Introduction

A chance to experience life on the other side of the world was and exciting and opportunity which I almost misted out on. I discussed it with my friend Ronald and helped convinced him to write a letter on intent. The fear within me stopped me from doing the same. With a little guidance from Gerry Cross and Ronald pushing me at the last possible moment I got my letter of intent in. It was one of the best choices of my life.

Along with Ronald we went to Finland and Studied at Evtek. The Bigger learning experience for me was the dealing with the different culture of Finland and meeting students from all over Europe. Believe it or not the parties I went too, with all the different cultures, was a learning experience within itself.

The first part of Exchange Experience Document was done as collaboration between Ronald and me although I will admit he did most of the typing.  The collaboration only makes since to us because we arranged Passports Visa and Plane Tickets together. This supplement was done on my own to hightligt my expericnes and what I recieved from the exchange.

Staying in Finland

As I arrive back in Calgary this is my reflection on how this experience affected my life and my future plains

Meeting people from other cultures

I have learned a lot about the Finish culture including food, drinks and some customs. Also, besides the Finish culture I meant people from all over the world my flat mates were from Span and Switzerland; other people in the building I stayed were from France, Italy and Germany. I also meant exchange students from Africa and China and Taiwan. English was the common language shared by us all making communication easy.

The exchange has changed the way I view people from Europe and enlighten me on some of the cultural difference. It also helped me understand how people from other cultures view Canada and the way people view Canada in relationship to the US (or the North American Culture). Now that I am back in Canada I miss the friendships that had been built-up while I was on the exchange. I would also recommend that when going on an exchange think about staying for 8 months instead of the 4 months we stayed.

Different teaching styles

The assignments were due at certain dates but in reality everything only need to be completed by the end of term. This meant the student has to be self motivated to do work throughout the term so he doesn’t get to far behind and not able to complete the work at last moment. In many ways the courses seem easer then at Mount Royal they seem to spoon feed the information to the students but when it came down to the end of the courses if the same time wasn’t spent on the courses it reflects in the final marks that you receive.

I became more outgoing

It helped me in dealing with other people I became more outgoing at least a little more

Contacts

I made new friends and contacts that could be useful in the future.

Self Assessment

I discovered abilities about myself that never knew I had and also some weaknesses that I should try to improve on.

Career Plans

As a Careers goes I believe that networking is what I am interested in more then programming. I also believe that a job with world travel would be appealing.

The Biggest Challenge

The biggest challenge was not to do every event that was going on and spend time studying. There was a trip to Lapland for about 10 days a week trip to Russia and a cottage weekend all in the last three weeks of study. There were students that did all three we don’t know when they had time to study. Just trying to keep up with the courses and a couple parties a week was more then I could handle. This will give me a reason to visit Europe so we could experience all the events we didn’t have time for.  An event was happing almost every day for the four months I was there. I spent more time partying in Finland then the two years we studied at Mount Royal.

For more information on my experiences in Finland

Contact Information

For more information about my exchange trip to Finland contact me at

E - Mail gregkeith3@yahoo.ca