Trail intersection photo taken by author while berry- and mushroom-picking with a local family in Onkilampi, August 2021. (Head’s up: The Onkilampi site is in Finnish.)

Dear Reader,

Over the past month I have listened to a computerized, British accent guide me through painfully inaccurate pronunciations of the Finnish street and forest path networks. (No, really, try to decipher the butchered-Finnish pronunciation of “Yliopistokatu” [University Street] or “itäranta” [East Shore Road? Street?] with enough time to make the left-turn in 100 meters—yes, this has also been a crash-course in learning the metric system.) I have spent the past month sending silent praises to my husband for gifting me Bluetooth headphones earlier this year. This luxury feature pairs with my cell phone (also a luxury feature for which I am incredibly grateful) to help me maneuver around Joensuu, Finland with minimal U-turns. If you are traveling to a new place, I highly recommend this strategy. Personally, I prefer to leave one earpiece in and keep my other ear free to maximize focus on my surroundings, but I trust you to make the right call for you.

To provide some context, I was delighted to accept the 2021-2022 Fulbright U.S. Student Program Fulbright-EDUFI* Fellowship for study and research in the North Karelia region of Finland on a nine-month residence permit. My project, “Teachers’ Sociocultural Backgrounds, Teaching Curriculum, and Students’ Global Worldview”, explores how rural educators in North Karelia perceive the influence of their own sociocultural backgrounds on the decisions they make when creating and implementing lesson plans and influences their students’ worldviews as a result. In this study “worldview” is not attached to religious affiliation, but quite literally, how students view the world around them and themselves within its context. I also frequently use the word “glocal” to describe the local identity and perspective as it is contextualized in a kaleidoscope of local, regional, national, and global contexts and communities.

Anyway, I arrived in Finland a little before my grant period began to take care of “housekeeping” tasks, like getting settled, navigating the local community, opening a bank account, and tasks of that nature. I also had a chance to attend a Finnish baseball game and meet some people on a restaurant-boat that happened to host karaoke one night, so it has been a nice balance. Thankfully, the Coronavirus situation in Finland, while certainly still prevalent, is significantly less stressful than that in the USA due to multiple factors. As such, I take every precaution to ensure the safety of those around me and myself, but do not feel as much guilt about interacting safely in traditionally social spaces.

Also to my advantage, the Fulbright Finland Foundation (FFF) provided this year’s grantees with an overabundance of resources geared toward preparing us for a transition to Finnish language, culture, academia, government protocols, and of course, events, responsibilities, and obligations as a Fulbright grantee. In addition to these reading and viewing materials as well as virtual meetings and events, I began my own research of the country through internet videos, travel blogs, books, articles, and, language apps. This was to benefit my transition as much as my research. It was all a bit surreal until the night before my trip when the butterflies emerged from their proverbial cocoons. However, as a female-traveler, it’s worth saying that I never had any regret—only gratefulness and excitement for the opportunity to be sponsored to travel to a new place.

Traveling with the Fulbright Program is significantly different than doing it all myself. For instance, when I decided to move to Bolivia to teach English as a Second Language after I finished my master’s degree, I applied to teaching positions, for visas, etc. independently of a large organization. Thankfully, at that time, I had a significant other who was familiar with the country who was able to help me find answers to questions when I was stumped by the legal process. I am lucky in that my social network has always provided a type of support system for me, granting that I am actively putting in the work of their guidance on my own. True to this sentiment, before I left the USA for Finland (FI), a contact I had made through FFF suggested that I create a Migri (Finnish Migration Office) appointment before I left because of how far out foreigners had to make appointments and I tell you, that was some of the best advice I got—and some foreshadowing, as it turns out.

**Helsinki Airport’s “Christmas Cabin”**

*Fun fact: Finland is where Santa Claus lives. Look up “Rovaniemi Santa Claus Village” for details.*

After a smooth flight, even under COVID-19 precautions, I was enchanted by the Helsinki, FI airport (which is not actually in Helsinki). Although most kiosks within the airport were closed, it housed Moomin restaurants a mini-Santa house, and an assortment of nature-inspired art pieces and furniture. Even the restrooms had recordings of birds chirping in a forest. There was only one real hiccup in my airport experience: once I landed, I followed the signs to immigration and tried to scan myself in using their self-check-in process before you stand in line. Even with the help of the nearby safety officer, their system did not recognize me. Then, when I went to stand in line anyway, the immigration official told me that I needed to go back to my gate and go downstairs to another part of the airport. A woman who was traveling with a child was given the same message and, after some back-and-forth we ended up at the same spot but made sure to go to a different person. The second time we got through without a problem… and are still unsure what happened the first time. My best speculation is that COVID-19 requirements for foreigners required the airport to put up temporary stations, but that lessening restrictions in FI have created some confusion about the protocol. Thankfully, the rest of my trip to Helsinki was smooth thanks to a friend who lived there. She told me which app to get to use the tram from the airport to Helsinki (HSL) and when I was likely to lose service in the airport, so I was prepared with a ticket (although not quite the right one, I would find out later) when I transitioned from the airport to the capital city.

I spent my first weekend exploring the Helsinki area with my Finnish friend, new FFF acquaintances, and taking care of immediate logistics (i.e., getting and setting up a Finnish cell phone number, scheduling a banking appointment, and planning my route from Helsinki to Joensuu). The adventurer in me was thrilled to experience both a Finnish sauna and swimming in the Baltic Sea on my first full day in Helsinki. My Finnish host introduced me to the Moomin Valley backstory behind the merchandise found everywhere—from restaurants to cookies to toys, as it turns out. She also treated me to homemade salmon soup and her grandmother’s recipe for Noodle Casserole, a traditional Christmas dish in her family.

The train ride to Joensuu was long, but lovely. I cannot complain about four-and-a-half hours of a good audiobook and coniferous forests, clear, wind-rippled lakes, grassy meadows, and a cloud-textured sky. I am grateful that my University of Eastern Finland (UEF) Advisor and I had pre-arranged to meet at the train station because I have found that it is always nice to travel with a local when you first arrive in a new place. (When I studied Paulo Freire and adult education in Germany, I did not have this. As a result, I am sure I only got on the right train heading in the right direction once while I was there—and that being toward the end of the trip. I always got to where I needed to be but made sure to factor in extra travel time to and from different cities.)

My UEF contact and advisor graciously transported my luggage and me off to my lodgings, but not before giving me a brief, initial driving tour of the university-side of Joensuu. This woman was also kind enough to connect me with a contact in my apartment complex, too, expanding that network to three people and one Facebook Group. Since then I have made more connections and joined more virtual groups in the past month than I have in the past few years combined. Surprisingly, I was connected to more people in Finland before I arrived than anywhere else I’ve been.

From the first week to now, life in North Karelia has been a whirlwind of virtual orientations, oscillating trips to/from Migri-to-bank-to-police-to-post-office for documentation and approval, on-campus and virtual UEF student organization meetings, fairs, and events, networking, and general exploring. In my Fulbright application, one of the ways I planned to give back to the local community by providing English as a Second Language conversation tables that are free to the public. Within the first month, one of the connections I made was the event coordinator for the Joensuu public library, who was all about this idea and we have set a start-date for it. I also attended a meeting with the JoMoni group, a Non-Profit Organization that works to “promote multiculturalism in the Joensuu region”. According to their website, “JoMoni works against racism and monitors the interests of immigrants… to promote respect and dialogue between people” (JoMoni Ry, 2021, para. 1). I plan to join and contribute what I can to these efforts while I’m in the area. I also joined a sauna club where I plan to go to the sauna at least twice a month, although I am told that many people in the sauna club go daily. More on these experiences later.

*Summer view of the Joensuun Jääkarhut sauna club taken early September 2021.*

Finally, if you are considering traveling on a Fulbright or in another professional context, look into Bluetooth headphones, in-country connections, and literature on the local culture, history, and geography ahead of time. As with any form of traveling, there were components outside of my control, but I think that’s life in a lot of ways. I am happy to take the lessons of gratitude for the kindness of strangers and new acquaintances, tenacity and determination to act on my to-do list instead of procrastinating, and continuing to safely explore my new environments for my remaining time in Finland.

Until next time,

Claire

*EDUFI is the Finnish acronym for the Finnish National Agency for Education.

Reference

1. JoMoni Ry (2021). Joensuun seudun monikulttuurisuusyhdistys ry. Retrieved from http://www.jomoni.fi

Navigating Finland: Arrival and Orientation Processes

Traveling Alone as a Woman