Moika Suomi ~ English

Hi everybody!

It has been a while since I posted something, and in the meantime a lot has happened. I went to a conference, we did nice things in Finland, and finally moved to Groningen for the next semester (which is already almost over).

Walking on the frozen lake of Joensuu

Church in Bressanone

In January, I flew to Italy together with Valeriya (my friend from Russia) for the annual European Workshop in Cognitive Neuropsychology (EWCN). We flew from Helsinki to Verona, where we spent one night. We walked around in Verona and afterwards we went out for dinner with a few locals. This was lots of fun! And what is Italian a beautiful language. We ate pasta and tiramisu, and drank a cocktail in a famous bar. In this bar, they have as a rule that you can not talk very loudly. A funny concept, but the time we were there, everyone was talking pretty loud. The next day, we took the train to Bressanone-Brixen, where the conference took place. Valeriya and I slept during the week of the conference in Cusanus Akademie, an old monastery that is now used as a hotel. Ideal, because the conference took place in the same building. On the Sunday evening we arrived, the social event of the conference took place. During this event you can eat and drink and meet people at the same time. It was very pleasant and a good way to network (which always comes in handy in the future). The conference started with various lectures on Monday. There were lectures on memory, language and the brain, and much more. In addition to the lectures we went skiing in Plose, we visited a lovely village and went with the ski lift to Alpe di Siusi. At the conference, PhD students (=a degree awarded to people who have done advanced research into a particular subject; also seen as one of the first steps in a research career) were present, who had morning lectures in addition to the conference (also called "winter school"). At the end of the week, Valeriya and I followed two classes of this winter school and it was very interesting!

Alpine

Verona

After the conference we went back to Verona where we had dinner together with friends from Valeriya. The next day, we flew back to Joensuu for our last few weeks there!

Party

In the last weeks I have been busy finishing the courses in Finland. There was also time for fun. We went twice to an ice hockey game. I really like the fact that they can move very smoothly over the ice! The game was sometimes a bit aggressive (They stay men after all haha), like pushing each other to the side, but it also made it fun to watch. In addition to ice hockey, I've been swimming for the last time at Polar Bears. I already wrote about the Polar Bears earlier. At the last two days in Joensuu, two parties were organized, which were both very nice! In addition to our social life, we had to clean the entire house, unfortunately. The whole apartment had to be cleaned from front to back, and every corner and hole we had to check. Even the walls had to be wiped! It seemed liked this kind of great spring cleaning people sometimes do.

The day after the big cleaning, my roommates and I handed in our keys. I traveled to Helsinki by train that day, where I stayed one night. The next day my flight left for the Netherlands in early morning. It's still a crazy idea to leave Finland after 6 months and live in the Netherlands again. But I was really looking forward to it and I've been in the Netherlands for a few months now. I still look back to Finland with great memories!

Forest in Joensuu

In my next blog post I will tell you more about my period in Groningen!