Engineers are Eccentric

Yes, that is probably one of the most obvious statement ever made; however in Sweden they are even more so. The Engineering students here go around in brightly colored jumpsuits according to their department (i.e. physic eng is orange and computer eng, pink) and travel in large packs. They also like to wear tiaras, carry scarecrow-like figures on sticks, and weird-out the general public.

Today I saw a bunch of the on a field nearby the engineering college and felt compelled to take pictures. Although I have never been on a safari, but I can imagine that it is quite similar.

many of them had sailor-type hats too.
i'm not sure if the purple thing in the background is a real person or not.

apparently they were concerned about visibility...
as if the bright orange jumpsuits weren't enough.

a scarecrow and slacklining

Ring-Around-the-Rosie

Firstly, I am sorry for the lack of blogging on my part. I have been meaning to post several things for a while, but it has been a hectic week or so. I will hopefully write something about my recent trip to Helsingborg and Malmö soon, but right want to write (read, vent) about my two day battle, which I believe to have lost, with the insanity of Swedish bureaucracy.

A Day of Queues
Yesterday morning I took my Swedish language final exam and God-willing passed it. It wasn't too difficult, but some of the grammar nuisances (sic) tripped me up (i.e. Swedish nouns have 4 different endings depending if they are definite/indefinite/plural/singular).

Immediately afterward, about 30 of us UC-students ran over to the public library to print out our transcripts and enrollment forms because today was the day we were to register for classes! Now classes start in 5 days, and although we have already enrolled in the international classes, many of us want to take actual departmental classes for our major. This requires us to personally convince each head of the department to take us on as students for classes. Of course the library had one printer and only 2 librarians, so the day of lines began early. However, we all eventually got them (at 30 cents a page!) and headed to our orientation for exchange students.

The orienation place was packed with international students, masters students, and exchange students. We found our room and proceeded to wait for over 2 hours to receive a packet of info about Lund, our email addresses, and student id numbers which could have easily been emailed to us. I have never waited in such a long time for such a small reward-- it was worse than the line for Disneyland's Pirates of the Caribbean ride (and an even more disappointing and pathetic experience, if you can imagine that!).

We had to zig-zag along the rows, up to the top and then back down--
the picture shows 1/2 of the line. The guy's face in the 2nd row says it all.

Back when we were still smiling

And then the smiles faded-- especially after they didn't even have
a form for Jess. She waited in line for nothing!

Now, armed with our packets, we headed to the departments full of eager anticipation to register at last for classes. How disillusion. The political science department, my primary interest, was completely unhelpful. After being referred to different people and different floors (it was clear nobody knew quite what to do with us), we finally found the office to register. However, the office hours were from 10am to 12pm, and it was well past 3pm. So it was essentially a fruitless day (except for the small banana I consumed after the exam), especially for Jess because she weren't able to get our key copied, a bike, or her orientation packet!

The Run-around
Today began promising with both Jess and I having clear agendas to accomplish: her, to get her registration forms and a bike and I, to register for a political science, Russian culture, and Russian language class. After waiting outside the political science department office for a while, someone finally shows up at 10am. However, I was quickly informed that I need to see someone else to register, but after finding her, she referred me to someone else, but her office hours did not start till 1pm! Slightly frustrated, I went to the Eastern European studies dept hoping for some better luck. Just after I located the person I needed to talk to, she explained that she had to go to meeting till around noon. I was beginning to think there was a conspiracy to keep me from attending classes, especially after the Slavic languages building moved locations without bothering to tell anyone. After over 30 minutes of searching the area, I finally found out that the department has moved to the same place as the Eastern European studies! And guess who I needed to talk to so I could register for classes?? Ms. Meeting lady!

After two cups of tea and a couple chapters of a good book, I regained some semblance of my sanity and tried the Russian culture/Slavic languages lady once again. She was in and was able to help me...sort of. Apparently all the classes I was hoping to take are in Swedish, but I can possibly get on the waiting list for the lone English one if I talk to the instructor of the course. I go down to his office only to discover that of course he is out and won't be back till 2:45. Perfect.

During this time, I go to my favorite Poli Sci department and wait with my UC friends for someone to show up. When the lady comes, she has no idea why our coordinator didn't inform her that we intended to take departmental classes! However, she said to come back tomorrow and they will try to work something out.

After going to an informational meeting/campus organization fair and getting some free cookies, I felt ready to try to talk to the instructor for the Eastern European classes in English. After waiting for over a half hour, he never shows up. So I went with Jess (who has by now still not gotten her registration forms but has purchased a nice bike) to look at some potential housing options. The first two were not great and would mean she would be living with 40+ year old men. But the last one is with a great family in a beautiful home built in 1905 with a garden and dog. We are praying hard that the family picks Jess from the pool of applicants.

Meanwhile, I go back to the instructor's office and find him there! He was super energetic thanks to a Swedish energy drink and a coffee, but he told me that I am not allowed to take a Russian language class because I need to know Swedish first. I tried to convince him that I can just communicate in Russian, but apparently the Russian language instructor doesn't allow it. He also said that the only Eastern European class is full and my chances of getting in do not look good. I thank him and leave completely exhausted and drained having once again accomplished nothing. It also means that there is a very, very good chance that I will have the privileged of becoming a super senior next year!

So, morals of the story: Don't ever, ever take online registering for granted (the UCD class reg. site SISWEB will be my firstborn child's name) and don't ever get into a fight with Swedish (university) bureaucracy if you value your life or your sanity.

I Shall Call Him Squishy

With no classes and beautiful weather, Saturday was a perfect day to go to the beach! Being a mere 6 kilometers away (3.7 miles for you non-metric people), Lena, Michelle, and I decided to break in our rusty new bikes and ride to Lomma Beach.

Vi cyklar!
(Bet ya can't guess what that means in English!)

Now being from Northern California, I was prepared for a typical day at the beach: freezing temperatures, hurricane-force winds, and hypothermia-inducing water...multiplied by 10 being that we were in Sweden.
However, not only was the sun not obscured by fog, but it was quite warm and pleasant! The water, although not my preferred Hawaii temperature, was very nice to wade in which was perfect because wading was the only way possible to enjoy the ocean. This is due to the fact that for more than 100 yards (91 meters), the water only came to a little above my knees (and barely covered the ankles for some of the taller Swedes).

A far away picture of the shallow water.
I don't know how some of those boats didn't hit the bottom.

It was so relaxing to soak up some sun (but not before we applied our "high" SPF 20 sunscreen) and catch up on some summer reading. However, no beach is complete without its pests. Some places have seagulls, dune flies, or weird guys, but Lomma is infested with ladybugs. Don't be fooled by their cute colors and dots, these bugs (for I won't even honor them with the title of 'lady') coated us and our food within minutes of arrival. They are vicious too! They bite, and my arm and Michelle's lip fell victim to their surprisingly strong mandibles.

Attack of the Coccinellidae!

In an effort to escape the bugs, I went back into the water and stumbled across a beautiful jellyfish! I immediately picked him up and started stroking it. A few minor stings later, he was a perfect pet. Just kidding. It turns out that they are perfectly harmless, and the kids even blow them in bubbles or have jellyfish throwing fights. I was much more gentle with my Squishy (although I am fairly certain that he had passed on long before I discovered him). It was fascinating: he was clear with an orange ribbon in the middle and had the smooth texture of jello-y rubber. I wish I could have brought him home as a souvenir, but I thought it would be better for him to float away to his final resting place deep in the bottom of the ocean (probably about 2 feet under).

RIP, my dear Swedish Squishy.

It's a strange place, with carnivorous ladybugs and friendly jellyfish, but overall, it was a very cool experience, and we hope to be back soon if this amazing weather lasts!

Here are a few more pictures of our day:

Very crowded beach and fortunately only a few nudes
(most of whom were children).

Malmo's Twirling Torso in the distance.

SPF 20 is high? No wonder these Swedes are so tanned/burnt!

My Squishy and me. It was wonderful while it lasted.

Hej From Sweden!

I am in Sweden at last, and I am finally coherent enough to write something!

Here is a quick recap of the last 3 or so days:
August 3rd: Said a tearful and sleepy goodbye to my family and headed off to the San Fransisco Airport. After slightly losing my faith in the goodness of people, I managed to navigate through countless different lines and rude people to make my flight to Washington with a few minutes to spare.
The flights were thankfully uneventful, and I slept great on the flight to Copenhagen (thank you, benadryl!). SAS is a wonderful airlines, by the way. They have lots of movies to choose from, comfortable seats, and dinner came with two bread rolls (which was the first meal I had in over 10 hours)!

August 4th: After landing in Denmark, I bought a train ticket to Lund, Sweden. I must have been too proud of myself for only bringing one big bag because I managed to get on a train with a fellow UCer who had 2 massive, overweight bags plus 2 duffel bags and a purse. She needed lots of help carrying the 60+ lbs. bags up and down stairs, so that was a lot of fun. On my way to get to the Housing Center, I got hopelessly lost, but I was able to see a lot of random parts of the city. After 30 minutes of wandering with a now very heavy backpack and bag, I was able to find a map and get to the Center.

Unfortunately, even though there was about 9 other UC students waiting to get our room keys, the offices would not open until 1pm which meant we had to wait for 3 hours. Everyone was dirty, jetlagged, and pretty grumpy, especially me. I was also going through my typical first day blues where I missed everyone and wished I wasn't there. It also didn't help that everyone from the UCs were talking about how excited they were to get wasted tonight either.

However, we finally got our rooms, and it was wonderful to get a shower and unpack a bit. Then I went to the train station to pick up Lena, a girl from Davis who needed to stay with me because the Housing Office closed before she arrived. It was wonderful to talk with her (she is a Christian too!) and walk around the parks near our dorm rooms. We also went to the little market nearby our rooms and picked up some food. It was pretty simple to figure out what the stuff was, but I was suspicious about the cheeses which looked shady to me. I did recognize pepperjack, but I nearly cried when I saw the price: 99 kr. (nearly $15 for a small block).

August 5th: We had two orientations-- one for our language program and one for all the UC students. Both weren't extremely helpful, but we got fed sandwiches so I can't really complain. I found out that I am taking 3 1/2 hours a day of Swedish for 2 weeks which should be fun; I am expected to take 2 or 3 classes for the Semester; I probably should have paid more attention because I don't really remember anything else.
I also bought a bike (will have a post on that to come) and got a SIM card for my cell phone.
A bunch of people were going out to party, but Lena and I stayed in and watched Chocolat instead!

August 6th: Today was our first day of Swedish class. Wow, it was intense. The teacher was great and only spoke to us in Swedish, but seeing that I knew 2 words in Swedish, it was a bit intimidating. After hour 2, my head was hurting as we kept learning the different pronunciations for one syllable and finding out the differences between a and å and ä and o and ö (they all sound virtually the same!). After class, I wandered around with different people and got a public library card (remind me to take a video of the crazy checkout book machine).

I really enjoy the feel of Lund: it is very European and cultured. Tons of people spend all their time in outside cafes drinking and eating for all hours of the day. The streets are almost all cobblestone, and the buildings, bricks.
In the evening, I had dinner with some girls from Berkley (practically the only other ones who weren't out clubbing!) and then Lena joined us for an interesting game of Scattergories in Swedish.

I'll conclude this post with some lovely pictures of the city .

yes, I am in a Swedish Davis. How ironic.

And this is my university! It was built in the '60s.
That is, the 1660s!

Just one of the many charming streets in the center of Lund.

this beautiful building is our library! How amazing is that?

Stuff

A wise person once said, "When preparing to travel, lay out all your clothes and all your money. Then take half the clothes and twice the money."

Three years ago today, I arrived fresh off the plane from Kazakhstan (I actually was quite exhausted and smelly, not fresh at all). I had all my worldly possessions in two 50 lb tubs and didn't feel like I was lacking in much. Fast-forward to today and my belongings have somehow accumulated exponentially. It's ridiculous, especially seeing how I get rid of a suitcase full of stuff every 6 months or so.

This is not even the entirety of my stuff either!

One of the things love most about traveling is seeing how little I can bring to survive. In India, I managed fine with less than four changes of clothes and some soap for almost four weeks (although I have to admit that it had mostly to do with the fact that most of my luggage never made it to India :). Nevertheless, it was still great to be able to travel around with a light school backpack, and it showed me how little I truly need to survive.

Possessions just weigh me down and give me a false sense of security. So even though I may never be able to downsize to two tubs again, as I have been packing all my things, I have realized that I need to make a more conscious effort to live lightly.

Therefore, I have managed to fit everything I need for Sweden in one 46 lb duffel bag and backpack! This may not seem impressive, but considering that on my last backpacking trip to Tahoe I took about 25 lbs of warm clothing (and wore them all!), I am pretty excited. Now, hopefully I won't freeze to death in Sweden because I didn't pack enough warm clothes!

This is the bag I'm bringing to Sweden
on loan from my lovely sister, Sarah.

Scammed

So when I wrote about how much I was looking forward to having adventures after all my pre-arrival drama, I had no idea that I still had quite a bit more excitement to go before I was to leave for Sweden unfortunately.

As some of you probably know by now, the lovely apartment we found in Lund turned out to be a Nigerian (go figure) rental scam. The landlord/scammer "Leyla" had pictures, a facebook profile, a real address, etc, but no actual apartment.

After wiring her over $800 for our security deposit and the first month's rent (a very stupid move in hindsight), we received an email saying her lawyer is insisting that we pay for all five months' rent. That is when the alarm bells started going off. In the middle of writing that there was no way I was going to send her that much money without seeing the place in person, I impusively googled her email address to see what would come up.

What I found was several websites (a swedish housing site, a much wiser exchange student blogger, and a site that warns people of scammers) saying to beware of a Leyla Pursharifi and the rental scam s/he has been running.

I felt physically sick. Not only had I lost a substantial amount of money that I did not budget for, but I was also leaving in two weeks without knowing where I would be living for the next five months. After calls to Western Union, my dad, and the Davis PD, it still did not feel real. The money was long gone, but I hoped that I would still be able to somehow get a room on campus (even though the deposit was due in June). I wrote my advisor a frantic email, and the next morning he told me that I would be able to have a room! So that was a huge relief, and I can see now that it was probably for the best that I was not supposed to live off campus.

The best part of this whole fisasco was that during the entire process of paying for tuition and figuring how much everything was going to cost, I was incredibly stressed out and anxious (ok, that wasn't the best part, but it's coming). I could not, for whatever reason, trust God with my finances. However, a day after we discovered that we got scammed, God completely took away all my worries about money. It is incredibly ironic that it took losing a bunch of money to realize that God is in control and that He is my provider, but that's what happened (although I definitely wish there was an easier way I could have learned that lesson!).

Here are the pictures of the very nice looking, completely fictional apartment.





And here are two emails that my Uncle and I sent, respectively, to Leyla after we found out.

"Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed in judgment including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil." (Eccl. 12:13-14)


"For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad." (2 Corinthians 5:10)

"The wicked man earns deceptive wages, but he who sows righteousness reaps a sure reward." (Proverbs 11:18)

Please read the Bible verses I have written very carefully. Whoever you really are, God knows your name and address and even with your evil actions the Lord loves you and wants you to give your life to him. Turn to the Lord before your life ends and you face judgment. For the Fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. May you be free from the lies and deceit that you have lived in and find your true freedom and riches in Jesus Christ. Instead of hurting, deceiving, and robbing people may you come to help your fellow man. May you have a change of mind that would come from a change of heart and may you give your life to Jesus. Turn from you evil friends and become a child of God and be a part of the family of God. He will forgive you and cleanse you if you truly repent and want to follow Him and walk in the light instead of darkness. "(You) will know that I am the Lord, when I break the bars of (your) yoke and rescue (you) from the hands of those who enslaved (you)." (Ezekiel 34:27)

"The Law (Bible) from your mouth (O Lord) is more precious to me than thousands of pieces of silver and gold." (Psalm 119:72)

I'll pray for you,
Rick
(Uncle of Rachel, a servant of God, who you deceived and stole from)

And mine (not quite as eloquent as my uncle):

"Leyla,"
Do not contact me any more. We know that you robbed us of our money. I was very hurt and angry, but I want you to know that I forgive you for stealing my money. I know that God will provide for me and that you will have to answer to Him someday. I will be praying for you-- there is so much more important things than money. it's not worth it.
Rachel