This Summer, in Summary

Hello everyone!

Unfortunately this will be my last blog post, however I wanted to write a summary of how my summer went and to say goodbye.

These past three months have flown by! Interning, Alex visiting from Sweden, hanging out with my high school friends, and seeing all of my Texan family has been a blast!

Posing at the Fort Worth Stockyards

Alex debating buying cowboy boots for Sweden

If you read my previous blog post, you will know that I spent my summer interning for Ericsson in Plano, TX, USA at their North American headquarters.

I had an amazing time interning and I want to share why.

1. My Boss

I feel so lucky to have been able to have a great first boss. I was made to feel comfortable from day one and settling into the workplace was natural and easy. Chris and Tiffany always made sure to sit down and talk to me to explain what they expected from me. Having a boss that is very motivating and friendly motivated me to work harder and want to learn more!

2. My Coworkers

It is absolutely crazy, but I liked 99% of the people I met at Ericsson. Everyone was so nice and friendly that it was very enjoyable to work there and make friends. I loved the diversity and the fact that you could meet someone from every single continent. The team that I worked with on a daily basis were way too funny and we always had something to joke about. It was great experience to see how everyone handled when escalations would arise and to see all the different functions of a team.

3. Great Weather

It’s Texas. It’s sunny. It’s hot, not just warm. And it was a great change of pace from the Swedish weather (although I am a bit bummed I missed the Swedish summer).

I spent a lot of days this summer hanging out by the pool or outside in general. The Ericsson campus was great for walking around! In between the buildings you can walk over a bridge across the water where the pond is filled with turtles and trees surround the shoreline. It was very picturesque!

4. Challenging Projects

I had the opportunity to work on a summer internship project that was separate from my main position. All of the interns across the USA and Canada participate in separate projects, which means I worked with a group of people spread out across the region. This was great for learning about global team working and project management!

Advertising for votes! No shame.

 

Our project was focused on innovation within Ericsson. We spent almost two months researching, interviewing, filming, and writing to form our final video, presentation, and report. Working with the other interns was a blast and it was great to make connections with people working at other locations.

5. Volunteering

One of my favourite parts of this summer was volunteering with the other interns at a food pantry. It was very humbling and eye opening to learn about the hunger facing our local community. The great thing with Ericsson is that all employees have one paid day a year to spend volunteering at a place of their choice, an opportunity most employees seize.

Inside the food pantry storage, where I worked for the day.

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All in all, I had a blast interning this summer. I always looked forward to coming in every morning and I could not have had a better experience. I highly encourage you to intern over the summer as it is so rewarding and you learn so many things!

It has been great blogging for all of you the past few months and I thoroughly enjoyed it! I am back in the beautiful city of Stockholm for one week before heading off to Manchester this weekend. Unfortunately I cannot continue as I am studying abroad this semester but I hope everyone has a great autumn!

See you around and thanks for reading,

Alexa

Call a Swede, update

Hej!

Remember I wrote about a campaign Call a Swede a while back? I thought I’d give you a little update on how Swedes have been answering their phone and how successful this tourism campaign has proven to be.

(source: Adweek)

Mind that the campaign was launched on the 6th of April so 128392 incoming calls in less than a month is, to say the least, very impressive.

So impressive that it won Direct Grand Prix and Cannes Lion this year (proof).

“At the end of the day, we’re people talking to people. And it’s really refreshing to see an idea and a campaign that unites 9.5 million brand ambassadors with the world through the most direct form of communication—which is speaking, talking.” –  Mark Tutssel, Direct jury president

I didn’t register as a Swede nor did I try calling the Swedish number, but someone else did:

Pewdiepie has also called a random Swede, but I will let you find the video on your own 🙂

Until next time,

Maria

Accommodation in Stockholm?!

Hello everyone!
(especially those who are still reading this blog although it’s a middle of a summer)

It’s been a month since my last post. Apologies for that.

During that month I have had a unique opportunity to spend three days at a Google office in Wroclaw (Poland). But more about it some other time.

It is less than a month until the semester officially starts, so I want to devote my future posts to students starting their first semester at SBS – no matter if you are an exchange student, here for an entire programme or simply call yourself a student, I hope it will somehow will prove useful to you.

How to find accommodation.

Where to look? What areas? How much is too expensive? I am sure that you have received some general information from your international coordinators or the university itself on how to find a room or an apartment in Stockholm. Let’s make it clear: it is HARD. It is very hard to find a place but it’s not impossible.

My best and only tip today is to join groups on Facebook because a lot of students leave for an exchange semester/year and it is highly likely you will find a room/apartment in one of the student buildings in the city. So, go ahead and become member of the following groups:

• Lappis
• Idun
• Pax & Strix
• Frigg Sickla
• Kungshamra
• Jerum

I was feeling very ambitious when writing this post and pinned the buildings on the map, so you get a rough idea on where they are situated. I only chose to include the ones in the city or very close to it, but there are a lot of lovely areas outside of Stockholm.

Find the map here -> the map.

Hope you will find a place soon and if you already have – congrats!

Until next time,
Maria

#tb Midsommar 2016 in Vaxholm

Hej everyone!

Walt wrote about the Midsummer traditions last week, I thought I would show you how I spent my Midsummer this year.

Unforunately, we don’t have any family traditions to celebrate this day at a summer house (which we, by the way, don’t have), so I have to improvise every single time. This year, a bunch of my classmates from the master programme are spending the summer in the city, so we decided to make this day somewhat special and do something fun together.

First on the agenda – a 40 minutes bus ride from Tekniska Högskolan to Vaxholm. Surely, you can also go there by boat, but why spend extra money on tickets if you have a perfectly functioning SL card).

Boat to Vaxholm

Don’t be like us, come prepared! Bring some picnick-friendly food, blankets to sit on and an umbrella, because you never know when it may start raining. It is midsummer, after all.

Then we were patiently observing this for about 30-40 minutes:

a bit to the right…

And then the madness started.

traditional Midsummer dances

Ok, it was actually pretty adorable.

When we had enough of freezing in the grass and watching people eat, as that’s what you do after the traditional festivities, we made our way to the best place I know in Vaxholm – Hembygdsgårdens cafe  for a Midsummer fika. A side note: the only thing you need to be consuming in Sweden during Summer are strawberries and whipped cream. Sometimes strawberries and milk, but never forget the strawberries.

The rest of the day was spent exploring Vaxholm while waiting for the bus back to Stockholm and a bbq at a friend’s place. Pretty good Midsummer if you ask me!

Swedish summer at its best

Maria

 

Midsummer in Sweden

Midsummer is quite a big traditional festival in Sweden. It is on Friday between 19 and 25 of June. At midsummer many people usually get five weeks summer holiday, and the midsummer Eve or the day before midsummer  is usually celebrated grandly in countryside. There are some traditions of midsummer.

Maypoles and dancing

When midsummer comes, many swedes take the advantage of celebrating it. Many family gather together and during the day, the maypole is raised and people follow the frog dancing, and teenagers tend to stay out and wait for other entertainment.

Herring and potato

“A typical Midsummer menu features different kinds of pickled herring, boiled new potatoes with fresh dill, soured cream and chives. This is often followed by a grilled dish of some kind, such as spare rib or salmon, and for dessert the first strawberries of summer, with cream.

The traditional accompaniment is a cold beer and schnapps, preferably spiced. Every time the glasses are refilled, singing breaks out anew. Swedes like drinking songs, and the racier the better.

Midsummer is an occasion invested with a certain nostalgia. Deep inside, Swedes are all agreed on what it should look like and how it should proceed. So after dinner, many people still want to go out dancing, just like in the old days. Preferably on an outdoor dance floor beside a lake as the evening mist settles and the sound of the orchestra echoes back from the rocky hills on the opposite shore.”  Midsummer Sweden.se

Love story of Midsummer

There is a legend says if you collect 7 different flowers and put them below your pillow, you will dream about your true love. Of course, you do not dream your true love, then you probably pick the wrong flowers.

Walt

 

My Summer as an Intern (so far)

Hey everyone,

Sorry it has been a while since my last post, I have been settling into my new job as an intern for Ericsson here in Plano, Texas.

As some of you may know from my first post earlier this year, I grew up in Texas – so this is one of the main reasons why I chose to do an internship here this summer. There are many Scandinavians (especially Swedes) in the Dallas area due to Ericsson’s North American headquarters being located here as well as there being locations of other Scandinavian companies. Due to this, I grew up with the parents of many friends having worked for Ericsson. They were always a company I knew of and I was very interested in working for them. Anyone remember those Sony Ericsson flip phones that used to be all the rage? Have you heard of or do you use bluetooth? Well they invented it, which I think is pretty dang cool.

Inside the main lobby, the most I can show you… Secret work going on in here! 😉

There are many wonderful internships in Stockholm during the summer, so I definitely recommend everyone to do some research in early Spring about what’s available for you (whether it is in English or Swedish) and where you could see yourself. Getting experience during university is a major plus for applying for jobs after you finish your studies, but it also allows you to explore different fields and make sure what you are studying is what you really want to do. However, Stockholm isn’t the only place to intern and expanding your options to include multiple cities for your search will only benefit you!

It made me happy to see the Swedish flag outside! Unfortunately the wind wasn’t on my side.

Last week was my first official week interning and it went great! Assimilating in was relatively easy and everyone was super friendly towards me. My bosses are really supportive and helpful, which is important for feeling motivated to work. I am super excited to be able to network, learn new things, and get some real work experience while I am interning this summer! It’s also awesome that we get to connect with other interns in different departments because Ericsson has activities for us all to do together. I am really looking forward to doing some management training seminars and volunteering with the other interns. It will definitely be an unforgettable summer even if I will be working hard! It’s worth it!

Me in my work attire with my new official badge. I feel so adult.

Some of you may have noticed I was a student guest editor for the Stockholm University Instagram page last week. If so, you will have already seen all of these pictures but I wanted to share them here as well. If you don’t follow the school Instagram page, you are missing out! Go check it out: @stockholmuniversity

Had to do some shopping last week for corporate attire! Mission accomplished. This is Northpark Mall in Dallas – as they say, everything is bigger in Texas! 

I hope this was helpful to some of you and inspires you all to apply to internships next year! You never know where you will end up or what you will be doing, so why not try new things or apply to that job you never thought you would stand a chance for? Who knows, maybe you are perfect for it!

Until next time,

Alexa

A Typical Vegan Day in Stockholm

Study in Sweden means you will have a lot of opportunities to lead a vegan or vegetarian life. In Sweden more and more people start to lead a vegan life, because they have realised that the life style is more important for protecting animals and environment, the other reason is that poultries like chicken are treated by hormonal drugs that could bad for human.

There are lots of vegan and vegetarian restaurants in Stockholm and there is one that i can recommend you if you are coming to study here.

Välkommen

I went to there with my friends yesterday after a wonderful sightseeing view. You can take subway from Universitetet to Slussen and walk for 10 mins. Always you need to take a long line since there are long of people waiting for the food. And for students, you have a discount, but now you need to buy a beverage to get the discount. There also have places that you can choice to sit, both inside snd outside. However, i recommend you sit outside because of you can have very amazing view of the city. The sea gulls, the blue sky and the endless sea…

And the way to the restaurant Hermans is also wonderful short trip, you can see the great views of the city as well.

Enjoy your day in Stockholm and try a nice day to become Vegan.

Walt