Currently at:

Örebro University, Sweden

Hej!

My name is Sydney Mahon and I am a junior at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, Arizona! I am currently studying abroad in Örebro, Sweden but I am always going on amazing adventures in cool places. Feel free to follow along!

Tack för att du är med mig!

Week One

  • Arrival

    The journey all starts here! My travel day was very long, but it was very exciting, with a lot of anticipation. My mom flew out with me to help me move everything, which I greatly appreciated. We flew from our home in Phoenix to Minneapolis, then to Copenhagen, and finally to Stockholm, where we spent the night. It was a 24-hour travel day from Phoenix to Stockholm! The next morning, we took the train from Stockholm to Örebro, where we had about a day to explore and get a feel for the city. After a restful first day at my new home, I finally arrived at my university! I was greeted by my lovely group captain, Elin, who showed me around and helped me get settled into my new apartment. My mom and I went to IKEA and started setting up everything in my new place. Later that night, I met everyone else in my group, including my other captain, Ninos, and my other leaders (who are called fadders).

    Festen börjar!

    The rest of the week consisted of a lot of partying and getting to know everyone in my group and the other exchange students. Everyone I have had the privilege of getting to know has been nothing but kind to me as I adjust to this new city. On Wednesday, we had a pub crawl where we went to different bars/nightclubs (or discoteques, as I’ve heard many people call them, which I think is such a fun word). On Friday, we had a Sweden party where all of the exchange students gathered on campus to play traditional Swedish games and mingle. Then we made our way to the student nightclub on campus called kårhus (or kåren for short), where we danced the night away. On Saturday, we had a pre-party at Ninos’ apartment, then went to a club in the city center called Ritz, and danced the night away again. Sunday consisted of no partying (thank god), but we all came together and made a flag for our group which is Spiderman themed (Group 6 for the win!). After the flag making, we had a barbeque slightly off campus, where we had hot dogs and did a lot of sledding which was very fun!

    That concludes my very eventful first week in Örebro!

Week Two

  • Daily Life Has Begun!

    Week 2 consisted of many more fun orientation program events! Örebro hands down has the best exchange/orientation program I’ve ever seen. All of our fadders and captains make sure we feel comfortable here and are always at the ready in case we need anything. Monday started off with a city tour of Örebro with our group, which was very helpful! Our amazing tour guide, Mikeal, led us to the most need-to-know places in the city, and I definitely feel a lot more comfortable navigating on my own. One of my other fadders, Oliver, who was born and raised here in Örebro, was telling me about many other places I need to visit to get the full Swedish experience, which I will definitely be visiting. On Wednesday, we went on another pub crawl, but this time it was pirate themed! I have learned that Swedish people love a good theme, especially pirates for some reason, which surprised me. We started the night at a bar called Stora and ended it at a club called Oxya, which was so so fun! On Thursday, we had a school competition called So it may sound, which was a music trivia game against the other school houses. Our house for international students is called Nexus, and we went up against the other Swedish houses: Corax, Serum, Sesam, and Qultura. Unfortunately, Nexus did not win, but we definitely won in spirit. On Sunday, we had tryouts for our upcoming volleyball tournament next week! Everyone who went played super well, and it was very nice to get to know some more people who also play volleyball. To end the week, my friends and I from my group went to support our university hockey team, the Örebro Broncos!

    My second week was amazing!