Type of housing: off campus residence

Arranged by: Host university

If returning, I would choose: On campus

Why? Bigger rooms with private bathrooms

Personal comments:
I stayed in an off campus residence that was located between the university and downtown. The walk or bike (all international students are allocated bikes) to school was along a path by a beautiful lake. The walk or bike ride was always fantastic except during snow storms! The residence itself, used to be part of a mental institution - so the rooms were very hospital like. Most rooms except for a few were quite small, but has nice big windows. Also our kitchen and commons rooms were much larger then the on-campus residences - which were great for parties. The main thing I had to get used to was the common bathrooms and showers (men and women together!!!) Of course there were seperate stalls but it still took some getting used to i.e. someone could be in the stall next to you shaving or brushing their teeth while you were taking your shower. All in all I really got to enjoy my residence. At first I was a little dissapointed because I was not on campus and did not even have a sink in my tiny little room. But once I made friends it really did not seem important anymore.

Describe host city: Students interact with the local community without much university involvement

Activities: Takes place mostly within the university/student environment

Travel: Takes place mostly outside the university/student environment

Nightlife: Takes place both within and outside of the university/student environment

Personal comments:
The on campus student pubs Sivans and Stallana were the best - in price and in fun. Alcohol in Sweden is super expensive so because of this students usually had a pre-party in residence before heading out much later in the evening. Many students even started brewing their own beer.

Course recommendations:
It was very interesting. Love the Swedish acamedic set up - you do one course at a time - anywhere from 4 to 6 weeks - write a 5 hour exam and move to the next course. If you fail you get to write the exam again and again until you pass.

Personal comments:
none

Language of instruction: English

Main source of funding:
Government assistance

Other sources of funding:
None

Work opportunities:
It was not legal for me to work

Personal spending habits:
Cost of living in Sweden is 2 to 3 times more then in Canada. So everything costs you more, taxi, milk, bread, beer, stamps, coffe etc

Food, Travel, Nightlife, Overall, Telephone, Housing: was less expensive than at home.

I wish I had known...
I was lucky because I had friends from the Vaxjo U. who had come to my home U. the year before. So I was able to talk to them a lot about Sweden and therefor was prepared for it. I guess the main thing to know is that Swedes are a little hard to get to know at first but once you become friends they are the nicest, kindest, helpful friends to have. You just have to give it time.

In my opinion:
Everybody loved it, you will too!