Not really that much to tell yet. It's pretty cool that most of my teachers are PhDs in a field related to the course in question. They seem to know what they're talking about :) For a Finnish (European too?) student it's hard to get enough courage to open your mouth even if you're not quite sure what you're saying, or if you disagree with the teacher. I think that in Finland the student-teacher relationships are kind of strange. On one hand we often call them by their first names but then on the other we seem to hold them on a pedestal, not daring to question their opinions, taking everything they say as the only truth. It's quite enjoyable to be in a class where people express their opinions, and especially get counterarguments from the teacher and other students.
What has surprised me is the amount of books I need to buy. For 5 courses I have 13 books and one large set of copies. That adds up to quite an amount. And students are really expected to read during the semester, not just for the exams - classroom participation can be up to 25% of the grade!
Outside school, I do feel a little "stuck" here. The busses don't run on weekends and my free bike isn't good enough to make long trips. Today we rented mountain bikes and ended up doing quite a workout. (Stupid Europeans think they can actually ride their bikes to the start of some biketrails - oh no, you kind of need a car for that too!) Next weekend we'll probably go see Spokane or some other bigger city. Looking forward to that!!
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