What a month it has been, I couldn’t have foreseen such an amazing time, from my first night in Stockholm I could tell I would enjoy it here, It’s so fresh here, so pleasant (I’ll go into detail in just a sec.) Having been here a month means that I am no longer a tourist, I am a resident of Sweden, even sounds impressive. Mention this to people back home, even before I arrived you’d get similar responses, “It’s expensive there, you might not be able to afford it.” And on the other side of the scale ”Aren’t you lucky, think of the good looking Swedes you will meet” So this blog will be a reflection on what I have experienced in Sweden in the last month.
Let’s start with the important stuff, money. I grant you it is expensive here, tax on food and a fat tax. For example a litre of soy milk costs about £1.20 compared to the 55p I would spend back home. If you were to have a McDonalds meal you would expect to pay about £6.50 for a meal there, around double the UK price. Store brand items haven’t really made it in Swedish supermarkets, there’s no ICA value range, so living on a student budget can be tough, I’ve been living off Pasta, and sandwiches. There is a Lidl nearby however still not that much difference in price. No bottom price reductions, if something’s on its sell by then the reduction is likely to be between 30% and 50%, so no 10p bargains. So we’ve done food, mum will be happy to read about my o so stable diet! I’ll save the bit on alcohol prices for a bit! When it comes to items such as clothing and household stuff there isn’t really that much of a difference in price, just don’t expect to find a Primark styled shop here for clothes. (I’ve lasted one month on my small wardrobe I brought over from the UK!) One thing that does seem expensive is stationary, my god you’d be hard pushed to find a pad of A4 (70 pages or so) for under £1, this hurts I’m so used to big pads of paper (nice paper) for under £1, don’t get me started on the cost of a Bic ballpoint pen! £1 each!! My advice bring plenty of stationary with you. The paper price is ironic, all you see round Sweden are trees, a surplus of supply. Now to the expensive bit, the alcohol. The cost of alcohol is hugely expensive here, even more so in bars. In the System Blogat it’s about £1-1.50 per can. In a bar that isn’t the student bar you can expect to pay £5 for a pint. With this huge price you’d think my student nights out would cost well double that of a night out back home with the £1 drink offers and the £1.95 trebles (which I miss greatly btw) but no on the contrary, I will spend about £5 on pre-drinks then prob only buy 1 drink in the student bar for a similar price to the SU back home, so no biggy. So Nights here are cheaper in practice (I would also like to point out the Swedish taste in music, awesome. Not been to the student bar once and not heard a Eurovision song, and the Swedes love them) There is one part of Swedish culture you have to love and that is the after work buffets on a Friday. (Not seen many business people there though mainly students) Now for the price of a ready meal you get an all you can eat buffet and an alcoholic drink, now the drink normally costs more than that anyway so it’s a very happy night.
University life
Well I am here to study, so to prove that I’m not just having fun all the time! How am I coping with lectures? Answer; fine, one annoying thing is that if you have a clash of lectures the only way to catch up is to read the chapters in the book relating to the lectures. Luckily the economics lectures are at A Level standard so I prioritise Swedish then E-commerce (due to that involving a group assignment) One annoying thing is that the courses only run for about two months then you start the next set, So you pay out a lot of money for books that you only use for a few weeks. Lectures can go on for up to four hours, I hear of people starting as early as 8 in the morning! If you’re lucky you will only have one subject a day otherwise it’s a long day ending as late as 6.
Swedish life
I have to say I enjoy it, It’s not that big a culture shock. Pleasantly I have to say I’ve not seen one chav here yet, bliss. In Jönköping I haven’t seen any beggars however there were quite a few in Göteborg. It’s a bit strange getting used to the Swedish control on alcohol, after 2 on a Saturday you can’t alcohol until Monday, you can however get what’s been deemed ´emergency alcohol´ which has a small percentage as little as 0.5% to 3.5%. With regards to the Swedish language I am picking it up rather quickly, clearly I still have the British accent which I need to lose. We’ve just started looking at the grammar, this is incredibly confusing, you aren’t taught grammar in this theoretical way of imperatives etc, I have no idea what those are in English let alone in a foreign language. I now have Swedish radio on my ipod constantly to try and submerge myself in the language, the radio stations also have a camp taste in music, Lady Gaga is constantly played, Shakira’s Waka waka to name a few. So my advice to you if you don’t like a bit of cheesy music that can be as old as 10 years, then avoid Swedish radio. Huskvarna is a really nice place to live however I would say it’s more of a family town, however it is near the Kinnarps Arena (the home of the local Ice Hockey team, still yet to see a game but My allegiances are already aligned to HV71) Sweden has given new opportunities, the best if this so far being the forest party, wouldn’t be possible back home.
Well one month down and the next one has a fair amount lined up including the famous student cruise to Tallin with Students from all over Scandinavia not just Jönköping.
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