Short and long days

Helsinki gave exchange student Esteban Halabi Flores the chance to practice one of his favourite hobbies: languages.

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“So the sun is up before 6 in the morning, and it goes down after 10 at night?!”  Last summer, my mother was mesmerized when I told her about the length of a typical Finnish day.  I had recently gotten off the long flight coming from Costa Rica, and was in the process of reporting back to her with all the new curiosities of life up north.  As a native from the Tropics, seeing the sun past 6 in the evening was both confusing and exciting.  What was I going to do with all those new hours of daylight?

Little did I know that, as an exchange student in Helsinki, your timetable fills up before you have had your first healthy, non-expensive, and delicious UniCafé lunch.

My days began taking shape.  I would get up pretty early, gobble up a bowl of muesli, grab my always reliable notebook, and run to catch the 8:36 train.  Exactly twelve minutes later (I will never cease to be amazed at how precise public transportation is in Helsinki) I am mingling with the morning crowds around Rautatientori.

Essays are bread and butter

Classes at the Uni always bring up new and interesting topics: the state of African media, journalism during times of peace and war, digital and strategic marketing in Finland…  I major in Media and Communication studies, which gives me a pedagogic advantage: I tend to have very few exams.  Essays, on the other hand, are the bread and butter of my student life.  Long live APA referencing!

Helsinki also gives me the chance to practice one of my favourite hobbies: languages.  On Tuesdays and Thursdays I try to learn Swedish, which is going jättebra.  Soon enough, I will be able to discuss very important matters with the members of ABBA.  My Finnish is coming a bit slower, but steadily.  Nonetheless, I am an expert in Suomi when it comes to reading food labels.  Whenever you have to find out if the pizza needs kuusi or seitsemän more minutes in the oven, I am your guy!

I was thrilled when I became an assistant for Spanish language courses. Three times a week, the teachers let me explain things like how to conjugate a verb tense or talk about current situations from Latin America and Spain.  Most of the times, I mingle around the classroom and give the students a chance to practice their speaking skills.  This, I have found, is quite a good way to make friends with the locals – and then find out useful tips, like how to survive the Finnish winter.

Friends before biceps

Right after class, I change into my old sneakers, put on a headband, stuff the headphones into my ears, and let my training music playlist pump me up.  All the rice, meat, and vegetables I have eaten at UniCafé, I try to turn into fitness when I go to UniSport.  Have to admit, though, that more than once I have been convinced to skip gym day and just go out with mates instead.  Friends before biceps, right?

Evenings usually involve them, the people I have come to call a second family: my exchange mates.  We come from all over the world, but together we share our taste for cheap pizza, tricky card games, boat trips to neighbouring countries, unsuccessful northern lights hunting, dancing until our last trains/buses/trams have left, and going on as many adventures together as we can find.

Now that winter is actually coming – first time in my life I can actually say that without referencing Game of Thrones – I find my Finnish days to be much shorter. Uni work has diminished, some friends have already left, and life has become a tad quieter.  My mom asked me the other day if it is now more difficult for me to do things because of how the sun goes down rather quickly.  Immediately I thought of the Christmas lights on Aleksanterinkatu and smiled.  Even after six months, Finland still knows how to fill up my days with light.

The My Day at the Uni series has members of the University community share their everyday work experiences. The articles in this series will be published every two weeks @ FLAMMA Intranet.

Photo: Esteban Halabi Flores