Never have I been so happy (or surprised!) for spring.
Sweden in the spring is magical. (Allegedly, summer is even better, but I won’t be able to report on that.)
In the last two to three weeks, the sun has come out, the trees have blossomed, the weather has warmed up to a balmy 20 degrees…and most importantly, everyone has gone into permanent spring picnic mode.
Every piece of grass or bench or seat outside in Stortorget is covered with PEOPLE. If it’s the weekend, they’re sitting in the park, drinking (see: Valborg, this Saturday), otherwise they’re just sitting outside. On big rocks, overlooking Stockholm, until 9 PM when it finally starts to think about getting dark.
It has become our full-time job to enjoy the weather.
Actually, I totally forgot spring was coming.
It’s not that the winter in Skåne was even that bad. Since January, it was consistently 0 degrees and grey — not that cold, by my standards. I never even used my heaviest jacket once. But when I arrived, everything was covered in grey ice, the sky was grey, the sun set at 4 PM, and it never even got totally light out.
I got so used to the consistently dreary weather (2.5 months straight of exactly the same weather?) that spring seemed like something that only happens in other countries, like SUVs, carpeting, and hip-hop.
But then it happened, almost overnight. All term, I’ve had Swedish class from 5-7:30 PM — it used to be dark long before I even walked to class. Suddenly, now it’s light for hours after I come home.
The whole country is in SUCH A GOOD MOOD.
And oh man, the grilling. It’s been going on for WEEKS. Grilling is big here. Like, constant 4th of July-mode level big.
(Actually, I think we jumped the gun on the grilling a little bit — it was an odd experience to stand around in the light at 8 PM, grilling a pineapple, in my winter coat.)
(Yes, you can grill pineapples.)
It’s no accident that Easter break is happening now, followed a week later by Valborg. After 9 months of winter, we have earned the right to enjoy the weather.
As my friend Polly says, “I now understand why ancient cultures worshipped the sun.”
The sun is here and it’s time to celebrate.
I think spring celebration is something I was missing out on in the US. I mean, we occasionally would sit on the quad, and I remember quite a few pleasant warm evenings eating pizza on apartment balconies, feet up. But Japan has hanami, Sweden has Valborg… I am missing the American equivalent here.
Then again, maybe it’s because Illinois has exactly 1.5 days of good weather before we go into hot&humid or tornado mode, or maybe it’s because spending more than an hour outside means my allergies will cause my immune system to self-destruct.
Point is, byebye seasonal affective disorder, hello a month straight of chilling outside. The music festival Popadelica wrote in a recent Facebook status, “Förresten, sa vi att vi bokat solen till Popadelica 2011 också? Det har vi.” (“Btw, did we mention we’ve booked the sun for Popadelica 2011? Well we did.”) NICE.
Only bummed that I’m leaving too soon for midsommar and the midnight sun…
Last Thursday, in order to celebrate a quarter-year spent in Sweden, the coming of spring, and my general aversion to having a lot of hair, I decided to go on a haircutting adventure.
I bought a couple hair magazines, looking for short, Swedish-looking styles, and the one that kept recurring was some variety of this Robyn look. Or this one. Sounds good, I thought.
No one I knew had any salon recommendations in Lund, so I sort of randomly chose Klipphuset downtown.
My hairdresser was a middle-aged woman who really didn’t speak English (everyone in Lund speaks perfect English…except for my hairdresser!) So, the number of ways I could describe what I wanted was rather limited. I could basically say:
- I want it very different
- I want it like these pictures
- I am sick of having lots of hair
She was very skeptical of my haircut desires. She kept being like “your hair is so thick, it will end up SO short and SO manly…”
She then tried to get me to pick a different hairstyle and I kind of sat there awkwardly for a while, not choosing one. She was like “Do you want to think about it and come back?” At which point I said something to the effect of “No. I want a haircut now, short is ok and manly is ok.” And then she sighed and said “Okay, well, we’ll try.”
Then, halfway through the haircut, she started getting really into it, and was all, “what if we do this side really short and leave this side long, it’ll be asymmetrical!” Oh, NOW you get into it?! Well, whatever, I think she succeeded.
And +1 language accomplishment — definitely one of the first times I felt like “Phew, good thing I’ve been vaguely learning Swedish for the past three months.”
Before:
After:
(apologies for inconsistency of mirror vs. non-mirror pics)
In a particularly deep conversation last night with a Swede and a Canadian, we realized Swedish kitchens (especially in student korridors) have several things that are incredibly useful, but we don’t really have back in North America.
1. The knife magnet
So much easier than those stupid things you stick the knives in and then can’t see their relative size and/or if they’re serrated… magnets for knives appear to be more common here.
2. The cheese slicer
EVERY kitchen has not one, but MANY cheese slicers. Giant blocks of cheese? No problem, still make a convenient snack. No knives and cutting boards to mess around with. Swedish friend was astounded we don’t have these. HOW DO WE SLICE CHEESE!?? It’s a hard life in the US.
Because festing is an important part of Swedish culture. Almost, but not quite, as important as IKEA. But you don’t have to choose, since Swedes get to fest right in their IKEA-decked-out kitchens.
This may be a good time to bring up the fact that there will, in fact, be a fest in MY korridor tonight. The very disco ball pictured above will be there. So should you. I’ll be there around 11 maybe, but you can text me. If you bring any cheese, you’ll be all set.
I was going to tell you guys all about how I went to Hamlet’s Castle (Kronborg, in Helsingør, across the water in Denmark), but Joanna who also writes for Lundagård totally stole my thunder with her post A Reminder of the Old Days. I did the exact same trip (though it was less icy when I went), and all I have to say about Hamlet is that he must’ve had some killer parties in that ballroom of his.
However, I did find another major Scandinavian attraction that’s almost as good: a candy store.
Behold:
Since I haven’t explained, candy in Sweden is definitely a “thing”. Every grocery store, 7-11, or other convenience store has an entire aisle devoted to candy in bins that you scoop out. I think there’s actually two candy aisles in the smallish ICA I shop at. You get a bag and buy it by weight. It’s cheap, and grown adults can often be seen doing this too, not just children.
Here’s what the candy bags from ICA look like:
And one might choose an assortment like this:
However, the candy store pictured above puts ICA and 7-11 to shame. There’s 3 huge rows of lösgodis (the candy in bins), as well as packaged candy.
Check out that entire WALL of bilar in the background:
(Bilar, for those of you who don’t know, is Sweden’s best-selling car. Even more popular than Volvo:)
I can’t really offer advice on WHICH candy to buy — typically I put in just one or two pieces of anything that looks mildly appetizing into my bag (lösgodis is very low-risk, it’s the speed-dating of candy…) and 80% turns out to be edible, and 20% turns out disgusting (to me, anyway. Swedes are really into licorice and it has a tendency to pop up when you least expect it).
For more advanced blogging about lösgodis and why you eat candy on Saturdays check out thesetwo posts on Welcome to Sweden.
No color-changing lights? The packaged candy feels ignored
For all I know, this is an average everyday candy store in Sweden, but to my untrained American eye, it was like walking into Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory.
They also have a whole row of kitschy toy-like candy (think 1000 variations on ring-pops).
They also sell cigarettes.
How to find this magical place:
The store is called “Candy People” and located at Bankgatan 6 (downtown). Walk in, grab a bag and a plastic shovel. Thank me for your next sugar rush.
I am in love and I can’t not tell the world. About these scones.
Every Tuesday afternoon, at Sydskånska, there is a wonderful event called “Teasdag” — basically a very cozy cafe where you drink tea, eat snacks/desserts, and hang out and talk with your friends (aka fika). “Teasdag” is a play on the word “Tisdag” (“Tuesday” in Swedish). Tea + Tuesday. Anyway.
Teasdag is probably my favorite weekly event at a nation. It’s also the only one I can think of where no one is either drunk (pubs, clubs) or hung over (rehab/Sunday brunch).
But all the aforementioned things explain only about half of why Teasdag is magical. The other half, is the SCONES.
Seriously, these are the best scones I think I have ever had. They are the perfect texture – slightly browned and crispy on the outside, and fluffy on the inside. They come with raspberry jam, marmalade, and a milky/creamy dip. With a cup of rooibos or lapsang tea, I am floating on a cloud made of happiness and fika.
Sydskånska, you really outdid yourselves with these. The only drawback? Knowing the BEST SCONES EVER are only available once a week, at Teasdag. I’m already dreading the inevitable withdrawl when I return home. But for now, if it’s Tuesday, you know where I’ll be.
The geography of Lund is pretty much like the geography of Champaign-Urbana: really flat. There is a slight hill to the town, where the university is north and up, and downtown is south and downhill (just like Santa Cruz, actually)… not a lot of good views.
But apparently, there is ONE hill. According to Wikipedia, it’s called Sankt Hans Hill. Of course, it’s fake (a former dump). My friend Philip showed me this place on Sunday, which was conveniently the only clear day this month, meaning we actually had a view!
Let’s check it out. Pretend you’re me, and we will face northish, and turn counterclockwise in a circle.
To the north, you can see a bunch of cute, middle-class houses with red roofs.
Turn west, and there’s wind turbines, and a train passing by every once in a while.
If you start facing southwest, you can actually see all the way to Malmö (okay, it’s not actually very far away) and its iconic Turning Torso.
Continuing, we can see the Lund Cathedral with the double-towers (our landmark, I suppose), which is where downtown starts.
Turning toward the east, we can see school. The LTH observatory is sort of the north end of campus, but since it’s the technical school that’s sorta home base for me.
And finally, turning once more and completing the circle, we see the most important landmark of them all….McDonalds. No, I haven’t been there.
It’s here if you want to find it! (the HILL, not McDonalds…come on now, guys)
Although the nations are the core of the Lund party scene, there is one other equally important form of party to understand: the Korridor Party. And finally, the “pre-party”, its customs, and its relationship to both nation parties and korridor parties.
Korridor Parties
Korridor parties are a result of the logistics of most Lund student housing. Almost every student lives in a “korridor,” which is a single hallway with rooms on either side (yes, a corridor) and a shared kitchen at the end. Korridors have somewhere between 8 and 15 rooms along them, and while everyone may not know one another, you at least run into almost everyone in the kitchen at some point. Kitchen duties are also divided up in some way – in my korridor, there are 2 kitchen bitches per week, who have to make sure the dishes are put away, trash is taken out, etc., and each person does this for 2 weeks throughout the semester.
So a korridor is in some sense a community. Sometimes, the korridor wants to throw a party, either as a group, or just because one or two people feel like having a party at their place. In that case, the kitchen becomes the party zone, since it has enough room to crowd and dance, and because it is accessible to everyone (if you partied in one person’s room, it may be unclear as to whether new people were invited). Most korridors seem to have a stereo system and a TV in their kitchen as well. Ours has a disco ball (super necessary). At least one person’s room (usually the host of the korridor party) leaves their room open so that guests can use their bathroom.
Unfortunately, I don’t have any fabulously wild korridor party pictures (though some of them can get pretty ridiculous), but here’s a very small one from a few weeks ago in Sparta B:
Because korridors are completely under the control of the residents, they can of course go much longer into the night than nations (which usually end around 2), at which point sometimes the party moves into one person’s room for chilling, dancing, etc. But korridor parties can also be incredibly short — 60 people piling into the kitchen, partying from 7-9 PM, and then vanishing. This usually happens when a korridor party is also a pre-party.
Pre-parties
Pre-parties are the Lund equivalent of pre-gaming, but they are a bit more formal than what we do in the US. Pre-parties can be held in a korridor or someone’s room depending on how large the group is — which can be anywhere from 3 to 60+ people. Afterwards, you usually head out to a nation (though sometimes you just go to a different korridor party). I suppose the original idea behind both practices is to drink before you go out to avoid expensive club drink prices. Here are the main differences I notice between pre-parties in Lund and the US:
• Unlike American pre-gaming, pre-parties usually have their own Facebook events
• EVERY party here has a set of pre-parties, whereas it is most certainly optional in the US
• The ending time of a pre-party is very definite. If you are going to VGs on Wednesday, the pre-party ends around 9:15 or 9:30, and everyone is GONE. Do NOT try to go to a pre-party at 9, people will give you weird looks. It’s usually a bit more challenging to kick everyone out of your place in the US.
• You are, on special occasions, allowed to pre-party for pubs, which is a little ridiculous since pubs start at 6 or 7. I think the earliest party I went to here started at 4:30. But since it’s Sweden, it was long past sundown, which is I suppose the international GO signal for party.
Korridor Party Locations
Most korridor parties seem to occur in the Sparta and Delphi residences, because they are very large, and have the kitchen/korridor style. There are occasionally korridor parties at Klostergården, but each resident has his/her own kitchens, so the korridors there tend not to be as social. Östra Torn residences are pretty much individual apartments, and there isn’t even really a korridor, and that covers all the residences I have been to personally. Sparta seems to have the most — you can sort of just wander around on any given Wednesday – Saturday night and find several korridor parties going on. We also have a lot of international students, who are some of the biggest korridor partiers.
Korridor Party Economics
People must bring their own drinks to all pre-parties, korridor parties, etc. (basically, anything that isn’t a nation). There are often snacks too, usually provided by the party-thrower. So the drink and food costs are minimized, but there is one cost that is externalized by the partygoers – cleanup. Nation parties cost more to go to, but you can effectively trash the nation and it’s up to the nation to clean up. If you throw a korridor party, it’s up to you, and usually, the last thing you feel like doing the morning after throwing a party is wading through a trashed kitchen to get to your Yoggi and Müsli.
Got my A machines in the table
Got my B machines in the drawer
but WHERE IS ERIC!??!
This weekend I made my first attempt at travel within Europe. The plan was to take a nice easy trip to Copenhagen, which is less than an hour away by train, see a Sleigh Bells concert, and spend Sunday exploring the city in daylight. It turned out to be a bit more of an adventure than we planned.
Part 1: Leaving Lund and Losing Eric
Alex, Josh, Eric, and I walked down to the Lund train station and bought train tickets. The train arrived when everyone except Alex and Eric had finished purchasing tickets, so they rushed through ticket purchase, and made their way over to the open doors where Josh and I were standing. The conductor’s bell was ringing, and Alex and Eric rushed towards the door. Alex made it on board – and then the doors closed, literally right in Eric’s face. It was a moment of comedic genius like I have never before seen in real life.
Josh tried to push the doors back open, I was pressing all the random colored buttons by the door, and Alex was running through the train to try and find the conductor. The train sat in place for about 10 seconds, we unable to get out, and Eric unable to get in, and just staring at each other and laughing uncontrollably (those of us inside the train, anyway).
We were pounding on the door and shouting “ERIC!!! ERIC!!!” and in general making a huge scene… the weird part was that everyone else in the train AND on the train platform was staring, and laughing uncontrollably too – audience-at-a-standup-comedy-show laughing too, no stifled chuckling here.
And when the train pulled away and we calmed down, we had to face the reality that Eric didn’t know exactly where we were going… and his phone had no minutes.
Survivors of the train incident
Crossing the water over to Copenhagen
Part 2: Accidental Eric Recovery
We hung out in the Copenhagen H station for about an hour, standing on various platforms, hoping to see Eric. No luck. Eventually, we went up to the McDonalds in the station to get Wifi and found some Facebook messages from Eric, that he had already arrived in Copenhagen, and a cab driver had screwed him over and taken him to the wrong place on purpose. Oops. We tried to come up with a game plan that would involve Eric taking a cab to meet us later and us paying the cab. We left the station…. and 15 minutes later ran into Eric on a street corner. Problem solved by telepathy!!
Part 3: Onto the concert
We found some food and got ready for the show. Sleigh Bells was playing at a venue called Loppen in the heart of Christiania, the hippie/druggie neighborhood in Copenhagen. There was lots of graffiti everywhere and your occasional trash-can fire, but we made it to the show without being offered drugs or being too sketched out, and everyone at the show was a college student from DTU or other Copenhagen schools anyway.
I have no clue what the opening band was called, but they were pretty good, and a lot like Sleigh Bells actually. The lead singer had a completely see-through shirt, but luckily my camera never decided to focus properly on her, so my photos amazingly turned out PG.
And finally… SLEIGH BELLS!
The show was rockin’ and Miss Sleigh Bells herself stood 3 feet in front of us the whole time, in her custom jersey and her white skull-covered nopants. The above picture is about the farthest she ever strayed.
Sleigh Bells’ noise pop grittiness was only enhanced by being right up in the action – so while their performance didn’t deviate much from the album versions, the album versions aren’t missing much – just the volume, the makeup, and the other 150 people jumping up and down with you and screaming, of course.
They waited until towards the end to play their best song (Rill Rill), but the entire show was sorta like being inside the last 30 seconds of the video for Infinity Guitars:
They ended their set promptly without encore, and then the house music turned back up and we kept dancing for an hour or so, met a bunch of random people, and finally left the club only to get lost for at least another hour on one of those great nighttime city adventures. The man with the dog who gave us directions but spoke no English may have been the best. I led our group to the train station McDonalds again that we had grown so fond of, where we way-past-midnight snacked with about 100 other Danes (the McDonalds was debatably more crowded than the show). I would comment on regional McDonalds differences, but I don’t really go to McDonalds in the US so I dunno. If I had to guess though, they probably don’t have Toblerone mcflurries in the US though (reported by Josh to not be very good, but I’m not sure I believe that).
Part 3: Rules of Copenhagen Architecture
The next day we explored Copenhagen by daylight. It’s gorgeous! Everything is so majestic and huge. We started by heading to Strøget, the big shopping street, and getting some danishes, coffee, and wifi at a hip looking cafe.
On the way, we discovered the rules of Copenhagen architecture:
1. Steeples everywhere.
2. When you can’t have a steeple, have a crown.
3. When in doubt, put horses or other creatures on the very top of whatever.
4. Lots of horse statues.
Rule 1 – You thought it’d be an alley, but no, steeple.
Rule 2
Rule 3
Rule 4
Onto the canals, also plentiful and quite nice.
I love these multi-colored buildings. So adorable.
Someone had a bad day.
But the boats are cool.
Seriously, it’s just a streetlight? Is this really necessary? Rule 3.
Part 4: The Little Mermaid
This is one of those Famous Copenhagen Things so we did it. It was okay, but full of tourists, and most importantly, the guidebooks leave out one key part of this experience… the giant factory in the background. See:
The version you see in guidebooks…
vs. what it’s treally like – groups of tourists standing in front, and giant factory.
Part 5: Carlsberg Brewery: Probably the best playgrounds in the world
We then crossed the city west on foot towards the Carlsberg Brewery. It was quite a long walk, but a good one to see a large chunk of the city. When we arrived at the brewery, we expected to find a visitors’ entrance or something of that sort. Instead what we found was a series of some of the most dangerous playgrounds I have ever seen, leading up to the entrance of the brewery.
It was as if they lured us in with pieces of candy on the ground. What kind of message they are trying to send us by putting this next to a brewery, I don’t really want to think about. Law suit waiting to happen?
Playground 1 was a forrest of ropes hanging from the ceiling that you tie yourself to make swings. MOST FUN THING POSSIBLY IN THE WORLD.
Playground 2 was tetherball, hammocks, and giant metal platforms on springs…
There was a third playground filled with square shaped bars to climb on, but they looked too cold to climb on. After all this, the brewery itself was a little underwhelming, though the kaffebar at the top did have foosball.
Afterwards we were pretty exhausted. We walked back to the train station and headed home, too tired to even carry on a conversation. Exploring cities is exhausting! This time, we made sure not to lose Eric.
Reflections on Denmark
It’s interesting how foreign Copenhagen felt, despite the fact that I’ve only been in Sweden a couple of weeks, and still know very little Swedish. But Danish is just different enough that I was once again disoriented (I’m now used to all the streets ending in “gatan” and “vägen”, not “gade”!). Also, some differences are attributable to small town vs. big city differences. Here’s what I noticed:
- Everything is REALLY EXPENSIVE in Copenhagen. People said Sweden would be expensive, but really it hasn’t been too bad. But we had to look long and hard to find ANY meals in Copenhagen less than $20. Even $40 seemed to be normal, non-fancy places. Probably Lund is just cheap because it’s a college town, but the difference was astounding.
- Drivers will kill you. In Lund, the cars all stop for you, the trucks stop for you, the buses even stop for you if you decide to step out in front of them in the middle of the street. Which is nice, since at home they stop around 50% of the time, so you have to do that awkward dance of figuring out if they are going to stop or not. If you’re in Lund, the answer is they WILL stop. If you’re in Copenhagen, they WILL kill you. We were almost killed at least like 10 times on this trip, when we had the right of way, but cars and buses just go out of their way to find and destroy you.
- The average Copenhagen resident has an average of 2.8 more piercings than the average Lund-er. There was a grunge factor that just isn’t there in Lund, where everyone is much more Scandinavian mainstream looking. I’m pretty sure Copenhagen had the first dreadlocks I’ve seen since arriving in Scandinavia.
- Even though Copenhagen is less than an hour away, a trip there can still be wild, crazy, and adventurous. Especially if you lose your friend and cannot communicate! Looking forward to attempting somewhere ACTUALLY adventurous and seeing what happens.
The night started with a sittning at Krischansta nation. A sittning is apparently the traditional Swedish way to party – you sit at a really long table and eat and drink and sing — they give you a song book with song lyrics in it, and there’s a person in charge of telling people when to sing. Normally all the singing would be Swedish, but this was a sittning organized by the Erasmus Student Network, so it was only for foreigners and most of the songs were English (and a few various other languages).
Many of the songs, however, were extremely dirty. And involved sexual positions/preferences of either girls, or worse, cartoon characters (I know way too much about the private life of Yoggi Bear now).
Our table:
Oscar was in charge of leading the singing:
Other side of the table:
Sometimes we had to stand on our chairs while singing too:
After the sittning was over, they cleared out the tables to make room for the dancefloor and the Kristchansta pub/club started. It looked like this:
Part 2: Awkward dancing and the mystery of the disappearing iPhone
Now, I’ve been to a ton of club nights so far. Usually I don’t have a huge problem with unwanted advances, and if you’re not up for meeting new people it’s pretty easy to stick with your friends (due to the non-grinding rule of swedish dancing). But for some reason, tonight, several guys of various nationalities decided with great certainty that I was highly interested in dancing with them for extended periods of time. I’m really not sure where they got this from — probably the lack of eye contact. After awkward dancing encounter #2 or so, I realized my phone was gone!!! DISASTER!!! I figured it had fallen out of my pocket on the dancefloor and that someone would eventually return it to one of the bars or counters (or that it would be trampled, but I didn’t see any iPhone crumbs on the ground).
So phoneless and avoiding a large percentage of the attendees at this club, at some point I went to the bathroom just to take a breather.
Part 3: Strange Bathroom Encounter
The girls’ bathroom had 4 stalls, and 2 sinks. When I walked in, there were about 5 girls standing in front of the mirror doing makeup or washing hands, and all the stalls were full. After about 30 seconds, two guys walked out of two of the stalls simultaneously. People here apparently don’t take the gender segregation of bathrooms very seriously. Actually, there seem to be hardly any bathrooms that are even separated by genders — most bathrooms are just 1 room for each toilet/sink anyway, but I’ve seen some larger bathrooms with stalls that are also coed. Anyway, I digress.
So the dudes walk out of the stalls, and despite all the other people there (maybe it’s because I was giving them a weird look) they started talking specifically to me. Our conversation went like this. My commentary in italics.
One of the Dudes: Hej. Me: Hej…? (but probably it was actually “hey” since I have an American accent) Dude: Whatcha doing? Me: Umm… just chillin’, I guess Dude: Who just chills in the bathroom?? (so first they come into MY bathroom and then question ME what I’m doing there? Do not understand) Me: I dunno, it happens. Dude: I’m a guy so I don’t really understand the concept of “just chillin’” in the bathroom (I’m pretty sure that by having this conversation with me they were, in fact, “chillin’ in the bathroom”)
*Awkward pause where we stare at each other* Dudes: Well, see ya. Me: Bye…?
Then they left.
Part 4: Meeting Swedes and the great iPhone search
If this night is sounding just full of awkward, here’s the part where it takes a turn for the slightly better. I found some cool Swedish people to talk to while I waited for the club to end. Once the lights went on, I asked everyone working at the pub/club/door to look for this phone, and after about 15 minutes, someone said they’d found it! She had seen it on the dancefloor, taken it into the kitchen, but then claimed it had disappeared once more. She did eventually recover my phone though, for which I was quite grateful. I worked hard to get that thing to work here.
Part 5: Chili-chocolate ice cream
This was probably the most successful part of the night. Ian and Jack walked me back to Sparta in exchange for snacks. My favorite Swedish ice cream flavor, chili-choklad, was involved. It’s mostly just chocolate ice cream but then you occasionally get a spicy piece of chili pepper. I swear it’s better than it sounds.
And proof that my korridor keeps its countertops clean and shiny:
A lot of time in Lund is spent dancing. As someone who enjoys dancing in America, the first night dancing here in Sweden came as a bit of a (culture) shock to myself and the other Americans I was with. Other nights out have confirmed the following difference between Swedish and American dancing.
Rule 1: Dance in Circular Formations
This can best be illustrated by a birds-eye view diagram of a dancefloor. American dancefloors tend to be filled with grinding couples, and the occasional pair of girls who are friends and are either creeped out by all the other guys in the venue or are trying to impress someone.
In contrast, Swedish dancefloors are divided up into circles of dancing people.
Rule 2: No Grinding; Dance with your Arms
It might sound crazy, but they actually have different dance… moves here. As in, if you just shake your hips from side to side for three hours, people will think you DON’T KNOW HOW TO DANCE (everyone’s biggest fear, of course). Lots of fist pumping, jumping, headbanging, and there is no significant difference between guys’ dance moves and girls’ (how progressive, Sweden, how progressive).
You also have to dance really low, squatting on the ground, while the music builds, and then jump up at the appropriate time when the bass comes in (which happens roughly 16 measures later than it would in American remixes, so I always screw this part up too).
Grinding is nonexistent. Try it and you will freak out Scandinavia.
Rule 3: Always Make Eye Contact with your Dance Partner
Like rule 2, this is another rule that’s the polar opposite of the rules in the states. I mean, who makes eye contact with their dance partner in American clubs? Actually, in America, it’s best not to look at who you’re dancing with at all. Half the time they come up behind you and you just have to look at your friend who will make a disgusted face or a happy face, depending on how ugly your new dance partner is.
However, in SWEDEN… you must maintain eye contact at all times. At first, I found this pretty unnerving. Actually, I still do. It’s weird! In general, the things that are considered intimate here and in the US seem to be exact opposites: Americans are fine with grinding and being grabbed in inappropriate places, because it doesn’t seem all that intimate. But eye contact, and being touched on the shoulder, or maybe the leg, are weirdly personal to me, yet the norm here.
Rule 4: Change Dance Partners Every 30 Seconds
Remember those eye-contact dance partners you don’t actually touch except on the shoulder? Make sure to mix it up, constantly. Even couples kinda keep their distance. Flip side? It’s easy to accidentally end up dancing with someone else’s SO. Watch out for that
Rule 5: Pushing and Shoving is OK
Those circles of dancers are also constantly changing. Shoving people out of the way happens often (the bar area is especially dangerous), but I have yet to see any legitimate anger – no barfights. And ladies, you can push and shove just as much as your male counterparts. Remember, this is Sweden. EQUALITY!
Rule 6: Dancing with someone of the same sex is OK…if you’re a guy
Another one where the rule is exactly opposite of the US. Bromancin’ dude couples are common (and the one case in which grinding seems to be acceptable). Girls don’t dance with girls as much, at least not one-on-one.
Rule 7: Know Every Robyn Lyric
Robyn, Sweden’s #1 pop star, is indisputably important. She doesn’t seem to be polarizing like Lady Gaga or Koda Kumi characters. I think she’s bigger than Pippi Longstocking. Know all her songs. They will be played.
The good news is, other than every Robyn song, there are only about five songs you need to know, because every club is going to play the same ones over and over and over and over. I am Waka Waka-ed out like you won’t believe. For this purpose, I’m keeping a playlist of songs that are overplayed in Swedish clubs while I’m here. Enjoy! You must listen to Duck Sauce at least 5 times in the same evening to get the full Swedish effect.
Rule 8: Dance Forever
This last one is a good rule of thumb. I have already danced here more than an entire normal semester. The bottom of my feet are getting red and tough from dancing — I guess I’m just an American n00b.
Alright, peace all! Classes are starting up, so perhaps something a bit more academic? I think there are at least 2 more installments left in the Swedish Party Culture series, so we’ll see. Hej då!
Lund Universitet is a party school that has its act together.
In many ways, Lund is a lot like home: big school in a small college town, flat, technical/innovation focus (though not nearly as computery as home), lots of international students… but the way they’ve worked out the party scene is incredibly organized and, well, seems to work. Here’s a rundown, and key terminology for later when I’m referring to “party @ nation X” etc.
Nations
Nations are the core of Lund social life. Think of them as a cross between frats, and the Harry Potter house system. Instead of 4 houses, there’s 13, and you get to be the sorting hat. Each of them is named after some region of Sweden (Lunds, Malmö, Göteborg, etc.) Each has their own building, usually with some housing in it (for some, but definitely not all members of the nation) and an area or two to hold events, mostly pubs and clubs (see below). All of the nations are connected under one umbrella organization, Studentlund, affiliated with the school. Most importantly, if you join any ONE of the nations, you are allowed to go to parties of any other nation if you show your nations card (except one nation, Smålands, which apparently doesn’t play with others. People say they’re also the anarchist group. Anyway…)
It is vitally important to join a nation as soon as possible. For the first week of the semester, you can get into parties if you present an ID and your letter of acceptance, but after week 1, you have to show your student card, and a receipt that you’ve joined a nation, while you wait for your nation card to come in the mail.
This semester is certainly the first time I ran around on a Friday or Saturday night waving my university acceptance letter at bouncers.
Nations seem to be entirely student-run, despite their affiliation with the school. Some nations are really big – thousands of students – so I imagine running them is quite a bit of work. In fact, some students who are nation leaders even take off a year from classes JUST to run their nation (Whoa! That might have been helpful for running the ACM Conference or something…) Student workers are also the bartenders, DJs, servers, waiters, and cooks for all of the nation events.
The nations completely seem to run the nightlife of this town. Partially because of the by-students-for-students aspect of it, but also because the prices at nation events are much lower than going to “real” restaurants, bars, or clubs (I doubt there are any real clubs here besides nations, actually). Food at a pub goes for ~45 SEK ($7) whereas in a restaurant you’ll have a hard time finding a meal for less than twice that, with the exception of falafel & pizza (there’s pretty much a falafel/pizza place on every corner here) which aren’t that expensive. Drinks are also around 1/2 or 1/3 of the price as a normal cafe/restaurant.
Pubs
Pretty much every nation holds a pub at least once a week. You can come and eat food, and although there’s usually only 1 or 2 choices of what to eat, I think they tend to post what they’re serving online ahead of time. On Thursday at Sydskånska they had veggie or meat lasagna, for example, and on Friday at Kalmar the choices were Fish n’ Chips or Hamburgers. Sometimes there’s live music (especially at Sydskånska, since they are the music-themed nation) but the key element seems to be candlelit dinners with your friends. I’m skeptical of the safety of having a bunch of people drinking right next to candles, but it is kind of cozy.
Sydskånska’s pub on Thursday:
They had a DJ for the first part of the evening:
Then this girl on a keyboard started playing. She was pretty good. Think Swedish Regina or Kate Nash.
Kalmar nation’s pub on Friday with my Mentor Group:
Me included this time:
Clubs
Most, but not all nations hold clubs, often in the same room or a neighboring room to their clubs. There’s a bar or two, and of course djs and LOTS OF DANCING. There is a kinda steep cover, about 60 SEK, but coat check is free (and pretty much mandatory), and I have to say I appreciate not getting my coat stolen or freezing. Lights, dancing, mayhem. I think “Rules of Swedish Dancing” deserves its own post so stay tuned for that, but there is an AWFUL LOT OF DANCING here in Sweden. By the end of week 1, the bottom of my feet were sore from dancing, which has definitely never happened before.
Also, it is noteworthy that while clubs go on in nations (mostly), sometimes there are clubs for random parties in university buildings, such as the welcome party for exchange students which happened in Kårhuset (basically the Lund Technical University Students’ Union building).
Club @ the party I just mentioned:
Club at Helsingkrona nation yesterday (there was a looooong line to get into this one):
Sorry for slight blurriness:
Choosing a Nation
Everyone says it doesn’t matter what nation you join, because of the whole “member of one nation means you can party at all nations” rules. Thus, exchange students tend to be overwhelmed at the range of options. On the second or third day after arrival day, there was an open house in the Kårhuset building where each nation had a booth and could tell you why to join their awesome nation — basically the nations version of Quad Day at UIUC, plus a few other random non-nation student organizations.
I decided to join Sydskånska because they are the music-themed one, so each of their pubs, clubs, and events have a different style of music, so it seemed a bit less generic than the other nations to me. Additionally, it’s very close to my dorm (about a 5-7 minute walk). 90% of exchange students join Västgöta (or VG for short), for no other reason it seems other than that’s the one that all the exchange students join. They have a good club on Wednesday, but I didn’t see any particular reason to join it. Sydskånska people I talked to also seemed pretty cool, and their nation itself had more of the grungy parents’ unfinished basement sorta feel to it than some of the other nations.
My new nation home, Sydskånska, from the outside:
Nations’ Schedule
During the arrival nations “quad day” they also handed out the nation schedule. As you can see, the only sorta dead nights are Sunday and Monday. This school seems pretty seriously devoted to making sure that its students get their partying in.
So here’s some more background scenery to help get oriented to what it’s like in Lund.
It’s a small town, so think Chambana, but where the entire town is oriented at a 45 degree angle, all the streets curve, and they all have the same names except for a couple of letters -> hours of being lost.
Everything is covered in a layer of snow and ice, yet it’s not very cold out. I wore shorts and tights today with sneakers and was comfy. Still haven’t used my hat, or my heavy coat. The high today in Lund was 46°F (8°C) and at home it was 24°F (-4°C).
Every day the sky gets grey and it’s very foggy, so I have a hard time distinguishing when it’s daytime. I assumed that because there is very little sunlight, it would be easy to adjust my body clock to just be awake for all of the sunlight. Not true, because when I wake up and it is anywhere between 9 AM and 2 PM, the color of the sky signals to my body that it is probably around 6 or 7 AM, because the sky at home is that color during that time. Also, since it never gets very bright, I can sleep without the curtains drawn, and still never get woken up because my room is too bright.
Somewhere on my walk through LTH (Lund Technical University). Note the fog and sky color. So cheerful!
Every fourth car (at least) is a Volvo. RIDICULOUSLY SWEDISH.
SOL (Languages & Literature Building) where I have my intro Swedish class.
The classroom itself. Sorry no students, I was sitting towards the front.
Beware of icicles.
One of the intersections where I actually know where I am. Cute graffiti too.
International Building. Pretty epic building – makes me feel special.
Most of the roads I walk on to get to class look like this. Luckily, there don’t ever seem to be cars, except for Volvos parked on the side of the road.
The cathedral – the main landmark on campus, and it’s right where the base of campus meets downtown. If it weren’t so foggy all the time, it’d actually be pretty helpful as far as navigation is concerned!
AF Building where we checked in on arrival day.
I always like this building, but I don’t know what it is.
So Sweden has the reputation of being really clean. I can’t speak for the rest of the country, but on Sunday morning, the ground of this campus has about as many empty alcohol containers as UIUC does. The difference is that here, there’s a larger variety of what drinks end up as trash on the street (it’s not JUST keystone cans), and that sometimes they are almost… artfully arranged, as if someone actually PLACED them there. How…thoughtful? The only thing more disgusting than walking through slush, is the thought that I’m walking through alcoholic slush.
Most importantly, they have dump trucks full of snow (these trucks are NOT, I repeat, NOT, the internet.)
If you want more photos, or to find out what swedish crosswalk signs look like, here’s the rest of the pics.
Stay tuned for nations, korridors, fests, Swedish snackage, and more!
As you may know, I did manage to arrive in Sweden on Tuesday! I have many things to say about my new home, but we’ll get to Dumle, Swedish clubbing, and getting lost in downtown later.
First, my room. I was told I’d be on a corridor with a shared kitchen and bathroom. But surprise! I actually get my own bathroom. The kitchen is shared among roughly 10 people in the corridor, and I’ve met 3 of them so far – a Canadian, a Chilean, an a Swede.
Big, empty room that is surprisingly well lit.
From the other side:
What should I do with all this shelf space? Amount of room in luggage << amount of room in room.
Obligatory toilet shot:
Blanket they sold exchange students on arrival day. IKEA, of course.
I don’t have internet in my room yet (I guess I should work on that) because I suspect the ethernet cable that was left to me in my room doesn’t work (either that or the connection is just broken, or my computer is broken). Aside from not sharing a bathroom, my living place has two other major perks:
- A grocery store is physically attached to it. This means I can buy a warm croissant / other pastry for breakfast on my way out.
- A pizza place/cafe is next to the grocery store.
Also, eating out (at least at the places I’ve gone so far) is not nearly as expensive as people claimed. Around the equivalent of $6 for lunch in various cafes around campus, and paid $10 for a pizza yesterday at the pizza cafe, but shared between two people.
Now, to address the other questions you are surely asking:
How cold is it outside?
Every day so far it’s been exactly freezing, rising slightly over freezing during the day (the snow on the ground gets a bit slushier). There is also zero wind, so walking around for hours outside is completely fine.
How dark is it?
Very. It gets dark around the same time as home (between 4 and 5 PM), but mornings are very different. It starts getting light around 8:30 or so, but gets light so incredibly slowly that it doesn’t really get fully bright out until 11:00. At noon, the sun is only up about a quarter of the way in the sky. Along with jet lag, this means I never have any idea what time it is. But since I don’t REALLY have anything to do yet, does it matter what time it is?
So as much you might love jdramas and nerdy movie reviews done venn diagram style, be warned that for the next six months or so this blog is going to be totally Swedish. I am studying abroad in Sweden from January until May, and before you ask, here is why Sweden:
1) Never lived in Europe –> want to do so
2) Only speak English –> options were narrowed to Denmark, Netherlands, Sweden
3) It was rumored to be the most fun.
And last, but definitely not least…Maja Ivarsson:
My love for The Sounds goes back about three years (and a couple of awesome live performances). They are one of the best bands ever.
I was also aware of a trifecta of Gothenburg-based ambient music, including Air France, Boat Club, and jj. Air France and Boat Club could seriously be the same band, and I can never remember which songs are whose. They are the twins separated at birth of Gothenburg ambient electronic.
And the Teddybears album Soft Machine has been one of my primary workout albums for at least a year or two.
Of course, now that I KNOW I’m going to Sweden, the Swedish music research has begun. Recent discoveries include: Slagsmålsklubben (they win the award for most Swedish-sounding name) Le Sport Robyn (who I knew of, but didn’t bother to listen to until I found out she’s performing here next semester while I am in her home country), Those Dancing Days (cute indie gals) Hello Saferide
Anyway, here’s the playlist, the fruits of my labor. You’re pretty much required to watch at least the first three videos:
Oh and pro tip: watch video 1 of the playlist at 3:24 for pronunciation of “Slagsmålsklubben” and “whoa” in Swedish.
