More updates

Picking up from where I've stopped...

On travels:

I haven't done much travelling since I arrived in Sweden. I'm not even done exploring Lund City since there are always so many nitty gritty issues awaiting my attention. Nevertheless, I've done some exploration around Lund, and also participated in the Österlen Tour organised by Lund University.


So far, I've managed to travel to the following places in Sweden:

1. Copenhagen Airport, Denmark (if you count that as travelling)
2. Lund City
3. Mälmo City
4. Stenshuvuds National Park
5. Ystad
6. Kåseberga

Copenhagen:

Copenhagen International Airport, Denmark, where I arrived. My first step on European soil...

From Departure

Copenhagen Train Station, Denmark, where I took my first train to Lund.

From Departure

Despite the short contact with Copenhagen now, I'll be back!


Lund City:

Lund is where my university, Lund university is based. It belongs to this particular region called Skåne (pronounced as Skon-ner) at the southern end of Sweden. According to their websites and brochures, Lund is a thousand-year old city which has went under both Danish and Swedish rule.

Now little actually remains to remind us of its medieval past. Currently, it has evolved into a vibrant university town packed with students from all over Sweden as well as foreigners.

The most significant landmark of Lund will be the Lund's Cathedral, considered "...Scandinavia's most distinguished cathedral in the Romanesque style." I was told the cathedral's still active and possibly still Lutheran but being an 'unholy' person, it obviously doesn't interest me much to go on Sundays to find out.

A tall, huge building just before the town centre, it is now a must-see site in Lund and also a gathering point for group outings in Lund.

From Aug 20 2008

Mälmo

Mälmo, Sweden's 3rd-largest city, can be said to be the representative city for the region of Skåne. Being a much larger city than Lund, it houses people from all over the place and here one can find a melting pot with different races, different nationalities of people.

Both Malmo and Lund are marked with cathedrals or churches all around, indicative of the strong church influence in this region. This particular day we arrived in Malmo to join the Swedes in their Malmo festival, an annual celebration that lasts for 1 week. Plenty of food and entertainment as per my previous post on the festival. And the nearest IKEA to Lund is located here too...my friends were telling me the Swedish meatballs are damn nice!

From Aug22 08

Malmo at night is also a romantic place to be at. With the ambient lighting, rows of shops and boutiques, this is a nice place to hang out.

From Aug22 08

Stenshuvuds National Park

To be continued...


Ystad


To be continued...

Kåseberga

To be continued...

Dag remix

A continuum from the previous post, now I shall touch on other topics.

On entertainment (parties):

Parties are aplenty in Lund. Every night there is a party somewhere in this little town be it at the Nations, the Unions, the corridors or simply a private gathering. I haven't met anyone who hasn't been to a party since arriving here.

By the way, the guy above is Ola, one of our group's mentors and this shot was taken at his place where the mentors organised a pre-party for the mentor group. In case you're wondering what's a mentor group, it's similar to what we call orientation groups aka OGs minus all the screaming and running kids with drawn faces.

So i've attended 3 big parties: the 1st was at Helsingkrona Nation for the crayfish party where I got drunk on crayfish. 1 was at VG Nation which was a whole night of dancing/drinking with the Germans and the other was the official Welcome Party held at Karhuset. Karhuset is a lecture block for mainly the sciences and it's kind of amazing how they can transform something so dead in the day into heaps of joy (and puke) by night.

Crayfish Party @ Helsingkrona Nation

From Aug23 08

So we paid 120 SEK (~28SGD) for a night of buffet dinner with crayfish, and later on a big slice of freshly-baked chocolate cake with yoghurt and berries plus a whole night of partying!

Regarding crayfish, their 'crayfish' is actually similar to what we keep in our fish tanks back in SG. Same size same colour and I wonder if they actually taste the same too!


About partying culture here, prior to the actual party there is usually a pre-party. The function of a pre-party? To get you high enough to let loose for the actual party of course!

Here we have the welcome drink at Ola's place prepared by Ola. A blend of vanilla vodka, 7-up and berries. P/s: Looks are always deceiving, this is no tame drink!

From Aug29 08

Another interesting culture of the Swedes. When you're invited to a party, you bring your own liquor i.e. you bring what you want to drink at the party. The host is not obliged to provide drinks except maybe the welcome drink. The reason being liquor is too expensive in Sweden. Just FYI, a can of beer costs around 12SEK (~3 SGD) and cigarettes cost 48 SEK (~10 SGD).

So everyone got high on liquor...ok, some got a little too high! This lovely lady here is another mentor, Sophie.

Now everyone's ready to head to the party!

Dag unknown

Too many things and too little time. That's the dilemma i'm currently facing. Events come and go and decisions have to be made in short periods of time. That's the life of me in Lund.

As i'm typing this new blog post, new events are brewing (there's going to be a lab session, there's a mentor group trip to Malmo etc). So, just some quick updates here while I have the time.

On studies:

Ok, school officially began on Monday, 1 September 2008. The first day in school was a shocking experience and i'm still reeling from the damage done. In I happily walked into the classroom named Ängen, meaning fields/meadows and there are other rooms named Heath and Heden etc. Definitely sound better than CR-4.

Anyway, I reached a little too 'early' at 9.00am (classes start at 9.15am here). Regarding the odd timings for school, there's this culture here known as the 'Academic Quart', meaning the teachers will come in at exactly 15 minutes late. There were only 2 Swedish guys in there and my were they a little too reserved; they didn't even bothered to say hi.

Next shock: The timetable. Guess how's my schedule like for taking just 1 module? Nope, i'm not leading a relaxed life here. I've freaking got lessons on most days from 9.15 till 4.00pm. Lovely start to the semester. Looking further, 1st quiz in 2 weeks time, 2nd quiz in 5 weeks and exams are ~2 months after. (Inhales deeply....)

This is my lab partner from France named Nicolas and we had our first lab session today @ Abhorren lab.

From Sep04 08

On a brighter note, the course curriculum is rather interesting. We have so many field trips during the short duration of the course. Come next Monday, we'll be doing a short field trip and we'll be in yellow rubber boots like PCK. There'll be another short one sometime soon and there's a long 4 days field trip to a lake (which i'll try to find the name).

Adding on, even though we spend long hours in the classroom (like 3 hours lectures), there are no tutorials to speak of and no irritating lab reports to submit to the prof. Tutorials are pretty much incorporated into the lectures. We have many coffee breaks in between lectures and tutorials are group-work discussion style during lecture time.

I'll like to commend on the school of ecology which i'm based at. They really consider the welfare of the students! As i've told some, there's a pantry especially for students fully equipped with:

Fridge and Cabinet (full of teabags, coffee, snacks)

From Sep03 08

7 Microwaves for students to heat up their packed lunches.

From Sep03 08

5 Coffeemakers

From Sep03 08

And vending machines that dispense hot drinks for 2 SEK (~40cents SGD).

From Sep03 08

There're many such areas (benches) set up for students to have their lunch outdoors

From Sep03 08

And free apples can be plucked fresh from the tree

From Sep03 08

Not only do the lecturers prepare and zap the handouts for us, they even compile and print the lab manual in colour for us low-lifes!!

From Sep04 08

I'm honestly quite touched by the love they have for us students.