It’s hard to believe there’s only 1 month left of my internship at the Finnish Cultural Institute for the Benelux! Let’s take a look back at the past 10 months and highlight the top 10+ moments of my stay at the institute.
January
Ah January, where it all began! The first few days of an internship at the Institute are reserved for “inductions”, where interns are introduced to the different departments of the institute. It’s a lot of info to take in but the team is endlessly patient and there’s plenty of time to learn.
Highlight: On my very first day I got to make my TikTok debut!
February
In February, I went on my first work excursion as the team traveled to Antwerp to see Saara Turunen’s Grapes of Reason. As I stepped off the train, I instantly twisted my ankle. Luckily, Belgian beer, good company, and the fantastic theater experience quickly numbed the pain.
I was also diving into and organizing the Institute’s photo archives from the past 30 years. There are still many mysteries in the mix, but I like to think I’ve shed some light on the activities and characters of the Institute’s past.
March
March is when things began to get busy at the Institute. In the beginning of the month, we took part in organizing the International Women’s Day Breakfast Discussion. Hearing about issues of gender equality in performing arts from industry professionals was incredibly insightful and a unique experience for me.
My greatest accomplishment of March was definitely being in this little TikTok number.
April
In April, I had the privilege of organizing the Institute’s 30th Anniversary Celebration Extravaganza! This was definitely an education, and it turns out I find figuring out logistics incredibly rewarding.
May
May was absolutely dominated by Eurovision sensation Käärijä. Cha Cha Cha swept across Europe and had everyone dancing from our Brussels office to the Institute days in Oslo.
I also went on holiday to France and got the chance to meet up with our then still-to-arrive intern Tega!
June
The highlight of June was the premiere of Texture of Connection by Yohannes Henriksson in Helsinki (which I sadly did not attend). Luckily, I had Blob to keep me company at the office.
July
July was the summer holiday month at the office so I was mainly focused on finding my favorite ice cream flavors (peanut butter and raspberry sorbet).
August
In early August, we got to meet our newest intern Tega! Things were slowly picking up again as the autumn semester of our Finnish courses and the Together Again Festival were fast approaching.
September
In September, I was busy planning and organizing the screening of Eatnameamet – Our Silent Struggle. As the practicalities and logistics were taken care of at this point, I mainly focused on the comms side of things: writing the press release, creating content for social media, commissioning a translation and so on. I was glad to see the film generating a lot of interest here in Brussels, as its topic remains ever relevant across the globe.
October
The month is still unfolding, and now we’re looking for the next me! I hope this post shows you the wealth of possibilities of this internship: you can really make it your own. Click here to learn more and apply, but be quick! The application closes tomorrow 10.10. at 16:15 EEST. If you have any questions, you can contact our Head of Programme Malin: malin.bergstrom@finncult.be.