I assume that sex is a rather essential topic for Erasmus students, and something than you don’t get nearly as much  information about as how to get a library card. That’s why I’ll give you new students a small practical sex guide for Göteborg:

Where to buy condoms: You find them in most big supermarkets, pharmacies and small supermarkets like 7eleven. Generally you have to ask for them, since they are kept behind the cash desk- a detail that makes the buying-condoms-situation even more inconvenient… A tips is to visit Ungdomsmottagningen (see below) where you normally get them for free.

Where to buy a pregnancy test: If you didn’t dare to ask for the condoms in the supermarket, you might find yourself in the situation when you need a pregnancy test… Normally you find them in the same places as the condoms, but the same thing here: you might have ask for it. The price is around 100 kronor.

Where to make a STD test: There are several places where you can make a  test to see if you have any sexually transmitted diseases (e.g. Ungdomsmottagningen). Due to long queues the easiest way might be to visit a drop-in-reception. Sesammottagingen in Majorna (Karl Johansgatan 12) has drop-in visiting hours Tuesdays 07:30-09:30  and Thursdays 15:30-17:30  (for both men and women).

Ungdomsmottagingen: In the social advice and guidance centers for young people you find midwifes, welfare officers, psychologists, assistant nurses, gynaecologists and doctors. The centers are open for anyone between 13 and 24 years old, and the visit is normally free. If you need support, have problems you need to talk about, want to ask about contraceptives etc. you can find help in Ungdomsmottagningen. Search for the office closest to where you live (here) and book a visit.

Take care!

/ Sanna, misi.se team 2010

The situation for finding somewhere to live in Gothenburg is very hard at the moment, and for all of those in queue with SGS, the chances to get an appartment there are very limited. There exists, however, opportunities to get help to find somewhere to live;

If you are in Gothenburg you can should the Boplats office close to Fiskekyrkan. They have extra personel employed just for helping the arriving exchange students getting accomodation so go there! You can aswell use their website to try and call for potential rooms yourself at boplats.se. If you follow the adds and try send e-mail you rarely get an answer, so the best idea is to try calling on the ads when possible.

We wish you all the luck you can get in searching for an appartment. Last year boplats helped 700 students to get their appartments, so if you just try hard enough and have patience you will be able to find your accomodation in a few days after arriving to Gothenburg!

//Rasmus and the misi team 2010

If you still need some more furniture’s you can go to IKEA!!

(IKEA is the big discount furniture and housing

wear warehouse, famous for being very cheap )

Here is a quick guide to get there:

1. Get to central station and take tram nr 4 towards Mölndal (or where ever you can get tram nr 4)
2. Get off at Mölndal station
3. Take the buss 760 towards Kållered
4. Get off at Kållered shopping center and IKEA is to the right of you

The trip takes approximately 30mins, Plan your trip at Västtrafiks Reseplanerare!

At Blocket.se you can find whatever you need for a low price. Blocket.se is one of the biggest Swedish buy and trade sites where you can find second hand bargains, trade what you don’t need for what you need or search for rooms or apartments being rented out. It do require some skills in the Swedish language though since the page is in Swedish, but you might be alright with a Swedish dictionary or a Swedish talking friend.

If you want to sell or trade something at Blocket.se you can put up an advert for around 100 kronor, or look for people wanting to buy or trade in the categories “köpes” and “bytes”. If you want to buy something you look under the category “säljes” and if you are looking for somewhere to live you choose the category “uthyres”. By looking for adverts from the area of Göteborg you can even get the chance to see the object you are interested in buying in reality, before you make up your mind.

For second hand course literature, you should rather check out Boktorget on Lycknis.se or andrahandsbokhandeln.nu (unfortunatly only in Swedish). If you are lucky you could find what you are looking there. For new course literature the cheapest book stores are those online, like Bokus.com and Adlibris.com

Good luck! / Sanna, Misi.se team 2010

Alright students here’s a more detailed guide for students how to get a cell phone fast and easy in Sweden.

In Sweden we use the GSM/3G network which follows the international standards that means that if you have a cell phone from your country which supports GSM you can use it here in Sweden. In that case all you need to do is to get a sim card from one of the providers and switch it with your current sim card. However if you want to use your old cell phone in Sweden you must make sure that your cell phone is not sim locked to a local provider.

In Sweden just like many European countries you can either sign up for a cell phone subscription plan or just simply use a pay to go card. We recommend you to use the pay to go card the price is just about the same and you need to be permanent living in Sweden at least first 6 months before you can sign up for a subscription. The pay to go cards can be recharged at any convenient shops or on the internet at any time, so it’s very convenient as well.

The main cell phone providers here in Sweden are Tele2, Telia, Telenor and 3. The cheapest provider is Tele2 and in general most Swedish students uses Tele2 as provider due to their prices. Their signal might not be as good as the other providers in northern parts in Sweden but in the more populated areas it works just as fine.

Different kinds of Pay to go plans! *Important*

A big difference in Sweden is that there are also some different kinds of pay to go pay checks that you can chose among each time you recharge your card. For example Tele2 has the regular Kontant price plan, Amigos, Kompis and Knock out price plan. The prices per minute and sms are very different from each other. A detailed price guide can be checked out here. (Page is in Swedish but you can use google translate for translation)

We think that the Amigos is the best plan for international students under this plan you can call freely to everyone within Tele2 per minute with a start up costs per call of 0,69kr/sms to everyone is 0,69kr and calls to other operators are 0,69kr per minute. But a major advantage with Amigos is also that it has cheap international call prices compared with others. So if you would ever need to call to France or Germany you can call for around 0,99kr per minute instead of the normal around 2,49kr per minute.

*Important* Very important to note is that the price plan Amigos, kompis or knout out etc is only valid for one month from the day of the recharge!!! It don’t mean that your money that you have left will disappear it only means that the price plan will change to the standard Kontant kort prices, please note that this price plan is much more expensive!! Per minute price to everyone in Sweden is 2,49kr and 0,99kr per sms! But whenever you recharge it again with Amigos all of the money that you have on your card will change its price plan to Amigos.

In general the Cell phone prices in Sweden is fairly cheaper in Sweden that in many other countries due to the strong competition within the providers. If you need to buy a new cell phone in Sweden the cheapest starts from around 399kr which is a very simple model to call and receive sms. You can buy these phones at mostly any electronics shops like the phone house, SIBA, Class Olsson etc you can find all of them in Nordstan the major shopping center in Gothenburg.

*To check how much money you have left on the prepaid card put in *111# and press the call button!

We can help students order free SIM cards from Tele2 so please let us know at reachus@misi.se

Alright we hope you have received detailed information about the cellphone situation and that you can get connected quickly with your new friends in Sweden !

Best wishes

Misi.se