Summary of My Experiences From August 23rd–September 24th

 

On the morning of August 23rd, I was met by my ‘student buddy’ Vanessa at the Uppsala train station after I had overnighted in a hotel near the Arlanda airport. We had agreed to meet in advance, since I was unfamiliar with the surroundings. Sweden was already becoming a bit overwhelming for me after I touched down because I expected everything to be in English. I knew Swedish was also a spoken language, but I had the impression that Swedes preferred English over Swedish. So of course, after this new awakening, I was happy to be in the presence of my buddy. Vanessa was very excited to finally meet me and she played ‘tour guide’ as we walked through the City Centre of Uppsala in search of my room keys. I felt so privileged to be in such a vibrant, multicultural area. Uppsala was bustling with all kinds of people from different backgrounds – in terms of age and race; of course it was not hard to spot other students since the area is in fact mostly student populated. After a few stops here and there, I was finally taken to my new living area, where I would basically share a flat with 4 other people.

As I entered the inside, I was really impressed with the quality of the living area. It was fully furnished with signs of past activities from previous students [there were world map, posters etc. decorating the flat which made it look lively]. My room was more spacious that the one at Keele [though I was in an ensuite room in Holly Cross], and it didn’t take me that long to feel settled.

  

  

I have my own bathroom as well, but my four other flat-mates and I have to share a shower. I didn’t meet anyone on the first day, but the following day and onwards, people started showing up. There was one incident though on the 23rd of August, that I laugh at every time I think about it. When my buddy left, I decided to be adventurous; so I got on the bus and headed to the city. Funny thing is, I took the right bus, but I ended up at the wrong stop – which was a bit far out. Thankfully, the bus driver was friendly and could speak English [they all can], so he directed me on where to go. After I looked around the city and did a little shopping, I realized that I was lost and couldn’t find my way back. Uppsala is not that big of a city, its very easy to find your way around – but for me at the time, it felt like a big maze because I was a ‘newbie’. I was a bit hesitant at first to ask anyone for directions, but as it was getting darker, I got the courage to ask someone for help. The guy was pretty friendly and showed me where to go…he also happened to be a student from Ethiopia. We chatted, exchanged numbers and soon enough, I was back home. My first day in Uppsala was a bit overwhelming and I wondered what I was getting myself into as I went to bed that night.

Things improved each day; getting around got easier and I made so many friends that I can hardly remember much of their names. I remembered meeting people from New Zealand, Germany, France, Canada, Japan, Korea and the list goes on. My housemates  are all friendly, except for 1 girl who seems a bit shy, and to this day I’ve only seen her once. They are 3 girls (from Turkey, California and Sweden) and 1 boy from Sweden. We all get along great and always have little chats in the kitchen.

The first week consisted of many activities such as tours, night outs, picnics and the list goes on. I managed to get on the Stockholm tour, which sold out pretty fast, and saw interesting things like a palace, a medieval ship and other interesting things in the capital.

The following week, classes started and we were invited to nations to sign up. A nation is basically a place where you can go to hang out, study, borrow books, have a drink or even attend their night clubs [Yup, the nations transform into big house parties during the night, with each nation hosting a particular day of the week]. There are about 12 (or 13, I think – can’t remember the exact number) scattered around the city in the form of beautiful houses. You receive an ID after signing up with a nation and some also have secret code combinations to get inside their building; so in a sense, its like you’re signing up into a family. I chose Kalmar Nation because it is not that big, everyone seemed friendly and I loved the architecture of its building. That same week, nations organized bar crawls in addition to dinners for their members to get to know each other. During that weekend, I attended the Uppland Tour, where I got to see the country side – and also visited some famous areas of Sweden [like the home of the famous Swedish Botanist - Carl Linnaeus].

I managed to get a second hand bike for 500 Swedish Kronas, which is equivalent to 46 pounds. Is is recommended that you get a bike in Uppsala since bus transportation can become a bit expensive. But trust me, the drivers in Sweden are very nice compared to the ones in the UK. In addition, Uppsala has a lot of bike friendly areas, where there are roads for bikes and people only; so you rarely have to bicycle on the roads with motorists.

In terms of school, the reading is a bit more intense to what I am used to with Keele. In Sweden, you do not take all your courses at once; 1 course would run for a month, then you get a final exam at the end of that month. When the exam is over, the second course begins; that’s how courses run in Sweden. So far, I’ve had to read 1 book (which consists of over 200 pages) plus an additional article each week! That is a lot of reading! But so far I’m managing.

The supermarket experience for me was interesting as well on my first visit, since most of the items are in Swedish. Thank God for CIED, who supplied Swedish translations for food in our study abroad packs. Had they not done that, I would have been a little lost.

I was given the opportunity to learn Basic Swedish for free, but I withdrew from the course two weeks after because it was a bit too much for me. It was too much because on top of my school work, I’m also working on a personal project which takes up a lot of my time, so I had to sacrifice my Basic Swedish class. However during my short time there, it was a little difficult to catch on to the pronunciations. That was weird for me, because I’ve done Spanish and Japanese, which were easy for me, but Swedish just was not working out. They say if you learn Swedish, then you can learn German easily and vice versa, because they are very similar.

All in all, my experience in Sweden has been amazing. There has never been a dull day. Uppsala is full of things to do with a large population of international students who want to have a great time. The weather is similar to England, but at times it could be a bit worse. However, that doesn’t bother me because I’m used to it. Sweden just feels like another home.

I’ll now leave you with pictures of a random event I witnessed in the city center two weeks ago.

Farvä´l!