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Lovely Lugian!

I just landed two weeks ago when writing this story, for this reason I will just outline my choice for studying abroad. Something different from other stories of studying abroad: I’ll write about the preparation and the first few weeks in a country where the nights are longer than the days in the winter and the girls hotter than you can even imagine.

After four years of studying and having a great time in Groningen I decided it was time for something else. Groningen is a beautiful city, but I thought there are other charming cities around the world as well. My first thoughts was to go to the other side of the world, moving to America or livin’ the dream in Australia where I could surf, light a joint and surf again. Unfortunately because of the institution fees of these master programs, and applying for a scholarship would be hopeless, my dreams to study at the other side of the world faded away. Luckily for us Europeans we have the freedom of studying all over the European Union. Geert Wilders for the win!

At this point, I first heard of the website www.mastersportal.eu, here you can find and compare almost all the master programs worldwide (I was confused as well, .eu and then saying all the masters worldwide…). As a leopard cannot change its spots, for the Dutch reader: a fox can lose its hair but not his nasty habits, being a real Dutch man and really greedy I was looking, of course, for the possibilities of going to a university which is cheap and the same level of education. After some research was done the Nordic (Scandinavia) countries were left and Scotland. Germany is affordable as well, but I do not consider Germany as possibility. After digging deeper and finding out which master’s program satisfies your needs, the country Sweden would satisfy my needs the most. The master’s program in Sweden is much better than it is in other Scandinavian countries. Especially when you are feeling down and then you look up to watch what there is outside and accidentally see a nice girl walking. This motivation helped a lot of people during the darker days. Therefore I choose to study Industrial Management and Innovation in Uppsala, Sweden.

The possibility exists to sign up for a maximum of 4 master programs in Sweden at Universityadmission.se. Sorting out my first choice until the fourth choice I delivered my documents for the admission just in time (really IEM, right?). Although being stressed for the result, I was convinced that everything would be fine. At the day that the result would be announced I did not receive anything while the others all had their result. Fortunately after some mailing, they found out that some mistake was made and I was admitted for the course program as well.

Now that I was admitted I had to learn my some Swedish of course. Started very enthusiastic at Duolingo and practicing for a half a year I thought I would speak some Swedish words. Unfortunately the pronunciation is melodic and thus different from the Dutch ‘g’ and ‘ch’ sound. I still do not understand a word when they are talking. Although the pronunciation is rather difficult, it’s a pretty easy language to read.  

The first two weeks in Uppsala were rather fantastic. Uppsala having the oldest University in the Nordic countries, established in 1477, the student nations are the oldest and most historic as well. The oldest Nations are around 500 years old! Uppsala has 13 different student nations, representing originally the region were the people come from in Sweden. Nowadays everybody can join every nation in Uppsala. At for instance Stockholms Nations, are the members originally from Stockholm. When you go to Uppsala you should definitely have a look here, the most fashionable (thus good-looking) girls are member of this nation.  The nightlife in Uppsala differs from that in Groningen, the government is very strict on alcohol and closing times. All the liquor stores are governmentally owned and is called ‘system bolaget’. Setting up something like the ‘bierkoerier’ in Uppsala would not be possible unfortunately. Although the alcohol is expensive and the government is strict on the alcohol, students will always find the possibility to drink enough. Just ask your friends if they can book an extra suitcase full of drinks when they come over to visit you.

Just being here for two weeks and university just started this week I cannot say if this is the best choice of life to study in Uppsala, but I can say I am having a really good time for now studying abroad and meeting new people from all over the world! 

For more interesting stories like this one from Maarten Visser, visit: https://www.tbvlugus.nl/study/studying-abroad