January 2017, and so it begins.
I made it to Sweden! The journey was insane, I flew directly to Frankfurt and after a lengthy layover I headed to?G?teborg, where I spent the night, and then took a bus to J?nk?ping the next morning. I, to say the least, was a mess upon arrival and it was for that reason that I learned how reserved the Swedes are. Although they seem anti-social compared to our friendly?Texas-culture they are quite nice and open. I sincerely would have never made it to?J?nk?ping if it weren’t for the Swedish that helped me along the way.
On another note, it is cold…shocker, but I was quite prepared which was favorable since Sweden is a very expensive country. I had a lot of expectations when coming to Sweden and in many cases they differed from reality.
Although there were a lot of things I expected and had thought about when coming to Sweden a lot of things escaped my mind. For example, I didn’t think about not having a car! In the states I used my car for everything and anything but moving here has made me depend on public transportation, ?adapting has been a challenge but I’m slowly but surely overcoming it.
I thought adjusting overall would take much longer than it actually did, but Sweden has become my home. Our first two weeks we had a mini kick-off, mainly for the international students, and then the official Kick-Off week! Its like fish camp and Gig’em week all packed into one and it was extremely fun. I’ve made so many friends from all over the world and even been to the HV71 hockey game! The atmosphere at hockey games definitely resembles a Saturday at Kyle Field, the Swedish definitely love their hockey team and their fika (coffee breaks). If you want a Swede to go anywhere just include a fika! They are truly obsessed with coffee, there are at least double the number of coffeeshops in comparison to restaurants in the city. But hey, who can blame them? It keeps you warm!
J?nk?ping International Business School
