Flashback
Sweden. Hmmm, i wasn’t expecting to be here actually. Upon arrival at Landvetter airport, 23th August last year, my first step into Sweden was full of doubt and uneasy feeling about everything. Yet, from second step towards, myriad of things started to get in places and embrace me to think, what was my motivation to pick Sweden as my next destination for study? Yes, Sweden is my dream. Going to one of the most underrated country in any measured parameters, e.g. GDP, living expectancy, quality of education, etc. Couldn’t be better than that.
Göteborg
I took a ride on what is described as Flygbussarna, or airport coach. It’s a shuttle bus connecting Landvetter and Göteborg. On that 25 minutes trip, I did discover Göteborg is quite good looking city with quite awe sceneries.
In a year, I have visited several cities in Scandinavia. Stockholm is pretty big, Copenhagen as well, Malmö is growing, Jönkoping is somewhat, quiet and very laidback. However, Göteborg is perfect for my taste. The city has everything from what you expect from a A-rated city in Europe. It has big port, beach, modern part of the city, educational sites, islands, old parts of the city also pretty well reserved.
For an entire year, the transportation in Göteborg is definitely something to be highlighted on. Västtrafik, the consorsium behind this splendid transportation system, utilizing tram, bus and ferry, got my highest admiration since then. Even, as compared to several big cities, e.g. Amsterdam or Hannover. Göteborg’s average waiting time on each stops is significantly faster than any of mentioned cities. Probably, size of the city has to be considered and taking the weight on number of population in Göteborg that’s not too.
Chalmers
Chalmers University of Technology. As people argued, probably it is the best technical university in Sweden. And what do you expect from Chalmers at this level? I did not want to expect anything, but everything is way better than my previous campus. The education pace, the labs, impact of the research, the professor, the classmates, study groups and every activities. The campus itself is not that big, it is perfect for any students who likes to walk. Lot of trees, the terrain is not flat at all, and surrounded by small paths.
As the bureaucracy system, everything is self serviced, available and provided by the intranet of the campus and are accessible through VPN almost anywhere. Yes, almost anywhere. You can print your documents almost from anywhere using PRISMA printer service. The print quota is always topped up every new semester.
And the exam…Hmmm…Yeah, it’s hard, but realizing that exam is independent to the course itself, I can decide whenever I want to take exam in no hurry. And yes, it’s non stressful system I must say.