Vecka två i Sweden

This week we began our proper classes. One of our classes is about Intercultural Understanding. The teacher discusses the Swedish system, both education and Swedish systems in general. She then invites us all to discuss similarities and differences between our systems. This is very interesting as in our class there are students from many different countries who have varying opinions and points of view. One particular aspect which I found interesting is that education including university is all free here in Sweden. Students also get a monthly grant from the government so assist with funding university. Many students from other countries also spoke about their little fees and government assistance which they can avail from. This is clearly a huge benefit for Swedes who must pay such high taxes.

In class, each person or group of people from a country also have to make a short presentation about their country. We have learned a little about Australia and Germany and so were able to make comparisons between all. Angela, Michael, Niall and I will be doing one on Ireland on Monday and so I’ll talk about that next week.

Last week my flatmates and I had a ‘family dinner’. Here we made a dish from our own country and the brave ones tasted each others. I cooked an Irish stew which all the girls tasted and seemed to have enjoyed. Some of the exotic foods over here do not appeal to me and so I didn’t taste a seaweed soup which the Vietnamese girl made. Maybe someday I’ll become more exotic! This was a great sociable evening where we all got to know a bit about each other. With all of us in different courses and in class at different times, I rarely see my flatmates and so I think we will make this ‘family’ dinner a weekly thing. 

I have also met my buddy this week. She is a Swedish girl and is lovely. She has shown me around campus and told me a little about Sweden in general. She has another Erasmus buddy who is from Finland. We met up for a ‘fika’, a coffee this week. It’s nice to finally talk to a Swedish person!

I started Swedish classes this week. I am in a class with many students who have done Swedish last semester and so it can sometimes be quite difficult to keep up, however I will continue to work at it and I know I’ll improve. It’s also quite difficult as they have three extra vowels which sound almost identical. I’m already learning lots of phrases and so with a little work I know I’ll have a good command of the language by the end of the course.

At the weekend Michael celebrated his birthday. We had a small dinner party which was really fun! There were 8 different nationalities in one room together which was cool. This experience becomes more and more interesting as we’re becoming close friends which such a diverse group of people.

It’s starting to get colder and colder now. The lakes are all frozen over enough for us to walk on, so I braved it eventually and walked out to the middle of the lake, scary! I think it’s -16 and the weekend! Hopefully it’ll snow some more too!