To start off with the most important topic: the Swedes and Internationals have arrived! As UC students living here for pretty much 2 weeks with not many other students, we greatly anticipated the large influx of students arriving this week. I was amazed to be walking and biking around the city these past couple of days to find that there are sooo many more people in Lund, making it feel a lot more like the lively college town I've heard it is. I also actually have THREE corridor-mates on my side: two girls from Holland (Jose and Kitty) and one guy (Alex) from Southern Germany. Yayyy!
So in Sweden there's a tradition called Kraftskiva where everyone eats crayfish and drink schnapps. Jennifer, Kristen, myself, and Gaby were invited to a crayfisheating/schnappsdrinking dinner that we gladly attended initially wearing heels that we quickly abandoned once we saw that the dinner would be outside and in grass. Here's a word of advice for those who are interested in drinking "traditional" schnapps: don't. The kind that we purchased tasted like dill and something you could have gathered from your garden, smashed up and called it alcohol, but hey I guess you've got to experience the tradition while you're here, right? The crayfish on the other hand..I have a major aversion to eating any sort of animal that still looks like an animal. So, as it should be, I had crayfish on my plate that I stared at for quite some time debating whether or not I wanted to actually tear it apart and eat it. Luckily for me, the girl sitting next to me (a Swede), offered to help me out so I ate the meat off of the arms/legs...not too bad but I won't be jumping at the prospect at crayfish the next time I see it on a menu. In addition to drinking mass amounts of schnapps (in addition to wine/beer/other alcohols), there are also songs that you sing as a group at which the end you take a drink. If you can only picture the 4 Kalifornien girls sitting around a table celebrating a Swedish tradition and trying to sing Swedish songs, quite amusing, really. What I've loved about my experiences so far in Sweden is that most everyone I've met from Sweden is very accommodating, interesting and simply awesome overall.
As I've mentioned before, Lund University has "nations" which are similar to the Greek system we have in the states except that both men and women are in nations. There are many ways that one can help out at a nation, you can bartend, you can be at the front door, check items, or the best..work in the kitchen. Which is exactly what Kristen, myself and Jennifer did last night at Wermlands Nation. Although none of us officially "belong" to a nation, we are allowed to help out and get compensation (i.e. free alcohol and food). So when our friend Kaj was desperate and persistent about needing people to work in the kitchen and make hamburgers, three Kalifornien girls were there to save the day! Little did we know what we were getting ourselves into. From about 6 p.m. until 10 p.m. we were running, cooking and sliding around the kitchen making burgers and fries..among other bizarre concoctions. Tickets would come in with food orders and we'd be trying to decipher not only some of the language but also the handwriting. I was initially in charge of mixing the hamburger meat, and I really, really really don't enjoy touching raw meat. Not to mention when the onions were added in, my eyes began burning. Moral of the story is, I am reminded why I do not enjoy the food industry, cooking, and why I would never want to work in a restaurant ever again. All and all, the experience was a good one, and along the way we had a lot of good laughs, and some good food as well :).
Lastly, TOMORROW IS THE LAST DAY OF SVENSKA! Although I really enjoyed the class, I loved our teacher Mai, and the people in it..I do not enjoy waking up for a 9 a.m. class every morning (no offense Svenska, it's not you, it's me). So tomorrow we will have a final exam (hence my new blog posting to further avoid studying), and then my class in complete. After tomorrow, I am free from school and responsibilities for another 10 days before I officially start my semester here; which means that I will be traveling to PRAGUE AND VIENNA beginning late on Sunday.
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