Hobby Buddy

The Hobby Buddy service is for all students of the University of Eastern Finland who want to make new friends through common hobbies and interests. It can be an old hobby or starting a new one. By filling out the hobby buddy application, we will find a matching friend for you. You can also indicate in the application how many friends you are looking for and the age of the friend you would like. Please note that in this service you cannot search for friends for exercise and sports. If you are looking for a friend to exercise with, please check out the Sports Buddy service of SYKETTÄ.

Below, we update a campus-specific list of different hobbies for which students are currently looking for a company. You can also get to know ISYY's already existing clubs or gather a group of people interested in the same hobby and start a new club around the hobby. ISYY’s Language Cafés continue in the autumn semester 2026. We encourage all students who are interested in learning languages to check out this autumn's language selection.

We read the applications and share the contact information of matching applications usually once a week. We hope that the students who have registered for the service will contact the suggested hobby buddy after sharing their contact information. Please be kind and respond to the proposed buddy's contact.

ISYY withholds the right to edit the description about the recreational activity and to abstain from publishing any adverts we find inappropriate. The Hobby Buddy service is not an escort service. Please be cautious when meeting new people, use the service at your own risk.

Hobby Buddy service's summer break

Hobby Buddy service is having a summer break from week 21 to week 34. During the break the applications will not be matched. We'll continue matching the applications in August after the summer break.

Application form

The Hobby Buddy application form

Joensuu's wanted buddies (updated 29.5.2026)

• Animals (e.g. cats)
• Anime / manga / manhwa
• Arts and crafts, handicrafts, jewelry making
• Baking / cooking 
• Band activities / music (e.g. playing ukulele, album listening, 60-80’s music)
• Board games / card games / puzzles / Rubic’s cube 
• Book club / reading / writing club 
• Cultural events (concerts, classical music, theater, student events, free events)
• Dancing
• Flea markets
• Getting to know Finland (nature, culture, sauna, language
• History / Anthropology / Religious Studies
• Language and cultural exchange, learning languages (e.g. Chinese, Farsi, Finnish, German, Spanish) 
• Movies and TV series (e.g. K-dramas, reality tv)
• Nature / forest trips
• Photography (e.g. nature, birds, animals)
• Role-playing games (e.g. Dungeons & Dragons, Call of Cthulhu)
• Traveling
• Video games (e.g. Valorant, League of Legends, Counter-Strike 2)
• Vintage / retro
• Visiting cafés
• Visual arts (drawing, painting, creative art)

Kuopio's wanted buddies (updated 29.5.2026)

• Anime / Manga
• Arts and crafts / handicrafts
• Band activities / music (metal, rock, forming a rock band, instruments: guitar, violin)
• Board games
• Book club / reading / poetry
• Cooking / baking
• Cultural events (concerts, exhibitions, theater, student events, free events)
• Dancing (e.g. K-pop dances, partner dances, latin dances)
• Dungeons & Dragons
• Escape room games
• Language and cultural exchange, learning languages (e.g. Italian, Japanese) 
• Movies
• Nature / forest trips
• Spiritualism
• Traveling
• Video games
• Visiting cafés
• Visual arts (drawing, painting, creative art)

Read more:

SYKETTÄ Joensuu’s Sports Buddy Service

SYKETTÄ Kuopio’s Sports Buddy Service

Further information:

Eveliina Scharin, Community Coordinator, Student Union of the University of Eastern Finland (ISYY), yk(at)isyy.fi, tel. +358 44 576 8408

This page was last updated on 29.5.2026.