Malmöfestivalen and finally able to leave Fabian

Student life is getting started! In Lund, you don't have a hard time getting to know other Erasmus students: it's about 2000 (!) of them and evereybody (yeah, everybody but Rico, because he somehow missed the invitation...) is divided into so called "Mentor Groups". It's older students who organise events (party, sports, even trips to e.g. Oslo) for the greenhorns.
First thing I have to say: MINE is the best. By far! (Thank you guys, especially Josh and Jorge <3) We still meet at least once a week, whereas other groups met once or twice and that was it. In the beginning, Josh had a party at his place at Delphi every Wednesday (if you want to party, just go to Delphi, follow the music and join some random party - nobody cares!) until he received a serious letter from the housing office. I show you a picture of his bookshelf and you will know why Rico loves this place!

Yes, that's what the Swedes do (actually, Josh is from Australia). They go to Germany and spend hundreds of Euros. There is a bustrip from Malmö to the German border. It's 40€ per person and everyone is allowed to take 75kg (!) of alcohol! Awesome! And Rico? He found his little baby.

And a final picture of our first party in Sweden. In the picture:

• Sarah, my soon to be flatmate (I'll explain later)
• Some drunk guy who looks like me (I ate a banana - I HATE bananas!)
• WTF is wrong with Rico?

Something, I really had to get used to: Everything (yes, everything, even official announcements by the university) is organised in Facebook. No Facebook => You are alone. Yes, that's Lund.
I don't really know how, but Rico finally managed to get in contact with his Mentor Group and so we joined them for a trip to Malmö to the huge Malmöfestivalen (some kind of city festival): a lot of people, free concerts everywhere, way to much different food. And imagine, we almost found a house of our own there!

Next thing we encountered: the crayfish-party, some Swedish tradition. You eat crayfish, some kind of small lobster, and drink a lot of wine.

...and as you can see on the picture, you have to wear one of those fancy hats. Of course, Rico (yeah, and me as well) had to have one of those. We were like the happiest human being on earth as we managed!

Oh, yeah, I almost forgot, here is a picture of the Mentor Group. Guess who is the Mentor (= most Swedish) and what her name is!

Solution: Emma (most Swedish name EVER)
Some important people you really have to know: on the very left (next to Rico) Gloria (Italian) and the girl with the red scarf Tiphaine (French).
[Some important note for my friends. If you're not, please ignore. Yes, I still hate the French. But in Lund, you cannot avoid every single one of them. There is too many. I tried. Believe me. ;)]
Just for the impression: a picture of a different stage near the harbour. My camera somehow went berserk. Look at the crazy colours; I swear it isn't photoshopped.

While listening to the music, something happend. Something I didn't mention till this very moment and what is connected inseparably with Sweden: rain. We haven't had a single day without rain. Well, perhaps two days, but in the following night, you thought the end of the world is near. The crazy thing: In Sweden, it can rain without any clouds (so called "fake rain". Common usage: Oh my god, it's fake-raining again!). Positive feature of the Swedish rain: it usually rains for just half an hour! (It's still kind of summerish, so probably I have to correct myself sometime soon). Rico loves that!

After all this new experiences, Rico was very hungry. Due to the very unfriendly (though beautiful) girl who didn't want to sell us anything (I hate you, Subway. You can't do that. We arrived ten minutes before closing-time. I'll never forgive you!), Rico had to eat his Kex (For all non-Germans: it should be Keks!). Rico thinks Swedish is so funny!

During the first two weeks, we didn't have any lectures apart from our Swedish classes. And as I've already mentioned: for a German, it isn't very difficult to learn (many words are similar, but spelled in some strange way + you don't conjugate the verbs!), but actually you don't have to at all: I haven't met any Swede whose English isn't like perfect.

Right here, the entry is over. But since you had to wait so long again (I am so sorry; you cannot imagine), there is some reward for you. As you might know, both of us aren't staying at Fabian's any more for three weeks now. According to this blog we still do. Time to change that!

It started with Rico (again - don't ask me how he did it). He was able to get a room in Spartaaa (don't ask me why it's called like that) for one month. This is where I am living now. I really like this place. I fall out of my bed - I am at my lecture. Yes, it's so close, yet not that beautiful. In October, I'm moving to Vildanden. I'm going to share an apartment with a German girl. She is in my Mentor Group and she noticed that I'm still looking for a place to live. Since her flatmate is moving out, she asked me, if I want to move in! (Thank you again, Sarah!) Unfortunately, Vildanden is at the other end of Lund, but I'm going to have a kitchen and a living-room of my own!
How come that I live in Sparta now? Rico is too lucky, as always. He got to know someone who knows someone who is renting houses to students. He found the perfect place - one of those you will never get. He is sharing a house (a really beautiful house!) with 7 other students from all over Europe! Some comparison:

The building.

Yeah, ok... that's not his house. Still, he was too happy, when he discovered it!

The entrance.

The balcony.

 

By the way, that's Malte, one of his housemates (and Max, thank you again for the Swedish flag!). We had an awesome BBQ, where I met the other housemates (all of them are very nice!).
And one final picture for you. You should get the basic idea why Rico's place is the best ever: Jacuzzi!!!

I hope you had a great time learning a little bit more about our time in Sweden. Please, don't be sad - I know it wasn't that many thumbs this time - and I'm sorry to tell you, but the next entry will be something special and there won't be any thumbs at all =(
Some last words I really have to get of my chest right now: LUND, I LOVE YOU!

Arriving of the girls and exploration of our surroundings

Since our house hunting wasn't as successful as planned, we wanted to explore at least our soon to be homeland. First step: Swedens third most popolous city (ludicrous 300.000 inhabitants xD) and not even 20km from Lund: Malmö.
Arriving there, we were welcomed by a strange Christian sect, singing and dancing around a silver cross. Although, we encountered them a few more times this day, Rico has already enjoyed them the very first time!

After Rico was able to take his eyes off, we continued our walk through the city and went to the harbour. First thing we saw there: a lighthouse! Rico was quite sad that it wasn't shining!

And there's another picture for a special friend. It's steel. Just steel. Masculine steel: Huge cranes! (And I guess it's the first picture without a thumb!!!)

Our next destination was the only skyscraper of Malmö. But it's really boring and not that beautiful. Instead, we passed another lighthouse. This time, I wanted a picture. But I was so discouraged: the lighthouse was much smaller than Rico's and I'm not (well, at least: not yet) able to smile as nice as he does!
(Wow... this is it? The first picture of me? I hoped for something better...)

Before going home, we had a Kanelbulle (some typical Swedish pastry; some kind of a cinnamon roll) and a coffee. The coffee was so large! You cannnot imagine how Rico behaved for the rest of the day!

As I've already said, we wanted to stay at Fabian's place for a few days. We were sure that until then we had an apartment on our own. Besides, there were two more Couchsurfers (yes of course Germans, like 50% of the Erasmus students) coming: Franzi and Anna.
Anna was just here for registering at the university. She is one of the lucky students who got offered a student apartment.
However, Franzi was in exactly the same situation than we: hopeless without housing (in fact, she was quite concerned whereas Rico and I had a great time xD).
Here's a picture of us:


Well, yes, it doesn't exist yet. Soon to come, I promise!


And another thing about our host Fabian: He is too generous. He moved to his sister and left HIS apartment to us! We really felt weird about that, but: What an amazing guy!
Since Fabian had to work and was already showing the city to Rico and me, it was our turn to show the girls around. More and more students were arriving; it was the last day before the official arriving day for exchange students. It was a huge difference to the situation before. You can clearly see that Lund is living because of its students (80.000 inhabitants - 30.000 students).
The route led us through the city park where Rico discoverd some ducks. Rico had some trail mix (German: Studentenfutter) with him - and of course, he had to feet the ducks!

What should I tell? Ducks are crazy about nuts. Swans don't like nuts at all. Ducks like Rico and Rico likes nuts. And of course ducks.
Next thing on our way: a VW T1 ("Bulli"). Since Rico still hadn't a place to stay he immediately wanted to have it. He dreamed of living in there, sleeping in there, cooking in there,... of course, it's a nice car, but Rico...!

The next picture is again something special. It's one of the university's building, just to give you an impression how it looks like in Lund. And yes, every building is more or less that beautiful; that's why we won't stain it with a thumb!

 The next building we wanted to show the girls was the so called "AF-Building" (Akademiska Föreningen). There, we would have to go the following day (Arrival Day) to register and meet the coordinator. In addition, the left student rooms (~50-100) would have been distributed at 9am. To have the chance of getting one (first come - first serve) we wanted to queue up really early. But behold! There are already students camping in front of it! And look at the guy left from Rico: He enjoys the wait so much!

I'm sure you already know what happened next: We got there at 4am (!!!), waited for more than 8 hours till it was our turn and everything that was left where some ultra-expensive apartments in Klostergarden (500€ per month!) and we had to deny. Now, we were officially on our own.
Everything they told us was to look at the common webpages like all the other approx 1000 students without housing and hope for the best. In addition, we should write an ad that we are looking for housing. This was our application photo (I don't have to say that it's without a thumb):

Yeah, I know, it's really nice, but we didn't have any luck. But it's still unbelievable how much fun Rico had looking for accomodation online!

Furthermore, Rico wanted to give his Swedish phone card a try. 5000 free SMS per month and ~0.08€ per call! Amazing! We paid 10€ for that. Nobody told us that we would get it for free at Arrival Day. But Rico doesn't know that yet, so he was really curious about trying it!

And yes, it didn't work: the phone company doesn't accept his credit card, so he wasn't able to charge it. After he failed so bad and was so despaired, he took a shower and he left his glasses in the living room. All of a sudden, I was curious. Am I able to look as good as Rico? It took me about 20 photos, but I managed!

Slowly, the walking get on our nerves, so we needed a bike. Luckily, Fabian knew a guy who would grant us discount. Of course, it was still much to expensive (only one gear is working at my bike), but we finally were able to get around fast! And look at Rico! He enjoyes so much to "get in" (German: einsteigen) his bike!

Now, that all the exchange students had arrived, introductory meetings and partying began! But this will happen in my next entry. I really hope, you don't have to wait so long again.
Please be patient: the waiting pays off for sure (yeah!!! more thumbs!!!) - and it really is a lot of work!