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• courses you have taken and earned credits

I took four courses, worth 7,5 ‘hp’ – Högskolapöang each. These HP have been modified since their introduction to be directly transferable as EC’s, so I started with 30 European credits’ worth of subjects. I had chosen the subjects because they seemed interesting, and indeed they were. Because of the RUG’s contact with Stockholm University I believed that half of the points I was to do should be applicable to my European Languages and Cultures Politics profile and half of the points should fit in a more linguistical sense, as the RUG contact was with the Stockholm faculty for linguistics. Therefore my courses were History of Racism, European pre-Christian religions, Viking-era texts and medieval Swedish. I failed to pass the two linguistic courses, even though both Viking-era texts and medieval Swedish were very interesting to me. In retrospect I believe this to be due to my lacking some prerequisites in terms of ‘understanding linguistics’. Despite being unable to pass these subjects, regardless of resits I took, I still feel like I’ve learned a lot from these subjects and in both cases the books I needed for the courses are still prominently positioned among the vast amount of books I have, as in both cases they can serve to satisfy some curiosites.

• quality of education and the level of information and help provided by the host institution

This was absolutely fine. Looking back, I could have used more help but I myself had difficulties, and indeed usually do have such difficulties, in getting myself to even try to find the right information and help. I did feel ‘adrift’, but this is to a very large extent simply because of the fact that I was in a completely new situation.

• reception and accommodation at the host institution

The bus taking exchange students from Arlanda Airport to campus was a great idea, as such an arranged transport is easily followed by meetings aimed at getting to know others. My

accommodation hadn’t been arranged by the host institution, I had neglected to act on an e-mail until more than a month afterwards, causing me to force myself to find accommodation through other means. While the accommodation on campus might have offered many advantages, especially in the sense of being more closely in proximity to other students when they’re not studying, it isn’t a negative for me that I had different accommodations.

• contacts with teachers and students support from home institution

This was more than fine. I had difficulty really following deadlines for my home university simply because of the distance precluding me from having these at the forefront of my mind. I thought the teachers at SU were fine, even if a little weird but that’s because they’re teachers.

• estimation of expenses during your exchange

I didn’t really make an estimation of expenses before I went on exchange. This period was probably more expensive than it would have been had I been back home – no bicycle meant more bustrips, for

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example, but this can’t come as a surprise given that I experienced winter in Sweden, which is a very different thing from Winter in Groningen. Some expenses were therefore very necessary while back home they would have been preferable at best.

• if applicable: problems you have encountered (eg language, information, guidance, etc.)

As far as I can assess this far in retrospect, the problems I ran into were essentially the same as the ones I ran into while starting new studies here in the Netherlands, and most of these are almost certainly due to my own difficulties in getting started in such a vastly new place.

However, I had difficulties building much of a social life, I usually do, but in this case it was

exacerbated due to being abroad. I never really knew of events in advance, and as such had very little to do with for example other Erasmus students and usually only knew of Erasmus-events after they had come around. In that sense, I would have liked to have had more to do with these things, I did somewhat frequent (one of the) pubs on campus as well as try other venues for having a social life (like going to meetups from a meetup-app), but I have always had difficulties simply socializing, I discourage myself from doings so all too easily even if it is unintentionally. Over the time there there were two series of meetups I would visit multiple times – one hosted at café Rorstrands Slott where I would usually find it hard to simply getting in to conversation with people, barring some of such encounters. The other one was a backgammon meetup, which due to its relatively small scale was easier for me to go to. Plus I learnt how to play backgammon, even if that hasn’t been something I’ve practiced.

• personal observations and recommendations

As mentioned, I didn’t really catch anything in terms of what Erasmus-affiliated groups might have organized, even though I’d surprised if there weren’t any. It might be nice if these were more easily accessible and recognizable. The pubs on the university campus were okay, but there too I had difficulties actually making contact, no doubt this is mostly due to me but sometimes the people working/volunteering there seemed somewhat hostile or reacting too strongly- for example when I simply wanted to open the front door because an Australian friend of mine didn’t think the building was actually open (didn’t see anything signposted either) but more or less got yelled at for being in the first area of the pub (the first area after the door) while holding a beer. A ‘rule’ which I had no idea of and which certainly didn’t warrant three different people shouting it at me. But that is of course mostly inconsequential and nothing Erasmus itself could do anything about. The dorms seemed fine, although I did only visit them a few times, given that I’d had to make my own arrangements regarding living space.

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