Greetings from Mikkeli!

In Mikkeli, the new year has started with speed as the clubs’ new Boards have taken up their positions and got used to their new responsibilities. I have now been studying in Mikkeli for half a year. During this time, it has become clear that our well-knit community has a strong identity of its own. Despite the small size, we are proud and unapologetic, and the regard for tradition is at its peak in our community.

In Mikkeli, connections to other schools are considered important and worth looking after. I don’t think I am the only one who thinks that the basic nature of studying is seeking out the new and challenging the old. This is why I believe that getting acquainted with other student organisations and cities of study makes your student years as rich an experience as possible for yourself as well as others.

The winter is soon nearing its end, but before we let out a sigh of relief and turn towards the spring, we have the ultimate acid test of new operators ahead of us: Mikkeli Road Trip, taking place on Saturday 9 Mar.

Mikkeli Road Trip is a two-hundred-participant event, and around a third of the campus’ students take part in one way or another in making it happen: one by manning a checkpoint, another by guiding the guests who brave the conditions through the winter storms, a third by accommodating the weary heroes. This, the third-biggest event of the year on the smallest university campus in Finland, invites students from around the country to visit Mikkeli and have a taste of the local student culture.

The event encompasses the identity and spirit of Mikkeli in many ways. The already clichéd but yet so meaningful pair of words, the Mikkeli Spirit, is at the core of this event. We can no longer remember when the event was organised for the first time, but we are certain that every one of us hopes for it to continue long into the future.

Let this blog entry act as a small window into Mikkeli for the people of Aalto University. We hope these are not the only greetings you will get to read from Mikkeli, as the year is only beginning. There is a lot more to tell ahead, from the culmination of students’ connection, the First of May, via the summer through to the freshman-filled autumn. But we’ll get back to those later on. Right now, let’s head towards Mikkeli Road Trip and the spring with a will!

Simo Halme

Editor-in-Chief of Probba ry