Lund: Cute and Smart

Whirlwind Weekend

The past few days have been beyond busy but also extremely fun. Friday I spent the whole day at a workshop called Open Innovation Day. It was a collaborative event between the LU Social Innovation Center, LU Open Innovation, an emerging Swedish company called Crowding, and Setra (a Swedish lumber company). We were challenged by Setra's representative to come up with solutions to help Setra increase its market share while simultaneously enhancing its environmental profile using Crowding's 5-step process on their web platform.

I loved getting a chance to suggest solutions to a challenge in the real world, especially since Setra will be considering the final selected ideas to be put into use in the future--including mine! In exchange for our input and proposals, we received a certificate of participation from all parties involved and it was also a great networking opportunity.

After the day's work, the founders of Crowding organized for us to attend a sittning at one of the nations. It was a great night and was also incredibly productive. I told one of the co-founders that this is exactly the kind of work I would hope to do in the future and he told me he actually knows of many consulting firms in Lund's neighboring city! This week I will be contacting them about the possibility of organizing an internship or other opportunity in the future.


Saturday was devoted to sightseeing in Copenhagen. Since I have been there a few times I felt slightly less touristy and was happy just walking through the city--which we did for about 6 hours! After the day trip to Copenhagen I had just enough time to get ready to go to a concert for my fieldwork project. There have been only a few times in my life where I have ever been as tired as I was on Saturday night.

The Eurovision finals were also on Saturday night with Sweden as the host. This led to a lot of jokes about Sweden's, shall we say, uniqueness.

This video is really great: http://www.svtplay.se/klipp/1233555/swedishness?dela=1

This one too...

After a lazy Sunday-day, that night I met up with friends to watch the World Championship Hockey Finals where Sweden ended up winning gold against Switzerland. The US got the bronze.


Now that the week has begun and my weekend holiday is over I'm back to trying to plan my life for the next few months and focusing on schoolwork. Hopefully good things happen soon!

New Adventures and Goodbyes

The past few days have been full of new adventures and fun with friends.

Friday night, as part of my fieldwork project on metal music culture, I took the train to Copenhagen with Zuzanna. Things definitely did not go as planned but we had a fun time exploring CPH and getting help from friendly strangers--the owner of a tattoo shop even printed us out directions from Google Maps when we couldn't find our way!

Waiting for the train

This week, with Eurovision going on, there have been a lot of different things happening throughout the city. The square by my apartment has been hosting an international market for the past couple of days. At the British booth I found actual, normal, yellow cheddar cheese! I have been looking for this since I got to Sweden in August! The guy was so excited by my enthusiasm that he kept giving me different things to try and insisted that there was no way I could get this kind of stuff in California. I just nodded to keep him happy.

Double Gloucester!

One of the Eurovision hosts joking about Europeans complaining about how expensive Sweden is.

Later that day I went to Manar's goodbye dinner. Today she leaves for Stockholm and then goes straight to Lebanon. It reminded me of how soon this year is ending and how I'm so not ready for that. Next fall all the friends I've made will be scattered all around the world and I'll be on a new adventure again. For now I'll be trying to savor the last few weeks I have!

Valborg Week

Valborg...

Valborg morning in Stadsparken

Evening BBQ on Valborg

Pre-Cinco de Mayo dinner...

The menu included refried black beans, pico de gallo, and chicken enchiladas--all homemade! Even the sauce!

Not the most flattering picture, but here we go.

The threesome + Gokhan. 

I think Mehreen and I look like more of a couple that Idil and Gokhan somehow here.

Mellow weekend...

Playing with 5 week old puppies!

Me and Fia Ly at Gunnhild's BBQ.

Academic life...

Also last week, Meryem and I turned in our final for our Evaluation Research Methods course and presented our work. We had a couple days off to celebrate finishing the course, then on Thursday I started my new course on Fieldwork Methodology. It's going to be brief but intense! I really can't believe this is the last course I will take for the first year of my program. It's gone by so fast!