Now I’m back in Finland, and it’s good to be back..

..but I had a truly amazing year :´)

The beach..

My home











The culture

 The work

The milkshakes :D

  ..and of course, the PEOPLE  💕

 I'm so grateful ! 💜💜💜

Hogueras

The Spanish really know how to celebrate. I got to experience the ‘Hogueras’, the Alicante equivalent of the Las Fallas of Valencia. The main thing is that dozens of gigantic paper mache statues are built around Alicante, people get to admire them for a week and then on the Saturday of Hogueras they are all burned down. The entire week was full of festivities, music, eating on the streets and amazing fireworks. Also, for a month now, every now and then we have been ‘enjoying’ the ‘mascletas’, which is like fireworks but without the light and thus only the loud sounds of explosion. I’m not a big fan of those but it seems the locals really love them.

Further, there was recently the Spanish midsummer fest, San Juan. That meant everyone going to the beach to light bonfires. That was actually really beautiful and, albeit very distantly, reminded me of the Finnish midsummer.

My year here has reached the point that my fellow trainees are starting to leave Alicante one by one having found jobs all over Europe. Also, the trainees that have not yet left are constantly buzzing like bees because of everyone now applying for their next internships, jobs and research projects. Everyone seems a bit stressed out about the fact that we’ll have to come up with something new now and to find something to do for October. I try and not stress even though this state of mind is a bit contagious. Admittedly, even though I still have three and a half months to go here, having to say goodbye to the other trainees that are now leaving, tomorrow beginning my last Spanish course and having to start thinking about jobs, it is inevitable that I start slowly thinking about once having to leave Alicante.

Besos,
Noora

On Cultural Differences

My life here continues as before. My work is still interesting, I’m working hard to learn more Spanish and the sun is shining :)

I wanted to dedicate this post to write a bit of something about cultural differences. I never thought I would notice them as clearly as I have during my time here. I thought cultural differences were actually only stereotypes and that I would never be really affected by them. I thought that all youth of all countries would somehow have approximately similar values. But I’ve learned now.. ..no way :D

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I wrote a post about cultural differences because of having experienced so many misunderstandings here. But I don’t dare to post my original text because it got so personal and I started sounding like I was claiming some cultures were better than others, which is totally not what I want to say!

Here is however my top three most striking things that I have realized only now, during my time here:  

1. Of course I knew that the times of skinny models and photoshopped pictures of actresses are not over but looks and beauty still are even more highly appreciated than I thought. Here I notice a lot more looks-related pressure than in Finland.

2. I had no idea how often two people can interpret the same thing in two totally different ways. Because of this I have experienced here so many misunderstandings I wouldn’t believe it is true if it didn’t happen to myself. Note to self: Be cautious, people can get offended by things that you’d never think as offensive.

3.The level of equality between men and women is totally different in different countries, and also in terms of the attitudes of the young people. Of course, in theory, this is not a surprise but again, I did not think I’d notice the difference here myself so clearly. Around here there have been a million times more situations related to equality that have actually made me angry, than ever in Finland.

With love,
Noora

IP Campus

It's getting sunny :)
Picture taken through bus window on my way to work

 We had IP Campus!

This was an event of three days, one of the highlights of the yearlong experience of us Pan-European Seal trainees. This was an exciting thing, especially because of the first day, on which volunteers had to present on the stage of the EUIPO

Auditorium a selected department of the Office. I was one of the volunteers and worked with a core-group of three others. Team working always requires patience and nerves. ..especially when all group members come from different countries and have completely different idea of what you’re supposed to do and different methods of working.

But well, we worked hard for about 1,5 months and prepared a presentation of two departments, the Observatory and Academy of the EUIPO. We wanted to be a bit original and made our presentation into a form of a fairy tale. Finally, now on Monday our group got to go on stage and present the result of our hard work. It was quite exciting! None of us had extensive experience of public speaking, the Auditorium where we had to present is scary big and I guess none of us had spoken to such a big amount of people before as we had to now. Thus, we were nervous but finally it all went well and now at least I am really relieved that I managed it and don’t have to think about it anymore.

The two other days were related to getting to know local industries and we got to visit a coffee factory and a toy factory (!) =) and met representatives of local law firms. As a whole the event was really nice and some great change to our everyday working life.

In addition, I had my Spanish exam last week and now that these obligations are behind me, I’m quite tired but happy that now life is rather easy. Besides it’s almost Easter! ..and there are also many other holidays now upcoming during the Spring. Also the weather is getting summery here, yippee!

With love,

Noora

Granada and Sierra Nevada

12 February 2017

We went to Granada and to ski in Sierra Nevada! It was great :) ..although, we did have slight problems with the car on the way there because of the “check engine” light suddenly going on. We had to stop and stayed at a gas station trying to locate the problem with the help of a mechanic on the phone. We never found the problem but because the mechanic convinced us that if the car seems normal and the engine sounds fine we could continue driving as long us nothing weird comes up. Finally, we arrived in Granada at around 1.30 AM and hadn’t had any dinner.. ..and I went straight to bed as the next morning, the kick off to the slopes in Sierra Nevada was at 7.45, which made the trip at least for me a bit of an adventure, having to compromise my basic needs. But in Sierra Nevada I finally got some food and skiing itself was really nice. We were worried that there wouldn’t be enough snow but it was allright. We skied for almost 6 hours and I think we never did a slope twice so that was more than enough for us.

Also, Granada itself is a cute city and very interesting with really exciting history with Arabs and religious game of thrones types of things. We went to see the Arab temple, Alhambra and I must say it is something everyone should see once in their life. Really detailed and colourful beautiful rooms, walls, ceilings and gardens. 

Now I’ve tested the public health care system here too because I got a sick after the trip and had to go see a doctor. It was much better than I expected; everything was smooth and I had no problems explaining my situation in Spain etc., only needed to show my European health insurance card, “the European Kela card” and everything was settled. I got to see a doctor almost right away and didn’t have to pay for anything. The doctor prescribed me some medicine and if I understand correctly, I also got a reduction of those. Although, I must say, my illness wasn’t cured with that medicine and they wanted to send me to a specialised doctor, which was a bit more tricky. They told me to give them my phone number and they would contact me to assign me an appointment. They told me to contact them again if I hadn’t heard anything from then in 15 days. Waiting 15 days was too much for me so I went to a private health center to see a specialist. That was expensive but efficient and convenient.

I think it may now be getting warmer here. But so far the nights have still been rather cold. That’s why I have been sick so often. At the moment I don’t know if I’m happy or terrified by the fact that spring is coming.

 P.S. Note to self: Next time you go skiing in Spain, wear more than two layers of 50 SPF sun screen :) (Yes, I burned my face :D)

With love,
Noora