Hi everybody,

My name is Ademir and I am currently an exchange student in Göteborg working in atomic physics.

I arrived at the end of august and my first impression was not as good: gray and cold. But some days later I saw the sun first time and life started to go, now I am loving Sweden.

A few things that you are going to enjoy in Sweden.

1. The seasons. Here I experienced my first real autumn and winter (with a lot of snow!). You see the change everywhere, is beautiful.
   
   

   
2. People. Everybody speak english and are friendly. You are not going to have any problems to make friends and find help everywhere if you need.
3. If you like go outside, you really are going to enjoy nature.
4. Bicycle. Göteborg was planned as a “bike city”. There are special roads and lights for cyclists. Basically you can go anyplace in the city just with your bike, and that not all ! You can get free bikes at CykelKötet. There is not better way to enjoy the city as rolling around.
5. Music, dance and culture. There is plenty of places that you can visit everyday, museums, art exhibitions, concerts, dance events, cultural parties, etc. Göteborg is a cosmopolitan city, you can find people and culture from every place in the world, even mexican food restaurants and Día de Muertos celebration!

I think come to Göteborg have been the best decision that I could take for my personal life and scientific career. Here I have plenty of time and resources to develop my research in the way that I want, enjoy life and even free time to dance and travel a lot.

My project in Göteborg University is about studies in photodetachment of negative ions. I am working with high quality vacuum and laser equipment. When photons with enough energy hit a negative ion, photodetachment could occurs. This process is similar to photo-ionization. Detecting the outgoing electron and measuring the cross section of the photodetachment is possible get some information about the quantum states of the atoms involved in the collision. As far as I can say, this is my first that I can see and believe the effects of quantum interference!.

Now winter is leaving Sweden, and friends tell me that summer and spring are the best time to enjoy Scandinavia, let see!.

Useful information for new travelers

 

Transportation: Buy the buss/tram card in Göteborg  is ok, but if you travel outside you can buy another cards to get 20% discount in the train service. You can also just make friends and travel with them by car, you can visit several places in Sweden and meet a lot of interesting and friendly people. Hitch-hiking is not common in Sweden, but there is a lot of people traveling from outside to Göteborg  every day to work. In summary, be a friendly person and life doors will be open all the time.

Second hand stores: You need hard clothes for the winter and chili wind. There is a saying here: “There is not hard winter, just bad clothes”. And is right, if your clothes are good enough you are going to be fine. New clothes are really expensive in Sweden, however, you can buy second hand clothes in new conditions by around 50kr. Try that before get struggling by the high prices.

Semla day! : You really need to try this.

Skii and skate: If you come in winter you need to learn how to do this, looks funny. I just tried skate and I love it.

Night life: Plenty of places to visit. Göteborg  has high quality musicians, you can enjoy the opera or jazz Big Bands every week. Sometimes is very expensive, but again, make some musician friends and they are going to invite you!. You can not leave Göteborg without visit Nefertit Jazz Club, best place to take some beer with the friends and enjoy good music.
Music and dance scene are huge in Göteborg. Do you like dance salsa, swing, lindy hop?, you are going to enjoy the swedish ballrooms.