Sweden – Reshu
Student: Reshu
Course: Bachelor of Commerce / Bachelor of Laws
Program: Trimester exchange T2 2024
Describe the city you were living in; the landscape, the culture, the weather etc.
I live in a small university town called Lund in Sweden. It was very residential with lots of greenery, and the main population were university students as well as families. I loved how small and cosy it felt. The university campus wasn’t just in one location, the different department were scattered all throughout the town but very easily to walk between as I would need to walk between the law and commerce buildings. I went during T2 therefore, it was autumn going into winter. I was a little hesitant that living in Scandinavia would be too cold but it was a really long summer, so I was still wearing skirts and going to the beach well into October. However, their late autumn was cold, so you really did need to layer with thermals and scarves.
Did you go on any memorable trips to explore your host country or maybe a nearby country?
While I lived in Lund, I was a 40 minute train from Copenhagen Denmark. I have always wanted to go to Copenhagen as a kid, romancing their architecture and fashion. The second week of exchange, I travelled to Copenhagen with a group of 6 people and explore the city. It was gorgeous weather so we went to Sandkaj Harbour to swim, ate at so many cafes and shopped. The currency conversation was a shock as I remember my first meal of eggs and a drink being $45 AUD. However, that didn’t stop me from visiting Copenhagen several times again. I also biked around the city, and that may have been one of my proudest achievements because biking in Copenhagen is scary with how busy and fast everyone is moving.
What's your one piece of advice for a student who is preparing to study abroad? How should they prepare?
One piece of advice I would give is to not overthink your time and take advantage of the opportunity. It sounds silly but travelling to a place where you don’t know anyone, with a different culture and language really is a new start. It allowed me to not be embarrassed of wanting to try new thing and embrace the experience. This mindset really enabled me to be a lot more extroverted and social as I was meeting people from all over the world and excited to know about their backstory and have new adventures. Befriending my Swedish flatmates and learning their language, exploring different countries with other exchange students, embracing Swedish traditions such as fika or sittings dinners is something I wouldn’t have experienced if I didn’t get out of my comfort zone.
How did you finance your trip? How much did your trip cost?
I relied on my savings as I have been continuously working for 4 years, and I did work a ton the semester before I left because I wanted to have more than enough for this trip. I was overseas for 7 months and explored a lot of countries and did a lot of activities so I can’t give an accurate figure. However, for the 4 months I studied at Lund, I did spend over 15 grand but I wasn’t money conscious and was splurging a little too often. However, as I was only there for 4 months I didn’t want to work while studying, I would recommend saving as much as you can but use the HECS loan if you’re financially struggling.