It’s five minutes to 10 p.m. My evening coffee sits cold next to me, and I’ve just finished cooking. While preparing my meals, I had a chance to think aboutmy life, my classes, utilities and much more. Suddenly, I realised that it’s already been a whole month since we all started our new lives at JU.
It’s really fascinating how fast time flies by, isn’t it? And so much happened during this short amount of time too; it’s remarkable. Let’s return all the way back to the beginning, even before Kick Off, to the time we arrived in Jönköping. Some of us came by bus, some arrived by train, many came by plane. So many people from so many different countries, and we all shared two feelings: excitement and fear.
Those first moments in Jönköping were some of the best of my life, as well as the scariest. Two feelings fighting with each other: seeing a beautiful city around you, a lake that you can’t see across to the other side so it almost feels like the sea, the beautiful design of our University. And at the same time, feelings of being far from home, not having a place to rest, hoping that everything went well with applications and where you are going to live. Wondering if your English is good enough, what if I won’t find friends? What if I won’t be good enough, imposter syndrome, and so much more.
Then we were sorted into our housings; we finally saw our new beds, tables and bathroom, where we will spend most of our time. We checked in, put our things away, and went on a supermarket hunt to buy some food, coffee and other necessities to survive the first days. The first nights at the new place were strange; one day you can’t fall asleep, another you sleep fine, and every day – slowly, you are getting used to it.
Then, on Monday 24th of August, the start of the KICK OFF!!! All of a sudden, there were so many things happening at once: introduction, first meeting with your classmates, deciding when to buy an ovve, then actually buying an ovve. This also reminds me of our first trip to the AKA, how long of a line we made together through the streets of Jönköping, with confused drivers waiting for us to pass and realising that the line of people seemingly had no end.
After Kick Off, everything calmed down a little; classes started, we began to figure out the courses, reading syllabuses, doing readings for lectures and applying for school clubs such as EDIT, SSA, StartUp and many more. JU also had a lot of fun guests with activities for students, lucky wheels from IKEA, food trucks with free food, and of course, my favourite – FIKA.
As for now, most of us already got into some clubs, already figured out our routines, found the best places to study, to drink, to relax… Slowly but steadily, we are building our lives here, step by step, brick by brick, and looking back at this past month, I can be nothing but even more excited to see what else awaits us, how many new friends we make, how many things we learn, and where our routes will take us.
Writer: Anastasija Hetmančuk
