Day 0: Preparations and more preparations

Hi everyone reading this little tiny blog of mine,

This is just a journal to record my exchange programme experience. If someone benefits from reading this blog, I would be glad as well. I have to say that I am really excited for the exchange, and I am very thankful to my parents and my school for giving me this opportunity to experience the adventure of a lifetime.

For starters, I would like to give a quick introduction to the exchange programme I am in, and other general information.

I am in the GEM Explorer programme from NTU, and I will be going to Linköping University for approximately six months for my programme. As I applied for accomodation from the school, I will be staying in a corridor room (every level has eight) for one person with my own toilet. There will be a shared kitchen and living area. The rooms sounds really good, but so is the rental. The rental, is a lot of money, especially if you compared it to NTU's hall fees. It is almost thrice the price T.T

Of course, other than the accommadation, there is also the flight tickets. My mother is a loyal customer of SIA,  so she wanted me to use the Singapore Airlines. I was fine with that (who would say no to better food and service?), and we managed to get a good deal from STA. However, as soon as we made the decision to use SIA,  we had another problem.  They ran out of the flights to Copenhagen,  so we had to make do and fly to Amsterdam so that we can change another flight to Stockholm. It was a really stressful period. On one hand, I had to rush out my assignments,  and on the other, I had to do research on the flights.  In the end, we decided to take a flight to Stockholm, stay a night, then take a train from Stockholm to Linköping.  So it was a flight to Amsterdam SIA,  then a flight to Stockholm by SAS, then stay a night and take a breather before proceeding on to Linköping by bus. It was not the most efficient nor the cheapest way of travelling there, but I think it will be a good experience. Lesson to self: Remember to book your flight early before the seats for promotional price runs out.

We decided to stay in this hostel called City Backpacker's Hostel and take the bus to Linköping.

I hope that all will go ell and we will reach our final destination safely.