First people I met from my dorm
The trip to get here was extremely long and I thought I would never get here; first I flew to Canada, then Germany, then Gothenburg, and finally a bus ride to Jonkoping. It took over 24 hours in total, the most difficult part was traveling by myself and carrying all that luggage K. Yes, I am pretty sure I over packed and I probably won’t use everything I brought with me… but hey I am a girl! and I heard shopping here is really expensive so I decided to bring most of my clothes. Nevertheless, I am pretty sure I will shop for more here J
View from a small part of the University, the yellow building
is the Engineering building
is the Engineering building
Short trip to Gothenburg, Copenhagen, and Berlin
I tend to be a really spontaneous person and sometimes commit a lot of crazy impulsive actions! This trip can be added to my list of spontaneous things I have done. It was Tuesday night and my friend Jose, also from UCF, and I decided to go to Gothenburg the next day. We had to take our finger prints and picture for the student visa at the embassy in Gothenburg; we then decided that since Denmark was so close we should also go there, then Germany was also just south of there…Our trip to get our student visa turned out to be an adventure and we ended up visiting 3 cities and 2 countries in just a week. It was an exhausting but very rewarding experience! J
Backpacking in Europe
It was my first experience staying in hostels and it wasn’t as bad as I imagined. We booked the hostels through hostels.com and we found pretty good rates. During winter season there are not as much tourists or young travelers as during the summer, so we found great rates at all the 3 different hostels that we stayed. The hostel in Gothenburg was private, the one in Denmark was for 10 people, and the one in Berlin was for 4. I realized that staying in hostels, besides being relatively cheap and convenient for students, is also a great way to meet people from everywhere! We met mostly Australians in our trip (Since Australians are currently having their summer break and they are on vacation for 3 months). The experience was priceless and we met awesome people along the way that we probably wouldn’t have met if it wasn’t for this adventure. Thank God we can still keep in touch through FB. J
At a Cuban Club we found in Berlin
I’ve been in Sweden for over a month now and I’m still feeling super homesick. However, meeting my contact family today just made the day so much better! Here at Jonkoping, the International Association offers two programs to international students: Contact family or contact student (they are really limited and you have to apply early). I have not met any locals since I arrived to Sweden because it is really hard (especially if you live in a student accommodation where everyone is an international student) so I feel that I have not had the chance to experience the “Swedish life” yet. I recommend applying for any program (student contact or family contact) because they help you a lot in getting accustomed to this new life and culture. I was one of the few lucky students to obtain a contact family and my contact family is so nice, they invited me to lunch today and took me to the health center (since I showed them my concern after hitting my head really hard when skiing a few days earlier), and I am meeting them again later in the semester for dinner at their house. Later in the day I went to the gym and afterwards I decided to go for a walk in the city just to explore and enjoy the sunny day (it’s almost never sunny in Sweden) then I went to this coffee shop where I ended up having “fika*” with an Argentinian and a Romanian guy who have been living in Sweden for a while now (more locals, great!)
*Fika is like a coffee break to have a nice conversation and just relax for a bit. Swedish people have coffee breaks all the time.
So today was a great day since I got to meet four locals that are willing to help me adapt to this culture better, plus is always better if you know local people because they can answer you all the questions and show you what places are better here in Sweden.
Walking on the Lake!!!
A good thing about the University of Jönköping is that there are no assignments, no quizzes, and no homework, just one final exam at the end of the segment (which can also be bad since your entire grade depends solely on this exam). The semester is divided into two segments and you only take two classes per segment as a full time student, this leaves me with a lot of free time! And there’s really not much going on during the weekdays K
Sometimes the days here can be so beautiful and sunny with little or no clouds, how can people stay indoors when the day is so nice out?!? (here in Sweden, there aren’t many sunny days, so when there is a beautiful day GO OUT AND ENJOY!)
So that’s what I decided to do J while everyone in my accommodation was still sleeping K I decided to go explore the city and take advantage of the sun while it was still up (the sun goes down around 4pm right now). I realized than when I decide to take on a new adventure and start exploring on my own with no set path or destiny, I end up appreciating the moment even more and encounter unique things that I wouldn’t have encountered otherwise.
The lakes here are all frozen! So while on the bus I saw many people walking on the frozen lake and decided to get off to check it out myself, the scenery was beautiful!
Shopping!!
