Bonjourno, Sweden!

Milan, 26C, partially cloudy

Bongiorno!

I have a motto for life – “the more I move, the luckier I get”. Perhaps I become a more interesting person, or maybe I become more open minded.

Several Master’s programmes at Chalmers have double degree exchange deal with Stuttgart University and Shanghai JiaoTong University. I thought how cool would it be to spend the second year of my Master’s in Germany (drinking beer and eating bratwürst)… especially for an Automotive Engineering student at Stuttgart.

But I turned down this opportunity… for several reasons.

1/ The Swedes, young and old, speak English near native level… it is easy to forget that I am studying in Europe.  You might not be able to say the same about all German professors. Was ist das?

2/ The Swedes are pretty open to immigrants… the Swedes are generally open to different cultures, religions, sexual orientations, etc. I don’t feel like an alien in Sweden!

Third, my mother told me to stay in Sweden.

4/ I changed my mind. I am satisfied with Chalmers education. “if it isn’t broken, why fix it?”

5/ I met a girl from Italy at Chalmers… Life is full of unexpected surprises. I tried to find an internship position, but failed. When I devoted my life to the machine shop, this happens.

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I spent the weekend in Milan with her majesty Eva. I also managed to catch up with Camilla, a Polytechnic Uni. of Milan exchange student I met in Canada. What a beautiful city. Why would anyone leave Italy for Sweden?!! The Milanese explained the education in Italy is much more “theoretical”, whereas Sweden focuses more on the “practical” aspect.

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Eva is striking luck up here in Sweden. She managed to settle a one-year biomedical engineering master’s thesis project at a local artificial limb company. I think her “receipt for success” is her über proactive approach to opportunities.

After taking lessons from her, I managed to grab a part-time lab technician position at the Chalmers combustion dept. starting in September. Looking forward!

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Midsummer at IKEAtemporary exhibition in Milan

I am rather sad leaving the summery Milan, even though I had a year’s worth of mosquito bites in just one weekend.

Greatest life lesson – ALWAYS remember to bring mosquito repellent!

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“the further north I move, the luckier I get!”… back to the wonderful Swedish summer!

Lövvvv,

gimmygöteborg

Gimmy

Written by Gimmy

26 Jun 2015