Welcome to our embedded study abroad program website!
Students will be posting details of their activities here while we are in Sweden visiting Gothenburg, Jönköping, and Stockholm. Please take a few minutes to read our daily blogs and to check out the photos too and make a comment. In the meantime, check out the different tabs to find out more about the program!
Dr. Diane Spokus, Department of Health Policy & Administration
Dr. Mark Gough, School of Labor & Employment Relations
Today we visited Husqvarna a Swedish manufacturer. During this visit, we took a tour of the factory where the company makes its products. It was very cool seeing all of the hard work that goes into making just one piece of equipment. After the tour, the group met with a few of the Human Resource managers at the company. We talked about HR at their company and the benefits they offered their employees. It was interesting finding out that just like in the United States companies are offering programs for the wellness of their workers. After visiting Husqvarna the group headed back to our hotel to deliver our in-country presentations. It was great to listen to everyone’s personal experiences so far in Sweden. We all talked about things we expected to get from Sweden and if they were confirmed or rejected. Following the presentations, the group went to a local pizza shop to have lunch. The store offered lots of different types of combinations our favorite was the chicken pizza. The pizza was so delicious that we all. had an entire pizza to o In our final hours in Jonxoipjg we took the time explore parts of the city that we did not see yet. While walking we witnessed a local political campaign for an election. It was interesting, but maybe it would have been even more exciting if we spoke Swedish. To end the day we hopped on a train to finally make our way to the beautiful town of Stockholm. It is hard to believe that the trip is almost over Sweden has definitely showed us a good time !!! The memories and friends we have made are something that we will never forget !
Yesterday we visited the Karolinska Institute for a lecture on Women, Work, and Stress. The study was interesting because it looked at women ages 50+ which tends to be a under represented age in many studies. The findings showed that many women in this age group experience worker burnout, anxiety, and depression which can lead to physiological changes in the body such as high cortisol levels and restricted blood flow within arteries.
After a short fika break in the university cafeteria we headed to the VASA museam which houses one of the oldest preserved ships. The Vasa set sail in 1628 and sunk almost immediately within the harbor of Stockholm, it was salvaged some 333 years later and was restored with 98% of it remaining original. The ship was large, intricute, and had breathtaking design for its time. The museum remained cool and dimly lit in order to keep the preservation of the old wood.
After the museum we headed to Old Town Stockholm to explore local shops. Old Town is lined with old buildings and paved with cobble stone streets. It is a cute area with tons of tourist shops and places to eat.
On the way to Old Town we walked passed the Royal Castle, it is only minutes away from our hotel and it was interesting to see where the Royal family of Sweden lives. The truely are right in the heart of the city.
Today we went to the Karolinska Institute and were able to sit in on a lecture given by Dr. Aila Collins. She told about the studies that she has conducted and the information she has gathered from them. We then got to experience the “college food” options they had – for Fika – which were way better then American on-campus food options.
We then went to the Vasa museum and we learned all about it and the amazing artifacts they were able to recover from it. It is truly crazy how after over 300 years of the ship being underwater, they were able to piece it back together and retrieve so many artifacts. I’m really glad we got to experience this truly fascinating museum and get a little piece of Sweden’s history.
Afterword’s we went to Old town and got dinner while completing some of our souvenir shopping. It was a very relaxed yet educational day which was nice to have especially as we are nearing the end of our trip.
Today was our first full day in Stockholm and boy was it busy! At the Karolinksa Institute we learned about woman in the workplace. More specifically about how and why the stress occurs in specific institutions. After that, we were off to the Vassa museum which was beyond amazing! This ship capsized minutes after setting sail due to the lack of rocks being placed at the bottom. Therefore, a gust of wind tipped it over! It held up to 500 people and the sheer size of it made the three of us stand there in awe. The coolest part was seeing the artwork on the outside of the ship and the gold ring that was discovered from a victim of the sinking. Although it was eerie it was an amazing experience! Next, we went to Old Town which was beautiful. We particularly enjoyed the arcitecture and cobble stoned streets. We felt very much at home sitting down for a late lunch at a cafe that was placed in the middle of the city! After that, we went shopping for some hand painted pictures of Stockholm! We walked past at least 5 gelato shops which was a tell-tale sign that we needed some! After a quick nap at the hotel, we met up with some other students and toured around the city! In all it was a very productive and great day!
Today marks a very special day. We are visiting yet another excellent company native to Sweden. Today’s company is Husqvarna, who specializes in creation of chainsaws, zero turn lawnmowers, trimmers, leaf blowers, and my personal favorite, robotic lawn mowers. Throughout visit with Husqvarna, we toured their manufacturing facilities, spoke with HR specialist, and had witnessed a multitude of their robotic lawn mowers hard at work.
LER 499 in Husqvarna Showroom
It was interesting how great of impact robot culture has spread throughout Sweden. Whether it was the push for more autonomous cars from Volvo, or the multitude of animatronics/robots along the assembly line of Husqvarna, it was clear that Sweden is head towards Sweden is heading to a society less dependent on human control.
Following our visit at Husqvarna we traveled back to our hotel to present our in-country presentations and then to eat lunch afterwords. Presentations went well and following lunch we walked around the city and shopped before we had to catch our train to Stockholm.
The ride was very relaxing as we got to reminisce on our time in the past two cities while also planing what we shall do once we arrived on Stockholm. Once we arrived in the city we immediately made our way over to our hotel, which was truly incredible! We certainly found a great spot in the city to call our home for the following three days.
Its our last full day in Sweden! We are so sad to leave this beautiful country, but so happy with all we were able to experience in these last 10 days. With the full day to ourselves to explore Stockholm, we went back to Old Town and did more shopping and sightseeing. It was such great weather today, a perfect way to end this trip. There are so many interesting shops in Old Town, it took us a good 4 or 5 hours to cover it all. Of course, we still made time for our daily Fika! We stopped at Wayne’s Coffee and agreed that it was probably the best Fika we’ve had all trip, which says a lot because we’ve had some pretty great Fika in other cities. Getting this day to completely submerse ourselves into Sweden and its culture just furthered our admiration and curiousity for this country. As the day comes to an end, we have begun to prepare for our long trek home. It has been a bit of a struggle to pack our luggages in a way that will accommodate all the souvenirs and clothes we bought but we are determined to make it work! We had our last dinner together at a traditional Swedish restaurant which was very delicious, a perfect last memory of Stockholm and our time together. We hope to stay in touch throughout the summer and beyond and can all agree we will miss Fika time the most.
Today was our last full day in Stockholm. We were determined to make the most of of our day. We did, however, catch up on some sleep and sleep in a little bit. Then we headed out to explore the city and pick up a last couple souvenirs. We ventured through Old Town. It was absolutely gorgeous! We came across this one clothing store that offered a lot of pieces of clothing that supported feminism and all the clothing was sustainable. It was really neat to experience a store like that. Next, we decided to have lunch at a Snap Bistro. It was a cute little Italian restaurant that offered lots of outdoor seating. The pasta was amazing. Then, we made our way back to the hotel to take advantage of the heated roof top pool. The views were absolutely amazing. We didn’t want to even get out! Our trip wouldn’t be complete until we had some Swedish meatballs. We finished our night at a quaint little restaurant to experience some Swedish meatballs and creamy mash potatoes. Definitely made the entire trip. Meredith and I are now off to pack our bags and get ready for our travels home tomorrow.
Another day in Sweden, another day to learn and experience the culture. We began our morning with breakfast in the hotel. Jonkoping has been significantly different from Gothenburg. With different a more modern and bustling hotel and a departure from the old town feeling of Gothenburg, Jonkoping is certainly more of a college town. It is hard to put a finger on which I prefer and I think most of us have resigned to letting that be and enjoying each for what it brings to the table.
After breakfast, we walked to Jonkoping University to hear from Deborah Finkel about the Swedish Twin Studies. Ms. Finkel did a wonderful job of really breaking down the studies and the ramifications they have on healthcare. What is very interesting about them is the window they provide into studying genetics. With essentially genetic matched pairs, longitudinal observational studies can be conducted to draw conclusions about the effects of the environment on our health outcomes. Socioeconomic and other environmental factors work alongside our genetics to determine how traits may be expressed. Over time, the recipe for how much each contributes may shift too.
After this, several students took fika and then visited a church across the street to listen to a visiting German chorale choir. This was a peaceful section in our day and gave us a bit of a second wind after a morning of lecture. After this, we visited Qulturum, a think tank partnered with the Ryhov Hospital and Ministry of Health. Here we learned of some pressing issues in the Swedish health field. I was surprised to find that many of the problems Sweden faces as a country are experienced in the US. Covering problems such as obesity, diabetes, and depression rates–I feel the perspective I can now bring back to the US is more holistic and valuable.
That night, some of us grabbed dinner at the Bishop Arms, our favorite restaurant. We then caught a beautiful sunset off of the Jonkoping pier. This was the most beautiful night we had witnessed in Sweden yet.
Being the last day in Jonkoping, everyone was sad to leave such a fun and amazing city. We bagan the day by traveling to Husqvarne and getting a tour of the facilities. At first we got a speech on the history and products of Husqvarne which was then followed by a tour that showed us how things like chainsaws and lawnmowers were constructed and built from scratch. Additionally, we had the chance to witness how the assembly line functions and can create an unbelievable amount of products in such a short amount of time. We did believe, however, that the work life of repeating similar actions throughout the day would be very monotonous. After speaking with the tour guides, we actually found out that it is common to change positions every two hours and start out at different positions every day. So, this would help with reducing the repetitious behaviors.
Once we concluded with the tour, we had the opportunity to meet with representatives from the Human Resources Department at Husqvarne. During this period, we got to learn more about the regulations and policies that affect the company and employers throughout the year. Something that we found to be very interesting was how during the Summer when a large proportion of the work force take their four week vacation, a lot of companies fully shut down. Some individuals take this vacation time before or after the common time period so there are still some people working and keeping offices open. Once we finished this up, the group headed back to the hotel where everyone presented their in-country presentations revealing some of the main things that they have learned while here in Sweden.
To cap off our time in Jonkoping, we walked through the town and went through a lot of shops or stores that we had not had the opportunity to explore. We also got to talk to some locals about what times throughout the year certain locations are busier than others which was fascinating to learn. In conclusion to this free time, as a group everyone met at the train station where we began our three train journey to Stockholm. With only having limited time to get from train to train, we had to do our best to travel as a group and make sure everyone got to where they had to be. Overall, this was a very interesting but beneficial experience because we successfully navigated using the metro system in another country!
