My Icelandic horse Lynette and I before a tour through the lava fields!
Author: Josie Carson | Major: Biochemistry
Hiya, my name is Josie Carson, and I spent 10 weeks of my 2022 summer in Stockholm, Sweden. This was my final term at U of A as I finished all my degree requirements for a BS in Biochemistry this last May. And what a term it was! I was able to take three different classes though DIS: Study Abroad in Scandinavia: Storytelling through Photography, The Power of Women in the Viking Age, and Public Health Policy in Practice. I’ve always been interested in photography and gender studies, and am planning on pursuing a career in public health as a chiropractor. These classes offered a unique way for me to round out my undergraduate academic career.
The photography class was taught by a wonderful teacher, Lærke, who has won the equivalent of an Oscar for her portrait photography. She assigned some challenging and interesting field studies, one of which required us to approach strangers and ask them for a portrait. This was quite intimidating at first, but I actually ended up taking one of my best photos yet featuring a woman and her puppy. We conclude the class with a 10-photo documentary-style story and a final portfolio. I also learned a lot about the manual mode of my camera! The second and third classes offered the opportunity to travel to different countries on a study tour. For the viking class, we traveled to Iceland where we visited various museums and presented on one of the sagas we read that was set in Iceland. We also got to ride Icelandic horses and took a bus around the Golden Circle! The third class brought us to Ireland where we examined Irish alcohol culture and the health risks it poses to the Irish public. We also studied the harsh effects of migration on individuals’ and communities’ well-beings. On our last day in Ireland, we traveled across the country to see the Cliffs of Moher, Galway, and the Kilmacduagh Abbey ruins.
As each class was so different, I always felt engaged and intrigued throughout the summer. Overall, DIS’s classes and study tours offered such a balanced mix of educational visits, culturally-representative meals, and time to ourselves to explore! I’d highly recommend DIS! They also put us up in a very nice housing situation. My roommate, Tracy and I, had a fully equipped kitchen and bathroom. Our building also had its own garden with my favorite little gazebo! They also carefully match roommates, and they did a fantastic job with us. Tracy and I had a fantastic trip to Belgium together for a long weekend, and we’ll definitely be visiting each other back in the US!
Stockholm was such a nice home away from home! After a few days of getting used to the incredibly efficient and easy public transportation system, I settled in pretty easily. Tracy and I would leave together for class in the morning and cook together in the evenings after exploring the city in the afternoons. She is Chinese, so I also had the unique opportunity to learn a lot about Chinese culture as well! Stockholm offers numerous free museums centered around various art forms, Swedish medieval and viking history, and Nordic history. They also, of course, have an incredible ABBA museum where you can go sing your heart out and dance with holographs. My favorite museum was the Vasa which features a 95% preserved ship that wrecked in 1628. It took nearly three decades to raise it out of the water and for the preservation process to be completed. Stockholm is also surrounded by beautiful forests and islands of the archipelago. In as little as 30 minutes, you can be completely out of the city life and in a quiet, mossy forest. I spent many weekends hiking and running in the nearby national parks and nature preserves as well as swimming off the rocky shores of the islands Grinda and Vaxholm.
Saving the best topic for last, the food! Wow. Swedish meatballs from IKEA are no joke. They’re incredible. I also got to try princess cake, a Swedish specialty consisting of sponge cake, pastry cream, jam, and whipped cream covered by a layer of marzipan. We also visited a vegan buffet that sat on top of a cliff overlooking the canal and got to watch the Swedish women’s football team win their quarter-final match in the Euro Cup while enjoying Swedish beer. Finally, fika—meaning a break during an activity or work where people enjoy a drink and light snack/sweet treat with one another to relax and have fun, happy conversations. It’s a sort of reprieve from the hustle and bustle of the day to remind everyone of what is really important! This is usually the first thing you hear about when talking about Swedish culture. We had fika almost every day of my trip. Our teachers would bring pastries to class a few times a week, and my classmates and I would always grab coffee and a snack after class together. I’m now beginning my gap year of traveling to Croatia, South Korea, Thailand, Vietnam, Italy, etc…, and fika will be a tradition I hope to continue throughout those travels! Much love to Sweden! It was the perfect cherry on top to my undergraduate experience at U of A and the perfect kick-off for the year to come!