Studying in Sweden: Lund to Lomma

What? The weekend is already over?! Class five days a week is killing me! It okay though, since I spent my entire weekend either napping, biking, or going out. After class on Friday, I headed into town to see more of campus and pick up some essentials on a lil' shopping spree. (Officially out of warm weather clothes!) Lund has a really nice second hand shop where I scored a rain jacket and the H&M here is only slightly pricier than those at home.

Even though Lund is a small town in comparison to anything I'm used to, I still haven't seen everything. Riding through parts of campus alone really reminded me how incredibly fortunate I am to have the opportunity to receive higher education. Do you know that only about 30% of people living in the US have a bachelors degree?! Anyway, not only do I get to attend college, I get to earn my degree at theee most gorgeous universities. OK, so I'm a little biased, but take a look at these photos:

Kinda have a thing for libraries and this beauty has made it in my top three favorite ones! (Along with Powell, of course)

Afterwords, I met up with a few friends who wanted to purchase wine and such for the night. I haven't really explained much about this part of Sweden. The government is much more socialized here than in the US, not super Russian communist but a lot more is controlled by those in Stockholm. (They have a royal family but according to my roommate they literally do nothing for the country except keep a portion of citizens' taxes). The legal drinking age in Sweden is 18 but you must be 20 to purchase hard liquor (drinks with less than 3.5% alcohol content you can buy at a Swedish super market etc.) There is only one government run store that sells liquor and anything stronger than 3.5% called Systembolaget. So there are no liquor stores, grocery stores, or really anywhere else to purchase alcohol and of course because of the nature of the Swedish government everything is heavily taxed at System. But, hey! All hospital and clinic trips are free--Rebecca even tried it out ha. And actually, all Swedish citizens pay zero tuition to study at Lund or any of the other universities in the country. Crazy! Rumor has it (well, actually, it was basically confirmed by tons of Swedes I've talked to) that a lot of people from southern Sweden drive to Germany just for alcohol since it's so much cheaper there!

Here's a picture I stole off the web of Systembolaget:

That night a bunch of us headed over to Hallands Nation. Here at Lund they don't have fraternities or sororities but instead they have these groups called nations. Its similar to greek life but its not exclusive, theres no bids, etc. Anyone who wants to join can join. Originally, they were all representative of 13 different regions in Sweden, but of course you don't have to be from Skane to join Lunds Nation. I'm not sure if I will end up joining one; for now I just have a guest pass to try it all out. Nation's host their own club nights every weekend so according to my roommates, it can get a little rowdy come September. There's usually a cover charge, cheaper drinks and lots of Swedish dancing (which is mainly fist bumping and messing around; there is literally no grinding anywhere in sight--so refreshing haha). The nations do other things as well, besides making up the majority of student night life. They offer dinners, excursions, and obviously a great way to meet Swedes. Here's the only pic from the night!

Today, I went on another biking adventure! I totally jinxed the weather by telling everyone how warm it is here; sure enough, it started raining. But that didn't stop a group of us from making the 11.6 km ride to Lomma Beach. We went through some more countryside and a nature reserve as we got closer to shore. When we finally found the sand it was a bit windy and cloudy but no rain. Everyone I went with, along with dozens of crazy Swedes, went swimming in the water. According to them, the temperature was nice and the water oddly shallow. From the shore you can see the bridge that connects Sweden to Copenhagen and even spot one of Malmo's iconic buildings. Here's a bunch of pics from today: