My First 2 Weeks in Lund, Sweden

Hi. Welcome to my first ever blog. I thought that since I will be here for the next 4 and 1/2 months it would be nice to have a written record of my travels that can be shared with those back at home. As a note, I will provide a few pictures with each post as visuals, but complete photo albums can be seen on my Facebook page.

My journey began back on August 3 around 5AM when I woke up to go to John Wayne Airport in Orange County. As I was driving to the airport with my parents, it had yet to set in that I would be away from my family, friends, car, and all that was familiar to me, for the next 5 months. My first flight departed around 8AM and landed at Chicago's O'Hare Airport a few hours later. From here I had to transplant myself clear across the enormous airport to the international terminal that would take me to Stockholm, Sweden. I arrived in Stockholm the next day, August 4, and then took a one hour flight to Copenhagen, Denmark, at which point I took a train across the Baltic Sea and into Lund. I must say, SAS was a very nice airline to travel with. They had great service, served two meals, and had TVs on the back of all seats where you could watch movies and TV shows, play games, listen to all kinds of music, AND most of all (and coolest, to me at least) you could watch live feed from the front and bottom of the airplane of what was happening outside. This was especially cool when you were taking off, landing, and flying over cities.

So I arrived in Lund quite tired and jet lagged as you can imagine. It didn't help that I had two large suitcases and two smaller bags that I had to transport. I left the train station and had no idea where I was wondering and could not read any of the signs. I saw a girl (who I now know as Jasmine) wandering as aimlessly as I was. She eventually asked for help, got it, and so I followed. With the help of a nice Swedish woman, we found where we needed to go, after lugging our luggage throughout much of the college-oriented city. We and some other UC students eventually made our way to the International Housing Office where we checked in and received our keys. While there, I met up with my Kappa Sigma bro, Vishnu! That was nice. After checking in and going to exchange money, myself and many of the UC students went to see a movie outside in the town. This is where I met Nora, Anita, Sarina, Ghazal, Rochelle, and many of the other awesome students that I'll be spending the semester with. I also met Luise, a very cool German! The movie turned out to be in Spanish, with Swedish subtitles. So this, along with the fact that I was jet lagged and tired to begin with, made for an early night. Though, before going back, a few of us wound up at a local bar/pub where we met Alex, one of the Swedish mentors.

On Wednesday, August 5, we had our ILP (Intensive Language Program) and UC Orientations with the Director of the program and the UC coordinator. Afterwards, a few of us went to see the Museum of Sketches in Lund. This was awesome and very well worth it! The tour guide was quite knowledgeable and provided us with some much info on the artwork in the museum, which included pieces by Diego Rivera and Henri Matisse. The museum is free to students, so I will very likely return. Later in the day I went to my first "Nation", Krischansta. Social life here at Lund basically revolves around the 13 nations, which provide lunches and dinners at discounted prices to students and have nighttime club events. It is required that every student at Lund join 1 nation. This night was a lot of fun. I met many UC and Swedish students and had a few good beers, too!

Thursday, August 6, was our first day of Swedish class. It went from 9AM-12:30PM. Surprisingly, it went pretty quick. It helped that we had 2 15-minute breaks that divided up what was otherwise a long class. This is all I really remember from this day...though, I should mention, today as with most all other days in this first week, included a lot of exploring in town. We visited the 2 town squares, the H&M, a very good ice cream shop, a McDonalds, and the 1,000 year old Cathedral. They also have very good Thai food...and a Subway! And 7/11! It is quite a city!

Friday, August 7, was our second day of Swedish. This day went even quicker! I learned to say "Jag heter John. Och du? Jag i fran California och jag bor i Sparta." Can you guess what that means??? Later in the evening a few of us returned to Krischansta for dinner. This will usually be the place to go on Wednesdays and Fridays...they have good food at good prices and its just a more laid back place, which is nice once and awhile.

Saturday, August 8 was my first night at Lunds Nation. This is a nice place that is located rooftop. I had dinner but did not stay long, as I was quite tired from the nights before. They had excellent techno and electronic music! Oh, I forgot to mention, I had purchased a bike earlier in the day for 1,000 kroner. This comes out to about $130. The nice thing is, we resell them at the end and make up a good portion, if not all, of the money we originally spent. On a less positive note, I currently (August 18) have not used my bike for a day because the chain fell off.

Sunday, August 9 was our trip to Lomma Beach! This was a very fun day. While some rode their bikes the 7 or so miles to Lomma, myself and a few others opted for the bus. The beach itself was located on the Baltic Sea and had a nice view of Copenhagen across. The really cool thing was that the beach was shallow for a couple hundred feet out, so there were people playing in the water for some distance out. The one VERY big downside was that there had been an influx of lady bugs which swarmed us by the hundreds and would not leave us alone. The only escape was in the water, or leaving, which we eventually did. BTW, it did not help that I wore a yellow shirt.

Monday, August 10 was our third day of Swedish class...that's all I can remember!

Tuesday, August 11 was our fourth day of our ILP program. At this point I have forgotten what we learned each day, especially since they've crammed what I heard was a 5 week program into 2 and 1/2 weeks! In the evening, a few of us went to see "The Wrestler". Luckily, this movie was in English! And it had Swedish subtitles which were good to practice with. We arrived a little late and had to stand for the first hour, but then found seats during intermission. The movie and especially the acting was great! Sorry Christine, but it was... =)

Wednesday, August 12 was our fifth day of Swedish. In the evening we went to Krischansta for dinner. A few of us played this dice game which actually turned out to be a lot of fun. For dinner I had a cheeseburger, fries, and slice of raspberry pie with ice cream! It was yummy.

Thursday, August 13 was one of the best days thus far of my stay. While I don't remember much of my sixth day of Swedish class, I remember what a great evening my friends and I had at Lunds Nation. We arrived there and had dinner early on, around 7PM or so. Since the club doesn't start till 10PM, and its usually not crowded until 11:30PM, we walked around town for awhile before coming back. While hanging out and having a beer, my friends Alex and Ghazal and I noticed a very trendy, Stockholm-ish looking guy come in to the blackjack table. He proceeded to play, earned quite a bit, before losing it all. We began chatting with one of his friends and then this guy who had just lost at blackjack. They were both Swedish college students. Later in the evening, after they'd had a few more drinks, we ran back into them. They were wishing us the, should I say, "finest" time in Sweden. They seemed quite excited to have met some Californians. The guy that had previously lost money in blackjack left the room and returned with around 10 beers that he handed out to us! I'm always down for a free drink...Throughout the night, he was under the impression I wanted to meet a Swedish girl, and so he introduced me to a few...or, more like 10! They were all nice, some a little more forward than others. The music was great the whole night...a lot of electronic dance music. After most of my friends had left, I remained for a bit and hung out with this new Swedish "friend" and his friends. At one point he said something about me being from California, at which point they all picked me up and passed me around, in the air...this was my first, and hopefully not last, "crowd surfing" experience. Fun night!

Friday, August 14 was our seventh day of Swedish. Classes seemed to be going by pretty fast now, which was nice. They continued to be challenging yet we have learned some useful phrases. Today was the first day of a week long festival in neighboring Malmo, which is the third largest city in Sweden. I attended the festival with Rochelle, Ghazal, Jasmine, Alex, and Melissa. We had a lot of fun and gorged on all the good food! They had SO much of it and from everywhere you could imagine! They also had things for sale, rides, games, dance booths, stages, and a live tent where they were doing real tattoos! That was pretty insane. I ended up getting a crayfish wrap at one point, which was amazing. Crayfish, it seemed, was what this first day was all about. Hundreds gathered in front of the main stage to devour their crayfish with many other festival-goers. It was something else! After while, we were tired and took the train back to Lund.

Saturday, August 15....I don't really remember what I did other than sleep till late in the afternoon. After that I spent some time on the computer chatting and skyping with friends back home. In the evening I met some friends at Lunds Nation for dinner. The club didn't get busy till around 11:30PM and we danced the night away until about 1:45AM. Another fun night...

Sunday, August 16. I met Ghazal and a few others for an all you can eat Pancake Breakfast Baffet in town. It was delicious! While it did cost 99 Kroner, it was well worth it. They had pancakes, waffles, jams, whipped cream, fresh fruit toppings, ice cream, juices, bread, etc. It was yummy! After we ate until around 3:30PM, we walked around town and attempted to find a tourist office and library, which we did, but they were both closed. We discovered a movie place where we can rent movies and bought some candy while there...afterwards, we stopped by a pizza place and bought a pizza! Basically, we do a lot of eating.

Monday, August 17...our eighth day of class. Today I decided to take the class P/NP so that I did not risk getting a bad grade. It was a rather uneventful day though a couple of us went to this amazing burger place by the train station for lunch. Afterwards, we went to a couple travel agencies where we found some great deals on trips to France, Italy, and around this area...can't wait to travel! On the way back from town, my bike chain fell of for a second time...and this time I couldn't get it back on =/ My night was pretty low key...

Tuesday, August 18...TODAY. Now we're finally caught up. I started this post a couple hours though, so it's Wednesday now. Today was the ninth day of class. Afterwards, I grabbed a falafel at this good stand near by, and then came home. As I have done lately, I listened to my brother's and Christine's talk show back home since I'm awake when it airs soon. Tonight I did laundry for the first time....couldn't read a word on the machine. I hope its clean! I also spoke with my mom, who is currently on a plane bound for Copenhagen! I will meet up with her and our family friend Kathy tomorrow in Lund. I am excited for the next week (since we have it off before the start of the semester) since we will be going up the west coast of Sweden, into Oslo, Norway, then back across Sweden into the capital of Stockholm, before taking a ferry into Estonia! We'll end that trip by coming back down the east side of Sweden. Before all of this though, we will be going to Copenhagen this weekend! Ahhh, it looks to be a fun week and half ahead. I'm tired now and can feel it affecting my writing...more to come later!