Week 1 - The first week of work and IT- chaos!

The walkway to the bus station

I dont even know where to start. This first week was full of grant impressions, new colleagues and a lot of little and little bigger issues.

Let's maybe start with Monday, 2nd of February 2026, around 9:45am - my first day!

I left my beautiful little apartment wayyy to early, stressing about public transport, since I was told public transport in Stockholm - similar to Berlin - is in shell shock as soon as there is snow. And as you can see, snow we got plenty!

I took the bus to Älvsjö station, changed onto the Pendeltåg to Stockholm main station, got lost there trying to find the Tunnelbana but eventually made it to T - Stadion. The station I will from now on call "Somewhere under the rainbow" for obvious reasons.

T-Stadion, one of the most beautiful stations in Stockholm

Navigating the station was made easy by this sign (top left corner)

I made my way to above sea level where I was guided (not just by the light) to what I can only describe as the best workplace ever. The Royal College of Music in Stockholm - or in Swedish: Musikhögskolan.

Of course I was there wayyy to early so instead of going inside I stood around outside enjoying the late morning sun making its way past some of the clouds, as well as making funny faces at my phone - here is a sneak peak of that.

I was nervous, but as excited as a little kid on Christmas.. seeing the Easter Bunny, with a Birthday hat, riding on a dinosaur.

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/e131d4_bc58a7d845ba42bba650d9d46c7dd17e/1080p/mp4/file.mp4

I was very excited to be at work!

A few minutes before 11am I made my way into the lobby where I was picked up at 11am sharp - typical Swedish style - by the departments head Ghada! One of the loveliest people I have ever met.

She gave me a tour of the main 3 buildings of the campus, made sure I got my key card and office key working and introduced me to Markus - the IT God - who was my hero this first week... Lastly, she gave me a quick overview of the department, introduced me to some of my new colleagues and got me hooked on coffee.

Tuesday is when I met my boss for the next few months: Malin. She was sick Monday, but made it her priority to come in on Tuesday to welcome me, get my laptop set-up (more on that on Wednesday and Thursday...) and show me some of the things she does at the International Office of KMH and what my specific tasks will be for the first 1-2 weeks.

I got started on making Excel tables on a MacBook... and if that wasn't hard enough for someone used to Windows - boom - the MacBook is in Swedish. Could I have changed the language of Excel? Most definetly! Did (/Do) I know how to? Nope. Did I wanna ask? No, I'd rather suffer. So Tuesday was a lot of guessing Excel terms and having more coffee.

Leaving work on Monday. Brick building is the library, glass building is where I work

Wednesday is where things started going downhill.

I got to work, and the beautiful MacBook? - locked. My wonderful boss Malin? - Sick! Out for the entire rest of the week.

So I went to down to Markus in hope for some IT-magic, spend the day looking over peoples shoulders, asking about the work they do with KMH and learning about all the cool free things.. like a GYM, an indoor swimming pool, Lunch concerts and .. UNLIMITED COFFEE - with oat milk!

I learned about some of the programs they used to use and still use for student administration.

I also got to attend my first department meeting - of course in Swedish - where I understood about... 1/3 of what was going on and got to introduce myself to the team - luckily in English. We had lunch together and before I knew it I went home.

Thursday started with more IT-issues so - pop goes the weasle - back down to Markus I went. This poor guy is probably so sick of seeing my face. I tried to make up for it with an extra sing-songy "Godmorgon Markuuuuuss" - not sure if that worked to be honest. But no luck with the MacBook at morning either...

Nearly all of the department was in meetings all day.. so the early morning was slow..

But as the clock struck 11am - AN EMAIL - "It should be working now, try to log in". My hero: Markus! I was in! The laptop finally working, 30 minutes to go before Lunch and I had a working laptop!

For the next 30 minutes I tried to catch up on the last 24h of work, going over Excel tables, checking my E-Mails and letting Malin know everything worked - finally.

Public "Lunch Concert" - Aspects of Snow by the Vocal Ensemble

Then after lunch I got to go to one of the weekly "Lunch-Concerts" right by the cafeterias concert hall ! I was able to even invite a friend, because guess what, those tickets? Also free!

The students concert was beautiful; and full of fresh energy I was ready to take on the rest of the workday.

I did some things here and there until 3pm when I attended - and involuntarily hosted - a "Welcome Fika" for the new exchange students (and myself). We had some cake, coffee and wonderful conversations. Played some introduction games to remember some names and enjoyed the afternoon together.

Well, I was also working, since I was tasked with collecting questions and concerns of the students and forward them to Malin the next day... there was also a big mix-up that day.. I might make a separate post on that - or maybe that will just be my KMH secret 🤫

Frosty morning at the bus station with some sun peaking through the clouds

Friday was mainly e-mailing European co-operating universities about nominated students for 2026/2027 and occasionally calling them for more information on certain fields of study. I also compiled the list of questions the students gave me and brain-stormed with Malin, as well as letting the students know about potential solutions.

It was a fairly repetitive day - but after the week I had - it was just what the doctor ordered. I got lot's of work done and got to enjoy some quiet office work with little distractions after a bombardment of new impressions all week.

Now it's Friday night, I am ready for bed.

Happy to be here and excited to see what the next weeks has in store for me! Follow along for more - way too detailed - blogs! ✨