Sweden: Eliana Sauer
Program: DIS – Study Abroad in Scandinavia, Spring
Eliana’s Majors: International Studies, Environmental Studies, Scandinavian Studies
What is your most memorable experience from your program?
I was lucky enough to be living with a host family during my time in Stockholm and many of my most memorable moments center around them, but my ultimate favorite happened very close to the start of my program. When I arrived in Stockholm, I told my host family that I was looking forward to exploring some of the many museums the city has to offer. Later that night, my nine-year-old host brother came up to me and showed me a coupon he had received from school for free entrance into Historiska Museet (the history museum) and asked if I wanted to come along. I was so incredibly touched by this gesture, and we immediately found a date to go visit. When we went it ended up being me, my host mom, and my host brother and we explored the museum before also going to my host brother’s favorite restaurant. I loved this day because it really made me feel included and welcomed as part of their family and also allowed me to explore the city that I was newly calling home and learn more about its culture and history. It was on that day that I first felt like a real local, and that feeling just grew and grew for the rest of my program.
My biggest advice would be to truly enjoy Stockholm. I would encourage you to take time on the weekend to get out in the city and visit a museum or castle, try a new coffee shop, or just walk around the city area. There is so much to see and do (and a lot of it is very cost-effective!) and if you blink too fast you’ll miss it.
What is the moment you are most proud of?
I did not study in Sweden with a language immersion program, however before arriving I had taken a full semester of Swedish at UW and had been studying on my own because I truly wanted to learn as much of the language as I could to be able to converse organically with locals. I also took Intermediate Swedish at DIS while I was abroad, which ended up being a one-on-one with my professor since no one else was at the intermediate level. I really enjoyed being able to have that one-on-one contact, and it prepared me to feel much more comfortable conversating in Swedish while I was abroad. Consequently, the moment in the semester I am most proud of happened near the end of my time in Stockholm when I was out in Gamla Stan (the old town) shopping with a friend. We walked into a local boutique, and the owner greeted us in Swedish and told us to let her know if we needed any help. I responded back to her in Swedish and said that we were just looking for now and thanked her. Upon hearing the Swedish response she came over and immediately started gushing about how excited she was to have Swedes in her shop again because there were so many Americans shopping around due to Taylor Swift being in town and she was tired of always having to switch to English. This conversation, although brief, really made me feel extremely confident in my Swedish language skills and made me even more pleased with my choice to truly study and attempt to learn the language. I was proud of myself that I had managed to have a conversation so well that she thought I was truly a Swede, and also I was pleased to be able to have that cultural interaction in a place that I wasn’t expecting.
What is a custom, food or tradition from your host country that you are taking forward?
Hushållsost! My host family ate a lot of this traditional “household cheese” for breakfast, lunch and dinner and I really fell in love with it. Since coming back I have been on a quest to find it so that I can replicate the typical breakfast sandwich I had while abroad.