Category: Okategoriserade (Page 4 of 19)

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.

If you’re anything like me and find that you’re mostly unproductive at home due to the many distracting things on your study desk, or your gaming console and (non-academic) book always in reach to pull you away from actually getting work done, this is a blog post for you. I’m always in search for new study spots around Visby to get my work done, both by myself or together with my friends or group members. Changing up my study scenery easily boosts my productivity levels and helps me mentally separate “home time” and “study time”. Without further ado, here’s my list of favourite study spots around Visby!

Almedalsbiblioteket – The Library

The library is right next to Campus Gotland, so you can enter both from the street or through Campus. There are individual desks, shared tables, soft couches, and separate study rooms alike, where you can sit with your laptop and work with other students or focus by yourself. Café Foaje is also connected to the library, which means you can easily take a fika break or grab a sandwich if you feel the need to refuel.

Wifi: Yes – eduroam

Pros: The variability of study spots means there’s bound to be something that fits my mood, whether I’m studying alone or need to get group work done.

Cons: It’s a public library, so it can get noisy when there are groups of friends or children around. Luckily, the separate study rooms are always silent!

Productivity rating: 4/5

Study rooms on Campus

When I’m looking for a spot to work silently, or a place to gather with my group members and doodle ideas on a white board, I book a study room in the E Building. These rooms are all different in regards to size and furnishing, which either means I can change up my scenery with ease, or I get very disappointed if my favourite one is booked up. What they all have in common though, is a lovely view over Visby! There are microwaves too, so you can take some food with you if you’re planning to work longer. Bring your campus card to enter during weekends!

Wifi: Yes – eduroam

Pros: You can stay for as long as you need to. Even past 10PM on a weekend. I promise it doesn’t feel spooky, only your procrastination would haunt you.

Cons: The study rooms are often fully booked, so you’ll need to plan ahead from time to time. You can try to walk into an empty study room and stay until the person who booked it kindly asks you to leave, but you didn’t hear that tip from me.

Productivity rating: 5/5

Gather with Gamers in G Building

If you study Game Design, you can access the G Building with your Campus card. Alternatively, if you befriend a Game Design student, you can ask them nicely to let them into this secret lair of theirs. Here, you can almost always find Game Design students working on their projects or playing videogames together to escape from work. There’s even a kitchen, so you can warm up your food.

Wifi: Yes – eduroam

Pros: You can make new Game Design friends and play with board games you can find in this building, or sit together with your laptops to play something together. Wait, am I still writing a post about study spots?

Cons: There aren’t that many places to sit for silent individual work. On an even more tragic note, I can’t enter with my general Campus card, so visiting the building makes me “kinda sus”.

Productivity rating: 3/5

Espresso House

If you promise not to buy the last caramel cheesecake before I arrive, I can recommend studying in Espresso House by Östercentrum. It’s a cozy café where you can always expect to find a free table. You might get jealous of those who only come here to drink coffee, but you can find comfort in the fact that you deserve a cup as well for your hard work. It’s a public space, so the public will be here to chat and be noisy, but I’m usually not distracted by it.

Wifi: Yes – you can connect without a password

Pros: There are many plugs for your laptop. Also the caramel cheesecake is amazing.

Cons: Unfortunately, there is no natural sunlight here, except for that one table by the window. The lamps are great though.

Productivity rating: 4/5

H10 Café

If you wish for lots of sunlight in the early afternoon, bring your studies to H10. In this café, you can sit by the window and occasionally glance out to people coming and going along Hästgatan while you ponder over some new theoretical concepts or try to come up with a fun title for you essay. They even serve lunch here, if you’re in the mood.

Wifi: Yes – ask for password

Pros: Sitting by the window is lovely.

Cons: There’s not a lot of space on the tables, so I’d honestly just bring one book, or my laptop.

Productivity rating: 3/5

S:t Hans

This is a popular café because it has a back garden that’s situated amongst old church ruins. If you’d like to work with your study group, this is the best café to meet up in, because it has big tables that will fit all of you comfortably. When it’s warm out, you can even choose between studying indoors or outdoors. If you’re looking for a snack, the carrot cake is really tasty!

Wifi: Yes indoors – ask for password

Pros: Perfect for group work, and the candle-lit tables are extremely cozy!

Cons: It’s hard to predict how full the café is, sometimes it’s relatively empty and quiet, other times there’s a lot of people and it can get noisy.

Productivity rating: 3/5

Almedalen – The Park

There’s no better way to channel your inner main character energy than to take your book or laptop to the park. This one time on a sunny and warm day, I settled down on a picnic table in hopes of getting work done, and it was equally relaxing and distracting to study at Visby’s most famous pretty park.

Wifi: No

Pros: Ducks. You can’t possibly stress about studies when you’re surrounded by ducks!

Cons: Ducks. You can’t possibly focus fully on studying when you’re surrounded by ducks!

Productivity rating: 2/5

That wraps up the study spots I can recommend! Of course, as you settle into Visby and discover more places, you will soon have a mental note of your very own favourite spots where you can be productive both on your own and with a study group. There’s so many cozy cafés within Visby’s walls, and numerous comfortable tables along the halls of Campus. Good luck with your studies!

Before I even get into the list – or maybe number 0 on this list is – celebrate! Congratulations on making it to Uppsala University! You’re in for a time full of new experiences, learnings, excitement, and fun!

I remember how I felt when I stepped off my flight; I was so nervous, and there was a feeling of exhilaration making its way up my throat, making me feel like if I spoke, I’d speak in the language of freshly opened soda bottles. Coming from India, a country that is so different from Sweden in every aspect, the drive from the airport to Segerstedhuset felt surreal. But I don’t think you need to be from a very different country to soak in all the differences – simply having a feeling or a voice inside you, telling you that what you’re doing is so new and life-changing and beautiful is all that it takes to make the move special.

That being said, let’s get into the list of things to do once you’ve reached Uppsala!

1: Unpack

I know unpacking seems like such an obvious thing to do when you’re moving to a new university, but I also know that many of us tend to leave the hefty job of unpacking for later. I did at least, and most of my room was taken up by half-opened suitcases with clothes and things spilling out.

Trust me, and unpack as soon as possible. Put things away, give things a place they belong to, make your room a home. As exciting as new places can be, they can also feel daunting and un-homely, so the sooner you unpack and make your room truly your own, the better!

2: Get yourself a sim card.

I know that a lot of you that are from Europe might not need a new sim card, but for those of you that are not from Europe, I’d recommend getting a new sim card for your phone. It’ll allow you to stay connected to your family, your academic faculty, and all necessary groups until you figure out how to set up your wi-fi.

I knew I needed an RJ-45 cable and a router, and since I didn’t want to go through the hassle of being without the internet when I arrived, I got those from home. But, as luck would have it, my router wasn’t compatible and it was a stressful couple of hours until I got myself a sim card with data.

3. Get to know your neighbours!

If you have neighbours, or if you’re living in a corridor and have corridor-mates, head out and try to get to know them. If they’re new, you can plan to explore the city together, and if they’ve been there a while, ask them for help with settling in – where is the nearest grocery store? Is that the one where you get the best deals? Where can I find food that will remind me of home? Do you think I need a bike? Where do I buy one? How the hell do I turn on the shower? (Apparently, there’s a little knob under the sink that you turn and it makes the water go from the tap to the showerhead, who would’ve thought?)

4. Familiarise yourself with Swedish grocery stores and prices.

One thing that really surprised me in Sweden was the lack of a fixed price. In India, we have MRP which is the maximum retail price an object can be sold for, so things are manufactured with prices on them and they will be sold for that price. Sweden has no such fixed price, and prices for things change with every grocery store. So, head to a couple of grocery stores in your area, and get a feel for the prices. Pick one that best suits your needs (or pick multiple, for different items each). This will also help you make a budget later on, if that’s something you’re interested in.

Also, it takes a while before your brain stops converting everything to the currency you’re used to, but it is possible, and when I suddenly realised I wasn’t converting everything to INR I felt extremely accomplished and efficient. It’s a nice feeling. It feels very wow-I-am-living-in-a-foreign-country-ooOoh.

5. Figure out where your campus is.

Not only that, but figure out how you’re going to get there, and also how much time it will take to get there through different means of transportation. Find your closest bus stop, see what number buses stop there, look for cycling paths that will take the least amount of time (but remember that the snow and the ice will make the roads slippery so take that into account when figuring out how long it will take you to cycle to class).

6. Make your way to IKEA

It does not matter if you have been to IKEA in your home country a hundred times. Do the stereotypical thing and go to IKEA. You’re bound to find loads of things that will help you make your room feel more homely for a good price, and if you’re not looking to buy anything, IKEA will force you to you can eat lunch there! Also, I learnt that it is not pronounced eye-kee-yah, but rather ee-kay-ah, so do with that information what you will.

7. Join a nation!

Do not forget to join a nation! Nations are a super important part of your student life in Uppsala, and joining the right one for you will make your stay here that much more fulfilling and enjoyable. Each nation has things that it is known for. Some are known for their club nights, some are known for the special deals they offer to their members on food and drinks, some for their sports, some for more mellow karaoke nights, so on and so forth.

Whether or not there is a tour of the nations being offered, go on one yourself, with your new friends. You’ll get a feel for the nations’ energies and find one that clicks best with you! Remember, you can join multiple nations.

Also, you can keep up with all the events at nationsguiden.se!

Of course, the list of things to do when you’re here is endless and your list 100% depends on you and your preferences; these are just some things I think you should do to set yourself up for a clean transition and a fresh start! Most importantly, remember to have fun and soak in all these new experiences even if they can be accompanied by hints of nervousness because there’s nothing quite like the feeling of knowing there’s so much in store for you!

Welcome to Uppsala 🙂

So, when you are excitedly packing your bags to not only move to a new country, but a new continent, nay a new hemisphere, you well up with joy at the thought of all the things you are going to be able to do, everything you will be able to experience. The excitement is resounding. The thought of the flight experience, what is going to happen when you land, how you will get to where you’re staying, what you will eat. Will you miss home? Of course, you think, but definitely not those first few weeks, because that is your time to take it all in.

Your first fall, your introduction to autumn. That’s something that grips you unexpectedly especially when you are used to two seasons, hot and cold. Everything else is almost hot or almost cold. That’s what life is like in the tropics, I guess. The weather starts turning towards a chill, you start thinking about shopping up for winter, a bit prematurely you realise when you dash to a store to buy winter jackets in the middle of October. Everyone is walking around in light jackets and shorts and you are tempted to convert your sleeping back into a walking ‘nu-age’ blanket taken from the runway of some fashion-esque show somewhere in Europe. I mean you could do that and no one would question you or your sanity at all. Back home? You’d be laughed and ridiculed off, before being dragged to the nearest asylum for an “assessment.” Oh, the freedom of the global north!

When the leaves are all but done falling off and dying on the cyclist infested pavements and as they collect together with the mud and muck that is produced by the unannounced rains, you realise that the beauty of a falling leaf also quickly disappears into the mulch of some random Uppsala street. You think of that other random girl.

With no warning, no announcement, no sign post, no bureaucratic informercial or notification, somebody switches the lights off! Just like that. Day turns to night and night turns to nightier night. You awaken and the sun is not familiar with where you are until later in the day when you have been up for what seems like months. And don’t think it will come and be with you for a while? The sun will not tarry. As soon as you rush outside to catch a few rays of sun, it retreats into the gloomy clouds and in no time, the light fades. With 4 – 5 hours of sun during winter, your sun burnt days are but over, but also your days of enjoying the warm that came with the sun gently kissing your cheeks at sunset. You now wish you spent more time outside when you were back home, because when you were home, you had 350/365 days of sunglight. You can forget it for the next two years.

‘The night is dark and full of terrors.’ Those writers were on to something. A lack of Vitamin D in your system will leave you feeling like half a human. Seeing everything dark all the time literally eats away at your soul, and if you’re not careful, will find yourself falling into the winter “slump” were everyone retreats into themselves and become a depressed, anti-social (I laugh as I write this) members of society. You will leave home whilst it is dark, walk into a lecture and buy the time you decide to do a quick pass through the library before you head home, it will be dark outside. It won’t be that the sun did not come, but it came and went back, before you had a chance to experience it.

Would I call this a solution-based blog post? Not really. I won’t spoil you that much. I want you to discover it on your own (wink wink). Or maybe I’ll shed a few pointers here and there. Just do what everyone else does. Take supplements everyday like a junkie; start a month earlier. Go to the gym like you on something. 2 hours every two days works more wonders than you would expect. The university has a sun room (or light room, or star room) somewhere. Go there and get some fake sun. It is better the fake stuff than no stuff at all. This is the time when people should be more social and not the opposite. Hang out more with friends, party, do sleepovers or whatever you do for fun. Just make sure the activities are not sun-based, because, well…

So, embrace the dark side. It will be over…eventually.

Warning: this post will not be a happy one and deals with depression.

Hej hej, so we all know posts where many people give tips and tricks on how to battle (winter) depression. You get tips like, take vitamin D pills, enjoy the sun while its out, or talk to friends or family. But sometimes, life is harder than that. Some days, you don’t want to get out of bed, you don’t have the energy to go outside or talk to anyone. What then?

Well, honestly, some days are as they seem; they’re going to be bad. You’re going to want to stay in and just not deal with any issues that day and that is totally ok. We are all led to believe that being sad or depressed is a weakness, and something we must combat and get rid of as soon as we can. But it truly isn’t that easy and some days it’s best to just feel awful and embrace those feelings you’re facing. So, this post won’t be tips on how to get rid of the blues or combat them, but a post on how to deal with awful days and embrace these feelings so you can make the best out of an awful day. Let’s begin…

I have days where I do not want to come out of bed or even exist. How can I possibly go outside and enjoy the sun if getting out of bed is already my biggest struggle? I don’t. These days I just stay inside and take my time with every step I take during the day. I take my time to get out of bed, make the simplest breakfast I can, and on days that I don’t even want to eat, I at least drink water to get something in my body. Instead of going to the university or forcing myself outside and getting dressed, I rinse my face with water and give myself one compliment to start the day. Even if the compliment is simply “great job, you got out of bed today!”. Rinsing my face wakes me up a little bit and the compliment shifts my mood a tiny bit so I can at least continue with my day. But trust me, even rinsing my face or giving myself a compliment can be hard, but I force myself to do this because I know it does help me, even if it’s a tiny bit.

On “good” bad days, I also put on my comfiest clothes to feel cosy inside. If I have time, I also put on my favourite song and try to dance or sing a bit to get some happiness and energy for the day. I then get myself back in bed and try to understand what could be making me feel the way I am today. But honestly, most days there isn’t an answer to this, and I have to learn to accept that my mood today just isn’t the best. The rest of the day, I try to put on comfort tv shows or movies, play videogames, write in my journal to get my feelings off my chest, or just cry it out. I feel like getting my emotions out helps me feel better and at least gets it off my chest instead of cropping it all in. If I have energy, I also try to do something fun and creative, like draw, paint or even play my piano. It also helps to get my feelings off my chest and just be free and truly feel what I’m feeling. One day, I simply coloured a blank page completely black and while it might not be the most creative or pretty thing, it really did help me and made me focus on something other than my awful day.

But on really bad days, I just try to rinse my face, give myself a compliment and then get back in bed and do completely nothing. Of course, I still bring a bottle of water with me to bed because if I’m going to be sad, at least I can be hydrated while doing so. But I don’t force myself to do more than I can and just allow myself to lay in bed and gather my feelings. It sounds sad, but some days that’s all one can do and that is ok.

Of course, as a student sometimes you cannot afford to just lay in bed and do nothing. But instead of pressuring myself to get everything done as I usually would, I set some small goals for the day. Last time, I had to read sources and write paragraphs for my essay. Instead, I chose to only read my sources or at least read the introduction and conclusions of my sources and make short notes on topics or sentences I think would be important for my essay. This way, I at least made a start and the next day I had an idea on what I can write about. One other time, I needed to just write my essay and that day I had no energy to come up with academic sentences. So, instead I wrote down my thoughts and what I wanted to say in different paragraphs. I wrote down things like “I really want to write about Bourdieu and his concept of Habitus and field. I need to explain the educational field since my topic is about xxxx”. These were very vague comments, but it helped me the next day when writing, since I at least had something on paper and knew what I wanted to do. So, my tip for bad days where you still need to do something is to not force yourself to do too much when you know you simply cannot. Do what you can, even if its “bad”. Because trust me, doing something, even if its “bad”, is better than doing nothing.

Ending this blog post, I want to remind you that these bad days do pass but shouldn’t be ignored. It is okay to not be okay and it is okay to do less. Don’t overexert yourself and just do as much as you can to go through those days! Even if its just drinking some water and crying it out. Trust me, we have all been there and there is no shame in it!

And if you have trouble getting out of those bad days, the student health services are always here to help you. And trust me, you might not want to talk to anyone, and you might feel ashamed for how you’re feeling, but they truly do want to help and sometimes simply talking to them can help. You can also tell them you do not feel like going outside, and they can possibly arrange something for you via zoom. This way you can still stay in bed but still have someone to help you through this. It is also very important to tell your student coordinator that you are feeling this way if it is affecting your schoolwork. They are also here to help and can help you find solutions to this.

Stay safe, please be kind to yourself and you can get through this!

Xoxo, Sam