The last one..

For my final blog, I thought it would be a fun idea to give some conclusions, and recommendations for everyone that considers going on exchange in Stockholm in general. So, here goes!

- Going on exchange is an incredible experience. You meet so many people, make a lot of good friends, get to see another city thoroughly and get the chance to study in a completely different institution. However, some people tend to romanticize the going on exchange a little too much. There are also things that are less pleasant. I’ve heard quite a lot of people getting lonely on exchange. Even though there are numerous opportunities to meet new people, there is always the chance that you do not find people you really have a connection with, and since there is no family or friends to keep you company; it can be quite a lonely place. Luckily for me this is completely not the case, where I have made friends for life and met plenty of other acquaintances.

- Missing family and friends from home can also be quite tough. Especially when you have a girlfriend at home (like I do), you sometimes would like to go home for a while. It is not such a big problem when you go on exchange to Stockholm for example, since people can visit you easily and often. However, the story becomes different when you go to, say, Jakarta. Definitely something to consider when you think of going away.

- Time for some typically Swedish points. I personally have had very positive experiences with Swedish people; they are kind, if what a little preserved, and are always prepared to help you out. Other exchange students have experienced similarly, but there are also people that find them arrogant and too introvert. Especially people from southern Europe and South America. But that’s just a difference in culture I guess.

- Stockholm University is a fantastic institution to study at. The old campus is beautiful, lying in a preserved nature park. Furthermore, the concept of doing courses one by one after each other has numerous advantages. Also, the quality of teaching was astonishing; Very good teachers and professors, and I have the feeling I learned an extraordinary lot about business the last semester. A slight con is that they do not have a very big amount of undergraduate courses in business in English, but luckily I could find courses that were very supplementary for my studies. I think the university is highly recommendable!

- I’m completely in love with Stockholm as a city! The city is so incredibly beautiful and atmospheric, and has literally everything to offer! Furthermore, I am a big fan of the posh and pompous style of most parts of the city, as well as the water that seems to flow everywhere. The city is fantastic to shop for clothes, and has more museums that someone can possibly visit in a semester. It is also an incredibly romantic city, and therefore I can recommend everyone to visit it with their loved ones. It´s a truly remarkable city!

- After this complete hailing of the city, there must also be some cons for Sweden of course. For one, don´t expect to nice weather up here in the north. Although rainfall is not as often as in the Netherlands, the weather can get very cold, and it can be quite windy. Also, the fact that it gets dark at 14:30 in the winter is still something I cannot get used to. And the biggest ‘problem’ is that it is an expensive city to live in. Expect to easily spend 800 euro’s a month for your basic expenses (living, food, going out, clothing), and then we’re not talking about extensive spending! Add the fact that you are on exchange and will probably do a lot of trips, and you get quite a heavy spending spree for one semester. Although I don’t think this should be something that keeps people from going here on exchange, it is definitely something to take into account.

Also, since this is the last blog, it might be interesting to write something about how I feel about going back. Of course it is self-evident that I look forward to seeing my girlfriend, my family and my friends again on a more regular basis. One of the things I really look forward to is to not have to spend the amounts of money I spend now just to live. It will be fantastic to be able to buy a beer for a couple of euro´s, or to go to a supermarket and simply buy everything I feel like buying.

There are many things I will miss here though. I feel like I’ve bonded quite a lot with the people I’ve met here, and it will be strange not to see them for so long. I hope I will be able to visit some of them! Also, I will miss the kanelbullar! Urban and I have eaten massive amounts of them in the last couple of months, and it will feel like rehab when I will get back.

I think this exchange will help me in my future career, since I truly have the feeling that I have developed myself in many ways. I have become more social, a much better presenter, and a better writer, among many other things. I hope to apply these competences in other works that will hopefully help my career path!

Lastly, I want to thank the exchange team for making this possible for me. It has been an epic journey, and a true life experience, and I am still very honored to be able to do an exchange like this!

XIII

This blog will be fully dedicated to my travels trough Lapland. For those who do not exactly know what Lapland is; it is an area in the most northern parts of Sweden, Finland, Norway and Russia. It is generally considered one of the more cold places one can spend their holidays, with temperatures in the winter dropping around -40 degrees Celsius. Luckily (or not), the temperatures were around -15 to -23 in the days I spend there. So let’s start with the travels!

We booked the trip through some sort of a travelling agency for students. The trip there would consist of an 18 hour bus ride through the night, not exactly comforting! We had to pick some people up in Uppsala (north from Stockholm) as well. When we arrived there, it was revealed that of the 45 students that were participating, there were 14 Dutch people! Not exactly what I expected, especially considering I knew none of them beforehand. On the bus ride we watched some movies, ate at a crappy burger place (what do you expect on a road trip?) and in the morning around 8:00 the day after we arrived in Kiruna!

The first activity planned was the combi tour of dog sledding and snow-mobiling! When we arrived we got special clothing for the cold, and then we were ready to go on a sled! While we were sledding in a surprisingly fast pace, I was amazed by the pure beauty of the landscapes that Lapland has to offer. Pure White Mountains surface in the background while you glide gently through the untouched snow, and everything looks like it has been untouched for years. After this fun ride of about 45 minutes we got to warm up a bit in a tent with some coffee and some cake. Then it was time for the snow mobiles! Normally people went with 2 on the same snow mobile, but because there were two left, Urban and I both got one of our own! These things are freaking awesome! Going over little hills has you up in the air in no-time, and going around 45km/h was definitely no exception. The instructor did come in the end to give us a speech on responsibility, but that didn’t spoil the fun!

The day after we had to travel further to the next village we were staying, even more to the north. In between we visited the famous ice hotel. It is incredible to see what they build out of only ice! It is completely build from scratch every year, and it is very impressive to see what creativities the artists show in the different rooms. I must admit that it surprises me that so many people actually want to sleep a night in such a ridiculously cold place; it was an imposing sight indeed!

After this it was time to visit a Sami family, who had their own reindeer herd. We first went to a tent where we got to taste some reindeer meat on toast (delicious!) and some reindeer soup (less delicious!), while listening to the stories of the traditional Sami life. After this we got to go into the place where the reindeers herd, to feed and pet them. The man of the Sami family was happily telling us that two of them killed each other a week before because they got stuck with their horns. Fascinating topics while you are standing in the middle of the herd!

We also went to the Norwegian part of Lapland on one day. On the way there we were able to see some beautiful fjords! These massive parts of ice and land are truly impressive, and a must see for everyone who ever goes to Norway! Furthermore the town we went to was not that thrilling. It is impressive that there are actually people living normal lives in a place where the average temperature is way below zero and the amount of daylight in winter is less than 3 hours, but apart from that there is not too much to consider while walking around there.

That evening we went back to the hostel, and Urban and I were just relaxing at a fireplace. When we walked back to the hostel, we saw a little stream of light. Could it be?! Finally, we got a glimpse of some northern lights! The light got stronger and stronger, and eventually the complete sky was filled with green light streams. It is an unnatural experience, and there’s nothing quite like it! The pictures do not really give it the credit it deserves, as it is an alienating experience, and very beautiful! Apparently it was quite rare to see it as clearly as we have seen it, so we’re very lucky bastards!

They saved the best for last; ice-climbing! First we got the equipment, which consisted of special shoes with spikes on the front, a body armor to clip ropes and delaying devices on and a helmet. After this we drove to the destination, which was a frozen waterfall! The setting was perfect; the beautiful frozen waterfall was opposed by a huge lake, and the weather was really cold (-23) and stormy. So while in the background waves were crashing down on the ice and snow at the shores, we were doing our best to master the frozen waterfall. Lastly, we got two pickaxes and the instructor taught us how to attempt to climb it! It was awesome to do, and very exhausting as well! Definitely a crown on the travel to Lapland! As much as Lapland was a crown on my exchange in Sweden!

XII

Hej!

Light is getting very scarce these days in Stockholm. It starts getting dark around 14:45 and around 15:30 it is completely dark! It’s a very strange experience to walk around town thinking it is very late because it’s dark, but it’s actually only 4 o’clock! These circumstances seem to take their toll, as I’m very tired most of the time. I hear similar stories from other exchange students luckily. And of course it does not keep us from doing awesome things!

The trip to Helsinki is an excellent example of this. We went with a Viking line ship, which basically means that you only spend around 8 hours in the city. The good thing about it is that you travel with a big cruise through the night, and it’s relatively cheap. So we gathered on a Friday to board the ship, and had an excellent time there. Once we finally arrived in Helsinki the day after, we had a perfect guide to show us where we had to go; my good friend Johannes is born in Helsinki! He showed us the places to be, and Helsinki is also a very nice city, with a lot of atmosphere. He even knew where to get some cheap food, in the form of a pizza buffet! We also went to a small market, where they had some awesome winter hats. They were however, of real fur (from seals to foxes, you name it!), so they were ridiculously expensive, in addition to the fact that it is kind of unethical of course. The disadvantage of a Viking line trip is that the time you spend in the city is not too long, and time seemed to be flying! Before we knew it, it was already time to board the ship again for the journey back.

There was a storm on the way back, which had quite an influence on the balance of the ship. Walking straight through the hall ways was quite the challenge, and everyone was doing their best to keep their balance. This effect even had an aftershock, because when I was sleeping the day after I had the feeling my complete building was moving!

Studying is progressing quite fortunately. I got my first grades (finally!), with a B in History of the welfare state and a B in International Marketing! I was very satisfied, especially with the first one, since I’ve put quite some effort in that paper. The other two courses are also done as of this moment, and I’m currently laying the last hand on the final assessments for Human Resource Management. If everything goes well and I pass these courses, it means that I will basically be done for this semester, which will be a very satisfying feeling!

Anders, a Swedish friend of mine, had a birthday party last weekend, and he was so nice to invite some exchange students as well. It was nice to be invited to a party of a real Swede and not an exchange student for a change. It’s an interesting way of getting a taste of the real Swedish life, and some real Swedish people. We had a very good time that evening, and we decided that we should meet at least once before everyone is leaving.

The end is indeed coming near, as the first exchange students are announcing their departures. It is a strange feeling that this exchange is coming to an end. It is the ending of a chapter in life in a way. I’ve already booked my ticket home, and my departure will be on the 15^th of January. I will leave with a double feeling (like most exchange students I guess); It was a fantastic experience and I’ve made some really good friends, but home begins to call me, and it’s a good thought to be reunited with my girlfriend, family and friends.

Next week is my trip to Lapland. We’re going to the ice hotel, dog sledding; see the northern light, ice climbing, and much more! I’m extremely sicked and my expectations are very high, so I hope this trip can match them!

XI

Two things come to mind when I think of the last two weeks; My weekend trip to Riga and a road trip to Copenhagen and Malmö. Let’s start with the first one, shall we?

After we finally found a good weekend to go to Riga, Mark, Urban, Mridul and I booked the tickets and arranged everything. Ironically, when we arrived at the airport after a 80 minute drive, we had a 3 hour delay on our flight of 50 minutes. So we ended up waiting on the airport, to eventually have to go to another airport with busses. This was kind of a letdown, since we only had 1.5 days in Riga, so time was running short. However, eventually we got on the plane and arrived in Riga!

When we arrived, we called a cab to get us to our Hostel. This was one of the most life threatening taxi rides I’ve ever had! Apparently, Latvian folks don’t take traffic rules to seriously. So while we were driving half on the middle of the road, half on the trolley car way, there were several occasions where we almost had a collision. Luckily, we arrived at the hostel alive!

After checking in and putting our stuff into place, we decided to find a nice place to eat. After all, it had been a long time since we started our journey, and airport food usually is not exactly top cuisine! The first thing we noticed is that the price level in Riga is a lot more pleasant than in Stockholm. Finally we could go out and eat for prices lower than the Swedish supermarkets, and have a beer that’s 20% the price of a beer in Stockholm! Giving a round is suddenly a lot more fun haha! So after we had a 3 euro dinner (desert included), we went back to the hostel. That night we explored the night life of Riga, and it was quite nice!

The day after we began with a 3 hour tour through the city. It was a good way to see what the must-see’s in Riga are, but frankly I was not very impressed. I thought the city was kind of a melting pot of different styles, and therefore somehow lacked cohesiveness. I might have set my expectations too high, since I had heard it was an extraordinary city, but nevertheless I was not impressed much.

After this, we did something I would have never guessed I would ever do: gun shooting! Through our hostel it was possible to sign up for this. We had to go by a cab to an old war bunker, right outside of town. Apparently safety is not considered an issue in Riga, because the only protection we got in there was ear protection. First we got to shoot with a glock, which is basically a standard pistol. After this, the fun started; we got to shoot with an AK47 and a shotgun! It was a fantastic thrill to shoot with these massive guns, and the kickback was huge! A true adrenalin rush!

In the evening we were extremely tired, so we just went to some bars to conclude the weekend. The day after we had to get up pretty early to check out and return to Stockholm again. It was a nice weekend!

After a week of working my ass of to keep up with my courses, including 4 presentations, it was already time for the next big thing: a road trip! We were with 10 guys from 9 nationalities (of course, the French are the ones that break the cycle), and we rented 2 cars to drive from Stockholm to Copenhagen, a quick stop in Malmö and then back via Gothenburg.

Of course the fun started in the car, with singing (read; screaming) along the songs on the radio, driving a little (or way) too fast on the almost empty highways and making way to many pit stops to grab some food or drinks. After approximately 8 hours we arrived in Copenhagen in the evening. After grabbing some dinner, we went to check out the nightlife of Copenhagen!

The day after we got op quite early to check out the city. Copenhagen is quite stunning, with lots of historical buildings and churches. Of course we also went and see the mermaid statue, which was as little as the legends tell us. Looking around the city took us the entire day, so in the evening we were quite tired. Nevertheless we went out, and we checked out some parts where we hadn’t been the day before.

On Sunday it was already time to leave again and say goodbye to Copenhagen! Our departure time was a little later than expected (getting 10 people ready at an early time is an impossible mission), and unfortunately our visit to Malmö had to suffer because of this. This was really a quick stop of around 3 hours, but we did get to see a big museum with all kinds of random stuff. Including working equipment from the stone ages, some fashion dresses and genetically manipulated animals.

A long drive to Gothenburg followed, where we got to see some of the beautiful countryside of Sweden. We arrived at Gothenburg again quite late, so no one of us had the power to do much that evening. All the hostels were booked, so we had to sleep in the car, which was also quite the experience. When it was getting cold in the night (Which it does, believe me), we drove around the city to get the car warmed up again. Around 5 am we got hopelessly lost however, which led to a 45 minute drive through Gothenburg! Eventually we found our beautiful parking lot, and we could go back to sleep again.

The day after we visited Gothenburg thoroughly, and I really enjoyed the city. It has a typical Swedish atmosphere which is also present in Stockholm and Malmö. I would recommend everyone to also visit these cities! After this visit it was time to return to Stockholm again. The surroundings between Gothenburg and Stockholm are even more impressive than what we saw before, and again we had great fun playing around with the cars. This road trip was an unforgettable experience!

X

Hey!

As of this week, the first exams are part of the past! The first exam I´ve had was the international marketing exam. I didn´t expect it to be extremely hard, and luckily I was right. It was very straight forward, and I expect a very nice grade. But as the professor said: it is not about the exam, it is about the learning process and the course! Even though many teachers like to think their course works like this, in this case it actually was the case.

Next up was the hometake exam for History of the welfare state. Even though we had to write 4200 words (which equals around 9 pages), it only consisted of 3 questions, and we had 1 week to finish it. Sounds like a piece of cake, doesn’t it? But this turned out to be a big challenge. The questions were very hard, and it took all of my creativity and endurance to finish this one. We were only allowed to use the literature of the course, but considering this was 3 books and around 20 papers, it was more than enough! Time will tell if my efforts will be rewarded with a good grade!

IX

Hey!

For the first time here I´ve visited another city than Stockholm in Sweden. There was a trip to Uppsala! This is a typical student city, where around 50% of the population is students. We got a guided tour there, where among other things we saw the very nice old university, but nevertheless this was kind of boring. So we decided to part ways with the group to check out the little town on our own. We found out that there was a guitar festival that day, and after an hour of wandering around we finally found it! There was a little fair, a lot of classical guitars and some case shows. Afterwards we went to the various student unions that are established in Uppsala. It was quite similar to the student union bars in Tilburg or any other Dutch student cities. Afterwards there was a big student party. It was a welcome change from Stockholm, but after 1 day I longed back to my current hometown again!

VIII

Hej Everyone!

I thought I would describe a day in my life here in Stockholm. This way it will be clearer what a day of an exchange student looks like. I´ve picked a random date before I knew what that day was going to bring, so it might be not the most interesting story to be told. However, it will be an honest way of showing the exchange life.

Well, on the 13^th of October I got up around 09:00 to get ready to work on an assignment at the university. The courses usually are in the afternoon or at least at 13:00, so getting up really early is not necessary. I met my international marketing group at the university to work on the group assignment, where we have to do a cultural analysis on Hong Kong in this case. We discussed the main points and divided the work. After this we went to have a quick lunch at one of the many cafeterias at the campus, around 11:30. Since there are some Swedes in my group, it is fun to actually hang out with the real inhabitants here. They tend to know which places to go a little better than us exchange students!

VII

Hej everyone! Time for some new anecdotes from Stockholm!

Last week I had my first exam here in Sweden; The Swedish course level 1 exam. The exam was pretty long considering the fact that there were only 6 real lectures. It consisted of 12 assignments which all had 10 to 20 small assignments. I think it went well enough to pass it! However, I don´t really have the feeling that I´ve learned that much, so I´ll probably also take course in level 2. Of course I would be deeply ashamed if I can´t speak fluent Swedish when I leave here!

VI

Now that I´ve started my second course here I´m getting the feeling that, as opposed to the stories I had heard from students that already went on exchanges, the courses at Stockholm University have a higher difficulty level than I´m used to. I´d heard a lot of stories about courses being a lot easier in other countries compared to the Netherlands, but I must admit I haven´t noticed that! The 2 courses I´ve followed until now (Real estate management and now History of the welfare state) are pretty die-hard! Maybe it is because you do not follow different courses simultaneously, but nevertheless the level is pretty high. History of the welfare state is actually the first real course for me, since I dropped Real estate management (see an older blog entry). The course basically consists of 6 lectures in total, and a lot of home reading. We’re talking about approximately 1200 pages of material here, so that’s not too shabby! Each lecture consists of a presentation by the professor, and 2 presentations by students, followed by a discussion. It is a very interactive way of learning and you really get involved with the subject. With 12 people it’s also a really small group, which is also nice. 

V

Hej! As promised, I'm going to compensate for the fact that I haven't posted any pictures in my blogs. I'm doing this by an actual foto blog! Please consider that I'm not the best photographer in the world, and therefor I also had some help from my good friend Urban here! The foto's are a combination of his and mine!
So, let's begin! The first pictures are from the people I hang out with the most here:

Of course, I have to respect my fellow photographer for this blog, and one of my best mates here, Urban!

FLTR: Jennie (my senior buddy), some random guy (haha), Johannes, me and Anders!
This was at the Faddermittag, hence the slightly formal theme.

IV

BLOG 4

Last Monday we had a pub crawl. For the ones that do not know what a pub crawl is: You basically go to a lot of different bars in one evening, and at most of them you’ll get a discount or a free drink. In this case, we divided into groups of 5, and we went to five different bars. At most bars we could get a beer for around 30 crones (3.30 euros)! We considered this very cheap! Those prices were a lot better than we had experienced so far! One of the bars was a really retro bar, with these typical 80’s hits. Definitely worth visiting again! In the last bar we gathered with all the groups. There my friends and I stayed for a while and chatted around. It´s always a laugh when I tell them the place I was born is Weert (pronounce it in English and you’ll understand). It was definitely a good evening!