Friday, August 26thThis is the first day of beginning an amazing experience of my lifetime. This was the arrival day for most of the finalists from different countries for the Stockholm Junior Water Prize 2022. The name of our first hotel was the Scandic Grand Central. It is a beautiful hotel located in the city center and close to all the World Water Week venues. Check-in started at 3 pm. I arrived at the hotel at around 3:30 pm. Two of our organizers Ania and Abigail were there. They welcomed all the finalists in the lobby. Handed over some files, our schedule, and our ID card for the event and helped us to check in at the hotel. I went to my room to freshen up. My roommate was Lucia from Argentina, she was really nice and friendly. We didn’t have that much of activities on the first day. At 7 pm we all went to the restaurant of our hotel. There they served us dinner and some desserts. After that, we played some networking games to know about each other. It was more like an ice-breaking session. It was really fun as we got the chance to talk with everyone and get to know some things about each other. Then at 11 pm, we had to go to our rooms and get a good night’s sleep.Saturday, August 27th We woke up at 8:30 and went for breakfast at our hotel. The breakfast was amazing. They served us some really tasty food. We had to meet in the lobby at 10 am sharp. In the lobby, they gave us a brief idea about today’s schedule and handed us lunch bags. We left the hotel at 10:30 am and went to Sergel’s Torg for catching a tram. It was a few minutes’ walking distances from the hotel. The tram took us to the Stockholm H20 exhibition which was in Strandvagen of central Stockholm. The exhibition was really big. It looked so nice. It had a big stage right in the center point of the exhibition. There was a stall just for the Stockholm International Water Institute. We hung our posters there. As the exhibition was open to the public many people came and saw the posters. Some people asked some questions and some people wanted to hear the explanation of the project. We got somefree time around 2 pm and went for a walk to explore the exhibition. We went to different stalls, played some games there, and got to know about different innovative projects by people. Then we took our lunch from the lunch bags. The location was nice as it was a waterfront and we had a nice sea view. At 3 pm our city tour began. Our city tour began at Berzelii Park, which was right beside the exhibition. A tour guide joined us from there. She nicely explained each and every place with its historical context very nicely. In the park, we saw a very nice statue of Jöns Jacob Berzelius, who is also known as the father of Swedish Chemistry. Then from there, we went to the Kungstradgarden subway station. We got to see some amazing artwork all over the station. From there we went to the Swedish Parliament house and the royal palace. From there we went to Gamla Stan, which is an old town in Stockholm. The buildings in the old town was breathtaking. The architecture was amazing. We also saw the Noble Prize Museum there. Many statues and sculptures were seen by us all over the city tour and those were amazing. We reached our hotel at 6:30 pm. An hour of free time was given to us to freshen up and get ready for dinner. We had to report at the hotel lobby at 7:45. Then we all went to a nice restaurant “The Downtown Camper”. It was close to our hotel. We had a tasty dinner there. Especially the smoked salmon was amazing. Then we went back to the hotel at 11 pm and slept. Sunday, August 28thWe woke up at 8:30 and went for breakfast. After breakfast, we had to pack our luggage and check out of the room. We dropped our luggage at the luggage storage and we had some free time. So, me and my friends from Australia, Canada, and Cyprus went for a walk around the city. As it was a Sunday morning all the shops were closed, so we didn’t get the chance to go to any shops but we just took a walk around the hotel. At 11 am we took our luggage and went to our next hotel ‘The Scandic Klara’. It was a few minutes’ walk from our previous hotel. We checked in and dropped our luggage in the room. The hotel was nice. This time I had two roommates. One was from Spain and another from Japan. We had to report to the lobby at 11:30 am. Then we went to the World Water Week venue Norra Latin. The building was so beautiful that it looked more like a royal palace. The designated room for Stockholm Junior Water Prize was on the 2nd floor. We took a look around the room as the next day we will be having our final interviews here. The global founding partner of this competition “Xylem” prepared a hangout room for the finalists in the venue to chill around and have snacks and get someone to one mentorship from their specialists between the interview sessions. We took lunch at the venue. After taking a look around the venue and having lunch, we went back to the Stockholm H20 exhibition. It was the stage presentation day. They played our elevator pitch and we all had to go to the stage for explaining the project and answered some questions. Many people were there to see us explain our projects on the stage. At 7 pm we reached the hotel and after freshening up we went downstairs the hotel to the conference room where a welcome session was held for all the countries and national organizers. 7 more countries joined us this day and this was the official start of the Stockholm Junior Water Prize 2022. We had our dinner at the hotel. It was a buffet dinner and the food were really tasty. After dinner, we were given the chance to go hang out in a hangout room in the basement of the hotel. As this was the third day, we all finalists became close to each other. Went to the hangout room and played some games. After that, we went to our rooms and prepared for the big day tomorrow. Monday, August 29th Today was the big day. We had our interviews today. We woke up at 7 am, had our breakfast, and got ready for the interviews. We had to report to the lobby at 8:30 am and we all went to Norra Latin which was the venue. We hung our posters in the poster exhibition room. My interview was after lunch at 1:15 pm. So I had a lot of free time before that. And some of my friends from other countries explored the whole venue. We went to different stalls and met with different people. Again some people came to talk with us and gave their visiting cards to us and took photos with us. The hangout room that Xylem prepared was nice and comfortable. Bean bags were there. I talked with some engineers from Xylem and they shared some great insights for my project. At 12:30 we had our lunch. At sharp 1:15 the interviews began. The interview was nerve-wracking. The judges asked a lot of questions. But it was a fun experience. After the interviews were over, we took group photos and went back to the hotel at 2 pm. We had some free time from 2 pm to 6 pm. Me and my friends from Norway, the USA, and South Africa went for a city walk. We went to some shopping malls. We went for some burgers and had some fun among us. At 6:30 we had to report to the lobby. From our hotel, we all went Bowling at a place. We were divided into teams for bowling. My team had finalists from Brazil, Turkey, and Spain. We spent a really fun time bowling. Then we had burgers and fries for dinner. We came back to the hotel at 11:30 pm and went to the hangout room to have some fun. Tuesday, August 30thWe woke up at 7 am and had our breakfast and got ready. This was a really big day. We had our field trip to Xylem offices and labs. We took the subway to go there and reached there by 8:30 am. We were given security vests and ID cards and Xylem welcomed us very gracefully. They gave us a welcome presentation in the lobby and we were divided into 4 small groups for the lab visits. We got to see how Xylem develops high-tech yet cost-efficient technologies and how they are working to solve the water issue. This was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. They organized a meeting with the company heads with us. We had our lunch there and after that, we took a group photo. After coming from the Xylem office, we had only one hour to get ready for the main part of the event the award ceremony and meeting HRH Crown Princess Victoria. We were asked to wear our national dresses. Being a Bangladeshi I chose to wear the Saree. I got ready and met everyone in the lobby. We took some pictures there. Everyone was looking so amazing being dressed up. The award ceremony took place at the venue which is the Norra Latin. We had a rehearsal for the award ceremony before it began. We received flags of our country and rehearsed how to greet the princess and how to do the flag parade while entering the stage. After the rehearsal, we took our positions by our posters and the HRH Crown Princess Victoria came and greeted us. We took a photo with her. Then after meet and greet with every other country the program started. All the countries enter the stage, doing a flag parade, and holding the national flag . The winner was declared. My friend Annabelle from Canada became the champion. After the ceremony, we had dinner at the venue and we received our diplomas there. The dinner was a very special three-course meal. We enjoyed our time very much. After coming back to the hotel we went to the hotel and had a celebration party in the hangout room. We all danced and had snacks and had a really fun time. The day ended nicely. Wednesday, August 31stThis was our last day of the Stockholm Junior Water Prize 2022. The day began by waking up at 7 am. We had our breakfast and after that got ready. We had to be at the lobby by 8 am. We took the subway and went to the KTH Royal Institute of Technology. The university was nice and big. We went to their main building and they gave us some presentations about various things. They served us fruit and coffee. We went to their labs and got to know about various research topics. Their students who are doing research presented us with different scientific information. We got to see all their labs and ongoing research too. We had our brunch there. After that, we came back to the hotel and we had some free time. We went for burgers and explored the city a bit. Then at 4 pm we all started from the hotel and went to the Norra Latin to attend a seminar on ‘’Empowering the next generation and closing the gender gap’’. The session was amazing and we got to talk with some amazing changemakers. This session ended at 5 pm. From there we went to the Skansen. We took a tram and reached Skansen at 6 pm. Skansen is an open-air museum in Stockholm. We got a guided tour there. Nature was amazing and it was so serene. We got to know about ancient Stockholm. After that, we had a barbecue and we had some real fun. We went back to the hotel and the official ending of the Stockholm Junior Water Prize 2022 was announced. We all enjoyed some time in the hangout room and said our goodbyes to each other. It was a sad moment to say goodbyes as we had one of the best times of our life this week. We went to our rooms to sleep and everyone left for their countries the next day. The experience was amazing. A lot of cultural exchanges took place. We made some amazing new friends for life. The whole experience also enriched me with some knowledge. We got the chance to experience some new things with like-minded people. Meeting with scientists, diplomats, and global changemakers around the world was the biggest thing I got. Most importantly it was amazing for me to represent my country with my project at such a big event. Holding my country’s flag up in the stage with all the other countries felt amazing.