Decentralize

"Tervetuloa Suomeen! Welcome to Finland!" While the folks in Helsinki-Vantaa airport did not explicitly shower these phrases into my ears as I exited the jetway, I felt the welcoming vibes in my head. Hearing what was almost dead silence at the airport on a Saturday morning was quite meditative for me as I was unsure what I should be expecting.  So marked my beginning in Finland. I will break this post into two parts; the first part is about my brief time spent with local Finn Jukka, and the second part is about my exploration of Finland with my friend Magnus. Jukka welcomes me at the airport. Shows me around his local neighborhood. Helps me set-up my cell phone. I am lucky to have a connection to Finland through my friend in California, Hanna. Through her, I was able to connect with Jukka of Espoo. Jukka was there to promptly greet me as I exited baggage claim with my luggage.  We had some time to kill before the cell phone store opened up, so Jukka drove me around his town ...

Hello all, Welcome to the first post on my new blog, "Into the Land of the Curious". If you google "land of the curious", the first couple of links that come up direct to Finland's Lappeenranta University of Technology, whose motto is the "Land of the Curious." This university in Lappeenranta, Finland will be my home for the next two years, which is why I named the blog "Into the Land of the Curious." I chose to attend LUT for a few different reasons. One reason was the awesome opportunity to participate in the Fulbright student exchange program, which not only provides funding for my LUT graduate studies, but also provides networking opportunities and language training. This may open new doors for me in the future. Another driver was to study environmental engineering in a country and university which values the economic and environmental needs for sustainability, which I think is an area that our entire planet needs to consider as we deal w...