Another Research Week...in Helsinki!

Someone carved "Helsinki" into the snowy steps.

Good news, I am nearing the end of conducting qualitative interviews for my PhD research project. (Yippee, another landmark in this long-winded PhD experience!) After this week in Helsinki I will have completed 20 interviews and only five more to go. Wow, this has been a process of discovery and I have actually really enjoyed the interviewing phase despite the zany planning and travel logistics. It would not be so bad, but I have chosen to research two universities in two different cities, so the scheduling of interviews and the travel means I spend a lot of time on email and in trains. Even so, I have enjoyed it...I really like connecting with people and qualitative interviewing allows a researcher (that's me) to build rapport with the respondents. There are times you feel like an investigator trying to get to the bottom of a mystery. Watch out Sherlock Holmes!

This time I stayed in the University of Helsinki international housing apartments, Töölö Towers, which are really nice and located in the center of the city. Charlie came down for the weekend and we went ring shopping (now that was f-u-n!). We both found very funky and cool designer rings at Union Design.

During my time in Helsinki I also experienced another big snowstorm, but it simply did not stop life in the big city. The Finns still continued their everyday routines, you saw moms with strollers, people jogging, and the trams and buses still moved people throughout the city. But, there was one fatality that resulted from this big dump...a woman was killed by falling ice-snow from the rooftops. Yeah, and here was the sign in our building warning us of the danger.