Some pictures of my favourite moments

Playing in school

All wrapped up



At the Royal Palace

Erasmus Conclusion

It’s hard to believe my time of 17 weeks has passed. It feels like only a few weeks ago I was at the airport with my luggage, nervously waiting for the boys so we could catch our flights. When I arrived in Vӓxjӧ, when I saw my empty bedroom and my empty house, I sat in my room thinking these next four months would be so long away from home, however I look back now and see it couldn’t have went any quicker.

During my time here I have met some of the most amazing people, people who have been very sick, people from all sorts of backgrounds, all still managed to up and leave their comforts and more away to the unfamiliar. It was so great to meet people from so many different countries, places I would have never thought of. How interesting it was to learn about everybody and their countries and cultures. It was definitely one of my highlights; getting to know so many different cultures.

I have made some of the best, life-long friends from across the globe, Australia, America, Canada and Holland. Although we are all so far away, I would love to have the opportunity to meet with all these amazing people sometime in the future. Some of the girls I have met have already planned a trip to Ireland this week and so I hope to see them here, and a friend from America is also coming to Ireland in July and so I’m happy that we have made Ireland a popular tourist destination.

Since going on Erasmus I feel I have definitely become more independent and feel like I can fend for myself more often. Surprisingly I wasn’t very homesick for most of the time away and so I’m happy to know that I could travel the world, looking for work abroad if required.

I absolutely loved the three-week placement which I completed in a local primary school. It was so interesting to see how others work, to see other education systems, and to learn many tactics which I can use in my own teaching career. It was great to be able to help pupils to improve their English, to practise their conversation skills, and to know that through my help, I have paid a part in their successful English examinations’ results.

All in all, for anyone reading this who is even considering going on Erasmus DO IT! I know when I was going everyone said that it was the best semester of their lives, I always thought people were just saying it, but I can say it definitely was for me. I loved every minute of my time away and would recommend for everyone to go away somewhere, it’s only one semester so make it count. You will have a ball!

Thanks for reading my blog, hope you’ve enjoyed it!

Vecka Femton

This week I will continue with the professional blog from last week, reflecting on my week on placement. As this is the last term of primary school for the children. The children have very few classes as they are allowed ‘to relax’ before beginning life in secondary education. Because of this, I have seen very few lessons being taught over the past week. The children appear to have a lot of free time, or are working on projects which are already meant to be finished. During anytime where they have nothing to do, the pupils should take out their Ireland projects and work on them, however, I feel that I was asked to do this project as a ‘time-filler’, that the teacher didn’t have anything for them to do and so he asked me to carry out this project with the children. They can spend up to three hours throughout the course of the day working on the projects. I feel that this ‘time to relax’ is a very bad way to prepare children for secondary school. They will never get this in secondary school and shouldn’t get into the habit of becoming lazy. I know for certain in Ireland, pupils would barely get a week of this not to mention a whole term of few lessons. I know when I was in the last week of primary school, we did some fun lessons, art, music, P.E etc.. but only for one week, not a whole term. I think this is a bad habit for the children.

I have noticed that children here in Sweden are very respectful of each other and of adults. Discipline doesn’t seem to be an issue for teachers to deal with at all. In both schools I worked in, I have never heard the teachers raise their voices once. I have spoken to the teachers regarding this and they have all said that children will do their work with little or no talking, and also without any debate which I have had to deal with before. I feel that children in Ireland lack the respect for others, whether this has to do with culture or they way we were brought up, I don’t know. On many occasions I have also seen the teacher leave the room for various reasons and the children remain in their seats continuing with their project work, I know for a fact, if this was done in Ireland, pupils would be up moving around the room messing with each other. This is definitely one of the things that has amazed me most during placement, the respect pupils have for each other and the teacher. How the pupils take responsibility for their work and need little or no instruction to do so.

If only our classrooms were so quiet and full of hard workers, I feel that teaching would be so much easier without the constant battle to get pupils to work.

Vecka fjorton

After a bit of difficulty, I have finally been placed in a local primary school for my placement. I am working with a grade 6 class where the children are between 12-13 years old. The children have been learning English for almost three years and were all extremely shy and didn’t like to speak incase they made a mistake. However, after much persuasion and with the help of an English lesson, the children felt more secure and began to speak more confidently. Towards the end of the week the pupils would come and speak English which was great. I was happy they had overcome the shyness and I could see how excited they were to be able to do this. The pupils have their national tests coming up where their knowledge of English is also examined and so I felt it was important that they practise this with me.

The class teacher wanted the children to learn about our culture and so he was happy for me to work as much as I could with the children about Ireland. He asked me to do a presentation on Ireland for the class which they enjoyed. I then asked the pupils to, over the next few weeks, do their own presentation on Ireland. I gave them some topics to choose from: food, music, famous people, famous places, sport, and the Titanic. In pairs the pupils would have to work together to make a presentation which they must present to the class during my final week. Most of the pupils really enjoyed this task and have been putting a lot of effort into their work. I immediately noticed that pair-work is no problem for these children. From my previous placements in Ireland, I know if I were to give this assignment to children in Ireland, where they go off and work together in the library or on the computers, children in Ireland would be messing and not working on what they are supposed to be doing. I feel that Swedish children really take responsibility for their work and will do it without constant supervision, which I feel many children require in Ireland.

I also took an art lesson where I told the pupils about a shamrock, and it’s meaning to Ireland. They then had to paint a shamrock or a leprechaun to put in the Ireland corner. Again the pupils were keen to learn about this, a symbol linked closely with Ireland, and enjoyed the painting activity.

The children are interested and happy to learn about our culture, and I am proud to be able to teach them about it.

Some more on placement will follow next week...

Vecka treton

This week as I am still home, I will continue with a culture blog, comparing Vȁxjӧ to home. After spending some days in Sligo, Jackie and I went to Belfast before our return to Sweden. When we arrived I showed her the city of Belfast; City Hall, Queens University and of course, the shopping centres. I have never actually walked in around queens and so I guess I learned a little of our culture. We compared the huge Queens, to the tiny Linneuniversitet where we study here in Vȁxjӧ.

The next day Jackie and I went to see the new Titanic museum. It was quite busy and so we just looked at it from the outside. Although a tragic event, it’s great to have the Titanic linked with Ireland; that it was built there. People from all across the world can come to and visit the birth-place of this historical ship.

I also brought Jackie to see some murals; to see some of Ireland’s history. I told her about some events that I have learned about, and of course there are many with I don’t know of. I spoke about sectarianism and how it still exists in many parts of Ireland. She was fascinated to learn of our cultural background and about the history of our country. We went to visit both communities involved and compared all the different art-pieces, something which was very interesting for me too. As Sweden is such a clean country, I doubt we would see any such pieces around the streets and neighbourhoods. It is well kept and always looks clean. I realise that some murals in Belfast are not art-work as such but are out to scrutinise the differences between communities. Again, Jackie was able to learn of some historical events which occurred in our country, and sadly which still does in some cases. Jackie then spoke about the aboriginal community in Australia, and how they are also often mistreated because of cultural differences. It’s clear that everywhere we are there will be cultural differences however, some of us have trouble accepting these.

Vecka tolv

This week I will complete a culture blog, comparing Vȁxjӧ to home. I went home this week for some appointments I had to attend. Luckily I was finished class, and colleges at home were closed for Easter holidays and so I got to meet up with and spend some time with my friends and family.  I also have a friend who I’ve met here in Sweden, Jackie from Australia, who always wanted to visit Ireland but never had the opportunity to, and so I invited her to along on my trip home. We were both so excited, I was excited to get to show off the lovely Ireland to my visitor and she couldn’t wait to meet my family, see some sights, the green grass, and of course the lephrachans!

When landing in Belfast, we were greeted with a familiar downpour of rain, rain which we never quite experience in Sweden, immediately I knew we were home. The familiar accent at the airport and the use of English was nice. Coming from a non-English speaking country to this feels great!

My sister picked us up at the airport and we drove to Sligo. Along the way I was giving Jackie a grand tour of our beautiful country. She had her camera out taking photographs of the green, green farmlands, the colourful mountains, and anything else out of the ordinary she spotted on the way, she couldn’t wait to show her family in Australia the ‘green-ness’ of Ireland. I quickly realised how beautiful Ireland looks through the eyes of an outsider.

Luckily Tuesday turned out to be a lovely sunny day so we headed to the mountain of Knocknarea which is in Sligo. From the top we had some beautiful views of the coast, and of the whole of Sligo. Walking up through crowds of sheep we spoke about the differences between Sligo, Vȁxjӧ and Melbourne.

We also made a trip to the beach on Tuesday. It was great to be near the coast again as Vȁxjӧ is about an hour from the coast and so it’s difficult to visit the beaches. From living in Australia, Jackie is also used to sunny weather and being at the beach and so she loved seeing what an ‘Irish’ beach looks like in comparison to theirs.

We will be in Ireland for a few more days and so I will continue a culture blog into week 13.

Vecka Elva

As I am still waiting to receive information regarding my placement I will do a personal reflection on my time here since the beginning eleven weeks ago.

Before coming here I was nervous, about classes, incase I didn’t make many friends and incase I didn’t like it here. Eleven weeks on I have completed my classes, which although difficult at times, I really enjoyed. I enjoyed exploring other cultures and learning about other international students in my classes. Even though it was difficult, I managed to grasp a little Swedish, enough to pass my exams!!  I found this course very grammatical however I loved learning the spoken language through conversation activities.

The friends I have made here have deeply enhanced this whole experience for me. I am so lucky to have met so many people from all over the world and created such close relationships with them. It’s just a pity I can’t take them back to Stranmillis with me. My friend family have been so good to me, taking me in as one of their own, cooking for me and inviting me to excursions with them, hopefully I will get to spend much more time with them before returning home. The ‘buddy’ system here in Vȁxjӧ is brilliant too. Each Erasmus student is befriended by a Swedish student. I was lucky to get a really nice Swede who is always happy to meet me for coffee and a chat.

I have really loved this experience. I have definitely become more independent and have learned to appreciate everything that I have and all that is done for me at home.

The weather is coming and going, hopefully for our last few weeks here, we will see lots of sunshine.

That’s all for this week!