Week Four - Vecka Fyra (Cultural Development) 4-02-12 - 10-02-12

Köttbullar being cooked in the frying pan.

It is hard to believe that I have been in Sweden for four weeks; time is passing by so quickly and I guess I can use the popular idiom ‘time flies when you are having fun’. The Erasmus experience can most certainly be described as fun as you are constantly mixing with other students from all over the world, travelling to places you never would have thought of going to and sampling a whole other culture. However, it did take me four weeks to sample a form of Swedish cuisine! I am not very adventurous when it comes to food as I like to play it safe and stick with what I know best but this week I branched out and tasted Swedish meatballs (köttbullar) which are probably one of the most well-known Swedish specialities. I have no idea what the Swedish meatballs contain but apparently they can have a little bit of everything such as veal, pork and beef as well as vegetables. And yes, judging from that statement I will be happy not knowing what was in them!

At the start of this week Maria, Megan and I as well as a student from Manchester had a meeting with a school teacher from the school that we are going to be teaching in. The school is known as a ‘Fridaskolan’ which simply means ‘Free School’. It provides free education for children from the age of six to sixteen. This vast age range will provide a totally different experience from school based work back in Northern Ireland as I have only ever taught in a primary school with children from the age of five to eleven. Although this may prove to be slightly challenging for someone who has little to no experience of teaching/working with older children it will also be insightful and hopefully reinforce that I was correct in choosing primary over secondary!

I have a feeling that the ‘Fridaskolan’ is going to be very different from what I am used to in Northern Ireland as it has specific values that are unique to the school for example, the belief that every child can find its way to learning as there is a strong emphasis on the idea that pupils can seek and build upon their own knowledge leading to the idea that children are responsible for their own learning and that they make the choice to learn not the teacher. I cannot wait to have my first visit to the school and see how this idea is implemented into the classroom.  

It has been a rather quiet week in Trollhättan due to busy schedules and most people have been sick with numerous different bugs including myself. I intend to relax all weekend and enjoy the rugby match on Saturday with the other Erasmus students. Megan, Maria and myself (as well as some Italian students after last week’s match) are hoping Ireland can beat France as there is an ongoing joke that the French students will be the champions by the end of ‘The Six Nations’.

I think next week is going to be even quieter as most Erasmus students have an exam to do in the module ‘Power, Gender, Ethnicity and Other Inequalities’. From looking at the questions that we have it is going to be a very long and difficult exam as no one seems to understand what it is about. The assignments and exams at University West are possibly going to be a challenge for me as they are completely different from any type of assignment/exam I have ever seen. Some of the other students have been asking for my help to explain/translate some of the words but I have had to tell them that I do not understand some of the words myself!

Despite the sickness and busy schedules this week ended on a high as the majority of the Erasmus community booked a boat cruise from Stockholm to Riga, Latvia. This has definitely been the highlight of my week as I am keen to visit another country and explore as much as possible while I am here! Although the trip is not until April it is definitely one to look forward to. As well as the trip to Riga, I am also looking forward to having my first visitor arrive at the end of next week.