10 things I wish I knew when arriving in Lund

August is upon us and this means that Lund will soon be flooded with new students! I remember my arrival day, actually my first week, being confusing and looking back there are certain things I wish I knew before getting to Lund or in my first month in Lund.

Valborg

Today is Valborg in many Northern European countries. What is Valborg? Well up until today I thought that it was just a massive piss up here in Lund but it turns out that there is a whole lot of history to this day and it is one of their biggest holidays, second only to midsummer.

It is the eve of May Day and it often also known as Walpurga's night in English and Valborgsmässoafton in Swedish. Started as far back as the middle ages it was orginally a pagan festival that was meant to watrd of evil spirits and welcome fertile soil to the lands as spring approaches. In that same vein, minus the religion, Valborg today is more about welcoming spring and saying goodbye to winter.

One of the biggest parts of the tradition is lighting huge bonfires and it appears that this starts at around 20:00 when things start to get dark. Then people go about singing traditional Swedish songs. Lund and Uppsalla are said to have two of the biggest and oldest festivals with students gathering to get merry from as early as 08:00. Generally students start with some champaigne and strawberries before working their way to the harder liquor to make sure they are in the merry spirit by the time 20:00 comes round.

I don't think I have the liver or kidney capacity to get started that early but plan on heading over at around 11:00. I'll be sure to give you a follow up entry outlining what I am sure will be both mad and awesome!

Till then :)

Spring has Sprung

Living in Southern Sweden this time of year is the stuff dreams are made of. The weather is pleasant and every time you head out your door there are new flowers in bloom. Somehow when the weather is good everything just seems better. People's moods are lifted, the birds are chirping and everything just seems to be in a moment of peaceful blissfulness.

Eat at a Nation!

I went for an amazing brunch at Kalmar Nation today for just 50SEK I had enough food to last me for the day including everything from eggs and bacon to waffles, soup, and even dessert! It was an amazing spread and the fact that it was super-duper cheap was a sublime cherry on top!

The awesome brunch today! What you can't see is the yummy waffle!

Soothing cemeteries

I don't know if it makes me weird but there is definitely something soothing about cemeteries, especially these old cemeteries in Sweden. I find myself drawn to them. They are quite and the trees  sway with a wisdom that only they know and which seems just out of reach of those that wander the paths beneath them.

The Language cafe

The language globe taken off of olemiss.edu

Yesterday, quite by accident I stumbled upon a language cafe right here in Lund. I had heard murmurings about it but had never really ever had any idea where it was and what it entailed.

More Snow

This weekend we have had some more snow  and I must say it is quite beautiful....here are some snaps from my walks.

Not sure why these next pictures are blue in colour, I assure you everything was super white. Clearly I am a dope and did something wrong with my camera settings or something

Snow show

Last night Lund got a show of snow and it was awesome! I had no idea it was snowing and was about to climb into bed when I realised what was going on!

I opened my door and all of sudden heard screams and laughter....a snow fight!

So I grabbed my jacket and beanie and headed to join the fun (even though I was wearing tracksuit pants with bears on it).

Lund hasn't seen a proper snow fall yet this season so this was a real treat!

A whole group of international students played for well over two hours lobbing snow at each until our fingers hurt from cold! It was fabulous......

Eventually the snow turned to muck at the clock hit 23:00 and I needed to head to bed.....but what a great surprise.

Most of the snow was gone this morning but it was a glorious day with blue skies and speckles of snow everywhere!

Thursday night

Taken off of vinyljourney.blogspot.com

After missing my arrival sittning in August I decided to crash the arrival sittning meant for the latest exchange student arrivals. And man was it fun!
We sat down at loooooooooooooooong tables and were meant to sit boy/gitl/boy/girl but this proved too difficult for us and we totally botched it up. Food is not the most important part of a Sittning....not by a long shot.....singing and drinking are in fact the main events.  And both involve a fair amount of theatrics.

A snapshot of autumn

Autumn has got to be my most favourite time of year. I don't think I had realised it until we lived in South Korea where there were colours of every variety which was very different to the brown and greens in South Africa. Although the colours aren't as extreme as they were in South Korea, Lund has really been beautiful over the past two weeks with trees boasting their new orange and yellow hues.

I have some incredible photos on my phone but alas I do not have the cable to get them off my phone and I am clearly not adept at emailing them off of my phone either. So I took one or two snaps on Wednesday which don't quite do the prettiness of Lund justice

By the time I actually took the photos many of the trees had started losing their the majority of their leaves. It's amazing how quickly things change.

I tried to find you a cool video or set of beautiful photos of Lund in Autumn online but it appears that that is more difficult to do than I anticipated so instead you are going to have to settle for this brief snapshot of how pretty Lund is in the Autumn time...

Bicycle, Bicycle, BICYCLE

"Why won't you let me ride my Bicycle, Bicycle BICYCLE", a famous lyrics from a song by Queen pops into my mind regularly while I am in Sweden. Not only because it is a ear worm and when I hear it on my PC it is invariably glued to my brain for the next couple of days but also because there are so many of these two-wheeled inventions darting and cruising around Lund.

Sure, its' not the bicycle mayhem of Amsterdam or Copenhagen but I have never lived in a place before where a bicycle is actually the main mode of transport. I see men in suits on their way to work, and women dressed to the nines with high heels and all happily glide along without messing up their perfectly done up hair.

Another way that you know that they are serious about bicycles here is the range of bicycle attachments and contraptions you see. There are the three wheeled covered bicycles for when it's raining, bicycles with baby seats, bicycles with baby carriages so that your kid doesn't get wet when it decides to rain (which is apparently a lot).

Taken off the website babyology

Taken off motherearthnews.com

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Beyond the contraptions it's the skills you witness. I can barely keep my handlebars straight most of time (which is evident when you consider that I had a mild crash the other day when a kid and I connected and I was left with several bruises). But, people here have some mad skills. They are off their seats before the bike stops seemingly standing next to it while they guide it into a parking spot, they smoke, sms, and even hold umbrellas all while going a lot faster on their bikes than I could even hope to be on a bright, sunny day with no wind and both hands on the handlebars.


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Now I don't have any photos to prove these things to you because I feel like a bit if a turd whipping out my camera at every little thing that makes me go ooooh and aaaah but I promise you it's true and pervasive and I hope that before I leave Sweden I would have mastered the ability to park by bicycle in a fashion that is a little more elegant than my current heavy handed manoeuvring that makes me look like a bull in a china-shop.