Day 1: 17.8.2017

Hey and greetings from Helsinki-Vantaa airport! I planned to write my first post in good time before leaving to Amsterdam, but the last days have passed really fast. As usual I was still packing and cleaning my apartment this morning and wondering if I'll manage to do everything in time.. Luckily I did!

Since it is my first post here I'm going to share some basic info about my exchange:

In Amsterdam I'm starting my 5-month long Erasmus student exchange, and I'll be doing a minor in neuropsychology at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. At my home uni in Helsinki I am majoring in sociology and doing another minor in disability studies. I moved to Helsinki two years ago, which is the time that I've spent on my current studies there.

I decided to start this exchange blog 'cause i noticed that University of Helsinki was looking for students who could write about their exchange. So I will be focusing a lot on the dutch way of studying in a university, and comparing that with my own experiences of studying in Finland. There will also be posts about the more practical matters of being an exchange students, and for sure, a lot of pictures.

I've been in the Netherlands four times altogether, so some of the little dutch quirks I'm already used to, but I'm sure this exchange will bring many new ones on my way. I've also studied dutch for one year and I hope to embetter those skills during my exchange, even though all my courses will be in English. The pictures on this post are from my very first trip to Netherlands in June 2016.

Tomorrow is the first day that we can collect our keys for the student housing, so I'll spend this one night in The Hague and tomorrow I'll be there at 9am at the office waiting to get my key. More about the apartment and many other things later, now I'll have to head to my gate! Adios!