A bit about Swedes

Hello everyone!

I just read this great comment on an older post and I think these answers could help many of you out there... I must say, as usual, that Uppsala is a great city. Yes, it is not so big and it might seem calm from time to time but the student life is great here! There are so many events and things to do here. It is always nice to meet your friends for fika, meeting them at the nations for a couple of drinks, food, concerts, parties... You can find students associations or groups for almost everything here: practicing a language, dancing, acting, reading... The hard part is finding time to actually go to class!

I must say that, at least for me, the cultural shock was not so big. I believe it is important to know a few things about Sweden and Swedes in order to be prepare and reduce the shock as much as possible:

• Swedes are EXTREMELY punctual! Their definition of meeting at 13:00 is meeting at 13:00 and arriving at 13:05 will be consider late. You can actually see teachers looking at their watch (or the room's clock) before the class so they can start exactly on time. Be prepare for any teacher to tell you that if you arrived 5 minutes late you'll have to reschedule the meeting.
• Swedes are very helpful, nice and friendly. Still, it's not common for them to start talking to you on the streets or a line for no reason. Maybe they'll talk to you to practice your language (many of them speak another language besides English and Swedish) but they consider saying "hi" for no reason as an intrusion. Still, if you say "hi" to them it's fine because they think that's part of YOUR culture and they think it's nice. So... you'll be OK being yourself, but don't expect them to act as someone from your country. They'll be themselves...
• It's OK to call teachers by their given name. Actually everyone uses just given names and that's OK.
• They all have lunch at 12:00 and you won't be able to explain that's also possible to eat at 11:30 or 13:00.
• They are really really friendly and eager to help.

In my opinion if you're planing to come here as an exchange student, a year would be better than only one semester. I think there are many things to do and there are great things whole year round. Drinking champagne and making boats for Valborg in Spring is great. Skating from Uppsala to Stockholm and playing with the snow during the winter is also great. So, it's really hard to pick. There are many international students here and we all enjoy Uppsala the whole year!

How's the weather here? Well, that's hard to say... 2 years ago was one of the coldest winters in Uppsala, and last winter was the coldest on record! So... From my experience, winter is COOOOOLD!!!!!!!!! Usually around -10 C with lots and lots of snow. Swedes say that usually there was not that much snow and that it hardly was colder than 0 C... I guess I'll have to see this winter to let you know more.

If any of you finally decides to come to Uppsala, let me know! :-)

Getting a cellphone in Sweden

Hej! :-)

This post might be interesting for just a small group of students out there, but I still it is worth writing. Some of you might be thinking about getting a new cellphone once you are in Sweden or maybe you just want to have a post paid plan so you don't have to worry about actually having credit/money on your phone when you really really need to make a call. Maybe you're just one of those who likes using a Black Berry... For all of you I must say that you'll have to wait... and then wait a bit more... It turns out that when you want to sign up for a contract with any phone company you need to have at least 6 months in Sweden (maybe 8... I think the employees really don't know and it's just an automated check). Anyway, it's not like you'll show them your plane ticket, it's more like they will ask for your personnummer and the system will say you can't sign a contract... Then my advice is for you to get your personnummer as soon as you can so you can start thinking about a contract next year. You'll probably get better prices and you can even get your dream phone a lot cheaper!

And one more things about cellphones! If you try to buy one with a contract, ask about unlocking the phone! Maybe this is super common now (it was not so common to me), but after some time with the company you can actually unlock you phone and use it in your own country after you leave.

Have a great week all of you!

A new year just started

Hej everyone!

I'm happy to see a lot of new students in Uppsala this year! As you might guess, I'm not taking any courses but you can still see me around Polacksbacken working as a teaching assistant for the Artificial Intelligence and the Constraint Programming course. I'm doing more things than just that... I'm also writing things... Figuring out what to do next... and FINALLY I'm taking a Swedish course! and Chinese... Maybe it's a bit late to start formally learning Swedish but I like to think that never is too late. Am I rambling today? Well, let's go back to the original point... I'm glad to see many new students in Uppsala. I think every year new people bring with them culture, experiences, ideas and smiles.

I'm also really happy to see here a couple of Chinese friends that I met in Shanghai. They remind me of all the great times I had there and how much I miss it! Don't worry, when I was there I was missing Uppsala as well. For me that's the hardest part about moving: you get to experience great things but at the same time you always end up missing the good things about that other place were you used to live. I believe I enjoy Chinese food a bit more right now and it brings back a lot of happy memories. So, to all of you who are here now and those who would like to come I'm warning you! After you come here you'll miss Uppsala for the rest of your life! You'll miss the friends, the nations, the outdoor activities, learning and many many other things depending on what you like.

I won't finish the post without saying that the weather is still pretty nice, but it is autumn already. Don't be fool by what you learned in your own country: it is autumn and it will be winter pretty soon!

As I always say, feel free to ask any questions about the University, the city or whatever I can help with!

Sweden through my eyes

I've been reading a lot of posts and articles about Sweden lately, specially about the new university fees. I most say that a small comment on any of those posts won't express all my feelings. Well, probably this post won't express all my feelings either but I would like to try. I'm really disappointed to hear so many irrational complains on this subject. I really thought that potential master students were grownups, but now I doubt it.

First of all, it's Swedes right to apply tuition fees, after all, they do pay for maintenance of the university buildings, libraries, teachers, employees, etc etc etc, so, if they decided to put a value to it and charge something for what they offer they are free to do it. After all, I don't think anyone reading this post think that they are going to work for free (or at least work at a university for free). Swedes pay taxes and the government uses those taxes to pay for the universities so I think it's fair to charge those who haven't pay taxes a tuition fee.

Second, maybe the tuition is a bit high, maybe the living expenses are high as well. Maybe some people love the snow and some just hate the winter. It doesn't mean the price is not right. We've all heard about supply and demand. From where I come from, the best universities were free and the bad ones were really expensive. Why? Well, the best ones were public universities (and free in consequence) but they are really hard to get in, so... everyone who wants to study and doesn't get into a publish school have to pay. What I mean by this is that the price might not have a direct relation with the quality of the school. I do think that Uppsala University is a great University and I would have thought that people applied here not just because of the free tuition but because of the quality. Studying takes time and effort so I want the best education I can get, not just a cheap one.

Third, I don't think the fees has anything to do with excluding international students at all. What I do know, and I know it because I've seen it, is that some students just pretend to have money to survive while their are studying and as soon after they arrive they put all their effort into getting a job even at the expenses of their courses. They don't go to class, they don't do the assignments, they don't take the exams. Their only intention was to get into Sweden (or maybe just Europe) somehow and have a legal status to get a job, but they couldn't care less about their master program. This is just wrong! This is not good for Sweden, it's not good for the image of the immigrants, it's not good for other serious students that were not offered a sit... But they might think twice about it after paying the fees.

Forth, Swedes are extremely friendly and have an speak EXCELLENT English! I've been in many many countries. I've been in Venezuela, Argentina, Mexico, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Germany, France, Morocco, China... (I think you get the point) and Sweden is the only non English speaking country I've been were actually everyone speaks English and they do it really well too. I mean, even in the US I've seen people pretending not to understand tourists (in English) just because they are mean and racist. This is the only country were you can really go around with no problems while not speaking the language. And after all these I still have to hear people complaining that you can't get a job if you don't speak Swedish! For God's sake! English is NOT the official language! I would like to see anyone getting a job in Spain without speaking Spanish! It would have to be a super big company and you would have to be a super star and still, since most people don't speak English I don't think how you could work. The fact that a university offers programs taught in English doesn't mean that you can get a job by speaking just English.

Sweden is a lovely country, night life is fine, food is fine, everything is fine. Yes, you have to adapt a bit. You'll fine Swedish food! You won't fine Spanish food everywhere like in Spain, you won't find Chinese food on every corner like in China, you'll find Swedish food like the one you can eat in Ikea. You won't find Italian night life or French night life, it will be Swedish stile and if you're open to it you'll have a GREAT time!

So please! Stop complaining as if Swedes owe you free education! Apply to the universities you like and enjoy it! If you don't like Swedish universities just don't come. I'm sure there is enough people who disagree so don't worry, they won't close the universities any time soon.

Uppsala Ice Festival 2011!!

From February 12-20 2011, Uppsala celebrated its very first Ice Festival. During this week you could see many ice sculptures around the city, but the biggest collection was located in the City Park.

During the festival week, the Svandammen pond was lit up and open to the public for ice skating to music, which apparently is an old tradition from the 1890s.

I think the festival really brought light and happiness to the city. It is one of those things that takes the dark winter days and makes them a little happier. There were lots of people taking pictures of the sculptures and you could even see the artists finishing some of them. Every time I decided to enjoy the sculptures the day started with a typical Swedish tradition: fika. Either at the nations or at any of the many coffee shops in the city it is always a good plan to meet for fika and talk for a while.

Of course, I wasn’t going to be the only one without taking pictures so I hope you enjoy them!

For more information you can visit the Ice Festival website: www.isfestivalen.se/

Going to the movies in Uppsala

Well, as you might now by now I'm back in Uppsala! Don't get me wrong, it's not that I didn't like living in Shanghai (because it is an awesome city), but I did miss the peaceful atmosphere that you can find in Uppsala, and the snow!!!!!!

I want to start saying that Uppsala is covered with snow this time of the year and it is lovely. I find very relaxing the idea of walking on the streets breathing the cold air and looking at the trees and ceilings covered with snow. So, last night my boyfriend and I decided to go and watch Harry Potter 7 (which btw is a lot better that the previous one) and walk around a little bit. The walk was as I remembered it from last year. The cinema was nice, small and cozy as we watched the movie in the smallest room (about 60 seats). The thing that amused me the most was the price: 2 tickets, 2 sodas and a big ball of popcorns = 299 SEK. Yes, it might seem pretty normal to everyone, it was actually pretty normal for me, until I went to China and got used to the idea that it was a lot of money!

I hope that all of you get to come to Uppsala (if that is what you want of course) and enjoy walking around the river in the city center as much as I do :-)