Written by Redwan
17 Sep 2015
First of all, welcome to Sweden and to all of your respective universities. Regardless of where you are in Sweden, I assure you that you have chosen the right destination for higher education. This is simply an unprecedented opportunity to experience the beautiful Scandinavian culture, along with nourishing your personal and professional growth.
So I am guessing you are about to start your studies or most likely have already started. Hope you are having a good experience and getting to understand your study materials! However, I will today write on few points which might be useful to remember once you are starting out here. These are not in any order of priority.
* Get to know your faculties well – This always helps. The professors are extremely friendly and helpful. So get yourselves introduced to them and keep in touch.
* Sort out important formalities – This could include getting your student ID card, storing your housing contract, registering for the library card etc.
* Apply for a ‘personnummer’ (if required) – This might apply mainly to non-EU students and especially the ones taking a 2 year degree. A personnummer makes a lot of work easier like medical and bank services. Check with Skatteverket (Tax Office) in this regard.
* Get a bank account (if required) – Again this might apply mainly to non-EU students who need to finance themselves. Keep in mind that, you need a personummer (in exceptional cases you don’t) to be able to open a bank account. Check with your university on this matter.
* Get hold of a SIM card – So obvious right! There are many affordable packages for students which you can obtain and stay in touch with your friends and family.
* Take a tour of the surrounding areas – Check out the nearest grocery shop, departmental store, ATM machines, restaurant, coffee shop, medical center, bus stop etc. This makes you comfortable with the area you will be living in, making it easier to access them when required.
* Save the Help-lines – Very important! There are different hot-lines for police, ambulance, fire brigade, medical services, emergency units etc. Get a hold of these numbers and save them.
These are just a few and the list can go on! However, most importantly above all, meet different people, make friends and have fun. It’s not that hard, trust me on that. Swedes are a very nice people and the more you get to know them, you learn a lot about the culture, tradition, practices etc.
Good luck in settling down and I will be back soon with a new blog post!
———————————————————————————————————
Image taken from internet
