French student in Erasmus in Finland

SOME TIPS I couldn't spend a year in Finland without visiting the capital! Moreover, Helsinki is very close to the city of Turku, about two hours by bus, and the prices are very affordable. Also, you can book a free city tour that shows you the most important monuments here's the link :   link here ABOUT HELSINKI Helsinki is the capital and largest city of Finland with 642,045 inhabitants in the municipality and 1,456,619 in Greater Helsinki. The city has the highest immigrant population in the whole country. There are more than 130 nationalities residing in the city of Helsinki. It is spread out on a peninsula surrounded by a large number of islands and is strongly characterized by the presence of water. Helsinki is a merchant port open to the Gulf of Finland. Its inhabitants are called "Helsinkiläiset" in Finnish and "Helsingforsare" in Swedish. HELSINKI LUTHERAN CATHEDRAL With the free walking tour we first visited the Helsinki Lutheran Cath...

A HOFSTEDE DIMENSION This dimension is about the fact that we are not all equal in a society. It deals with how culture acts towards these inequalities between individuals. Power distance is defined as the extent to which the less powerful members of a country's institutions and organizations expect and accept that power is unequally distributed. RESULTS According to Hostede, geographical position is the most influential element in this criterion. Thus, he observed that the countries closest to the equator had the greatest hierarchical distance. Similarly, countries with a small population have a greater propensity to have a low hierarchical distance. Finland scores 33 on this criterion. In comparison France scores 68. This score seems to be in line with the distance to the equator of these countries. It can be observed that Finland has a population of 5.4 million inhabitants and a population density of 17.9 inhabitants per km², in comparison France has 67 million inha...

THE UN CLASSIFICATION Several times I have heard Finns say that their country is the happiest in the world. So I did my little research on the subject. Indeed, Finns are the happiest in the world according to the latest World Happiness Report, published by the UN on 20 March 2019. The ranking of the 156 countries in the "World Happiness Report" is based on several indicators including GDP per capita, perception of corruption, life expectancy and generosity of individuals. Finland was already at the top of this ranking last year. As for France, it is in 24th position, losing one place compared to 2018. In this ranking, it is mainly the Nordic countries that are at the top of this ranking. BUT WHAT EXACTLY IS HAPPINESS? To understand this ranking, first of all it would be good to remember the definition of happiness. Happiness is "a very subjective concept but at the same time very much linked to certain objective criteria, such as material comfort, respect, interpe...

ESN TRAVEL During my stay in Finland I went one week in Lapland with ESN. Erasmus Student Network or ESN is a European-wide student organisation whose aim is the reception and integration of international students during an Erasmus-type exchange as well as the promotion of international mobility.  ESN organise several travels during the year in Lapland, Russia, Norway... You can to all of them. ABOUT LAPLAND Lapland is a region straddling the territories of Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia, whose indigenous people are the Sami. It is located largely beyond the Arctic Circle. The climate there, as you might expect, is very cold in winter, if you go there, so make sure you are well equipped beforehand. The temperature in Lapland can vary from -40 °C in winter to +27 °C in summer. The local vegetation consists mainly of taiga and tundra. The region is bordered by the North Atlantic and the icy Arctic Ocean and "intersected" by the Baltic Sea.  ...

SUPERFICIE Finland has a surface area of 338,000 km2, with 10% lake and 66% forest. It is the seventh largest country in Europe, with ⅓. The countries bordering Finland are Russia, Norway and Sweden. And it is bordered by the Baltic Sea, or more precisely by the Gulf of Bothnia and the Gulf of Finland. POPULATION Finland has a population of about 5.52 million and is one of the European countries with the lowest density: 16 inhabitants/km2. Its capital is Helsinki with about 642,000 inhabitants. The Finnish territory also includes an autonomous archipelago and part of the Åland Islands, the other part belonging to Sweden. CLIMATE As far as Finnish climate is concerned, temperatures in Helsinki do not exceed 17°C in summer and do not fall below -5°C in winter. Temperatures in northern Finland are much colder in the Article Circle. In winter it is the polar night, when the sun does not rise, and in summer it is the midnight sun. 

ACTUAL REPUBLIC In order to understand Finland today, one must first discover the history of Finland and its neighbouring countries such as Sweden and Russia. Finland is a republic with a president elected by universal suffrage, unlike its neighbouring countries such as Sweden, Norway and Denmark, which are constitutional monarchies. Moreover, I did not even know who the president was until not very long ago, and it was while talking with friends that I realized that I had forgotten. The current president has been Sauli Niinistö since 1 March 2012. FINLAND AND SWEDEN Until the 11th century, people living on Finnish territory were at peace and had no political cohesion. But at the beginning of the 12th century, Finland became a strategic gateway to the East for the new kingdoms of Sweden and Denmark. As a result, Finland became part of the Kingdom of Sweden. During its rule, Sweden tried to convert Finland to Catholicism.  TURKU In 1229 Turku (Åbo in Swedish, the ci...

STORY OF TURKU Turku, or Åbo in Swedish, is the city where I spend one year for my study.  The city lost its status as capital in 1812 to Helsinki after two and a half centuries of hegemony over the Duchy of Finland. Tsar Alexander I, master of the country after Russia's victory over Sweden in 1809, considered the city much too close to Stockholm. Helsinki therefore emerged as the new administrative and political centre. Nicknamed "Finland's little Paris", the city is built on seven hills linked by wide avenues and is also considered the culinary capital of the country. With 187,637 inhabitants in 2017, Turku is the fifth largest city in the country. Active, culturally dynamic (it was the European Capital of Culture in 2011!) and very student oriented (about 1/5 of the population), Turku is still very much oriented towards Sweden. The cathedral (Tuomiokirkko) and Turku castle (Turunlinna) in particular both date from the 13th century. The very orthogonal aspect of...