Has anyone ever been a foreign exchange student in Italy, Sweden, or Australia?

Question

If so could you tell me what you liked most about it and least about it and if you would recommend that country to study in.

I'm in high school and thinking about going to one of those places so any input would be helpful. thank you!

Answer 1

I attended Uppsala Universitetet in Uppsala, Sweden for my junior year in college.

I found Swedish to be ridiculously easy to learn since it is very similar to English; the pronunciation can be tough, though, as they  have several speech sounds that English doesn't.

Almost all classes are taught in English, and they use English-language textbooks (too expensive to translate every book into Swedish!).

If you are accustomed to VERY cold, windy weather in the wintertime and really long winter nights (20hrs, on avg. in Uppsala), you'll get along fine. Late spring, summer, and fall are gorgeous. At midsummer (late June), the days are about 22hrs long.

Swedes are probably the most reserved of all Europeans, so most people you'll hang with will likely be other foreign students.

The Swedish government allows several weeks of vacation, both in winter and in summer. That means your winter break will be about 6 weeks. It's plenty of time to explore the rest of Europe and get some sunshine!

Sweden is REALLY expensive, so be prepared.