In the second of two articles, Vietnamese Minh Hieu Le talks about having a student foster family in Oulu, from sharing cheesecake with her foster mum to meeting Santa Claus on her first Christmas.

In the first of two new articles, Vietnamese Minh Hieu Le talks about having a student foster family in Oulu, from sharing cheesecake with her foster mum to meeting Santa Claus on her first Christmas.

After a while, expats will tend to write Finland off as a highly informal place where stereotypically the national dress is the tracksuit. There was little need to bring that suit with you, and the tuxedo was just taking-up baggage space that might have been better occupied by a winter overall.

British educational publisher’s research finds that Finnish schools are world beaters, and way ahead of anything else in Europe.

Mine defuser turned Oulu-based novelist has found that the carnage of Kabul has inspired him, even if only indirectly.

They don’t have any foreign candidates in Oulu, but the Centre Party has three of them in Rovaniemi. We also see why True Finns think foreigners should vote for them.

Expat council candidate’s key policy is for his municipality to vote itself out of existence.

Toga-French Oulunsalo councillor campaigns to make the move to big city politics.

Party with the most expatriate candidates includes self-proclaimed Trotskyites, Anarchists and Communists. Could there be more of them on the council after 28th October?

One puts Oulu University 262nd. But, according to Times Higher Education, it is lower than 400th and not even worth mentioning.