18 Jul Arriving to an empty apartment
Hei kaikille ja tervetuloa Turkuun! My name is Anja and I came to Turku as an exchange student in August 2020 – full of expectations (as you do) and curious about Turku, probably the best student city in Finland. I studied at the University of Turku at the School of English and Translation Studies.
There was one “slight” issue, however, that was mildly diminishing my joy and excitement about studying abroad in Turku: the evil C, which goes by the official name of COVID-19. The global pandemic greatly affected my preparations from start to finish, with the question of whether or not I should go at all lingering over the whole process for a long time. In the end, though, I finally made up my mind and decided to give Finland a chance despite the pandemic – and I have not regretted this choice in the slightest.
The ever-changing pandemic situation caused me to wait until the very last minute with every organizational step that I took – applying to the university, confirming my offer, confirming my apartment, and so on. There were also so many things to be taken care of at home – the question of whether or not I could find a subtenant for my own apartment, paying goodbye visits to friends, finishing my semester at my home university, booking my journey to Finland… it was all rather stressful, but of course totally worth the effort!
The only thing that I had not taken care of beforehand was, unfortunately, the booking of a starting package. The last days before departure were just so packed that I had totally forgotten about it. Luckily, I remembered while on my way to Finland (on a ferry!). I booked it one day before arriving, which was admittedly very late, but better than nothing.
Of course I had informed myself in advance and knew that my apartment would be rather empty, but when I first arrived, I was still a bit shocked that it really lacked everything – my first meal after a long day of traveling consisted of a frozen pizza (classic!), which I ate in one piece from the baking tray because I had neither a plate, nor any cutlery. There were also no potholders in the flat, so I had to let the pizza cool before taking the tray out of the oven. Sad, right?
It was obvious that this situation couldn’t go on for much longer, especially since I also didn’t have any bedding for my first night in Turku. Consequently, I reached out to StudentSurvival via WhatsApp and believe it or not, they were able to deliver my starting package to me just before bedtime, at 11 pm! I also didn’t have a router in my room, and as we all know how essential the internet is these days, I added one to my StudentSurvival order at very short notice. The lovely people at StudentSurvival set it up in a heartbeat and delivered it with everything else the very same evening. True lifesavers!
Since my experience in Turku was so overwhelmingly positive, I decided to extend my stay, which of course also entailed keeping my starting package for a longer period. Again, this was no problem with StudentSurvival. All I can say is, if you’d like a hassle-free easy start to your studies abroad in Finland, book a starting package with StudentSurvival! Their employees really go above and beyond to take care of your needs and are easily approachable via WhatsApp.