After having been here for a month, I feel like I made the best decision for myself and it’s true– who you are surrounded by while you’re abroad has one of the biggest impacts on how your experience will go. Of course, there are amazing perks to each living option and some not-so-great drawbacks, but one recurring feeling that myself and others in the Residential Community have experienced is that we aren’t exactly sure how to build these connections on our own.

We are extremely close in proximity, but we don’t necessarily share that same common interest like the LLCs, nor do we typically have planned activities together to bond over. Even the homestay students, which may seem the most isolated at first glance, have DIS events and already established clear, strong relationships. I’m not entirely sure why that is, but maybe because it’s so easy to be isolated since they aren’t living with other students, they work harder than we do in the RC to ensure that those connections are there. We are constantly surrounded by other students, but it is precisely because of that that it’s hard to find motivation to reach out.

However, all of this is offset by the Tuesday dinners that we have together. Each week, one roommate pair is assigned to cook a meal for the entire hall and we gather in the common room to share a meal. It’s an amazing opportunity to reconnect with all the people that are living literally right outside our doors. My friends and I look forward to checking in and remembering that we have a supportive group of people because all of us are experiencing so many new things on a daily basis. Getting to sit down together and share an hour or two every week is now so important to my experience in Stockholm because I sometimes forget that we are supposed to be a community here and finally feeling that way is amazing.