My name is Sophie and I’m a 17 year old girl who lives in the outskirts of Stockholm, in a little town called Tullinge. I live with my mum Christine and my cat Lufsen in a semidetached house where I’ve been living all my life.

At school I study the health and care program, which I enjoy very much! When I graduate I’m going to be a fully trained auxillary nurse, but my goal is to continue studying at Collage and train to be a midwife. That has been my dream ever since I was a little girl and that’s why I chose the health and care program. On my free time I like to hang out with my friends and do fun things with them like go to the movies have sleepovers and go to parties. I also like to exercise quite a lot and that’s why I go to Thai boxing about 3 times a week. I also have a gym card at our schools gym.

I want to go to Goa because I think it’s a great opportunity for me to learn more about the Indian society and how it compares to Sweden. I’ve never been to India or any place like it so I think this will be a life changing experience for me. Just to see Goa’s culture and experience there traditions will be very exciting. To see the difference in their health and care system is also a reason why I want to travel to Goa. I’ve experienced the Swedish hospitals and even worked at a Swedish old people’s home but I have no idea what the Indian hospitals and old people’s homes are like so this will be a great opportunity for me to learn more about it.

What I’m going to learn from this trip is probably mostly how different Goa is from Sweden. The people in Goa have quite a different lifestyle from us; a lifestyle that’s most likely more interesting than ours.  I will also get to make lots of new contacts from another culture; I think I will find this very rewarding.

A person that is very important in my life is Eric my grandfather. He is 92 years old and lives on his own in a flat in Oslo, Norway. One amazing thing about him is that he still works part time at arranging trips for pensioners. He means a lot to me because even if he’s 92 years old we have a great relationship.  I feel like I can talk to him about nearly everything and he’s always there to give me advice. I think he shows you that you just need to live a healthy lifestyle and to take care of yourself in order to have a great life.