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.
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