caroline.sage's TravelStream™ — Recent TravelPod.com entries

caroline.sage's TravelStream™ — Recent TravelPod.com entries TravelStream™ news feed for member caroline.sage on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/caroline.sage en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Sun, 30 Nov 2008 12:23:37 -0500 http://www.travelpod.com Broke ass ovens and Nazis — Lund, Skåne, Sweden http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/caroline.sage/1/1228061520/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/caroline.sage/1/1228061520/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/caroline.sage/1/1228061520/tpod.html Sun, 30 Nov 2008 12:23:37 -0500 2 Years in Lund

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Lund, Skåne, Sweden

Ok, so it's been a while since I posted anything, but that's grad school for you right?  Grad school is not only time consuming, but the things I do there are also pretty boring to talk about and definetly not picture worthy.  So the amount of entries I write on this thing definetly corresponds to how busy I am in school.  Right now I 'm actually pretty busy - but something happened today that clearly calls for a post with some pics.  But first, I will tell you about yesterday.  Yesterday me and the other American on my floor made Thanksgiving dinner and had some people over for it.  For most of them it was their first Thanksgiving dinner ever, so it was pretty cool.  Our dinner came out really well  - and despite the fact that C. claims she can't cook for shit, her first ever turkey cooking experience was super sucessful.  I made buscuits and sweet potatoe souffle/casserole (choose your preferred discription and be proud of your classiness or lack thereof!) - and the only semi disaster that happened all day was the fact that C. and P. somehow managed to break off two oven doors. (we have four ovens)  We blame this on the rustiness of the hinges of course.  So today I had already planned to get down to business with the school work that had piled up while I was busy doing some professional level procrastinating.  It was around three o'clock and I decided that I needed a cup of coffee first in order to really get serious about things - so I stepped into the kitchen, making sure to avoid kicking over the useless oven doors as I went, when I looked out our kitchen window and saw a pretty huge crowd of people and several police.  "Hmmm....I wonder what that's about" I thought.  A moment later, I heard a massive roar of voices begining to chant something in Swedish, but it wasn't from the crowd in front of me - the sound was way more loud than the crowd outside my window, and besides, it was coming from the other side of the building, the side that I couldn't see.  So of course I rush outside to our rooftop terrace for a better view.  And what did my wondering eyes come to see?  Well - apparently a large group of people were having a pretty serious looking disagreement of somesort - and were in the process of aggravating the situation right outside my building.  In fact not just right outside, but from all sides. There was a rather large amount of police surrounding a smaller sized group of about 40-50 people from the rest of the people.  Shortly after I went out onto the terrace, they began shouting chants back and forth at each other once again, but I had no idea what they were saying to each other because it was all in Swedish.  Damnit! What to do?  What to make of the situtation?  Were the two groups friends?  Had the small bunch just gotten caught by the cops?  Who were the good guys and bad guys?  No clue!Just then two things happened.  First, someone else came up onto the terrace w/ me, and I was in the midst of asking him what the hell was going on, when the people I had originally seen from my kitchen window (on the other side of the building) did a sneak attack on the people who were surrounded by police.  Well, I say sneak attack, but it was more like just turning round a corner and coming from an unexpected place - there was no tip-toeing or sneaking involved.  As soon as the people next to the police saw them, crazy sticks and stones starting being thrown, along w/ punches and firecrackers.  Cops on horses came in and the the cops on foot had to form a chain around the group to stop the fighting.  Then the guy who had come out onto the terrace w/ me explained that the group the cops were trying to "protect" were actually Nazis who were here to do some sort of demonstration/rally.  (Around here they call them manifestations/demonstrations), and everbody else gathered round were pissed off left-ists who wanted the Nazis to go home. Whoa!  Nazis and Left-ists fighting eachother like 50 feet away from me (and 7 floors down), in the year 2008, in Sweden!  Who knew!  Apparently, November 30th is significant in Swedish history b/c it's the day that Sweden won some major battle against the Russian army under Peter the Great, and also on the same day a few years later, the King of Sweden who won that battle died.  According to this one kid out on the terrace w/ us - the Nazis like that King and that's why they always choose this day to do some crazy demoonstrations. So, forget about school work...for the next few hours I watched hundreds of people surround this small group of Nazis (and the international student housing building where I live) and chant really aggressive sounding Swedish words at them.  The only thing I could make out was the phrase "Nazi Pigs".  It was a really intense scene.  People kept throwing things like rocks and those little roadside hazard firesticks at each other.  (no guns though - afterall this is Sweden)  I am proud to say that the nation I joined - the vegetarian socialist Smalands Nation - provided the weapon of a a portable sound system from which the sounds of socially enlightened Swedish hip-hop assaulted the ears of the Nazis (and everyone else w/in a two block radius at least) instead of rocks or things on fire (well-realistically speaking, some of the member probably helped out with those too).  At least I think it was Smalands anyway - I saw their little black star logo on the speakers that were jauntily following the mass wave of demonstrators as they made their way past our building following the Nazis to their destination - after about 2 or 3 hours of slinging insults, things on fire, and occasionally fists at one another right in front of my building.  Ok, so that's all the excitment for now - look out for more sometime relatively soon though - next week I'm headed to Brussels to visit w/ my friend from Portland before she heads home.
]]> Purple carrots!?! — Lund, Skåne, Sweden http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/caroline.sage/1/1223164140/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/caroline.sage/1/1223164140/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/caroline.sage/1/1223164140/tpod.html Sat, 04 Oct 2008 20:14:21 -0400 2 Years in Lund

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Lund, Skåne, Sweden

OK, this is just a quick one this time 'cause I'm in the middle of learning how to do excel.  But I just had to tell you guys about these purple carrots.  So, the other day when I was grocery shopping I saw that they had these very convenient packages of all the veggies you'd need to make a batch of soup or whatever all bundled up nicely into one package.  I mean, in just one fell swoop you could pick up carrots onions garlic, and whatever other veggies you needed.  I thought "oh, how cool and convenient are those"  - and then I saw some similar looking packages with a whole bunch of different root vegetables that were for sale too.  It had carrots and parsnips and some vegetable that looked like a purple carrot that I'd never seen before.  I thought "well, I haven't had roasted root vegetables in a while, I'll go ahead and get that".  So a couple days later, after the mad rush of assignments I had due was essentially over, and I had time to waste on roasting root vegetables, I got on google and searched for "vegetable that looks like a purple carrot" so I could find out what it was before I cooked it.  And guess what?  Those suckers are f*ing purple carrots!!!  Have you ever heard of a purple carrot?  'Cause I sure never heard of a purple carrot.  Anyway, after I made this discovery, I rushed out to the kitchen to verify with my own eyes that my purple looking-like-carrots vegetables were actually purple carrots, and pull the package out of the fridge, when L. one of my corridor mates who knows Swedish, looks down at the package label (that's in Swedish) and says "Ah,  you got some mixed carrots?"  Ye gods, my illiteracy stikes again.  I had purchased a veritable shit ton of purple, white, and orange carrots. Anyway, I was so fascinated by the fact that purple carrots actually exist, that I read a little more about them on the internet.  What I found out is that actually all carrots were either purple or white to begin with.  And, according to this one website, the way we got orange carrots was because back in the day some Dutch people, who were carrot farmers I guess, decided to breed orange carrots to show their patriotism and support of the House of Orange.  Yep, it's all 'cause of nationalism that we're forced to eat orange carrots today, and know nothing about their beautiful, sweet tasting ancestors. (L. doesn't believe a bit of it though.)
]]> The learning curve isn't over yet... — Lund, Sweden http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/caroline.sage/1/1222360080/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/caroline.sage/1/1222360080/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/caroline.sage/1/1222360080/tpod.html Thu, 25 Sep 2008 16:06:07 -0400 2 Years in Lund

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Lund, Sweden

OK, no pics this time just a small rant...there - I've warned you ahead of time.So yesterday I had this relatively important group presentation to give in one of my classes.  It went fairly well, and at the end there was some talk about how the class time and place for the next lecture had changed (again).  Remember how I told you Lund challenges students to actually make it to their classes on a regular basis?  Well...they got me (again).  After the presentation I went home to check up on the time change, and sure enough, class had been changed from Thurs. @ 11am to Fri@ 11 am, different room.  Cool, no big deal I thought, I'll get some other stuff done instead, like sign up for swedish classes and get a cell phone.So I sleep in (of course) until around 1, and about an hour later someone rang my apt. doorbell.  It was my two group project partners (S. from Gambia and N. from Ethiopia, two very cool dudes.)  They wanted to know why I wasn't in class, and came to tell me about another presentation that we had been assigned that day.  WTF?  I was like, "what do you mean not in class?  It was changed to tomorrow."  S. said "no, it was changed back to today at noon"  I said "Bullshit man, I checked to damn time schedule twice before I went to bed last night."  And N. said "Ah! You don't check the schedule, they don't change that, they change it under 'Lecture Plan'."  Well, I'll be damned.  Apparently schedule changes aren't always posted in the schedule link, sometimes they're just posted in the 'Lecture Plan' link.  Totally logical.  Silly me."Well, whatever" I thought, at least S. and N. were nice enough to come and tell me about it.  I'll just go and do the other stuff like I planned.  So, I went to the phone place I went to last time, where they were really nice and told me to wait until I got my Swedish social security number to get a phone 'cause it would be alot cheaper that way.  I finally got the number last week and so came fully equipped and mentally prepared to walk away with a phone in my hands this afternoon.  When I got there, the nice fellow told me that I also needed a Swedish ID card in order to get the discount, and that I could get one at the bank right down the street.  So, I went to the bank and queued.  For 45 minutes.  (Queuing = taking a number from the machine and waiting until your number is called to go up to the counter.  In Sweden it is done practically everywhere, and it is COMPLETELY socially unacceptable for someone to do otherwise)  When I got up to the window, they told me I was in the wrong queue.  So I took another number from a different button on the machine and waited again.After about 15 minutes my number was up and I went over and explained to the guy that the cell phone people told me to come here to get an ID card and the lady at that other window told me that he was the guy to ask for one.  He look at me incredulously.  "You want a Swedish ID card?"  "Yes, I do""You want us to give you an ID card?""Umm...yes?"What are you doing here in Sweden?  Are you working here?  Do you have a connection with this bank?" "Well.... I opened up an account here a couple weeks ago.  I'm a student at Lund University.  I have a Swedish social security number and and everything.""I'm sorry.  We only give ID cards to those with special connections to this bank.  I mean those who have been valuable customers for a very long time."(What the hell? Is this a Swedish mafia bank or something?)  "Really?  You're talking about a regular Swedish identification card?""Yes.  We only give those out to proven long-term patrons""Just a regular ID card we're talking about right?""Yes.""Is there anyone else I can go to?""I'm sorry.  I'm unaware of the policies at other banks.  But that is our policy here."I left the bank with a bemused smile on my face and headed back to the cell phone store.  What in the hell was that all about?  Anyway, I get back and I tell the friendly fellow what happened, and he thought it was weird too.  (Yikes...what kind of bank did I open an account with?)  He said that I wouldn't have any problems if I went to get one at a post office though.  Then, he very kindly looked up the location of one for me.  (they're hard to find apparently...Sweden doesn't have mailmen to pick up and deliver mail, everyone goes to the grocery store to do so, so I guess people forget where they are or something)  So, I leave the store and head to the post office which is supposed to be right next to the train station right next to my house.  I couldn't find it.  So I decide to go back home and look up word for "post office" in Swedish so I'll know the word to look for tomorrow because it was already past 5pm.  When I get home, I check the mail because I'm waiting for something my mom sent me to get here.  Instead, I find the books that I ordered from an online bookstore whose site was totally in Swedish because I heard Amazon doesn't deliver to Sweden, and that I needed for a paper that was due on Monday had finally arrived.  On Thursday. (Thankfully someone let me borrow their books) Whatever. Online, I discover that the very nice cell phone people were wrong about the documents that I needed to have to get an ID card.  Apparently I have to apply for a copy of an official document to bring with me to get the ID, but the website tells me that unfortunately the phone service and website where I can do this are all in Swedish, so I'll need one of my (as yet nonexistant) Swedish friends to be with me when I do this. "Gah! This sucks" I thought to myself.  The underlying problem with everything is that I don't know any Swedish.  I need to sign up for those free Swedish for Immigrants classes they told me about in the beginning.  "Yeah, yeah that's what I'll do"  I thought.  I can't do anything about the stupid official document right now, so I'll make myself feel like I've done at least something useful with my (not supposed to have been) day off by going ahead and signing up for those.  So, I got out the instructions on how to sign up online for the class (website's in Swedish again) and got out my registration number and proceeded to fill out the form.  Then I hit the send button.  And of course a little message popped up telling me I had done something wrong and they wouldn't let me send it until it was fixed but of course the damn message was in friggin' Swedish.  So I fiddle around for a few minutes and finally realize that 'personnummer' means my registration number, and so then I went to the only (crappy) online translation site I can find and type in the rest of the "you-messed-up-somewhere" message.  The translation that I got was:  "the blow the whistle on personnumeret had FALSE date.  Each good police deta!"I presumed I was doing something seriously wrong with my personnummeret.  So I examined the letter they sent me with my 4 digit personnummeret (Swedish social security/registration number) again.  Low and behold, after about 10 minutes of scrutiny, I discovered that this four digit number sent to me in a very official yet low key looking envelope was not my personnummeret at all, but my four digit PIN number for my new Swedish mafia bank account. So, long story short - I can't get a phone yet cause I don't have an ID card.  Can't get an ID card 'cause I can't fill out request form 'cause I don't know swedish.  Can't learn Swedish until my real personnummeret gets here.  Had to email personnummeret lady and tell her about my foolish mistake of thinking my PIN number was my personnummeret number 'cause I don't know Swedish.  Didn't make it to class 'cause I didn't look under "Lecture Plan" for schedule changes.However, despite all this, I am not in a bad mood at all today.  Why?1) It was really pretty and sunny and fall like outside all day while I was walking around.2) I really liked the outfit I had on. (I'm wearing the skirt and black tights you bought me mom! Thanks - they're cute!)    3) We had another "family dinner" on my corridor tonight and M. from Japan made us authentic Japanese food.  And he made a vegetarian version special just for me!  How cool was that?  And it was delicious!  We had awesome veggies and savory pancakes, sweet egg omlete, sake to drink, and icecream w/sweet beans ("azuki") for dessert.  Yay!
]]> odds and ends — Lund, Skåne, Sweden http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/caroline.sage/1/1221326460/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/caroline.sage/1/1221326460/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/caroline.sage/1/1221326460/tpod.html Sat, 13 Sep 2008 14:21:14 -0400 2 Years in Lund

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Lund, Skåne, Sweden

Ok, so the first two weeks of school have passed by, and now the assignment due dates are coming up, so I figured I better take some pictures of my 'hood while I can.  Basically, I just walked around town in a circle, so all of the things in these pictures are about five minutes away from my house or less if I walked straight to them.  So the pictures and the captions will speak for themselves.  (Although the light was kind of crap today...or at least that is what I will blame my lack of picture taking talent on this time around.)  The rest of the written entry shall consist of things that I have noticed about Lund/Sweden/Lund University/my ingrained "American-ness clashing with the way things are done over here - that I find either quaint, annoying, or super cool by turns.*the heat of ovens is in celsius.  200 degrees celsius is REALLY hot, like 400 or 450 F.  Didn't know that.*I also now know that there are 100 ml in 1 dl.  Although I still have no idea what 1 dl looks like in real life.*You're not supposed to make eye contact with people you pass by on the street.  If you do happen to make eye contact, for god's sakes DON'T smile at them whatever you do.  I recently read somewhere that in Sweden, if a passerby smiles at you, Swedes generally tend to think the smiler is either: a)drunk b) crazy or c) an American. *Lund University does not have 1 big library, or even several big libraries...it has no less than 30 scattered all over town, and the book you're searching for could be anywhere.*At my library, the school of economics and management library, you can use their computers to search for stuff, but there are no printers.  If you want to print something, one must walk over to another building, and go down to the basement computer room to print.*But first you have to go to a print shop that is only open from 10 to 2 pm Mondays thru Thursdays and fill up your print quota.*But before you can fill up your print quota, you have to go to the information desk and fill out a green form and then bring it to the print shop.  *I tried to order my school books online.  Amazon does not deliver to Sweden.  Swedish online bookshops are in Swedish. There are very very few online Swedish translation websites and they all suck.  Therefore, putting in a book order through a Swedish site is considerably tougher than doing so in English.*Practically all stores in Sweden close at 2 or 3 on Saturdays, and even less are open at all on Sundays. (which is why there's hardly any people on the streets in the picutres I took...it was like 5pm on a Saturday)*NEVER buy beer or wine at a grocery store.  The alcohol percentages are like 3% for beer and 7% for wine.  *Instead, you must go to Systembolaget, the state run liquor store (and the only liquor store allowed to operate in Sweden).  But, Systembolaget does not really carry any good beer at all.  Budweiser is 25 kronas per bottle, but I morally will not allow myself to drink that.  Sierra Nevada (which is the best flavor they carry imo) is like 35-45 per bottle and I cannot morally allow myself to pay that.  They do have Boddington's, but cripes, that's like an arm and a leg, so that's out too.  But...they do carry Bombay Saphire (yay!) and I will not disclose how much I paid for the bottle, but I will mention that I am on a rationing schedule.*Systembolaget closes early on Fridays, way earlier on Saturdays, and is not open at all on Sundays.*All their rolling papers are the super small kind, and when you ask for 1.25 or 1.5, they have no idea what you're talking about.*All classes at the University start at a quarter past, but the computer system that the school is on cannot understand that, and so according to the online schedule, all classes start on the hour.  Therefore, all new students become extremely concerned about why they are the only ones in the classroom the first day of school, and cluster around in small groups discussing this phenomenon for about fifteen minutes or so until the rest of the group, including the teacher, shows up.*The explanation for this fifteen minute delay is because back in the day (like the 16, 17, and 1800's) when portable time keeping devices like pocket watches, cell phones and so on were either really expensive or not yet invented, the Cathedral bells were what everyone in town used as a watch.  There was consensus that when the bells rang, everyone had fifteen minutes to get to class.  So, today Lund Uni. keeps that tradtion - inspite of the fact that modern computer systems cannot deal with scheduling things at a quarter past, and new students are often confused - in fact, even if the teacher comes in before 15 after, they will refuse to start class until exactly a quarter past because otherwise "it wouldn't be fair to the students".*However, classes at Lund are not at all guaranteed to start at the same day, time, or place that they did they week before.  In fact, as all new students come to find out, the times and location of classes are very likely to change through out the term, and it is up to the student to remain vigilant in discovering the updated information.  For instance, I (along with half my class) had no idea that the second lecture had been changed from 3pm to 8am, because we didn't check the schedule information before hand.  Silly us, we wrote it down instead and expected it to stay the same.  Silly, silly us.  Now I know - at Lund, not only are you challenged in class, you are challenged to find the damn class.  That's ok though, because really, it makes things more interesting doesn't it?
]]> No tempeh?! — Malmö, Sweden http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/caroline.sage/1/1220305920/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/caroline.sage/1/1220305920/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/caroline.sage/1/1220305920/tpod.html Mon, 01 Sep 2008 18:14:01 -0400 2 Years in Lund

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Malmö, Sweden

So, as you may have guessed from the title of this entry, Astrid and the Monkey's did not have tempeh.  :(  Not only that, but when I asked the guy who works there if they ever got any in, he asked me:  "What's tempeh?  Is it some sort of asian food?" What's this?!  An all-vegetarian grocery store does not carry this most precious and delectable of soy products? (by the way, is tempeh some sort of asian food?  I've never thought of it as asian, but I guess it would make sense if it was invented in the same place tofu came from)  I am beginning to forsee a tempeh-less next two years of my life on the horizon.   Yikes!  But, Astrid and the Monkey's did have pink ladies!  But no yukon golds.  But it did have these super cool mango lassi drinks!  And black treacle!  (I've always wanted to try some of that...but it will have to wait 'till I'm rich 'cause it's spendy...but I just like know that I can buy black treacle whenever I want)  But the happiest moment of the day actually came when I was at the good 'ol regular grocery store, the ICA (think Safeway), looking for canned tomatoes for soup (which apparently is not available in Sweden as far as I know).  There I was in some random aisle, hunting for canned tomato, when I saw it....Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ Sauce!!  Oh Shit Yes!  While there is apparently no need for canned diced tomatoes or tempeh in Sweden, they sure know their barbeque sauce...and that's what really matters.  (For those of you that are unfamiliar with the inside practices of my former place of employment...Sweet Baby Rays is what makes the world go 'round at least a few times a week.) School starts tomorrow, so we'll see how everything goes....love sage
]]> family dinner — Lund, Skåne, Sweden http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/caroline.sage/1/1219956960/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/caroline.sage/1/1219956960/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/caroline.sage/1/1219956960/tpod.html Sun, 31 Aug 2008 15:09:12 -0400 2 Years in Lund

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Lund, Skåne, Sweden

So, I think I will give this travel blog thing a try for all my friends who want to hear about what I've been doing, but don't necessarily want to bug with incessant emails all the time.  I have been in Lund since Monday and am slowly adjusting to the time difference, which is nine hours ahead of pacific standard and six ahead of eastern...but six or nine hours doesn't make much difference, I still end up falling asleep in the middle of the day and waking up raring to go at around 3 or 4 in the morning.  Lame.  Anyway, tonight my corridor had a family dinner together.  We had five bottles of red wine, and a bottle of Martini to drink.  Yes, that's right - Martini is actually a liquor (vermouth) that the drink is named after as it is the signature ingredient. (a side note:  I have met my people - dinner with five bottles of red wine and a bottle of liquor and still ok to go out afterwards...yay!) I took charge of the veggie side of things as I am the only vegetarian on the floor.  Salad was requested so I made Food for Thought's signature salad for everyone: nice greens with feta, toasted hazelnuts, and dried cranberries.  And I made homemade rasberry vinegrette.  Everyone said they liked it alot.  I think by now I have met almost all of the people on my corridor.  If you're interested, I am currently living within 100 feet (at most) of:  M. from Holland, L. from Germany, N. (totally not spelled right) from Portugal, M. and L. from Australia, C. from NY, J. from Ottowa Canadia, M. from Japan, a fellow whose name escapes me from China, M. from Germany, P. from Nice France, and E. from Nevada (?) Spain.  Sorry, I should have taken pictures by now, I know, but it just hasn't happened yet.  I will try to take some tomorrow.  I like Lund alot so far, the weather reminds me of Portland during the rainy season, but more breezy and humid.  The people are nice here, but everything is way expensive.  I'd say anywhere between 10- 25% more expensive than in the US.  Not including alcohol...that expensivness is in a realm by itself. Ok, will report more tomorrow!  With pictures too hopefully!
]]> Malmo IKEA! — Malmö, Skåne, Sweden http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/caroline.sage/1/1220198940/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/caroline.sage/1/1220198940/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/caroline.sage/1/1220198940/tpod.html Sun, 31 Aug 2008 12:38:22 -0400 2 Years in Lund

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Malmö, Skåne, Sweden

Today I ventured forth to Malmo.  It's about 20 minutes away by train, and it's Sweden's third largest city.  I learned many new things during this trip, like: how to figure out which platform your train train will arrive at; how to purchase a train ticket at a machine; and how the bus driver can tell if you've already paid for your fare on another bus (because they don't give out tickets).I missed the first train to Malmo because I was standing at the wrong platform.  That's ok though because it gave me time to figure out exactly how you know what platform to stand at.  When I arrived at the station in Malmo, I thought I was in luck because the first bus I needed to catch was right in front of me.  However, although I had gotten the number of the bus correct, I got the direction the bus was headed in, wrong.  That's ok though because it just gave me a chance to see more of Malmo while I took the long way round to the place where I needed to transfer busses.  After that, things went pretty smoothly.  Everyone closes up shop early on Sudays here, at around four in the afternoon, so there was one place - a vegetarian grocery store, that I didn't get to make it to today.  But I am going back tomorrow because I am super excited about this store!  In english, it's called Astrid and the Monkey...cute, huh?  I found out about it through recommendation for a vegan food blog by a person based in Lund (thanks Destiny!) and now absolutely cannot wait to check it out.  They will have organic produce! They might have tempeh!  They might even have Bragg's! Or Yuckon Gold potatoes and Pink Lady apples!  The possibilities are endless...I am so excited!  Will report back on my findings there. love, sage     
]]> The Park. — Lund, Sweden http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/caroline.sage/1/1220049120/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/caroline.sage/1/1220049120/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/caroline.sage/1/1220049120/tpod.html Fri, 29 Aug 2008 20:12:53 -0400 2 Years in Lund

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Lund, Sweden

So, today I met with all of the professors in my department for the first time, as well as all five incoming grad students.  You know, I don't know... but I think that class size is a little too big for my tastes - I don't think we'll get enough one on one time with the teachers like this...I'm kind of worried.  Anyway, as has become my tradition, I attempted to walk back home from the economics department once again today.  One would think it a simple task, but let me tell you right now, that no - it is not.  So far my record for not getting lost on the way back home from the economics department is 0 for 3.  Before you ask...I take the bus to class.  I think it's very important to not get lost on the way to class.  But why not take it back?  Because it costs 12.50 krona everytime I ride, and I am a cheapskate...that's why.  Plus walking around is a good way to get to know a place, right?So the last two times I got lost on the way home from the economics department, I ended up walking around in a park for what seemed like hours.  I didn't particularly mind being lost in park...parks are very pretty, with lots of things to look at while your lost, parks are also usually pretty quiet, so it's easy to think about how you got lost, and best of all, they camoflage your lostness to others, as it looks like you are only out for a stroll when really you haven't the slightest clue how you got there or where you are going.  Anyway, today I thought I had finally realized my past mistakes, and once again set off in what I thought to be the direction of my home, 2 kilometers away.  "I keep getting shunted too far left of where I need to be" I thought to myself, so I intentionally set off for home from a counterintuitive direction.  After kind of a long time (I'm still not real sure how long 2 kilometers takes to walk) I came to a fairly large intersection.  I knew from experience that one (very not good for me) way leads out of town, and the other (good) way leads towards the center of town, where I live.  So I asked this couple walking towards me which way led to the city center.  The man said "take a bus".  The woman pointed her finger towards the nearest bus stop.  Then they walked on by.  I took it as a sign, and decided to just go ahead and pay for the damn bus ride.  I rationalized it to myself by saying that I would be better able to figure out exactly where I was in relation to home and school and therefore be able to do better on the way home next time.So - I got off the bus in front of a building that I actually have made it successfully home from.  I knew that it was only a five minute walk home from there and felt supremely confident that I could accomplish the feat this time as well.  However, that was not to be the case.  For some reason, I very quickly found myself to be in an unknown location.  And once again, I realized this just as I came upon the border of a park.  A park that I may have never set foot in before, but intuitively knew to be between me and my goal of home.I turned and walked away from the park, remembering my last two rather long episodes involving parks and going home. I was thinking that I should retrace my steps back to that familiar building, but very soon I knew I was only getting further away from home. (I'm trying to get unlost in a part of town that was built in the 1000's...there's definetly no kind of grid system here whatsoever.)  So anyway, I took the dive - and walked straight into the heart of the park.It was a lovely park, but I wanted to go home and I could tell it didn't want me to leave.  "This park is just like the other two" I thought to myself, "it's not straightforward at all".  As this was the third time for trying to get home and ending up lost in a park, I was getting a little fed up with all the meandering.  Soon, however, I came upon a pretty little fountain with ducks and swans swimming in the water around it.  I stopped to watch the leader of the pack sun itself on a rock in the middle of the pond.  And that's when I saw it...the way out.  By this time, I was no one's fool -  I knew what a way out looked like when I saw one, and this was definetly it.  I walked quickly over to the small footpath on the other side of the duckpond, little pepples pouring over and into the sides of my shoes as I went.  But - as I crossed the border out of park and into beloved, recognizable city I realized something.  2 days ago, when I got lost in a park for the second time,  I finally found the city again by leaving a path that I now saw about fifty feet further down.  Damn it! It was the same park!  I got home and looked at someone's map of Lund, and realized that the first time I got lost for hours on the way home was also in the same stupid park.  Even though everytime I try to go home from the economics department I try leaving in a different direction, and even though that damn park is nowhere near my house really, I end up lost in it every single time.   I swear to god, I think that park's in love with me.        
]]>