Wild man's bitch and other tales from the dungeons of geography

Natural Resource Management. 

What would you expect this course to be like? 

This was the very first question we were asked when the NRM course started on January. After we all had told that we didn't really expect anything, only to just pass and graduate, our teacher made a fair decision. And we didn't see it coming. Not. At. All. 

Natural Resource Management, a final year course conducted by Odwa Atari, was a wild ride from start to finish. The class was small, only about 10 people, which made our way of conducting the course much easier. 

We were told to read a textbook and teach it to each other, chapter by chapter. It would've been fine if the textbook wasn't unreadable. Filled with technobabble and too many references, the textbook was a mess. I found a great comfort in the fact that the others also experienced difficulties with the textbook. And they were Canadians with English as their first language! 

Each week we had two lectures. On Tuesday mornings, one of the groups of three people would present one chapter. We were told to endorse videos and examples in our presentations and so we did, to liven up the experience. On Thursdays, we would talk about the chapter in an open discussion. We rarely stayed in the subject itself, and wandered to the world of "Why is Canada like this?" or "That's the America for ya!"

In addition to the presentations and discussions, we would have to submit weekly reflections where we could freely talk about the ideas that came to mind from the chapter. I rarely read the whole chapter, because mumbo-jumbo with no spice was not an option this time around. Skimming through the chapters was enough for me to make a great reflection for the others to then evaluate. 

On our final week of presenting chapters, it was the turn of my group. On Thursday, in our final chapter discussion I wanted to take some time and tell my peers about my studies in Finland. I wanted to let them know how my studies at Karelia might even slightly connect with this course at NU. 

I showed them pictures from our field trips. Those pictures included me and my classmates taking water and sediment samples. I told stories of how I got stuck in a swamp and how I internally screamed when I first saw one of those sediment creatures. I apparently even used some slang to describe the "claw thingies" which is also called the sediment sampling device. 

After telling the story of my studies, we switched into comparing Finnish and Canadian map systems. And me, as excited as I was, told how the name of my hometown means the "wild man's beach" in Swedish. But my pronunciation of that term was amusing to my Canadian peers. Eventually, my good friend Sarah said: "I don't think she meant wild man's bitch. She said beach." This made the slender giggles from the back seat into racket laughter. It is a great memory to cherish. 

During this course, I made some great friends. All those after-class conversations, presentations, and all-nighters made it possible. These people will always stay in my mind as the people who made my exchange experience in North Bay happen. They were the people I came here for - I just didn't know it before. 

Dear NRM peers, 

I will honestly miss you <3

Regards, 

Wild man's bitch

Thank you for coming along for the ride! 

Please follow my journey also on Instagram: @liisariihi