Fleur during her internship in Borås, Sweden

Sun!

It finally seems like the beautiful weather has reached Sweden too. This month, I went a few times with friends to a lake to sunbathe. As I mentioned before, the city really comes alive as soon as the weather is nice. The beach is about an hour and a half drive from Borås, so that’s why we always go to the lake when the weather is good.

Student House

I still enjoy myself every evening at the student house. It’s fun to share stories with other young people in the evenings and eat together. Generally, everyone cooks for themselves and then we eat together at the big table. It’s nice to try all kinds of food. Living with people from various nationalities is great because you learn a lot about other cultures. I have some housemates from Indonesia, France, Finland, Iran, Syria, but mostly from Sweden.

Textile City

Borås is the textile city of Sweden. This is also why it became a student city, because the schools for textile studies are located here. A big advantage for the people in Borås and the students is that there are very frequent outlet sales in and around the city. There are regularly outlet sales from stores or webshops in the city.

Marstrand

The most beautiful place I have visited in Sweden is Marstrand. Marstrand is a coastal town in the west of Sweden. Only ferries go to the island, so there are no cars. The island is peaceful with many hiking trails and there is a large castle. There are several places to swim and the view is stunning. It’s definitely worth visiting Marstrand.

What else?

My internship research is still progressing according to plan. I submitted my first draft and now I am waiting for feedback from my internship supervisor in the Netherlands. The weeks are flying by and honestly, I’m looking forward to June to hand in my final research.

In May, I also visited the Swedish countryside. It was really nice to get to know more about Swedish customs and the way of living in the countryside. The houses are kilometers apart, there are no paved roads, and the nearest supermarket is far away.

In the Netherlands, there have already been many beautiful sunny days, but in May, I unfortunately still had several wet snow showers in Borås.

As a surprise for my birthday, my office was completely decorated with streamers and balloons. During the coffee break, we ate cake and I was sung to in Swedish with ‘Ja, må du hon leva’ (Long may she live). Around lunchtime, I was treated to lunch with all my colleagues and received a gift to go to Liseberg (an amusement park).