Cultural Immersion Programme: Seeing Sweden
20 September 2022
In this blog, Sustainable Tourism Management graduate Hannah shares her Cultural Immersion programme experience in Sweden.
I was lucky enough to get accepted onto one of this year’s Cultural Immersion trips provided by Falmouth University, and what an incredible five weeks it was.
My enrolment was with Gothenburg University in Sweden, and as part of my trip I completed their Summer School for Sustainability.
As first impressions go, the university did not disappoint. The staff, ambassadors and everyone else involved were so welcoming and really helped us settle in quickly. This was really reassuring, as I was still studying and completing my final projects for my degree at the time. I was made to feel comfortable from the start, and even more so when the course teaching began for my chosen subject, Teaching Sustainability from a Global Perspective.
Being part of the summer school and gaining insights and knowledge from new lecturers and friends from all around the world has been an incredibly valuable experience. Missing out on trips like these due to the pandemic has made it feel all the more important.
It may seem so far that studying was how I spent the majority of my time, but that couldn’t be further from the truth! Before coming I hadn’t made any set plans of what I wanted to do or see; I thought that I’d just go with the flow, which definitely worked for me.
After just a couple of days, we were all planning trips and excursions. Visiting the Archipelago Islands was certainly one of the things to do on everyone’s list, as well as finding great viewpoints in the city, trying out the best coffee shops, exploring the nearby botanical gardens and parks, and also planning trips around Sweden and to other countries close by as well!
During my time I managed to visit Stockholm (Sweden’s capital city) and Oslo (Norway’s capital city), both of which were so different but mesmerising in their own ways.
As I said previously Covid-19 meant a lot of opportunities to explore and connect couldn’t happen, so I’m so grateful that I got to take part in this experience during my last few weeks at university.
It was my first time travelling alone and I’m so glad I made the most of the time I had. I know I’ve made friends for life, wherever they may be around the world, and leaving Sweden was much more emotional than I thought it would be after just five weeks.
I’ve come back to the UK with some amazing memories, and it’s definitely made me rethink my future plans now that I’ve graduated.
So, if you ever get the chance to go abroad, for whatever purpose, I couldn’t recommend it more!
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