Finding North

Note: From this point on, I'm going to be referring to the place where I live (in the north) with the general term "Sweden" for the sake of simplicity. Please bear in mind that this is a big country and things vary a lot between the north and the south, so a lot of what I post might only apply or make sense in regards to the north. I'd also like to point out that I'll be sharing things I personally experience and the impressions I get from specific situations and people. I don't want to step on anyone's toes or make anyone upset by thinking that I'm generalizing in any way.   I arrived to my destination late at night on the 24th of January. I had planned to take the first week off to relax and enjoy some free time with my boyfriend and his family. But I couldn't do it...a mere three days in and I let my anxiety roam free - I became restless. Suddenly I had no time to lose and certainly shouldn't throw away those first few days away. The al...

Hello internet! My name is Joana and I'm from Lisbon, the capital city of Portugal. For those of you who might not know a lot about it, Portugal is a small and very sunny country in Western Europe. I lived in the same street, house and city for my entire life! So it's safe to say it is very overwhelming to find myself living...in the north of Sweden right now! But how did this happen? What brought me to this cold little corner of the world? Well, let me start from the beginning... To tell this tale, we have to go back to my high school years, when I started talking to a swedish guy on the internet, who was really funny, smart and sweet. We quickly became friends and had great talks about the movies we loved, but also shared things about our lives and what made us into who we were. Time passed and I entered a local university to study Psychology, which if you don't know ( because why would you? ), is a degree that requires you to take a bachelor (3 years) and a mas...