Ok, so it is truly BEAUtiful here in Lund at the moment, spring is definitively arriving, the crocuses are coming out and the sun has made an appearance everyday this week! Although today just doesn't count because the wind has been RIDICULOUS! (...Ana won't appreciate me saying this (apologies now!) but there was an incident with bike falling off due to wind...it was THAT strong today!) Needless to say there was some classic hair moments on my part, which i know you would have just loved Harry! At one point i couldn't actually see where i was going while riding Olof due to excess hair in the face! But it didn't matter, the sun was shining so naturally everyone was out and about, enjoying it :-)
I definitively think that the Swedes seem to have the same ethos as Mummy Peace, as soon as the sun shines it is an obligation to be outside! Lund has come alive this week, music int he streets, EVERY bench full of people, even the floor was pretty full! The cafe's have tables outside, stalls suddenly appeared in one of the squares and o it's just LOVELY :-D Of course those that were sat at the tables outside (Ana and I included!) were wrapped up in winter coats, scarves and gloves, but that didn't matter...the SUN WAS SHINING!!
It's been a veeeeeeeeeeery busy couple weeks. Activites have included a cartoon party (yes twas MAGIC fun, please note the pictures, the people really were that BLUE!!!) And i know i'm a wrong way round dalmation but i was the runt of the pack! We also found Cruella DeVil that night, however i was convinced he was a mad professor, so i wasn't scared, and just thought he was a dirty perv when he told me he wanted to have my skin!! Someone then pointed out that he was in fact Cruella, and o suddenly everything made sense! Also went to a corridor party, with the theme of pimps of ho's and serisouly ALL the guys at this party were ho's! Any excuse for a guy to put on a dress and they're there!! (The guy who was SO proud of his bauble boobs, has to be my favourite!!)
Aside from partying though, i've also worked at a Sitning ( a joyous experience...i'll explain what it is in a mo!) been learning how to use Archicad (again quite magical, i'm sure all you Interiors can appreciate my thrill here!) desperately revising for min svenska tenta (Swedish exam...eurgh...i'm NOT ready!!!) had another International Dinner (yummmy!) and of course finally preparing to go to the ICE HOTEL tomorrow!!! (eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!) :-D
One of the most amazing things about being here are all the traditions. Lund is the second oldest university in Sweden, founded in 1668 and so there are all this fabulous tradtiions that have been around for centuries. For example the Nations began life as a 'home away from away' for the Swedish students who came to live in Lund from each of the different 'Lans' (or counties.) The Nation was the place where you lived with all the other people from that Lan who studied in Lund and were watched over. Nowadays the Nations are the social centre for students, being the place of cheap alchohol and food. (haha whatmore do you need!) The clubs are generally situated in the basements, with tenants living on the floors above. You no longer have to be from the 'Lan' in order to live there. Each Nation is now more or less identified by the type of activies and music it plays. There are mostly the same actvites at each Nation: club/pub nights, cafe during the day, some have sports and choirs etc and of course each of them has a 'sitning.'
The sitnings are just so fun! A 3 course dinner is served and during the dinner there are certain songs that are sung. For example there is a schnapps song, sung when schnapps is drunk. And every person at the dinner has a song book at their place so if they want to start a song, they stand up and tell the number and then everyone joins in! O it's a wonderful type of merriment! :-) the dress code is quite formal, so you get to wear preeeeeeetty clothes! :-) Always nice lets face it! and sometimes they sit you boy girl boy girl, so you get to meet new people and sing the night away!
Honestly thoguh i thinkmy funnet experience of a sitning is the one that Ana and I worked at because it was solely Swedes who attended, and o my! Do they know how to do a sitning!! At the bigninning of the night the guy in charge gave us ear plugs and thought yeah ok, err thanks! But seriosuly by the end of the night the Swedes were singing at the top of their voices, the WHOLE room was talking to each other so of course it was very loud! But it was a nice loud, everyone just seemed joyful, i think that's the only word for it! One of the Swedes asked Ana and I to sing a student song from our Uni, but alas such traditions haven't quite been stared at Brighton yet, what a shame!!
ok so i have officially waffled for more than my fair share of waffling time, so it's over and out from me!
Peace out x x x
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