August 19
First day of the language course. Swedish, I’m discovering, is worse than English when it comes to using letters that either a) are not spoken or b) are used in non-conventional ways. This makes Swedish rather difficult to sound out words. We learned a few basic phrases today, such as how to introduce yourself, say where you are from, what languages you speak, where you live, etc. Fairly typical stuff. I wish, however, that instead of feeding us these ‘useful’ phrases they teach us the elements of the language first, key verbs (like ‘to do’, ‘to say’, ‘to live’, ‘to go’, ‘to eat’, ‘to drink’, etc.) and basic forms of conjugation. This way we are given the tools with which to construct our own sentences and the skills to break down sentences we see in the town. Hopefully we will get there soon. On the bus ride over and in my class I met some University of California students and after class we went and got some lunch then walked over to the Kårhuset building where they gave an information talk. The arrival day activities I think overwhelmed some of these students, mostly because they are still adjusting to this environment.
Something I learned today: you cannot trust the sun to navigate. I also bought a bike today. Even though it cost more than I would like to pay, the vendor said I could come back next week when they are selling their next shipment and if I like something better I can trade. I need to buy a cheap battery operated rear and front light for it…they say the fine for not having it is 700 kr ($95). I found a store selling a cheap clock radio, priced at 200 kr ($27) but I will look around first. I have also decided to cut my own hair while in Lund. A normal hair cut costs 270 to 300 kr ($36 to $40). Yes, three times as much back home. I will see how much it is in Denmark.
The Internet for the dorm room is quite a hurdle to cross. You have to get a formed signed by the caretaker and by the international housing office, both which have limited office hours. Then the processing is done entirely by hand, so for us students living in the Delphi housing complex, we probably will not have an internet connection in our dorm rooms until late September. However, while this is quite an inconvenience, Lund has several free hotspots located in town, so tomorrow I should finally get a constant internet access.
The weather again was marvelous today; I’m hoping it stays this nice for a while. In my mentor group meeting today, it became clear that Lund is known for its partying. The social structure around here is formed with student ‘Nations’. These are student led organizations that provide a means for people to meet each other and to do activities together. Nations also have their own cafes and restaurants where you can get meals from. You have to join a nation to get your student ID card, and many of the nations offer the same kind of things. They also have a party or a pub night, and have galas or proms too. Nations can range in size from 4,000 to 150. One nation that caught my eye is the Smålands Nation, which is apparently known for being quite active in politics and such. It seems different enough from the others. Even though you join one Nation does not forbid you from attending other Nation activities. I do not quite understand the whole setup but I will once they start up. Tomorrow night there is a huge international welcome party with a 70 kr ($9.30) entrance fee. I will go to a) see what these ‘parties’ are all about and b) practically everyone else will be going too.
This evening I ran into Eddy as he was coming in and he and I brought all the appliances into the kitchen from the corridor and cleaned them. In talking with him I learned he has been to American many many times and has spent summers in New York, Philadephia, Boston, Miami, and Atlanta. Later on a lot of us came by, including Laure, Helene and her boyfriend (who is leaving tomorrow back to France), and Christian and Frieder from Germany. At one point Eddy, Philip, Laure, and Helene were speaking in one corner in French and Frieder and Christian in another in German. Quite cool. We decided to have a corridor dinner on Saturday evening, and it will give everyone a chance to meet each other and talk about what needs to be bought and such.
In closing, I will describe the diversity of our corridor.
Me – United States
Yoko – Japan
Judith – Austria
Laure – France
Pablo - Spain
Helene – France
Christian – Germany
Eddy – France
Frieder – Germany
Amelia – Greece
Lishuang – China