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How to survive at a Swedish university.

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The end of the scholar year is approaching and I realized  that I hadn’t written anything about the university system in Sweden. So let’s talk about studies before summer holidays start.

When I arrived from France the first thing that surprised me the most was the fact that I had only about 6 hours of class per week, whereas back in Dijon I had more than 30. “6 hours?! Wow!” I was delighted and made a lot of plans for the free time that I would have. But I shouldn’t have been happy too fast: in fact this time was supposed to be spent on reading the abundant course literature. For each course I had in average 3 books to comprehend and when you’re not used to read in English… well, these 3 books can seem to be veeeery long.

Another thing was that the books are quite expensive. So, 3 books per course, 4 courses per semester, 24 books per year..  can turn to be harmful to your student budget.  Read more »

Nathalia Mikhalkov — Student

May 12, 2012

How not to get cold in Lapland, meet a Swedish film director and get drunk in Uppsala.

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After spending the first months in Sweden discovering the city of Stockholm, I really felt the need to see other parts of this big country. And, trust me, there’s a lot to see!

At the end of November my friends and I went to the Swedish Lapland, a trip organized by the Scanbalt experience. What I will remember from this trip is the amazing feeling of freedom and of being at the end of the world. The 18 hours and around 1, 400 km by bus frightened me, but at least I thought I would see a lot of swedish nature out the window. Fail: there was only 4 hours of light and then we were plunged into darkness. The home-made sandwiches, the music from the iPod, the failure of reading a book and ending up having a headache and the half-sleep resulted in a sensation of floating in the space. When we arrived at 7 a.m. I had the feeling of being in a dream: everything was unreal, the white landscapes in semi-darkness, the red houses of our hostel, the mines of Kiruna that looked like a giant black boat.

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Nathalia Mikhalkov — Student

May 2, 2012

Stockholm never sleeps

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…. or does it?

During the cold winter I wasn’t as enthusiastic at the idea of going out as I was at the beginning of the 1st semester. But once I was out of my Lappis room, I wasn’t ready to get back very soon.

Going out in Stockholm is always a dilemma between going to a concert, dancing in a nightclub, chilling in a bar or getting drunk at a corridor party. I have spent the first two years of my university studies in a small town of Dijon in the East of France. Dijon is not a big city to be fickle about choosing the place to go out, so when I arrived to Stockholm I was lost between all the possibilities that the night life can offer. Back in France on the week ends I mostly used to go to bars with my friends, drinking really cheap and quite good wine, and I really missed this “bar-culture” in Stockholm. And it’s not because Stockholm doesn’t have enough bars, no, on the contrary, there’s a lot of very nice places with good music and a cool atmosphere, but spending 6-7 euros on the less expensive beer spoils it all. But what Stockholm does have, in comparison to France, is the cool concept of night clubs with a chilling zone which sometimes has… a ping pong table. I swear, it’s the funniest thing you could do in a club and an original way to meet people.  Read more »

Nathalia Mikhalkov — Student

April 23, 2012

Trying to be a Swede part 2

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So after my failure to be a Swede I have changed my tactic and tried to understand Swedes. I scrupulously elaborated my plan of action.

Step number 1: learn Swedish.

As you may have read in the previous post, I can argue during hours why you should learn Swedish. What amazes me the most in this language is when I hear Swedes speaking to each other I have the feeling they are imagining themselves in a theatre play: the way they talk and pronounce sentences is really performative! And I was so excited to go to Sweden that I started learning Swedish in… June. By myself. With a book. And CDs. Repeating “Hur måååår du?” 10 times a day by the swimming pool in Italy. I admit, it was quite absurd. My dad was laughing at me, my sister called me crazy but when I arrived in Stockholm 3 months later  I could at least understand some signs and some ads and was able to have a basic conversation. Funny thing, I was finally hearing Swedish, spoken in live, by Swedes, in Sweden. Read more »

Nathalia Mikhalkov — Student

April 9, 2012

Winter: the comeback

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Incredibly enough, it’s snowing again. Can’t believe only two weeks ago it was 10 degrees and the sun was shining! Well, it’s the joys of Swedish weather I guess. Unpredictability.

But as Swedes say:

“Det finns inget dåligt väder, bara dåliga kläder”

“There is no bad weather, only bad clothing”

Nathalia Mikhalkov — Student

April 6, 2012