After returning from the U.S. in June, I began officially working as a Sustainability Research Trainee at the UPM Research Center in Lappeenranta, where I had started as a language trainee during my intensive Finnish course. Though I continued chatting with my boss in Finnish as much as I could, I gradually spoke less and …
Tag Archives: lappeenranta
Graduation and Beyond
On June 1st I submitted my thesis after working on it for approximately seven months. Prior to this year, I never thought that I could develop such a high-level work, so to say that I’m proud of myself is an understatement! If interested, you can check out my thesis here. About three weeks later I …
A Different School Year
It has been a while since I last wrote about my time at the Finnish summer cottage, and the atmosphere could not be more different. Swap blue skies and sun for grey skies and snow, +20°C for -20°C, and 0 to 5 COVID cases per day for 10 to 25. It is definitely a different …
Just Finnish Things
As of today I’ve been home due to COVID-19 for two months. Though I have a flight back on June 8th, at this point I have no idea if I’ll be able to return. According to Finnish guidelines I can return since I have a residence permit, but my flight may still be cancelled. A …
LUT Summer School
Since I had the time, I decided to enroll in the Lappeenranta University of Technology (LUT) summer school. I figured I might as well get ahead while I’m already here, plus it would be a good way to meet people before the school year begins. While neither class was apart of my degree program, they …
Moving to Lappeenranta
The day after the language-culture course ended, my dad and I moved to Lappeenranta, where I’ll be for my 2-year master’s degree. 4.5 hours and two train transfers later, we finally arrived. Lappeenranta, at 73,000 people, is about half the size of Jyväskylä. During the 10-minute taxi ride to my apartment, the weight of the …
Fulbright Adventures in Finland 