My Academic Journey

It seems that the Danes want to celebrate the summer when it is ending. It also looks like as important party as the pre-Christmas parties in Finland. For an introvert like me, it's been a tough week. We had a running team at the Aarhus Motion event on Thursday, Business School's Summer party on Friday and the Summer party of student housing in Vejby on Saturday. Thus, I am now happy to stay at home a prepare for the behavioral economics of education course. BSS Summer Party was totally different from the parties that my university or department arrange. First, the payment method: When bought the entrance, you also pay for food and drinks (partly illegal in Finland). The entrance costed approximately 20 € and included 30 coupons. With 6 coupons you could get a hamburger, with 2 a beer or class of wine and with 3 an ice cream. So, no one needed to buy more of them. Second, it mixed alumni, staff and students. Third, they had three very good bands! I am now a fan of ...

So, I am in this cool little country, called Denmark. It has an own currency, unlike Finland. Now, 1 DKK =  0.1345 € meaning that 10 DKK is approximately 1.35 €. Well, this is a hard calculation to do when you're tired after work. Thus, the prices in stores don't tell me much. But let's this time check: Is Denmark really that expensive? I went to this local store calle Fotex: I needed stuff. And I mostly followed the funny discounts. Like: Buy 2 get the second one practically for free! Buy this product for -30% and these for -50%... Yep, it's a deal. Noteworthy: There are many discounts in the store, simply too many. But what does it mean in €uros? First of all, the total cost was 182.85 DKK. According to Google, I just spend 24.58 € (27.32 US Dollars). Additionally, the tights that I bought made almost 40 % of this. Wow, they were relatively expensive.. Balsam : 10 DKK = 1.34 € = $1.49  --> Cheap! Tights: 69 DKK = 9.28 € = $ 10.30 --> affo...

I managed to find the right building and the right research center: Dansk Center for Forskningsanalyse (CFA) . Everyone is very friendly, helpful and welcoming. The coffee machines are amazing: there is cappuccino! There is also plenty of different kinds of tea to choose from. This should promote everyone's productivity! My office is also very cool with two lovely roommates. The table is electronic and I got to borrow a brand new keyboard and muse. The keyboard felt so good that all I wanted to do was to write my first article. (I was also happy to discover that the draft wasn't in as bad shape as I remembered.)  No wonder that PhD takes here only three years!  Oh, and on my way back to home, I only took a wrong street four times (with googlemaps of course). Biking with google maps on your phone and that phone in your hand is hard. Additionally, the bike traffic is hectic. It will take a while to get used to it and to remember the way home by heart.  So, all ...

Finally, I am in Aarhus. For now, everything is good. But obviously, everything didn't go that smoothly. It was very very hard to say good bye to my loved one and, let me be honest, I wanted to cancel the whole thing when heading to the security check. But I didn't. The second and third flights left late from schedule. I was only worried for missing the third flight. I had booked my flight so that my mom would have the same flight from Copenhagen to Aarhus. She left from Helsinki, unlike me. However, there was plenty of time to have dinner at the Copenhagen airport (as the third flight was so late). Lovely place by the way.  I had one carry-one baggage, one luggage and a big backpack. The backpack didn't arrive. I hadn't had sufficiently time to fill the files at the airport as the kind airport bus driver came to check that all potential passenger would be on the bus. He gave me contact information to the airport and told that I could arrange my luggage later -...

A lot has happened. It turned out that I wasn't eligible for the housing I wrote about in Part 1 . I have crossed fingers and hoped for the best while browsing the housing offers of the private sector. But today, just an hour or so after leaving the office, I received an email from AU Housing:  "Dear Carita Eklund     We are happy to inform you that we have reserved housing for you. This email contains important information about your housing offer, deadlines, cancellation policy --- " I am so relieved! The apartment was offered only to me and I had 48 hours to decide. After a quick check of location (12 min to uni by bike), the decision was made. I payed the rent of the first month with credit card (there aren't any other options), which costs 78,51 DKK (10,55€). The deposit (over 1300€) needs to be payed with the second rent. The rent is luckily reasonable, less than 500€ per month.  The apartment should be furnished and 36 square meters....

On Thursday, I was heading back to the central rail station, when I got an SMS from home. "You have a letter from the Niilo Helanter Foundation. Should I open it?". I quickly reply: "Opeeeeen it!". I wait for three seconds max, and phoned back to him. I was feeling excited and anxious at the same time. "Please say if it's positive or negative right away!" I begged. But why would they bother sending a 'no thanks' per mail.. Slowly, Jan started to read the letter. I wanted to scream of joy, but we don't do that in Finland. I had to be satisfied with crying out of happiness (quietly of course). The thing is, a grant makes you truly free. With a grant, you can go anywhere - if you like. I felt so free! Couple of weeks back, I learned something new about myself. Planning big and far motivate me the most. I know that some of the plans sound too ambitious but small plans make me procrastinate.  Some people roll their eyes at my goals. Th...

Phew, I have received the second offer for a furnished room. The first one was rented before I contacted the owner and the current offer is from StudenthousinAarhus. The dorm is located farer from the uni than I was hoping but in Aarhus standards that distance is fine. By bus, it takes 40 minutes to the uni and by bike a little bit more than 20min, according to google maps. Thus, it's clear why biking is so popular. Further, my Danish contact wrote to me that there is a nice nature area near. In this aspect, I feel like typical Finn: nature is important. From time to time I need to get out of urban area.  So far, I have noticed one major difference to Finland: room is offered to many people at once. In this current offer, my number is 2. So, if number 1 accepts, I won't be notified and I don't get the room. If number 1 rejects, I get it (probably?)  - and then they email to me.  Yet, I'm still considering whether to accept or reject the offer as the contract wo...