I’ve been in Sweden for two weeks now and it’s been an interesting experience. I’d just like to write about some of my experiences here.
Let’s start with school. School here in Lund is very different than back at Berkeley. I’m not sure whether I like it more or less; it’s just…different. I'm taking a philosophy and an abstract algebra course this quarter. We don’t have discussion sections here (at least for the classes I’m taking), so it’s just two lectures a week for each class. And homework is voluntary/nonexistent. There are no midterms. Your whole grade is basically your final (which is kinda scary to me). Also, apparently a lot of school is self studied, which is why there isn’t a lot of assigned class times. I don’t have class on Wednesdays and Thursdays this quarter, which is…so confusing. I guess it’s easy to fall behind because you don’t have mandatory work to do, but it also feels very laid back (at least for now, speaking only two weeks into the quarter). I’m not sure what everyone does with all of the downtime here, because although I do have a lot of time on Wednesdays and Thursdays, other people have classes at those times so our schedules don’t always line up.
They also have more organized student life here at Lund, as basically everyone here is part of StudentLund, being part of a “nation”. Each nation holds different activities every week, from lunch to night clubs to board game nights to special events like balls. And being part of a nation doesn’t exclude you from other nation activities; you just get a discount for events from your nation. It’s quite different from Berkeley, where I feel like to be involved, you have to actively join clubs which are selective, and it’s very easy to just not be involved in anything if you don’t join any activities the first couple of weeks.
I’m looking forward to traveling around Europe during the semester and enjoying my time! It’s an interesting experience being in a different country with almost no one I know, and I don’t think I’ll get that experience to do that so many times in my life. Hopefully, it’ll also be a chill and refreshing semester filled with fun activities, because I am quite burnt out after last semester.
To be honest, I’ve been feeling a little homesick and missing Berkeley, which is not something I expected, since I have lived abroad for almost a year before. It’s been a little bit difficult adjusting and trying to make new friends, and I miss my friendos back home. I think it will be okay though, time passes quick, and I think before I know it, it’ll be time to return back home. I guess I’ll just have to enjoy my time here!