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  Lund, Sweden
Thursday, September 25, 2008

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!

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