Movin' and Shakin'

Of course, I already stink at this. An entry I wrote while in an internet-less abyss from a few days back, before I enter what will hopefully be a less eventful and more productive week...


Week 1: A doozy.

Either I’ve waited far too long to post something here (though to my credit, I’ve only had access to the internet for 2 days, and many bizarre things to deal with that took precedence) or too much has happened, because beginning to write is overwhelming. I won’t feel too bad rambling on and on, though, since I don’t think anyone’s noticed the link I put up on Facebook anyways.

The actual travel across Big Water went as smoothly as can be – much to my surprise. Simone and I traveled with two others from Globe and were met by the “buddies” at the airport. Her buddy is a Swede who (this is even more ominous later, read on!) called Lund “a student’s paradise….and Helsingborg, a nice cit---town.” Originally, my application for study and housing was in Lund but somehow the gods above (a.k.a my advisor here, took it upon herself to switch me to Helsingborg, a city an hour north with a satellite campus). I stayed for night in Copenhagen and had what could easily be confused with a night in Chapel Hill – we all hung out at Bruer’s, the only real difference being that we bought the alcohol legally.

The next morning, I took the train back to the Copenhagen airport and further on to Lund. Waiting for the train to Lund, I sat next to a young guy and girl speaking in French. My jet-lagged brain thought I saw the airport code for Newark on their bags but wondered why people from France in Denmark traveling to Sweden would have detoured to Jersey in between. Later I met them online with the other international students; they were from Montreal and did go through Newark! I felt a bit less crazy.

I checked in at Lund, instantly fell in love with the town, the old university buildings and the excitement of the hundreds of other exchange students checking in around me – and was escorted back to the train station to carry on alone, to Helsingborg. Bummer. I kept my thoughts as optimistic as possible and arrived an hour later to a beautiful coastal city. Helsingborg is, from what I understand, the fourth largest city in Sweden, and the closest point along the strait to Denmark’s city, Helsingor (creative naming).

My apartment in Helsingborg is – interesting. It’s a few kilometers outside of the city center (a fifteen minute bus ride, I miss free public transportation already). It’s in an apartment complex, it’s furnished entirely by IKEA – from the furniture to the cutlery, playing into all of my stereotypes. There are no young people, or people in general to be found in the complex; across the street are cows and horses (which I can’t deny I love) and an old windmill, behind the building is some sort of gigantic alien spacecraft in a park (at least that’s my best guess). The “university” here is a satellite campus of about 2,000 students who all seem to be invisible. The “campus” is a single building consisting of classrooms and a bunch of people who had no idea who I was or why an exchange student was bothering them, an hour removed from where they would have guessed she would be. (Start feeling nervous!!). I finally found a woman who took pity on me and talked to me, found out only one of my classes was held at this campus, the rest on main campus, and advised me if I wanted to enjoy my time in Sweden, move back to the other city as soon as possible, because there was nothing here but classrooms for native students, and certainly nothing else for an exchange student looking for a positive experience. More red flags.

I took matters into my own hands the next day, knowing that I would not be happy like this, and the few days of near total isolation were quickly driving me to insanity. I quickly learned that Lund accepts far more international students than they can accommodate and the city apparently is the hottest spot on the housing market in the free world. Who knew?! The red flags are on fire at this point. My mind is swirling with ideas of semesters off, returning to work in Chapel Hill, epic defeat, having a suitcase of the most worthless junk ever and work on an organic farm through the fall, commuting an hour and a half in Sweden for classes, swimming the Atlantic, and getting another one of those miracle exits from my stickiest of situations. I decided on the last choice.

The next morning, I again traveled to Lund and met with a twenty four year old named Fanny who recently married to Martin. They live about a fifteen minute walk from the heart of Lund and were looking to rent to a female who spoke English as her native language. Their apartment is filled with plants and the color green and tree designs and she’s a vegetarian and he’s an environmental engineer and I’m a girl and speak English! Match made in heaven. She told me she received over one hundred responses to the ad she posted in less than 24 hours but because the stars aligned overhead, they offered me the room (collective sigh of relief!) (bigger than that!!!).

So now, just four days into life in Sweden, I have to pack everything up and prepare to move to my second Swedish city. Somehow, my belongings seemed to have dispersed every which way but I am excited for the move and optimistic about my experience ahead; which up until this afternoon, I thought might be one of my biggest disappointments and failures to date.