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!