Posts tagged lund

After a long weekend, its time to get back to business :) 

You enjoyed great Easter time with your family and friends and went crazy on the chocolate eggs, but now you have another week ahead of you to plan for….THE SUMMER. Wait, don’t forget we’re talking about “business” in the summer, meaning also a bit of work combined with a bit of fun.

The Association for Latin American Affair (ALAA) in Lund has just the right event for you.

Why stay in Europe when you can go somewhere more exotic for your dream internship? If Latin America sounds as an amazing idea to you as it does to us, then you have to join us this Wednesday in ALAA:

https://www.facebook.com/events/374305959275993/

This is an event organized in association with AIESEC and Svalorna Latin America aiming to help you  get an idea of what this experience can mean to you and also help you get started. Join it for an inspiring discussion, ideas, dreams and opportunities, together with great fika.

See you on Wednesday at 7:00pm in Lunds Samhällsvetarkår (Paradisgatan 5S, 223 50 Lund, Sweden). Bring your friends!

Spring is coming to Lund and the first BBQs have been spotted at Delphi. So, to get you into the BBQ mood, we have prepared an easy and unbelievable delicious BBQ dessert recipe: grilled chocolate bananas.

For 4 persons you need:

• 4 bananas
• 200gr dark chocolate
• vanilla ice cream
• aluminum foil

Here is what you do:

1. slice the banana on one side
2. put small pieces of chocolate into the slice
3. wrap foil around it
4. put on the grill until the skin is black and the chocolate and banana are melted (approx. 8-10min)
5. serve with ice cream
6. enjoy!

If you love music as much as we do, then you shouldn’t miss the Tivoli Fredagsrock. From 13^th of April on, the Tivoli park in Copenhagen is having a concert each Friday night featuring many famous Danish and international singers/bands like “The Storm”, “The Cardigans” and “Medina”, playing everything from Reggae to Pop and Dance. It’s a great way to discover new music and enjoy the Nordic spring/summer. The best thing is: it’s cheap! You only pay the normal entrance for the park: 95 DKK for a day ticket (before 8pm) or 260 DKK for a season ticket. As the Fredagrock concerts are always very popular, make sure to be there in time. We recommend you to spend a nice day at Tivoli and then enjoy the concert in the evening, warm ups start around 19h and the concerts at 22h. Got to Tivoli Fredagsrock to find more information and Spotify playlists. Enjoy!

(Image Tivoli Fredagsrock)

Just when you’re expecting everything to blossom and to have long walks under the sun, it’s actually time for hard studying. Well, to make it easier for you we thought of providing some tips of good study places:

Alpha I building- Scheelevägen 15B- at the ground floor you can find computer rooms, tables which are great for group work, as well as private rooms where you can study in silence. While the group work places also have a view towards a nice garden, the individual rooms are preferred by some students due to their “lack of sky”- you have no connection to the outside, so all that is left is to FOCUS! :) This is of course if you block your Facebook account for a while. What is great is that, compared to the libraries, you can enter the building whenever you want and stay for however long you wish (of course you need your student card with your code to enter the building after certain hours and on weekends)

LUSEM library-Tycho Brahes väg 1,in EC1- this is a good place for group work, at the first floor of the Economy Centre; however, even if there are also many places for individual study, it can get a bit loud sometimes, from the group discussions you can hear from downstairs or from all the students who come to borrow a book. Also, you can only enter the library within certain hors, according to the week day:

Monday:       10:00 - 20:00

Tues - Thurs: 08:15 - 20:00

Friday:           08:15 - 18:00

Saturday:      10:00 - 14:00

LTH Study Centre- John Ericssons väg 4- this is a very good place for both groupwork and individual study. On the ground floor you can find two silent rooms: one to the left you where you are allowed to bring your laptop and one to the right, which is for reading only. However, this place can only be used between certain hours:

Mon-Thurs: 08:00 – 20:00

Friday:         08:00 – 17:00

Saturday:    10:00 – 15:00

Sunday:      10:00 – 16:00

Main Library UB- Helgonabacken- this is a very nice spot for studying either alone or in groups. You can book group rooms easily here: http://www1.ub.lu.se/externt/apps/bokning/meny_eng.cfm

If you get hungry or thirsty in between, you can go downstairs to have a coffee break. In the café they have as well special lunch breaks where you can choose from different salads. The study areas are huge, but you need to be early, because it’s always packed, as it is so popular. Tip: If you have any questions how the whole library system works, just ask at the desk and they will explain you how to search books, journals or articles or how to make requests and gather material.

The Library (incl. Newspaper Reading Room)

Monday-Friday      09.00-19.00
Saturday-Sunday 10.00-15.00

(Limited service Saturday-Sunday)

Special Collections Reading Room and UB-Media

Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday 10.00-17.00, Wednesday 10.00-19.00

For more ideas and details about places to study in Lund, check this: 

Then go Greek!

We recommend you the Mediterranean Restaurant on Grönegatan 2. This is a very cozy place which makes you feel a bit of the Greek friendliness and style. A cozy atmosphere, with nice decorations that enhance the relaxing feeling, is combined with Greek music for the soul to create the perfect momentum for enjoying a good meal.

Each day there is a different Special meal, such as a delicious veal stew with mushrooms and rice, served for 79kr. Today’s special is served from 11:30 to 14:30 and the prices include drinks, bread and coffee.

You can also choose from other Greek dishes, such as: Souvlaki 125kr, Moussaka 115kr, Lamb chops 135kr, Greek salad 80kr, which are priced excluding drinks. 

However, if after reading this you still want to go Greek, but less expensive, than just try to do it yourself. Here’s a great recipe of one of our favorite Greek dishes:

Tzatziki  (4-6 people)

    5 cups plain yogurt
    ½ cucumber 
    4 pressed garlic cloves 
    2 tablespoons olive oil 
    1 tbsp white wine vinegar, 
    white pepper 
    salt Garnish: Black olives Dill

Pour the yogurt in a paper filter a few hours, so that excess run-off. 
Grate the cucumber on a coarse grater and squeeze it well, so you get out excess water. 
Stir in the cucumber into the yogurt. 
Mix in garlic, olive oil and vinegar. 
Season with white pepper and salt. 
Cover the bowl and let stand in refrigerator several hours. 
Garnish with black olives and dill before serving.

Add this and your meal will be a certain success:

Enjoy!

If our post from yesterday about dating Swedish men confused you, today we’re bringing a true story about how hard it is to start a relationship in Sweden. This is the story of a Scottish woman who moved to Sweden and realized that the things she took for granted (such as the men making the first move) are far from happening here. Swedish men are just special, aren’t they?

Hope it will clarify things for you, instead of making them even more blurry. So girls, take the first step, cause even if you think it’ll kill you to try, it might actually lead to a beautiful love story. Guys, if you’re tired of waiting for the international women to get you, just man up and make the first step. I think it’s actually pretty exciting. So…it goes like this:

“I don’t expect very much from men. I’m quite capable of supporting myself. In my first seven months in Stockholm I moved, dragging cases, boxes, a little cart from IKEA and a myriad of ICA bags no less than eight times, all on my ownsome. I wield a mean electric drill, can change a tire and I laugh in the face of complicated tax returns. However.

I expect them to seduce me.

It’s only fair. We have to go through childbirth for heaven’s sake, surely the excruciating agony and inside-churning terror of going in for that first kiss when there is no guarantee that the kiss-ee won’t respond with “urgh, what are you doing?!” balances the scales?

Further, it’s a matter of clarity. When the accepted convention is that the man will make the moves (albeit with plenty of ever so subtle encouragement), if he does not do so, it is a reasonable assumption that he isn’t interested and you can go along your merry way.There is no such clarity here in Sweden.

There is a boy I like. We meet for coffee on a fairly regular basis. There is often encouraging body language (mirroring, leaning towards one another, occasional brushes of knees under the table that very nearly make my head explode), and our text-banter is the stuff of legend. However. There has been, as yet, no attempt from him to get to know me better. You know, nakedly. So I figured that he was, for unfathomable reasons, immune to my charms and put the whole thing down to a friend situation, albeit with the occasional risk of head-explosion.

Until, I happened to describe our most recent coffee to a Swedish friend who promptly diagnosed that he is interested, and waiting for me to make a move. Me to make a move! I never heard of such a thing. Not least as, how am I expected to go in for a snog with someone who is practically a foot taller than me? I will definitely lose the advantage of seductive surprise if I start carrying a crate around, and I am almost certain that a flying leap will not end well. So we’re stuck.

On the other hand, recently I went to the cinema with a friend. There’s never been anything that I would describe as a flirtatious frisson between us, so when he asked me to see a film, I happily wandered along wearing a big woolly jumper and glasses. At the end of the evening, he walked me home and said something to the effect of “good date, let’s do it again sometime.” What? Date?! But I’m wearing a big woolly jumper and glasses! Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a false eyelashes and Wonderbra kind of girl, but the poor chap deserved better than a big woolly jumper and glasses. If only I had realised.

To be fair, whether or not a man is interested is always something of a mystery; but when there are certain conventions in place, you’ve got at least a rough map with which to navigate those complicated waters towards true lurve. I don’t mind going Dutch, but I do miss that clear signal, if he reaches for the bill, that he considers it to be a date. If there are any such conventions in Sweden I have yet to discover them, so I sit in coffee shops, trying to stop my head from exploding, wondering if equality in matters of getting to know one another nakedly is all it’s cracked up to be?”

By Claire Duffy- http://yourlivingcity.com/stockholm-guide/dating-sweden/

There are various numbers floating around the web for how much you have to spend when studying in Lund. However, these seem to be calculated by non-students. So here comes the (=our) truth:

• Rent: SEK 3,500 – SEK 4,000
• Grocery: SEK 1,000
• Going out: SEK 1,000
• Travel: SEK 1,000
• Shopping: SEK 1,000
• Books: SEK 500
• Leisure: SEK 500
• Phone: SEK 100
• Miscellaneous: SEK 500
• Total: SEK 9,100 (~€ 1,000; US$ 1,400; GBP 850)

Rent: Sorry, but this is the amount you realistically have to spend on rent unless you want to share a room, live in a cellar or sleep on a park bench… See our post about accommodation for some tips on how to find the perfect accommodation. Tip: save some money by renting out your room during exam time, you will be sleeping in the library anyways ;)

Grocery: Unless you want to live off water, knäckebröd and pasta, you have to spend a little more than you are probably used to on food in Sweden. To save money, go to cheap stores like Netto, Lidl or Willie’s for your basic groceries. Also, you can buy family sized packages (e.g. 1kg of cheese, 5 packages of Knäckebröd or 1kg of Kötbullar) to save some money… just share with friends or freeze part it.

Going out: Nothing is cheap in Sweden, but going out is especially expensive. Try to go to the nations instead of bars and clubs. If you need a venue change, visit Herkules on Wednesday (free entrance and three beers for SEK 99!). You can also try to sneak in your own alcohol, but that will probably get you kicked out.

Travel: This is a part of the budget many underestimate. But there are so many places to visit around Lund (Copenhagen, Malmö, Göteborg etc.) that you will probably spend quite a lot on travel. Also, during the winter you might want to use the bus which is already around SEK 500 per month.

Shopping: Lund is a small town and you will most likely pass by H&M, Gina Tricot and Vero Moda many times a week… Also, you will probably want to buy some Swedish souvenirs. Just don’t forget that you have to bring everything back home!

Books: For most students, books are an issue every second months as a new period starts. Try to buy your books used, e.g. at Lundaböcker, ebay or amazon.co.uk/ amazon.de. Also, buy them as early as possible as all your class mates will also be looking for them. When you don’t need books, you will still spend a lot of money on printing out articles and other university related stuff.

Leisure: Plan to spend some money on other activities, e.g. fika, sauna, ice hockey games, eating out etc.

Phone: Having a phone is one of the less expensive things in Sweden. If you have comviq, you can top up your phone with SEK 75 each month to get free calls and texts to other comviq users. For an additional SEK 19 you get 0,2 GB Internet.

Miscellaneous: This includes stuff like bike repairs, cough medicine, gym membership etc.

Of course, this number will be different for everybody depending on your spending habits. Some students might be able to survive with as little as SEK 6,000. However, in order to be able to make the most out of your stay in Sweden, make sure you have sufficient funds before getting here.

Did we forget something?

One of the many advantages of living in Lund is the proximity of Copenhagen and Malmö airport. From here, you can go basically anywhere in Europe for a very affordable price. Here are our favorite destinations:

Amsterdam: Amsterdam is the beautiful capital of the Netherlands and famous for its Grachten, coffee shops and red light district. Like Lund, it is a bicycle city with lots of atmosphere. Get there: with various airlines daily from Copenhagen, from SEK 900 return

Barcelona: Barcelona is one of Spain’s most exciting cities, located directly at the Mediterranean Sea. Must sees are La Rambla, Sagrada Familia and Park Güell. Get there: with Ryanair 3x a week from Malmö, starting end of March, from SEK 900 return or with various airlines daily from Copenhagen, from SEK 1,300 return

Dublin: If you have never been to the Green Island, make sure you go! Experience Dublin for a few days and see Trinity College, Temple Bar and St. Stephen’s Green. Also visit the surrounding sights to experience the “real Ireland”, e.g. Howth, Wicklow Mountains and Malahide Castle. Get there: with various airlines from Copenhagen, from SEK 1,000 return

Edinburgh: Visit the “birth place” of Harry Potter and feel like living in Hogwarts! Places to go are Edinburgh Castle, Royal Mile and Arthur’s Seat. Get there: with with KLM 3x a week from Copenhagen, from SEK 1.400 return (Ryanair connection from Malmö to come)

London: London is without a doubt one of the most amazing cities in Europe. There are many must do’s, for example Tower Bridge, Tower of London, Buckingham Palace, Covent Garden, Trafalgar Square… we can’t name them all. Get there: with Ryanair daily from Malmö, from SEK 250 return or with various airlines daily from Copenhagen from SEK 600 return

Mallorca: If the Swedish weather gets you down, make a short trip to Mallorca and relax under the Spanish sun. Contrary to general prejudices, Mallorca does have beautiful beaches and landscape (outside Palma). Get there: with Ryanair 2x a week from Malmö , stating beginning of May, from SEK 1,500 return or with various airlines daily from Copenhagen, from SEK 2,000 return

The Living Lund team wishes you a wonderful, crazy, spontaneous, full of adrenaline and joy WEEKEND! And bare in mind that:

So put on your best smile, take your best moves, and go sweep someone off their feet!

Which is the song that helps you get your weekend mood started?

We all know that Lund is THE student city. But what do you do with your other friends? Here are our suggestions for entertaining your non-student friends:

Going out: This is the biggest challenge because no student ID means no nation. But don’t worry, there are alternatives. If you just want to go out for a drink, try the English pub “Bishops Arms” or “Café Ariman”.  If you are looking for something a bit more classy, go to our favorite bar “Myntha”. For clubbing, you can choose between “Herkules” and “T Bar” or you just go straight to Malmö.

Restaurants: We know that nothing beats lunch at a nation – it’s good food for a cheap price. But there are some nice and affordable restaurants as well. Our favorites are Govindas, a cosy Vegetarian restaurant, and Rauhrackel, an authentic Austrian restaurant. You should also try lunch at Café & Le. 

Things to do: If you want to do something truly Swedish, go to the sauna, enjoy the amazing view and take a bath in the ocean afterwards… But remember: no swimsuits allowed, so this is only for the brave people ;) A fully dressed alternative is to take a walk along the beach of the Falsterbo Peninsula, maybe you will even see some seals. Or walk around Wanås, a sculpture park with exhibitons from artists like Yoko Ono and Jacob Dahlgren. Enjoy!