Reflections of an Exchange Student

Cork, Co. Cork, Ireland 15.10.2025

In the very early hours of the 29th of August my parents, my older brother and I packed ourselves into our family car with two absolutely enormous suitcases and a couple smaller bags. I remember being drowsy and agitated, and the morning felt far from ordinary. I was about to hop on a plane and start my exchange semester in Ireland. My mum was coming along to help me with moving and settling in, since she was about to go to Scotland for a month anyway. And I’m glad I had a companion. For the most part our trip went well: we got to the airport, got on the first plane, stopped in Copenhagen and then finally arrived in Dublin. Once we got there, however, it turned out that the airline had misplaced my luggage and they couldn’t tell me how long it would take to get it to my new address. Well, we couldn’t exactly do anything about that, so we set off towards Cork with nothing but our backpacks. We settled in, explored a little bit and my mum went to Scotland. Lucky for me but not so lucky for her as her stuff was among mine, I got my luggage that same day.

I’ve now lived here for almost two months, and quite frankly, time doesn’t feel real anymore. I’ve been to trips around the country, walked across and around a new campus, spent countless hours studying in the library and sitting in this or that café writing poetry, but it also feels like I’ve only been here for a week. I’ve met tons of wonderful, charming people and yet I at times feel like the only person in the entire world. My bank account, my heaps of postcards and other memorabilia and my camera roll prove to me that I’ve done quite a lot, but some mornings I wake up and feel a doubt creeping in. Did I really do that? Did I really go there? It would be a very weird thing to hallucinate something like that, but what if I did? It feels unreal to be here and to do the things that I do, but it is my reality.

It has taken me some time to adjust not only to a new home, but also to a new university. From the campus itself to the lectures and the citation styles, everything is at least a little different. For example, instead of the 1,5 hour lectures we have in Helsinki, our lectures here are not even an hour long. The assignments are also shorter, though there are more of them, and they’re a bit more restricted than the assignments I’ve gotten used to in the English department back home. At UCC, we get a set of essay questions or prompts two weeks before the deadline, while in Helsinki we have to come up with our own topics and usually hand in a short draft or at the very least a preliminary essay title before the actual deadline. It feels oddly relaxing to have such a specific essay topic and clear, concise timeline for writing.

But assessments are not the only things that differ between courses here and at home. As an exchange student I have more freedom than most degree students do, but even the catalogue of courses for a specific year is more varied than what I’m used to. Studying English literature in Helsinki is a bit of a struggle sometimes merely based on the fact that there are not that many courses available at once, and those I’ve been most interested in have not been organised in the entire time my friends and I have been studying in the master’s programme. Now, I would never dream of blaming my professors for that, because I know they’re trying their best with the resources they have been given. To be completely honest, it feels silly to call myself an English literature major when I can’t take more than maybe two or three literature courses at a time. But I don’t really feel like an English major in the general sense either, since my academic interests are all in the field of literature. Here, because of the variety of topics and course options, it really feels like I’m actually majoring in English literature. I will absolutely miss this when I get back to Helsinki.

Speaking of missing things, it’s been fascinating to discover what I miss about Finland. One of the main things is food, such as rye bread. This kind of surprised me, because I don’t typically eat a lot of rye bread when I’m at home because it’s just such a basic staple in the Finnish kitchen. It’s so readily available that it kind of fades into the background. But now I find myself craving a very specific kind of rye bread, and while I’ve been looking for replacements, nothing is quite the same. Other things I’ve been craving are Karelian pies, salmon soup, blueberry pie and most of all, tap water. I have gotten used to how the water tastes here, but it doesn’t measure up to Finnish tap water. It’s not even close. Who knew I had such strong opinions about water?

I guess that’s just one of the many things I’ve learned about myself while I’ve been here. I was prepared for many things, such as cultural differences and new kinds of assignments and all that, but I wasn’t quite ready to learn so much about who I am not only as a student, but a person in general. For starters, a different university environment and the courses I’m taking have both reinforced my interests, as well as expanded my horizons. My passion for literature is stronger than ever. I have also re-discovered my love for singing. I felt like I wanted to try it out again and finally get over my fear of doing music the way I wanted to, so I joined UCC’s Choral society and started singing in a choir. Choir rehearsals are now the highlight of my week. I love being part of something bigger than myself and just getting lost in it. And I prioritise choir rehearsals over anything else that might happen on a Tuesday.

Priorities and boundaries have also been a great lesson to learn here. Instead of setting my boundaries where someone else expects them to be, I set them where I see fit. If I don’t feel like leaving the house, I don’t. If I don’t feel like going to a trip or a quiz night or pub crawl or whatever it may be, I don’t go. I don’t mind partying or alcohol, but they’re not exactly my favourite ways to pass the time nor do I want to be drunk or surrounded by drunk people all the time. I’d rather go out for a pint and listen to good music with a handful of mates when we all feel like going. Or, better yet, I could go for a walk and get some coffee and a sweet treat with someone I cherish, despite how short our acquaintance has been. I don’t need to drink to have fun, nor will I be pressured into thinking that the only way I can be interesting is through the amount of substances I consume. I’m doing my exchange semester on my own terms, and I intend to live the rest of my life based on that principle.