Student blogs

As you might know from my previous blog posts, I live in KI Housing Jägargatan. This housing is located in Södermalm (a very vibrant island located near the city centre), and there are corridor rooms with shared bathrooms and shared kitchen. Jägargatan has a special place in my heart since I made very good friends during my stay here. This is why I wanted to write about this place to give an idea about how these little rooms in a corridor became home to so many people.

Whenever I tell people that I live in a corridor room with shared kitchen, the first reaction I get is, “Is the kitchen clean?”. To answer this question once and for all, I want to say, “Yes, it is clean, from time to time ?”. I said from time to time because sometimes it can be, of course, messy. However, when we make a mess, we clean together too, so as long as everyone respects each other, everything works out (no need to worry, mom :)). Now that I answered probably the most important question, I want to shift our attention to my friends who are living or lived in Jägargatan. In this blog, I will give space to their thoughts about this housing, and I wanted them to give us a tip to make your corridor room feel like home.

Lara

Firstly, I interviewed my beloved friend Lara from Turkey, who sadly returned back to continue her studies.

A little bit about Lara: My name is Lara and I come from Türkiye. I did a two-months Erasmus+ traineeship at KI in August-September this year.

Tell us one thing that you like about Jägargatan: The “one” that I love about Jägargatan is the “friendship”. Back in my home country I am living with my parents and this was my very first experience of living in a community. Thanks to its conditions, Jägargatan let me be friends with (almost) everyone in my corridor (Floor 5 ROCKS!). We always cooked together, ate together and chilled together… The diversity in my housing made me feel like a part of the real world and I believe my friendships will last forever!

Tell us one thing that you would like to change about Jägargatan: What I would like to change is… To be honest, I cannot find anything now. This housing was the best option for me in terms of price-performance and I think it gave me the real best

Tips for making your room feel like home: Hmm, I really love candles, and I have always believed they make every place as cosy as it can be 🙂 So I recommend you to have some for your own (I bought candles as a gift from Candleroom in Sankt Eriksgatan, and they smell amazing! I recommend that place as well). In addition, even though I haven’t done this since I stayed in a short-time period, you may bring some pictures of your beloved ones and hang thesw photos in your room so you can always have your best people with you! ❤️

Ole

A little bit about Ole: I am from a small city called Ulm in south Germany. Right now, I am doing an internship at KI for 6 months, but since I really enjoy the people, my lab and the city, I will stay for my master’s thesis.

Tell us one thing that you like about Jägargatan: I like the people. In general, it’s not easy no get in touch with many people if you move to a new city, especially if you are doing an internship. Jägargatan provides the perfect opportunity to make friends with amazing people.

Tell us one thing that you would like to change about Jägargatan: Definitely a bigger kitchen! Like many people here, I like to cook every day, which can be quite challenging from time to time. Otherwise, it’s the perfect opportunity to have a talk a get to know your flatmates during the waiting time.

Tips for making your room feel like home: Tip number 1: Buy or steal a plant! Makes your place more vivid. Tip number 2: Bring or print some pictures from where ever you are and hang them on the wall. Why, you might ask? Because it makes the room your personal place with personal memories. Tip number 3: Don´t spend all your time in your room. Get to know the people, this will make the whole flat like your room.

Atakan

A little bit about Atakan: My name is Atakan. I’m from Turkey, and I’m an intern at Biomedicum. Since this is a long internship, I have been staying in Jägargatan since the end of July, and I will stay until early June!

Tell us one thing that you like about Jägargatan: Well, there are a lot of things I like about it, but if I only gad to choose one, it would be the friends I made there. Never have I ever met so many special people in one place.

Tell us one thing that you would like to change about Jägargatan: Once, me and my friends met some people outside of the building watching the scenery. We talked for a while, and they were truly shocked when we said that we were from the “building over there.” Apparently, they thought it was abandoned. So yeah, the building kinda looks sad and lonely from the outside. It needs some care.

Tips for making your room feel like home: Familiar smells help me a lot. We’d sometimes have a candle burning in the house, and having a soft scent lingering in the living room had always been nice. That is why I light a candle in my room every once in a while to feel a bit cozier.

Bet

A little bit about Bet: I’m Bet from Spain, and I’m studying Master’s programme in Public Health at KI. My master’s is 2 years, so I am planning to stay the longest time allowed in Jägargatan ( only 1 year 🙁 )

Tell us one thing that you like about Jägargatan: The best thing about Jägargatan is the people. Here I always feel I am at home, and I made some great international friends who teach me lots of things; I am really glad I came here because of that (I also love that the lake is so close).

Tell us one thing that you would like to change about Jägargatan: If I had to change one thing would be the living room because I would love it to be more cosy and big.

Tips for making your room feel like home: Mmm, for my room, I love putting new lighting with calid colours, candles and some pictures and cards. I also moved the furniture to make it more of my own space. I honestly think Jagargatan is a really good place to stay.

Final comments from Yagmur

As you can see, a lot of us agree that the best thing about Jägargatan is the people living here and the little international community that we built in this place. Before I started writing this blog, we said goodbye to one of our friend, Amit, who sadly went back to his home country. Before he left, we decided to gather in the living room and say our goodbyes. That day, we talked a lot about our first impressions of each other, how we felt during the first days etc. It showed me that each of us had similar doubts before coming here, “Am I going to be alone ?”. It is often a question in the mind when you leave your home and move to another city/country. However, our stay here taught us that no matter what your background/religion/belief/mother language is, you are not going to be alone.

I would like to thank my friends for their answers, and I hope it was helpful for you to get an insight into Jägargatan. Also, Lauren has a very nice blog post , I would recommend you read that blog to learn more about Jägargatan.

Lastly, KI offers housing in six different areas in Stockholm; you can see the list of areas in here (and yes they also offer housing for Master’s programme in Molecular Techniques in Life Science students).

If you have any question, you can reach me via e-mail or just drop a comment below.

See you in the next blog!