Packup my Swedish memories
It is time for me to pack up my Swedish memories because I am returning home on Sept 8th - this coming Saturday. Returning to Shanghai was already in plan especially with Aron choosing to work for SIEMENS in Shanghai among the several offers he has got in hand. I have finally boosted some courage to end this internship earlier than expected, to give my time some better use.
Though my internship has not been a good use of my time at all and it ended abruptly due to some politics among colleagues, I still want to lift up my chin and end this 10 months experience with a good taste in my mouth because after all, if I take a holistic look at it, it was by all means challenging and worthwhile. Some highlights of my memories and learnings to take with me:
A real cultural experience: My Dutch experience can be hardly classified as living in another culture compared to my Swedish experience. It is not just because I had celebrated everything traditional either with Aron's family or with AIESEC friends here, starting from Lucia (in Dec), Christmas and New Year, Easter, Valborg (end of April), Mid Summer (end of June) and Crayfish Party (end of Aug). Sweden is a vivid case of how seasonal/weather changes influence people here. Swedes put lights and candles everywhere across the long dark days and paint a beautiful picture of their summers to pass through the harsh winters. Sweden also has a very strong pagen influence in their celebrations: Easter was celebrated with a lot of chicken feathers and Mid Summer is a celebration that people dance around a fertility tree.
On top of those traditional festival celebrations, I was able to be part of Aron's family and observe the dynamics of Swedish family relations. With my limited experience, I have to admit that Swedes are very family oriented. The way parents adore, care and support their kids are very similar to my own parents. I had an interesting conversation with Tomas (Aron's dad) about how parents share the same feelings universally. If I take a look at the colleagues at work, most of them try to leave as early as possible by coming to work very early and use the gym during lunch break, to spend the evenings with their kids.
Then I also had some interesting observations on young Swedish people - how they cannot stand loneliness while statistically Swedish has the largest amount of individual households in the world. My flatmate Maria tries to make all her evenings full of activities: dancing classes, painting classes, dining with friends, etc. Otherwise, she will be on her phone calling her friends and families in other parts of Sweden. What a huge cost of the extreme individualistic culture?!
Social challenges of being an expat: I have to admit that I did not work hard enough of make Swedish friends. Partly because I spent most of my time with Aron, also partly because my standard of choosing friends is a bit too high. So my social network did not go beyond AIESEC. One thing probably again is universally more or less the same is that it is hard to crack into a long established social network. And it is hard to make friends being a passer-by. Taking this learning back to Shanghai, I know how to take care of my friends who did not grow up in Shanghai as well as the AIESEC interns/alumni coming to work from another country. Forgive me bring up cliche here, the idea of AIESEC Experience has its logic here. =)
There are definitely learnings from work as well though not so much about marketing and branding but more about relationships with managers and colleagues and the way to push for changes. The most important thing is to pick myself up from where I fell, with the same level of self belief and esteem to fight for a better next step! Returning to Shanghai for interviews and will update with good news, hopefully soon enough!
This post is dedicated to all of those I have met and spent quality time here in Sweden! Kram!
Though my internship has not been a good use of my time at all and it ended abruptly due to some politics among colleagues, I still want to lift up my chin and end this 10 months experience with a good taste in my mouth because after all, if I take a holistic look at it, it was by all means challenging and worthwhile. Some highlights of my memories and learnings to take with me:
A real cultural experience: My Dutch experience can be hardly classified as living in another culture compared to my Swedish experience. It is not just because I had celebrated everything traditional either with Aron's family or with AIESEC friends here, starting from Lucia (in Dec), Christmas and New Year, Easter, Valborg (end of April), Mid Summer (end of June) and Crayfish Party (end of Aug). Sweden is a vivid case of how seasonal/weather changes influence people here. Swedes put lights and candles everywhere across the long dark days and paint a beautiful picture of their summers to pass through the harsh winters. Sweden also has a very strong pagen influence in their celebrations: Easter was celebrated with a lot of chicken feathers and Mid Summer is a celebration that people dance around a fertility tree.
On top of those traditional festival celebrations, I was able to be part of Aron's family and observe the dynamics of Swedish family relations. With my limited experience, I have to admit that Swedes are very family oriented. The way parents adore, care and support their kids are very similar to my own parents. I had an interesting conversation with Tomas (Aron's dad) about how parents share the same feelings universally. If I take a look at the colleagues at work, most of them try to leave as early as possible by coming to work very early and use the gym during lunch break, to spend the evenings with their kids.
Then I also had some interesting observations on young Swedish people - how they cannot stand loneliness while statistically Swedish has the largest amount of individual households in the world. My flatmate Maria tries to make all her evenings full of activities: dancing classes, painting classes, dining with friends, etc. Otherwise, she will be on her phone calling her friends and families in other parts of Sweden. What a huge cost of the extreme individualistic culture?!
Social challenges of being an expat: I have to admit that I did not work hard enough of make Swedish friends. Partly because I spent most of my time with Aron, also partly because my standard of choosing friends is a bit too high. So my social network did not go beyond AIESEC. One thing probably again is universally more or less the same is that it is hard to crack into a long established social network. And it is hard to make friends being a passer-by. Taking this learning back to Shanghai, I know how to take care of my friends who did not grow up in Shanghai as well as the AIESEC interns/alumni coming to work from another country. Forgive me bring up cliche here, the idea of AIESEC Experience has its logic here. =)
There are definitely learnings from work as well though not so much about marketing and branding but more about relationships with managers and colleagues and the way to push for changes. The most important thing is to pick myself up from where I fell, with the same level of self belief and esteem to fight for a better next step! Returning to Shanghai for interviews and will update with good news, hopefully soon enough!
This post is dedicated to all of those I have met and spent quality time here in Sweden! Kram!
posted by Jingwei @ 1:03 AM
1 comments
1 Comments:
A very courageous decision, respect to you. Hope to meet you soon somewhere on the planet. The best of luck on your return!!!
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