Hej! Now that I’ve been in Sweden for a while and gotten the chance to settle in, I wanted to talk about some of the places I’ve been. One of my goals while I’m in Sweden is to explore Stockholm and its surrounding areas. It’s felt a little overwhelming at times because there are so many places I want to visit, but at the same time, it’s exciting. I’ve really appreciated the fact that DIS helps us get out into Stockholm with field studies and other events (some of which I’ll talk about in this post!)

In the few weeks I’ve been here, I’ve gotten the chance to explore a few different places in Stockholm–some with DIS and some on my own. Here are a few of those things (plus photos, of course).

Vaxholm

It seems like everyone agrees: if you’re in Stockholm, you have to visit the archipelago, the islands surrounding and making up Stockholm. Thus, our first weekend here, my friend and I took a trip to Vaxholm, one of the islands in the archipelago.

Unfortunately, we managed to pick a day where the weather was cloudy and there were very little people there (as evidenced by my photos), but it was still fun! We took a bus and used our SL cards (which DIS provides, so it was a free trip!), but there’s also a ferry that takes about the same amount of time (an hour). We walked around and took some photos (see above) and got ice cream; overall, it was a nice little afternoon trip (although if you’re visiting, maybe pick a day when it’s nicer out).

Hellasgården

Last Saturday, I signed up to attend a DIS-organized hike in Hellasgården, a nature reserve southeast of the city center. I really appreciated that all I had to do was show up ready for a hike and not plan anything, and it was fun to get to explore a new area that was super pretty and have some fika! I definitely want to go back and go swimming, since there’s a big lake with lots of docks (plus a sauna–apparently this is a popular place for winter bathing!)

Afterwards, a friend and I went to the grocery store for some candy because it was Saturday, so how could we not? Candy Saturday is a Swedish tradition I can already tell I will be embracing–every Swedish grocery store I’ve been to has a big wall of bulk candy sold by weight, so you fill a bag and pay by the kg. The tradition is to get candy on Saturday (in theory, just on Saturday, although people vary on how closely they adhere to it).

Class-related exploring

I’ve really enjoyed the experiential/hands on/real-world approach to classes at DIS. For example, my photography class (Photo Documentary and Discovery) only meets once a week, but for a three hour block, which gives us enough time to spend lots of time taking photos. This week, we went to Gamla Stan and paired up to take photos according to different prompts (including things like taking a photo of a street and taking a portrait capturing the relationship between a person and animal). It was fun to think about how to fulfill these prompts creatively as well as practice taking photos in the real world–plus I really enjoyed working with a partner. For my first Swedish Language and Culture field study, we visited Skansen. (At DIS, Wednesdays are designated field study days, where classes get the opportunity to visit relevant places in Stockholm). Skansen is the world’s oldest open air museum and includes houses and buildings from different places in Sweden as well as different animals–there was so much to see there.

My Medical Simulation Lab course has also been quite hands on–this week, we were practicing suturing, which was a lot of fun. I’d never done this before, so there was definitely a learning curve involved, but it was cool to get to practice and feedback to learn this new skill!

Anyways, here’s to many more adventures in Sweden!