End of first term-EdGlo 2019

It's getting close to the end of the first semester of my master's program in Finland. Despite it being only three months since I first set foot in Oulu, the life experiences I've had, the people I have met and the academic growth I have achieved has made me feel like it's been a very long time.

To begin with, I have been able to get in close contact with Finnish culture since I arrived. One good way I did this was through the study of the Finnish language. During this course, I was able to understand the basics of social interaction in Finnish. I learned how to greet and introduce myself. I also learned how to talk about my day-to-day activities, tell and ask for the time, buy things and count to 1,000. All of this allowed me to interact with locals with a little more confidence and even get a few smiles here and there.

Secondly, I have been able to meet some really interesting people both in and outside of university. During the first few weeks, I was paired up with a local family through the kummi family program. They're a couple of retirees who are based in Oulu and who remind me a lot of my parents.  They have a lot of free time, so we have managed to meet up fairly easily and do a lot of activities together.

Finally, it's the personal and professional growth that I have made during this short semester. Even though it's been only 3 months in my program, I have been able to question and dig much deeper into the field of education, to look at my profession as a language teacher from different perspectives and to reflect on the content that I have delivered in class.