Fika, Falafel and the First Weeks

Hejsan!

We’re only about three weeks into this exchange and it seriously already feels like three months have passed. So much has happened since arriving here, let me try to sum it all up for you:

Sleeper on the Baltic Sea
It all started with my dad and I loading a few bags and boxes into the back of the car on a Sunday morning. During our 8-ish hour drive up through Germany, we noticed the snow disappearing and the sky getting clearer and clearer the farther North we reached. Keep in mind, at that time the Netherlands was experiencing the longest period without sun since 1993, so seeing a cloudless sky that was any color other than gray sure was a sight for sore eyes. After having to take a few detours through random small German towns in the thick winter darkness, we finally arrived at Skandinavienkai near Lubeck to catch the ferry that would take us over the Baltic sea to Malmö overnight. Pulling up to the check-in queue surrounded by semi-trucks who had made a journey from as far as Uzbekistan, we discovered that we were the only car passengers on this trip. We grabbed a drink on the restaurant deck surrounded by truckers who all seemed to know each other (guess they’re regulars on this route), before going to sleep in the small but comfortable sleeper cabin.

‘Attention passengers, we will dock in Malmö in one hour’ the intercom crackled in three different languages shortly after I decided I was done pressing the snooze button. It was 6:30 on Monday morning. We gathered our belongings and hopped to the car, hoping to quickly find the nearest Espresso House for a warm pastry and a hot drink. 7:30am in the car, we waited for the door to open. Then we waited a little longer. And a little longer. At this point quite some time had passed, and we started noticing confused ferry workers walking around the deck in neon orange hi-vis jumpsuits and big wooly hats. After some more time they walked up to our car, the only car parked on the deck, to tell us that the electricals on the hatch had frozen over and therefore we would be stuck here for a while. We were invited back to the restaurant for a free cup of tea and reassured that Lars, the electrician, was already on the job. When we finally disembarked the ferry (two hours later than planned), we were greeted by a bright orange sunrise over the Malmö port.

The Basement
Moving into my new place was a smooth process. I found a place to live through a private Swedish housing website, so I’m essentially living in the basement of a Swedish student house. The place is cozy, quite central in Lund, comfortable, very safe, and not too expensive. When there is loads of light in the summer I will be very happy to have small windows, but the only downside right now is that it’s quite dark (it’s literally in the basement). Those of you who know me will know that I previously lived in an abandoned Chinese restaurant, which low key is a super cool thing to say (the restaurant had kind of been refurbished to be a student house, but anyone who’s been there will say that it was NOT suitable for living in HAHA). I feel like saying you live in a basement in Sweden gives a similar cool and disheveled vibe, especially since Swedish EDM is supposedly so good. And now that I’m thinking about it, ‘The Basement’ sounds like a great name for an EDM club.

I live in The Basement with three Swedish girls! I was especially excited about the fact that they’re Swedish, because it counteracts the rumor that going on an exchange means that you’ll be stuck in an international bubble. We’re all in our early twenties, and they’re all really nice people who show a lot of interest. I haven’t spent much time with them so far since the start of the semester is so busy for all of us, but hopefully we’ll get to know each other better soon. I saw dad off on Tuesday with a goodbye fika (I’ll get into what fika is later), and a fabulous dinner at what I believe to be my favorite restaurant in Lund. It’s on the city’s main square, so it’s very fittingly called Stortorget Restaurang (English: ’Big Square Restaurant’). Dad bought us matching Lund University sweaters (iconic) and gave me a Swedish children’s book about a penguin who goes on a big adventure, with the instruction to read it to the family in perfect Swedish upon my return to the Netherlands. A really thoughtful gift, and I will try my absolute best.

Student life in Lund
The whole first week here was such a ride, honestly. It’s been an extremely chaotic mix of having to adjust to a new routine in a new place, making new friends, orientation week feeling like a full-time job, learning a new language, feeling an astronomical amount of social anxiety going to public spaces like the grocery store, buying a bike second hand from a random Dutch girl, signing up to student unions and networks, nights out, and utter astonishment at the price of groceries and alcohol (Yes, the cost of living is already very high. However, the cost of enjoying yourself is even higher). Despite all that, though, I think we’ve done pretty well so far. I’ve made plenty of friends, and am all set to make many more during the introduction weeks (or as it’s called here, a ‘Novisch period’) for the student associations I’ve recently joined.

Student life in Lund is especially characterized by something called Student ‘Nations’. These are student societies named after different regions in Sweden. It’s a very old tradition in Swedish university life (Lund University is also very very old, founded in 1666!), and historically speaking one would join the Nation named after the region they were originally from. Some examples of Nations in Lund are Gothenburg’s Nation, Lunds Nation, Hallands Nation, and Kalmar Nation, etc. (I’ve joined the Kalmar Nation, it’s mostly international students and only a 10 minute bike ride from my house). Each Nation is characterized by its own culture and activities, but the beauty of the Nations is that being a member of one of them gives you access to activities at all the others. Weekly activities include pubs, brunches and nightclubs, but they also regularly host live music events, sports activities, restaurant nights, film cafés, language cafés, board game nights, you name it! Each Nation has lots to offer on its own, now imagine the sheer amount of activities that THIRTEEN different Nations are offering. Besides that, I think one of the main reason the Nations are so popular is because alcohol is allowed to be served at like half the price in comparison to what it would cost at a regular bar (they must have some kind of deal with the municipality making them exempt from the high tax, but I truly have no idea). The only other student city in Sweden with the Student Nations system is Uppsala, with its university founded in 1477. From what I’ve heard, Lund University and Uppsala University’s student cultures are quite similar, so they’re connected in that way.

In Lund student culture, there is also such a thing as a ‘Sittning’ (’Sitting’ in English). This is where a student association invites a massive amount of students to have a fancy dinner together, usually with a themed dress code. It’s also characterized by speeches, singing and writing nasty things in each other’s songbooks. I haven’t been to my first one yet, but it sounds like the epitome of ‘eat, drink and be merry’. A ‘Fulsittning’ (’ugly sittning’) means you have to wear something outrageous, something you’d never wear outside otherwise (i.e. some kind of costume, but NOT a fancy suit or dress). A ‘Finsittning’ is a ‘nice sitting’, which is where formal dress is required, high heels are most appropriate and you are to be on your best behavior. I have my first two sittnings this weekend, but I have a few more planned so far. The Valentine’s Day sittning even offers the option to be set up with a blind date!

Wait, you’re telling me a Study Abroad means you’re actually supposed to study?
Yes, to your great surprise I am in fact also taking actual academic courses at Lund University. As I mentioned in my last blog, the courses I’m taking focus on Swedish language and Gender studies centered in Sweden and Scandinavia. A chilled two-week Swedish introduction course started right as I arrived (literally, at 9am the day after Arrival Day), where we learned basic useful things like how to introduce yourself, how to tell the time, which football team to support, and how to order a really big beer (’En stor stark, tack’). We completed the final exam for the course last weekend, which I found very doable, but I also heard that, for some, this course was the bane of their existence. Regardless, we’ve all met some cool people while following this course, so that’s a win either way. My formal (and more intense) Swedish course only just started this past week, so I’m excited to see how far I get. I’m taking A1 Swedish right now, after which I’ll take the A2 level in the second term of this semester. I suppose I’ll keep you updated on my progress, but you’ll probably see it for yourself once I start writing this whole blog in Swedish (Hahah, there’s a challenge…).

Besides working diligently on my courses, I’ve spent lots of time with friends I’ve met in Swedish class and at the Social Sciences faculty. On top of that, we had the option to join a mentor program, so I’ve been placed in a group of really nice exchange students with a few LU upperclassmen as ‘mentors’. The group is super international with people from Sweden, Finland, Germany, France, England, Egypt, Hong Kong, South Korea, Chile, Taiwan, Brazil, Australia and the USA (and me from the Netherlands). We’ve done a few fun activities together, and I’ve made some good friends there so far. The LU International desk also organized a trip to IKEA during Arrival week (lol, only in Sweden), for which they rented out a big blue bus to drive us from the Lund city center to Malmö. Honestly, I went purely for the IKEA meatball dinner despite not needing any furniture at all. That weekend I attended two welcome parties with a group of girls at the Hallands Nation and the Engineering Faculty Union (’Teknologkåren’). The events are a lot of fun, but something that takes a lot of adjusting to is how early the nightclubs open here. Apparently, you have to be in the queue by 11pm for guaranteed entry. Any time after that means standing out in the cold until the bouncer lets you in. I don’t know who thought of that, but that is significantly earlier than we’re used to, especially since this group mostly consists of girls from the UK and Ireland. It’s like the sunset starts an hour earlier here, and therefore so does the nightlife. To be honest I can’t really complain though, it’s only better for my sleep. Then again, it does take getting used to, and every time we’re queueing in the cold for too long we have to make a new mental note to SHOW UP EARLIER NEXT TIME.

I’ve also enjoyed a lot of nice food here, especially surrounding the ‘fika’ culture in Sweden. For those who don’t know, the term ‘fika’ comes from the old Swedish work ‘kafi’, meaning coffee. The word’s syllables got switched around sometime a couple centuries ago because it was the slang at the time. Now we’re left with ‘fika’, which refers to the act of getting a cup of coffee and a pastry with a friend. In fact, the word has become so accepted, that ‘fikar’ (English: ‘to fika’) is a very real verb used in daily life. It was even on the vocab list in our Swedish class. Besides that, Lund is riddled with cool coffee spots, good student food and lots and lots of FALAFEL. Lund is OBSESSED with falafel. I’ve counted about seven different falafel spots in the city center within four different streets of each other, but somehow there’s one spot that I always end up at. It’s the only one (I know of) that has seating inside, making it a glorious haven from the Swedish nightly cold. I’ve been there so often now that the kebab guy sometimes gives me freebies with a little wink. The first time it was fries, the next time it was falafel on top of my fries… I intend to see how many freebies I can get, but I also don’t want to spend too much time in that kebab place lest that man starts asking me for my name and number. I’m also lucky to have Copenhagen basically in my backyard, which is the gourmet food capital of the world. To be honest though, I can barely even afford regular food in Copenhagen without selling a kidney, so I just stick to the thrift scene and whatever else is (kinda) cheap. Good thing I have falafel wraps around the corner from my house for just 25 kronor (equivalent to around 2 euro) to make up for the gaping hole that a single day in Copenhagen will burn through a student’s wallet.

Looking forward
All in all, it’s safe to say I’m enjoying myself very much so far. Aside from that, I’ve got lots to look forward to in the next month as well. I finally got my bachelor thesis at Utrecht University handed in (huge weight off my shoulders), which makes it so much easier to experience life in the moment and have some well-deserved fun while I’m here. I joined the Erasmus Student Network (the student association for international students) who are organizing a trip to Hemavan, in Swedish Lapland at the end of next month. We’ll be taking a big 20-hour bus ride North and spending a few nights right up by the Arctic circle. The itinerary so far consists of night hiking, visiting Sámi people and their reindeer, an Arctic survival course, mountain hiking, downhill and cross-country ski schools, a husky safari, and a day trip to Norway including ziplining through the fjords. I am incredibly excited to skip class to go on this incredible trip, I’ll share more on that later on! For now, I’m also looking forward to the weather getting at least slightly better, we’ve truly had a depressing amount of overcast and rain. In the past 3 weeks I think I’ve only seen the sun twice. And not to get my parents worried or anything, but I fear the Swedish nightly cold has really got a hold of me. I caught a bit of fresher’s flu last week, and it won’t seem to go away, so I’m currently going through life coughing into my elbow and eating a whole lot of soup. So last but not least, I am looking forward to getting healthy. I need to get myself all ready for thrifting for my first sittning tomorrow, and a weekend of even more Novisch festivities.

Stay tuned!

Vi ses, hej då!