Getting to know LUT

It's May already, that means five months have been passed since the first time I arrived in Lappeenranta. The snow is gone for good, the spring semester is almost over, and the summer break is on the horizon. As much as I'm eager to go to my home country for the holidays, I feel that I will miss this country a lot. As you know, because my status as an Erasmus Mundus student, I can only spend a semester here in Finland, so I might not come back to this country once I moved to another country for my next semester. And this really bugs me. 

As one of my friend said, although Finland is a cold country, the memory remains warm in our heart. Therefore, in order to keep the memory of Finland, I want to treasure as many stories as possible, take as many photos as possible, go to as many places as possible, and hopefully be able to post as many articles as possible. I am writing this article with the hope to make people getting to know about my university here: Lappeenranta University of Technology (LUT). 

LUT is the second university where I studied in my master Erasmus Mundus PERCCOM program. The first university is University of Lorraine in Nancy, France. I started my spring semester here in 3 January 2014, right after the New Year. The semester will end in June 2014 by a 2 weeks-seminar in ITMO in St. Petersburg, Russia. 

LUT is located in Skinnarilankatu 34, 53850 Lappeenranta, Finland. The location is near by the giant Saimaa Lake. The campus can be reached by taking bus no. 1,3 or 5. The campus area is joined with the Saimaa University. LUT is a pioneering science university in Finland that bring together the fields of science and business since 1969. LUT has approximately 6,500 students and experts engaged in scientific research and academic education.

LUT is popular with its green campus initiatives. In recognition of its expertise, in 2013 LUT was awarded in the International Sustainable Campus Network competition as the best campus in Excellence in Campus category. The awards in the category for Excellence in Campus were given based on actions and proofs that promote sustainable development and green technology in a concrete way. Among the competitors in the Campus Category, the Green Campus of LUT, in the award jury's view, combines the science, academic education and the social duties of the University in the most advanced way.

Another interesting fact about this green campus is that you can find color green almost everywhere in the campus. For example, once you reach the bus stop, it's hard to miss the skyscraper green wind turbin just near the yard. Once you enter the main lobby, you'll find a set of comfy green sofa in the center. If you walk toward the building 2, you'll see a wall painted with bright green just near the stairs. Well, you get the point. The green is pretty much everywhere. 

LUT logo and slogan
 

The outside grass field of LUT

This is our first day in LUT

This is one of our class room

This is the Sodexo cafeteria

This is computer room

This is one of the many lounges you can find in the campus

This is my favorite classroom (because it is so vivid and pretty)

This is an incredible view from the roof top

Spring Gathering

At 26 April 2014, PPI (Perhimpunan Pelajar Indonesia di Finlandia / Indonesia Students Association in Finland) organized the Spring Gathering event at the Embassy of Indonesia in Helsinki. The committee invited all of the Indonesian students currently lived in Nordic Baltic countries (Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, and, Estonia) to take part on the event. Apart from that, all the Indonesian citizen who live nearby were also welcomed. The special guest of the day is Mister Ambassador of Indonesia for Finland.  

This event is organized with the aim to integrate all the Indonesian students from every corner of the Finland , since the number of the Indonesian students in Finland have been increasing significantly throughout the years. In addition, this event is meant to introduce PPI Finlandia to all of the members and Indonesian society as a registered organization in Pattenti Ja Rekisterihallitus (PRH).

The theme of the event is "Gather, Network, and Collaborate". We hoped that this event would encourage all of us to unite and enlarge our network to collaborate together for the sake of Indonesia's development in the future. This event was attended by more than 50 participants from cities all over Finland, like Tampere, Jyväskylä, Turku, Lappeenranta dan Vaasa and also from Sweden, Estonia, and Denmark.

With all the participants of Spring Gathering 2014

The ambassador of Indonesia for Finland

Special performance from Indonesian musician

Nasi tumpeng (traditional food from Indonesia)

Lunch time

We come to present Lappenranta University of Technology (LUT)

This is our LUT poster

Mingle time

Opening of the event

The Embassy of Indonesia at Helsinki,Finland

This is me, in front of the Embassy building

Good Food for Good Mood

This is the second time since our first food gathering event in Nancy, and we called this event as International Lunch Party version 2.0. The event was organized by Zainie, and was held in her apartment at Karankokatu 4. As the previous one, we cooked our specialty food from our countries and share them with others. However, the difference was we had a fun playing truth-or-dare game after the meal. We sit in circle and spin a bottle. When the bottle stop spinning, the person whom the bottle point to should choose to take either a truth or a dare. A truth means that the person should answer any question that he/she got truthfully, no matter how embarrassing/ awkward it was. Meanwhile, a dare means that the person should do anything he/she was asked to do or else he/she should drink the vodka.We had so much fun revealing each other 'dark' secret and even more fun enjoying our friends doing some silly dance moves.