Well, I have Swiss citizenship along with the dastardly South African one, so Sweden and Denmark would be free for me to study in (tuition-wise I mean). As I was more interested in Sweden in any case, along with Denmark being more expensive, I didn't even bother applying to any Danish universities. That and of course I've always wanted to visit northern Europe in any case (the closest city to Umeå is in Finland actually, which is a ferry ride away from here), so the chance to live in Sweden for a bit and see Finland was too good to pass up. That and I figured the education system in Scandinavia in general is pretty good, so a master's degree from a Swedish uni would not hurt the resume at all.

It will be winter here soon enough, but if you do not want to go the study route why not save money where you are in the States, then next summer fly into Germany, catch a good festival or two, go up to Denmark, then from Denmark head into Malmö in Sweden, then you can work out an itinerary of Sweden-Norway/Sweden-Finland and check out the countries/cities, see which one you like, would like to live in for a bit etc etc? That also gives you more than enough time for look for fellow travellers and using crap like facebook maybe even meet people living in the cities/places you will visit to meet up with and all that jazz. Plus, you'd get to have a lot of fun and see a lot of live bands, too.

Most foreigners who come here usually come here to study. At least that's the impression I have down here in Lund.

Oh, I see you're in Lund. Then most of the people moving into town would be students I'm guessing, foreigners or not. I was speaking generally about Sweden where I'm sure most foreigner doesn't come here to study but for other reasons.

Just a quick update - housing still hasn't been found, which is getting ridiculous, I'm finding it increasingly hard to study here in this hostel, I mean libraries are okay and all, but I like being able to sit around in my boxers and pull out my belly button lint when studying, as do we all.

Otherwise I like it here, I find the university system a bit weird though, feels more like an online course really, one or two lectures a week where I feel I don't gain much from it, then a ton of stuff to read and do (I've started watching American lectures on the same subjects on youtube actually, they tend to explain things better), but I like it here. The equality thing is great, nothing better than going on a date with a Swedish lady and having her pay her own way, or buying the drinks or whatevs - you Vikings sure got that one right.

Student housing is tricky for sure. It can take forever to find something. Perhaps you should look into living with a family or with other students. A hostel doesn't sound very nice.

The schooling system has been going down the drains for a good while. A lot because of the equality thought applied to the school system (not gender equality as you refer to). Sweden has made it more accessible for anyone to study at the university and while a good thought it has lead to the courses becoming increasingly easier with less requirements for students and teachers alike - especially in the humanities I find (but perhaps that because its the area I'm familiar with). And furthermore the thought of freedom combined with economics has lead to very little teacher led education. This results in, as you say, just a few hours a week and the rest is self-study - very much like a semi-online course. Sweden will need to revise the schooling system starting now because it is falling down the drains.

I've been seriously considering moving to Sweden ever since a few years ago. I like dark, I like winters, and I want to see what Europe has to offer. I have a Bachelor's Degree in Graphic Design that I acquired in 2011 and have been working in my field ever since. I'm curious about what the creative climate would be for an outsider such as I. Also yeah, I don't speak any Swedish, but wouldn't be adverse to learning it, albeit slowly because I'm an idiot.

I've never been to Sweden, but everything I've read and been told about the Swedish language---by Swedish friends, by Finnish friends*, just reading some Swedish sayings and glancing over Swedish newspaper articles/Wikipedia entries and such---leads me to believe it is not a terribly difficult language to learn for someone whose native tongue is English. They are both Germanic languages influenced by Old Norse and often bear a similar structure. Several Swedish words are readily identifiable by English speakers like frost, tempel, katedral, november, hus (house). That being said, everything I've read and been told also leads me to believe you can get by in Sweden without actually learning Swedish. Once your ears adjust to the different accents communicating in English shouldn't be a problem.




*There's obviously some tensions/pride/annoyance issues with Finns having to learn Swedish even though only 1 out of every 20 Finns speaks it growing up, but every Finn I've met also concedes that Swedish is fairly close to English. Closer than Finnish anyway.

That's hard too, unless you're a female medical student, then you're set. I heard today actually that students have been leaving because they can't find housing, or if you do find housing, it's for a month/two months, then you have to find another place. The bostaden website queue is still nuts, so it seems an enkelrum is out of the question for god only knows how long. No corridor parties for poor old me that's for damn sure.



I don't know, I wouldn't say the course/s is/are easy, they just seem easy to pass, as in being able to just keep on retaking the exam until you finally pass, just showing up to the seminars and making a few comments, doing the project/presentation even if it is poorly done - correct me if I'm wrong though, haven't received any feedback about those so it's hard to tell. It also seems like the student unions have an incredible amount of sway here, which I don't give two toots about. Of course, to get a student card you have to join a student union (and pay an annual fee), and no student card = no access to most bars on campus which have cheap beer. My loss I guess.

Well, if you are really keen for the dark winter, why not visit in late Feb/early March? There's a three-day metal fest here where I am then, they haven't announced the bands yet but the woman who organizes it told me they will start announcing them soon. Here is the line-up they had this year:

http://www.houseofmetal.se/en/history/

I think it was something like 650SEK for a three-day pass, which is really good actually, and I should have a place here by then, I don't mind if people crash at my place for a few days, so that would save you a lot of dough too. Just no trying to kiss me when I am making snoozies or you'll be getting the boot lickety-split, pal.

Well, according to your profile, you're a dude, and I'm not gay, sooo....

You sleep on the floor you clown! What, you think I'm sharing a bed with an American? I refuse to wake up next to fake plastic cheese and processed Tex-Mex breath, pal.

I think A National Acrobat was meant to come over and visit too, but the poor little fellow never has any money because Scotland is a poor country just like Africa.