Graduation days over

We had our graduation days last Thursday in LUT and Saturday in St.Pete. I was one of the few lucky ones who got the diploma also from GSOM (only 5 non-Russian students got it...). For the rest, they are now entering the nostrification process again with their freshly printed Finnish Masters. Graduating from Russia shouldn't be a problem, but it will take some time. I really do hope that everyone will get their double degree.

The ones who didnt get the GSOM diploma, got just a transcript of records. Lousy ones that is. For example on one student the contact hours during the course was according to the transcript something like 4700 which is obviously ridiculous. Also the grades weren't right for most courses and some courses were twice on the list while some where missing. Ridiculous.

Russian graduation ceremony was definitely more ceremonylike than that at LUT. Started well, before it collapsed in to pieces (because of taking photos, unorganized ending etc). All the graduates wore the gowns which was a cool experience. Kinda felt like Harry Potter - especially since we got also the school mascots which is an owl.

Good memories from that day as well as from the whole program. From academic point of view I am a bit disappointed, but as a life experience MITIM has been truly awesome.

Oh yeah, also got feedback about my thesis

..but not from my own supervisors, but another professor from GSOM. Still haven't heard anything from my LUT supervisor - will be interesting to hear what he has to say...

Anyways, I didn't quite understand how my work was graded, as on the scale from 2-5, I had on most criteria 2 of the grades bolded (no other way of separating the result). Also, didn't get any kind of recommendation for final grade (except "deserves a good grade" which would mean 4), which would have been nice to see.

Tomorrow I will be a bit smarter regarding the grade.

And I will also be tired since I decided to sleep one more night in Joensuu before heading to Lappeenranta. My train leaves after 6 o'clock in the morning.. Will be fun. But it just was easier solution to do like this.

Today when going to class...

...I heard this high pitched singing behind me. The lyrics were really deep and meaningful: MINT CHOCOLATE FREZZAA, MINT CHOCOLATE FREZZAAAA


Yup, all you people from MITIM can easily guess who was that freak behind all that :D Or actually you don't need to be MITIM, it is enough if you have even once met this person :D Life is not boring if you are an idiot. And I use the word "idiot" as a good thing in this context :)

Yahoooooo, going on exchange during the 3rd semester

Now just need to apply to exchange places through LUT. The deadline of applications is already tomorrow, so I need to be quick to decide where I want to go. We MITIM-students can also utilize the GSOM partner-university network and I am seriously thinking about applying to one of those options. But first I'll be applying through LUT before we know what are the options through GSOM. If I prefer to go to GSOM partner, I can then delete my application from LUT and make room for someone else wanting to go.


7 of us 35 MITIM students can go on exchange during the 3rd semester. The selection was made based on academic results (i.e. average from our studies from GSOM).


Interesting times indeed.

Seminar

Today we had a "business seminar". It's in quotation marks because I really didn't see the business part of that - of course there was a nice presentation about Technopolis and the guy giving the presentation seemed very nice and all, but somehow I felt we have kind of heard most of that stuff before. After that presentation there was a little bit about MITIM program now and then the floor was opened for all of us to give some feedback and ideas how to improve it in the future. To me it was a opportunity ruined, since the discussion got derailed on how to get an internship instead of actually talking about the content or structure of the program. I am not alone with my feelings, as many of my student colleagues also had similar feelings.

In the end we heard presentation from ex-MITIM student (who graduated this summer in the first ever MITIM batch) about her internship, Master's thesis and work at Kone corporation. I liked the presentation. Also one second year MITIM student presented her the progress of her thesis. It was cool to see what kind of topic did she had and how she had approached the problem, even though there was not that much actual content in the presentation. But I can understand that, since the work is still in the early phases of the process.

Feeling great!

I came to Lappeenranta on Sunday evening. Spent the first night at my cousins place (Thanks L!) before moving to my new crib. Thanks for the crib Liima! It all happened convieniently since my friend is on exchange during the spring and I needed a place for the same time - so win-win.

Yesterday we had the first day here at Lappeenranta. Welcome speeches, info about Sefe, LTKY and other relevant organizations were given. Unfortunately the situation with our overalls is not clear yet. I WANT TO GET MY YELLOW OVERALLS !!! Then I would have red, blue and the yellow ones :)

In the evening we had a "Finnish evening" at rantasauna. Some good food, games (that actually wasnt that lame as I feared) and of course sauna. Some of the girls were brave enough to come to sauna with the guys. And even to the snow. Well, some of them weren't that enthousiastic of going there but still even the ended up all snowy :D

Today we have had some more info about the practialities of studying in here. Basic and familiar stuff for me, but for new LUT students this can be confuzing. Anyways, they will get used to these systems soon I think.

Overall I am feeling really great. Yesterday reminded me that we really have a great group of people in this program and I can easily see myself collaborating or at least staying in touch with them after we graduate. I am also looking forward to our actual studies, I feel energetic!