Start up and Science of Aphasia

Lake of Geneva

Intensive, social, funny, challenging, and interesting; These are, I think, the best words to describe the past two weeks. At this moment, I am waiting at Helsinki airport for my flight back to Joensuu.  I was away for a week to Switzerland for a conference. Let's start at the beginning:

When I wrote my previous blog, I had just arrived in Joensuu. I have already completely settled myself down in my apartment with my two EMCL housemates (EMCL is the abbreviation for my master). My room is already furnished with a bed, desk, relax chair, and not to forget, a brightly colored Scandinavian carpet!

Last week, the introduction week started at Itä-Suomen Yliopist, in other words, University of Eastern Finland. We received information about enrollment, student clubs, police etc.. Some presentations were more interesting than others. I also met all my classmates last week. We have a very nice and multicultural group! There are people from India, the Philippines, China, Ghana, and a few from European countries. I've learned, among others, that in Ghana you can be named after the day you were born. An example (English): "a boy born on Friday", or "a girl born on Monday".
Of course, I should not forget my super, social, and funny housemates: Theresa and Solveig. You can see them on the picture below. Together, we have lots of fun.

On Friday, we went to the 'Get to know each other party', together with other EMCL students. It was much fun, even with less fun music! I have also been hunting for the Noorderlicht with a few EMCL students. It is sometimes possible to see the Northern Lights even in Joensuu, when the aurora strenght is high (which you can find on this website). Of course it has to be dark. In the end, we gave up our hunt at two o'clock in the night because of the cold and because we were tired. But the more reason we have to go to Lapland where there is more change to see the Northern Lights!

My housemates :)

After the introduction week, on Saturday evening, I flew to Helsinki on my way to Geneva. A scientific conference, named Science of Aphasia (click for more information on aphasia), took place in Geneva. I had to pass the night at Helsinki Airport, where I had a new experience. I slept in a kind of a space shuttle, also called Sleeping Pod. It's a bed in which you can pull down some kind of screen. It's not that big, but with my short length it was perfect. So I slept well! At 5 o'clock in the morning, someone woke me up (very handy) and at 6 o'clock I was on the plane to Geneva.

Sleeping Pod

In Geneva, I rented an Air bnb. An old lady was living in the apartment and she rented two rooms. She was a very nice and kind woman! The apartment was very close to the conference building, so it took me only 4 minutes to get there.. The theme of the conference was 'Neurotechnology and Language'. Neurotechnology includes among others MRI, PET, CT, and more. On Monday, Svetlana (from my internship in Moscow) and I had to present our tDCS research (see Russia blog posts) by means of a poster presentation. You present a research on a big piece of paper, the poster.
There were also several lectures and presentations on different topics presented at the conference. Besides research, there took a social event  place on Wednesday. We had dinner on a boat and oh what was it tasty and fun! I have been able to have some fun and interesting conversations.
On Thursday, the last day, I followed a workshop on 'EEG' and 'Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation [TMS]'. Hopefully I can use this information in the future.

Besides, research and stuff, I did some sightseeing (of course). Geneva is not that big so I could do everything by foot. They have this beautiful lake and Geneva is surrounded by mountains. When I went out, it was 25 degrees, so I enjoyed the sightseeing very much! Below, you can see a few pictures of beautiful places in Geneva.

L'horloge Fleurie

Parc des Bastions

Beautiful view

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Place Nueve

The conference was a great and fun experience. I met many people and I also learned a lot about research, different research topics, and research designs.. Next week, I will start with the courses for my master. I missed the first few lessons the first lesson week, like Finnish language. But blessing in disguise: I can catch up with homework in the 8 hours I have to wait for my plane haha.

Please send me a message with questions and comments!