March has been a great month for me in Sweden! Because school is divided into quarters here, I am now finishing up my first 2 classes. School here is so different from A&M in a lot of ways, the main one being the lack of structure here. There are no set class times such as “Monday, Wednesday, Friday at 2:00”. It is more like “how about we just meet next week sometime to finish up this chapter, how does that sound with everybody?”. The 2 classes of my first quarter were “Business Ethics” and “Project Management”. Both of these classes were actually really interesting and consisted almost completely of group projects and papers, no exams.
These classes have really taught me a lot about working on projects with people from all parts of the world, which is definitely going to be useful in my life. I have also learned that I have a huge advantage over other students here for 2 reason. First because I am a native English speaker, so I automatically have a much easier job of writing papers and reading textbooks compared to most of the other students! Second, A&M seems to be more rigorous than other universities here, so I am used to spending a lot more time on school than others. The university itself is located right on the shore of Lake Vattern, the second biggest lake in Sweden, so that campus is really beautiful. Here is a picture below!
The on campus culture is also very much different from A&M. Everyone is really well dressed all the time, and there is even a pub on campus! The university’s student organization also owns a nightclub in the city center which is open for JU students only every Wednesday. After this first quarter is over, I have about 10 days off before I start my next round of classes! I am really settling into the Swedish life now, and I cant wait see what else I will experience here!