Studying in Sweden- An American Perspective III

Dear readers,

Welcome back to my blog and I hope that all of you had a relaxing weekend. This weekend I just relaxed, had a few beers and watched a few movies. It was really pleasant to just kick back. I also looked for jobs for after I finish my Master's and also spent some time working on my data analysis.

In my last two blogs I discussed (1) Weather, (2) Transportation and Surrounding Environment and (3) European and Swedish education, comparing all to experiences I had while studying at Ithaca College, in Ithaca, New York.

In this blog I will discuss student life in Uppsala as an SLU student and compare it to my student life in the US. Overall, student life in Uppsala is really a blast. I can't put it any other way.

There are two ways of looking at student life in Uppsala: from a "living on campus" and "living off campus" point of view. In general living on campus is more convenient than living off campus, however you're closer to the city while residing off campus. (See my previous blogs for more info on living off or on campus). On campus I live a pretty relaxed life, and classes are close and I can come home to have lunch. I live with 7 other people, 6 girls and one other guy. Overall, it's quite a bit of fun living in on-campus housing. I meet many people while in classes and during my free time. My criticisms with living on campus are (1) there are only a limited amount of people that you meet, as not very many people live here, (2) there are not very many international students living on campus and (3) Ultuna (campus) is pretty far from the city, aka it can get dull here at times. A good point about living on campus is that you will immediately have the opportunity to meet many Swedish people and really gain insight and immerse yourself into the Swedish culture.

If you want to meet many different people all the time, I would really recommend that you live off campus. In off campus residencies, you will live in close proximity to Swedes and many other international students. I find this slightly more appealing, after spending much of my stay here in SLU campus housing. Living off campus allows you to meet everyone from everywhere at any time! No end, lots of social interaction and great opportunities to make new friends and meet new people! Moreover, living off campus will allow you to enjoy the city of Uppsala more, as it's only a few minutes' walk away. Uppsala is a nice town to stroll around, meet other new people, relax and shop in. As I'm a city person, I would have chosen to live closer to the city as opposed to living on campus. Also, if you live close to the city the distances to and from the city are more bearable, especially after a night of partying.

SLU's on campus housing is similar to Ithaca College's in the way that it's a bit far from the town of Ithaca, just like Uppsala City is 5 kilometres away from Campus.

I think that here in Uppsala I meet and interact with a greater variety of people from different cultural backgrounds, as opposed to when I attended Ithaca. I really embrace meeting people from diffent cultures as I enjoy learning about their home countries, their backgrounds and memorising a word or two of their languages. Overall the amount of social interaction that I have here in Uppsala is far greater compared to that at Ithaca. I meet new people almost every day!

My final word. I think that participating in a student exchange program not only increases your academic capacity, but at the same level your social skills. During these past 1.5 years (last year in Denmark, this year in Sweden) I've really grown from a social point of view. I think it's really fun and a great life tool to learn and know how to interact with a variety of people with different backgrounds, languages, beliefs and values. If you're planning on working internationally (and I do) knowing how to communicate with all people I think is of great essence.

My advice: go on an academic exchange program!!!! It's sooooooo worth it!

That's it for this blog. Next time I'll discuss parties in Uppsala! :-D Until then and enjoy your week!

Julian