Friday, 09 January 2009

Expats´ Thought On Life In Oulu Life In Oulu When You´re Not From Round Here Print E-mail
By Nina Lah   
Monday, 26 February 2007
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Photo by Nina Lah
Next to share her thoughts about her life in Oulu is Rebecca (28) from Great Britain who works as a Software Developer. She is single. She has been living in Oulu for two years and nine months and explains why she chose to live here.
 
“I came here originally as an exchange student for only three months, and liked the lifestyle and the environment - I love that there are trees everywhere. I like that the Finns are kind of laid-back about a lot of things, and I like being foreign. Also it was a career move: it's easier to be taken seriously as a woman Software Developer in Finland than it is in the UK, and at the start of my career that was important.”
 

Apparently life here is, “Good. There are lots of things to do and a lot of things going on, if you know where to look. The locals are lovely, and the city does have a real international feel to it - even since I have been here, I have noticed that there are more foreigners around town.”

Rebecca has also had mostly good experiences with making friends with Finns: “Apart from the language I don't think they are that much different than people in most of Europe: same way of thinking and values. I don't think there is much truth in the Finnish stereotypes either: Finns aren't that stand-offish, and they certainly don't have much sisu (“to have guts”) either! Once you get to know Finns they can be as warm and friendly as anyone else though.”

One of the Oulu’s advantages is probably the proximity to nature and Rebecca finds it important as well: “I like that the city is so close to nature, but not that close. On the one hand you have nearly everything that you would find in any other European city, but on the other hand we are surrounded by forest. There are few places in Oulu where you can be outdoors and not see trees.”

Since Britain is not that far away she doesn’t really miss anything but if she didn’t go home so often it could be worse. So her advice to a foreigner thinking of moving to Oulu is: “If you are a single person working in IT, you could do a lot worse. And you get 6 weeks of sunshine in summer. Beat that.”

In addition to Irene’s and Piet’s strange things about Oulu Rebecca tells me more: “I think it's the Garlic Night festival. All the restaurants prepare food with garlic, and all the people go into town to eat it. It seems to me like something from the Simpsons because it seems like everyone's there. They have some other strange festivals too: Air Guitar and Ice Hole Swimming championships, and I'm sure there are more. All very funny but I think that they are trying too hard to be quirky.”




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