I suck at blogging.

But alas, it's harder than it seems. I'm sure there aren't many people still following. Probably mostly because I don't update enough, but whatever right? Well, I want to invite anyone who's left to my day of return. I'm getting into O'Hare on Saturday, January 16 at 12:30 pm, if everything goes smoothly. I'd love to see you there.

So tonight I'm going to see Avatar by myself, and honestly, these past few weeks have been rough. My class is awesome and I love the teachers and the material and the people in it. And then there was Kiruna, such a winter wonderland in every sense. After we got back from Kiruna, it was a string of parties to say goodbye to people as they dropped away from my life, possibly and probably forever. It's hard to think about, but it's natural I guess. And since the great days of departures, I have been reading library books and watching Tillsammans and Ratatouille and reading more books and hanging out in the library cafe so I can have internet. They have the BEST kanelbullar here when they are fresh out of the oven. It's impossible to resist the smell. Plus, there's the International Herland Tribune and the Times daily, so I can read and catch up on the world.

Tonight, like I said, I'm going to the movies, and tomorrow I'm going to bake cookies and make icing and go to midnight service at Domkyrkan with Michelle and some of her friends. Then we are having a pancake breakfast and Christmas dinner! So I won't be all alone for Christmas after all. And after that, Sarah H. gets back and we will celebrate boxing day canadian style, lol.

So now, I need to not resist the kanelbulle that is calling my name, and say until next time, blog readers.

Russia and this week

Sorry it's been so long since I blogged. But, I don't have internet in my room and it's hard to remember to blog when you have limited time. Plus, everyone who reads this can get in touch with me in other ways and probably view pictures on Fb anyway.

I just got back from my Russia trip on Wednesday (see pics on Facebook), after my train back from Stockholm broke down somewhere in Småland and we had to wait for over an hour and the next train came and we all crowded onto it for the last 45 minutes of the trip and ended up getting back to Lund 2 and a half hours later than expected...ugh. And I lost a glove on the ferry back from Finland. So Wednesday wasn't that great until Sarah bullied me into going to VGs...then it was great fun. I love the guys that live in her corridor.

Russia was brilliant. It was so strange and foreign. When I first came to Sweden, I was a little uncomfortable, but being in Russia was much stranger than that. The Russian people aren't really nice to strangers, but our tour guides were great for the most part and everything was either beautiful and restored or rebuilt or being restored or rebuilt. The Christ the Savior Cathedral in Moscow is actually an exact replica of the 19th century cathedral built on that spot, just finished in 1995. All of the buildings in Russia (well, not ALL, but you get it) are very big and imposing. huge vaulted ceilings and statues and mosaics and everything.

Our hotel in Moscow was the nicer of the two...it was actually part of the Olympic Village for the 1980 Olympics (that the US boycotted). Moscow is HUGE. The official population is like 10.5 million, and from about 2 hours outside the city center is pretty much solid apartment buildings and stores. One of our bus stops was a Russian Wal-Mart type place, which was definitely the biggest store I've been in since the USA, except for maybe IKEA. I literally was getting lost in there. The other thing similar to the States was that a bunch of things in Russia are open 24h or really late, which is really unlike Sweden. The only things open on Sunday in Sweden are IKEA and the grocery stores, and maybe one cafe.

Anyway, bus trips are never much fun, especially overnight drives, but I'd do it again in a heartbeat. I may never go back to Russia again and I already got to tour the Kremlin and Lenin's tomb (CREEPY) and see all this crazy stuff. So while I'd've liked to stay longer, I'm happy with the way it turned out.

A Blog about Prague

(hahaha I'm so funny.)

So on Friday morning I packed up my things and rode my bike to the hospital at 5:15 am to catch the airport shuttle to Malmö. And a few stops later Simon got on! He and Juan and some others I didn't know were going to Prague then Vienna and Budapest for the weekend. So it was a nice coincidence to see him and talk to him on the way to the airport. After getting there everything went smoothly. It was just a long wait. The Malmö airport is very small, maybe like 12 gates tops. But the cool thing was these totally glass rooms in the terminal that are for smoking in. It was interesting. Like a little smoking closet.

As we waited to get on the plane (there are no assigned seats with WizzAir so everyone kind of crowds up) there was a group of Swedish men in front of me. DRUNK Swedish men. I found out later they were a bachelor party and had stayed up all night drinking (flight at 7:45) in preparation for their ridiculous weekend of raucous fun in Prague, apparently. And they were ridiculous. So walking down the ramp they were slurring...i Mean asking me about Indiana or something and behind me I found out there was a guy from Boston. He sat next to me and we talked the whole time. He's a computer programmer named Mike who's living in Malmö and working from home. He just moved to Sweden in July or something. So that was fun.

Kara came to meet me at the airport and we took the bus back into Prague where she gave me a map, we had a pastry thing that was filled with something black and delicious, and left me for class. I went to the free tour meeting point. The tour was AWESOME. I learned so much history and cool things and had so many good photo ops. I met a Kiwi named Stephanie who is traveling for like 8 weeks all around Europe. She was really nice and we exchanged emails and walked around for a while after the tour. So, anyone who is traveling, check out Sandeman's newEurope tours. They are free and super awesome. The tour guides work only for tips so they have to be good.

Then I left Stephanie and walked up to the national museum for some pictures and then back down to catch the tram to Kara's dorm. There I took a nap and shower and we went to a club/bar place near the Old Town Square. I forget what it was called. Mostly because everything in Czech is nearly unpronounceable. It was a good time with dancing and stuff. Seeing what another culture's social scene is like is always a surprise. In Prague, people were just dancing alone and the dress was much much more casual than in Sweden. There wasn't so much dancing just with people you know. People were genuinely fun. The downside is smoking indoors. It has been I don't know how long since I was in a bar that allowed smoking. (It was probably the Lew, lol.) So my clothes all smelled like smoke and my hair too the next morning. It was not pleasant.

On Saturday Kara and I took the tram to town and walked up to the castle/cathedral. St. Vitus' Cathedral is INSANE. It is just...immense. I don't how how to properly describe it without sounding ridiculous. You walk in and it just keeps going up. Hundreds of feet, that's no exaggeration. So that was VERY cool. We walked back down, got some street food on the way to have for lunch/that mid-afternoon meal that I've become so fond of. That night was Kara's friend Elsa's birthday and her friend and boyfriend were also visiting (from Munich). It turns out they go to the same school as Bianka and Antonia and all those people (small WORLD, for real.) It's funny because there are only ten students from that school studying in Lund, which is a small small percentage. How crazy is that? Really.

So that night we ate dinner (delicious chicken with bleu cheese and potato pancakes) at a student pub and then went to Karlovy Lazne, which is this ridiculous five story club that is supposedly the biggest club in Europe or something. It was pretty fun, for the most part. But it is SO big everyone kept getting separated. And I got creepily creeped on by a old fat man in a pink shirt and maroon tie. Ewww. I shiver just remembering it. But my favorite floor was the "retro" floor that had a light up dance floor and played things like songs from Grease and other throwback-y sorts of songs that everyone can sing along with. We stayed there until 2:30 and I had to get on the tram to go to the airport (flight back at 6 am) at about 3:15am. So I got McDonald's and started my long journey to the airport and home. I made it back to Lund and to my bike and eventually home, where I slept all day without moving.

It was a good weekend.

No internet :-(

I'm sitting in the Math Building Cafe right now because of the lack of internet in my room. I called the internet people again today and she promised that the technician would call me as soon as possible to come out to my room and check the plug in. The internet company is only responsible for the connection to the building, and if it is my jack that doesn't work, it's the landlord's responsibility, or something. So, it may get a little more complicated if that is the case. Oh well, the woman today was the most helpful so far.

Also, it's funny to me that every building is a 'house'. Because in Swedish, they use 'hus' for everything. Like, I am in the Math house right now, translated directly. But when you talk to a Swede, it's easy for them to forget to use the word 'building' or something because house is so easy to translate and everything becomes a house. I love learning about little language things like that. It's so funny. It's the same for the word for teach/learn. In Swedish, it's the same word. So Swedish people are constantly saying, "He was learning me" when they mean "He was teaching me". Cute.

Anyway, I'm going to move to the library to get away from the lunch rush of people that just descended around me. Ciao.

SENSATION

On Halloween, I didn't dress up as anything. Instead, I dressed in all white, and went to the National Soccer Stadium in Copenhagen for this big rave-dj-show-dancing extravaganza thing. Called Sensation White. (go to www.sensation.com, then it will all make sense).

It was AMAZING. First of all, just the sheer number of people (>10,000) was awesome. And everyone of those people was dancing at some point during the night. Everyone of those people dressed in all white and it's just a really cool feeling to be part of something like that. It was all (drinks, lockers, tickets) much more expensive than we're used to in Lund, but the music alone was worth it. The DJs were Erick E, Morten Breum, Axwell & Sebastian Ingrosso (two members of the Swedish House Mafia), Mr. White, and Tocadisco. I might have missed one in there while we took an eating break. But Morten Breum and the Swedish House Mafia were definitely my favorites. DJs are the most under appreciated musicians, and should definitely be more well known than they are. No really, you should go look these guys up and listen to some of their stuff. It's amazing.

And on top of all that, there were crazy go-go dancers and an incredible laser and light show and big screens everywhere with different images on them to go with the music. You really could just watch, but we were there to dance.

A couple bad things about events in Europe (or at least Denmark):
- No one knows how to queue properly. I had to pick up my ticket when I got there, and it was absolutely hellish. So much that they had to get like fifteen security guards to form a barrier so people like me wouldn't get squished.
- No one even bothers to look for a trash can, and even if they did, there definitely weren't enough in the place to hold all the cups and lids and cup carriers etc that were produced. The trash was ALL OVER the floor and you had to kick it out of your area to dance. Sarah told me, "I feel like we'll be climbing out of trash at the end of the night," which turned out to not be exactly true, but the stairs were almost unrecognizable.

Anyway, it was totally worth the ticket price (~$120) for the music alone. The crazy show was just added on top of that. Crazy people dressed in white = wow.

Tonight I have film class...then tomorrow I want to go to Malmö or Kristianstad or somewhere here in Skåne for a day trip. Then to Will's for a preparty and VGs. Then Thursday-Monday, I have free! Crazy, right? Maybe I'll do something nuts.

Oh and Monika is planning a trip tp Kiruna in December!! So I'm pretty excited about that.

Birthday Party!

...was a blast!
I was afraid it was going to be too crowded in our little korridor kök, but only about 14 people came, which made it perfect! We played a lot of flippy cup, a few games of beer pong, and thought about playing quarters (with authentic American quarters, whoa!) but never got around to it. Everyone has been telling me how great it was, for a Monday night. I learned a few things.

Spilling beer is a sign that people are having fun.
Portuguese men are competitive to the point of cheating(Franciscooooo....)
I should not be afraid to speak Spanish even if it completely sucks.
Birthday presents are good (Thanks Sascha!)
And if you think you bought enough beer, go back and buy that much again, cause it is never enough...

haha. Just kidding on that last one, but I thought I would have some left at the end of the night and I totally didn't. I forgot how much flip cup makes you go through, I guess. I also encouraged everyone to come to the states for the Indy 500. Just to show them American drinking spirit...and probably terrify them. Haha.

Ireland!

Ireland was incredible. I really want to go back and see more of the countryside and do more touristy things, but being a part of the whole environment was so great. The Irish people are very very different from Swedes. The Swedes have this idea that if people need help they will ask, or if they want to tell you about themselves, they will tell you. The Swedes are very good listeners once a conversation is started, but they probably won't offer help if you're standing in the middle of town holding out a map. They'll assume you have it figured out and will ask if you need to. The Irish on the other hand, have no boundaries. Everyone will ask about the scratch on your forehead or where you're from and what you're doing here and they genuinely want to know. You can become good friends with an Irish person in a night. They will get your information and contact you again, even just to say hello...but almost always they have talked long enough to find something in common with you and a need to bring it up later.

I got to the airport Thursday around 6pm, and Casey's friend Damian didn't get off work until 7, and Cole's flight wasn't in until 9pm. So, I sat around and read and ate the Bagel Factory --- OMG SO GOOD. I'm going to attempt to make an eggworks sandwich soon --- and waited for Casey and Damo. I went to the pub in the airport and got a Guinness (cliche, but delicious), and then Casey and Damo were there! We sat around and talked and I was already having a magnificent time, and then Cole got there which made it all even better! We went back to Damian's house where Megan and Melinda were (also SMC girls) and we got cleaned up, pre-gamed and went out to the Roost in Maynooth. It was a Halloween party so a lot of people were dressed up. One girl was even H1N1. I can't say that I remember this in the first person, but I'm told I met these guys that were amazed it was my first night in Ireland and kept buying me drinks. Ireland has Bulmer's, which is delicious yummy cider. The rest of the night is either a blur or completely gone. I woke up in bed with Meg and Mel, though, so the night turned out alright.

Friday we went into Maynooth again and ate at the Bagel Factory for breakfast (again it was delicious) and walked around the town and campus. The church there is really neat and the grass really is greener in Ireland. I don't know how or why, but it is. Then we caught the train to Dublin and checked into our hotel room. Damian works at a hotel, so he got a really good deal on this AWESOME apartment-hotel room. We were right on the Liffey and on the fifth or sixth floor. It was incredible. We hung out there for a while to try to recover a bit more and take in the amazing view. The rest of the day went something like this--Karl, Stephen, and Gavin were around here and there, we bought frozen pizzas and ate them. We drank some disgusting 6 euro wine and went to a place called the Porter House Brewery. There was a guitar man playing there who was pretty awesome. He played covers from all the good songs that you want to hear. It was weird hearing songs I actually knew. Needless to say, the rest of the night was just amazing. It was so great to be hanging out with old friends and new friends and just...being alive. We stayed up until 5 am...but every minute was worth it. We moved one of the couches so it sat right up next to the window-wall and just talked and looked out at the river for hours.

Saturday we got up and had the most AMAZING breakfast at the hotel. It was really amazing just because we were so hungry, I think. Scrambled eggs, Irish sausage, toast, fruit, and coffee. I did try a white pudding and a black pudding --which is no dessert. It's basically oatmeal and, as Damo put it, "pig bits" all kind of wadded together. The black pudding contains pig's blood, too. It was completely edible, but not very good or flavorful when you get right down to it.

We thought about going to the Jameson factory, but after staying up that long, I don't think anyone (except Cole) was really in the mood to walk that far and then drink whiskey. So we walked along Grafton street, which is a pedestrian street that has a ton of shopping and street performers -- musicians and statue-men. And these street performers are crazy-good. Like, insanely. I could have stayed and watched the string quartet for probably an hour or more. But we made our way to the end and laid around in St. Stephen's Green the rest of the day until we caught the train to Clonsilla, where Stephen lives. His mother made us the best dinner and it was so nice being in a home and having home cooked food that isn't made to feed just one. And they have a 4 month old golden lab named Lucy who was freaking adorable.

Then we went back to Maynooth to someone's else place...Sean's I think. And watched some X-factor before going back to Damo's to drop off our stuff and change and shower. We were planning on going to Mantra, which is a new club in Maynooth, but apparently it's pretty upscale. As in, they didn't let John in with vans on. So we went to another bar/pub called Brady's, which was pleasantly not packed, due to Mantra, for the most part. After having an absolute ball and getting thrown around by this guy in a South Carolina shirt, we went to Supermacs and I got my first curry chips (fries). Absolutely delicious. American's are too narrow-minded about fries. Branch out from ketchup!!! It's so worth it!

So it was absolutely wonderful, the next morning we all went to the airport, except Cole, who stayed til Monday, and flew to our respective homes. It made me really sad that Casey and Meg and Mel were all going to the States. But I don't know if it was like a jealous sadness or if I will be sad to leave when I go home. Time will tell.


Me, Cole, Damian and Sean Thursday night at the Roost


The Church on NUI-Maynooth's campus


View of the River Liffey and mountains in the background from our hotel in Dublin.

In the cold and dark...

Sorry it's been so long. Nothing really exciting has happened, so I've put off blogging about it. My Biostatistics class is pretty labor-intensive. We have three homeworks and 4 computer labs and a computer project. I know that may not sound like a lot, but keep in mind that this course is only 4 weeks long. It's SO much material for that amount of time. I'm afraid of the exam, but so far I think we(my partner Jochen and I) have gotten all the points on the hw and labs. So that'll help. I only have to get 50% to pass, 85% is more than satisfactory, but it doesn't matter because I only get transfer credit anyway. So, I hate being the underachiever, but I only need to pass.

Sarah Dews and I went to Sarah Moyneur's birthday party on Friday. After some shuffling of locations, we ended up at Sparta, where we met an absolutely completely drunk 27 year old (28 this month) Swede named Erik Johanssen. That's like the most Swedish name you can have. On top of that, he could barely stand, let alone speak proper English. Every time he couldn't think of a word, he just growl/roared instead. We then went on to call him Fun Time Erik, or FTE, for short, for the rest of the night, which didn't last very long. The party was good, but it had come about in such a round about way, I was exhausted by the time everyone was getting into it and Sarah Dews and I went home.

I have new boots! I got them when Kara was here, but I'd like to note how awesome they are. Boots and tights are like the Swedish girl's uniform. And I love it. Kristen Krueger, tights can be worn as pants, and under dresses, tunics, or skirts. And it's good and warm and cute.

This weekend, I'm going to do SOMETHING. I don't care whether it's by myself or someone comes along, I just don't want to party in Lund and grocery shop and clean my room for another weekend. So my plan is to go to Copenhagen or Gothenburg, or both, for that matter. Gothenburg is like two hours away by train, but it's Sweden's second largest city and seems cool. But of course I also want to do Copenhagen, too.

And then, I leave for Ireland the week after that! My first big trip! And after I get back, I take an exam, turn in a film essay, send my Russian visa application off to the Finnish travel agency, and then I'm free! Monika and I are going to Stockholm for Halloween weekend, and the weekend after that I'm going to Prague to see Kara. And the next weekend is free, but I am going to book a flight to Krakow in the next couple days so I can do the Poland thing. Then RUSSIA for a week. And after that, class starts again :-( but Christmas break is in the middle there somewhere and I still want to go to Berlin and Amsterdam and Brussels. It'll be awesome.

I am bad at clever blog titles.

First things first, Daisy came today (and Tom's letter)! So I'm listening to it right now. I bleed Brand New. They are inside my soul somehow. It's crazy. I know.

The rest of Kara's stay was really fun, it was just unfortunate that she came
a.) the few days before my exam
b.) from Sunday to Wednesday, instead of the fun part of the week. Which is Wednesday - Saturday.
We walked around Lund on Monday and shopped and checked a bunch of stuff out. The Domkyrkan really is way awesome. I bought some boots! They are short and black and I love them. Having Kara ride around on the back of my bike was an interesting experience. All the Swedes make it look really easy, but it's no small feat to have two people balancing at the same time, but we did it.


Also, my mom's package came this week and I had to bike all the way to Nöbbelövsvägen...through the suburban area of Lund and also there was a potato field and horse pasture and a cool park, in which I discovered the BEST sledding hill. So if it even does snow and stay for a while, I'm going to figure out a way to make that happen. But anyway, I eventually got my package so I could upload pictures finally. You can see all of them on facebook...162 so far and I took more last night.


My first exam for Sequence Analysis was on Wednesday morning. I'm pretty sure I passed, or I'm close. But if I failed, I get another chance to pass, so all is well. After my exam, I came home to sleep a little to make up for my late night of studying and then went to meet Sarah D. at Matteannexet (Math annex bldg) to buy tickets for the Sea Battle. The Sea Battle is put on by ESN (Erasmus Student Network) for students on exchange in Estonia, Finland, and Sweden. It's an overnight cruise from Stockholm to Tallinn and then back. The tickets include food and drinks (except hard liquor) for 1000 kr...which is less than $200. Tickets were going on sale at 4pm, so to be 'safe', we got there at klocka 15.30 (as they say in Swedish). Well, turns out there were people waiting since like 10 am and Lund only has 124 tickets available. So we didn't even wait and gave up. So not worth six hours of waiting. Then I went on the big journey of picking up my package. I saw the cutest tiger-tuxedo cat along the way. I wanted to take her home. She looked mischievous. Then, my class planned to go the sports pub at Hallands nation at 7pm. It was fun, and a bunch of the Germans(Lisa, Jonas, Andy and Markus(they count as one), Bianka, and Antonia) and Simon and Camilla were there as well planning their weekend trip to Stockholm. I really wanted to join, but my Biostatistics class has homework due on Monday and they weren't coming back till Monday night. Oh well, some other time. Simon and Jonas went to VGs after, and I thought about it, but decided against spending the 50 kr cover.

Last night I went to Sarah M.'s corridor and then we went to ÖGs club. It was not crowded at all, but there were a lot of fun people there, and it was a great time. Completely worth the 50 kr that night. And today, I've been in class and need to make a run to the Systembolaget before it closes at 6...stupid government controlled alcohol sales. I'm going to Monika's flat to pre-party and then, this is the time that Sarah D., Monika and I will ACTUALLY get in to Hallands club...lol. I hope.

I'm trying to think if there is anything else...does anyone have any specific questions? LOL. Here are some pictures...

Helsingborg and Helsingör, Malmö and Kara!

I don't really have time to blog right now, but I wanted to put just a few things in here to remind myself to finish it out later. On Friday, I studied and was generally boring. On Saturday, Eric and I took a train to Helsingborg, which is a medieval coastal city half an hour north or so. It's also only a twenty minute ferry ride to Helsingör, Denmark, which was the city of Elsinore in Shakespeare's Hamlet. We climbed up the castle/fortress in Helsingborg first...it was a long spiral staircase to the top, but worth it for the view. Then we bought a ticket for the ferry to Denmark. We ate a kebab on the main street, and walked around a little bit. The city of Helsingör is really nice, because most of the streets are pedestrian streets. It was very quaint. We walked around to Kronborg (Hamlet's Castle), which is just insanely beautiful and baroque. We bought tickets to be able to walk around the Royal Apartments (King & Queens quarters, banquet halls, and lots and lots of 16th century tapestries) and the Casemates, which was essentially the storerooms and dungeon. That was the coolest part, because it was kind of creepy too.

Eric also pointed out that you can rent the castle for events. So when I win the lottery and can afford to fly everyone to Denmark and pay for the castle, I'm so getting married there. The courtyard is just amazing, the perfect atmosphere for a party. It's hard to see in pictures, but I'll put some up soon.

We got back home at like 7:30 or 8 and went out to ög's with Andrew and Christian and Christian and Fabio. I didn't have too much fun, because well, a girl out with a bunch of guys just isn't as cool as a guy out with a bunch of girls. I went home shortly after midnight and woke up early to go meet Kara at Malmö C! I'll post on Malmö and Lund w/ Kara later. Today, I'm studying while she went to Copenhagen. I also have Swedish Film Class later, so I have to keep moving.

And I have the last-minute exam dread feeling about tomorrow...ughhghgh.

Korridorfest

"We can't do it better, but longer." - Simon Winterberg on the people of Switzerland, and no, I'm not sure what he was referring to.


Last night was so fun! We had a Tour des Chambres just the people in the corridor, which was lovely. I made Rum & Coke, Elif bought Guinness, Tobias made White Russians and we listened to the Russian National Anthem, Theresia had wine and French music, Caroline had...I forget, oh wait it was Sangria! Vesna made Jagerbombs, Robin and Jackie made delicious, hand made, fresh mint Mojitos...oh so good. Anders had just a shot of vodka...not so good, but whatever. I think that's all of us that were there. It was so fun just sitting and talking to people in a small setting. Then we had some friends come over after we 'tour'ed all the 'chambres'. Jonas came and brought some friends, but they left for Lunds nation after just a short while. Michelle and Terry came, too, with two other people but they left shortly as well. So it was me and a bunch of Swedes, and Elif (who's Albanian) and Jackie (who is Robin's girlfriend from Australia, but she's been living in Sweden for a year and a half). And I wouldn't have had it any other way. Swedish people are so well-spoken, even if their English isn't perfect, they always have good insightful things to say. Most of the talk was about what I thought about Sweden before I came here, what are Swedish stereotypes, etc. Robin then brought up how when he was in New York with some friends, everyone thought they were gay. So then I went on the whole night trying to describe what makes someone look gay and why Swedish guys fit that profile. Personally, Robin is like the straightest looking Swedish guy I've met. He doesn't do a lot of the tight clothes and his head is shaved. All Swedish guys are just so clean and shiny and bright. It's weird, but that's how I would describe them. Plus some wear really tight jeans and t-shirts and don't have chest hair or shave it all off. Swedish girls are just more subtle about it. They wear a lot of black and grey and white. Unless it's a club or fancy party, I don't really see Swedish girls wearing colors.

Anyway, I feel like I'm rambling a bit. One more thing though. Tobias got really drunk because he kept refilling his White Russian until it was gone. So, as a result, he was talking to me in Swedish and everyone else in English. He was hilarious. I talked to one of his friends for a really long time in the kitchen, and now I don't think I even got his name...but whatever. He'll be back for my birthday party...he promised. Haha.

My package still hasn't arrived, it's been two weeks. But my corridormates reassured me there will be a slip left in my box saying where to pick it up when it arrives. I hope it's soon. And all of you should send me things. Even if it's just a letter, it's so great to get mail that I can actually read! (All of the flyers and newspapers and things are in Swedish of course.) My address is below, just in case. And now, the rest of my day will be spent studying and watching Project Runway. Tomorrow to Helsingborg!

Magistratsvagen 55 B:208
226 44 Lund
Sweden

H&M, Postcards, and Neighbor Country Sittning

My class ended lectures on Tuesday, our exam is next Wednesday, and Kara comes on Sunday. I think Eric and I are making plans to go to Helsingborg on Saturday, and tonight is my tour des Chambres with the corridor.

And now stuff that's already happened. I had a sittning with mentorgroup 9 last night, our theme was 'Neighbor Countries', so you had to dress like one of the countries that borders yours. All the Swedes dressed as Danes, but to them, Danes must all dress like the flag, because they all wore red and white and painted their faces like the flag...hilarious. I tried to do Mexico, I wore a flower in my hair and my turquoise necklace, but it's hard to find good costume stuff. The Canadians were all Americans, clearly, they were like hilljack folk and went around talking in an accent all night, etc etc. Lisa was Swiss, she had a little green hat and a hiking stick and was soo cute. Bianka was Polish and wore red and white and leg warmers and this fur scarf thingy she bought at the flea market on Saturday. But Simon's costume was by far the best. By FAR. He's Swiss, so he dressed as an Italian guido, complete with fake chest hair and goatee. I'll put some pictures at the end of this post of everyone.

Anyway, it turns out I couldn't get into the sittning at first because I didn't have a nation stamp on my acceptance letter. That's because Sydskanska girl hadn't replied about my number, etc. So I emailed them again and she replied yesterday, but I couldn't get the stamp until today. So me and another girl went next door to Hallands, and luckily enough someone knew a forman there that could hook us up. So I signed up with Hallands nation. I don't know how it works exactly, maybe I won't pay the bill for them and will pay for Sydskanska, and it'll be ok? who knows. Anyway, the point is, I got in to the sittning. And THEN, we were sitting at the end of the last table, and they ran out of food. We still got food, it was just not as much as everyone else by far. So they gave us double dessert and an extra bottle of wine, which definitely made up for it. Then it was already time for the club to start, but some people went back with Petra to Erik's for the mellanfest (middle party), but the bar in the club was already open, so me and some others just stayed. And Eric and Mathias were there, and eventually everyone else came back too. It was a great time.

Now I must stop putting off my homework and room cleaning/decoration so I can be ready for this corridor party tonight...ack! I do have tomorrow totally free, so maybe I will take the day off. Or maybe not, Nora invited me to a pub night, so we'll see.


Heidi (Lisa) from Switzerland (Germany)


This is Will. He dressed Canadian and then someone was using his props against him.


The SweDanish look. There were probably 7 or 8 Swedes dressed like this.

And finally...

Yes. Simon is a D&G wearing, greasy, smooth talking Italian.

I found more pictures from Meike!

Pictures of the beach at Lomma! The first is Jonas with the beach, you can see how shallow it is by the people way out behind him. It stays below your knees until like 100 yards out or so. It's awesome. And also, the water is sooo clear and you can see jellyfish everywhere. We played volleyball with some Swedes...me, Bianka and the Swedes on the left team and Jonas, Christoph, Antonia and someone else (Evelyn? maybe Meike?) on the right. The group picture is me, Christoph, Jonas, Bianka, and Antonia.

Michelle's 21st

Last night was pretty awesome. I went to Parentesen (another student housing area) for Michelle's bday party. At first it was pretty chill, we were just sitting around, and I was thinking I would probably cut out and go to Dirty Frank at Sydskånska at 10ish. However, things turned around. Her Swedish korridormates were DJing crazy Swedish house music for most of the night and everyone started dancing and yelling. A bunch of people (including two of Michelle's NZ friends) went outside and made a big 'M' out of bikes in the middle of the grassy area. Then we decided to try to go to the Herkules Bar in Stortorget, which is a real bar that people who aren't students can go to, and apparently is a lot of fun. Well, it turns out you have to be TWENTY-FOUR to get in on Saturday nights, or be the guest of someone who is. And I thought the USA was lame for having all drinking age be 21. Ridiculous. So, at that point, I told everyone I was going home, but really I roamed around Mårtenstorget and Stortorget for a while. It was Kulturnatten (Culture Night) in Lund last night. Apparently the physics department was putting on a laser show somewhere, but I missed that. So in Måretenstorget there was some sort of poppy punk band and a whole bunch of 14 year olds gathered around and all kinds of booths. Some people were dressed up in weird capes and Sherlock Holmes hats and others in traditional scholar-esque gear. In Stortorget, there was another stage and band, but it was like a folky music band. They had a violin, an upright bass, two little-guitar type dealies, and a drummer. It was SO GOOD. I stayed there and listened for like a half hour, wishing I knew the name of this band. I finally got home around 1:30 and went to sleep.




This is Michelle trying to get a good picture of the 'M' bikes. Don't worry, she wasn't actually going to stand up there, it was just a joke. And besides, her corridor is the first floor, so the drop is only like five feet. No big deal.

No Penthouse

No penthouse for me tonight, now I am a sad erasmus student. We stayed at Antonia's until after eleven and it was soooo much fun. I made fun of everyone and they made fun of me and I yelled, "speak english! damnit" like fourteen times. And that sounds like I'm really mean, but I was just saving Francesco (italian) and Juan (Venezuelan) from having to do it themselves. But seriously, when I get my camera cord, there will be a series on nations' stamps. Promise.

Banana

I just realized that I have had a banana in my backpack for over a week. It just started leaking banana juice everywhere. Great. Lol.

Making Plans

I've been really lazy because I've been sick (blahh) the last few days. I've watched a lot of How I Met Your Mother. There is some sort of weird European obsession with it (along with the Simpsons, etc.), so I figured I'd better catch up. It's actually a hilarious show. Too bad no one in the US has time for sitcoms.

Anyway, I've decided I need to absolutely plan out every moment in order to avoid this laziness. And I don't mean crazy-tour-guide-Barbie planning, but just having something to do each night and weekend. For example, tonight I am going to Antonia's for martinis before going to Lunds nation's penthouse.

Also, I just paid Petra for a sittning at Västgötas next week. Get this, our theme is 'Neighbor countries'. Which means you have to pick a country that neighbors yours and dress up in that stereotype. So I have two choices: Canada and Mexico. I also considered Texas, but I don't think everyone would get it. There is also the Bahamas, Cuba, etc., I suppose, but that's not REALLY a neighbor. So I'm going on a search for anything Maple Leaves or Maracas/sombrero.

I am thinking about trying to go to Copenhagen or Stockholm this weekend, too, but I need to find a companion first. I'm going to ask all the Germans tonight. I know that Eric is going to Stockholm already, but they might be taking Mathias' car, and I don't really want to drive to Stockholm (it's at least five hours).

Kara is coming from Prague next weekend (!!!!) and then she leaves and I have my exam in this class. I'm super excited to show her around Lund and go to a nation and stuff...maybe we will go to Copenhagen then for a day. Or Göteborg. Who knows.

I also booked my flight to Dublin Oct 22-25 to see Casey and everyone when she's there...should be quite a good time. I paid too much for that airfare, but made up for it because it's only costing me like 44 dollars to go to Prague in November. There's also my ESN trip to Russia at the end of November, which I cannot wait for. Who gets to go to Russia? ME! Chloe, I knew reading your Russian book freshman year would pay off...even if I only remember the alphabet...sort of. I also want to go to Berlin and Holland and Norway. But those plans will come.

My other big plans are having an all-american drinking games party for my birthday, go to the Munich-ers' (Müncheners'? something) Oktoberfest party, complete with pretzels and other Bavarian food.

I'm also definitely going to the flea market/farmers market/etc soon. I'm going to get some decorations for my super-super depressing room. And another towel, one just isn't enough.

The other thing I want to do is start hanging around Anita and Nora more. I've met them both, and always creepily facebook stalk them, and they are always doing cool things that I would love to tagalong on. I need to be pro-active in this endeavor. But anyway, Lunds Penthouse tonight! (They have the coolest stamp of the nations I've been to. I'll start taking pictures of them. You can see the VGs crown on Monika's wrist in the picture below if you look real close).

Anyway, love you all, update me on your lives!

Some pictures. I didn't take them.

I thought I'd put up some pictures for those of you who haven't stalked me on facebook. These are what other people have taken, obviously, I'll have mine up next week sometime.





The Welcome Party, L to R: Monika, Sarah, Sirca, Aline, Me.



Monika and I at VGs on Wednesday, after waiting in line foreverrr. .....


This is me with the head of the crawdad I just ate. Or, crayfish, properly.

Pub at Östgöta

To take a break from the infinite amounts of reading/exercises I have to do for my class, I went with Bianka's mentorgroup to the pub at ÖGs. Nations, as you have probably noticed, dominate pretty much every social event. They have restaurants for lunches on certain days of the week, pubs (which is dinner and drinks) on other days, and sometimes sittnings (you're served at a sittning rather than waiting in line at a pub) in ADDITION to the clubs.

Usually, on a night when a nation has a pub or sittning, they also have a club. If you attend the sittning/pub, most of the time you can stay and dance for free, which is awesome if you have that much time.

So anyway, tonight at Östgöta was pub night. It's traditional in Sweden to pea soup and pancakes on Thursdays (I'm still trying to figure out why). It's a yellow pea soup that's more like a paste and you're supposed to put mustard on it, and have a big thin pancake with butter and jam for dessert. They also had another dinner option of pork filet with vegetables, cheese, and lime sauce. That's what I got. When I hear lime sauce, I think lime juice is what they really meant. But no. It was like whipped cream almost, but lime. SOOOOOO GOOD. Next time I'm going traditional and getting the pea soup though.

I'm going to be going to nations for pubs more often, because the whole thing, plus a beer, only cost 60 kr. That's like $8.50, including the beer, which is 20 kr by itself. So yeah, that's really exciting.

Now, I will stop procrastinating and actually do the protein annotation and hydropathy plots....ugh.

(In completely unrelated news, I am now a grandmother!!!! at AGD of course. I can't wait to get back and meet my offspring's offspring. Hooray!)

Pork Chops for dinner.

I am a master chef. I made pork chops with bread crumbs, milk, cinnamon, oregano, dill, and salt. They will be delicious for the next three days.

Marshmallows in Sweden are all colorful and shaped in different ways, more like candy that marshmallows. So I had to buy 'BBQ marshmallows' for our cookout last week. Now I am snacking on the rest of them with my pretzels (Salta Pinnar).

I'm about to head out to meet Sarah, Antonia, the other Sarah, Monika, and some others, no doubt, at VG. Should be awesome. I just wanted to let you all know that my camera cord is on its way from Indiana, so I really should have pictures up soon(ish).

Until then, I want more comments. I'm that selfish. Comment. Seriously.

Welcome Party Weekend and the Monday that followed.

After the long Friday night of waiting in line with Robin, Pontus, Sarah, and Monika, the Official Welcome Party for International Students was on Saturday night. For me, that meant a sittning (literally means sit-down in Swedish, it's a three-course dinner where people get drunk and sing songs) at Östgöta Nation. But of course it was pouring down rain all day, the first day I was going to get a bit more dressed up, I had to ride my bike in the rain to Hallands to Magnus's corridor. Everyone was just miserably wet. Then we all made it to Östgöta around 7:30 for dinner...even wetter, but also drunker, than before. The food and drinks were quite good, Thibault and I split a bottle of Spanish wine, there was a mint chocolate cake-brownie thing for dessert that was delicious. Then, Sarah, Sırça, Monika, and I rode over to Kårhuset for the Welcome Party, where there was a QUEUE! Are you kidding me Sweden? I know you want to be totally official and honest and double check, but come on. Anyway, we picked the right queue out of the two and got in pretty quickly. We danced alllll night, and I ran into Bianka, Jonas, Antonia, Julia, Christoph, etc on and on with the Germans...lol, and found it was Simon's birthday at midnight! So anyway, the welcome party was a lot of fun, except, truth be told, I remember leaving, but I don't really remember riding home...

Anyway, Sunday was a day of rest and my first corridor meeting. They appointed me list-writer because I'm a native English speaker. We just talked about what we needed for the corridor, when we are going to have a warming party with an around-the-world tour de Chambres theme, and paid 100 kr to get some stuff.

Today, I had class all day, but came home to "make" some pretzels and a banana for lunch. P.S. I love Swedish coffee machines. It's actually good! For 3 kr...that's like, less than 50 cents. The coffee at the cafe costs 20 kr, in comparison. Then Bianka facebooked me and I met up with the Germans, Simon, and Petra to see Inglourious Basterds at the cinema. The movie was crazy, as you would expect, I jumped out of my seat at least twice. And besides that it was about killing Nazis. Creepy. But the funny thing was most of the movie was in German or French, with Swedish subtitles. Some parts were in English, but most of the time I was piecing together the French or German that I could hear and decipher with the Swedish subtitles. I think I got the gist of it. Mom, you don't want to see that movie. It was a good piece of artwork--totally Tarantino style, but wayyyy too violent for me.

So now, my Bioinformatics class again tomorrow...should be a BLAST. Haha. No one gets that except me.

I waited in line for about three hours total tonight. Two separate lines, and then we didn't get into Hallands...so made our way to Krischansta, where everyone left except Sarah and Monika and I (Simon stayed, but forgot his ID, so couldn't get in). We met the most amazing Swedish guys ever. They were nuts. But fun. Also, I learned that Sarah is very picky about guys. A perfectly cute Swedish guy totally wanted her, I knew, because his friend told me, and she was like, "oh no, he's much too clean." Oh, the English and their rock n roll lifestyles....lol. The music at Krischan was awesome though. In a really bad way: all Michael Jackson and Bob Marley and various other reggae/swing type with some pop rap mixed in. Awesome.

So, I totally forgot the most important part of Sunday in the last post. I sat next to Bianka on the way home, one of the ten business administration students from Munich. She was really nice, we talked the whole hour and a half back to Lund. So after another lonely day on Monday (no Swedish class), I just shopped and walked around basically, I went to my first BioInformatics course on Tuesday, and then to the beach at Lomma with Bianka and other Germans (at first i accidentally typed Germs, which made me laugh). these included Jonas, who looks pretty much like a younger, shorter, more European version of Isaac Dorau from the Academy. It's actually kind of weird. Also there was Meike, Evelyn, Christoph, and Antonia (yes, from Germany). And of course Bianka and I. It was such a nice beach, we went in the water for a little bit. It was really cold, but the water at Lomma is really shallow. Like, you can walk 100m away from the beach and you're still only up to your knees or maybe a little bit higher. There are jellyfish everywhere too. They are the weirdest things ever. It was a really clear and sunny day on Tuesday, so I got a little sun, and we were able to see the whole Öresundbron (Oresund Bridge) and even little tiny buildings of Copenhagen, or Kopenhamn, in Swedish.

Then we came back and played brännboll with mentor groups 9 and 10 (Bianka, Jonas, Christoph and Evelyn's groups). It was fun I guess, but there was this one Canadian guy who was taking it way to seriously and pissing me off, but whatever. So I can now officially say that one of my biggest pet peeves is when people are so bent on winning that they don't play honestly. He wasn't exactly cheating, but he was finding loopholes in all the rules. I just hated being on the same team as him.

So yeah. That was Tuesday. (Awesome). On Wednesday I had class again, came home, talked to Caroline, one of my corridormates, for a while and made a hot dog. Then I went to Kårhuset around 8 to meet up with the Germans and Simon (who is Austrian or Swiss, I am a terrible person and have forgotten). There was some sort of concert playing, but it cost 50 kronor to get in, so we just sat on the hill behind and heard the music fine, and I'm glad I didn't pay the 50 kronor because the music wasn't that great. It was just covers of American songs by a guy dressed in an Angel costume, or other similarly Swedish things. So we sat and talked and then went to VGs for their Wednesday Club. We waited in line forever and we were really near the front. But once we got in it was soooo much fun. I mean, I love Sweden because the cheapest beer you can get is a Carlsberg for 20 kronor, which is only like...3 dollars, and Jonas bought the first round anyway. So we danced and danced and I met a guy from Toronto named David with dreadlocks and he was sort of strangely flirting with me, even though I told him I have a boyfriend. He also smashed the plastic gun I found on the floor (from someone's cowboy costume) into bits! That was when I really didn't like him. He was like, "Guns are bad, Ellen, you can't shoot people everywhere like you can in America." I was really offended. I have never shot a gun in my life, nor do I plan to. So he smashed my toy gun for political reasons. What a jerk...Anyway, Jonas was the funniest of all though. He kept stealing this one Swedish girl's hat...like four times throughout the night, just thinking it was the best thing ever. I really like him, because he's just a gigantic kid. At about 1 am, a lot of people have left and the ones leftover are either with a big group of people (like I was) or hooking up with someone. Well, Jonas is like the only single one out of the group we were in, and he's super-cute and disappointed he hadn't picked up a girl yet. Luckily, in the next few minutes he started dancing with this girl and kissed her. Then Antonia and I were going to leave, and Jonas was said, "Yeah, I've got it out of my system now. I'm ready to go home." Boys are so weird. So then I rode my bike home, talked to Tom for a while, and went to sleep. It was a good night.

Blogging in Class

It's been SO long. I'm sorry, if there are any loyal readers out there, but the wired internet in my room STILL does not work. Luckily, someone set up an unsecure wireless network that I have been piggybacking on occasionally.

So to catch you all up,
Aug 28. Friday.
Overall, I don't remember Friday being super eventful, except for Swedish class and the corridorparty. In Swedish class, an English woman who married a Swede (and now lives near Malmö) talked about what the Swedish people are like, and why they are like that. It was SUCH a good talk. She was seamless at working in some Swedish history and facts along with descriptions of the people. 54% of Sweden is trees, 16% is mountains, and there are only 9 million people. A hundred years ago trees and lumber were Swedenäs largest exports. Many of the mature trees you see now are in rows, because they were planted to sustain the business and the country. Sweden has been the most ethnically preserved country (people-wise) for a very long time. Which is why all the Swedes are 6 foot tall, blonde, tan, and beautiful. But, about a hundred years ago or so, the Swedes had created too many jobs for only themselves to do. So they invited people in for the first time. Mostly people from southern Europe (Italy, Turkey, Greece, former Yugoslavia, etc.) so now you see several very dark-complected Swedes as well that are 2nd or 3rd generation immigrants. I could go on and on, this lady was soooo good at speaking and really conveying her message.

Friday night, my mentorgroup(19) and our twin group (20) had a corridor party in Delphi C4, which is convenient because I live in Delphi B2 right next door. Johan (mentor for group 20) lives there and had a fog machine and glowsticks and also videotaped the whole thing. It was pretty awesome until I realized I had left my keys in my room, so I couldn't get back in my corridor. Finally, after ringing for a while and thinking I would have to sleep on the hard stone floor, my corridormate Tobias let me in.

Saturday, August 29.
The first day of the internet drought. I stayed in my room all day, hoping the inernet would magically work again every hour or so. I listened to music, cleaned up a bit, and went to bed early to the sounds of the engineers singing...no, screaming, something in Swedish to the tune of 'Grapes of Wrath' (you know...mine eyes have seen the glory do doo do do).

Sunday, August 30.
First contact with the Germans...haha. Actually, I went on the excursion to Österlen (which is the east side of Skåne...öst is east in Swedish, I think). Thibault and Sascha from my mentorgroup were also there. I met a masterstudent from Leeds Uni named Fred on the first bus stint. Our first stop was the city of Ystad, which probably would've been alright except that it was Sunday, and Sweden is closed on Sunday. So we walked for a bit, took pictures of some cool houses, looked at a ferry that was leaving for Poland, etc. Our next stop was better, we went to Kåseberga, the home of Ales Stenar. Ales Stenar is basically the Swedish form of Stonehenge. You'll get more information from Wikipedia or google than I could give you, but it was a really great little seaside location. I took videos there, so they'll be posted later today. The third leg of the journey was the best. Glimmingehus. Again, google it. It's this giant fortress-house thing in the middle of the countryside that has some booby traps and was built by a giant. The funny thing is, actually, they dug up the grave of this nobleman/admiral guy who did build it, and he was nearly 2 meters tall, probably 6'6" or so. Which is tall for us, but for 1499-1520ish, it is giant-like. My favorite part of this was that we got a guided tour and she told us one folk myth that Jans the giant stood there while his wife stood on the island off the coast and threw rocks to him, with which he built the house. But every so often, he would throw one at a church (there was a lot of political unrest in Skåne then, it was Danish at the time and the king and archbishop were always fighting or something) so that is why the terrain has a bunch of big rocks sticking up.

I'll continue with Monday thru today later.

To Catch A Hedgehog

There are hedgehogs here! I also saw a Swedish bunny rabbit yesterday, but last night after the crayfishparty I saw three or four hedgehogs on the walk home. I took pictures of them, one would've let me touch him, except he was terrified and all prickly, so I didn't. But they are really big hedgehogs too. Normally I think of a hedgehog as being able to fit in the palm of your hand, but these were bigger than two fists. They must've weighed at least a pound. I really want to catch one and bring it home as my pet. And feed it carrots and celery and love :-).

Okay, now that's out of my system.

So in Sweden, August is sort of an unofficial crayfish month. They have parties where everyone eats crayfish and drinks and sings songs. So our mentor group had one of these parties last night.
The kräftskiva (crayfish party, or crayfishparty rather, I've found that there must be a lot of compound words in Swedish, because the information from our mentors always includes words that are stuck together i.e. mentorgroup, etc. Anyway, it was awesome. I got there late, but I still had time to learn from Benedikt the German (everyone is German) how to eat one. The tails are pretty good, actually, and aren't too gross to eat. It tastes like lobster, but I think it's better. I ate two of them, and you are supposed to eat the chest-torso part too, but it looked too weird for me.

Pictures soon, I promise!

Jag heter Ellen och jag kommer från USA.

^ My new favorite phrase, it answers about everything. I thought today I'd talk a bit about the Swedes. And the Germans, and Australians (including New Zealand, sorry Michelle), and Japanese.

The Swedes
The Swedes are pretty much the most beautiful people on the face of the earth. Easily. They are all blonde and tall and tan and thin. With blue eyes, of course. Okay, not every single one is blonde, but the ones that have brown hair have it lighter than mine. They even have 'Nordic Hair Care' shampoo in the grocery. But anyway, I've noticed that they all look very very young. Like there are people with three kids walking around the centre and they don't look any older than me, although I know they have to be. Even the older people are fresh-looking and youthful. I have yet to see a Swede look tired. They are also super helpful if you have the courage to ask. They will not come up to help you if you look lost, but if you go ask where there is an internet cafe, they will tell you five are in this city and three in the next. It's really great, except for when you are just looking for the closest answer, of course.

Das Deustchlanders
I speak absolutely no German, so that probably isn't how you say the germans, but it's close. Probably. So yeah, there were like 6 or 7 Germans in my group last night and they all just kept slipping into German. I mean, it's fine, but if it were Spanish or French, I'd be able to tell at least the subject of their conversation. But in German, I got nothing. It was a bit unnerving, also because the other American, Eric, and our mentor, Martin, can speak German as well. Ugh. I feel like such a big loser that can't get into the German club. But anyway, Germans are all very nice, albeit arrogant. In fact, this morning in my Swedish class I sat next to Sebastian, who was like, I'm very good at this (meaning Swedish) and I called him out for being an arrogant German. He was so fun. We just kept making jokes about how the instructor could beat him up and he said it was easy to be an american girl's friend, all you have to do is laugh and smile a bit, and so on and so on. Matthias, a guy from my group last night did a high school exchange in Oregon and has gone back to the US every summer since (3 years). He and his friends did a roadtrip from Portland, through San Francisco, Los Angeles, the Grand Canyon, all the way to Mexico and back up through Las Vegas and Colorado or something equally crazy. I can only imagine...all that driving. Sheesh. Anyway, all you folks at home need to make a time to Skype me. Seriously. I want to talk to all of you and see your fresh bright beautiful faces.

Well, I've just tried to take a short nap at 1 pm, and woke up and it's 3:20 already. I guess no crayfish for me (they have to defrost, and the party starts at 5). Maybe someone will let me try one from their pack for a few kroner. I really really need a bike. Hopefully today is the day.

And now, I live in Delphi.

Sorry this blog is so long and boring. I just needed something to do last night before I had internet set up. I promise this will get more exciting and there will be pictures soon! (as soon as I unpack my camera cord...)


Arrival day was more exhausting than I thought. First I checked out of the hotel, went to exchange my money, and got on the bus to the train station. I figured it was easier to go to the train station and get shuttled to the SOL-centre with the other students just arriving, rather than lugging my two suitcases around the cobblestone sidewalks until I found the place. Well, I missed the train station the first time by, and so the bus came back and I got it then. One of the mentors helped me find the shuttle right away. Then the fun really began. First, I had to wait in line, oh, sorry, I mean the ‘queue’ to drop off my luggage in the luggage room. Maybe ten minutes. Then I went to the exchange-student check-in line, basically so that they know I’m here and can give me a bag full of information and maps and whatnot. An hour and a half wait! Seriously. But, there were two guys in front of me who were absolutely nuts. One was from Australia and the other from London. The guy from Australia, Lewis, kept saying “Bonjour, mon petit pigeon” in a heavy French accent to everyone that passed. Funny at first, then annoying. But yeah, they were hungover and just crazy and couldn’t stop talking. The other guy, Richard I think, was reading the international student guide aloud, “Call home and let them know you’ve arrived safely. Well if you don’t fucking know that, honestly, how did you get into university??” The other funny one was “Put up pictures and posters in your room to make you feel more at home. Man, they could just make this whole book into one page of helpful information than this shit. Put up posters, no thanks, I ‘ll just take a shit in the middle of my room and have a good roll around in it and I’ll be set, thanks.” Anyway, then I had to wait in line to get my keys, another hour, probably. And then wait to get the shuttle to Delphi (which is pronounced Delphee btw). So I got here, sort of unpacked, got on the bus and bought a discount card, and went back to Martenstorget. I bought a phone, because there is still no internet in my room and I really needed to try and call offices or places to help me. I spent more than I would’ve liked, but they were out of all the really good deal phones. But whatever. I got it and it works, except I don’t know how to call home yet. I also went to the Coop (grocery) at Martenstorget and bought some things like mystery breakfast meat, eggs, Swedish meatballs, a pizza making kit, bread, etc. I need more still, but it’s so hard to know what to buy when nothing is clear what it is. I then came home, realizing I still didn’t have sheets and had no idea how to take the bus to Malmo to go to Ikea. So tonight I am sleeping on my towel and coat, with a nice t-shirt pillow. And tomorrow I vow to find some internet somewhere and figure out how to get to Ikea.
I also met three of my corridormates..Teresia, Caroline, and Tobias. I still don’t know all the rules of the corridor kitchen…I’ll start asking as I get to know people better, but for now, I borrowed someone’s glass for water. So goodnight to everyone sleeping on proper sheets, tomorrow I go to Ikea, the general information meeting and my first Swedish class for the Swedish Language and Orientation Programme, or SLOP. Which is pronounced sloop, so it sounds even more disgusting…lol.

Swedish Breakfast

My first night here was a bit rocky. I walked to the McDonald's for some much-needed food, and got a happy meal for like, $4. I ended up going to sleep at about 8pm, because I couldn't keep my eyes open anymore. Well, it turns out, I must not have been that tired, because I woke up at 2am and couldn't sleep until 4. Without any alarm clock (currently sans phone) I luckily made it to breakfast around 10, before it stops at 10:30. Swedish breakfast was not extraordinarily different from what I'm used to, but it was a bit unsettling. There were loaves of bread and some rolls of all different varieties and some sort of meat that smelled like salami and looked like tiny bologna. Along with these things there were several things I couldn't recognize, either because they were in tubes or I just didn't know. There were also small glass jars of cereal, but no milk? Oh wait, there was one bowl labeled 'Sour Milk' and four others around it. After discretely messing with a ladle in one of them, I determined these bowls to be yogurt. Haha. So I put some blueberry yogurt in a bowl and some rice krispies(only recognizable cereal) on top. I was afraid to try everything because there were many other people and I got some funny looks for sitting alone anyway. I'm vowing from now on not to just sit alone in the corner anymore. There was another guy who seemed to be stumbling and alone and he must've been another exchange student. But of course, I said nothing. I thought about it, and he must have been too, because we kept giving each other awkward glances. So, next time, no hesitation.

Arrival!

So, I’m sitting at the Stockholm airport, just arrived and now have a four hour lay-over. (Ugh.) So I thought I’d record my first thoughts of international life…
1. The flight wasn’t that bad, except I couldn’t sleep much. The plane was really nice and everything, but they gave us coffee after dinner plus I was really nervous/excited on top of that. So, only an hour or two of sleep for me.
2. When we first dipped below the clouds and got my first glimpse of Sweden, I was kind of like, ‘Shit, what have I gotten myself into…and geez there are a TON of trees here.’ Like, literally, a million. Oh and it’s raining, so we made cool splattery things as we landed, it reminded me of a goose on a lake.
3. Everyone really IS blonde. Like, not just kind of light sandy brown, but probably half the people on the plane had hair that was blonder than most California blondes. Seriously.
4. It figures the exchange rate is the most horrible I’ve seen it right when I get here. I was going to buy a Lonely Planet book here, like Prachi suggested, and they take dollars, but it would have cost almost $50. So, I’m sure that would be worth it, I’m not quite ready to spend that amount right off the plane, I guess. Idk. Whatevs.
5. It’s very very quiet in this airport. The only sounds are clicking of the camera from the two Asian girls behind me, and then of course them discussing which pictures are the best.

I’m going to try and take advantage of this silence and get some sleep. I don’t know how successful I’ll be, I can barely sleep soundly with Tom, even, let alone a bunch of foreign strangers hanging around. But I guess I’m the foreign one now.


I made it! I'm in Lund! And already I have had some very unlucky and very lucky things happen. When I got off the train, I could not find the map I had printed out, so I started walking in the general direction I knew where the office was. Luckily, two guys said something to me about being a new student and asked if I was going to the International Housing Office. I said yes, and they said they were too, so I was able to follow them. That was the very lucky part, along with the fact that I'm pretty sure one of them lives in my corridor! Strange, huh? Well, the bad news is that the Housing Office was closed, and this guy I was with, Ali, called all the phone numbers that were posted on the door, but no one answered. This makes me really upset because I specifically emailed the office telling them the exact day I would arrive and they told me as long as I arrived before 5pm I could get my key. So for the time being, I am homeless in Lund. Ali and Hassan (they are from Lebanon, brothers. Ali is a PhD student at Stockholm University, and Hassan is doing exchange here, like me) helped me find a hotel. We went to two different ones, seeing if there was a lower price, and called a third. I settled for one that is close-ish to town, so I can walk to places I need to go, and is about $90 per night, I think, by doing the conversion in my head. It's expensive, but I think it's worth it. I get breakfast both days and the room is like a tiny little apt with a two burner electric stove and microwave and coffee maker and sink. And it's on the 5th floor so I get to see a bit of the city. There is a cykel (bicycle) shop right across the street so I am going to go there later and check out prices of bikes. So I'm in this hotel now, got my converter to work and is charging my computer, using my room's internet(free) and trying not to think about the fact that it is only 11:30 am at home. It's 5:30 here of course, but it feels like it too! I'm exhausted!

Departure...

OMG I'M LEAVING IN THE MORNING... I feel completely unprepared and uncertain. And sad. And terrified. And horribly EXCITED. More than anything else. All I can do now is hope everything with my classes will work out well and I haven't forgotten to pack anything necessary for survival. I'm trying to leave space in my bags to bring things home, but it's so hard not to want to fill every pound with my stuff from here. I want just one more pair of shoes, my stuffed lamb, hat, another purse...blah blah blah. Luckily have a total of 118 lbs of space to pack anything into, which is a lot more than the students coming from elsewhere in Europe (only about 44 lbs).

I don't want to be too 'loud annoying american', not that I think I am in the first place, but hey, you never know how you might be perceived.
I want to stop freaking out like this, and I'm sure I'll relax pretty soon(like when I get there).

Goodbye USA.

Now I'm Legal. Swedishly Legal.

I (or my parents, rather) received my passport back, now complete with Swedish residence permit! Hooray. Now I can get into Denmark and eventually Sweden. It came in only 4 weeks, which was good compared to the threatened 8-12 week turnaround time.

Also, I've decided that this will be a combination video/text blog. I'm going to try to shoot video of myself talking about stuff more than just writing about it, so it can be more interesting for you guys, and easy for me, because I talk to myself all the time anyway.

Countdown: 6 weeks.

I booked my flight to Copenhagen. I've made preliminary packing lists. I've stalked many a blog of other students' Lund experiences. So I've created this. I won't post much until a week or so before I leave, but hopefully this will be a good way for anyone to keep up with me and share pictures and stories.