First Weekend in Lund part 2

Tonight I had dinner with a bunch of people on my floor, which was really fun! We had traditional Pakistani food (I can't remember any of the names of the dishes...). It was really nice to meet some more people from my floor, and have some great food! For dinner, we had a main dish with rice, chicken, potatoes, and green bell peppers. There were also a traditional pancake made from potatoes and flour. For desert we had a rice pudding dish, with almonds.

A few nights ago I was supposed to go out with my mentor group- but, I couldn't find them! I wound up going out with another mentor group I ran into. It was really fun, we went to one of the Nations, the "Kalmar" Nation. The Kalmar Nation is one of the smaller Nations, the atmosphere is like a small pub. They have cheap beer, good food, and nice bartenders and bouncers (huge Swedish guys wearing T-shirts in the coat room- which is open to the freezing night air). We just sat around eating and chatting, it was really nice.

First Weekend in Lund

I realized that I didn't post pictures of the kitchen and common areas of my building. Sooo here is the kitchen
This is the common area, with the TV and eating areas
This is the hallway outside my room... kinda cheery!

This is another picture of the Cathedral in Lund. I now have a bit more history about it- it was built in the 12th century by the Danes as an outpost. This was during the many wars over territory in southern Sweden. Apparently, the area I live in now is the most fought over territory in Northern Europe.

I passed by a bakery in the city and this looked amazing! I'll have to go back sometime and get some fresh bread.

Utbytesstudenter i Sverige

One of my friends took a picture of me with my bike in the streets of Lund.

This is a picture of the lecture hall where I have my intro to Swedish class. The classrooms are all really nice and well equipped. The class is pretty fun, and I've made some friends from all over. It is nice that our common language is English- makes it easier for me! The title of this post means "exchange student in Sweden". Today I learned the most useful phrase I've learned so far "Jag förstår inte" which means "I don't understand!". This has become most useful! I've also relearned all my numbers and letter, which will help me next week when rehearsals for the orchestra (which are conducted in Swedish) start.

I'm going on Monday to pick out a bass to borrow for this semester. The conductor is also going to give me a key card so that I can use the building to practice whenever I want. So I'll write more/post pictures of the bass I get!

Tonight I'm going out with my mentor group which should be fun. The mentor groups are run by student vollunteers who help international students adapt to life in Lund. We're going to hang out at one of the mentors apartments, and then to one of the Nations (kinda like a frat, but not as annoying). The Nations are where you can get the cheapest beer in Lund because all hard alcohol is strictly regulated by the government.

New Bike!!

Another view from my dorm room.


This evening I bought a used bike!

Biking through the city is great, you get to zoom around and take all the little side streets that are too small for cars. While I like walking around, biking will be so much faster! My 20min walk tunrs into a 5min bike ride. My bike has lights (front and back to comply with local bike laws), reflectors, and a bell (yes, the bell is also required by law, which I think is funny).

So here are a few things that I found today in my wandering:

In Lund I have seen two 7-elevens (only two streets apart), a Burger King, and a McDonalds. BUT- since I got off the plane in Copenhagen I have not seen a single Starbucks, which makes me unbelievably happy! There are just a lot of small independent coffee shops- so awesome! Yesterday, I had lunch at a small coffee shop across the street from the main building on campus. I had a grilled foccacia sandwich with turkey, cheese, dijon mustard, and cream cheese. It was really good... partly because it was extremely cold outside and it was nice just to be inside having a hot meal and cup of coffee. Every sandwich I've had here, not that I've had that many, has had cream cheese on it no matter what the other toppings are. I also tried out the little diner right next to my building where you can get a large pizza with a drink for SEK 60 ($8). They also have pita sandwiches and hamburgers, but I'll try those out some other time. The pizza was pretty good, thin crust, lots of grease. I still have over half of it left for dinner!

I also saw a version of the comic book "Calvin and Hobbes" in Swedish: "Kalle och Hobbe ". I just thought it was interesting. I randomly walked into a book store because I was really cold and I wanted to warm up. I discovered that this bookstore sold only Swedish books (duh, right? I'm in Sweden, not sure why I thought books would be in English...). There were also Swedish versions of all the crime novels I read. And for Stephen: I saw a Swedish scrabble game called "Alfapet" and considered getting it... but then I thought about it and realized that neither of us speak Swedish...

Experiences in Lund

So now I've been here a few days and I was thinking I'd give you a little taste of how its been going here:

Walking around the city has been wonderful, but I'm thinking about getting a bike sometime this week. There are bikes everywhere here- its the main for of transportation mostly because the town center has such narrow and complicated streets that its just easier to get around on a bike. Its very odd seeing all the bikes lined up all over the city- and there are only about 1 out of every 20 that are locked up. Most are just left by the bike stands. There are also strict laws about having the proper lights attached to your bike, basically you need one on the front and one in the back or else the police will fine you SEK 500 (about $70) for each missing light.

The part about the bikes laws I learned today at a general introduction meeting for all international students. There were speakers from all the different aspects of life that we have to deal with as international students (ie housing, insurance, student unions). The most interesting speaker of the whole assembly was the cop from the Lund Police Dept. He was very charismatic and confident. He told us about the laws in Sweden regarding bikes and cars, drugs and alcohol and theft. Apparetly it is legal in Lund (not the rest of Sweden) to be drunk/drink in public (however, if you drunk to the point that the police are worried about your safty they will put you in the drunk tank to sleep it off) There were several other points- if a cop is standing in front of you indicating that you should stop your bike, don't give him a high five as you fly by. My favorite, and the most comically delivered was "peeing in public is ilegal". This was followed by his discription of what were unacceptable subsitutes for toilets. As you can tell, his portion was the most entertaining part of the meeting. The rest was all stuff we'd all heard before.

After the meeting I went to my first Swedish course, which was pretty fun although I knew most of what we went over from the class I took at UCLA. It will be very helpful to know some phrases in Swedish, since every cashier I've been to since I got here thinks I'm Swedish. Sometimes I know enough.... but most times I have to put on the "deer in headlights" look and say "I'm sorry, what did you say?". Its been very odd being in a country where I don't understand everything going on around me. At the supermarket tonight I had to guess with some things, like the yogurt- I just picked the one that looked most like the one I'd had at the youth hostel. And while I was going to get some lunch meat, I couldn't read any of the labels and the one I eventually picked up (it looked like turkey) turned out to be tuna, so I stuck to things I could easily figure out. Among these things were bread, pasta, some kind of pasta sauce and frozen pizza. If there weren't pictures on the juice I would have been totally lost because the word for apple is "äpple" and the workd for orange is "apelsin" which is confusing...

I met a few people who live in my corridor tonight, they seem really nice and they said that it will be much busier when everyone moves back in over the weekend. I also used the kitchen for the first time- granted all I made was a frozen pizza, but I used it none the less! The kitchen is great, we have our own shelves in the fridge and pantry that are labeled with our room number on them. All the plates and pots and pans and stuff are for everyone to use. We have assignments for chores in the common areas- like cleaning kitchen, taking out garbage or recycling ...

Tomorrow I have the day free for the most part!! So I'll be catching up on sleep and keeping warm since I've spent the past few days wadering around Lund in the cold and going to orientations and meetings. It'll be nice to have some time to catch up on sleep and relaxation!

I'll post more pictures soon- I took my camera with me today, but the battery was dead (I may have left it on all night...) The battery is charging now, so new pictures are coming soon!

More pics from my room:
The view from my window


I set up my desk..

I made my bed, its pretty comfy!



After I got settled in my room, I went on a walking tour of the city center of Lund. Its such a great city, the layout is the same as it was in the 1600's and most of the streets are cobblestone. It was so nice to just walk around the city and take in all the beautiful architecture and freezing weather (its a big change from LA weather). Such a beautiful city!

I made it!!

I made it!! I'm in Lund, Sweden!

I flew to London, then Copenhagen where I caught a train to Lund. My first night in Lund I spent at a youth hostel that was a converted sleeper train. It was very cramped quarters and I was in the middle of three stacked bunks. There was also only enough floor space in our cabin for one person to stand up at a time.



But I made it through the night, had a nice breakfast, and met up with the student mentors at the train station. They took up to the International housing office for registration.

I got my dorm key and jumped in a van that took me and 5 other international students to various dorms across the city before finally getting to mine last. I'm living in a dorm called Vildandsvägen, which is a 15 minute walk to the center of campus. The room itself is much bigger than I'd imagined, and I have a really nice view.


Bikes in front of my dorm
My dorm building

My awesome room!!