Author: Guestblogger (Page 3 of 17)

I’ve been in Uppsala for over a year now, and I still cannot believe how fast time has flown! The past year went by in such a blink, and was full to the brim with experiences that I couldn’t have had anywhere but here. Now that I’ve seen Uppsala through all its rolling seasons and colours, I thought I would sit down and take you through some things and experiences that really stood out to me, or were completely unexpected!

1. Getting used to the growing daylight takes just as much – if not more – adjusting to!

Before coming to Uppsala, I had heard from so many people about how dark and dreary the winters can be. Anecdotes of waking up to darkness, getting out of classes to darkness, forgetting when to eat meals, and being surrounded by a shroud of sleepiness, were all around me from people who had already spent some time here. So, even though I was nervous, I was prepared to expect something difficult to get used to. What I did not expect however, was just how disorienting exiting the winters could be! I would often wake up to the sunlight streaming in through my windows, expecting it to be well after 9:00 AM, only to realise it was just barely 4:00 AM! Remembering the 3-hour-daylight of the winters, I would always assume I had a whole day left just because the sun was still up, and then a quick glance at my watch would let me know it was time to eat dinner and start winding down for the day. It took me quite some time to re-adjust to living in a world filled with sunlight!

Moral of the story – don’t trust the sun to tell you anything!

• Waiting in line is half (or at least one-third) of the nations’ experience.

One of the main factors contributing to a rich student-life in Uppsala is the nations. From activities, sports, pubs, clubs, gasques and everything else under the sun, nations have a lot to offer, and I highly recommend trying out every single thing that even mildly catches your eye. One of those things is the club-nights. It is super interesting and fun to experience things like club music in a nation library, surrounded by leather-clad books with faded gold lettering, or remixes of ABBA playing throughout the night with everyone singing their hearts out. But before you even get to those parts, you have to do the dreaded waits outside the nations. Walking by the cathedral one Friday evening when I was still new to Uppsala, I was shocked to see the line of students extending across the street and up the little hill of the cathedral. Having been here for a year now, the sight is as plain as anything else. So, if you want to go to the nations, you might as well start liking the idea of waiting for near or upwards of an hour. It’s not so bad in the summertime, but if you want to go to the clubs during peak winter, I’d recommend a thick jacket and warm socks.

• Don’t expect your classes to get cancelled because of bad weather.

This is perhaps not so much of an Uppsala-specific thing, but an overall Swedish thing, but I thought I’d say it nonetheless because it was pretty unexpected. Growing up, it was fairly common to have classes cancelled because of heavy rain, low temperatures (not low by Swedish standards, of course), or extreme heat, but here, classes just do not get cancelled. Buses could be skidding on ice-covered roads, trees could be angled from a blizzard, or the snow could reach your shins, but you just have to get to class. By now, you must have heard of the Swedish mindset towards bad weather – that there is no bad weather, only bad clothing/preparation, and that is absolutely correct. So, now that the winters are on their way, get the warmest clothes and shoes you can find so that on a day when you wake up and look outside your window to find the world shrouded in white and snow falling horizontally from the wind, you know you can still make your way to class. You’re probably even going to see that one person who refuses to let anything come in the way of their daily jog (maybe that’s an exaggeration, but only by a tiny bit).

• Learning that Uppsala is one of the largest cities in Sweden

While this is more of a little fact than something you realise through living in Uppsala, I included it on this list because of how often it hits me that Uppsala is considered a big city. Coming from India, one of the most populated countries in the world, with some pretty large cities scattered throughout, Uppsala feels much more like a cosy little student town than a city, let alone the fourth-largest city in the country.

During my bachelor’s in Delhi, I would think nothing of travelling near two hours (one way) just to visit a friend who lived in a different part of the city, but here, commuting for two hours would get me to another one of Sweden’s largest cities – Västerås!

Being used to bustling streets, bright lights, and loads of traffic, Uppsala felt incredibly empty and quiet when I first arrived, despite there being a whole bunch of new students roaming around. But now that I’ve been here for a year and have seen what ‘empty’ and ‘quiet’ truly mean (wait for the summer vacation when every person in the city seems to vanish off the face of the Earth – more on this in my next point), the beginning of the autumn semester felt incredibly crowded!

• Summer vacations are taken very seriously

This is another thing that is more of a Swedish thing than a specific Uppsala thing, but I love it and it absolutely deserves a place here. Summer vacations mean everything to Swedish people (as they should)! While you’re definitely going to see a lot more people coming out to experience the sunshine when the summer days begin to set in, there’s going to be a good month or so when everyone just disappears. No emails will be responded to, no work will be done, no people will be seen – vacation means vacation, goodbye! 

• Bonus unexpected experience – the bananas in Sweden are really hard to peel!

What more can I even say about a point like this? It just is the truth! Perhaps it’s because they’re not grown locally, or they’re a different type of banana than what we have back home, but the fact remains! The first time I ate a banana, it was a battle between me and the banana to see who would persevere (it was getting embarrassing), but thankfully, a friend of mine who is more used to Swedish bananas whisked the fruit out of my hand and saved me the trouble. But never you mind, it is a practicable skill and you will be pleased to know that I finally figured out the trick to peel the bananas.

That concludes my list of unexpected experiences as a student who has lived in Uppsala for a year! What are some things that you found surprising once you arrived in Uppsala? What made you wonder, and what left you confused – share your experiences in the comments and let us know!

Walking through the main streets of downtown Uppsala you may encounter quite an unfamiliar scene. However, you’ll have to be attentive or you might just miss it. Nestled into the exterior walls of some of the city’s otherwise commonplace buildings, close to Güntherska, exists miniature worlds occupied by the most ordinary of rodents – mice.

These snapshot scenes depicting this dynamic mouse society captures its residents in moments eerily familiar to the residents here in Uppsala. If you look close enough, you may even be able to see a bit of yourself in the lives of these special Uppsalians. In one display there’s a polka dotted skirt wearing mouse haphazardly watering their plants on the balcony. In another, you can see groups of students enjoying our very own Fyris river. In the third there are mice kneading dough together; something that is sure to be reminiscent for some of those students occupying Uppsala during the pandemic’s wave of amateur bread makers.

Local Jekaterina Pertoft is the artist

Admittedly, it took me around three months of living in Uppsala before I first noticed the unsuspecting installations, but now that I’m familiar with their locations I’ll frequently adjust my walking route to take a quick peak and get a little hit of dopamine (especially in the winter months). These works are made by local artist Jekaterina (Katja) Pertoft whose been a resident in the city since 1999. While Katja typically is best known for her portraits, illustrations and landscapes, she established a puppet theatre in 2006 with her friend Svetlana Dmitieva  named Marielunds Dockteater.

Mousy Malmö and Amsterdam relatives

After having witnessed Pertoft’s work for the first time, I immediately felt that the work seemed comparable to something I had seen before. After a quick search online, it would appear that Pertoft’s mouse-based artworks are not alone in Sweden. In fact, I had the privilege of living in Malmö during my BA where the works of art collective Annonymouse MMX, had been on display in a number of locations. The two representations of these petite realms are distinct in that Pertoft’s works feature the daily lives of these mice in full swing, whereas Anonymouse’s work is empty of its residence and instead invite the viewer to fill the scenes with their own imagination. An additional variation between the artists is the spread of Anonymouse’s exhibits which range from Malmö and Lund to Quebec, Boston and the Isle of Man. Anonymouse’s prevalence across the globe has even picked up some pretty impressive media attention.

On my quest to determine whether this is a strictly Swedish phenomenon, I took to the internet searching for similar mouse-based art and while I came across some similar art pieces like ‘Fairy Doors’ in Australia, the only other mouse-specific endeavors I found was The Mouse Mansion. This miniature museum in Amsterdam is home to a huge collection of mice in a variety of scenes. While the Mouse Mansion is an impressive feat, I think I prefer the more scraggily looking mice here in Uppsala over their more manicured Mansion residents that appear to be either felted, sewn or a combination of the two.

What do you think? To read more about Uppsala’s Street Art you can look here.
(Non-Swedish speakers may need to use Google Translate)

Whether you’re beginning your BA, MA or PhD, it’s never too late to ask the questions that directly affect you and your studies. At the start of a new cycle of education we are bombarded with information, webpages and contact information for the various people overseeing our area of research.

I’ve now been a student representative at Swedish Universities for 5 years and I actively participated in a number of student associations as well as within the Student Council during the final year of my BA. While these positions varied in intensity and commitment, I’ve come to understand a small handful of reoccurring obstacles students face and I’d like to take a moment to elaborate upon them here.

Who should you know?

I would argue that one of the most crucial things to understand as a student is the organizational structure of your department and of the organizations made to represent you as students. In practice, the benefit of familiarizing yourself with this information is to expedite your communication with the people who are meant to help you.

There are two places to look for this information.

1. Department Organization and Staff

• First, if you don’t already know, you should determine which department your programme falls under; this information should be on your programme’s webpage.

• Next, you should navigate to the Organization and Staff webpage, from there you can search for your department in the provided search bar and open the corresponding link.

• Once you’ve done this you will be able to see the various individuals responsible for your department, such as the Head of the Department and the Directors of Studies; there may also be contact information for other staff such as administrators and/or counsellors.

Saving or knowing the location of the contact information for those directly responsible for your studies is something I highly recommend. Your teachers will likely go over this information during your first classes along with the expectations they have for you and other important information like student health services. However, I know from experience that it can be quite difficult to retain this information on the first day within a new programme or university.

• Uppsala’s Student Unions

As an example, I will refer to one specific Union – Uppsala Studentkår (Uppsala Student Union), as they are the most prominent on campus for the widest variety of students but please open the hyper-link above to see which union(s) best fit you and your studies.

• The Uppsala Studentkår website is a wonderful place to find all sorts of information regarding your experience at Uppsala University. There you can find – Information on how the Student Union operates, exciting student associations to get involved with, the Buddy Programme, and much more.
• Some of the most important information on their website has to do with the Student Union Staff and their Roles & Responsibilities.  You can find the Elected Officials, The Chancellery, and, the Faculty Coordinators. However, perhaps the most important information is found within the Sections webpage; with the sections webpage, you can determine which section to contact for your needs and they will happily help you themselves or direct you to the correct contact person for your specific need.

Uppsala has a rich history of student unions and they are some of the most important organizations to familiarize yourself with during your time at Uppsala University. Their staffs are committed to helping students optimize their education, facilitating engaging activities for students and ensuring that students are represented at as many places as possible within the university’s infrastructure.

What should you know?

Another thing to prioritize as a student at UU is finding out what type of services and benefits are available to you.

Student Nations –

The center of social life for students at UU, student nations are more than just places to have drinks, parties, and dinners. Student nations also frequently offer lunches at affordable prices, hold activities such as choirs, and some even have special housing initiatives for its members. It can also be a place to work or volunteer at to meet students you might not have otherwise crossed paths with. Lastly, members of nations also have exclusive access to a number of discounts through stuk.co. To read more about what nations are up to on a day-to-day basis you can look here.

Health & Support Services –

Uppsala University has quite a bit of infrastructure in place to make sure your needs are met. If you’re into working out, sports, team sports, climbing or personal training the on-campus gym Campus1477 has you covered. UU also offers a Lightroom to help with fatigue that can come with the darker months here in Uppsala.

Most importantly is Uppsala University Student Health Services, they offer a number of lectures and seminars as well as advice on mental health. They can also point you in the right direction either through their own individual counselling or through external support.

Another critically useful service offered through UU are the services aimed at promoting accessibility. This support mainly comes in two forms, the first is Language and Reading Resources offering; language workshops for written and oral guidance; the reading studio at Campus Blåsenhus which has programs to support students with reading impairments; Audio books, braille books and e-books; text-to-speech tools; and spelling support. The second form is Long-term disability support, which is more customized to the individual needs of students with various other forms of long-term disabilities.

Other Services –

Housing and Finance Services is a webpage available on UU’s website which offers information on finding housing in both Uppsala and Visby as well as some basic finance information for students new to Sweden.

Study and Career Counselling is another resource offered by Uppsala University which aims to assist students regardless of which stage of their academic career they are at. You can book appointments through the hyperlink above.

Library and Library Services is one of the most valuable assets you can utilize at the university, they have a large, dedicated staff that can help you navigate a wide array of obstacles and challenges. One place you can keep an eye on is the Library Calendar; here you can find a number of events both in-person and online that aim to help students and researchers develop their research skills and a variety of other skills. Another great resource offered through the library is their ‘Suggest a Purchase’ webpage which puts the power in the hands of students to request the literature important to their field of study. Otherwise, the libraries and their staff can assist you with locating sources, citations, printing on campus and much more.

Student Rights –

The Student Rights webpage on the UU website is the number one spot for information on the University’s different policies, protocols, and responsibilities in place to protect you as a student in a number of different circumstances such as discrimination, injuries & incidents, cheating & plagiarism, student working conditions and more. Additionally, there is some information at the lower half of the webpage on who to contact in the case of some of the listed situations.

Why should you know?

So, why know all this? What’s the point in the end? To put is concisely, over the past few years acting to represent my cohort(s) I’ve found that students frequently underestimate their power to positively affect their education and their quality of life as students.

Feedback

It is relatively standard for courses in Sweden to send out an anonymous feed-back form at the end of each course, asking students to detail their likes, dislikes, desires, and other ways they would like to see the course improve. These surveys are often the only feedback educators receive on the quality of their courses and because they’re voluntary, they are often neglected by students. It is understandable for students to want to wipe their hands clean of a specific course after they’ve handed in a stressful exam – I’ve been there, but the idea is to refine the education to best prepare students in the years to come and we can only hope that our predecessors have done the same for us.

Going above and beyond these feedback surveys is also a great way to improve upon the existing education and can have surprisingly quick results. Even small acts such as suggesting an article or book to your teachers can go a long way and have lasting effects. There is also the ‘hands-off’ approaches you can enact such as requesting libraries to make specific purchases of books pertaining to your field of study.

Student Representation

Universities are huge and they involve a lot of moving parts, sometimes the operations don’t work the way they are supposed to. The benefit to ensuring student representation is to ensure students and staff are on the same page and that we, as students, can feel secure that someone is looking out for our best interests.

This can be small things like reminding our department staff to make our class schedules available to us within the set guidelines, sometimes things just fall through the cracks. However, it can also be bigger things like the victories across Sweden when student unions fought for our right to privacy during the pandemic when classes were online. It can also be about spreading awareness, there is a lot of information we are presented with as students, it’s imperative to have people responsible for ensuring students know about mental health support, their rights to make complaints when problems arise, as well as the fun things like student nations and associations!

Having a Fulfilling University Experience

Uppsala University is comprised of tens of thousands of individuals, each with their own interests, needs, capabilities and experiences. Knowing, early in your studies, who to contact and what infrastructure exists to optimize your time at UU is a huge advantage to your wellbeing. Perhaps you’re a student from a sunnier place; having the knowledge that the university has a light room specifically to help you out during the dark winters can result in a better mood. Students with dyslexia should know as early as possible of Uppsala University’s Text-to-Speech tools. International students may find the links for housing, bank accounts and insurance on UU’s website to be a great help when they are first settling in. Moreover, sometimes the best help we receive as students during our studies are from our fellow classmates, having this useful information in your back pocket will almost certainly help a friend during your stay here at UU.

Final Thoughts

All in all, most students appear to get quite excited about the prospects of clubs, associations, student nations or other social events and while these activities are quite attractive, knowing your rights, the university organizational structure and the services in place to serve you as students is invaluable during the moments you need them most. With that said, I encourage you to explore some of the things listed above and to contribute to spreading awareness within your own classes and social circles.

So, you want to do an internship, but don’t know where to start? Well, hey, hola, hello, it is I, Sam, ready to bless you with another blog. This time it’s about internships! Internships are awesome and can be done in two different ways, the first is your programme offers you internships you can follow through them or, the second way, is finding your own internship, be it in Sweden or another country. To provide you with the best information possible, I’ve done both! Let’s start with internships through your programme.

Programme Internships

At the start of my academic year at UU, I got an entire week filled with information. The first day, especially, I got to learn about the different learning platforms, how to apply for courses, and how my programme schedule could look like. On this very first day, they told us that we could do an internship for credits if we wished to. So, from the very first day the university was great in giving me an overview of when I could do an internship within my 2-year schedule. But what do I do? Where do I apply? Well, the very first chance my programme coordinator hears about internship options for us, she would send us an email with the differing internships offered by the programme. I study Sociology of Education, so all my internships were related to education in some type of way. She would send us the internship descriptions and how to apply as well as the deadline to apply. For my programme, I had to write a motivation letter as to why I believe the internship fits with my background but also what I could learn from it. In my year, I applied for two internships. One about student mobility and the other, I honestly don’t remember… oops. BUT, I sent a motivation letter for both, it didn’t need to be long (half a page max), and also told my programme coordinator which I would prefer of the two. After some time, the internship supervisor contacted me to let me know I got accepted for my first choice, hooray! Most internships in my department look for a group of students, so I got accepted with a group of other students and we got to work on a project together.

But what can a university offer you? Well for me, it was mostly research. Professors, PhD students or companies would like to research a specific topic and students could apply to help with their research and choose one that interested them. I could also choose how long I wanted to do the internship for and for how many credits. I could choose to do it for 7,5EC or 15EC, for a few weeks or stretch it out for an entire semester. It was up to me how I wanted to use my time and credits. This is communicated with my internship supervisor and my programme coordinator.

For my internship, my group worked on finding previous research in Sweden about international student mobility We located trends and presented our results to a group of PhD students and professors. It was very valuable research experience, and our work felt appreciated by the researchers. At the end, we had a nice dinner with the professors provided by the university. But after this, I also wanted some experience in the work field. So, I went to look for another internship, this time without the universities’ help.

Finding your own internship

So, you want to do an internship but your programme coordinator sent you a list of internships and you don’t like them. What do you do? Give up? NO, you look for your own internship! Finding an internship on your own can be difficult. What are you looking for? Where do you go? Who do you contact? How do you contact them? All very valid and scary questions.

Now, to start with. You need to kind of know what you’re looking for, so you know where to look. I knew I had to find something related to education, so I went to the most obvious place: a university. I contacted them through their main contact information on the website and asked to arrange a meeting with whoever is in charge with interns at the university. In this case, it was the dean. I got a meeting, spoke to her and explained everything I had to offer in terms of my educational knowledge and background. She then told me they’re looking for an educational researcher assistant and voila, I have an internship.

It sounds very easy, but honestly it took a lot of emails and lots of asking who to talk to, where to go and especially, what can, and will I do? But after lots of emails I finally got in touch with my internship supervisor. He sent me an overview of what I can do for the University and a schedule of how many hours this would take in total. This was VERY important because I had to send the University of Uppsala an overview and description of everything I’d be doing at the other University and this had to align with the amount of EC’s. After sending it, I had to wait for it to be approved by the university. Once it was approved, I could plan when to go back home for my internship. But if it was not approved, this doesn’t mean I can’t do it, but it would mean that the internship would not count for my degree and would be a separate project. So, getting the university’s approval is important to get credits and to pair it with your degree.

Now, it’s important to know I did not look for an internship in Sweden. I found one back in my own country because I am finishing my Master and was going to go home anyway, so I might as well go back home, finish my thesis and internship, and then hopefully find a job here at the university. But know that many Swedish companies prefer Swedish speaking students, so finding an internship or even a job can be very difficult. BUT I also know that in Stockholm, there are many English-speaking organizations and that finding an internship there might be easier. So, if you’re limited in traveling because of your visa or residence permit, and you would like to do an internship outside of Uppsala, you can look in Stockholm or even other parts of Sweden.

ALSO, very very important: most internships are unpaid. Especially, all internships through the university are also unpaid. So, I would suggest not to expect money when applying for an internship. It is a time to build experience in your field which can be very helpful in the future.

That was it folks! I hope you enjoyed my internship experiences, and it helps you a bit in how internships can work at Uppsala University. Thanks for reading and goodbye!!

You arrive in Uppsala, you’re enjoying the weather, you’re enjoying your program and making new friends. You join a nation, start going out and start living your life but then you realise Sweden is a bit more expensive than you anticipated. What do you do? Do you save money? That’s probably a good idea, but maybe you want to gain some extra money too! Well, you’re just in luck because in this blog post I am going to give you all the tips and tricks to gain some extra cash and teach you some tricks to save you some money too!

Saving Money

So, let’s start by saving some money. Sweden might be very expensive, but they also have lots of different shops and ways to save some money. Let’s start with the cheapest supermarkets in Uppsala.

Uppsala has a wide range of different supermarkets, with ICA being almost everywhere you go. While ICA has lots of different options, they are nowhere near the cheapest supermarket. If you’re looking for cheap supermarket options, I would suggest Lidl and Willy’s. They also have a wide variety of items but at a cheaper price than ICA. I would also suggest checking all the discounts offered at different supermarkets. You can find discounts on their app or online, or just by walking through the supermarket. Any discount can help save you money! Another tip to avoid spending too much in a supermarket, do not shop while hungry. I can assure you you’ll get home with lots of snacks you didn’t need but at least we have some ice cream now, right?  I know I’ve been guilty of this, woops…

Next, let’s talk buying clothes and shoes in Sweden. You might come from a warmer climate or didn’t move with all your clothes to Sweden and you are looking for good winter coats, or just some more clothes to wear. Well,’ you’re in luck because Uppsala has LOTS of second-hand shops you can buy clothing, shoes, books, kitchen items, you name it! The second-hand shops often have really good clothes and its really cheap! Here is a list of my favourite second-hand shops in Uppsala you can check out:

• Loppis Poppis
• Myrorna
• Stil Uppsala

Aside from these second-hand shops, you can also find cheap clothing at outlet stores. These stores are usually near Ikea and have lots of clothes on sale or at a cheaper price than regular clothing stores. My favourite outlet store is Stadium Outlet.

Some extra tips to save money is to catch any student discount you can! Once you are a member of a nation you can get an app called: STUK and they show you ALL the discounts you can get in Uppsala but also in Sweden in general. This can be coffee, food, clothes, and even train tickets in Stockholm. It’s a great way to save money and know where you can go for a cheaper price!

Another great thing about Sweden is their sustainability. When you buy plastic bottles, these bottles have something called Pant. This means that when you return your plastic bottles to a supermarket, you can get money back that you can use to get a discount on your groceries. So, next time you buy a plastic bottle, don’t throw it away! Keep it and bring it back to your nearest supermarket for a nice discount on your groceries. Just look for one of these machines:

Working in Uppsala

Now, let’s talk working and earning some extra money. Before I go into working in Sweden, it’s very important to tell you that there is no way that working part time can cover all your living costs and that working aside your studies can be VERY difficult timewise. Especially, since some programs have a lot more hours on campus or higher workloads than others. So, I would focus on your studies and see whether you have time and energy to work aside your studies at all. If you think you do, great! Let’s talk about the opportunities to make some extra money in Uppsala.

First up, nations always have job offers for students. You can work at a nation at the bar, in the kitchen, waiting tables, at formal dinners, etc. These jobs are always open, and nations are always looking for students to help. You can get paid at nations in money, but this is only if you have a personal number and Swedish bank account. If you do not have this, you get paid in free food and drinks or free tickets to different events, such as Valborg! Working at a nation is a great way to earn some extra income, get some free food and, especially, make new friends.  Nations are run by students, so you can easily meet other students there and have such a fun time while working at a nation!

Secondly, getting a regular part time job. Now, I am not going to sugar coat it, it is VERY difficult to find any part time jobs in Sweden that do not require you to speak Swedish. Aside from this, most jobs require you to have a Swedish bank account as well which means you need to have a Swedish personal number. It is also important to note, most jobs that don’t require Swedish are hard labour jobs, like working in a warehouse, or delivery jobs which usually requires you to have a car or driver’s license. Most jobs that do not require Swedish are also in Stockholm, not Uppsala. This means you should be willing to commute to Stockholm for your job if you find one.

Let’s talk finding a job. Looking for a job is going to be a very long process and is going to be very difficult. You will most likely not find a job in your field. You can look for jobs on Indeed, LinkedIn or contacting a Swedish company you think might be interested in hiring you or accept an open application. After a month or two of job hunting, I found a part time job on LinkedIn. I looked for jobs in Sweden but also for remote jobs. I would suggest looking for remote jobs aside from jobs only in Sweden. This way you don’t need to commute, and you can work from home! I was lucky to find a semi remote job in Stockholm. I could go to the office when I wanted to, but also work from home if that worked out better. But it did take me at least a month to find, and I had to go through an interview process that also took some time.

I won’t say getting a part time job is impossible, but it can take a lot of time to find something. And I can say it is also very tiring since you will not have much free time aside from your studies and work. So, think hard about whether you can work and study without your job hurting your studies in any way, because this can be very difficult for many. I know it was difficult for myself too, because a program is full time and requires a lot of attention.

The time came for me to celebrate yet another turn around the sun. This was not my first birthday in Sweden, well in a way it was. See, I left home in August, and my birthday is in January but during my first year in Sweden, I thought, why not go somewhere and celebrate my birthday there. So I packed up my bags and grabbed my partner and we headed to the airport. Merely two hours later, we were in beautiful Vienna, Austria. So in essence, this year was the first time I celebrated my birthday on Swedish soil. But enough of trying to figure out the meaning of it all, let me get right to what I want to talk about.

This year I decided to celebrate my birthday alone. I love people, love being around people, interacting and finding out about them, who they are and what makes them vibe and all. I thrive in people settings where you meet new people, converse etc. I guess that’s why making friends in Sweden has not been too taxing for me. I’ll call it a gift. Without being a pest, I just hang around until you decide I am super awesome and you just have to be my friend. Nothing awkward though, so don’t stress.

So, back to the story (I don’t know why I keep getting sidetracked). I decided to have some “alone time” this year for my birthday and got on a bus and headed to a nature reserve I have always wanted to go to. Hjälstaviken Nature Reserve, located only an hour away by bus from Uppsala, is a dream. It has a large marsh with reeds, a lake great for bird watching in the warmer months and hiking trails that are both challenging and rewarding. The forest areas provide a nice serene escape from the rush of the wind in the reeds or from the busy road. It is like stepping into a different world, but so is almost every nature park in Sweden. I have a monthly bus card, so I used that as my ticket. Going during the week was a bonus, there was almost nobody there, and I made sure I enjoyed my alone time. I didn’t walk the whole route, I wasn’t about that life! I chose 2 tracks, one led to an observation deck the other led to an open area where I sat for a quiet picnic. I had bought my food before I got on the bus to leave of course, but I have been made aware that during the summer months, when the place is always packed, there is an area with a kiosk and all.

Here’s a few takeaways from my time in the wilderness alone

1. Time in nature is always rewarding. There has never been a time when I’ve taken time off from a rather hectic Masters schedule and regretted it. I am always glad I went out and just breathed.
2. Being alone is not and should not be scary for more extroverted people. I tend to shy away from areas where I find myself without people around me because I am an overthinker and tend to go off on a tangent, so I am happiest when I am distracted by other people or doing something. The heavy breathing from the hike made sure my focus was on the present and cleared my head of any worry or stress
3. Most areas and parks are easily accessible by public transport. After I got off the bus I walked a little bit to get to the nature reserve (about 20 minutes). Other parks have stops closer, whilst others are quite further away. Don’t forget to include that.
4. Some areas are very isolated so you need to always be careful in case of an emergency. Keep a fully charged working mobile, a bottle of water and a snack. Swedish Nature reserves are popular and Swedes love the outdoors so most of the time you are guaranteed to see someone.

So remember that being alone is not always a bad thing. Sometimes it is a perfect time to rediscover who you are, your purpose and where you are heading.

As a second-year student and student ambassador, often times I have been
asked the question: why Uppsala University? The world is filled with various other
prestigious universities and gorgeous countries rich with opportunities. But I
have chosen to study in Sweden. A Northern country known for the cold and hard
winters, gorgeous nature, and, of course, the famous Ikea. But I come from a
country where the sun kisses my cheeks everyday and where the beach is
always 5 minutes away. I lived in the Netherlands, where the tulips bloom and
where boats sail through the canals. So, why did I choose to come Sweden of all
places?

I wanted to start a new adventure. I’ve lived in Aruba for 18 years and after high
school I decided to move to the Netherlands. I love Aruba and it will always be
my home, but I longed for the cold and seasons I didn’t have. I wanted to see the
leaves fall of the trees, feel the cold air on my skin and experience the flowers
blooming in the spring. I yearned for a new beginning and a new experience. I
lived in the Netherlands for 5 years. Started my Bachelor and finished it.
Experienced the sorority life and Dutch culture of riding my bike to every corner
of the city I lived in. I enjoyed meeting new people, having cool roommates and
experiencing the beautiful countryside of the Netherlands. A place I could call
home again. But then corona hit…

It was an isolating life. I finished my Bachelor thesis and was looking at a
master’s degree, but I felt trapped in my home. I love the place and it is very
close to my heart, but I wanted a new beginning again. Somewhere new to
explore. So, I looked for places abroad to continue my journey and happen to
stumble upon Sweden. A country up North I have never been to nor ever thought
to explore. In one google search I saw nature I have never explored, a cold I have
never experienced, a country I’ve never even thought about. An interesting and
new place. An unexplored area, a place for me to discover. My new home
perhaps?

I found various programmes that caught my eye, but which city will I pick? The
country is so big. I am from a small country, an island even. In the Netherlands, I
lived in a small city. I can’t move to a big city, that’s a big step. A step I am not
ready to take. So, why not a smaller city, a less dense city? But I want to
experience the capital, so perhaps a city close to the capital? How about
Uppsala? I quickly type Uppsala into my search bar and stumble upon a quaint
city surrounded by nature, rich in history and buzzing with student life. I find a
city that excites me and makes me want to call it home. I immediately apply for
my programme and await the day I get accepted.

It’s the day of the results. I am nervous. I am scared, but I am most of all excited.
As if my body knew I would get accepted. As if my heart new it could find a new
place to explore and love again. I open the website, and I read my result. I am
accepted! I jump in glee; I run around the house and cry of happiness. I did it!
Flash forward to the day before moving to Sweden. I am leaving behind close
friends, leaving behind family once again and leaving behind a country I once
called home to pursue a new adventure. It’s a bittersweet ending to such an
exciting start of an adventure I had in the Netherlands. It’s reliving the sad
feeling I had when I left my island of Aruba to pursue my future in the

Netherlands, but also the excitement of a new start in a new and unexplored
country. I wake up the next day, grab my luggage, leave my apartment and go
to the airport. I am ready to leave my home away from home.
I arrive in Sweden. I am welcomed by an excited team of students and all the
information I would need to start my journey. I reach my apartment and settle
my things. I start my programme, meet new people, make new friends, explore
new areas, find comfort in new things I never could have imagined. A year has
passed, I walk through the city with a smile on my face remembering where I
was a year ago. A scared but excited girl with so much awaiting her. A girl ready
to face anything coming her way. A girl that has yet again, found her home.