Major milestones: Year 1 of Master’s

Dear all,

Hope you had a good summer!

Today I am starting a new academic year… hopefully for the last time.

I will review my first year at Chalmers and share some aspirations for the second year…

August

• Arrive in Göteborg towards the end of August.
• Spend some time setting up the room, visiting IKEA
• Explore the city and make friends (mostly with exchange students, because they are very outgoing and similar minded)

September

• School starts: getting to know Chalmers… its educational system, school facilities… and of course, Pub Crawling
• Swedish course at Folkuniversitetet starts: 2,5hr class, once per week, runs until sometime in February.
• Midterm exams!?!?! What! Need to get used to the short academic terms in Sweden.

October

• Some serious studying takes place… Final exams at the end of month
• My housemates and I attempt to brew our own beers, as the alcohol price in Sweden is $$$… turns out to be the biggest waste of money… ever.
• Joins the Chalmers Formula Student team… and thus bringing the end to my free time.

We built a race car in a year. Ambitious, exhausting, but cool.

November

• Start to feel sad due to lack of sun. (This year I will exercise more… and do more things to make me happier)
• Second semester begins… (This year: DO NOT procrastinate)

December

• Master’s study is more stressful than I thought. Feeling down…I went home for Christmas

January

• Returned to Sweden
• Exams
• New semester begins

February – March

• Flew by too fast. I should have applied to summer jobs then! Ask your professors for open positions too!

April – May

• Days getting longer…start complaining about too much sunlight…

June

• Exams
• “Summer holidays”

July

• Mostly worked on Formula Student project… basically lived in the machine shop

• Travelled to Formula Student UK and Formula Student Germany competitions

August

• Finally free! Life is good again!

Forecast & what to expect now…

September – December

• Work on my Swedish language skills
• Secure a thesis topic around November
• Working part-time at the Chalmers combustion department
• New semester begins

January – June

• Thesis work
• Finding work in Sweden after my degree, and live happily ever after.

löv,

gimmygöteborg