The University

 

The University

Between the Tulli stop and Rautatiesema, just past duck park and the Mooominmuseum is Tampereen Yliopisto – Tampere University!  Amy has spent our time here collaborating with international scholars and laying the groundwork for comparative research projects that she anticipates will last for several years.

One of her highlights was attending and presenting at ESPAnet, an international conference on international family policy.  Her poster was well received.  Of course it was, because she’s a baller.  20 inch blades, and all that.  

The rest of the conference was interesting, and gave her a much better insight into the nuances and granularity with which different European countries deal with family policy.  Most of the charts, graphs and data did not include the United States.  We are so bad at caring for our families that it is statistically irrelevant to study us.  We are such an extreme outlier that our thoughts and policies don’t meaningfully contribute to the conversation.  It was a sobering realization.

Like many other Finnish universities, students here wear brightly colored overalls that identify their major.  They cover those overalls with all sorts of different patches ranging from membership in professional or social organizations, inside jokes or memes, local business and restaurants, and even pornographic websites.  Which is an interesting choice for something that you wear out in public.

We’ve heard that if you change majors its common to keep your old color but sew on the sleeves or legs of your new color, to create a sort of hybrid.  But we heard from locals that its incredibly rare to change your major.  We also heard that sometimes when you are dating someone from a different major it’s common to trade your sleeves or legs with them, again creating a sort of hybrid.  We never talked with anyone who had done this.  But we did see a few people with mismatched legs or sleeves.  So I can’t tell you exactly why, but I do know there is some sort of situation that results in a small number of students having the hybrid overalls.  But for most they just have a single monochrome overall.  With tons of patches.

We’d also heard that students had to wear the overalls the whole time that they were in school here, and couldn’t even wash them.  But our Finnish friends told us that wasn’t true, and that they really only wore them for parties.  But we saw them being worn pretty consistently around town.  So who knows.  Tampere does have a unique hat (called a cockade).  

We saw current students wearing them.  So you must get them at some point before you graduate, though I wish I knew more about the protocol.  If you get your Ph.D. here they give you a sword.  Which is totally awesome!  But you don’t get to wear it or use it much, and only under special circumstances you can have it sharpened – which is pretty much the only time it does anything.  So kinda defeats the point.

Two of our favorite restaurants are within walking distance of the University, so it makes sense to talk about them here.  TnT (short for Tacos n’ Tequila) is a divey little bar right underneath the Rautatiesema.  It's a place I would definitely like to bring the best Mock Trial coaches in the world:  Pardies Roohani, Alice Miller, Kento Ibarra, and Daisy Fernandez.  Good Mexican food is actually pretty hard to find here, so it is extra special when we find a place that does it well.  And boy do they ever do it well here.  The Tequila is just shots, which was a bit disappointing – we were hoping for a proper margarita.  But the food is all killer.  It shares its space with a couple of other restaurants, so you can mix and match a little bit.  There’s a vegan place, and Asian-fusion place, and a proper bar.  They also made mocktails for the boys.

The whole space is filled with old video arcade games that you can buy tokens for, and in the bar they have a bunch of retro video game consoles you can play.  

The kids were pretty excited about the arcade games, so we usually bought some tokens.  

The staff was all super sweet.  They explained that the machines were pretty old and occasionally ate tokens.  And if that happened to just come to them and they’d give us more.  It only happened once or twice but when it did they were happy to give us replacement tokens, no questions asked.  It felt as if they were more concerned with making sure their guests had a good time than in making every last cent possible.  That was refreshing.

By far our favorite restaurant is Aloha Ramen.  It’s a bit farther from the University, on the other side of Rautatiesema.  Actually pretty close to Sorin Aukio, if you've been following the blog.  The kids love the gyoza – each of our meals comes with three each, but we usually go back and order more separately.  

Amy and I usually get the shoyu chashu ramen.  It’s perfect.  

The noodles are perfect.  The broth is salty and umami.  The green onions, the mushrooms, boiled egg, the bean sprouts.  All perfect.  But the most perfect part is the chashu (which is a rolled pork belly).  The seasoning is on point and compliments the broth perfectly.  It has the right balance of roasted flavor with the punch of a quick char.  It’s phenomenal.  

We’ve tried their other ramens (notably the chicken karage) and they are delicious too.  But nothing beats the chashu.  We picked up overall patches from both TnT and Aloha.  We don’t really have anything to do with them, but they are fun souvenirs.

I’ve always loved college towns, both as a student and as a professor.  I love the campuses, the traditions, the weird eccentricities, and the dive bars and food.  I am proud to report that Tampere is a college town in keeping with the very best that I have visited, and there are traditions that I hope one day we will have in the states.  Mostly I just want more Aloha ramen.  But wearing swords with our regalia would be sick.  And the overalls are a cute idea.  I am glad though that I don’t have to teach to a room of students who wear their pornographic preferences literally on their sleeves.  That part is kinda weird.

Hei Hei