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Living in Joensuu, North Karelia, Finland

Joensuu is a univer­sity town and the lively capital of the North Karelia. With the total popu­la­tion of 74 168 (of which almost 20,000 are pupils and students) Joensuu is the second biggest town in Eastern Finland. The educa­tional insti­tu­tions include e.g. Karelia Univer­sity of Applied Sciences (4,000 students), Univer­sity of  Eastern Finland, Joensuu campus (8,300 students) and a number of voca­tional colleges and upper secondary schools.

The city of Joensuu offers many possi­bil­i­ties for differ­ent kinds of activ­i­ties. High-quality cultural events and the clean envi­ron­ment increase the attrac­tive­ness of the city. 

Joensuu in a Nutshell 2020

  • 76 850 inhabitants
  • about 2400 foreign citizens
  • area 2 751 km2
  • popu­la­tion density 32 inhab­i­tants / km2
  • Biggest employ­ers are: 
    • Pohjois-Karjalan Osuuskauppa
    • Abloy Oy
    • Elisa Oyj
    • John Deere Forestry Oy
    • Thermo Fisher Scien­tific Oy
    • Kesla Oyj
    • Posti Group Oyj
    • Puna­Musta Media Oyj
    • UPM Plywood Oy
    • Exel Compos­ites Oyj, Kivara factory
    • Valio Oy
    • City of Joensuu
    • Siun sote
    • Univer­sity of Eastern Finland
    • Riveria

More infor­ma­tion:

North Karelia

North Karelia is the east­ern­most province of Finland with a popu­la­tion of approx­i­mately 161,000. About 70 % of the area is covered by forest. North Karelia is divided into munic­i­pal­i­ties, each offer­ing various cultural and exotic seasonal travel activ­i­ties from river rafting to wilder­ness survival expe­ri­ences through­out the year.

More infor­ma­tion:

North Karelia website: Welcome to North Karelia
Visit Karelia website: Visit Karelia

Finland – an exotic and a safe country 

Finland is located in north­ern Europe and borders such coun­tries as Norway, Sweden and Russia. In 1995 it became a member of the Euro­pean Union. Currently, its popu­la­tion accounts 5.48 million. Offi­cially, Finland has two languages, Finnish and Swedish, never­the­less English is also widely spoken.

An inter­na­tional student can find Finland as an exotic and a secured country. Picturesque nature, clean air and water are what makes Finland stand out from other Euro­pean coun­tries. The midnight sun in the summer and the polar night in the winter are among others the features that make living in Finland a unique experience.

Such factors as high stan­dard of life quality and equal­ity are the essen­tial forces in Finnish society. More­over, Finland is iden­ti­fied to have one of the most devel­oped educa­tional systems in the world. The main aim of Finnish educa­tional policy is offer­ing every­body equal oppor­tu­ni­ties in receiv­ing educa­tion. The system is highly pene­tra­ble, so that higher educa­tion levels  can be achieved by anyone. 

Both univer­si­ties and univer­si­ties of applied sciences utilise substan­tial auton­omy and construct their oper­a­tions based on the freedom of educa­tion and research. In prac­tice, every higher educa­tion insti­tu­tion manages its own admin­is­tra­tion, decides itself upon student admis­sion and creates the contents of degree programmes.

Eastern Finland can be called a Land of Lakes as this region consists of an endless patch­work of lakes and low rolling hills. This is one of the main reasons why it Finland is top desti­na­tion for summer cottages. More­over, there is innu­mer­ous number of spots to indulge in the Finnish national obses­sion for sauna, sausages and a dip in the lake. 

Finnish way of life

Finns gener­ally have a relaxed atti­tude towards manners and dress­ing, and a visitor is unlikely to offend them by acci­dent. Common sense is quite enough in most situ­a­tions, but there are a couple of things one should keep in mind.

Finns are gener­ally helpful and polite, and glad to help confused tourists if asked. The lack of niceties has more to do with the fact that in Finnish culture honesty is highly regarded. A visitor is unlikely to receive many compli­ments from Finns, but conversely, they can be fairly sure that the compli­ments they do receive are genuine.

Another highly regarded virtue in Finland is punc­tu­al­ity. A visitor should apol­o­gize even for being late for a few minutes. 15 minutes is usually consid­ered the thresh­old between being “accept­ably” late and very late. Some will leave arranged meeting points after 15 minutes or 30 minutes (maximum). 

The stan­dard greet­ing is a hand­shake. Hugs and kisses, even on the cheek, are only exchanged between family members and close friends.

If you are invited to a Finnish home it is recom­mended to remove your shoes. For much of the year shoes will carry a lot of snow or mud, and there­fore it is custom­ary to remove them, even during the summer. During the wet season you can ask to put your shoes some­where to dry during your stay. Bring­ing gifts such as pastry, wine, or flowers to the host is appre­ci­ated, but not required.

The Finns are also crazy about coffee, which is odd, when you come to think about it: the coffee beans them­selves grow quite a way away. You will rapidly get used to the fact that when Finns get together for a chat, coffee is invari­ably part of the scene. But note that the coffee in Finland is usually not as strong as in Central and South­ern Europe.

But, after all, please keep in mind that people are not all alike and these are gener­al­i­sa­tions. Your own expe­ri­ences with Finns might give you a totally differ­ent opinion. 

Sauna

Sauna is an essen­tial part of the Finnish culture. There are five million inhab­i­tants and one and a half million saunas in Finland. For Finnish people sauna is a place for relax­ing with friends and family, a place for phys­i­cal and spir­i­tual relax­ation. Finns think of saunas not so much as a luxury, but as a neces­sity, and after trying a few saunas you will prob­a­bly agree.

Prac­ti­cally almost every Finnish house has a sauna of its own. There are also public saunas avail­able at such places as swim­ming pools and student dormi­to­ries (please ask the Elli housing office for the sauna sched­ule in your build­ing). Public saunas are sepa­rated by gender (men together, women together). You are not allowed to wear cloth­ing or swim­ming clothes in sauna because it is consid­ered to be unhy­gienic.

More infor­ma­tion: www.sauna.fi

Snow­bound

Those of you who have not expe­ri­enced a Nordic winter before may have a lot of ques­tions in mind. At the first sign of winter, the streets occa­sion­ally get filled with slush, but even­tu­ally every­thing gets covered up with real snow. The months from Decem­ber to Febru­ary are a time of still­ness. The sun always rises above the horizon in this part of Finland, but the light hours are not many during midwin­ter, and some­times the weight of the dark hours seems to rest heavily on everyone’s shoul­ders. As for the temper­a­ture, a typical midwin­ter reading in Joensuu would be some­thing between -5° and -15°C, but some­times it gets colder, even down to -30°C. Fortu­nately, Finnish houses (includ­ing student flats) are equipped with triple-glass windows and central heating, so you will have no reason to worry. However, in cold weather, when you go out, it is always wise to be wary of frost­bite – this is best done by appro­pri­ate cloth­ing (woollen cap, mittens, warm shoes, etc.). But do not let this discour­age you from going out, since very cold days have an atmos­phere of their own which you should not miss!

After the winter solstice in Decem­ber, the amount of light steadily – although slowly – increases again. However, you need to wait until the end of March until the day once more outlasts the night (spring equinox). The day becomes longer and longer and although it still might snow a little occa­sion­ally, the snow grad­u­ally melts away. Spring is slowly but surely on the way again and soon it is the time of the light nights of the Nordic summer.

More infor­ma­tion: