Hyunjee – Summer and time to say goodbye!

June 7, 2016

Hyunjee Kang, a last-year student in International Business from South Korea, borrows the Arcada Communications blog for a few weeks to write about life and studies in Finland. 

Hi!

It has been a quite long time since I posted last. How are you guys? Most are already on summer vacation… I’m so jealous! But, I will follow you guys soon because this week is my last of practical training at Arcada. It unfortunately also means that this is my last post on Inside Arcada.

My last post topic is Finnish summer!

Summer in Finland is very beautiful and Finns spend their time in cottages (or houses) to rest in the country side with friends and family. At first it sounded quite strange for me that most people have summer cottages to spend time in. Because in South Korea, having your own second house or villa in the country side usually means that you are rich. But here, summer cottage is like a part of the culture.

My first time in a Finnish summer house was two years ago around this time. I still remember those beautiful and peaceful moments. Last weekend, I went and spent time in a friend’s summer house. The weather was cloudier than I expected but I had a nice time and got to rest in the Finnish nature. At the end, after four years staying in Finland, I tried to swim in the lake (haha, yeah, I’m a slow to adapt :D). It was not completely successful, but at least I tried and now I know why Finns jump into lake after sauna.

There are many “not-to-do-lists” in S-Korea: No, drinking alcohol in the sauna! No, swimming in the lake! No swimming after drinking alcohol! But here, Finns do these three in combination! What a surprise :D.  I believe that this is a cultural difference. It is interesting that something that is considered as being dangerous on one side of world can be a very natural thing on the other side. But having a great time with friends and family during summer holiday is something we all have in common. 

As I already mentioned above, this week is my last week as a trainee in communication department in Arcada. Time flies and I’m flying away to S-Korea in two weeks. It was fun to write blog posts and meet you guys at Inside Arcada!

Have a nice summer and best of luck to every single one of you blog readers!

Farewell!
/Hyunjee