Sunday, June 20, 2010

You may have seen a meteor shower, but I bet you've never seen a shower "meatier" than this!

Wow, it's already Sunday! Today I've been taking it easy--went to the grocery store and did laundry. I am very proud of myself for working the Swedish machines...everything seems to have come out clean and the same size. I have no idea what most of the buttons mean.

I also figured out how to bypass Netfux's shitty little you-can't-watch-instant-download-unless-you're-in-the-country-bullshit. I get it's about licensing issues, but that doesn't mean I have to take it! Of course the VPN I downloaded or whatever it is gimps up a little sometimes--I should be able to turn the privacy on and off and sometimes when I turn it off, it turns itself back on. I mostly just need it for watching Netfux (so I turn it on), but I like leaving it on sometimes since it keeps my search results predominantly in English rather than Swedish.

Also got my grades the other night. Well, most of them. A certain professor did not turn in his grades and it's a class we're all dying to know about. Natch. I did better in everything this time except Civ Pro, I went down a little (ouch) and in Torts my grade stayed the same, probably the most depressing thing ever. But my highest grade? Contracts. Oh irony, you cruel bitch.

Back to pictures! Let's look at my room...



This is when you first walk in. That's a closet area off to the left (der) and the bathroom is to the right. I have the corner room at the very end of the hallway, which is pretty sweet, but from what I can tell, these rooms are pretty sound-proof when the door is closed. Although someone was watching The Daily Show with the volume at 11, but it wasn't me!



Bathroom! I love it--the whole room is basically the shower, I don't bother with the curtain...for one thing it kinda creeps me out. The toilet has a button on the back, but most toilets here have a two-sided button, one that uses less water and one that uses more (you know, depending...). And the cabinet mirror pops out and slides to the side, so you can angle it. Not really sure why, maybe for shaving? But it's fun anyway.



Step past the bathroom and you're in my room. They gave us a flat sheet for the bottom and what I thought was a sheet and a duvet. After doing laundry I realized the sheet is a cover for the duvet, which makes much more sense.



If the bed is on your right, this is the left. The microwave is pretty easy to use--I made myself a frozen dinner and popcorn today--the popcorn is THE SHIT. NOM. More on the foodie later. My fridge is under the sink.



My view and window! Love it. It opens and it has been quite pleasant out. Yesterday was chilly and drizzly, but I mostly hung out at Herkules (a bar/restaurant/club) with S and drank and ate...pics of that deliciousness to come. We went shopping and I got a hot pink dress--a poor man's Marilyn-style dress, and it was very reasonably priced. S got three things from a little boutique and the clothes were more unusual and definitely a good buy, but really pricey! I thought of you, Alex, you would have really loved the place! It was called Godiva Boutique--I told S I want one of her bags for home, ha ha...it has the Swedish address on it...I still have some of my favorite Tokyo bags.

Anyhoo. Back to our tour.



This is my light switch. But as far as I can tell the one on the bottom right does jack shit.



Leaving my room, you step into the hall and look down. There are about ten or twelve rooms, but there are 8 of us. Each of our doors locks, so that's nice. About halfway down the hall is the living room and kitchen.



The living area! And the kitchen is beyond that.



Mostly we use the TV to watch World Cup games, but one night I wandered out and got trapped along with four others watching Jersey Shore. Oh my god, if that isn't the worst thing ever, I really, really don't want to know what is. And four of us noted we'd never seen it before--to which someone remarked, "Wow, we had to come overseas to see this." I always knew what it was, but holy jesus. Good to know someone is filming the absolute lowest dregs of society. Sigh.



Beer! Grown-ups get their beer, wine, liquor all from the liquor store. The grocery store stocks beer, but it's all Oklahoma-style--meaning 3.5% and 2.8%, so I think anyone can buy that crap. This is Zeitgeist beer and has David Lynch-esque goat men on it in black coats, completely why I bought it. It was tasty, too. (This is a real beer. The first three places I found were the grocery store, liquor store and money exchange. Sweet.)



This is the shitty grocery store beer. It's ok, but meh. These are someone else's mistakes.



View from the living room.



Kitchen! I really don't use it much, I mostly use my room. There are still a couple holdover tenants who've been here for six months but I think they leave today or tomorrow--srsly, I think there are 2 or 3 of them and they all have one room? I just can't wait for them to leave so we can clean out the fridge. Right now it's packed with shit that's probably expired but I don't want to piss anyone off by throwing anything away...there's also a bottle of champagne we're all eying...



I haven't used the stove yet, but it took S 30 minutes to figure it out. You have to turn it on about 3 different ways. I'll wait for someone else to figure it out. (S lives on the floor above me.)



Swedish kronor change! (Except that American penny on the right...pretend I put it there for perspective.) I was so confused for ages because the one with the hole is 1 and there is another one that says 1. Yeah, the one with the hole is Danish kronor, which I got when I bought my train ticket in Copenhagen. Der. The gold one in front is 10, the 5 is the biggest.



Tasty! Yes, I bought that just because it's called Firefly. And the pink one is like ginger ale but raspberry, and I have yet to sample the third.



I'm picking up odds and ends to send to Fiona and Sophia, starting with these! Except, um, I ate this Geisha bar. It was GOOD, TOO! ;) It's hazelnut-filled. (I got another bigger one today--ok, two--one for me and one for them!) They are big on licorice here, so I got some of those, which I can assure you I won't touch. Also got a coconut thing that looks great except for that whole coconut part. The tiger dollar store also had beads, so I got some for Sophia.



I'm less sure of the buildings at this point, but this is close to campus. I swear to god, this is a church whose name, translated, literally means "Church of Doom." LOVE.



This is not the library, but the library looks very similar. I will take pics when I find the library again, because hot damn.



Yeah, I don't know what this is. I figured I would make a better effort later. Everything is pretty close together here.



This seems like the quintessential Swedish town shot. Cobblestone streets and colorful buildings. Needless to say, walking around is quite pleasant. (Except on weekend nights when these streets are filled with drunk students...but even that's not bad.)



Ate here the first night with other American students from upstairs, pretty decent overall. I hadn't eaten real food in probably more than 24 hours, so the steak thing I had was pretty fucking amazing. Also, those awnings are mechanical--they lower them when it gets cooler at night and it retains more of the heat from the heat lamps, which are already nicely powerful.



Market clothes. Love the skeleton biker shirt.



Tiger dollar store!



One of my Swedish student hosts showed us around and she pointed this out as the best ice cream in Sweden. I haven't tried it yet, but I was excited to find it again. Nom.



After work! I was impressed that "after work" is from 2-6--when the fuck do these people work, anyway?



The train station! I have not been back here, you walk everywhere in Lund. But if the station is on your left and you walk three minutes past it, you're at my flat!



This was lunch the other day. Looked pretty decent, and it was fine. There is one small problem with cooking here sometimes, though.



Yeah, that. Luckily, it wasn't terribly involved. ;)

Ok, homework time! There's no writing homework--the professor in that class appears to be exceedingly mellow--but I do have con law homework. That guy seems to have a great sense of humor, so I don't think this will be too brutal hopefully. *Gulp*

2 comments:

alex said...

Your place is so cool! I love it. And the surrounding area sounds super neat. (That store does sound great. *teleports!*)

Congrats on your grades!

Corinthian said...

Your place is very rad! I especially love the bathroom. I did find it strange that you didn't say you were bringing your husband any of that candy.