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Last week was undeniably one of the most hectic weeks of my life. I still remember when I brought up Europe’s first coronavirus case in my Comparative Public Policy class in the beginning of the semester — back then, it was an issue that even I did not think would affect Europe and the rest of the world as tremendously as it did.

Swedish Program decided to close down and we were given a week to pack up our belongings and return to our homes. After booking a last-minute ticket from Stockholm to Moscow, then Moscow to Dulles, I jotted down items for my Stockholm bucket list. I knew I would say goodbye to the city eventually, but not so soon, so it was difficult and disappointing. Still, one of the most valuable lessons study abroad has taught me is how to be flexible, and I decided to make my 48 hours even more special and memorable.

 

1. Enjoy Stockholm’s nature one last time

My favorite part about Stockholm is how much nature it has. Stockholm alone has fourteen islands and is surrounded by vast bodies of water. Even my home is a minute of a walking distance away from Mälaren, which is the third largest freshwater lake in Sweden. I went on a morning walk to Lake Mälaren and observed the clear, blue lake. I was waiting for the weather to get warmer so I could swim in it, but this will be saved for next time!

2. Food, food, food!

Coming from a Korean family, having muesli (oatmeal mixed with dried fruits, nuts, etc.) or bread for breakfast at home was not the norm for me. During my stay, I learned to use a cheese cutter and a salami cutter, as well as the dishwasher. My last meals with my family included Swedish pancakes, chicken feta, lasagna, tacos, carbonara bacon pasta, cod, and a special gimbap/sushi dinner (gimbap is a Korean traditional roll). My Swedish brother and I have a tradition of making homemade ice cream every weekend, which I am going to miss! This week’s flavor was raspberry — when asked the ingredient, my Swedish brother responded that it was made out of love 🙂

3. Shop for Souvenirs

I went down to Gamla Stan (Old Town) to shop for last-minute souvenirs for my family. I bought postcards, magnets, and a pot holder for my mom.

4. Say goodbye to friends

Saying goodbyes are always tough, so instead we said vi ses (see you again)! I said goodbyes to my friends from the Swedish Program and SSE either virtually or in person; a lot of them had already left for their homes. I met up with my Swedish buddy Jonna to go on a last walk around Gamla Stan and Kunsträgården, where cherry blossoms were starting to bloom. Jonna remarked how sad it was that I was leaving just when the weather was getting nicer. We talked about her coming to the US or me coming back to Sweden. I also met up with my church friends for a last fika (Swedish coffee/snack break).

5. Walk around the city

I walked around my favorite parts of the city, revisiting the Royal Palace, the Skeppsholmen Bridge, subway stops, and so on. I had planned on going on a subway art tour in April (Stockholm is famous for its subway art), but this is another activity that will be saved for my next visit to Stockholm.

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…last but not least, 6. Spend time with Family!

Living with a Swedish family was undeniably the best part about Stockholm. I now have three Swedish brothers (in addition to my three sisters at home!), and I can’t wait to see them grow up. In the last few days that I had, we played the board game Risk together, held a Korean face mask night, had a final programming tutoring session (I taught the older twin Python and HTML), and went on a family trip to Drottningholm Palace, a UNESCO World Heritage site and the official residence of the Swedish Royal Family.

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Tack så mycket (thank you very much) to all those who made the last two months so memorable! It was a short, but amazing adventure!

(P.S. Currently self-quarantined in my room!)

“I wonder if the snow loves the trees and fields, that it kisses them so gently? And then it covers them up snug, you know, with a white quilt; and perhaps it says, “Go to sleep, darlings, till the summer comes again.” — Lewis Carroll

Over the weekend, my program went on a trip Björkliden, a town located 155 miles north of the Arctic Circle, in the Swedish Lapland area. We had the chance to engage in unique arctic activities such as dog-sledding and snow-shoeing, explore the beautiful landscape, and learn about the indigenous Sámi communities.

Friday / A Night Train

The trip began with a 17-hour night train ride from T-Centralen, which was long, but not as bad as it sounds. Six people shared a room in a train car, and I was impressed by the efficient design, as spacious couches during the day turned into six cramped couch beds at night. The train also had a cozy café car with interesting pastry such as reindeer meat sandwich, various chocolates from the famous Swedish brand Marabou, and nice hot drinks for the northbound journey. I was pretty tired so I fell asleep almost instantly on my middle bunk bed. One of my roommates said that it felt as if we were infants again, being rocked to sleep by the train.

Saturday / Arrival in Björkliden, Tacos, and Sauna

We arrived around lunchtime on Saturday at our lodging, Kåppas Cabin Village in Björkliden Fjällby. We headed to the hotel restaurant for a lunch buffet, and the view from the window was a feast for the eyes, as we admired scenic snow-capped mountains and the vast field of white snow. The warmth from the brightly shining sun felt like a paradox and I was surprised that everything remained frozen despite such good weather.

We had some free time so my friends and I went for a walk around the area, observed people skiing and snowmobiling, then rented two sleds to sled down two hills. We came back to the hotel for a taco dinner buffet. One fun fact that I learned in Sweden is that the Swedes really love tacos! In fact, we even call it Taco Fredag or Taco Friday. At home, I usually have at least one taco nights per week with my host family.

After dinner, I went to a sauna and relaxed. The temperature was just right, and although the steam was a little stifling at first, my body eventually got used to it. There is a big sauna culture in Scandinavian countries. This is my third sauna; the first was in Sandhamn during orientation, and the second was in my home since my host family has a little sauna in the bathroom. In the sauna, you pour water over hot rocks to create hot steam, which makes your body sweat.

Sunday / Survival, Snowshoeing, and Sledding

Sunday was our big activity day! We started by learning an important wilderness survival skill — building a fire using just logs and a sharp knife. It took at least half an hour to get the fire started, since we were creating sparks by scraping the back of the sharp metal knife against a metal stick. Eventually, our log caught the spark and began a little fire. We fed it more birch tree scraps and blew oxygen into it once in a while so that it wouldn’t die out.

After, we went snowshoeing in the hills. The whole world was white! You almost couldn’t tell where the horizon started, since the ground was white with powder snow and the skies were white as well. I’ve never seen anything like this, and I hoped that I would be able to return with my family later in life. Hopefully, global warming doesn’t destroy this gorgeous nature.

Dog-sledding was probably the highlight of my day. The dogs were so friendly, and they yipped with excitement when they saw us. Each sled had three to four people and an experience sled driver, and we were pulled by around 14 dogs, who were in rows of two. I was amazed that such power could come from such small and cute bodies!

It was a long day, and I was excited to return to the hotel, drink lingonberry juice (another Swedish local cuisine), eat meatballs, and go to the sauna again. Unfortunately, because of the clouds, I couldn’t see the Northern Lights, which was one of the parts I was looking forward to the most during this trip!

Monday / Sámi Village and Ice Hotel

On our last day, we took a bus to Kiruna where we visited a Sámi village. The Sámi are Arctic indigenous people, who are divided amongst Russia, Finland, Sweden, and Norway, and their region is called Sápmi. Traditionally, they are nomadic, as they followed the tracks of the reindeer, but nowadays, they are mostly settled down. Not only is moving every year difficult, but they are also subject to obligations such as paying taxes and education, so it makes it difficult for them to keep their traditional lifestyle. Our Sámi guide was a friendly and funny woman in her twenties, who told us about her experience of crying on the beach in LA because it was so hot and her skin wasn’t used to the sun after seven months of snow.

Reindeer herding is one of the most important industries of the Sámi people, and we got to visit their reindeer farm. Because of climate change, it is now difficult for reindeers to survive entirely on their own in the wild, so in the wintertime, Sámis help feed and take care of them. Our guide told us about reindeers’ development of antlers, and how the male antlers fall off after mating. She jokingly said that the reindeers we hear about in Santa stories would be either castrated males or pregnant females, since they have antlers! Apparently, reindeers are vegetarians, and I got a chance to feed lichen moss to one of them.

Following the Sámi village, we headed to the Kiruna Ice Hotel, where hotel rooms and the bar were built of ice. Even the cup, glass, chandelier, and bed are made of ice! There are reindeer skins on top of the ice bed to keep it warm, but a downside is that reindeer skin stinks a little.

There were stunning ice sculptures, and some rooms were thematic. My most memorable rooms were Santorini (which was an ice version of the touristy Greek city), the lion/jaguar room, and the jellyfish room. I researched later when I got home, and apparently, prices start at around $200/night to stay at this hotel.

This concluded our Arctic Circle journey, and we took a 2-hr flight from Kiruna to Arlanda Airport! It was a very exciting weekend, but I was glad to be home again in Stockholm.

From organizing the career fair to throwing parties, SASSE (Student Association at Stockholm School of Economics) holds many responsibilities. SASSE consists of eight committees: Business Committee, Education Committee, Entertainment Committee, International Committee, Media Committee, Social Committee, Sports Committee, and Tech Committee. What each committee does is fairly self-explanatory by its name. The committees that I’m mostly involved with are the Tech Committee and the International Committee.

Similarities? Differences?

A big difference between student activities at Hamilton and SSE is that instead of specific student clubs, most student activities are done through these eight committees in what they call ‘projects.’ For example, the Tech Committee’s ongoing projects include De-code Project (a student-led workshop on HTML, CSS, and Node JS) and SASSE AI (lectures to educate students about AI). Instead of joining a specific club, you rather hop on a project within the committee.

Since the committees mostly focus on organizing bigger events for the school, you don’t have the close-knitted, intimate feel of a student club at Hamilton. So, a downside to this structure is that unless you are part of the leadership, or unless you are involved in a sports club, it is rather difficult to get to know people through student activities.

However, a positive aspect is that the events are very inclusive, even to those who have not regularly attended other committee activities. So far, I went to around four Tech Committee events and I hardly ran into anyone I saw before! All you need to do to secure your spot is sign up online in advance. For popular events, especially company visits or events with free lunches, there will often be a waitlist.

Another interesting aspect is that you need to buy a ticket for most of the non-educational events such as parties and bowling nights. Depending on the event, it can be as cheap as 50 SEK (around $5) and as expensive as 450 SEK ($45).

American Association and Swedish “Buddy”

When registering for the Swedish Program, I asked to be matched with a SSE Buddy, a student volunteer at SSE who is interested in cultural exchange. This is done through the American Association in the International Committee, and it is nice since some events are subsidized. Earlier this month, I had lunch with my buddy Jonna, who is a friendly first-year student at SSE, and last week, we went mini-golfing, the first Buddy event of the year. My team actually won first place so we got medals! Some of the buddies came over to our Swedish class and practiced basic Swedish conversation with us, which was really helpful.

Favorite Lunch Lectures so far:

• Art Talk: Escalating Art Worlds: A curator came to talk about the Maria Bonner Dahlin Foundation, which recognizes young artists, and the temporal exhibition currently displayed at Bonnier Staircases at SSE.
• Build your own AI: A representative from Peltarion, a Swedish software company, gave a brief explanation about Peltarion and AI, and took us step-by-step in creating a simple AI that classifies Twitter tweets from American politicians.
• Ericsson Response – Disaster Relief Program: A volunteer talked about her experience at Ericsson Response, in particular, how they help provide wifi and cell service to disaster areas.

My host family has three teenage sons, so I’ve been able to indirectly experience the Swedish education system through them. The Swedish Education Act mandates ten years of schooling from the age of six, and compulsory schooling consists of förskoleklass (preschool), lågstadiet (years 1–3), mellanstadiet (years 4–6) and högstadiet (years 7–9). After, many students go on to gymnasium (years 10-12), which you apply to with your grades and is optional. Higher education is “free” as well (or more correctly put, paid for by taxes), and getting a Bachelor’s takes three years.

Some interesting things that I noted:

• The schools have cooking and building classes that train them for everyday life skills.
• National tests are administered in grades 3, 6, and 9. My two younger brothers had to take them and  I remember seeing them come home very tired!
• Instead of going to classes, the oldest son, who is 14, worked at a sports equipment store for two weeks. It is aimed to give children an early career exposure and a sense of work responsibility. His other classmates also worked at various supermarkets and stores.
• Due to the sports law in Sweden, schools have a week-long sportlov, or sports holiday in February, where many families take the week off to ski or do fun outdoors activities.

Last week was sportlov for Stockholm City, so my host family decided to go skiing in Åre. Åre is a beautiful town in northern Sweden, with cute little red cabins, tall evergreen trees, and lots and lots of snow! It is a 7-hour train ride from Stockholm, and because of the holiday, the train was packed. My host family had already been skiing from Saturday; since I still had classes, I arrived late Thursday evening after a long week that included a midterm exam and a presentation.

To my delight, my host brothers had made semla, waiting for me! Semla is a sweet roll eaten throughout many Scandinavian countries, typically filled with almond pasted and whipped cream. Traditionally, you are not supposed to eat semla after fettisdagen or Fat Tuesday, which is right before the start of Lent. However, we couldn’t resist the temptation!!

It was my first time skiing, but luckily, Åre offered slopes for skiers at all levels. My host dad is very good so he went on the “black” (advanced) slopes. I started slowly from the children’s slope right next to our cabin. My host mom gave me a lesson on how to turn, break, and go down the slope. Although it was much more physically draining than I expected, it was very fun! We grilled hamburgers outdoors for lunch, and enjoyed a cup of hot chocolate in a café at the top of a slope.

From Spotify to Skype, Sweden is the home of many innovative products and companies. Being a computer programmer, one of the factors that drew me to Stockholm was its lively start-up and technology scene. Although SSE doesn’t offer computer science courses, I have been happily staying involved with technology by going to various events and workshops taking place in the city. This week, in particular, was a packed week for me, as I participated in a programming challenge, went to a meetup for women in technology, and volunteered at a fintech conference.

Saturday, February 8 / Leethack

What better way to spend your weekend than by playing a virtual escape room game? On Saturday, I participated in the first Stockholm edition of Leethack. It was held in the corporate office of tretton37, a Stockholm-based IT consulting company, and I later found out that it was actually created by several developers at tretton37 as a side-project.

I was blown away by the quality of the event! I love escape rooms and programming, and Leethack found a way to creatively merge these two together. The premise of this game is that you are a player in a virtual escape room, and your goal is to get from the Lobby (starting destination) to the Lounge (final destination) and obtain the highest number of points (you earn points when you manage to move to another room and solve side challenges along the way). Leethack allows you to perform actions through the terminal, such as “look, grab, open, remove,” just as you would in a typical escape room. In order to open doors, you often need to find the correct code to the keypad or the padlock, which you can only obtain by solving programming puzzles.

I partnered up with a friend I met at SSE in one of the Tech Committee events. We used Python to decipher the code inside the six dog paintings, and to both of our embarrassment, Excel, as we tried to help a mouse find an optimal way to escape without running into any bombs or snakes. I am sure there was an elegant algorithm for finding the solution, but our heads hurt thinking about backtracking, and we figured out that finding a path manually, with the help of Excel and Python scripting, would be much simpler and faster. To our dismay, when we solved it, we found out that it was only a side challenge, and was worth 5 points…! We lamented over the hour we spent, but still, we were happy to have cracked the puzzle! We didn’t get as far as we wanted, but it was such an enjoyable time, and I was happy that I randomly came across this event and signed up for it. Another round of applause to the great brains behind this creative game!

Sunday, February 9 / Pink Programming

Pink Programming is a non-profit organization that organizes coding workshops throughout Sweden to raise interest in programming amongst female, transgender, and non-binary communities that are often underrepresented in the tech sector. Pink Programming Sunday is one of their initiatives, which is a meet-up once a month on a Sunday, giving attendees a chance to mingle, code, and listen to workshops. This was the first Pink Programming Sunday in 2020, and I was lucky enough to secure a spot after being waitlisted (the sign-up is free, but first-come, first-serve, so you have to be quick!). It took place at the office of PrimeKey Solutions, a computer security company, and I actually found their company presentation very interesting, as they talked about their PKI (Public Key Infrastructure) appliance that is used widely in today’s connected society.

I went to an Intermediate Java workshop, where we implemented Ceasar Cipher in Java. I then did some free-coding and talked with other attendees. The participants ranged from a 7-year-old girl who came with her mother to an experienced developer working at a software company in Stockholm.

Tuesday – Thursday, February 11 – 13 / Sthlm FinTech Week

Last month, I came upon a volunteering opportunity for Sthlm FinTech Week, which is a community-driven event for investors, start-ups, and professionals in fintech. Being a Computer Science and Economics double major, I was curious about this niche and upcoming field which brings the two subjects together.

I had the chance to briefly sit in on a session called “Combating the Dark Side of Fintech,” and it was interesting to think about the challenges behind tackling financial crimes such as fraud and money laundering in the fintech industry. One speaker mentioned how GDPR is changing the way criminals are being identified and information is being shared amongst organizations.

I was situated in the registration table and mostly took care of the set-up, clean-up, and badge registration. I enjoyed greeting people and making small talk with them. The best part of this conference was meeting attendees and other volunteers, as people came from all over Europe, including Denmark, Norway, Netherlands, UK, and Estonia. I even met a Swedish ex-TV celebrity (I did not know him, but a fellow volunteer pointed him out to me), and grabbed a meal with one of the speakers, who told me about his journey from working at a big consulting firm to having his own fintech business.

If you search on Google or Eventbrite, you can often find fun and free things happening in your city (I searched for “technology events in Stockholm”). I definitely recommend checking at least one out, because it is a great way of meeting people outside of your study abroad program!