Exchange Tips, bro.

Hello again dear readers. It’s been a while since the Cuba rant, miss us? Probably not.

For the past month, we've been trying to come up with subjects to talk about and every-single-time, we have hit a wall (talk about a rookie-wall). So, I’m now resorting to the oldest trick in the book, and one of the most obvious ones: This blog post is going to be a sort of a miserable try of a sequel to the misconceptions of Exchange mentioned in one of our posts, A.K.A a “coming to exchange” tips post, A.K.A complete bullshit.

Honestly, I’m losing track of the things we've already been ranting on about. I hope this sequel doesn't spoil the broth as so many sequels before it (Anybody know there was a sequel for JAWS?)

Let the heads-a-roll….

Tips

1. Rent an apartment after arriving

Now to be honest, this is highly dependent on where you are going on exchange, but please people, at least try to gather as much information about different intermediary companies / or renters before going in all “YOLO” and renting something that would make the homeless cringe. Now, in the end if you find yourself paying $700/month for something that’s worth less than half, you might say you got screwed harder than an Ikea shelf, or you know, whatever…

At this point, some people might already be saying, “What if I don’t want to risk it?”. Well, that’s what you pay the dumb-ass-premium for isn't it? Just cold, in your face, asymmetric information. 

2. Make some sort of a budget…..then double it

Ok, so those of you, who enjoy budgeting, please go back to doing your taxes.

If you followed my advice in part 1, you don’t need to take notes of this one. Just pay attention.

Whatever you’re thinking you’re going to spend, is not even a ballpark figure, it’s not even a reliable estimation. You have no idea how much groceries cost, you do not know what initial investments you will have to go through, and as far as I know, you might end up having to buy a new toilet for the house you’re renting, IF you’re in South Europe, or someplace as irrelevant.

I plowed through my initial thoughts of a budget in 2 months, and no, I was not buying Dom Perignon Champagne and pouring it into the ground (OH yeah, that’s a thing). I was merely trying to buy cheese, but obviously Canadian cheese is made out of fairies and orphan tears, since 100 grams of cheese costs more than a cheap six-pack of beer. Honestly, I’m not even exaggerating that much.

So, if you have a job, or you know, not a job at all (Applies to Finland) you might want to think about saving a bit before coming to exchange.

Added comment: There is definitely a chance for arbitrage somewhere there 

3. Travel, preferably with friends

Please do this. Don’t be someone from eastern Finland and live in a sandbox your entire life (Helsinki attitude and quite proud). Also, bring those friends with you, even the new ones, whatever. Friends always push you forward to new experiences you might never acquire yourself [insert all kinds of other self-help bullshit]. Friends might also annoy the shit out of you, but hey there’s always a trade-off.  As for me, I’ve been to Cuba, Boston, New York, Toronto, Quebec City and planning to go to Washington as well, a lot of stuff. Worth it, every single trip, EVEN THE CUBA ONE.

4. Try to widen your view of the world

Most of you probably could not see this one coming from me, especially after the cynicism-loaded blog posts about how I basically know everything and you do not. Well, here it is.

Conversations I've had with people from different backgrounds have allowed me to learn so many things, be it religion or the educational systems of other countries. I’m not going to dissect the valuable lessons I've learned, because I simply don’t care about sharing them. Get your own experiences. Geez.

5. Do not stress studies

There is so much to see, so many people to meet, so many places to discover. Exchange is the time of your life where you are almost as free as a person can be without being homeless, unless you’re going on exchange to North-Korea, which I can imagine to be an otherwise enriching experience. 

6. Work with people who are not from your home uni.

Sure, it has been convenient as all hell and easy to work with Niko (we have probably done 30 cases, presentations or other thingamajiggies together throughout business school so yeah, we know how to work together) and other Finns on group projects, but this is a great chance to test what it’s like to work with people from other cultures. Yes, I know, you have heard this beyond comfort zones and multicultural teams pitch a million times, but hell, it’s repeated everywhere for a reason. It’s amusing to see the stereotypes in action, ranging from German efficiency to Swedish overblown democratic teamwork procedures, where participants’ happiness goes before getting results. Sure, there will be times when you’ll wonder how you have the patience to deal with varying notions of “being on time” and you’ll struggle to understand the thick accent of others. It is equally interesting to see when people go against their national stereotypes, you’ll see that too. You have a chance to expand your view of the world, take it.

7. Make contacts in the other universities as well

As you may or may not know, Montreal is one of the biggest student cities in the world. Home of a number of renowned universities and a plethora of colleges (for Finnish counterpart, think AMK), Montreal offers ample chance to network beyond your own university. We have been lucky enough to meet a number of people from competing universities, who are well connected and open by nature. As a result, we have had the pleasure of being introduced to people beyond our own social circle. We have made friends with not only HEC students, but also with people going to UQAM, McGill, UdeM and I guess Guy-Concordia too. Know more people from more universities, get invited to (read: crash) more parties. Sound advice, coming from two guys who attended more med and law school parties during freshman year than some students of aforementioned schools.   

8. (HEC only) Take the Strategic management course

OK so this course is a shit-ton of work, all for a grade you don’t even need. BUT it is also the most entertaining course I have taken during all of my binnis school studies. Sure, your BS-generator will be running on full steam doing all those BCG, Ansoff and SWOT matrices, but the satisfaction you get from playing the strategy simulation is unparalleled. Though quite simplified in the end, it gives you a nice chance to be a sneaky back-stabbing bastard in a dog-eat-dog simulated business environment. Just remember: if you take this course and play the game, our Finnish readers, it is your God-given mission to beat the Swedes for that intoxicating better-than-intercourse feeling of (6-1) superiority.

Kevin knows what’s up

Montreal Top 5 shitlists

Let’s wrap this horrible blogpost up with a list…

Burgers

Royal Burger located in the Plateau – The shit. Burgers are greasy as hell, but easily worth it.

The fast food chain A&W – The shit. Burgers are real burgers, not some fast food chain bullshit.

Harvey’s – Just shit. The burgers are expensive and they suck. Nuff said.

Places to watch sports

Well, this list will start off with probably the king of sports bars in Canada, Chez Serge.

Chez Serge – The shit. It’s a legendary place among locals. During the canadiens hockey games, the place is packed. I MEAN PACKED. I had to wait 20 to 30 minutes outside just to get in. It is a great bar at a great location that features bartender pole dancing between periods and a booze-roulette, you can’t …. go….wrong.

Cages aux sports – Can’t say really. Located at the heart of hockey, centre bell. It’s a cozy, casual looking bar. Seems more like a diner. Ate there a couple of times, was ok. Moving on.

Station des sports – Ok. We were there once. TV-screens were all over the goddamn place; imagine that you had a studio apartment and 10 TV’s, at some point you have to go; “No”.

Beers

Ok, so I imagine we already covered the beer-portion quite fast in the first blog-posts. But here it is, a list that is a result of intense empirical research and reflection.

Budweiser – Gold.

Bud light – Gold.

Bud light lime – Moving on..

Coors Light – Drinkable, but not really.

Molson Beers – Nope.

Moosehead – Didn’t drink it. Seems legit though.

Sleemans light, or any other brand of sleemans – Ok, but has an odd after taste. If hiding bad smells with cologne could be a drink, it would be Sleemans.

I think those are the most important beers you need to know about. You can also try the Rickards brands, which are quite ok.

Place to drink beer

Anywhere.

‘Hoods to live in

Well, as some of you know, we live in an area that I think has a higher chance of drive by shootings than other downtown areas. What that means, is up to you. But, to be honest, I’ve liked Parc Extension thus far. Yeah it might be a cab ride away from everywhere, but the neighborhood seems to be easygoing and quiet.

Obviously, if you’re a student, or you know.. a drug addict, you might want to consider the Plateau or Mile-end, or whatever. As long as you live close to the things you think you’ll need its fine. At least we have a plethora of fast food restaurants around, so that’s good.

Well, I think that does it for us, seeing as were pretty much sleep deprived from all the hours of hard studying and aiding the community. We might be following up with a couple of more blog posts in the coming weeks. Stay tuned for those.

SEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEYMORE. Bye. 

Do you hate my freedom?

As promised in the previous entry, this week we will discuss the crazy, unique and eerily beautiful Caribbean paradise that is Cuba. Visiting Cuba was something that I had long wanted to do. Seeing an actual hardcore socialist country where streets are riddled with vintage American cars had always perplexed me. So when given the opportunity here (visiting Cuba is a fairly common way to spend your fall/spring break for the average exchange student) we decided to go see it for ourselves.

Instead of going to the touristy parts of Cuba (think Gran Canaria in the Caribbean), we opted for a more genuine experience. We stayed a week in Havana, living in the city’s oldest colonial hotel, the Inglaterra. The room was spacious, the minibar stocked with local products such as beer Cristal and the glorious cola-drink of the communist regime; Tukola. The hotel lobby was absolutely stunning and the view from the rooftop superb. We were situated right across Parque central and we were eager to hit the streets to experience the real Cuba. Now at this point everything seems fine and dandy, however, within three minutes of exiting the hotel room, shit hit the fan.  

Hustlers Galore

It became blatantly obvious that the two of us have absolutely zero chance of blending into the crowd, considering that we are not only 20cm taller than everyone else, but also the shade of our skin (which turned from the awkward-white boy - white to a healthy melanoma red as the days passed) was somewhat of a local attraction. Probably the only way we would’ve stuck more out from the crowd was by being blonde girls. As a result, every single taxi driver, cigar salesman and the ubiquitous hustler in Havana was out to get us from day 1. Probably the most memorable occasion of being hustled was our first big hustle. After being turned away from a grocery store by an old man who basically seemed like he was just sitting there counting down the days (it wasn’t a store is what I gathered with my Spanish), a super suave dude popped up out of nowhere promising to show us the way. In just 15 seconds we were seated in a bar and the dude was ordering drinks for us all. Being the untrusting Finns we are, we halted a drink order, saving us from the first step of the hustle. The man then proceeded to recommend things to do in Havana, building up for the next stage. We then waltzed through the world saddest grocery store. The shelves were completely empty, except in the well-stocked rum and tobacco sections. After the absurd grocery store tour, we were offered to take a derelict staircase into what was advertised as a “cigar cooperative”. Instead of getting a few Cohibas for the cheap price of two kidneys, we decided to leave the gentleman hustler be and continued onwards. From then on, the entire trip would be colored by various hustlers and whatnot.

Seems legit

Now, the thing is that we, as Scandinavians, value personal space very much and usually want to be left alone. This is why a hustler culture is one of the most annoying things, especially when practiced aggressively. However, my sympathies go out to the people trying to sell Cuban cigars as cigar factory workers receive their pensions in cigars and therefore the streets are flooded with them. Every single local probably has a transportable stash of shitty cigars just waiting for the perfect sucker to buy some of them for 0.5 Cuban convertibles a piece. Bah, whatever, moving on….

Monetary/ Budgetary Issues

Before the trip I thought Cuba to be a relatively cheap country as it was located in the Caribbean and, most importantly, it was a communist country with not that much wealth. Well, I was dead wrong. Now, don’t get me wrong, some products are dirt cheap, such as alcohol, but restaurants were surprisingly expensive. I do not precisely remember how many Canadian dollars I took with me, but changing 20 Canadian dollars would give you approximately 17 Cuban convertibles.  To give you a sense of how pricy something can be, one of the more expensive bills for my part was something along the lines of 30 to 36 convertibles. This included a starter that was like two main courses mashed together, a main course (Entrecoté steak) and a beer. Oh yeah, by the way, they also use the bread and water hustle. We ended up paying 10 Cuban convertibles for two small baskets of different breads. I could buy five loaves of bread for that price in Canada, IN CANADA.

Now after reading all this you might think that the price level is okay, and don’t sweat it, it is OK. However, adding the fact that you actually need to pay Cuban officials 25 Cuban convertibles to get out of that hell hole of a communist trap, you might get surprised with how much you end up spending. There were no worries of being completely broke, but it wasn’t that far off either.

If you visit Cuba, come prepared with a lot of cash that you can change along the way. Cards are a no no (Well what did you think? Communism is the opposite of credit cards, it’s not like you can go around waving your Corporate Amex in front of waiters)

Things we did in Cuba

We walked around.

Things you can do in Havana

Walk around.

Propaganda posters and murals can be found all over the city

Okay, let’s be serious here

Apart from walking around, we went to the beach a couple of times and also took the local bus tour around the city. As for the Beach, the first day on the beach was actually relaxing and fun, the day after that was not fun as I looked like I’ve been boiled in water my entire life. As I now write this, my skin is still peeling off in snakelike fashion. In before the “Y U NO SUN BLOCK?”, a) I wasn’t prepared to go to the beach in Cuba, b) subsequently I had no sun block beforehand & c) I DID NOT ACCOUNT FOR THE FACT THAT THEY DO NOT SELL ANYTHING ELSE IN CUBA BESIDES RUM AND CIGARS. Last time I checked, rum doesn’t block UV rays, and believe me, I tried. The second day on the beaches of Cuba was windy as hell and at that point I could not imagine anything better than getting your sunburnt body sandblasted for 2 hours. Once again, the rum did not help.

Irrelevant Story coming up

I was confronted by a local law enforcer on the beach for what I thought was me standing too close to the large-ish waves hitting the shore, but as it turns out I had no idea what she meant. At first, to gain my attention, she waved her hands at me and then started to, what to me, seemed like signaling for me to crouch down. After a while of awkward miscommunication and obviously incorrect hand signals, I went up to her to ask if she was mentally ill. Now, she did not understand a word of English, yet she was patrolling a beach meant for tourists. Well, after a couple of seconds of trying to speak English to her, she just looked at me with a look that just screamed out “I’ve never read a book in my entire life” and uttered out a question that would make the intellectual feats of Einstein seem like elementary school bullshit:  “No habla espanol?”. I was stupefied by the brilliance exhibited by this individual, and before I could even respond to the question, the woman started to make gestures with her hands that resembled a game of epileptic rock-paper-scissors. From afar it might have seemed that we were the worst couple at charades ever. Well, after a couple of minutes of “back-and-forth”, I exited the situation without ever knowing what she meant. Once again, the rum did not help.

Irrelevant story ends

As for the bus trip, it’s hard to find words to describe It, not because it was breathtaking or something stupid like that, I just don’t see the point of describing a bus trip. Luckily we took a lot of pictures on the bus trip, so here, take them. (includes all kinds of pictures)

Some of Detroit's finest from times prior to the US embargo bring a unique flavor to Havana

Restaurants and other establishments

Restaurants were ok. You could get away with a pretty big meal for 8 to 12 Cuban convertibles, which was not bad at all. As for the food, it was mostly excellent, except for Café Europe or Restaurant Europe (Can’t get myself to give a crap about the name), which sucked. The night before we finally left Havana to go back “Home” to Canada, we went to eat at one of the only semi-privately owned restaurants in Cuba, Los Nardos. After waiting in line for an hour to get in, we had to wait another hour to be seated, even though half of the seats were empty. Needless to say, the allocation of resources was obviously optimized. Anyways, the food was very good and there was plenty of it. It wasn’t necessarily cheap, but easily worth it.

We actually went to one club during our stay in Havana, Casa de la Musica. Now, I’m not a club person, so needless to say, I did not enjoy it. I even managed to dance with a lady, not a girl, a lady that closely reminded me of the woman on the Chiquita – banana label. Upon realizing that I was indeed dancing with a seemingly old lady, my reaction was to immediately split and run for the bar. Good times. In the end, just another club, nothing special here. Well okay, to be honest, it was a bit sambaesque.

Moreover, we managed to find the Cuban Redfoo. Upon talking to this particular individual, I quickly came to the conclusion that he was partially crazy. Moving on…

Closing Words

Well, what can I really say? The most fun we had was playing drinking games in the hotel and watching the world’s series on ESPN (Go Red Sox!), that in itself tells you a lot about the country.

Havana is a cute city with a lot of relics from times when Coca-Cola was the symbol of freedom (after drinking Tukola for a week, Coca-Cola IS the sweetest nectar of freedom and liberty your lips will ever touch). Apart from seeing the city on various tours and walking around simply experiencing the

cold war exotics, there is not really that much to do in Havana as there is no internet (The first step of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs).

For people thinking about going to Cuba, just go. The country and the city were very much worth seeing regardless if the people are annoying. The fact is that the country is still stuck in the Cuban missile crisis and the revolution and is slowly starting to break away from that as the influence of Castro is ever waning.

The edgy teenager's idol of choice

    Pro tips:

• Bring a lot of cash, you’ll need cash back at home anyway so whatever.
•  Mentally prepare for excessive amounts of hustling
• Speaking some Spanish will make the experience a bit more enjoyable
• Try to find streets that locals live on, they are worth experiencing
• Don’t go into La Floridita to buy million dollar daiquiris. On that same note, don’t buy into any of the Hemingway crap. Useless.
• And the most essential tip: Bring playing cards. You’ll need them.

Halfway Through

Greetings and salutations to the people! It has now been a month since we last wrote one of our stunningly hilarious blog posts and we know it is hard to get by daily life without reading these things.  A lot has happened in October. Now, those things will be somewhat covered in this blog post, but we will go into more detail about October in the blog post for next week. 

So then you must be asking yourselves, what is this blog post about then? Well, since we already passed the midterm exams week, we thought we’d write a “Halfway through this shit” – kind of post. We hope you’ll like it. We also hope you get mixed feelings and completely flame us. Same difference, right?

Enjoy the ride…

Misconceptions vs. Reality (Our Reality)

Keen readers of this blog will remember us writing about the first days, and how nothing of value was actually accomplished. So far, so good, since I still don’t think I've, personally, managed to achieve anything significant.

Well maybe the exchange experience is not about achieving something; maybe it’s more about (insert girlish stuff about feelings e.g. sex and the city and puppies). To be honest, I don’t care about discussing how we feel about exchange, and if I’d discuss those things, I’d completely destroy the endless amount of street cred flowing from within these blog posts.

However, what we will discuss, in list form, is thoughts we had before exchange and how they actually turned out to be:

Now for comical reasons, these are the thoughts of Mr. Nice, first name super followed by some grumpy and cynical Finnish insights:

I’m going to miss my family and friends every day, and that is why I feel the need to either call them or video chat them all the time

False, even if you’d been breast fed till the age of 21, the fact is, from time to time you completely forget that you even had a life outside exchange and subsequently you get partially annoyed by a lot of contacting by friends and family. Or maybe I just cannot appreciate little things in life, meh. 

We still love you all, folks back home

Many things back home feel distant and almost surreal, something you notice especially when reading the news. Just to give an example, following the Nokia mobile phones unit deal with Microsoft I mainly chuckled at the doomsday-ish headlines in Finnish newspapers following the news (and the comically worried Whatsapp messages from my mom regarding the subject)

I’m going to make so many friends and take interest in their cultures

Now, to be honest, this was not my intention to begin with, but just for the sake of comedy, I will address this common misconception. FALSE. EVEN IF, AND I SAY IF, on the off chance that you actually meet people from interesting cultures or cultures you have something in common with, what is the chance that those people will actually become your “friends”? I mean, there’s only a certain amount of commitment and energy you can put into making friends and actually making friends that will last beyond exchange. This is why, when you come to exchange, a) You will not care about different cultures except if they annoy you, b) You will only make a handful of friends you will keep in touch after the exchange and all the rest will be those dreaded people hanging on your Facebook friends list that you won’t even say hi to if you see them somewhere. Social media, right!?

I’m going to miss all things Finland, from salmiakki to Pirkka Lager and the magnificent wilderness of the fatherland.

False. I have been a true to heart city-slicker all of my life (as much as you can be in a country the size of Finland). In all honesty, I have never understood all the “oh the forests are so magnificent” BS. I mean come on, I can go to a park to watch trees. I get anxious if I have to spend over 48 hours in the countryside. Hell, I feel so after 30 minutes in the suburbs in Helsinki. So no, I don’t miss the postcard perfect nature of Finland.

When it comes to typical Finnish cuisine and delicacies, there really is not that much to miss in all honesty. SAQ has Finlandia Vodka, I can work with that. 

The most beautiful part of Finland. And also a river in the background.

I’m going to take interest in the studies I have and finish the courses strong

Ok, to be honest, I don’t think anybody actually cares about the grades they get on exchange (excluding those universities that are as naïve to believe that people take so much interest in the studies, and therefore state that exchange grades matter. I mean seriously, where do you come up with this shit?)

Exchange is not about the studies. It is not, stop acting like it is. Now I know this, because I took courses that actually seemed interesting and turned out to be just annoying. Don’t get me wrong, they are still interesting, but the fact that I would rather be doing something completely else than studying at the moment pretty much ruins it all.

I’ll hang out mostly with people from other countries

No, you will seek comfort in people that come from the same country, and after that maybe reach out to some Swedes or Norwegians. Locals?  I never actually chatted with one for more than a minute. Well, we did play football with two guys the other day, but they were Anglophones and thus acceptable people. Then again, “BOOM, YOU JUST GOT INTERCEPTED” doesn't really count as conversation, now does it?
 

You will learn so much from other cultures and see the short-comings of your own culture

Yes and no(what a surprise!). What is surprising though, is the stuff you learn about your own culture once you get some perspective from a distance. There is a saying in Finland, To be born in Finland is akin to winning the lottery. I used to think that this was just another mantra being stuffed down your throat to justify the socialist welfare society since age 7. We come from a country where you can expect everything to work and to be on time (except the trains) and it’s perfectly ok to be pissed if that isn’t the case. 

Not pointing any fingers here, but living in a certain province in a certain North American country has shown that “unparalleled joie de vivre” has less to do with enjoying life and more with being a shitty excuse for not meeting reasonable standards.    

“I’m glad the English won the colonial wars, because otherwise everything would suck” 
Upon seeing English tourists, “Actually, I take that back, nobody should have won the colonial wars” - Ville

Every day is an adventure

It really isn't. There comes a point when living abroad stops feeling special and just becomes everyday life. You go along following a set of routines, but that’s completely ok. It’s ok to reach that point where you’re content with staying home, cooking a dinner and watching a horror movie or two on Netflix instead of going on a binge-to-end-all-binges drinking escapade, even though it is a Monday night. 

I will get to see the world

Now, with this I can agree with,  even though it is a little bit close minded (no it is not) to think of North America and adjacent Islands as the world. I've gotten to see a continent and, as a cherry on top, a culture that I have always admired since being a little kid. All those days and nights spent watching cartoon network and playing video games really made a dent in my brain. So far, we've been to Quebec City, Toronto, New York and Cuba + I've been to Boston.  So far all of the places I've visited outside Montréal have made a lasting impression, whether that impression was bad or good, can be read in future blog posts (next week)

Impressions of the University, HEC Montréal

Actually, there are not that many negative things to be said about HEC Montréal, other than the fact that we got completely hustled with the private insurance bullshit. For the main part the courses are ok, apart from the fact that some courses do not seem to be driving towards a purpose. This may be because of the lack of a straight forwards major system. In Finland, at least in the Aalto University School of BINNIS, we choose a major and we usually stick with it and its course schedules. Changing your major can be a pain in the ass in Finland. Here, it seems that people just wander through studies, cherry picking stupid courses that do not make any sense. Some of the course outlines in HEC Montréal remind me of Finnish high school studies in social sciences. HEC Montréal, C’MON MAN!

Now here comes the inevitable comparison between Aalto BIZ and HEC Montréal.

Bad things about Aalto BIZ administration = Everything. Everything is so difficult and the people working there won’t really cut you any slack. Handling official documents is like a relay race, where at first you give somebody the document, they run to their boss, who runs to a state office (where the document spends most of its time in the “lets fucking chill – pile” and after 2 months you get whatever document you needed when it is already too late.

Bad things about HEC Montréal administration = Despite the weird insurance scheme, nothing so far.

Also, HEC Montréal seems to grade its midterms and exams in one quarter of the time of what it takes for Aalto BIZ professors (read: clueless assistants) to grade them. It seems that at HEC Montréal they are graded somewhat within a week. At Aalto Biz they are graded in a month, WHICH IS THE MAXIMUM TIME ALLOWED TO GRADE A TEST AND HALF THE TIME THEY SCREW UP THE GRADINGS. SERIOUSLY MAN, BRINGS MY BLOOD TO A BOIL. DO YOUR JOBS. And don't you dare bring up the "but it's free, don't complain" argument. Just don't. I have an axe. 

Oh and by the way, at Aalto Biz you have to register to the course and the exams separately, which actually makes no sense and causes people to actually have to remember to register for the exams. Now, I know what you’re thinking, Boohoo just register for both at the same time? WRONG. The exam registration opens later than the course registration. Good job Universities of Finland, way to go. Damn you to hell Oodi (name for the Finnish web portal universities use)

Well, what can I say really? From what I've heard, the Finance courses seem to be really good here in Montréal which seems to yet again be a one up against our home university. Then again, you might have noticed that anything I say here comes from incredibly credible sources that for some reasons I cannot even cite and should therefore be taken as seriously as you can.

HEC Montréal 6 – Aalto Biz 1 Vi ses på torget

Whatever else we need to say

So far exchange has been great (Never believed I’d say that after all we've written). Even though making long lasting friendships here is very hard and requires actual dedication and commitment to it, I find it to be very rewarding and enriching. God, I’m getting nauseous just writing about this.


I think thus far the main takeaway has been the fact that we've seen the world and experienced things that we could not experience by sitting at home in Finland watching Netflix (makes you think though). We've experienced the “big city” feeling in the U.S. and the North American teaching styles at HEC Montréal. It is still hard to say what this experience will amount to in the end, two cynical Finns coming back home and hating everything, or two optimistic Finns equipped with a diverse social tool set, willing to step out of their comfort zones when needed? My guess is on the former but you never know.

Letting this blog go on even further would probably bore everybody, so we'll just end it here. Be ready for another blog post next Monday. It is going to be a Cuba edition, where we weigh the benefits of Communism vs. Capitalism and discuss why Habanero street bands should add David Guetta's Play hard to their repertoire. 

Have a nice cold-ass week,

PEAC’M’OUT

Hockey fever

Two weeks have passed and once again it is time to bring you guys up to date on what has been going on in the good ol’ 514. The amount of Halloween junk in stores made me think the holiday is today, but it’s still a month away. Words cannot even begin to describe the disappointment: I had even prepared a pumpkin dance with which to convince Niko to buy a pumpkin the next time we’d be going to Loblaws for groceries.

My costume for aforementioned dance

Blade into the ice, the name of the newspaper (Translation courtesy of Google Translate)

First things first: In Candy Crush Saga I passed Level THE HOCKEY SEASON IS UPON US. As I am writing this there’s a bit more than 24 hours left before the Molson Canadian NHL Face-Off in Centre Bell, aka NHL season opener Toronto - Montréal. A true sports classic, this passionate encounter of these two historic teams is being celebrated in this city with a proper grand event at Place des Festivals. Finnish hockey tycoon Kale Kummola could learn a thing or two from the Montréalaises about making ice hockey truly a special event for everyone, even though it seems he got the pricing of game tickets right.

Having watched a good number of pre-season games online (anyone who has been to our place knows that our Cablw Tv [sic] doesn’t actually show hockey, or anything worth watching whatsoever)  we decided to go to the legendary sports bar Chez Serge to watch Devils play Habs last Monday. To give a general idea for those who haven’t had the pleasure of being to this awesome joint, let us tell that the bar features a mechanical bull, stripper poles on the bar (for the victory dances), a number of moose heads adorned with a healthy number of brassieres as well as a shot roulette where you can win anything from a six pack of beer to a spanking by one of the barmaids. So truly we are talking about the king of all sports bars.

Our visit also coincided with our roommate’s zero-drink-week bet ending. Without going into an unnecessary amount of detail, the evening soon derailed into vodka shots, steel buckets filled with beer, public drinking (“Yes I know there’s a $140 fine for this sir, it’s just that I simply don’t care that much”), intense conversations with a gay chef, and thoughts of being “totally able to beat the bar record on the mechanical bull.” All of this was followed by a massive morkkis, moral hangover. Needless to say, no previous hangover of any magnitude can stop the same from happening again should the Habs beat Leafs tomorrow. In all honesty, it’s a more than likely scenario. #victoryshots #whatagreatconcept

To go with all the hockey craze that has been coloring our lives in the past two weeks we also started a fantasy hockey league with the housemates. How wrong can you go with having Ovechkin and one of the greatest D-men ever to walk the streets of Montréal, in addition to Janne “suomenkaataja” Niinimaa, P.K. “Musta-Pekka” Subban, on your team?

The man, the legend

Le tourism

During the last couple of weeks I also had the chance to visit two major Canadian cities, the nation’s capital Ottawa as well as the cute and adorable Quebec City. Ottawa was a neat town; especially the ByWard Market area was to my liking. The city was fairly void of tourists as it was a Wednesday, but the peaceful atmosphere made an impression. I also noted that the parliament buildings looked like Hogwarts. British Empire much, eh? Would recommend for a one day or one night stay.

#nofilter

As weeks roll by, fall is finally here. Though the temperatures resemble more mid-June to a Finn, the foliage is still going all #fab #fallcatalogue. La Belle Provence is renowned for its beautiful fall colors, and we got to experience this to the fullest when visiting Quebec City this weekend. The city is built on a very steep hill, so prepare for some walking, which also happens to be the best way to see the city. Other means of transportation include elevators, horse carriages and ecolobusses (the eco-friendly offspring from a drunken one-night stand of a bus and a Mini Cooper). As mentioned, the hills are steep so getting around in the winter might prove a difficult task. For a Scandinavian seeing a snowy city isn’t really a big deal, so I’d personally recommend visiting the city in October. The quaint little streets filled with restaurants and shops as well as the city’s large parks make it a must-see for anyone coming to Montréal for a longer stay. The place also has a ton to see for the history buffs. Hell, I’d even recommend visiting it from one of the lamer provinces, such as Ontario or Nova Scotia.

Should you choose to visit the city with Hechange like we did, you also get to see the city’s biggest and best club. For the Helsinkians, you can get a mental image by combining the dance floor from Circus with the pricing of Tiger and the customers of Amarillo & Baarikärpänen. Judging by this description, most of you will know whether this jewel is for you or not. Hotel room after parties with the other exchange students were reminiscent of high school party cruises to Stockholm, though this time one didn’t need to worry about falling overboard at 5 AM, even though the omnipresent fear of drowning was still there.

Niko’s comment: The customers at the club were actually a comfortable blend of Vanha kettu and Vantaan Onnela. For those who are not familiar with Vanha kettu, the bar is located in the heart of Helsinki and is filled with mid-age homeless and the so called “homeless” – prospects that are annually drafted by the bar. On a side note, Ville has improved his chances for the rookie draft by moving to the same block.

Shopping-wise there isn’t as much to do as in Toronto, but I still managed to bring home a six-pack of Moosehead Lager and a Blue Jays cap (true fans show their colors even during the off-season), so at least I got the essentials covered. If you’re a hockey merchandise kind of person, or just a hockey-hipster™, there are tons of boutiques selling Nordiques memorabilia.  

Montmorency Falls

Niko’s take on School Work

Two weeks ago, we wrote about our university courses and gave a short description of them. Now, I’ll give you, our faithful readers, a short glimpse of a couple of simulations that are a part of the logistics and strategic management courses.

Logistics Simulation – What started out as a collective sigh of utter despair as our group tried to mash together logistical plans and how to actually manage an inventory, has so far turned into great success and thus far we’ve only fallen short to the game itself. Look out skynet, I’m coming for your ass.

 Now, I’ve gone through operations management courses where I was taught to use this formula for that and that for this etc. However, during the first week of this simulation I just threw all of that theoretical mumbling away and used common sense. So far, so good right? If your product is in demand, you supply it dumbass, you do not look at equations and go “Oh, well I guess I don’t want to get paid”. I’m not saying to ignore the math, obviously that’s the lifeline of logistics, but still, don’t blindly look at numbers.

In itself, the simulation is a fairly simple supply chain management game where we need to manage logistics costs and be able to meet demand on time in order to not lose customers. Going into further detail would probably bore all the readers so instead, here’s a picture of Finnish soap opera legend, Ismo:

  

Strategic Management Simulation (Reader Discretion Advised) – Ok, this simulation was something we were looking forward to, and to be frank, still are. We managed to make fairly good decisions in the practice round, and ended up with a good nominal share value. Now, the game itself requires quite a lot of attention to detail and is actually surprisingly vast in terms of the decisions you can make. In short, you can basically decide everything from advertising campaigns to employee benefits and CSR initiatives. The game evaluates your nominal share price based on three factors: Profit, People, and Planet, but how we see it is like this:

1.       Profit

2.       Irrelevant

3.       Irrelevant

Going into detail on this game would be like trying to explain to girls what the offside-rule is in sports, it just isn’t worth it.Therefore, here are some nice remarks about the simulation:

-         It was made by the French, so it blows.

Peace I’m out.

  

Working hard, Hardly working

Hey peoples

Long time no see, right? Not that anyone cares though. For the last two weeks we`ve been pretty busy with procrastinating, we even bought an American football and started training in order to go pro next year. All jokes aside, our studies have really kicked off now and we`re still trying to juggle with the fact that attendance is pretty much mandatory, especially since I do not plan on selling my kidney in order to finance the books we need for the courses.

Most of this blog post will cover the courses we`re on and towards the end we`ll probably talk a little sports. This is also a pretty long blog post, so brace yourselves, walls of text are coming.

LET THE GAMES BEGIN!

Le serious business segment mandated by Aalto BIZ, aimed at any and all future le serious business school students heading for HEC (Buttherestofyouarestillwelcometoreadit)

Logistics – Now, seeing as I`ve always been a huge fan of FedEx, I thought this course would totally be my thing. So far, so good, even though I have to admit that most of the areas covered thus far has pretty much been stuff I already know… (TuTa, spring 2012, never forget). I don`t think logistics really needs much of an explanation, so moving on!

Economic Problems & Policy Analysis – Ok so I`m a finance major. Now I like to think there are two kinds of finance majors, those who know what supply and demand is, and those who don`t give a shit. I`d like to think I`m somewhere in between. I`ve always been interested in the qualitative nature of economic theories rather than the quantitative interpretation and, so far, this course has given a lot of thought on the qualitative side of economics and how politics and especially the forming of so called political platforms drive real world economic decision such as the redistribution of wealth and how they might end up causing deadweight loss and thus, for example, reduce total welfare.

Organizational Behavior – Now, since most of my bachelor`s courses have focused on finance, I have never been able to grab some psychology courses, a subject that I am very keen on. So I finally go out and enroll on one, and let me say this, I`M ON FIRE BABY! Memorizin` n` applyin` psych theories on real world work place cases baby, you ain`t got nothing on me! Needless to say, moving on…

Consumer Behavior – Hey, Mo` psychology, Mo` betta. This course has been the most “eye-opening” so far. By using different proven psychological / data gathering methods, we are able to see what consumers really respond to in terms of advertising, product placement etc. Moreover, even though the results of the study of consumer behavior might be common-sense to some people, some parts of the field still amaze me, such as tracking the eye movements of consumers to see what part of an advertisement catches their attention. I could write about this for ages, but I won`t.

The most valuable thing Ville learned: A marketing course can actually be fascinating and make sense as long as it stays near the applications in day-to-day business.

Strategic Management in Organizations – At first, I thought this course name was one of those, where professors put fancy business words in a hat, shuffle them and pick them out by random, such as “Creative sustainability in strategic corporate social responsibility”. Now, let me just say that I was proven wrong. The course itself is basically the teachings of Michael Porter. Now what makes the course interesting is not the endless memorizing of different lists of management theories (KRHM Aalto University of Economics, really!?), it is the fact that the course comprises of a simulation where we get to apply these theories to a company we manage in a simulated reality. The group with the highest stock price in the end wins. Now, being a finance student, I already came up with the best strategy for this game, some window dressing for reputational reasons and then just reverse-split the stock in the end. VICTORY WILL BE OURS!
The most valuable thing Ville learned: The professor prefers Colombian coffee.

Management skills

For a guy who was watched almost all seasons of the Apprentice (both US and Finnish variants) this one was an easy pick for me. After all, being a CSO (Chief Something Officer) in some sort of company, working in perhaps a field of business (even a sector) has been a life-long dream of mine. Jokes aside, this course is easily the most interesting one I have at HEC. The professor has made a career at L’oréal, is a hockey fan and provides actual insights stemming from a couple of decades of managing people. Has my utmost respect for telling things as they are, even though it might not be pretty to hear(e.g. telling us all that we pretty much suck for not being familiar with some of the most famous authors in the field of management science). The lectures are heavily conversation based but that keeps things interesting, it’s also fun to hear about the management cultures in other countries from the other students. Exercises range from written group cases to individual oral presentations and role play. Also a great pick for general career tips and tricks. 5/5, would recommend.

Most valuable thing learned: things WILL go to hell at some point of your career and text books won’t prepare you for it.

Int’l economic environment
I’m not a big fan of the course so far. If watching graphs upon graphs while facing the wall (the classroom sucks) and listening to socialists give their opinions on the world is your piece of cake, by all means, take this course. The course has one major assignment, a 25 page report on a country of your choice, which is actually the best thing about the course, as it gives you a chance to learn about a foreign country in more detail.

Most valuable thing learned: People who don’t share my political views are stupid.'

Int’l financial management

Nothing special really, the name says it all. Has interesting stuff for both those with a finance background and those who really don’t give a fudge about CAPM. A pretty cool professor, though the poor guy doesn’t always seem to grasp elementary school mathematics. No assignments, a mid-term and a final exam. A traditional read-the-book course.

The most valuable thing learned: In North America, making a reasonable contribution to the class discussion can actually result in getting compliments from the professor after class. Dat culture shock.

Ok that does it for our studies so far, now if some of you are wondering why none of this makes any sense, don`t worry, we usually make no sense whatsoever. Now, it’s time for some…

Sports Baby!

Football feat. Budweiser

Since the last time, a lot has happened in terms of sports. We went to see the University of Montreal football team, the Carabins, play against some team I don’t even remember anymore. To be honest, I don’t even remember the final score of the game, the only thing I do remember is that it was probably one of the best sporting events I’ve seen in my entire life. “CANADA HAS NOTHING ON U.S. COLLEGE FOOTBALL”, yeah I know, but still the atmosphere was incredible. It was like a party mixed with sports, where whenever the home team guys even touched the ball, the crowd went nuts. The only slightly annoying thing was this guy sitting in the row behind us honking some goddamn vuvuzela from hell all the time (not an euphemism, he literally had a this cheap-ass looking horn that made the worst noise)

Cheerleaders photo-bombed by the refs

Between the college football games, practicing throwing a football and watching Tom Brady tribute videos, I think the football fan in me is starting to emerge. 

Now for the king of sports, hockey!

Pre-season has started, and I’m over the moon. The New Jersey Devils managed to beat the New York Rangers, which is always the best feeling in the world regardless if it’s a pre-season game, a regular season game or the freaking eastern conference final (which, when I last checked, we won beat the rangers 4-2)
We also got our first experience from the famous Bell Centre, where the Canadiens squared off with…. wait for it…..the Canadiens! It was a red vs. white charity game, where the Montréal Canadiens team was split and they played against each other. It was an ok hockey game, nothing really special though, since it lacked almost all the intensity that makes for an excellent hockey game. Nonetheless, the atmosphere looked promising and we are looking forward to the 17^th of October so as to see an actual regular season game in person!

Montréal Canadiens (Too many men on the ice anybody?)

In the meantime, see you at Chez Serge for the season opener against Toronto on October 1^st!

Mandatory picture of our new beer pong table