Daily cinema performance...

No, unfortunately the title doesn't mean that it is the filmfestival again and I can go to the cinema every day. I am rather referring to the view from my window when sitting in front of my desk (which I now do daily from afternoon until late at night)! The highlight of every afternoon (prime time so to say) is the sunset which takes place later and later from day to day. At the moment we're winning 5 minutes of daylight every day so that the days will very soon be longer again here than in Germany.I will also use this occasion (and prolongen my study break...) to give a brief comparison of the Swedish and German university systems. I have to stress that this is only the opinion formed from my experiences as a student in Stockholm and Passau and doesn't have to hold true for all universities/subjects/courses.

Here are the biggest differences:
1. The courses don't run parallel throughout the whole semester, but students are rather expected to take one (max. two) 5-week course(s) at a time and start the next one after the former one has been finished with an exam/paper. This implies that the work load is spread more evenly over the semester; one has to study more every week (including lectures of the same subject almost every day), but the exhausting German "Klausurenphase" with up to 7 exams a week at the end of the semester doesn't exist. In my opinion highly positive, unless (as in my case) the required courses are scheduled in the same period...
2. Studying at Swedish universities is in my opinion a lot more "active" (compared to the passive German system of mass lectures with the professor lecturing monotonously in the front and 300-800 students scribbling down every word he says to learn it by heart afterwards). The majority of the courses I took here were limited to an average of 30 students (about 15 in Geography, 50 in Politics, 7 in French Litterature and 30 in Swedish culture) and consisted mostly of discussions about texts/articles/books we had to read preliminary to the course or papers we had to write and then pass on to other course mates to judge them. In Markting we have big lectures (about 600 students), but additionally there are 2 seminars where we are about 30 students who have to prepare and present our marketing project in groups of 4. Same holds true for Accounting, where we are about 80 students in the lectures and have to prepare balance sheets for the seminars in groups of three. I have to admit that I remember more from the courses I did here than from any course I did in Germany!

Ojojoj, this should do for a start ... by the way, that is what it looks like outside now: