Cultural orientation event in Lappeenranta

Today I was in Lappeenranta at cultural orientation event arranged by LUT. To me it was a good event with useful information, especially considering that I have never been in Russia before. I now know how to behave when eating(and drinking) with Russians, how to address them, why not to smile that much in the public and also what a scracthing of ones neck means :) And a lot of other stuff also.

It was really great meeting some more of my student collegues there. Lots of different backgrounds, personalities, lots of enthusiasm and energy. Based on this sample of fellow students, I really feel that we will have a great group during studies and I am eager to meet the rest of the students later on in St.Petersburg. Also, check out Shot's blog for another perspective on MITIM programme and our student life in St.Pete and Lappeenranta.

Go East - this is what I'm gonna do

I am today leaving Helsinki. I've just cleaned up the apartment and will leave to railway station within an hour. Everything is now ready from my part regarding the trip to St.Petersburg. Well, basically :) My passport and visa are still in the Russian embassy in Helsinki where they will be ready for pick up tomorrow. Those documents will be collected by my mates (who is also going to St.Pete because to study in MITIM) mother, which is really nice from her. This way my mate and I both save a trip from Lappeenranta to Helsinki just to collect the documents.

Today I will be travelling to Lappeenranta. There is a cultural orientation event at LUT tomorrow which I will be attending. It's great to meet some more of the fellow students even before going to Russia. And of course learn a bit of Russian customs and culture before making a fool of myself there. :)

I've had the chance to meet about all of my friends living in Helsinki area during last couple of weeks and bid my farewells. With some people even twice :D Overall I have a really good vibe going on and I am really excited about studying and leaving Finland for a while. Bye bye Helsinki, new challenges await!

Back in Finland - alive and tanned

I'm back in Finland after the vacation in Cyprus. It was a good experience overall and I enjoyed myself in there. Currently I am a bit tired after all the traveling, but will write a post about the trip in upcoming days. A lot need to be still done before going to St.Petersburg, updates on those things will also follow up shortly.

Twitter

I just signed up to Twitter. My tweets can be read in here: http://twitter.com/joonahere . Also, my newest tweets can be seen on the box just to the right of this text. Let's see whether or not I like this whole twittering thing.

Twice a Finn

The passport situation is now solved. I went to police department this Friday and explained my situation to nice police lady out there. She said it was best for me to get another passport, so I have one under way. This means that in a weeks time I have two Finnish passports :) This allows me to leave one passport (my current one) for visa application and use the other one for the Cyprus trip and as an additional ID. I bet the second passport will come handy in Russia. As long as I manage to not lose it :)

Now I am just hoping that the invitation to Russia comes REALLY soon because basically I need to apply for the visa next Wednesday at latest if it takes two weeks to get that. That way I can collect the visa+passport before I leave for "Cultural orientation" event to Lappeenranta, which is on Thursday 20th of this month.