I’d like to start this post by agreeing that I can’t believe 7 weeks passed so quickly. At the same time, getting off of the plane at Arlanda Airport seems like ages ago, and somehow my first day even longer. With one week left, I like to think that I made the best of my remaining time in Sweden.
After much deliberation and almost buying a flight to Norway, a few friends and I decided to take a trip to a nature preserve in Southern Sweden. We left the Nooq Alvik at 8:30am, boarded the metro, a bus, and finally arrived at Björnö (as a bonus, the entire trip was free with our metro cards). We didn’t have much of a plan besides a pan, potatoes, and a bag of meatballs, so we picked a direction and began walking.
It’s kind of funny- when I arrived, I couldn’t help but think of the similarities between Swedish nature and the Poconos. Walking around in “Bear Nature Preserve” (thanks for the warning I guess?), I again found myself staring at the moss covered floor and scattered trees. Then I’d climb a huge fifty foot rock, look out over the archipelago, and remember that I was not, in fact, in Northeastern Pennsylvania.
Still, I must have some kind of type when it comes to nature, and I laid on a moss covered rock looking over my friends cooking meatballs on a fire below. After we ate, we continued the hike. We passed by what must be the happiest cows on the planet, went for a swim in the freezing water, and of course frolicked in the grassy fields. Have I mentioned that Sweden is the most beautiful place I have ever been?
While we only passed by two or three groups of people all day, the preserve never felt isolating or spooky. This was great news, because it was 11:45pm when we decided that we should absolutely not sleep in the woods tonight. While we looked for every excuse to take advantage of Sweden’s “freedom to roam” law and camp for free for the night, the problems began to add up.
- All of our phones would certainly be dead by the morning, and I didn’t really trust my Iphone 12 mini’s 15% to hold up
- We had no idea where we were
- “Bear Nature Reserve”
After turning a 40 minute hike out into an hour and fifteen minute hike out, we finally made it to the bus stop. Again letting out metro cards do the heavy lifting, we traveled for another 2 hours, making it home by 3:30am. My only complaint is that I can’t do it again. Sweden is largely a low-context communication culture, where messaging is generally direct, explicit, and clear.
However, navigating a professional environment with an American supervisor introduced its own set of cultural nuances. Coming into the internship, I expected very little direct praise. To my pleasant surprise, my supervisor consistently commended my work, providing positive reinforcement that built my confidence early on.
While I didn’t experience any severe miscommunications, my biggest learning curve was adapting to workplace proactivity. Initially, my approach was reactive: whenever I finished an assignment, I would submit it to my supervisor and wait for the next set of instructions. Back home or in traditional academic settings, waiting for the next task is often seen as respectful.
I quickly realized, however, that in this workplace environment, waiting around created unnecessary downtime. My supervisor expected a high degree of autonomy. Once I shifted my approach to actively seeking out new tasks, asking how I could assist on upcoming projects, and identifying operational gaps on my own, my workflow became consistent and engaging.