Onsala is a small little town in Sweden with about 10,000 people who call it home. Most people confuse this amazing city with Uppsala, a larger city in eastern Sweden; these two cities couldn’t be any more different. It would be like someone was comparing Fruita and Colorados capital, Denver. Onsala sits just south of Kungsbacka, a slightly larger city just 12 miles away.

The city is somewhat a farming and fishing community with beautiful green and windless areas to golf and just to go for a walk, a lot like Fruita and Loma when it comes to smells and land types, and when it comes to happy farmers out and about in the morning. So many people that visit and live in Onsala love it very much because the air is always crisp, the city itself is at sea level, and the ocean is very clean and clear. People living there are considered to be some of the happiest people in Sweden. A lot of families always want to move there, but sometimes it’s rather hard because not many people want to leave.
At 17, most kids would want nothing more than to just get out of the house as far away from home as possible. One of my best friends, Fia has been living in Onsala her entire life, in a small house with only three small rooms and a medium sized living room with her parents and older brother. Not many teens would be so happy in this situation, but Fia wouldn’t change it for the world because of the people and the surrounding land. She has been all over Europe and thinks other countries and cities are great, but they don’t even compare to her little house in Onsala. She isn’t planning on leaving any time soon either.
This was my home for only one, short, and great year. It started out as a foreign and strange area, but within a week I felt at home. My family took me swimming and water skiing in the archipelago, and we also had a barbeque on the beach just the second or third day I was there. People everywhere were a little shy, but they enjoyed people from out of the country very much. If you spoke to them, they would smile extremely wide, and return with a positive reply. Friends in Sweden are a little more difficult to make and find, but once you do, they will remain friends forever. I can’t really stress how much I miss the area and the people in Onsala. One year wasn’t nearly enough time to live there. Of course I missed my family and all of my friends in the US, but when I was feeling down, my Swedish family and friends were always there to help me no matter what. My year abroad was by far the best year of my life. I learned a brand new language that I love to speak and hear. I met and befriended not just Swedes, but other exchange students like myself from all over the world. I have friends from more than ten different countries, and I miss them all as if they were my brothers and sisters. These world friends and I will remain this way through a youth bond made to last.

So, the little town to the south of Kungsbacka that you may confuse with Uppsala, may be tiny and insignificant to you, but when I see it on a map, or hear someone talking about it, memories rush back to me of my life with people that I was extremely fortunate in meeting. Not everyone has these types of memories and experiences of a year abroad. I highly recommend studying and or just traveling outside of the country. Not one day goes by when I don’t think about Onsala and believe I will one day return to see my extended family whom I am sure would welcome me with open arms.