Friday, June 18, 2010

You stay under water for three minutes. If you can do it, I'll just nick you.

Wow. A theme of Swedish or even Scandinavian movie quotes isn't going to fly. To say their films are pervasively bleak is a bit of an understatement...

Yay, picture time, picture time! The flat has been really quiet this morning and early afternoon...we're off today but we're supposed to go to a bar called Gloria's around 3:30 to watch the American game and get our Nations card--this is a student card that lets us drink cheaper at certain places. Thank god cause drinking out is as bad as Boston...and the food is ungodly expensive. I passed by Gloria's this morning and they have a $20 chicken burrito. 'nuff said.

I think everyone is out or passed out/sleeping from staying out and/or getting up at 3am for game 7...ouch, wasn't that a bad move. So much for the game 5 winner winning the championship 76% of the time...poor Boston! :(

Anyhoo, let the pics commence!



Ladies and gentlemen, the first picture. You know it. This is the loo at Copenhagen airport. LOVE. The bathrooms here ARE THE SHIT. They are private rooms with solid doors that shut and lock with sinks in each. This one is actually pretty big, being two tiny rooms all to yourself, but could America PLEASE START TAKING THEIR BATHROOM CONSTRUCTION CUES FROM EUROPE?! PRIIIIIIIIIIIVACY, MOTHERFUCKER.

Anyhoo, that big thing on the back is the flusher. Mine in my apt is a button, it varies rather alarmingly.



Copenhagen airport. Yup. Decent size, not too big and not too small. And by the time I was done in the loo and found the baggage claim, I saw my bag already on it! I didn't reclaim my bag in Paris (never sure if you're supposed to or not and the Boston lady said it would meet me in Copenhagen but would only be on the same flight I made (since it was up in the air, har har)...but how do they know til I'm on board unless I reclaim? Anyway...some airports I have had to and others I haven't...so I ttly said a little prayer as I frantically hauled my ass through Paris without checking.)

More than a few people had their bags stranded in NYC and Iceland, but I think everyone has been reunited by now.

I caught the train to Lund, 40 minutes, and it was easy enough. It was also easy enough to find the international housing, which is basically right behind the station, a three minute walk. Quite a haul with a heavy backpacking bag and regular backpack, but I made it--just before the pissing down thunderstorm, too!



The ad on the way to my flat. No idea. That is one thing about this place. Everyone speaks English beautifully, but everything is written in Swedish only sometimes. More on this later. (Lookin' at you, menus and cooking directions.)

I got settled and met 3 of my flatmates--they are from other sections but I vaguely knew one girl. The other two are guys are they are all very nice. There are about 8 of us total, but it's quite large and it's not crowded at all. There are about 6 suites total, maybe about 40 Americans in this building. The pics will help. Anyhoo, then off to find the grocery store. We did get sheets and a pillow, though we'd been told otherwise. I just needed essentials and food and plus, who doesn't want to check out the Swedish grocery store? I didn't take pics in there, maybe later...but it's about five minutes away...



These are the bikes across from the station. They don't fuck around with bikes here.



This is the little square across from the station and next to the grocery store. LOVE the trees.



More square.


There's a little open market foodie guy but there's a much better locally-produced place further away, one of the Swedish students told me later.

I took it pretty easy the rest of the day and got settled. I went out that night with a group that all knows each other, but they were quite nice. I didn't take any pics, I was trying to pay attention to where I was!

The next day we all had to go to the law school for just an informal information session, so on the way home I explored a little more and discovered that "after work" is code for "happy hour." Sweet. I went here:



That's the station across the way. The wine was typically 58 kronor (8 bucks?) and since it was "after work" (i.e., 1400--1800), it was 39 kronor! (Less than 6.) I was in one of those red swivel chairs.



Surreptitiously taking pictures of the bar behind me...



This is the walk to my place.



This is it!



And this is its' name!

I will have to do Pt II later...this is getting to be an arduous length. And it's getting to be nearly game time, I am going to have one of the interesting beers I bought (and took pics of) for some pre-gaming. I can hear my flatmate Dan yelling at the TV because Germany is totally blowing it...he is very upset. ;)

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Totally jealous! One can picture living there if it weren't for the winter. Oh, and the $20 burritos.

Anonymous said...

Oh, and I LOVE the bikes. That screams civilization to me. Plus the awesome trees.

SkylersDad said...

Nice photos, and I love the "terlet"...

Triana said...

*swoon*

I'm going to pack myself up and mail me over there. I don't eat much and I can sleep on the floor!

More pics!

(and yes, totally agree about the bicycles! And I love how in Europe the cars actually STOP for pedestrians and bicyclists. It's so awesome)

Corinthian said...

Yay for happy hour and private showers! This all looks so amazing! I can't wait to see more!

alex said...

Sounds like great fun. And it's so beautiful!

OMG THOSE TREES ARE SURREAL. Want.

Ellen Aim said...

So far so good! Living here really helps make it do-able...I can't imagine the cost of a hotel and not being able to cook.

The food is hella pricey but you're also not *supposed* to tip, so maybe it evens out?