c23 Visit to Sweden

VISIT TO SWEDEN

Students who went to Sweden:

• Lucía Gutiérrez
• Ane Picazo
• Emma Cortázar
• Álvaro Leonardo
• Pamela Grigorova

Before going to Sweden, I didn’t really know what to think, I just wanted to have fun and to live an experience that I could remember forever, and that was exactly what happened. When we arrived there, I was very surprised of how much green that city has and how gentle and kind people is. I learned a lot of things there, and I practiced my English a lot. Every time we were on our bikes down a road, i felt like that was perfect, like a dream come true. I had so much fun, and I made friends that I know I’m going to remember forever. That also helped me to reconnect with my Spanish friends, we experience that adventure together and we were so happy. I felt loved there and I just can say thank you to every person to make this possible.

In the picture, me and my friends were doing ice skating, honestly that was probably my favorite thing from the whole week.

Lucía Gutiérrez

Hello, my name is Ane and I'm going to talk about my experience in a swedish city called Västervik. The journey was an exchange orgnanised by the Erasmus+ project, in which we had to stay for a week living with our exchange student and their family.

I remember that I felt really nervous about the journey because I didn’t have a clue about how it was going to be. I dind’t know their culture and traditions and also didn’t know anything about the activity program until one week before we were leaving. When I knew who my exchange student was, I started getting in contact with her and she was really nice to me.

I waited patiently until we had to travel, and finally the day arrived. I remember feeling really nervous because it was the first time in years that I was going to take a flight, and not a flight to anywhere, to Sweden! 

The journey was way too long, but every hour we spent in a bus or a train was worth it. When we arrived to Västervik we met the person we were going to stay with, and all of them were really nice to us. We had some kind of welcoming dinner with typical swedish food, which was amazing, and then we went to sleep and rest.  

During the following six days, I improved a lot my english and also I learned lots of things about the swedish culture, about other countries’ cultures, I met really nice and amazing people and I got to know almost by myself another country. 

I definitely know that I won’t forget any moment spent in that city, just because it was so special to me, but I will remember with special love when we went to do ice skating all of us, when we went to the forest to make marshmallows and the last day dinner with all of the Erasmus students from every country participating in the project. It was definitely an experience that I’ll remember for the rest of my life and that I recomend to anyone with acces to this incredible opportunity.

                                     Ane Picazo

When the teachers told me that I had been selected to go to Sweden, and with lots of my friends, my emotion was notable. I love traveling and of course Sweden was on my travel list!

We were all incredibly nervous, Sweden had always been described to us as a magical place, full of nature and with very friendly people. And definitely, it has not disappointed us even a little!

From the moment that we arrived, everyone was genuinely nice, and the families were lovely. They had prepared to us lots of fun activities like going ice skating, cooking cinnamon rolls, traveling to a nearby island… All of them where fantastic and such an opportunity to get to know people from all over Europe. I love meeting new people, and everyone was nice. Especially the Swedish girls, who took care of us at all moments and taught us lot of amazing things about their culture. We are going to miss them a lot. 

The village, Västervik was awesome, I had never been in a place with such beautiful views before! I remember the mornings bike rides next to the immense Baltic Sea. Or the incredible coniferous forest where they took us to, on our last day, to eat marshmallows around the campfire! Magical places that you cannot find easily in Spain.  

Although I would have loved having more time there, it has been an incredible experience that I would love to repeat, and I am sure that my partners too, we have had a wonderful time together. Of course, as soon as I can, I will return to Sweden!

Emma Cortázar

Hello, my name is Álvaro and I’m going to talk about my Swedish experience. At first, when they told us that we were going to be able to travel to another country, I was nervous, because I was afraid but I knew that I wanted to travel. They gave us the options and I decided that I wanted to go to Sweden. 

For me, Sweden was a country that I wanted to visit in the future and I never thought that I would visit it so soon. It had to be a very natural country, very ecological and the people were very civilized, and after having been there I can confirm it, it’s a great country! 

One of the things that made me the most nervous thinking about it was the plane trip, it was the first time I travelled on one and it was also a four-hour trip, it seemed long but I liked it. 

When we got there, it was all strange for me, I thought that the time we would stay there would be very long, but I was wrong, every day was getting shorter and in the end when it was time to leave, I didn't want to, I would have been there longer. 

I think this trip has been very enriching and it has helped me not only to learn English but also to get to know another culture and another way of living, it has been one of the best experiences I have had and now I am waiting for them to come here to Spain. 

In the photo I appear on top of some stone legs by the Baltic Sea, I took this photo one of the last days there. It was quite cold there and I had to be warm almost all the time, one thing that surprised me and that I have not said before is that there were very few cars and the ones that there were many were electric, people mainly moved around on foot or by bike.

Álvaro Leonardo

I mainly chose to go to Sweden, because I’ve always been curious about the Northern countries and I saw this as the perfect opportunity to satisfy my curiosity. 

Before the trip, I was kind of nervous, although I was going to go with people I knew. I had doubts about my host family but all of them disappeared when I arrived. At first, it was weird, because at the end of the day, we we're strangers. Once we got there, they all welcomed us warmly, and that was something I did not expect at all, because from what I had heard, the Swedish, Norwegian… people weren’t the most welcoming when it came to foreigners. 

 

The thing I liked the most were definitely the landscapes. While we were travelling by train on our way to Västervik, we got to admire the view throughout the entire journey. It was strange, because if you find yourself in the middle of nowhere, here in Spain, you’ll just see dry vegetation, whereas in Sweden, it was the opposite, the fields were full of green and vivid colors. 

At first, the cultural shock was a bit impressive, mainly because of the eating schedule considering that they ate somewhere between 2 to 3 hours before us here in Spain but I soon started to get used to it. 

There are many memorable moments of the trip, but some of them are; the day we made a barbecue, ate hot dogs and baked cinnamon rolls; the second night, which was taco night and we all had a great time together and the last one, was the afternoon of our last day there, when we made a campfire and ate s´mores, which are toasted marshmallows and chocolate sandwiched between two pieces of biscuit. 

I would say this journey has taught me a thing or two. In the first place, I improved a lot my English speaking skills, because living with someone even if it’s for a week, forces you to speak a language you both know, in this case English. In second place, I think we all internalized and learned about the Swedish culture, which is something not everyone is capable of and, although we didn’t learn Swedish, we did gain some independence since, in a way, we travelled alone. 

The experience was obviously awesome, and particularly in my case, I did create a bond both with my Swedish partner and her whole family. We still keep in touch and I will surely go back to Sweden someday.  

I think we all had an amazing time and it was something I would definitely be doing again. We went to a lot of places and did some awesome activities. I was obviously lucky to have this opportunity and not a lot of people have it.  

Pamela Grigorova