When I first arrived in Stockholm I was instantly taken back by the beauty. The first thought that was running through my head as I can not believe how nice everything looks there is little to no trash in the street. I felt really excited and hopeful for the next two weeks I was about to have. When I first arrived I met up with a couple of girls who were on the same flight with me. We then got our luggage and met up with our TA and then our tour guide for the trip, Olga. My first impression of Olga was that she is wonderful she is a very sweet lady who is originally from Russia but moved to the Czech Republic with her boyfriend. She was super friendly and she was helping us get to our hotel via cab. Once we all got into the cab we sat and talked and introduced ourselves to one another. The first picture I took abroad was actually a picture of a street sign in Stockholm because it was such a long word it was almost impossible to pronounce. I think the most wonderful thing about our Hotel was how beautifully decorated it was. The hotel had a modern Scandinavian style type and it was very comforting to be in the hotel. The rooms were bright white which made my stay comfortable. The thing I knew I would miss the most would be the yummy breakfast we got each morning. Taking the classes abroad was amazing. Usually, we would all meet in the lobby after breakfast and head out for our first tour of the day around 8 am. Every 3-4 days we would meet in a conference room and learn new material about the visits we would go on for that day. After the “class” ended we would then go on tours for that day. I think a major difference is that the schedule was fixed but it felt much me relaxed and not as stressful as my typical routine does. We went to so many different types of organizations from RFSU which is a sexual education course to the Swedish Institute which is a company that does research on how to present Sweden as a brand. We went on usually 2-3 tours a day with everyone in our group with breaks for lunch. We also went on many adventures such as going to the Vasa museum, and the Vaxholm fortress, and even went kayaking on the river. I met many different people from Sweden however the most memorable is a man I met while sitting to get food. He was originally from Boston but moved to Sweden in 1970. He told me a lot about the legal system, different policies, the housing system, and just what he loved about living in Sweden. I saw a lot of beautiful buildings that looked like they were out of a storybook everything felt very magical. It was refreshing to see a lot of people just enjoying nature meaning they would walk a lot of places and also bike. On our first night, we had a traditional Swedish meal which consisted of a tomato-based soup with clams, muscles, and prawns. It was not my cup of tea but I thought it was interesting. Overall I felt super grateful and happy to be in Sweden it is a beautiful country. The steps I was taking in preparation to return home were making sure I kept track of all of my belongings, and souvenirs, and getting my covid test. I was excited to go home because I missed my family but I was getting sad about leaving because I have met so many people and made such good memories it was going to be hard to leave.
