Carina Herzog

Before, during and after my exchange semester in Sweden, a lot of friends and family from back home asked me: “Where in Sweden are you studying now?” and my answer was: “In Jönköping – it’s pronounced somewhat like ‘yœn-shœ-ping’ and it is a city between Stockholm and Gothenburg near a large lake.”

Exactly at this lake, the lake Vättern, the exchange semester started literally with a “jump into the cold water”. During the ‘Kick-Off Week’, an introduction week for all new students, the water was approximately 16 degrees and we had a lot of activities on the beach, in the lake and in the city centre. The students were split up into groups depending on their department and subject at the University. Therefore, there were about 150 international engineering students who spent the whole week together and we often met during the semester as well to further develop our friendship.

Before the first lectures and exercises started, I knew that studying there could be a bit different from what I was used to. In contrast to the courses at our University, students do not knock on the table at the end of the lesson. Although it seems to be just a little difference, it confused me in the beginning to just get up and leave the room. Generally, the courses were very good and I learned a lot through working on our projects. Not only in terms of content, but also interpersonal, as I could work with Swedish students on all projects. An example of some of the projects we worked on included creating a mobile web application using JavaScript or to develop a backend and frontend for an Android recipe management application.

The flexible time scaling of the projects also made it possible to save time for leisure activities and travelling. I visited Gothenburg, Stockholm, Bergen, Oslo, Tallinn, St. Petersburg and Helsinki. During this time, I hiked a glacier, embarked on a husky sled ride and rode a snowmobile. I was able to share these experiences with other students from all over the world, who thereby became friends.

The semester abroad was a valuable, positive experience for me and I would like to encourage all those who think of spending a semester abroad to do so.