Hi I am Amy, a 2nd year Geography student and as I am writing this I am on my flight home after spending a wonderful 5 weeks at the University of Gothenburg summer school for sustainability.
Gothenburg has been an amazing city to spend my time in with a combination of beautiful architecture, large green spaces and numerous cafes and shops to explore. My favourite part of the city is the proximity to the archipelago where ferry takes you to islands where you can swim in the sea, go on beautiful nature hikes and visit local businesses. Gothenburg has been voted the most sustainable city in Europe multiple times so it was the perfect setting for my summer school.
Whilst at the summer school I took the course on teaching sustainability. The focus of the lectures was to look at different pedagogical approaches we can take to teach sustainability to a range of groups including school children. Lectures took place in small groups and the workload whilst highly interesting was not too intensive. The university is used to welcoming international students so the whole process was incredibly well organised and I got to visit numerous beautiful study buildings.
I stayed in Olofshöjd student accommodation, along with the other students at the summer school. This meant that I got to spend my evenings with 150 students from over 30 countries playing games, eating together and watching the Euros (not the result we wanted for England!). I have made friendships on this trip that have meant a lot to me and I hope to visit my friends in their home countries in the future.
Transport in and around Gothenburg is phenomenal! For less than £40 I was able to buy a public transport pass that covered all trams, buses and ferries the whole time I was in Sweden making it easy for me to travel around to my lectures and to activities within the city. Whilst on the summer school, I had free time to travel to other countries so I took trips to Copenhagen and Oslo by coach which took less than three hours and was relatively affordable.
For anybody considering a summer school, I would highly recommend it. During our long University summer it has kept me busy and I have had such incredible experiences with incredible people and already wish I could do it all again! If anybody has any questions about the summer school feel free to email me: ad8g23@soton.ac.uk