Why Sweden? - The arrival

“Waoh, ok. So where should I start?” Those are the first thoughts that come to my mind, when I think of what happened in the last four weeks. I can´t believe it´s already a month. I guess time flies when you don´t look.
So to give you a short introduction: I´m doing a European Voluntary Service in the Kulturskolan in Stockholm for 9 months and I arrived on August 31. I wanted to start with my blog earlier, but there is so much to do, so many things to see, places to explore, people to meet…

“So why Sweden?” I got this question more often than I expected. I was a little irritated by that, because my natural reaction was just: Why not Sweden?
Then one time a women explained to me that Sweden might not be the first country you think of, when doing a voluntary service (rather something like India, Columbia or Kenia). So I get the point, I think…but the question remains: Why Sweden? That got me thinking.
I am definitely here because of the project! When browsing through all the opportunities you have after High School, a voluntary service is in my opinion the best thing you can do. The European Voluntary Service provides a tempting alternative to Voluntary Services in the global south. So when I stumbled upon this project you could nearly say I fell in love and I was really, really excited about it. In a big city, working with young people, in an interesting field, in an amazingly open and well organized organization that sounded just perfect!
But other than that I probably went to Sweden because of its famously beautiful nature, the cute language, the friendly and open-minded people, the interesting history and last but not least because of it being relatively close to my girlfriend, who is living in Germany.
In addition, I came to Stockholm, because it is basically build in the water which brightens up every scenery!

When I arrived here, it was not what I had imagined it…
It was better! I work in a capital, but still life directly in the woods (seeing deer and rabbits every day by the way), I get to work with a lot of personal freedom in a very comfortable and modern working environment and I get along very well with the other volunteer!

To sum it up: It´s awesome! I´m having a great time and I am really excited, about what is going to be next!