{"id":15493,"date":"2025-08-25T12:03:49","date_gmt":"2025-08-25T11:03:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hejsweden.com\/?p=15493"},"modified":"2025-08-25T12:05:26","modified_gmt":"2025-08-25T11:05:26","slug":"20-years-ago-arriving-in-sweden","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hejsweden.com\/en\/20-years-ago-arriving-in-sweden\/","title":{"rendered":"Love at First Sight: My First Day in Sweden, 20 Years Ago"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2304\" height=\"1728\" src=\"https:\/\/hejsweden.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/The-beginning-of-my-Sweden-adventure.jpg\" alt=\"Matthias on the ferry to Denmark on the way to Sweden in 2005\" class=\"wp-image-15496\" style=\"width:556px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/hejsweden.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/The-beginning-of-my-Sweden-adventure.jpg 2304w, https:\/\/hejsweden.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/The-beginning-of-my-Sweden-adventure-800x600.jpg 800w, https:\/\/hejsweden.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/The-beginning-of-my-Sweden-adventure-1240x930.jpg 1240w, https:\/\/hejsweden.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/The-beginning-of-my-Sweden-adventure-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/hejsweden.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/The-beginning-of-my-Sweden-adventure-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/hejsweden.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/The-beginning-of-my-Sweden-adventure-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/hejsweden.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/The-beginning-of-my-Sweden-adventure-2048x1536.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2304px) 100vw, 2304px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>That\u2019s me, almost exactly 20 years ago. On a ferry from Germany to Denmark &#8211; eating a Br\u00f6tchen, completely unaware of how a kanelbulle tastes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The 23rd of August <a><\/a>2005: my first day in Sweden. The first day of a new chapter of my life &#8211; an adventure that was originally intended to last only one semester, but somehow\u2026 it kept going.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Arriving at V\u00e4xj\u00f6 Campus, I instantly fell in love with this vibrant place (mainly due to those cheerful students celebrating in their funny looking overalls). What an amazing place, I thought. It created a feeling that this was something truly special.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1801\" height=\"1060\" src=\"https:\/\/hejsweden.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Swedish-students-welcome-week-on-Campus-in-Vaxjo-2005.jpg\" alt=\"Swedish students party on Campus in V\u00e4xj\u00f6 Sweden 2005\" class=\"wp-image-15502\" style=\"width:707px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/hejsweden.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Swedish-students-welcome-week-on-Campus-in-Vaxjo-2005.jpg 1801w, https:\/\/hejsweden.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Swedish-students-welcome-week-on-Campus-in-Vaxjo-2005-800x471.jpg 800w, https:\/\/hejsweden.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Swedish-students-welcome-week-on-Campus-in-Vaxjo-2005-1240x730.jpg 1240w, https:\/\/hejsweden.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Swedish-students-welcome-week-on-Campus-in-Vaxjo-2005-300x177.jpg 300w, https:\/\/hejsweden.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Swedish-students-welcome-week-on-Campus-in-Vaxjo-2005-768x452.jpg 768w, https:\/\/hejsweden.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Swedish-students-welcome-week-on-Campus-in-Vaxjo-2005-1536x904.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1801px) 100vw, 1801px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Welcome Week on V\u00e4xj\u00f6 Campus 2005<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After exploring Campus and V\u00e4xj\u00f6, I gradually got to know more of Sweden. And after falling in love with the country and its people, I knew Sweden was where I wanted to stay.<\/p><div id=\"hejsw-842265398\" class=\"hejsw-content-sfa-desktop-and-tablet-1 hejsw-entity-placement\" style=\"margin-left: auto;margin-right: auto;text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3eu3RS1\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"Book about Sweden - How to be Swedish\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/hejsweden.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/HtbS-ad-main-220420-1-1.png\" alt=\"Book about Sweden - How to be Swedish\"  srcset=\"https:\/\/hejsweden.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/HtbS-ad-main-220420-1-1.png 900w, https:\/\/hejsweden.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/HtbS-ad-main-220420-1-1-800x600.png 800w, https:\/\/hejsweden.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/HtbS-ad-main-220420-1-1-300x225.png 300w, https:\/\/hejsweden.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/HtbS-ad-main-220420-1-1-768x576.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\" class=\"no-lazyload\" width=\"900\" height=\"675\"   \/><\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Of course, there are still so many \u201cSwedish things\u201d that are a mystery to me, and I still experience occasional culture shocks. The language: doesn\u2019t fit like a \u201chand i handske\u201d. The pronunciation still challenges my tongue (and self-confidence). At least my r-sound feels a little more at home since I moved to Sk\u00e5ne a few years ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I could go on and on \u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What I wanted to say here is this: I\u2019m deeply thankful to Sweden and the Swedes for having given me all the experiences, challenges, opportunities &#8211; and most of all, my family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Tack Sverige!<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>That\u2019s me, almost exactly 20 years ago. On a ferry from Germany to Denmark &#8211; eating a Br\u00f6tchen, completely unaware of how a kanelbulle tastes. The 23rd of August 2005: my first day in Sweden. &#8230; <a title=\"Love at First Sight: My First Day in Sweden, 20 Years Ago\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/hejsweden.com\/en\/20-years-ago-arriving-in-sweden\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Love at First Sight: My First Day in Sweden, 20 Years Ago\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":15496,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"generate_page_header":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[425,681],"tags":[1039],"class_list":["post-15493","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-schweden-blog","category-sweden-blog","tag-leben-in-schweden","infinite-scroll-item","masonry-post","generate-columns","tablet-grid-50","mobile-grid-100","grid-parent","grid-50"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Love at First Sight: My First Day in Sweden, 20 Years Ago - Hej Sweden<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/hejsweden.com\/en\/20-years-ago-arriving-in-sweden\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Love at First Sight: My First Day in Sweden, 20 Years Ago - Hej Sweden\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"That\u2019s me, almost exactly 20 years ago. On a ferry from Germany to Denmark &#8211; eating a Br\u00f6tchen, completely unaware of how a kanelbulle tastes. The 23rd of August 2005: my first day in Sweden. ... 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