One could argue that Stockholm is not the most exotic destination for a Swedish speaking Finn. Especially not for a 21 year old student based in Turku, only km away.
But distance is all relative And if you take the 10 hour long ferry across the Baltic sea with nothing with you except the largest suitcase Ikea can provide and an old classical guitar made of flamed maple: then your imagination can help you to believe that you are on a one-man journey far from home.
For me, my Erasmus exchange was a lot of things. It was the Wednesday-evening chat over a pint of Falcon at the Professor sportsbar together with my american friend. It was a decision to bluntly jump in to a group of people on my first day at Frescati campus, a group that would stick together the whole semester. But primarily, it was an exploration of my identity. The identity of language, of accent, of country, of profession and of Europe.
When my classmates listened with fascination to my funny version of Swedish, I had never felt more like a Swedish speaking Finn. This highly international experience is largely thanks to the outstanding Stockholm University and Department of Psychology. From day one the tutors and the student union assured that we felt like home. There were pub crawls, sightseeing trips, international festivales, beach afternoons and open mic nights.
After a while I started to recognize the familiar faces of the international students and it felt like the community went further than specific departments or buddy groups. At times it really felt like we all were part of the same big international family.
