Fresher"s Event on the 14th of Septermber 2011-09-22

The high point of Laurea’s autumn term is now behind us! I am referring to of course the Fresher’s Event. Once again the hundreds of new students with their tutors gathered to the center of Helsinki to play and compete against each other. The weather forecast wasn’t that flattering before the event but luckily the rain bothered us only a little and it didn’t slow the flow! A bigger rain wouldn’t have stopped the masses anyway because almost everybody wore overalls and we all know it’s the best piece of clothing against the rain and other forces of nature.

The event started from Kaisaniemi park, where the representatives of LAUREAMKO distributed the instructions for the tutors. After this the tutors went on to act as the task holders or lead their groups toward the tasks. In addition to the regular tasks there were othes bonus missions the groups could do; keeping a raw spaghetti alive, hunting for a queue number and hustling(in which the group was given an empty balloon and they needed to trade it for something better or valuable).

When the groups started touring, a happy student atmosphere descended onto the streets in which the screams and laughters of joy weren’t definitely missing. Yours truly was wandering around with my royal entourage checking out the functionality of the tasks and inquiring the moods of the freshers’. It was really entertaining to see stunned asian tourists running behind the freshers’ along the park of Esplanade because tourists were needed to complete one specific task. It must have been an unforgettable memory from their vacation and for them to see a part of finnish student life. The alumni also participated in our event with the leadership of Antti Seppinen – thank you all so much for that!

All in all the day was a great success and based on the feeling and action everybody enjoyed themselves a lot. For example the balloon had been traded for a chinese chocolate bar, the front bumper of a car, a litre sparkling wine and the signature of Martti Ahtisaari among others. I can only begin to imagine how in the world the freshers’ had been able to trade the balloon for those…

I want to thank all the wonderful tutors who were involved in creating this magnificent day, you’re the best! Now I’m left waiting for the Fresher’s Event of the spring term and all the wackily crazy tasks it will most definitely bring!

Ps. The aforementioned front bumper of the car can be picked up from where some(one) enthusiastic fresher left it during the night hours of the day. That place is LAUREAMKO office, thank you! 

Yours Juho!