Final post

Wow...five months in Sweden and it’s time for my last post! I actually can’t believe it...time has just gone so fast. My first week in Uppsala is still so fresh in my mind, it was hot, humid, and I had somehow managed to catch a cough from some contagious passenger on the plane on the way here. Being the snow bunny that I am, it was definitely not the Sweden I had signed up for. Now it’s my last week here, and the feeling I had during my first week is now completely...foreign...to me (except for the being sick part, it’s almost...poetic...that I was also sick now, like coming full circle...hehehe).

I don’t know quite know how I can sum-up the time I’ve spent here. I’ve covered the country from almost all the way North to almost all the way South; I’ve met new friends and re-visited old ones; and at the end of it all I’ve spent almost six months in a place which felt like home...something which to me is very important, and which was completely unexpected. 

To those who have been reading and commenting over the past few months, I’m so glad I’ve found someone to read what I have to say! I hope you’ve managed to gain some enjoyment from what I’ve written and that I’ve been able to give you a good idea of what life at SLU was like for me. I wish you the best of luck if you’re about to embark on your own Swedish adventure and I hope that you have as much of a good time as I did.

To those who I’ve met over the past few months, it’s hard to find exactly what to say. I thank you for your company, for your guidance and above all for your friendship. I have amazing memories of being here, and I hope to be back someday soon.

As you can imagine at this point I’ve worked my over-emotional Latin self into quite a state and I have to get on a plane soon (not to mention that I'm at the airport and people are starting to look at me strangely...), so I’ll end this fast.

Goodbye and good luck to you all,

Fernanda.

Last day in Stockholm

Just woke up to a cold, snowy day... Perfect last day!
Time to go out and take in my favourite parts of the city before I leave.

The Museum of Medieval Stockholm

Being the eternal nerd that I am, I decided to use this lazy Sunday to explore a museum in Stockholm I hadn’t been to yet (and I’ve managed to cover a few...): The Museum of Medieval Stockholm.

It’s small, but entry is free (yay!) and there are the usual old artefacts: clothes, games, food containers, rocks (oh come on, every museum has some kind of ‘historic’ rock display), pieces of stone (technically still just rocks, but these have been shaped in some way, thus making them far more special than the other rocks on display), part of an old churchyard, as well as part of the wall that surrounded the city of Stockholm (the wall is from the 1500s from what I remember). A nice way to waste some time if you find yourself with nothing to do, or if you just want to learn some more about what Stockholm was like.

The museum is on Norrbro bridge (it’s the bridge that goes from almost in front of the Opera House to the side of the Royal Palace in central Stockholm), about halfway down the bridge there are stairs which lead to a square at water level, the museum is there.

This is the link to their site if you want some more information:

http://www.medeltidsmuseet.stockholm.se/museet.php?sprak=english

Sunny Stockholm

It is a beautiful, sunny day in Stockholm and the meds have worn off enough so that I can function...yay! Time to go see what's going on in this city...

Swedish and not-so-Swedish friends

From the moment I first arrived at SLU I tried to make a point of throwing myself in the middle of as many Swedish students as I could. I wanted to make the most of being in Sweden, and that included making local friends. I’m by no means saying you should ignore the other foreign students if you’re one yourself, they can be your kindred spirits when you’re all feeling slightly lost in a brand new place, but the Swedes will be your best source of local information, the people you can go to when you need help with Swedish and your best chance of experiencing as much of the local culture as you can. I said in one of my first posts that the Swedes don’t deserve the reputation they have for being cold or distant, I was always made to feel welcome and was embraced by all the people I worked with in class. I won’t lie and say that I became great friends with all the Swedes who I met, but I can definitely say that I’m leaving the country with at least one person who I’d consider to be a very good friend.

Today I met up with another exchange student who I became friends with. We met at one of the events organised for exchange students and she, like me, had also made a point of trying to have as many Swedish friends as possible....yet somehow we became friends with each other.

I won’t finish by saying “Try to make friends”, that would be too obvious, but I’d definitely encourage people to not stay too comfortable. I know how much easier it is to stick with the people who are from the same country as you’re from, they’re a comfort when you’re away from home, but you’ll gain so much more if you also try to make some local Swedish friends.

Final exam, getting sick and (hopefully) getting better

I can’t believe another course is already over! The final exam was yesterday, and I think it’s hard to know exactly how it went. Many of the questions could be answered in several ways, so I can only hope that I wrote what the teachers wanted. It’s nice to know that if you fail the exam, you always have a second chance with the re-exam, something which I know isn’t the case in all universities.

As a fitting end to the semester I also had the delight of being sick, and I know many of my classmates also spent the last week of school in bed eating paracetamol as if it were candy.

The first contact to go to if you’re sick is to ring 1177, the medical advice helpline. I tried, and after 25 minutes on hold, I gave up.

I was away from Uppsala when I decided to look for a doctor and in Stockholm I was directed to City Akuten, a clinic where they take drop-in clients. They’re located in the inner city, about 10 minutes walk away from the central metro station. I had to wait 1 hour and 45 minutes (they nicely told me that when I first arrived, and said I could go for a walk for an hour and then come back), but I got to see a doctor and there is a pharmacy downstairs where you can pick up any prescribed medications. A great, easy place to go to if you need to see a doctor, but unfortunately there isn’t one in Uppsala.

Their website is: http://www.cityakuten.se/english/

Hope everyone is staying healthy!

Last week of class

It’s the final week of class and there’s much to do. Group projects to finish and present, the exam to study for, and I have to move away from the little place I’ve called home for the past few months. Slowly, slowly the reality that my time here is coming to an end is sinking in.