Tatjana from Latvia
Why are you here?
That's a question I have heard at least one hundred times. Now, looking back, I could say – it was meant to be.
I studied in Kristianstad the whole academic year, although at the beginning I came for only one semester. But the less time remained till January, the more I wanted to stay longer, so I wrote to my home university, talked to International Office, and we changed my contract. Since I didn't plan that at the beginning, I was at home for only 4 days in January and then came back to a completely different world. It was a bit hard first 2-3 days, as the place was the same, but almost all people were different and I only realized it then. But when I met all the new people, it became much better and to be honest, I enjoyed my second semester in Sweden even more. We even had a trip to Stockholm with all other Erasmus students and it was really fun.
Study process in Sweden was completely different from the one I was used to. In Latvia we have around 8 courses at one time and we go to classes 4 days a week 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. In Sweden we only had one course at a time, 3 times a week, 2-3 hours per day and most of the work we needed to do at home. Lots of cases about real companies, assignments and seminars, that's what studying in Sweden means, and I really liked it, as it was more sufficient and more interesting and I could concentrate better.
The worst part was saying "goodbye", so we tried to say "vi ses", what in Swedish means "we will see each other", one day, for sure. When I came home from Sweden I couldn't understand it, as there, in Kristianstad I was already like "furniture", part of the environment. But now I know, that it was if not the best, but really great time of my life, thanks to all other Erasmus students, thanks to International office with all the support and help I got, thanks to amazing lecturers, that made me want to study on their courses more.
At the moment I am planning the order, in which I will visit my friends in all possible countries and my friend from first semester already visited me in Riga, which was really amazing. Not only I found some people, that are interesting to talk to, and spend some time with, but also I really found my soul mates, so I think it was destiny for me to come to Sweden.
What next? I am planning to study in Sweden for my master's degree in two years.
