exchange- the end

I have not been keeping up to date with these posts at all. It's unbelievable how fast the last 5 months have gone by. 

Last 4 days in Lund. It's been incredibly surreal, I feel a little bit like this has been a really long dream or something... so strange! 

Anyway just a re-cap...

My housing area is Ostra Torn and I love it! At the beginning I didn't, because it was not within walking distance of the central station. It also gets quite dark around this area in winter when the sun sets at 4pm. As soon as I got a bike (which you should definitely do if you're living in Lund), I had no problem with transport. Speaking of bikes, the facebook group 'Buy/Sell Lund' is a great place to find one. I wouldn't recommend bike shops because they generally have a lot of bad quality bikes and the good ones they sell for a lot. 

Groceries are the cheapest at Lidl, Willys or Netto. I prefer Willys because they have a greater variety of stuff and it's one of the cheapest places to get things in Lund. I avoid getting things from the ICA in the town centre because it's a tad more expensive. It's not all bad though, keep an eye out for sale items because some of them are pretty good! 

Student nation... I joined a student nation, I think it's something you should do if you're on exchange/erasmus here. It's around 200kr for the semester and you get all sorts of discounts around town. The nations also run events every so often. Every week they have a dinner at some of the nations and you can get pretty cheap food from there (45kr). 

Lund is a quaint little town and it's generally pretty safe here. Excellent bike/pedestrian lanes and pathways and the whole town is so beautiful in springtime! Sad to be leaving but also super glad I chose Lund University. 

exchange #6 Norway

Sometimes I still can't process the fact that I'm in Europe, living in Sweden. How on earth?! A year ago I was only beginning to think about going on exchange, thankfully I toughed out the long application process otherwise I'd be missing out on all of this wonderful Swedishness.

It's March 7th, and the days are already getting much longer and warmer. When I first arrived in January the sun didn't rise till 830am and sunset was at 4pm, now it gets bright nice at early at 7 and doesn't get dark till 6pm.

The last few weeks my class went on a little study trip to Norway, to visit the town of Moss in the Ostfold region. It was such a lovely trip, the buildings are so sweet and quaint. Too bad it was super quiet during the winter, we saw very little people around.

exchange #5

I had some trouble last month staying under budget, but I think that's excusable because the first month did have some start up expenses. Bedsheets, pillows, detergent, bike... etc

So I've discovered a new place to do my grocery shopping! It's a store called Lidl. It's almost exactly the same as Aldi back home. And the best part is that it's cheap. Unfortunately it doesn't have a wide variety of things, but another store called Willy's is good for the rest. It's also quite cheap.

What I'm trying to figure out now is how to cook for one... It's kind of awkward because if I cook too much I have a billion meals but if i cook to little it seems inefficient. Any tips? Lately I've been cooking enough to last me 2 meals, which doesn't feel like enough.

I bought a whole chicken the other day from Lidl, portioned it and froze the pieces for meals later on, thought that was pretty clever of me.

In the meantime, check out some pics from the last week. Oh boy, Scandinavian landscapes- breathtaking.

Copenhagen- Osterport Station

Town protected by a moat! (I think thats what they're called)

Ferry wharf at Oslo

Leaving the Oslo Fjord! 

Just another Oslo Fjord picture because it's so pretty