From capital to capital, but in nature!
Roos, NetherlandsI used to live in Amsterdam for 7 years, so living in Finland definitely made me realize again how much I enjoy nature. There is so much space here! Even living in Helsinki sometimes feels like being on holiday.
My name is Roos and late 2020, I moved to Helsinki for my European Voluntary project. I work for a ngo as a program assistant, with my role being to help volunteers coming to Finland and going abroad! It’s very interesting and nice. An office job mostly, but with different kinds of tasks still: from answering questions and helping with getting a visa to organizing trainings and helping with communication tasks.
When looking for a volunteering project, I mostly searched for projects in the north. Simply because I’m a big fan of the winter! During my first month here I already saw the northern lights dancing in the sky and the first winter really was a proper winter, frozen sea included! There weren’t just people walking on it, but also playing ice hockey, cross country skiing and biking.
Next to spending time in another country and getting to enjoy winter as much as I get here in Finland, a great thing about volunteering through the European Solidarity Corps is the fact that you get language lessons. Learning the local language really makes it easier to live abroad. My favorite word in Finnish? Korvapuusti! Korva means ‘ear’ and their word for a cinnamon bun therefore literally means ‘twisted ears’. Quite funny – and really delicious.
Updated on kedd, 17/02/2026