Hi, my name is Erik Nilsson. I'm a 24 year old political science major from Sweden currently on exchange at Illinois State University from my hometown University, Uppsala University. I grew up in a small city in the south east parts of Sweden called Kalmar where my family still is residing. Exactly as my father, who works at the Swedish National Radio, I want to become a political journalist someday. Preferably for a newspaper back in Sweden. My mother on the other hand works at a library. I got to younger brothers, Alexander and Henrik. Henrik is still in high school, but Alexander resides in the Norweigan town of Bergen where he is the store manager of a 7elven shop.

My academic studies so far includes political science (mostly focused on Swedish politics), Communications and Rhetorics. I've been studying at Uppsala since the fall of 2008. After finishing high school at Calmare Internationella Skola I've also been working in the eldercare in Kalmar and at a local newspaper called Olandsbladet and with sports at the Swedish National Radio in Kalmar.

Sports is also my favorite hobby. I spend most of my leisure time watching sports.My favorite sport is, Soccer, where my favorite teams are Swedish side Kalmar FF and the English team Liverpool FC. So far I haven't been watching a lot of the popular sports in America, but I support New York Rangers in icehockey (since I've been to Madison Square Garden a couple of times). Although my favorite athlete of all time is probably Peter Forsberg. Currently I'm not active myself in any sport, but I used to play soccer, tennis, badminton and floorball when I was younger.

Other intrests include reading litterature. My favorite authors are Ernest Hemingway and Paulo Coelho and the Swedish author Hjalmar Soderberg. I also enjoy political biographies, currently reading Barrack Obamas. I also watch some TV-shows, with my favorites right now includes House and Entourage.

I'm really looking forward to being here on exchange for a year, hopefully improving my English and learning a lot about the American society and culture.