This week, I started a new course called Gastronomy: Sustainable Eating. The way courses run here is really confusing - some are only a month long and some (like mine) go the whole four months of the semester, yet they are worth the same amount of credits. Anyways, this is the last new course I will have and it seems like it's going to be REALLY interesting. So far we've only really had the introductory course, but we're going to be learning about where our food comes from globally, the problems with our food supply and what we can be doing to eat more sustainably. My teacher seems really nice and interesting - she's allergic to peanuts too! She shared with us that she doesn't like presenting in English, she much prefers other languages, which is interesting to think about coming from the US.
On Wednesday I went into Fågelskolan, a middle school near Lund, to talk to some of the language teachers about coming in to volunteer. They were very excited and gave me some times that I could start volunteering every week. I guess volunteer work isn't as common here as it is in the US, probably because there is much less of a need for it, so they hadn't had an offer from someone to volunteer before. I think they're going to have me work with smaller groups of students who need more help studying English - they also talked about having me present about the United States, though I wouldn't really know where to start. I go in to volunteer for the first time today!
In my film class, we watched an Ingmar Bergman film called Persona. It starts with a series of abstract black and white images - Clockwork Orange style - to make you a bit uneasy. Some of the scenes have spiders and other creepy things, and one of the scenes shows a hand with a nail going through it. Then the story starts - Nurse Alma (Bibi Anderson) is taking care of an actress (Liv Ullman), who is seemingly healthy but refuses to say a word. The women get to know each other at a seaside cottage - where most of the film takes place. At first the nurse is professional, but she soon starts telling the actress all of the secrets of her past, including an orgy she had on the beach with a girl she had just met and two random young boys. I fell asleep for a moment while she was talking and woke up to her sharing the intimate details of that experience - a bit startling. I think reading the subtitles was even more awkward than just hearing the story would have been.
I didn't particularly like the film, but it was definitely interesting. We talked a lot afterwards about why Ingmar Bergman included the shots he did - including the opening five minutes.
On Thursday night Paige came to visit! I met her at the train station and we ate with my roommates, then headed out to Brunnsbo (where Regina lives), then to Göteborgs Nation. It was a lot of fun - a larger group of my friends went than usual and we danced for a long time. At one point, Paige, Lucia and I got trapped in the middle of a crazy circle of dancing Swedish people. I'm still not entirely sure what happened.
After the club, we all went up to the top floor of our building where the boys had decided to cook every egg in the house for us to eat.
The next day was National Kannelbulle Day! We went to the grocery store and picked up two huge bags of frozen Kanelbullar, then baked them in the oven for our own fika.
(Regina, I stole your instagram picture)
In the afternoon, Paige and I took a walk to my favorite park (Stadsparken). The leaves are starting to change and it is SO beautiful here right now. There were also pots of autumn-colored flowers lining the path in the park.
After the park, Alice, Regina, Paige and I took the train to Ikea. We had a mishap getting of the train (somehow only Regina got out the door - it opened a foot and then slammed shut again - we were almost trapped) but we made it! First we had another fika and kannelbulle in the Ikea café, then we took Paige on the Ikea tour. She was pretty excited.
Horrifying heart-shaped pillows with arms.
We ate dinner in the Ikea cafeteria (fish and swedish meatballs), then took the train back. We went over to Brunnsbo again, where there was a preparty going on, but we were all still tired from the night before. Paige didn't have a bike to borrow, so I biked over with her on the back (as hard as it looks - I definitely got a workout). On the way back, the Swedish police told us that we weren't allowed to have two people on a bike and that we had to walk. Oops.
On Saturday, a couple of us went to brunch at Lunds Nation (DELICIOUS), then Paige and I walked around Lund (the city) for a bit.
We also went shopping where we found some glorious hats.
On Sunday, Paige left in the morning to go back to Copenhagen. I went for a run and found some beautiful sights as usual.
The trees here are absolutely unreal - I always forget how much I love Fall. It's still just warm enough to run, so I'm going to keep going for as long as I can.
Yesterday I booked a flight to Switzerland in November to visit my friend Sam from home! I'm so excited to finally have plans to travel somewhere :)
LTD!
No comments:
Post a Comment