in the nearby neighbourhood. It was a wonderful morning with the sun shining so brightly that everything looked just marvelous. I took the Nevantie road which leads through the nicer part of Kouvola. Less city, more trees and little houses. 

W niedziele zdecydowalam sie opuscic akademik i zrobic sobie mala wycieczke po niedalekiej okolicy. Byl to wspanialy poranek, sloneczko swiecilo mocno i wszystko wygladalo pieknie. Swoje kroki skerowalam ku ulicy Nevantie, ktora prowadzi przez milsza czesc Kouvoli. Mniej miasta, wiecej drzew i malych domkow. 

That's it, Nevantie road... or maybe Nevan cause tie means road :)

Oto wlasnie ulica Nevantie.. albo raczej Nevan gdyz slowo tie oznacza ulice :)

 Big snow mountain

Wielka sniezna gora

This one will probably wait like this till spring :P

Ten samochod prawdopodobnie bedzie czekal tak do wiosny :P

Below some nice views made on that trip.... nature....

Ponizej troche milych dla oka widokow z wycieczki... natura....

... lovely wooden houses...

... urocze drewniane domki...

... and even more nature.. beautifully covered with snow :)

... i jeszcze wiecej natury.. pieknie pokrytej sniegiem :)

I love those views... hope you like them too :)

Kocham te widoki, mam nadzieje ze wam tez sie podobaja :)

That's all for now.... 

Tyle na dzis....

Kotka  

Field visits are part of mine and Anna's studies in here. Our teacher, Harri, has been taking us to some places like kindergardens, places for mentally ill people or for school for imigrants children.  Mainly he was visiting there finnish students who were on practical training in those places but at the same time he was showing us how the system here works and telling us the most important things. Two of those trips were to Kotka (fin. eagle), the town located at sea on the land and few islands which all are connected with bridges. I didn't have much time for making pictures, but we will have practical training in april and may there so there will be lots of opportunities.

Wizyty w terenie sa czescia moich i Anny studiow w tym miejscu. Nasz glowny nauczyciel, Harri, obwozi nas po miejscach takich jak przedszkola, domy dla ludzi chorych umyslowo czy szkolach dla dzieci imigrantow. Glownie to chodzi o to, ze on tam robi wizytacje finskich studentow, ktorzy sa tam na praktykach, ale przy okazji pokazuje nam miejsca i opowiada o tym jak dziala tam system opieki spolecznej. Dwa z tych wyjazdow zaprowadzily nas do Kotki (po finsku Orzel :)), miasta ulokowanego nad samym morzem. Czesc z niego lezy na ladzie, a czesc na najblizszych wyspach. Calosc polaczona jest mostami i wyglada calkiem niezle. Niestety jak na razie nie mialam czasu porobic zdjec miasta, ale w kwietniu i w maju bedziemy tam mialy praktyki wiec okazji bedzie sporo.  

As for now I have some pictures showing the frozen Baltic sea as Harri took us there when we had some time free between one visit and another.

Poki co mam dla was troche zdjec pokazujacych zamrozony Baltyk. Harri zabral nas na chwile na wycieczke w przerwie miedzy jedna wizytacja a druga. 

This picture was made while looking at sun but fortunetely it's quite nice.   And yeah, that's the sea. Completely frozen :D

Mialam obawy czy to zdjecie wyjdzie fajnie bo bylo robione pod slonce, ale na szczescie jest calkiem niezle. A tu mamy morze.. calkowicie zamrozone :D

So frozen that we actually could walk on it safely. On this picture Harri and Anna...       

Tak zamrozone, ze moglismy po nim bezpiecznie chodzic. Na tym zdjeciu Harri i Anna....

And here's me, Anna took me a nice photo >D 

A tu ja, zdjecie robila Ania >D

At first Anna was afraid to go on the ice but when she saw that it's safe then she joined us. And that land on the horizon is one of many islands that are at Finnish coast.

 Poczatkowo bala sie wejsc na lod, ale gdy zobaczyla ze jest bezpiecznie to do nas dolaczyla. A ta ziemia w tle to jedna z wielu finskich wysp.

For some people walking ON the sea is not enough. We were in a real shock when we saw this man in his shorts and moreover... coming into the water.

Dla niektorych chodzenie PO morzu jest niewystarczajace. Bylysmy w ciezkim szoku jak zobaczylysmy tego pana w samych kapielowkach w dodatku.. wchodzacego do wody.

brrrr..... cooooold....  

brrrr..... ziiimnoooo.... 

Here are some more pictures from the frozen Baltic sea. 

Tu macie jeszcze pare zdjec zamarznietego Baltyku.