In the middle of nowhere?

-Suchaya Teekaput, Jonkoping University, Spring 2018-

Jonkoping is a city in southern Sweden surrounded by many lakes. If you search on Google, this is what you will find, but then what’s next? What am I supposed to do in my free time? Where can I travel? How can I survive in -10 °C and in a day with sunset at 3PM? These questions suddenly popped up in my mind when I decided to go to Jonkoping. Also, it takes at least 2 hours by bus to the nearest airport located in another city, so I didn’t expect to travel much at that time. This makes me think that I’m going to the middle of nowhere… But you know, life is unexpected; sometimes what you think does not always actually happen!

I guarantee you that if you choose to come to Jonkoping, you will have the most convenient exchange life. The university provides you everything since your first step in Jonkoping. There is a pick-up service that will take you to your accommodation. And of course, the accommodation is provided by the university. You can rank 3 housing options that you like, and the university will choose for you. If you are a social person, I highly recommend you to choose ‘Raslatts’ like me. It is the largest housing, and most of the exchange students live here. Apart from that, travelling in Jonkoping is very easy; you can take a public bus to anywhere and it’s very on time. And if you live in Raslatts, you can buy a monthly ticket with discount.

The next thing that you will think of after you know where you can sleep is, of course, how I can find new friends? No need to worry; just join ‘Kick Off’ which is similar to our Rubnong. Exchange students are divided into 3 houses, and we meet at 5PM everyday during Kick Off week to do various activities such as night mission, pub crawl, bubble soccer, etc. After the activities, it’s time for ‘Akademien’, a pub runs by Student Union. Moreover, you should buy an overall to wear during Kick Off week and whenever you go to Aka because almost everybody wears it. There are different colors of overalls that represent which school you study in. For business school, it is green like money. You can also collect patches to attach on your overall by joining the activities. The more patches you have, the more your overall looks cool!

After Kick Off week, don’t be afraid that you will get bored because many spectacular trips hosted by Student Union are waiting for you! If you study in spring, the first trip you will find is ‘Lapland in Finland’. Believe me, you MUST join this trip. You will experience ‘once in a life’ activities such as ice fishing, husky sledding, reindeer safari and arctic swim. And if you are lucky enough you will see northern lights! The second trip is taking a cruise to Russia, but sadly I didn’t join this trip. Last but not least, is ‘Fjord Explorer tour in Norway’. If you love extreme activities, this trip is the answer for you. You will experience kayaking and glacier hiking!

Apart from these trips, there are day trips to amusement park or moose safari which you can feed, pet or even kiss a moose! Moreover, there are many other activities such as culture day, language café, kayaking and food safari. If you want to learn more about Swedish culture, you CAN’T MISS to apply for ‘Contact Family’. It is a program that you can meet a Swedish family and exchange culture. I also have one contact family which consists of a mother, a father and three kids. I visited the family once a week. We cooked both Swedish and Thai meal together, painted ester egg, traveled to a nearby city, played football match and many more. If you ask me who I will miss the most when I go back to Thailand, my answer is this lovely family.

Talking about Swedish people, there is one thing you should know; their emotion partly depends on weather. They will be very excited and happy on the sunny day. So, if you don’t know how to start a conversation with Swedish people, just ask them about the weather. Swedish people love to drink lots of coffee and to eat dessert. They call this action as ‘Fika’. It’s quite surprising to me that they can fika many times each day. And it is the easiest way to make friends by inviting them to Fika!

In a nutshell, Jonkoping is a very peaceful city surrounded by many beautiful lakes. People are very nice and always willing to help. There are many exchange students from different countries coming to Jonkoping each year. The city is full of people from all around the world and various cultures. I promise if you choose to come to Jonkoping, you’ll not be in the middle of nowhere, but you’ll be in the middle of friendship and unforgettable exchange life!!!