Erasmus Placement

Wednesday, 12 May 2010 00:00

International

Student Placement in Sweden

At first, I was petrified; going to a foreign country, learning a new language, trying to make new friends and, all the while studying for a Masters. 

Needless to say it was daunting, but with determination in my mind, and skype on my laptop, I headed to Sweden, expecting blondes everywhere and snow year round. Disembarking from the plane, draped in a jacket, scarf and gloves, I thought I had boarded the wrong plane when the sun began to make me sweat. In hindsight, it was daft of me to think that Sweden snowed year round, but I knew nothing about the country before; that’s why I was going.

It was easy to make friends here because we were all in the same situation. I took my usual refuge in sport, making friends from all corners of the world. It was exciting; one person from Romania, another from Turkey, someone from Nigeria. Luckily I was Irish, and everyone always appreciated that. They had all experienced the welcoming atmosphere of an Irish bar and wished to reflect that back to me. Soon we were all going to parties every weekend together, and despite the odd spot of studying, were having a good time. After a time we all got into our comfort zones and began shaping groups. The obvious groups were formed, the Germans, the Spanish, the French etc; however there was a lot of room for floating among them. I eventually found my feet as the first wave of snow began to fall.

With all of Europe experiencing their worst winter in some time, we found ourselves trudging through the snow, or saving time walking across the frozen sea to other islands in our archipelago town. Snowmen were made, snowball fights were had, but the cold winter brought with it an unwanted desire to stay inside and study. And study we did, however it was not in the conventional Irish method. Despite our own college’s progressions towards continual assessment in the past few years, there is still a lot of stress during ‘those’ two weeks at the end of the semester. And don’t get me started on the Leaving Cert. However here, they have a completely different system. During the first month of my stay here, I had one hour lecture a week, with three assignments to do. The second month I had a three hour lecture at the start of them month, followed by nothing, with another three hour lecture at the end of the month. It has continued like this throughout the year, where the focus is on self research and assignment work, as opposed to teaching and exam. In fact I have only had one exam all year. 

I observed the same practice in the secondary schools here. That and they wear no uniform, and have a lot of free time in between classes. I noticed this when I was taking part in a project organised by the International Office here. European on Loan was designed for students of surrounding schools to speak with people whose mother tongue is that of which they are studying, while encouraging them to study abroad. This was a great project which I benefitted from also. I would give a presentation about Ireland and later ask the students to tell me a bit about Sweden. I got a great insight into sports, games, food, holidays and culture here, while also seeing first hand how good the education system is here. That is the result of a political system that works; Great health care, public transport and absolutely free third level education FOR EVERYONE IN THE WORLD. The last one is under review at the moment and is subject to change to free for everyone in the EU, however that is still impressive. 

This is all funded by notoriously high taxes which the Swedes like. In fact in a survey carried out eight years ago, more people were inclined to have the taxes raised. This concept of social responsibility and community fosters an atmosphere of ‘help your fellow man’, or even y’ur man from Ireland. And help they did. With the year coming to an end, I’m reflecting on how great it has been here. A white wonderland in winter, and now with spring warming the water, and barbeques filling the air with an appetizing aroma, I am sorry to be leaving Sweden so soon. But I am very thankful for the great experiences, thankful to Margaret Mulderrig, Michael Walsh, Maurice Murphy, Jannike Jonasson, and Melissa Engelke, and to all the Erasmus students who made the year great with trips to Kiruna, Lund, Göteborg and Stockholm, and with a party for every occasion of every theme. And finally I would whole heartedly encourage any student thinking of studying abroad to go for it! I can’t be certain that it will be the best thing you ever do, but it will definitely be a contender.