October 4
Sorry for the delayed post. Let me start from last Wednesday. The excursion around the sound turned out pretty good. It only rained for maybe 30 minutes the whole day. It took around 30 minutes north by train to go to Helsinborg, and we then took a very large and rather decadent ferry (3 stories, 3 star restaurant, fancy lobby, etc.) across the sound to the Danish town of Helsinore. Andreas, one of our professors, brought his little 18 month old daughter, Hedvig, along for day. She was instantly the center of attention of the 60 or so people in our group, particularly (and expectedly) the girls. We first saw the famous Kronberg Castle from the ferry.
The first thing you see when getting off the ferry is a large liquor store. Some Swedes ride the ferry across, buy their alcohol, then board the same ferry before it leaves. Bo, our other professor, told us about another store in Copenhagen which would be better for us to use on the way back to Lund. (Bo was a student at Lund too, many many years ago). We first stopped by a church which was an example of the architectural style of the Hanseatic League, then walked on to the castle. The Kronberg was not designed as a luxurious castle; it was positioned strategically at the narrowest point between what is now Sweden and Denmark (until 1653 it was all part of Denmark).
Ships entering the sound to conduct trade had to pay toll. It is an imposing looking castle, though not jaw droppingly immense. We took a brief tour of the castle rooms and even the casemates where the castle’s soldiers stayed. It was almost completely dark with low ceilings and many turns and passages. Being a soldier down there must have been terrible. We then walked back to the train station (after most of the class stopped by what is called the most famous ice cream shop in Scandinavia) and on the way back Andreas and I talked about the Freemasons in Sweden (his current research is the Freemason movement in Sweden). It’s pretty cool; just the last two days he was in Stockholm looking at documents in the Masonic lodge of Stockholm.
The next stop was a very small town on the coast called Rungstad. This is where the Danish author Karen Blixen (in the States known as Isac Dineson) of Seven Gothic Tales and Out of Africa fame was born and lived. This part got quickly boring because we already heard almost everything about her life in class, and there is not much to see. They was a nice bird/nature sanctuary behind the estate. 
But we ended up staying there for nearly 3 or 4 hours. So long that we had a shortened time in Copenhagen. We split up there, Bo taking a group to the art museum and Andreas taking people on a tour of downtown Copenhagen. I’ve already seen Copenhagen so I went with Bo. The city art museum has a very modern architecture, with very expansive openings and clean lines. 
The art was pretty good too, mostly all Danish painters. In one area of the art musuem they had two dozen bean bags, very large pillows, tables serving beer and wine, and a small electronica/trance band. Thirty or so college students were sprawled out, just chilling out in the museum. Thought it was a neat idea. They had a modern art wing which to me was just dumb, as you can see below:
Afterward myself, Tim, Nancy, and Frank headed into Copenhagen and stopped by a pizzeria to eat. They said they would accept Swedish kronors but we had to literally teach them how the conversion works. Pretty silly. The food was ok.
The rest of the weak went fairly uneventful. Friday was pretty chill because I didn’t have any class, so I played Kubb with Frieder, Paul, and Frieder’s girlfield Mika. Afterward we played around 2 hours of poker. I’m still rubbish at the game, but I’m getting better. Frieder has this very professional feeling poker chip set. His parents came into town that evening as well. I also started catching up on the Firefly series. It’s not bad. I think I’ll see the movie when it comes out over here. I also did some more studying for my digital communications class. The exam is in 13 days. I talked to Frederick the TA this morning, and he said to pass the course we just need to answer 2 of the questions correctly on the final exam (you have 5 questions, and 5 hours to do it). That’s pretty good, and if you can take a crack at all five questions you should be able to get enough partial credit to eek out a passing grade. I have three previous final exams and I’m going to set aside a five-hour block and see what it’s like doing the final. It should give me an idea of the level I’m at. Judging from the other exchange students I’ve encountered so far, I think I’m more ahead than they are.
On Sunday I made another Indian dish that has cauliflower and peas. I followed what my mom told me and it actually turned out really really good. And it wasn’t even that hard. Tomorrow I’m going to try making vegetarian Swedish dumplings, called palt.
I saw the Panthers won last night, which makes me happy. We’re still just 2-2 in the NFC South, and the Bucs are 4-0 and the Falcons are 3-1. I still think we’re the better team…we just need more consistency.
