Hej!

Hello everyone! Welcome to my First blog entry! Let me introduce myself: My name is Robin Mooren, 20 years old and I normally study business economics in Tilburg. However, I’ve always been interested in going abroad someday for a semester and now the time has finally come; currently I’m living in Stockholm, Sweden!
The main reason for me to go to Stockholm was that they have an excellent University. Stockholm University has earned a spot at several top 100 universities of the world lists frequently. Furthermore, they could offer me courses that were not in my curricular bachelor program in Tilburg, but were an addition to my study. I’ve also always had a thing for Scandinavian countries, and Sweden in particular. So Stockholm was quite an obvious choice for me.
Let’s begin at the beginning: It is very hard to pack for half a year! I was allowed a 20kg suitcase and 10kgs of hand luggage. When you hear this, you might think that’s more than sufficient to pack loads of stuff. However, that’s not quite true! You’ll be at your maximum packing weight in no time, with barely the things you ought to be necessary. So you should really think about what the necessities are for your trip, and about which things you'd rather leave behind. But maybe I’m just a bad packer!
When I finally got my luggage together, the day of my departure had almost come. I’ve flown from Charleroi, near Brussels, because it had the most convenient arrival times. However when you arrive at Stockholm Skavsta, you have to take a bus to the central station of Stockholm. This took approximately 80 minutes, which is almost as long as your flying time. But look at it on the bright side; At least you can see some of Sweden’s beautiful nature.
The first impression of the city is mind blowing; Stockholm is an amazingly beautiful city, with lots of incredible buildings and architecture, and lots of water. After this moment of astonishment I went to the university campus to meet with my senior buddy (more about that later), and to sign my contract for my room. Stockholm has a very convenient public transport system with a great metro, which will take you almost everywhere in the city in no time. The moment I arrived I was helped immediately to the housing office for the contract, and after meeting up with my buddy and arranging some other stuff, I went to my room.
We have been assigned Buddies to help us out, to get to know the neighborhood and to meet other people. It is very similar to the buddy program in Tilburg. You also get assigned a buddy, and he/she will have several people to guide. My buddy was very friendly and helped me take care of all the things I needed to do at the university. They also arrange all kinds of activities for your buddy group; I will elaborate more on that in the upcoming blogs.
I did not really experience a culture shock or anything like that. I guess Swedish people and culture are quite similar to the Netherlands. The Swedish are pretty reserved and they take care of everything themselves, but are always prepared to help you out if you need it. I don’t think I will encounter anything extremely bizarre or strange with regard to culture, or at least not from the Swedish Citizens!
So these were my first experiences here in Stockholm! I hope you enjoyed reading them and ‘till the next blog!