University of Gothenburg and Akzo Nobel!!

Today was a relatively late morning (later than yesterday!). We got up at 845 and left at 945 for the University of Gothenburg.  We got a talk by two Americans about Sweden.  It was not as boring as I thought it would be, so that was cool. 

The University of Gothenburg presentation

Our speakers were Douglas Washburn and Meghan Bross.  While they talked, I realized that throughout this trip, no one dressed up as formally as us (except Håkan Sandberg, the CEO of Autoadapt, but that was understandable).  The two presenters were wearing jeans with nice shirts. We had suit coats and deadly high heels.

Anyway, Douglas explained some characteristics of Swedes. They are reserved, have a good work and life balance, love nature, and take gender equality seriously.  The proof that Swedes have a generally good work and life balance is in their work schedule.  Companies are required to give everyone a 15-minute bread in the morning and afternoon for coffee and a snack, like kindergarten.  Also, parents are given 300 days of work vacation after a baby is born.  This is split between the parents.  I thought that was crazy.

Douglas also talked to us about studying in Sweden.  Bachelor degrees take 3 years and master degrees take 2 years.  Also, all schooling is tuition free, there are no intramural sports, and they do a lot of group work.  Douglas told us that they are given 5 opportunities to pass the final exam and that great grades aren’t very important. I found this weird, especially in a European country. I didn’t expect that to be the case. 

Meghan Bross told us some facts about Sweden. They are all very good at English. Even if you want to speak Swedish, they say that they want to practice their English with you. It is very interesting.  She also told us a couple things about the working life in Sweden.  You get a lot of independence and there is a lot of flexibility. She also used the saying “frihet under Ansvar” which means freedom under responsibility. That just means that you can do whatever you want, but you gotta finish what you need to do. And she also told us a couple of Swedish words:

Fika= coffee break

Lön= salary

Traktamente= compensation

Fast Anställning= permanent position in a job

Semester= vacation

Chef= manager

The view out of the Akzo Nobel office window

After the University, Katie, Claudia, and I went to Haga for lunch.  We went to a really cute restaurant. Claudia and I had sandwiches and Katie had soup (look at my ‘Food!’ page to see what I ate!). After this, it was time to go to Akzo Nobel.  Akzo Nobel is a surfacing chemical lab.  They focus a lot on surfactants.  These are chemicals that basically help oil and water mix.  For example, if you wash your hair, the water won’t get rid of the oils. Instead, you need to use shampoo, which is actually a surfactant.  I thought that was really cool.  Sara Marlind told us about this.  When she finished her presentation, we got a tour of the Akzo Nobel area.  We got to wear super attractive hard hats with little flaps to protect our eyes.  They made us look very good looking….

Katie and Claudia loved the bus...?

Our awesome bus

Anders Larsson was our tour guide.  He brought us around all of the buildings outside.  We had too many people so we couldn’t tour the factory, but we got to go into one of the asphalt labs and talk to Mark Smith about his work.  He is the Technical Development Manager of Asphalt Applications at Akzo Nobel.  He taught us how they make asphalt and the problems they face.  This lab was my favorite meeting of our trip so far.  I love chemistry (which is why I’m a chemistry major) so I was really interested in all of the processes that they explained.  It would be cool to have a job in Sweden at Akzo Nobel!!

The sunset on the way home from Akzo Nobel

When we got back, we had a short time before it was time to leave for dinner. I had traditional Swedish meatballs, which were amazing.  Then we went to a smaller café for dessert (Tiramisú).  The rest of the night was relaxing. All of us just hung out at the hostel.

On a side note, we were supposed to go to Nudie Jeans tomorrow, but the CEO has a sickness in the family so we can’t go!! I wanted to go, but now we get to sleep in so I’m still happy.  Now I’ll be able to shop tomorrow AND sleep in! That is going to be fun!