Utbytesstudenter i klassen
Hasan and Seda studied for four years at their home university; University of Gaziantep, before coming to Sweden. They choosed to finish their degrees in mechanical engineering with a semester in Sweden. This interview was made in June a few days before they left Växjö to go back home to Turkey. Both students speak English very well today, something they improved during their stay here:
- Yes, of course we improved our English! 90% of the Swedes speak English very well and we practiced it a lot. It was one of the main arguments for going here.
At arrival January 24th, it was snowing, cold weather and the key was hard to find. - Oh, the first day...the cell phone didn't work, the computers at the university were not possible to log in to since we didn't have an account for them yet, and everything seemed hard, says Seda. At the university we found a Romanian exchange student who understood our situation and lent his phone so we could get in touch with somebody!
Seda and Hasan had received an email from the school contact person, an email that they didn't read before departure. The email said that since they were arriving late the keys could be picked up at the nearby gas station. Later the same evening they found their keys and moved in to the dormitory where they were about to make so many new friends from different parts in the world. - What a relief to get inside!
So, the semester started. After not more than a week, they wer both so sure they liked to stay so they spent a lot of time looking for possibilities to prolong their stay with the autumn master course...
The picture was taken at the Exam dinner party, May 2012.
- There's been a lot of dinners here. Welcoming dinner, cultural dinners, Friday dinners - we have had many oppportunities to get to know different cultures.
- The educational system in Sweden is great. We got to learn both theory and practice. The degree project we made was connected directly to a company that had a technical question for us to solve. The company constructs machines used for bending different materials. They wanted a program to predict the moment needed to bend the material, and they needed this information before the new machine was produced. We got to meet them and we were really treated like engineers - they needed a solution! We researched for weeks and in the end we helped them to implement a new program which they use today. I even got the question, says Hasan, if we can help them (for money) with future upgrades! That can be done on a distance when I'm back in Turkey.
The degree project was of course examined at the university, and will count as the degree project for their exams back home.
- The culture in Scandinavia is very different compared to what we are used to. We have a lovely contact with our teachers. Our main teacher, Samir, is like a father and a great friend too. People at school are so helpful. It is really difficult to leave all the good friends we made here. Our best friend, a french girl, invited us to her family in France. We visited them for a few days and had an amazing time!
- There are many rules here, and it works.
- Do you remember the first time we waited to cross the road? Then the car stopped and the driver waved and we could walk first! It was amazing. Later on we learnt there is a rule for that...
- There is also always a solution to things. The Swedes go for a cup of coffee, and then they solve the problem.