Well, kind of. We had orientation three days this week and
had a chance to meet our fellow LLEES classmates. The program is truly
international with students from Taiwan, Germany, China, Korea, Greece, Basque,
Bangladesh, Iran and Mexico. There are only twelve of us right now but there
are two students from Ghana and one from Nigeria who haven’t been able to make
it due to visa issues. Besides being international, the areas of interest vary
a great deal so it will be fascinating learning about everyone’s thesis topics
and professional experiences.
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| The inside of the cathedral |
Life on campus has changed dramatically. When I first got to
Turku, you would see a few tourists hanging around the cathedral, which is on
the edge of the University of Turku and Åbo Academy campuses (there are three
universities in Turku, the third is Turku School of Applied Sciences). Now the
area has throngs of students walking to and from the city center to the
universities. Coming from a university town, this is a familiar phenomenon but
somehow it feels more festive here than it did back at home.There have been many highlights this week: meeting my classmates, being able to show people around who are newer here than me, discovering the other university cafes so I don’t have to go to the one in Educarium all the time. But the biggest highlight has been discovering swing classes!
My first thought walking into the packed room was that I was
the only one there who had significant amounts of melanin in me. It’s
interesting because the only other times I have been so hyperaware of my race
have been when I was in Japan and Korea. Fortunately, learning a new dance puts
everyone on the same playing field so this feeling quickly went away.
Another thing to note was how very un-Finnish the atmosphere
was. If you’re going to spend even a few minutes dancing with a person it’s
best to be somewhat friendly. Of the 36 leads I danced with, I only learned two
of their names but that’s a start. There also was the Finnish guy who turned
beet red when I smiled at him. It was adorable.
The best thing was that I ran into some of these people
while walking around campus during the rest of the week. We don’t know each
other well enough to actually say hello but it’s nice to recognize faces in the
crowd. Turku is starting to feel like home.
PS. Please know that I do read your comments, even if I don’t
respond to them! Thank you for all of the wonderful feedback so far.
Love,
Avanti
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