Hej everyone!

My name is Daisy (she/her pronouns), and I am writing to you all from Stockholm, Sweden!

I wanted to study abroad in Stockholm because it is know to be 1/3 water, 1/3 green space, and 1/3 urban. I’ve found beautiful cities and beautiful parks in the US, but it’s been harder for me to find a place that successfully mixes urban and nature. Stockholm definitely does that! As you wander through the city center, you stumble upon green space after green space. Stockholm is actually made up of a ton of islands, so you also see lots of water. I live in a host family outside of the city center. In the US, the suburbs are often car jungles. The suburb I live in here, on the other hand, is gorgeous. It has endless walking and biking paths connected to my house. It also has so. much. nature. And with just a short walk, I get to the metro station and can get anywhere I like. I honestly didn’t think this kind of combination of nature and urban could exist in real life. I’m thrilled to show it with you all this semester!

As for this fellowship, I’m looking forward to pausing. With study abroad, it is tempting to adopt a go go go attitude. With our journal prompts, I hope to combat this mentality and slowwww down. This likely won’t be hard though because Sweden has a mentality that fast isn’t the best. Between long, candlelit dinners with my host family each night to the pleasant metro ride to school each morning, I regularly pause. In these moments, I try to appreciate the beauty around.

 

Here is some of that beauty, more to come soon: