Sleepless in Sweden

After my first two days/nights in Sweden, I have only managed to sleep four consecutive hours each night. It's not for lack of trying, either. One night I just didn't fall asleep until nearly 8AM (jet lag, that would be 2AM in NC). The past two nights, however, I have slept fine until 4 or 5 and then had to get up to go to the bathroom at which point I am wide awake for the rest of the morning. I don't get tired much during the day, only around dinner time. I hope this is just a phase that passes once I get to Spain!

Now I will try my best to catch you up on the adventures of Lauren and Cormac:

MONDAY
After finally recovering from my two days of sleep, we had planned to get up on Monday and do some site seeing. Somehow we over slept our alarm, so we didn't get up and around until almost 1:00 PM. We went out and walked around, hoping to buy postcards to send home and pick up a few things for Cormac's room. We went to a few flower shops and picked out some nice potted plant/trees for his room. We found postcards, but as usual, I forgot to ever mail them.

We had a really nice dinner with one of our Swedish friends we met at State last semester this night. He met us at Cormac's and took us to a little cafe-esque place that served really delicous meals. Cormac and Jorgen both ate some sort of "flat-fish" which we guessed was flounder. I, being cautious and picky (all the menus here are in Swedish mind you), went for the chicken tortilla meal (sorry, Emily, no pictures). Jorgen told us about some parks we could visit in Lund, so we made plans to do that on Tuesday.

TUESDAY
Cormac got up and went to class and I did some work tying up loose ends on my travel arrangments to Spain. I booked a hotel room for my first night (the rest of the group is all flying in together) and made a powerpoint presentation for my first Cultural Correspondence Class (CC). For those of you unfamiliar with CC, it's a program that matches US students studying abroad with an elementary school classroom in NC (http://nciwconnections.wikispaces.com/Cultural+Correspondents). I have been matched with a second grade class from Jacksonville.

When Cormac came back from class we went out on bikes (one of his really nice roommates lent us her GIANT bike for the day). We had gotten directions to a park where you can see the Twisted Torso (tallest building in Sweden and an architectural treat) so we set out with high hopes that the fog wouldn't hender our view. Unfortunately you could hardly see Lund, let alone the neighboring city that hosts the Torso. It was really fun to ride bikes (I hadn't done this for several years) and see more of Lund. The park was really pretty and awesome for sledding!

Pole blocked with tires for Sledding Safety

WEDNESDAY
Wednesday we planned to go to one of the museums in Lund before Cormac had class. In true Lauren-Cormac luck, Cormac accidently left the headset we use to talk on Skype plugged in so we never heard the alarm. We didn't make it to the museum but I didn't sleep much the night before so I was okay with staying in bed (where it's warm) for a while. Cormac then went to his class and I logged on to do my CC class. The internet connection here really sucks (but only when you want to use it) so this proved to be kind of a challenge.

After Cormac got home we got ready and went out to eat at Startgort (?), a really cool bar/restaurant off one of the large squares. The food was AWESOME! I had some sort of baked pumpkin, cheese, and mushroom (maybe?) dish with a side of mushroom gnocci. Cormac tried the seafood soup and also loved it. We people watched most of dinner, making up scenerios about the Swedish people we couldn't accurately eavesdrop on (a hobby I am beginning to miss dearly thanks to the language barrier).

Our Cappuccinos

My pumpkin dish
Seafood Soup

After dinner we met up with some of his international friends at the Smalands (a fraternity type organization) pub night. It was really nice to meet some of the people I have been hearing about. When the pub closed we went to his friend's apartment to just hang out for awhile. His friend Michael served us some homemade sushi, which I have been craving (as usual). We all sat up talking for several hours before wandering home to sleep.

THURSDAY
Today we got up early (after a late night, Cormac didn't really want to get up but I had been lying in bed awake for hours) to go to Malmo. Malmo is a city close by (15 minutes by train) which is supposed to have a lot to offer for tourists. We got to the city and realized we had no map or general direction to head in. So we walked where everyone else went. The first square we came to had a really pretty building and an ice skating rink (like a mini-Rockafeller) full of kids.

City Hall and Statue
Ice Rink

We were getting pretty hungry so we eventually landed in China Box where an Asian woman just assumed we wanted chicken and so that's what we got. The portions were huge so we took most of it home for dinner.

Finally we caved and tried to ask for directions. In my guide book it says "Malmo's most well known attraction is the Castle" so we decided this was a good place to start our tour. The problem we soon faced was that not a single local person knew of any castle or palance in Malmo. We were told to just walk through the park, there's some sort of museum or something on the other side, so we gave it a try.

Playground in the Park- note the rolling hills and happy rainbows

It turns out the "castle" is actually just a large museum that takes up what minisucle amount of castle remains.

"Castle"
Cool Kayaker

The museum part was pretty boring because it was all in Swedish. They did have an awesome animal and aquariam exhibit, though. We saw fruit bats eating, a sugar glidder eating, , an electric eel (really ugly), and an smaller version of a capibara. There was a really weird exhibit on Sheep Cruelty that we found kind of ridiculous.

Mesh Butts
A mini Me

Sugar Glider

We got to see the Twisted Torso building and weren't very impressed. It's not nearly as tall as expected and rather bland (all white) looking. A Swede told me that up close it's much more impressive, I'm not so sure.

Twisted Torso

On our way back to the train we decided to try to find City Hall. Turns out we had taken pictures of it earlier without realizing what we were seeing. We wanted to try the bar in the basement (one of Cormac's professors recommended it) but it was closed.

By the time we got back to Lund we were exhausted from walking all day. We took showers, ate dinner, and a twenty minute nap before heading out to an international meet and greet at Cormac's nation (fraternity). Neiter of us really wanted to go since we were so tired but we went in hopes of meeting new people.

At the nation we were assigned to a group of mostly Swedes and one Bulgarian. The Bulgarian was HILARIOUS! He is a graduate student of gender studies and has seen nearly every American TV series known to man. At one point he told me that "You will love Spain because the Spanish are emotional people. American's are really emoitional, too. I love you all because you are so unsophisticated!" He was trying to say that we aren't standoffish but unsophisticated is rather fitting, too.

After the initial meet and greet we were led upstairs to some apartments for more drinking and Guitar Hero. I got to meet several more Swedish girls who had just started classes at Lund. For the most part they wanted to know all about America, and I was just excited that they were speaking English to us!

Around 11:00 we went down to the dance club. Swedes are really entertaining dancers. I believe that Tommy (my brother) would fit right in. Here are a few examples of my favorite dances of the night:

Please notice the kid in the plaid shirt in the center, he danced only with his shoulders like this ALL NIGHT. I guess these slick moves explain the chiseled muscles.

There were also people who managed to turn Techno music into some smooth swing style music?


The Swedish version of the Tom Forbes dance (white and navy stripes)

We decided to leave around midnight because we were beginning to get bored of people watching. On our way out the door we ran into the people we had hung out with the night before so we stayed a little longer and danced. I had to stand in line at the bar where I was harassed for being American for the first time. One kid said to me, "We have an expression, Blame it on America" to which I replied "We say, Blame it on Bush". He found that quite funny and gave me his spot at the bar which was nice. Cormac kept being awkwardly complemented by the same guy over and over for his "nice shirt" (a plaid button down).

When we finally left we were both starving again. Cormac finished his seafood soup from the other night and I treated myself to some M&M-Chocolate-Chip cookies and milk. I fell asleep really quick but woke up around 5AM and haven't fall asleep since (it's now 8:30 so I should get moving on re-packing for Spain)! I have to leave Lund around noon to catch my flight. I'm really sad to leave Cormac so soon but looking forward to Spain!