Blog Assignment #6: Good Bye Sweden

I want to use my blog today to summarize shortly my experiences I made during the last eight month here as an exchange-student because I am leaving Sweden next week back to Germany and thus back to my normal life. The last month provided me with so many experiences that it is hard to remember them all but some of them have formed my character more than others. I never thought that cultures, especially those that are so close together like the German, Swedish, French or Austrian cultures can be so different and that the stereotypes that we all have in our minds can sometimes cause little problems. I don’t want to talk about cultural clashes here but at the beginning I had to realize that we all differ in so many ways from each other and now in the end I also see that we all are sometimes so similar.

When I came to Sweden I never expected that I would make so many new friends all over the world. I never thought that it would be so much fun to live together with so many people from so many different countries. One of the most amazing things was to see how easy we can overcome cultural borders by leaving traditional habits behind us. I could see that everyone improved his English drastically and that this language can serve as bridge between us. And even if we did not always know the right words, in the end we always came together.

As organizer of two Helsinki trips it was a pleasure to meet so many exchange students. To organize these trips was a lot of fun and I had to learn that time is not always time. The most interesting thing was to recognize that time is relative and differs from culture to culture. If you ask a German or a Swede what time is the person mostly will answer that time has to do with punctuality. But if you ask the same question a French, Italian or Spanish person the answer will be completely different. We all have a different understanding of time and other values as well. And that is something we all have to be aware of.

I also had the chance to make friendships with Swedish students and that is what I wanted from the beginning. Even if it is so much easier for us to make friends and contacts among the exchange-students it is even more interesting to make contacts with the people living in the country that hosted me for eight month. These people thought me a lot of lessons. The most important lesson was that I now know that Swedish people do not drink more that other people from Europe and that the Swedish girls are not that easy as everyone always thinks they are. But I also got an introduction into their culture by learning their language and becoming invited to traditional festivities especially before Christmas. In the end I can say that I found a lot of answers to my questions I had when coming to Sweden and that all my expectations were positively fulfilled. When I go back to Germany in a few days I will bring back a huge store of stories and memories that will accompany me my whole life. I really hope that many more people from all over the world will come to Sweden and especially to Karlstad in the next years to experience an exceptional life as an exchange-student there. And in the end one theory proves as true: most of us experienced the so called “Erasmus-Syndrome” during their stay. Periods of parties, fun and leisure time are followed by periods that are characterized by the practical, ordinary and mundane way of life. Thank you Sweden for eight wonderful months!