Study Exchange II: the Return of Study Exchange

Whoa, it seems to have been like 2,5 years since I last wrote an entry in this blog. No matter, it's time to move forward and utilize the same, slightly revamped blog to report my endeavours in Asia. As it happens, I was accepted for a Spring semester study exchange period at the University of Hyderabad, India. While being quite a different environment than the one I studied in at the United States, it has nevertheless proved to be quite a manageable experience, and not once yet have I felt the hopelessness and feeling of alienation that comes with a profound culture shock.

Since the previous posts, I have graduated as a Bachelor of Arts, and moved on to pursue a dual Master's, in Development and International Co-operation (majoring in education) and in English. Due to some unexpected bureucratic mishap, my major was listed as sociology in my study exchange application. In effect, this means that I will be mostly studying sociology during this semester.

During this semester, I am studying the following four courses:

SL452 Research Methods II

SL526 Marxism and Capitalism

SL528 Modernity and Modernization

EC453 Political Economy of Development

The way bilateral exchange students are accepted into University of Hyderabad basically only entitles them to study at a single department. As you can see, I was able to sneak an Economics course into my curriculum, but for that I had to go all the way up to the department head for a permission.

The courses are 4 credits each, but these are not to be confused with ECTS which are used in Finland. They are roughly equivalent to American college credits, which means that the courses should yield 6-7 ECTS each, when transferred to my Finnish transcript.

Sorry for boring you with all the study-related blabber right away, I promise to do better and actually move on to more interesting issues in the following posts!

P.S. Don't worry people, photographic content will also follow in the future posts!

A new travel blog is born!

Hello readers,

this blog is now retired as my study abroad experience is over. If you are interested in my adventures around Australasia and Asia, please subscribe to my travel blog of the same name.

Wrapping it up

Hey guys!

My student exchange period is now officially over. I attended the graduation ceremony on last Saturday where some of my newly-acquired friends got their bachelor's degrees. Congratulations Andrada and Plaba! The last couple of weeks of the semester were probably the busiest I had during the whole semester, including the preparing of the creative writing portfolio, Jane Austen class final paper and the final exams for the other courses. However, I did manage to complete them all and as a prize got 3 A's on my transcript, in music reading, cultural anthropology and creative writing. The total of five courses (15 credit hours) I completed during the semester should translate to something like 25-30 ECTS credits, many of the courses contributing towards the advanced studies module of my major. All in all, study-wise I did much better during this study abroad period than I dared to hope.

One of the reasons that my studies went so well in Wise was that the environment was a very different from my home university. In Jyväskylä, a mid-sized Finnish city, there are a lot of things to distract a student from her/his studies. In Wise, however, there are no bars, no fancy parties and the student community is far less organized than in Finland. By saying that the student community is unorganized I do not comment on the sororities and fraternities, of which I did not get to know much during my semester. Knowing that greek societies are an essential part of many a student's college experience, I still think that organizations which exclude people based on their gender and demand high entrance fees do not deserve my sympathy.

The above is not saying that I did not have social life while studying in Wise. During the semester we had a tight circle of friends who studied together, went to the cafeteria together and even occasionally cracked open a can or two of beer together. I can be only thankful for all the great friends I've got with whom I hope I will maintain a lasting friendship although we are living in different parts of the world. Indonesia, India, China, Mexico, Nepal, Puerto Rico, Romania and Ethiopia are just some of the countries from which I know a little bit about thanks to my new friends.

Here are some final pictures. Thanks for everybody who followed by blog and stay tuned for the travel blog I'll be starting soon!

We barbeques some skewers! Tasty!

Very good price to quality ratio.

Yours truly.

Champagne popping to celebrate graduation.

The warm summer weather permitted us to play dominoes outside. Good times.

Goodbye, campus!

After all our roommates left, we had a feast with the leftover foods.

Graduation ceremony

The graduates!

Getting Emotional

Last weekend was genuinely one of the greatest I have had in my life. Me and my friends travelled to an amusement park called Dollywood in Tennessee and stayed there for three days. We were 18 people, from the Wise NASA people to students from the college, staying in three rooms at a hotel in Pigeon Fort. With the exception of Friday, the weather was exceptional and we enjoyed bright sunshine and warm temperatures with all our hearts.

Driving out of Gatlinburg and watching the setting sun, thinking about leaving all these wonderful people behind in a couple of weeks time really brought a tear to my eye. It is just best to think that with this globe of ours getting smaller all the while, it will be likely to meet a lot of these people again under different skies.

Here are some pictures, hopefully they convey the thousand words I cannot find on my keyboard.

Compare with the snowy shot of the campus in the first posts

Tasty cake!

From Dollywood. They had mad hatters.

Some of the rides were pretty amazing. 

Apparently Dollywood had a festival of nations when we went there, appropriate!

Some of the guys showing where they're from. 

Never smile in a picture with a flag in it.

After a long day at Dollywood, we retired to the hotel.

Streetview from Gatlinburg, TN. I dig the vehicle.

We also took a chairlift ride in Gatlinburg. 

March pictures, part 2: Good times

The door to our apartment. 

Is there some sort of trend here?

They even have different rules for Domino!

Some of my friends.

Yours truly. 

More of my friends.

Hotta fire mek it burn

I should wash these shoes.

March pictures, part 1: New Orleans

Well, there you go!

I tried some crawfish, it was awesome!

Probably like one person in a hundred owns a bicycle in the States.

They use a tank to clean the streets!

New Orleans streetscape.

After walking around town, refreshments were due.

Carneval madness on Bourbon Street.

This gives a good example of what the carneval is about. 

Concluding March

Hello blog!

Weather in Wise is unpredictable. And that is saying a little. A couple of days ago when I left my room for breakfast at the cafeteria, there was literally 6 inches of snow on the ground. And currently, looking out from the window of my room, I see snowfall. It's practically April, and we're further South than Spain, what is this all about? It's not what I signed up for, I can tell you that!

I am kidding of course. For a Finn, the weather in here is not that harsh, but the locals seem to complain about it a lot. I do hope that I get to see the Virginia summer before I go as people tell me that it is amazing, and a lot warmer than the Finnish summer.

After this one I have four weeks of classes left. Just four weeks! I feel like the exchange period has passed by in a blink of an eye. This time next month I will be preparing for my finals, and after they are done I will stay in Wise for a week or two before setting out to conquer the world. Classes have been going well, although I have been frustrated at times for the amount of homework the lecturers give us. It seems like in here college students are not really considered responsible for their own studies but someone has to consistently watch over their shoulder to ensure that they really are studying. There's no choice but to adapt!

I seem to have forgotten about uploading the pictures, so now I will. They will be in the next post.