Logistics

Today I met up with a girl, who happens to be from UC Santa Cruz and who is also now getting her Masters at Lund, to head to Malmö to visit the Immigration Office. We left a little later than planned and got to the Immigration Office a little later than planned so there was already quite a line. We had to wait in a series of lines for about an hour and a half before we could be seen. When my turn finally came the whole process took about three minutes. After the longer than expected traveling time and wait time, I realized that I was already going to be at least an hour late to my Swedish class. Luckily we are allowed to miss one class to still be able to get the certificate of completion. Because the wait took so long at the Immigration Office our bus tickets expired and instead of buying new ones we walked about 20-30 minutes through the city to get back to the train station to get back to Lund. It was a LONG morning.

Traveling to Malmö finally made me realize why everyone says that Sweden is such an expensive place to live. For a 10 minute bus ride I had to pay about $7 each way, and the machine I used was broken so I was lucky enough to pay for three rides today--but don't worry if I go back and show them my bank info showing that I was charged twice I can get a refund. But I'd have to ride the train over there and show them that. In addition the the expensive train rides the food and drinks were also quite expensive. I was excited to find a Starbucks, but not so excited when I realized that the drink I like to order was $7 and that the box of macaroni and cheese I found was $5. Other things I found but didn't buy because of the price were Heinz baked beans ($7), Lays ranch dip ($8), and a can of refried beans ($5).

Even though I am very frustrated by today's trip I know that one of the biggest logistical hurdles is now out of the way. Now if I could only figure out how to pay my rent...

Malmö Centralstation