Getting Lost

Day 2 was off to a pretty great start. I had some Swedish Waffles which were to die for. This picture doesn't even do it justice. Also, Reddi Wip has nothing on the vanilla flavored whipped cream they serve.  

Today is the day that I had my first orientation for studying abroad. I had no sense of direction in trying to find where Lund University Housing is. With a large map in my hand and a few people telling me where to go, I had not made it very far. That is until I met a wonderful lady who had not only walked me to where I needed to be, but was patient enough to stick with me even after one of the wheels to my luggage had popped. Let me explain this...I have blisters the size of Pluto on my hands from trying to lug around my luggage from the hotel to the city center. Lund is not a town with a college in it. Lund is a college with a town in it. 

This school is so massive I am never going to complain about how big my school is ever again. It takes me approximately 30 minutes to get to the center of this school and there are classes and residence halls distributed all around town. Needless to say I am feeling so sore. 

After I had arrived (thank goodness), I had finally met some fellow EAP students. Surprisingly, there were a lot of fellow Slugs ( repping the best mascot out there). I was so relieved that there were finally faces I could talk to and get excited about the whole experience with. We were handed the keys to our mini apartments and left to our own independence from there. (Side note: learned my lesson and took a taxi to my home for the next 6 weeks...there was no way I was making the same mistake again). We put our stuff down and gathered together so that we could tour the town while getting to know one another. We were clearly all very very different people but it helps to have common ground in the sense that we all came to Sweden for one thing: to get an education, but to have an adventure while doing it. 

When we finally settled in our studio flats we realized a couple of things. For one, those stairs you see are no joke and requires a lot of precision and balance for someone who holds no balance. (*cough cough me, so thankful I am on the first floor). Secondly, the rooms are singles with a kitchen, bathroom and shower, desk, and mini dining table and bed, which is pretty awesome. And lastly, we had no sheets. So that brings me on to my IKEA adventure. 

The IKEA trip itself was smooth and the small group of us that went got everything we needed. When we came back, Andy and I (the summer abroad kids) split up with Naomi, Dan and Vincent (the summer/fall study abroad kids), because we were placed in different housing. But of course, Andy and I took the wrong bus and it lead us to its last stop of the day on the opposite side of town. We both wandered around aimlessly for a couple of hours until we found a couple who directed us to a bus stop that would take us back to where we started. Guess we should have walked the first time. 

But I guess the getting lost thing wasn't so bad, seeing as this is the view at the end of the day. Did I mention the sun is still out by like 10 o'clock?