Autumn in Sweden

Now the first day of winter has passed, I feel the sudden urge to reflect upon my autumn time here in Lund, Sweden (since I'm identifying with a sage, I might as well act as zen as one). I should probably include a disclaimer here.

In this post you will be confronted by what some whisperingly refer to as Real Life. You know, what those filthy casuals in your guild talk about when they think you are not listening (while you're AFK getting another Mountain Dew). So yeah, Real Life. Breaking news: I have one!

If you are the type that gets an allergic reaction from falling leaves, groans at picturesque towns and can't stand images that do not contain polygons, this would be a good time to alt + tab back into your game.

This is my favourite building in Lund: the university library that looks as if it has been taken out of Harry Potter. The building turns from green to red to yellow over the course of autumn. At the moment of writing the vegetation is dead, but on the picture it's still shining in all its glory.

The autumn has been characterized by two extremes for me: on the one hand a lot of pain and stress due to heavy university study load and bad news about my father's health; on the other hand joy because of Lund being simply awesome. It's strange to feel all these things at once. I'll talk about the positive aspects here and will reserve the rest for a dedicated whine post (oh joy).

The last traces of autumn in my neighbourhood, captured with my crappy phone

I still feel incredibly lucky with our apartment. First off because of its location. The studio turned out to be located at the most southern part of Lund, allowing me to take the bike to the dig site in Uppåkra each day (15 minutes)! That saved me one hour of travelling with public transport and a lot of energy - probably the reason I could take part in the majority of the excavation (which was awesome, by the way). 

It is also just 15 minutes cycling to the archaeology department (in the other direction) from my home. Cycling is so much healthier and faster than taking public transport (which I have to do in Amsterdam), so I love this. The cycling route goes through the beautiful historical centre of Lund (on which more in a later post) - poor me.

But that's not all: the shops are just 100 meters away! This probably doesn't sound very relevant to you, but for me it means I can shop myself more often instead of having to ask Conrad to do it for me when I don't have much energy or am in pain. 

And then the best part: the local folk dancing club turned out to be in a neighbouring building. No, I'm not being sarcastic. No bad words about folk dancing allowed on this blog! Turn up the in-game music and the average raid boss is pretty much a synchronized character dance, so it's not all that different. (Imagine that game music would be synced with boss mechanics - wouldn't that be hilarious? But I digress.) Dancing is a great exercise for me, it's amazing for my Swedish (I'm the only non-Swede) and I don't have to worry about the energy needed for getting there, since it's so close.

F.l.t.r.: Gathering nodes edible plants; troopers guarding our bed; my work space.

Real Life decorating

Here some pictures of our apartment that I finally finished decorating in appropriate style. I've never lived in such a stylish (not to mention dirt-free and tidy) studio before! I wonder if all that practice decorating in Star Wars: The Old Republic finally paid off? 

I bought some Star Wars: The Force Awakens posters because - duh - Star Wars and because they were dirt cheap. I love all the Star Wars merchandise that's out now because of the upcoming movie - if only I had a job so I could afford all the stuff... I also bought some plants to compensate for the lack of balcony jungle.

And last but not least: this is our gaming space, including Nora the gaming bear. Above the PC you can just about see a foot of a stormtrooper, part of yet another Star Wars poster (one cannot have too many) reminding us which game to log in to (because we would totally forget). There's also a rich supply of tea, which is our gamer fuel while playing (say what you want, but it's a lot healthier than Mountain Dew!).

I was way too busy with my studies to take more pictures of Lund in the autumn, so you'll have to take my word for it when I say it was absolutely beautiful. The next couple of posts will be about gaming, but I'll certainly check in from Lund again before I return to the Netherlands. I've been thinking about writing about winter in Lund, my challenges here (aka the "whine post") or archaeology - let me know if you have a favourite.