In the picture you see a familiar sight from the past: my loyal friend, my Peugeot 106 Rallye parked in front of the Turku-Åbo Airport entrance, around midnight, since a significant proportion of my exchange students arrived to Turku-Åbo with last flight either from Stockholm or Riga. The Peugeot was also jokingly called as “the exchange student bus”, because I used to always pick up my exchange students, no matter if they arrived by plane, train, bus or ferry. And most often it was the car that is the longest-serving car I’ve ever had.
Those who know me, know that I already have one degree from the past, that being Master of Arts in University of Turku, with Italian as major and Nordic Languages, Latin, Education and Studies on Multiculturalism being the minors. Between 2014 and 2017 I used to volunteer as an international tutor as well. If I have counted correct, I was tutoring 16 exchange students in total, with the countries represented being Austria, Germany, France, Netherlands, China, Peru, Zimbabwe, Spain, the UK, Czech Republic, Italy, South Korea, Denmark, Iran and Ukraine. Now it’s time to start a new chapter in terms of tutoring – in a different city, while studying a different degree, with different starting point.
So, how does it feel now, at the age of 28, to be starting international tutoring again? I have a really cozy feeling deep inside. That because of the fact that everything is so much smaller in Vasa. The city itself is smaller, the university campus is smaller, the airport is smaller, and so on. In addition to that, Vasa is also closer to Sweden than any other city in Finland that has a university (no, I don’t count universities of applied sciences, since they are not universities in the real meaning of the word): Umeå is just a bit more than four hours away. Besides, I have a really wide range of experiences in my luggage, thanks to the wonderful times spent in Turku-Åbo, in the past.
Always before I get to know from which countries the incoming exchange students will be coming from, I feel as excited as I was as a kid before I got presents on Christmas Eve or on my birthday. I remember very well when I was waiting for info about my exchange students for the Autumn semester 2016, I was in Trondheim, Norway, attending a summer course in Norwegian Language and Literature. During one of the coffee breaks I opened my UTU email and – bang – the info mails had landed. I almost wanted to celebrate like a football player after having scored a goal, since I got to be tutor for Italian (vi saluto, Francesca e Sara!) and Danish (hilsen fra Vasa, Andreas!) students, which means that I wouldn’t need to talk English at all with them. After having sent the introductory email it’s about organizing everything properly. Now I want to pinpoint that not every tutor takes care of the things in a different manner, but I prefer always going all in straight from the beginning.
“…Lyssna mannen, det är all in, rakt av, det är dag in och dag ut, det är all in…”
(Kartellen feat. N – All in)
It’s going to be nice to show around Vasa and surroundings when they arrive. I’m really thankful about the fact that I moved here already in June and by doing it I had lots of time to explore interesting places. For the rest, it remains to be seen, since many of the best ideas come up later, and often really spontaneously. Like in Autumn 2014 when I ended up playing chess and drinking espresso with my German exchange student Jan in the middle of the night, after one student party we attended. I think it was closer to 5 am in the morning when we ended the chess sessions. It was so worth it!
I wish all my fellow tutors in Åbo Akademi a pleasant start for tutoring in the new decade! A special shoutout to people I have collaborated with in UTU as well!
– Pekka