Thinking about crashing a birthday party? Careful, your whole life might change – For good
Megha and Kristaps created a family where Indian spices blend with Latvian traditions, all in the heart of Finland.
Flor Salazar Martinez
Sercan Alkan
Published 05.12.2024 4:44
Updated 09.12.2024 3:05
A surprisingly clear November sky covers Turku, as we walk the streets to meet a couple, whose paths crossed here as complete strangers.
Megha Goswami and Kristaps Kovalonoks came to Finland six years ago, one from India and the other from Latvia. Both had the same goal: to study in master’s programs at the University of Turku. Megha pursued Molecular Biotechnology and Diagnostics, while Kristaps focused on Finnish and Finno-Ugric Languages.
They quickly become aware of each other’s existence, as they were selected the university’s first international Student Ambassadors. Their first face-to-face encounter happened at Kristaps’ birthday, where Megha showed up uninvited.
“I was single and there was free food and drinks,” she explains now, half-jokingly. Kristaps reacts to the explanation with a smile.
Whatever the motivation was, the meeting clearly started something, as Megha and Kristaps have been together since that birthday party – first as friends and later as a married couple.
Now, we are warming up in their recently purchased house. In the cozy dining room, the merging of the couple’s two cultures is clearly visible. A small bookshelf holds books about India and Latvia and a picture of their families is hanging on the wall. The decor is a balanced mix of Nordic-style furniture and warm colours.
What also catches the eye are the photography studio lights set up near an extensive beige couch. This is where Megha and Kristaps film some of their vlog content. Besides being a couple, they are also business partners and content creators in their entrepreneurship called Couple of Expats.
Finland? Really? Why?
Kristaps was born in Latvia. As a teenager, he realised that achieving the life he envisioned would require a fresh start in a country with a strong support system, such as Finland. He started to work hard for that goal.
He majored in Finnish language and translation studies at the University of Latvia and attended summer courses in Vaasa. He also spent a year as an exchange student at the University of Turku and completed several traineeships at Finnish companies.
Turku was a logical choice for the master’s studies as well.
“I had visited Finland several times and was familiar enough with the country.”
Megha’s experience is a bit different. She was born in India but spent her childhood also partly in Taiwan and the United States. Her father, a cancer researcher, moved the family across the world, influencing Megha’s decision to pursue a scientific career.
After completing her bachelor’s degree in India, Megha decided to apply abroad for her master’s studies. “I was applying to master’s programmes all over the world,” she explains. “Finland was the one that offered me a full tuition scholarship.”
Megha did not know much about Finland. Or as Kristaps puts it in their new home, with a cup of tea in one hand and pulla in the other: “She didn’t even know where Finland was on the map.”
Megha laughs and agrees. For Indians, emigration is common, but Finland is not among their top five destinations.
Megha’s parents were familiar with Finland and appreciated its safety and reputation as a great place for researchers. But for most of the people, reaction was different, Megha remembers.
“I told them I was moving here, and they would reply: ‘Finland? Really? Why?”
From a hobby into a real business
Megha and Kristaps have been documenting their experiences as immigrants in Finland for years. Everything started with food blogging, sharing recipes inspired by their home cultures.
“We started recording our videos in the kitchen in the middle of the pandemic,” Megha explains. Creating food content taught them valuable skills, but they noticed that the immigrants’ problems were somewhere else.
“Immigrants in Finland often struggle with navigating the Finnish job market – how to design a Finnish-style CV, prepare for job interviews, or even handle the practicalities of starting a business, from understanding company types to dealing with taxes and legal matters,” Kristaps says.
Megha and Kristaps felt that no-one was talking about these issues. Couple of Expats was their answer.
What started as a hobby has grown into a business, with over 15,000 followers across their social media platforms. Through Couple of Expats, they have built a community of highly educated expats seeking to settle in Finland, as well as those considering relocating.
On platforms like Instagram and TikTok, Megha and Kristaps regularly share light short videos about Finnish traditions and updates from their personal lives. Meanwhile, their YouTube channel allows for more in-depth coverage of topics, including navigating Finland’s professional landscape, networking, job opportunities, and even the process of buying a home.
A leap of faith
Today, Megha and Kristaps run Couple of Expats on evenings and weekends. During daytime, they enjoy full-time jobs at different companies. But this hasn’t always been the case.
Back in 2022, two weeks after they got engaged, Megha received a phone call from her former boss informing her that there would be layoffs.
Even though Megha wasn’t sure if her job was at risk, she decided to be proactive and ask her Finnish friends what this actually meant. She also contacted her trade union, TEK, to inquire about unemployment benefits and tried to understand the process. Then, she applied to a marketing growth programme (markkinointivirittämö), a six-month unpaid internship with a chance of a permanent position after the trial period.
“But the truth is, not many people are hired afterwards. It was a leap of faith when I decided to terminate my contract and embark on this programme.”
Kristaps also experienced a couple months of unemployment in Finland. His case was less fortunate. At the time, he didn’t know that to qualify for higher unemployment benefits, you need to belong to an unemployment fund.
“I discovered it too late and got laid off before the required time to qualify for support. Being part of these funds is extremely helpful, as your unemployment allowance is calculated based on your salary. I wish I had known about it earlier.”
He remembered those as “rough” months, having to live on Kela’s unemployment allowance.
“What has helped, without a doubt, is the fact that we had each other,” Megha says. “If one person’s having a difficult time, the other person is the rock.”
A proactive approach is the key to being an entrepreneur in Finland
Apart from being a married couple, “Couple of Expats” made Megha and Kristaps also entrepreneurs together. What started as a way of sharing their life in Finland, is now a second job.
“This is our baby, we put all the free time we have into it,” Megha says. “It is a lot of work, but we have been able to balance it all successfully.”
Being your own boss is not always easy.
“We have to be our CEO, marketing team, designers, content creators, and financial experts all at once,” Kristaps explains. He thinks that it is vital to consider all the risks before deciding to start a company.
Another valuable lesson for Megha and Kristaps has been that it is ok to ask help, even though finding information in English can be challenging. One must be proactive.
“There are many business coaches, different enterprise agencies that actually are providing consultations and guidance for aspiring entrepreneurs in Finland,” Megha says.
“You can get services in English but you often need a local to guide you, so to say, and point you in the right direction, because finding out information can be very overwhelming.”
Finland, is a country that relies on networking
The sun has fallen in Turku and the tea has gotten cold. One question remains: in this country, where survival requires bravery, would you appear uninvited to someone else’s party?
Both answer with a laugh. They admit that, at this point in their life, they might have different strategies for meeting new people. Yet, they still maintain a social life, attending close friends’ parties while keeping an eye, and a slot on in their calendar, open for networking opportunities.
“Finland is an extremely connected and well-networked country,” Kristaps says. “It helps to be active, to go out and meet new people because you never know where the connections might lead.”