I can’t believe it’s already been over a week since I came to Jönköping, but I already love it here. Although I must confess, I also miss Denmark a bit. However, my start in Sweden was not as smooth as I expacted. First, I had to unpack a few things in my luggage already at the airport in Vienna as it was too heavy. Second, during my transfer in Zurich, I had to check in my carry-on bag, because – guess what – it was also too heavy. But luckily they didn’t charge me for that. And last, due to the delay of my first flight, my checked-in bag didn’t make it on the connecting flight to Gothenburg.
So as soon as I arrived in Gothenburg, I went to the service desk to file a baggage report. But since I didn’t know yet, where I’d be living, I couldn’t even fill in a delivery address. Anyways, I got on the bus and made it to Jönköping about two hours later. There, I already met some girls at the train station with whom I went to the accommodation office at the university, where they then assigned us to an accommodation. And lucky enough, I even got a room at a large shared flat directly in the city center and within walking distance of the university.
During the first few days, I explored the neighborhood with my flatmate Michelle, went with some other students I met on the first day to IKEA to get some stuff for my room, and, of course, had a typical Swedish Fika with Lotti at one of the cafés next to the lake. On Monday, kick-off week finally started. While the morning was filled with a lot of information and formal things, the fun part of the kick-off started with a mingling of all the other students from the faculty. Tuesday, we finally had our overall ceremony, meaning that we were now officially allowed to wear our green overalls, which we basically did for the whole week.
In the following days, other activities, such as a sports day, a pub crawl, a night mission, a toga party, and a beer pong tournament took place on campus and around the city. And by participating in all of them, all twelve teams had the chance to collect points for their team. And while my team, the Smurfs, was last on the first day, we managed to take over the lead by the end of the first week. To sum it up, I’m enjoying my time here in Sweden, especially the kick-off week, to the fullest, and am excited to learn more about the Swedish way of life in the upcoming weeks.
schöngeschrieben 