Welcome to Stockholm, Sweden!
I still remember looking out the airplane window as we began our descent into Stockholm Arlanda Airport. Before I even landed, I could see greenery stretching across the landscape below me. After months of preparing, planning, packing, and counting down, I was finally here.
I remember feeling a mix of excitement and nervousness, knowing I was about to spend the next three months living in a country I had never called home. I had no idea what these months would look like, but I was excited for everything waiting for me.
Arriving in Stockholm felt like the beginning of something much bigger than just a semester abroad. I came here expecting to take classes, explore a new city, meet new people, and experience Swedish culture. What I did not expect was how much the city itself would become part of what I was learning.
A City That Keeps You Moving. . .
One of the first things I noticed about living in Stockholm was how natural movement became part of my everyday routine. Instead of getting in a car for every trip, I found myself walking to the metro, taking the train to school, exploring different neighborhoods, and sometimes simply choosing to walk because there was so much to see along the way.
The metro quickly became a normal part of my morning. Getting to class meant navigating Stockholm’s public transportation system, and getting somewhere new often felt as simple as checking a route and hopping on a train. There always seemed to be another neighborhood to explore, another café to try, another restaurant to discover, or another place I had never seen before. Having so many options made exploring feel effortless.
I began to realize that how you get around a city can shape how you experience it. In Stockholm, walking and public transportation don’t feel like separate forms of exercise or transportation — they have simply become part of my daily life. Some of my favorite memories happened on the way to somewhere else.
Building a Relationship with Nature
If there is one thing I did not expect to become such a big part of my Stockholm experience, it is my relationship with nature. I’ve spent so much of my time here outdoors, whether I was hiking with friends, going on bike rides, walking along the shore, running toward the old town Gamla Stan, or simply taking a longer route home because I wanted to see where it led.
Stockholm has made it easy to find green spaces and water throughout the city. Nature does not feel like something you have to leave the city to find. It is woven into the places where people live, study, walk, and spend time together.
One of my favorite recent experiences was going to an apple festival and experiencing the beginning of fall in Sweden. Seeing the seasons change around me made me appreciate how much I had come to enjoy being outside.
I also experienced this connection between nature and the city through my Smart and Sustainable Cities class. During one of our field studies, we participated in class gardening, which let me learn about sustainability through hands-on work rather than just reading about it.
Whether I was biking with friends or walking beside the water, I started to realize that nature wasn’t just something I visited in Stockholm. It has become part of my everyday life.
Is It Time for Fika Yet?
Before coming to Sweden, I had heard the word “fika,” but I didn’t really understand what it meant. Now it’s one of my favorite Swedish words. Fika is often translated as a coffee break, but I quickly learned that it is about much more than coffee. It is about taking a moment to slow down, sit with someone, and enjoy the experience.
Of course, I cannot talk about fika without mentioning cinnamon buns and hot chocolate. I love trying different cafés and experiencing fika with my friends. One of my favorite moments was having to order in Swedish for a class project. It was a small interaction, but it made me feel like I was participating in everyday Swedish life rather than simply observing it.
What I love most about fika is that it creates a reason to pause. Amid classes, assignments, exploring, and everything else that comes with studying abroad, there is always an opportunity to sit down, have something warm, and spend time with the people around you.
Looking Beyond a Hospital Room
As someone interested in medicine, I’ve always thought a lot about what happens inside a hospital. But one of the most meaningful parts of my time in Sweden has been learning to look beyond the hospital room.
During a short study tour to Gothenburg with my healthcare policy group, we met professors and professionals working in different parts of the healthcare field. Instead of learning about healthcare only through a traditional patient-and-doctor setting, we heard from people involved in research, education, policy, and other parts of the healthcare system.
That experience connected closely with what I have been learning in my Public Health Policy course. I came to Stockholm thinking about health primarily through the lens of medicine, but living here has encouraged me to think about everything that surrounds healthcare, too.
The more I explored Stockholm, the more I started seeing connections between my everyday experiences and what we discussed in class. Transportation affects how people move through their communities. Green spaces create opportunities to spend time outdoors. Public spaces bring people together. Fika creates moments of social connection. Even a city’s design can shape how people experience their everyday lives.
I began to understand that health doesn’t begin when someone walks through a hospital door. It is shaped long before that — in the places where people live, the ways they move, the communities they build, and the systems around them. That’s one of the biggest lessons I am taking away from my time in Stockholm.
Life by the Coast: ft. New Friends
Some of my favorite memories in Stockholm have nothing to do with a specific assignment, class, or tourist attraction. They are the simple moments I have shared with my friends.
Living in a city surrounded by water has given us so many places to spend time together. We walk along the shore in the morning, explore the city in the evening, and stay out late talking and making memories. Experiencing Stockholm together at different times of day has made the city feel much more familiar.
One of the things I have appreciated most is the sense of comfort and independence I have felt while exploring with my friends. We’ve spent our mornings, evenings, and late nights discovering new places and creating experiences I know I will remember long after I leave Sweden.
Sometimes the most meaningful parts of studying abroad are not the big trips or major events. They are the walks, conversations, spontaneous plans, and ordinary moments that you end up wishing you could freeze in time.
Taking Stockholm Back to the Forty Acres!
When I first landed at Stockholm Arlanda Airport, I was excited about the next three months but had no idea how much Stockholm would change the way I see the world around me. I came here to study abroad, but I ended up learning from the city just as much as I learned from my classrooms.
Stockholm has taught me to look at health beyond medicine. I now notice how transportation, nature, public spaces, community, and everyday routines can all become part of the bigger picture of health. As someone interested in pursuing a career in healthcare, I know I will carry that perspective.
I will take more than memories back to The University of Texas at Austin. I will take the habit of looking around me and asking how the places we live shape the way we live. I will take the friendships, the hikes, the metro rides, the fika breaks, the waterfront walks, and all of the little moments that made Stockholm feel like home.
I arrived in Stockholm looking out of an airplane window at a city covered in green. Three months later, I know I will leave seeing that city — and health itself — in a completely different way.
This blog was contributed by Mahisri Kallam, Global Ambassador for Fall 2026. Mahisri is a College of Education first-year participating in the Take the World by the Horns program in partnership with DIS Abroad in Stockholm, Sweden.
