One city, a lot of countries

I think it’s fair to say that when you ask an international student, what is it that makes Umeå special, the answer is undeniably the people here.  Yes, it is a great city... yes, there are amazing things to see (The Northern Lights, The Midnight Sun and many more) but ultimately Umeå has such a great mix of international people that integrate on a level I never really would have imagined.

I suppose at this stage I take it for granted and it was only really one day when I thought about my interactions that I realised how diverse my encounters here in Umeå are.  This day in question started off with meeting my Chinese and Nigerian classmates who I was working on a business project with.  This was followed by a meeting with the Swedish girl who I was writing my thesis with.  Lunch was eaten with my Irish and American friends.  Then that evening I lost count of the different nationalities that I partied with from the Spanish who will always be at every party (but will probably be late) to the Swedes that showed up 15 minutes early and realised that nobody was even there yet!  The French will also be there, drinking their wine while complaining that it tastes like crap but they can’t afford “proper French wine” because Sweden is so “damn expensive”.

A great thing to do in Umeå before the snow comes is to BBQ or as the Swedes say “grill”.  This is another opportunity to see the different cultural approaches to cooking food over hot coals.  The Irish method is usually to eat as much meat as we can that will cook in the shortest time.  I don’t know how many times my Irish friends and I found ourselves in ICA (the local supermarket) asking should we buy ketchup only to collectively answer “no... the Germans will bring that”.  And the Germans will always bring a salad as well.  As a general rule, if you are going to BBQ... invite the Germans!

I particularly liked my Belgian friends approach to BBQ-ing, which involved trying to cook a full chicken breast on a disposable BBQ.  After 40 minutes and acknowledging that the centre of the meat was still an e-coli pink then finally retreated to their kitchen and cooked in the oven.  But you have to admire their effort!

I guess you could argue that every University has an international dimension to it but for me Umeå just does such a great job and making this huge international community, and not only that but allowing you to integrate with the Swedish students through the “Buddy Program”, something that I will talk about in my next post!

Till then, keep reading!

Brian