Just wanting to let you know, there is an "international people meeting" in Tampere every saturday. It's called World Cafe - Kaiken maailman kahvila. It is organized by redcross volunteers and it's a good place to meet other foreigners and finnish people, who just like spending time with international people. It's ok to bring kids too
The meeting is every saturday at 14pm - 17pm in the redcross training place in Rongankatu 11, Tampere. It's very close to the train station. Copied from an ad:World Cafe
Every
Saturday
at 14 – 17
WELCOME to an international meeting point in
the heart of Tampere! Take part in various
activities from workshops and lectures to
movies and excursions. Feel free to pop in and
meet people over a cup of coffee and some
snacks. You are also welcome to bring your
own food or recipes and ideas for discussion.
Come on your own or with friends and family!
Rongankatu 11 (koulutustila)
33100 Tampere
http://www.punainenristi.fi
There are as well international parents meetings on Thursdays, copied from the website http://www.tampereennapapiiri.fi :
International Parents
When: Thu 11 am - 2 pm
Where: Kaalamonaukio 2, Tampere
Cost: 2 e for tee/coffee and the rent of the Napapapiiri
More information: Katri Baskaya, 050 351 9208
We are a group of international and/or internationally-minded families. Usually one or both of the parents come from abroad, but this is not a requirement! We have an informal get-together (in English) once a week. You can bring your children with you and spend time, make friends, and share what you have on your mind - about babies and raising children, or life in Finland, or life in general, or whatever comes up.
We have a yahoo group international_mothers, where we discuss, check who is coming this week, etc. You can join at http://groups.yahoo.com.
And last but not least, Tampere Immigrant Advice Center is organizing (with the redcross) tandem language studies. In this form of studying language, two people with different mother tongue teach each other a language they know. You don't have to be a real language teacher to do this, you just help the other one to learn your language (English, French, Chinese, etc...) and your pair helps you to learn Finnish (or Swedish, etc...). You must know at least some very basics of the other language. The pair meets as often as they want (weekly, monthly...) and where ever they want (at home, in a coffee shop, in the park, at the worls cafe mentioned above...).
Tandem language learning is good way to learn a language, to be taught by a native speaker and to get to know to the culture too. You can form a pair with someone with similar interests to make it even more fun and useful. Immigrant Advice Center organizes the first meeting and some more together with other pairs. If you want to get more information or attend, you shoud contact Kristiina.Teiss@tampere.fi quite soon. The pairs should meet at least once by the end of this year. The teaching is supposed to last until May 2013.
I myself am attending this tandem thing, trying to find someone to help me with my french...(I'm Finnish)
A lot of people seem to be seeking for new friends, hopefully we can meet somewhere. With kids it would be easier to meet in parks or playgrounds than in coffee shops (I have a 1-year-old boy who is not able to sit still for a second
) Suggest something, or come to some of the meetings i suggested above, you might find me there too!