A post by Jedd Syn

So I was approached by Alexandra to write something for her newfound blog. Took some time for me to figure out what I want to share with you guys, and finally decided I should share on my random experiences here as an international student.

Having been here since January, it has been an amazing experience thus far. I still fondly recall arriving on the first day at the crack of dawn, only to be faced by the harsh weather of an unforgiving 17 degrees. Negative. That was not the harshest I’ve experienced though, fortunately for me, as the Swiss Alps did greet me once at -28 degrees in 2009. Nonetheless, it was the stark contrast (of 47 degrees) that my body had to suddenly adapt to. An entire fleet of taxis greeted me upon my exit of Arlanda, with their owners touting incessantly. The taxis lined up like drones in Attach of the Clones, ready to move off at the slightest order. But, I digress. So we decided to accept one of the driver’s invitation, all these while thoughts of how to bargain the taxi fare, and trying not to get ripped off on our very first day in Stockholm. Our driver was a heavy-boned, jolly, bearded man. He was the friendliest out of the lot, and quickly helped us with loading his taxi with our luggage. It was a Volkswagen caddy. I had the honor of sitting next to him, while my batch mates sat in the rear. Uncertainty filled me at first, perhaps because of a perceived language barrier, but I soon grew to like our driver. It was awkward after a while of silence, and then we started talking. And he spoke in English, not too fluent but passable. Started with the usual, ‘where are you from, what are you doing here’, bla bla bla. So apparently he was from Iran, and moved here couple of years back. Mentioned that he likes his job, as he answers to no one but himself. Had 2 children, the girl in high school, and the boy in elementary school.

Anyways, that was first impression arriving here in Stockholm. Since then, I’ve tried venturing far and wide across Europe. On my third week, I started off with Gothenburg, then to two Baltic States – Riga, and Tallinn – in the weekends that follow. In March, being my birthday month, I resolved to be a little more spendthrift and paid the land of ice a visit. Oh and Munich. And Amsterdam. #spendthriftmuch… Copenhagen, Krakow, Vienna, Oslo, and Umeå followed.

Life in the first half of the year was pretty tiring on hindsight - juggling lectures, assignments, tests, office work, entrepreneurship events, and assimilating into a new environment. What made it worse was that after the school semester concluded, exchange friends left for good. And it was 12 persons in my dormitory corridor to 3 persons. Well, good and bad. I miss the friends I’ve met; yet I love the sudden peace the summer offers. Speaking of summer, I was invited to my professor’s/ mentor’s summerhouse in July for a day and absolutely loved it. It was in Vätö, and it took slightly over an hour to get there. But his neighborhood was so unpopulated, one could practically pitch a tent on the roads there for a day, and not get hit by a passing car. Wait, or bicycles. Which ever, but upon arrival, I was offered a scrumptious lunch prepared by his wife. It was salmon with potatoes, with asparagus, beetroot, and some kind of sauce. It was divine. Following that, he showed me around his house(s). What happened was that he started off with one house in 1970s, but being a carpenter since he was a boy, he has built various other houses (of fine standard indeed) over the years that followed. A berry picking session followed, where he showed me the different types of berries the Swedish summer has to offer. We had the privilege of marauding an untouched landscape. I enjoyed a ton of berries, and his wife even built a straw of wild strawberries for me, which apparently was a Swedish tradition…for children. Well, I will always be a child at heart. A mushroom picking session entailed, and I was introduced to the types of mushrooms available in the wild. There were poisonous ones that I was told never to touch…

So we returned to the house, and we had rhubarb pie with vanilla sauce. Divine, yet again. Followed by more wine, and tea. Then more tea, and wine. Until I decided to go for a swim by the lake, and my professor could not stop expressing how shocked he was at my decision. Apparently, no one has swum at the lake for as long as he could remember, as the water was too icy cold. But it was fine for me, I swam and he could not help but record my ‘escapade’ down. And then requested for help from me on uploading that video on Facebook. Haha. It had 26 likes, but anyways… I was offered chocolate, coffee, wine and tea before heading back home. It was a day well spent.

I headed to Oslo the very next week. Alone. It was my first solo trip since I’ve arrived in Europe. Wait, it was my first solo trip ever. Apprehensive initially, I soon made enough friends to keep me occupied throughout my entire trip. Surprisingly enough, Oslo had a higher standard of living than Stockholm. But they had more Asian restaurants lel. Umeå was pretty much the same… solo but not so solo. My third solo adventure begins this evening, at VilniusJ

So, until next time! Cheers!