I'm on my last couple of weeks here in St. John's, and apart from three final exams, I'm already done with school as well. I definitely could've stayed longer here, but I guess I should graduate at some point. After all, I just have to write my Master's thesis to graduate. It's been a great experience so far, and I'm definitely happy I ended up coming here.
These past few weeks (apart from school) I've continued enjoying the student life, including e.g. watching an ECHL hockey game, 12 Barz of Christmas and a quick swim in a nearby pond (maybe ~3 degrees?). The last one wasn't even my idea even though it's pretty normal in Finland, and I'm proud of the boys coming up with such a neat experience. There was no sauna though, which was a disappointment. What I'm also proud of is the good old sissitonnikala (tuna for you Americans) catching on, and now even some people from other houses are cooking that. And just to be clear, I have not suggested once making tuna (only mentioned it once), but rather people just started making that on their own.
Upcoming final exams
For the last few weeks in school I've mostly worked on several projects. One of them included some SolidWorks modeling and another some optimization calculations, but otherwise they've mostly been research/case projects. The big thing coming up now is the final exams. Happily I've already passed 3/4 of my courses without taking a single final yet, so my stress levels aren't nearly as high as some people's. The one final I actually need to take to pass the course would require maybe 20-30%, so shouldn't be too hard.
What's different about finals and midterms here compared to Finland is the exam system. Back home you can sign up 3 (?) times for the same exam, so you're not as likely to fail. And you can choose when to take that exam, because there are lot of exam dates available for the same course and the professors/teachers don't need to invigilate the exam sessions (unlike here). Want to go home for Christmas earlier? Take the exam after Christmas or in March if that's better for you. Here there seems to be one chance, and you can't even affect when that is. Some people might have multiple exams on same day or e.g. 4 exams in 3 days, which makes the pressure even worse: you can't reschedule, and you don't have another opportunity to take the exam in case it doesn't go well. Needless to say, I prefer the Finnish system.
I will write at least one post later, where I'll reflect more on the stay here. I'll also include a condensed review/descriptions of each of my courses as well as an overview of Fall schedule and need-to-know basics here at MUN for possible future exchange students reading this. As usual, a few pictures will follow this post.
-Aapo
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| Newfoundland Growlers vs. Atlanta Gladiators (ECHL) |
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| Quidi Vidi harbor |
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| Quidi Vidi village |
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| Europe is that way |
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| Ford vs. Ferrari. D-Box (surround sounds, moving seats) was pretty fun especially for a driving movie. |
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| First snowfall in St. John's. Unfortunately it melted away almost immediately. |
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