Pia went on exchange to Sweden

Hey, I'm Pia, I'm 18 and I had the opportunity to spend a semester in Jönköping, Sweden.

Trip to Sweden

My trip to Sweden was a bit turbulent, my flight was cancelled and rebooking was quite stressful. If this happens to you, the airline will send you an email or text message with a link to rebook your flight, be sure to use it. Nevertheless, I landed in Gothenburg a few hours late and was met at the airport by my host family.

The host family

My host family consisted of host parents and three host siblings, although only my host brother still lived at home, and my host dog Challie. I got on very well with them right from the start. We had dinner together every evening and chatted, and afterwards I often watched TV series or did jigsaw puzzles with my host mother.

At the weekend, we often watched ice hockey together. My host father and brother in particular are very enthusiastic ice hockey fans, and it didn't take long before I caught the ice hockey bug too.

School

School was probably the biggest culture shock I experienced. To begin with, school doesn't always start at 8 a.m., but for example on Mondays at 9 a.m., Tuesdays at 8 a.m., Wednesdays at 10 a.m., etc. This was very unusual at first, but all in all very relaxed. The atmosphere was generally very relaxed, both between students and teachers. I quickly made friends and am still in contact with my group of friends from class today.

In Sweden, similar to Austria, there are different fields of study, and I studied social sciences. I was able to keep up with the lessons quite well, even though all subjects except maths and English were linguistically challenging. However, my teachers were very understanding, often giving me the choice of whether I wanted to participate or not, and I was allowed to do all my assignments in English.

Highlights

In my second week, I went to the stadium with my host family to cheer on our hockey club. The atmosphere was incredible, and that evening still holds a special place in my heart.

What I also appreciate about Sweden is how good the train and bus networks are there. This gave me the opportunity to explore Sweden, and I am very grateful for that. An exchange student I had already met at the welcome meeting in Austria spent her exchange semester two hours south of me by train, and we visited each other several times for weekends. It was really nice to be able to talk to someone who was in the same situation as me and to visit and discover new places together. For example, we went on a picnic together in Åhus by the sea, explored the island of Visingsö and also took a day trip to Copenhagen.

I also made lots of memories with my Swedish friends. We went to the amusement park in Gothenburg together, went shopping and attended city festivals.

One of my best experiences was when a friend and I spontaneously decided to go camping by the lake and swim at sunset. Even though the swim was more like ice bathing (it was the end of May and the lake hadn't quite received the ‘summer’ message yet), I will always remember watching the sunset, chatting with my friend and feeling completely happy and relaxed.

Tips

In general, a semester abroad is THE opportunity to break out of your everyday routine and try new things. Often the best ideas come spontaneously, and it's important to just go for it.

Find out more

• Read more student stories from Sweden
• Read more about a high school exchange in Sweden
• See all our high school exchange destinations