þPrior to Departure

þ Paperwork

Much of the work involves this tedious yet very important function in order to travel. Take it from us; to make processing that much easier, having the following items ready will make your paperwork smoother:

¨     Five professional passport photos obtained from any photo outlet.
In our case, Black’s Photography provided a good service for $15 and they were kind enough to provide a wallet for holding the passport.

¨     Drivers License

¨     Social Insurance Number

¨     At least three methods of payment for all the paperwork processing
(cash, credit card, debit card, check).

¨     Official letter from the bank stating sufficient funds (each month’s international stay equivalent to about $1000)

¨ Financial Budgeting

Although we really didn’t have a strict financial budget down to the last minute, a general financial budget helped ascertain as to the possibility of traveling with sufficient funds and will be useful when getting a letter from your bank to support your travel. Here is an approximate cost:

¨ Canadian Passport

You will need to submit two passport photos and obtain signature verifications from a member of the faculty of your department that you have known for at least two years, in our case we obtained from the chair of the Computer Sciences & Information Systems - Department. Additional fees were also incurred for the actual passport and shipped to your mailing address and took about three weeks to arrive.

¨ Finland Visa

http://www.finland.ca/en/

After you get your passport, you’ll need to obtain a Finland Visa which takes about four weeks. You’ll need to provide information on your length of stay, two passport photos, and an official letter from the bank stating sufficient funds (each month’s stay equivalent to about $1000). In our experience, if you intend to stay there for a semester (about 4 months), it maybe a better idea to request a visa for two semesters (8 months) just in case of unexpected events such as a opportunity for a work term. On the other hand, getting an extended visa during your stay in Finland is also possible.

¨ Student Guard Health Insurance

http://www.studentguard.com
Accidents do happen, and although we never had to use it, having it provides a sense of security overseas. Alternatively if you are covered by some other insurance such as blue cross, that can substitute for Student Guard Health Insurance. Cost as of 2005 is about $200 and offered through your international coordinator. Make sure to bring a copy of a form while you’re in Finland.

¨ Flight Booking

Travel Cuts provided an online booking for air flight. Ironically, as great as the system was able to track down prices, the website had some difficulties. Overall, we got a better rate by visiting the office. Expect to pay around $2000 for flight from Calgary to London, then from London to Finland.

¨ On Campus & Accommodation Rental

http://www.evtek.fi/indexeng.html

EVTEK has three locations distinct faculties each in different locations:

Institute of Technology in Espoo, School of Business Administration in Vantta, and Institute of Art and Design in Tikkurila. If you intend to be close to the Institute of Technology in Espoo, HOAS owns a lot of property in Finland and in our experience if you think you can afford the $250 to $300 euros a month for rent, make it specific to request a location below:

http://www.hoas.fi/

Espoo, Leppävaara
Timpurinkuja 1
Leppävaara
02650 ESPOO

This location is the ideal location for walking distance to all shopping areas including the second largest mall “Sello”, sauna, laundry, EVTEK institute, free public ice rink, and train transportation, and your room complete with furnishings and internet. Depending on your luck, the previous student might have left you other personal items. Prior to renting, you’ll need to make a damage deposit preferably by wire transfer from your Canada bank. Once you’re in Finland, register for a bank in Finland to do automatic monthly rent transfers via internet.

¨ Course Selection

http://www.evtek.fi/technology/programmes/inftech/courses

Possibly the most important aspect of studying abroad is to take courses preferably related to your field and transferable on your way back to Mount Royal College for credit. Perhaps one significant difference is that courses in Finland are divided into two periods, equivalent to one semester in Canada. Courses for exchange students are offered in English, and course selection should include Finnish for Exchange Students – a cultural course in the basics of Finnish language and customs. Bear in mind, some courses have certain complications. For instance, the Mobile Programming courses that we intended to take in the first period were not offered.

In addition, once your accommodations are decided and made firm, you’ll need to provide this information to EVTEK to arrange for someone to pick you up from the airport to your apartment. This should be done at least two weeks in advance of leaving Canada.

¨ Mount Royal College International Office

http://international.mtroyal.ca/eo_students.shtml
Your international coordinator are the people you want to address who can keep you in touch with the international institute in Finland, as well as providing you the needed grant to significantly give you a financial edge, and finally bringing everything together as follows:

• Letter of Intent
• Official Transcripts obtained from Mount Royal College
• Student Guard Health Insurance or Equivalent
• A Passport Photo
• Verification of your flight booking
• Rental confirmation assistance
• Maintain a record of receipts for your preparations and purchases in the process of obtaining documentation and other materials for prior departure, during your stay overseas, and for arrival to your host country, as this is used for future budgeting for students who pursue this opportunity.

¨ Get Ready, Be Prepared

During our stay in Finland, we made contact with various people who provided some very useful email listings and websites. Although we obtained the information in Finland, having the links bookmarked and applying on the email list now will greatly help you, something we wished we had.

http://list.tky.fi/mailman/listinfo/chinese-list

A daily email listing compiled by a handful of international student from Asia in an effort to help one another and has since grown to encompass all with an open perspective. In many cases this list includes cheap items for sale and cheaper places for rent.

http://ww.helsinki.fi/hyy/esn

http://virtual.finland.fi/

Your window to Finland, from Finnish music bands, history, and culture. More information than I could possibly provide, and an excellent source for future homework assignments should you study Finnish for exchange students.

http://www.sampo.fi/english/

http://www.airporttaxi.fi/hinnasto_eng.html

We were fortunate to meet our pick up students at the Finnish airport who gave us our door keys and dropped us and our luggage to our HOAS housing locations. But just in case this air port taxi is available at student flat rates.

http://www.ytv.fi/eng

No, this isn’t the channel twenty youth television program, but rather an excellent web site to plot your journey in Finland, especially when every road has its own unique name. Just enter the source and destination address and out comes train schedules and plotting routes.

http://www.nokia.com

Nokia, the number one industry of mobile devices in Finland, indeed you’ll find a lot of people are inclined to text message, and is a necessity for other things including payment for the laundry machine. Unlike Canada, only outgoing calls are charged. Bear in mind that bringing your current phone maybe locked by your service company and as a result we had to buy a phone in Finland. If you’re interested in purchasing an unlocked Nokia Finnish certified phone with Finnish power adapter email numbers_2000@hotmail.com with the BODY part: “purchase unlocked certified Finnish phone with power adapter”.

http://www.finspiration.com

Your window to Finland through our eyes with photos, our journeys, Finnish to English and English to Finnish software dictionary, and additional goodies not covered in this constrained ten page essay.

¨ Physical Work

Although you could basically travel to Finland with nothing more than your documentation and with what you are wearing now and purchase everything else in Europe, at some point bringing some items will get you started right away than spending half the time hunting for that much needed item. Bear in mind the following questions:

¨     Do you have all proper documentation? Are they secured?

¨     At least three methods of payment until you can get a Finnish bank.

¨     Do you have sufficient funds? How much are you willing to spend on items in Finland versus bringing them with you? Remember to leave room for souvenirs on the way back.

¨     Sensitive electronic equipment should be turned off during flight and kept with you as a carry on since the airport is not responsible for damages to luggage. As well you could back up sensitive documents on a portable USB device with optional encryption. For inquiries on the type of laptop, camera, information storage devices, and phone email numbers_2000@hotmail.com with the BODY part: “equipment suggestions for Finland”.

¨     What is the weather like in Finland? In general weather south of Finland in the months August to January near Helsinki and Espoo region is very similar to Calgary being on the same equator yet with distinctive higher humidity levels. It would be wise to bring clothing that can be easily layered to keep both warm and in style with the fashion conscience Europeans.

¨ Personal Health

Perhaps the most important aspect of traveling is to ensure that you are healthy. As we have encountered, traveling involves a lot of adjustments to different temperatures, time zones, meeting various people who may carry viruses, and requires stamina to carry luggage and for those long flights remaining seated for long periods of time.

¨ Luggage

Determining what to carry can be a mundane task. But based on our four month experience, two pieces of luggage for the plane cargo and a light backpack as a carry on is the standard air flight capacity rules. Bear in mind sensitive documents and equipment can be stolen, lost, and damaged, therefore it is best to carry them with you on a light backpack. Here’s a list of what we carried and is only a recommendation:

Upon Departure

¨ Calgary Airport

The long journey by car towards the airport, or so it seemed long, with the realization that indeed we are leaving Canada, and as I hauled the luggage on to the trolleys, it seemed heavier than I expected. Lack of sleep, last minute checks, dilating pupils, what could we have possibly missed? Interestingly, checking your luggage is simplified using a touch screen teller machine. But as we have found out, it is not as friendly as we had hope for, and ultimately we ended up doing it manually. In addition, with our handy little digital camera, we took photos of each individual piece of luggage which actually proved useful on our arrival to Finland. It was a good thing we arrived at the airport two hours in advanced, because as Murphy’s Law states: “What possibly can go wrong might go wrong”, and it was then we did some last minute things such as obtaining 215 EUR from 300 CAD at a currency converter. http://www.xe.com/ucc/

¨ London Heathrow

Eight hours later, we touched down on London Heathrow. The September 11^th incident did cause such a stir, where security officers walked among the shopping crowd carry submachine guns. However despite this threat, the idea of tax free shopping within an airport was more than enough to still inspire people to buy. The long thread mills provided a quick means of getting around in this large airport, laughing along the way as Greg was trying to catch up by foot alongside.

Upon Arrival

The view from above the night sky shows a massive network of roads and pave ways that resemble more like rivers and streams opposed to the square grid we find in Calgary. This fact is particularly interesting since every each road has a specific name, in contrast to the numbered streets and avenues. In preparation of our arrival to Finland airport, and after going through customs, we received a stamp on our passports. Yeah! The official badge to confirm you’ve arrived. There was one mishap, a piece of my luggage was not found. The digital camera provided a quick description and within two days with Tiina’s help from the EVTEK international office, they promptly shipped it to my apartment. Yohanne and Maryella, the two students from EVTEK were kind enough to provide transportation and keys to our apartment, in addition to a quick drive around in Helsinki city.