Fleur during her internship in Borås, Sweden

Fleur in Borås: “Honestly, I didn’t know much about Sweden.”

Preparations

In November 2016, it was certain that I would be doing an internship in Sweden in February 2017. At that moment, it still seemed far away, but the weeks flew by. So I had to start looking for a place to live quickly. At first, it wasn’t so easy because many websites were only available in Swedish.

Borås is a real student city. I ran into the problem that for many apartment complexes, you had to be a student at the university. Since I was doing an internship and not studying at a university in Borås, I had to search a bit longer. After some tips from Abroad Internships and my Swedish internship supervisor, I managed to find a good place to stay.

Everything was arranged quickly!

When my room was finally arranged after a few weeks, it was a relief. Actually, a place to sleep is the most important thing to arrange before you leave, besides the internship itself.

Exactly a year ago, I also spent half a year abroad, so arranging insurance, student finance for living away from home, and canceling my public transport card all went smoothly. Tip: don’t forget to apply for the Erasmus grant if you are going to study or do an internship within Europe!

Between all the arrangements, my dad came with the good news that I could temporarily take a car to Sweden. I was super happy about this because it allows me to easily explore everything around Borås. Instead of traveling an hour every day by public transport, I’m now at my internship within 10 minutes (which is nice, of course). At this moment, I don’t have experience with public transport yet, but I’ve heard it’s well organized in Sweden.

My View of Sweden

Honestly, I didn’t know much about Sweden, other than that it probably had beautiful nature. I don’t know anyone who lives in Sweden or has ever been on vacation there. While I was arranging an internship in Sweden, the TV show by Nick and Simon: The Dream (Sweden) came on. All the scenes I saw matched the idea I had about the country.

Although I’ve only been here for just under two weeks, I immediately noticed that people in Sweden are incredibly friendly and helpful. Everyone speaks perfect English, and people are happy to help you with questions.

The Last Month in the Netherlands!

When my last month started, I still didn’t quite realize that I would be leaving the Netherlands for five months. This was mainly because I was very busy with school and still had all kinds of deadlines and exams until a few days before my departure. I only really realized it after I finished school on Friday (and I left on Tuesday).

The last month was mostly filled with lots of farewell dinners, drinks, and other fun activities. Time flew by, but I managed to see everyone before I left!

I’m looking forward to all my new experiences in Sweden!