Spending friday night by going to movies.

We went to see Fantastic beast and where to find them and we loved it. 

Getting the movie ticket was easy, because all you need is a reservation number and then you give it to the cashier and you get the tickets :)

Ordering popcorn was a bit challenge, because they didn't understand that i wanted small popcorns so i ended up with large/maxi popcorns and soda.

Movie tickets’ can be reserved/ booked or bought online by online pages.

One movie tickets cost like 20 - 30 Zlotys (3-6 €) Depending on the seat.

Janni is very excited

Movie Ticket

Yum yum

Some popcorn and large pepsi

// Minttu & Janni

Procurement Department goes bowling

We all in procurement team were invited to join to go bowling and sing karaoke in a bowling center, Mk manhattan.

It was great experience to talk with other workers in kemira and spent time with them and fun friday night.

 

We startted with bowling and we had a snack and pizza and onion ring and drinks too and we played for 2 hours. Startted at 6 pm. First normal bowling but after 8 its turned into glow bowling whitch was awesome.

Some snacks

Singing karaoke was really fun

After bowling we went for V.I.P room which was  reserved to us and we had karaoke and really fun time.

 Karaoke was really fun and there were so much different options to sing.

It was great opportunity to get to know people better and have fun time singing and talking with everyone.  
                    

More snacks and sodas

 It was really fun to spend time with work collegues on outside of the office and everyones always helping if you need any help. 




// Minttu

Time for new trainees to take over the blog.

We are three new trainees in Kemira, named Janni, Minttu and Jarkko.

We startted our internship in October And will be here for 5 months.
We are gonna share our experiences and advices.
 
 Janni works in IT Service desk and she comes from Helsinki Business College.

Minttu works in Procurement Department, and comes also from Helsinki Business College.

Jarkko works in Customer service and comes from Koulutuskeskus Salpaus / 

Salpaus Further Education  

From Left to Right; Janni, Minttu, Jarkko

We are here to tell you about our journey in Gdansk.

Join our journey!

// Minttu

Last advices

My last words for this blog. Thank you Kemira Gdansk, you taught me so much. Now it's my turn to share my advice about going abroad.

1. Remember to get insurance. 

Even if you think you don't need it, nothing bad will happen - trust me, get the insurance. Poland is a place where unbelievable things can happen. In my case it meant getting in the car crash while being parked. Yeah, that really happened. 

2. Get an European Healthcare card (Eurooppalainen sairaanhoitokortti)

If you are EU citizen it will guarantee you the same health care as native people. You will get the same price and same treatment. It is extremely useful thing to have and it doesn't even cost. If you are Finnish, you can order it from Kela. For other countries I am not sure how to get it.  

3. Remember to have fun.

You are going abroad. You are out of your normal environment and it will change you. It doesn't matter if you are working, studying or travelling, it's still the same. You need to make most of it. Get known to the locals, jump into a random bus and see where it leads you. Try as many restaurants as possible, make friends and have fun. Be crazy, be yourself and more. 

Now it's time to let new interns take over.

//Mira

All good things come to an end

and so did my summer in Gdansk and internship at Kemira. I was the first trainee to leave and got a lot of lovely goodbye gifts from my coworkers. Lots of Polish sweets and products from Ziaja to bring to Finland!

I am happy that I decided to leave my safe home country and take the opportunity! I am more self confident than ever and think that working abroad has improved my chances when looking for a job. It was actually confirmed when I walked in to my first job interview here in Finland and got the place. I will start in the beginning of October working for a Finnish call center.

Going to Hel

I also improved my social skills. I was quite nervous and didn't know what to expect when I knew that I will have to live with someone I don't know. I have never before lived with a flatmate. I suprised how easy it was to live with Katja from the first day on. There was also some communication problems with older Polish people because of the language barrier, but usually I cleared these situations.

So artistic...

I learnt patience. In a big company like Kemira, things wont happen just by clapping your hands. There might be a lot of persons whose opinion you need to ask before making decisions. And this same concerns the language barrier between different persons but with patiance the problems got solved.

Last meal with the crew

The things I never would have learnt if I never went abroad... I would probably be sitting anxious at my home town not knowing what the world can offer me and the potential that lies in me! Now I am ready for the next adventure, as I sent my exchange application to Grenoble, France! Thumbs up!

Dziękuję i do widzenia!
Anna-Aleksandra

Some good advice at the end

My time at Kemira comes to an end, I have only a few days left here and I thought I share some of my experiences as an intern with you.

Make an asset of your abilities. 

You might think that you will not get the internship, as I did, apply anyway, you never know who your competitors are. So make sure you let the company know why they should hire you. If you can speak many languages, let them know, because they might be looking for you without knowing yet. And don’t be afraid because it might not be your native language. Finnish is the fourth language that I have learned in my live, I make mistakes, but I got the place because I let them know what I can do.


Don’t be afraid to make decisions

There might be the time in your internship, when a situation demands a quick decision. Colleagues might be busy or short at hand, do not be afraid to bring your idea forward, it might just be the right solution and it shows that you are pro-active and not just wait for someone else to take things into his/her hand.

Make suggestions

When you are in a team meeting and you’re asked for your opinion or suggestions, do not be shy! You have a new view pint in the situation, so your ideas are fresh and might be just what the company needs.

So don't be afraid, ask questions, suggest solutions, take things in your own hands when you notice the others are busy and you have an idea how to solve the problem. I mean, you never know, you might get a job offer because Kemira sees how motivated and talented you are!

// Katja

The thing I love about Gdansk....

Here in Gdansk you could never run out of things to do!

We have been quite an active group of interns and some times we have managed to lure some other colleagues to join us as well... Here some examples, what you might want to do in Gdansk:

Beach!

When it's a warm day, we gather up the whole office and head to the beach! There we will play volleyball, football, throw frisbee or swim until we can't anymore...

Spend a day in the endless beach of all Tricity

Old Town!

Mariacka is the third biggest brick building in the world! From the top of it you can see all of Gdansk Old Towns beautiful houses...

Climb to the top of Mariacka

Posing to yet another picture. As you can see, we were having tons of fun when my sister visited me.

You can even see the Townhall from above

Travel!

  This picture was taken in Fischmarkt, Hamburg, where I flew straight from Gdansks Airport!

Enjoy the cheap connections to all destinations in the middle Europe

Festivals!

In the summertime the Tricity is full of music events and Open'er was one of them... There were artists like Florence and the Machine, Pharell Williams, Bastille, Red Hot Chili Peppers etc...

In the end of the rainbow there is a treasure... And there was! A silent disco where everyone wore headphones!

Open'er and the beautiful sky...

Colorfestivals was one of the events we took part in Gdansk.

Life is not always so black and white, is it?

People throwing colors in the air

 Food!

There are lots of great restaurants in Gdansk !  Not only the food looks and tastes great, but the atmosphere in the restaurants is very unique. And it's not even expensive...

Hummusland, Wrzeszcz

Sightseeing!

 

You could just spend days and days in Gdansk walking aimlessly around and take a look at the attractions.

Three crosses monument in front of European Solidarity Center

 And one tram stop that seems extremely hilarious to Finns....

Taking a look at Paska

  
Go to Hel!

We spend a great Sunday in Hel with our colleagues :)

We saw these cuties

Trying to lure the seals out of the water

Going crazy like real tourists should

Sports!

In Gdansk, there is a lot of sports to enjoy... We've tried here for example jumping, bouldering and airyoga. We also went to see skimboarding and football!

Jumpcity in Gdynia. There was no picture taken afterwards since we were almost dead.

The bouldering squad!

Cheering for victorious Lechia!

So if someone came to me and said that there is nothing to do in Gdansk, I wouldn't believe it. Oh, I almost forgot to mention the glamorous and crazy nightlife in Tricity! Well, I wouldn't find any decent pictures anyway... ;)

Lastly our crazy jumping skills at Gdynia Jumphouse!

Have a great day!

//Anna-Aleksandra

Visit to Świecie

Throwback to when I had a quite different Midsummer Eve visiting Kemira´s production plant in Świecie. Morning started with two hour drive from Gdansk to Świecie. Upon arrival it was safety first as usual at Kemira´s sites.

We had a tour of our production facilities and warehouse. We also got to see the paper production line next to our plant where Kemira supplies chemicals.

Paper machine provided much needed mid-summer sauna to us.

//Antti-Jussi

Stacja naprawy rowerow

In Wrzeszcz you can find these "Stacja naprawy rowerow" which means bike repair station. I think this is excellent idea, because who hasn't been in the situation when riding a bike and all the sudden you notice you have a flat tire?

Well that has happened  to me many times (nothing to do with my bike riding skills (; ). Anyway I don't have any tools at home to fix it so I just always take my bike to my parents house, listen the short lecture about how it would be easy to fix it by yourself. Maybe if we would have these bike repair stations in Finland, I could make my father very happy by repairing my bike all by myself! Or just find another excuse to avoid it...

In these stations you can find air pump, screwdriver, wrench.. and many other things which I could easily name, but let's just call them bike repairing things :D

//Annica

Differences between Poland and Finland

We all have been here more than a month now. We are starting to wear off the first "crush" of being here. So far we have been excited about everything and all the new things have been fascinating. Now we are finally able to organize our thoughts and try to point the differences between living in Poland and Finland.

Traffic lights

Although one would suspect that there wouldn't be that many differences but here are the two most deviant: beebing sounds and arrow lights.

Beebing sounds are meant for people who cannot see that well and we also have them in Finland, where they similiar all around, but here they differ from traffic light to traffic light and we think of them as songs.

Other major difference is the use of arrow traffic light. In Finland when car has a arrow light, then he/she is free to turn and there no other cars or pedestrians in the way and it's easy to make the turn. Here though there are different ones: Arrow that similiar as in Finland and a arrow that is usually always on, except on small period when pedestrians start to cross. So for me atleast as a pedestrian it's were odd to be careful of cars coming from right when other cars are waiting in traffic lights, especially on larger rouds like Aleja Grunwaldzka.

Using cash

It would seem to become a trend to pay with your debit card, in particular with near pay feature, than with cash. It would also seem that shop keepers prefer customers to pay with card.

But what sets two countries apart is ability to give back cash. As in Finland it isn't usually a problem to pay with larger bills (like 50€) even the smallest of purchases, here even if the cost of something is 20 zloties, cashier might not have enough money to return for 50 zloty bill. And even if they have enough, they would prefer exact sum.

Bottle recycling

Finland has one of the largest bottle return precentages in the world ( over 90%). But Poland doesn't have any kind of return system. So it is difficult just to throw bottles away in the trash when you're accustomed to return them for re-use.

We will continue observing these differences but there is a few that we wanted to share already.


//Annica, Mira & T-P

Update: Table Football Tournament

Music: Epic Song (BoxCat Games) / CC BY 3.0

Third game of Kalsarikännit was on Wednesday. Kalsarikännit played against Queens and what a match it was! Kalsarikännit has been significantly improving their game and it has been a pleasure to see them grow.

First match was just a warmup and now you can actually see how they are building the game, controlling the ball. The team is playing better and better together and I believe they have quite good opportinity to keep winning next games also.

//Mira

The best way to get your week started: Sporty Monday!

Every Monday there is Kemira's reservation to the sport hall downstairs the building where Kemiras Gdansk office is located. In our intranet we have the possibility to vote for the sport every week, but there was never a sport that won against volleyball :D

The game is so intense that my camera can't quite handle it

Usually we are 5-10 persons. This is a nice way to get to know to the collegues from other departments as well. We Finns have a bad habit to stick together but somehow you can't find many when it comes to sporty Monday... Maybe the scare of losing causes the lack of Finns since the Polish volleyball standard is pretty high ;)

 

The situation wasn't the most exciting, but you'll get the picture.... 

See you on next Monday!

//Anna-Aleksandra & Annica

IT Service Desk team day

Last Saturday was a team day in IT Service Desk which meant karting and grilling. In my opinion team days are crusial part of creating strong team and succeeding together. Here is some ambiance from Saturday.



//Mira

Summer Party!

Last Saturday most of the trainees participated to Kemira's annual Summer Party. The event was held in place called Puck, which is about one hour drive from Gdansk. 

Program included a lot of sea activities; we were taught a bit about sailing and we got to experience the speed of the speedboats.

There were also a mystery game where the idea was to figure out the killer. Story was that in that same place, two nights ago, one of the big company's boss had died and we needed to sort out what excactly had happened by interviewing people. There were actors who were wearing costumes like waitress, diver and secretary, and they all had their own story to be told. In the end this mystery game part didn't went so well, because we couldn't guess the killer :(

After all planned activities it was time to eat! An amazing view and cooks who were grilling salmon, pork, chicken... Yep it was the cherry on top of the perfect summer day.

And last but not the least the beautiful sunset :)

//Annica

In one month..

In one month I have learnt..

how to create tickets.
how to categorize different tickets.
how to priotize tickets.
how to use BMC Remedy IT Service Management (Aqua).
how to take remote control with Bomgar.
how to find information about the users, computer, servers - well,
basically everything.

In one month I have..

started to get Clarity calls.
learnt whom to ask what.
learnt where to find more information.
enjoyed the cheap food.
experienced my first food poisoning.
had my first sick leave because of it.

In one month I have..

been partying in Sopot.
enjoyed the beach.
visited Warsaw.

started yoga.
tried bouldering.
met so many new people
and made new friends.

In one month I have done so much, yet so little.

//Mira