My time in Lund Personal Erasmus Report
Marie Schneider
Host University: Lund University
Program: Minorities and Multilingualism
schneider-marie@hotmail.de
All in all, my time at Lund University was wonderful. I made good friends along the way, learnt things about Swedish, Scandinavian (and Arab) culture that I otherwise would not have had the chance to experience. I studied at Lund University for one semester, namely from August 2017 to January 2018. During my time there I took 4 courses, all worth 7.5 ECTS. I passed them all without problems and generally enjoyed them. The grading system is different in Sweden but I found it fair and logical.
One of my motivations to go to Sweden was to learn a new language. I therefore took SVEE11 and SVEE12, two Swedish courses that are particularly made for Exchange students (Swedish for Exchange students Level 1 & 2). In that course in particular it was easy to get to know people, the classes were very interactive and the teacher pushed us to socialize. Even the oral examinations were in groups which made me much more comfortable. Ambitious as I was in the beginning, I figured it would be easy to start using Swedish in daily life, but obviously such a short period of time is not enough to get to a level of expertise that would allow for that. But now I can understand quite basic things, since Swedish shares quite some vocabulary with languages I am familiar with.
When I looked at the courses that Lund University was offering before going abroad, I was excited to see that some courses are quite different to what I am able to follow at the University of Groningen. I therefore decided to choose something unrelated to my program Minorities and Multilingualism, but instead choose two courses named Gastronomy:
Sustainable Eating (SASH59) and Modern Design in Scandinavia (SASH56). As far as I know these courses were tailored to exchange students too, which made the classrooms quite multicultural and multilingual and here too I would meet interesting people. The teachers were inspiring and I was happy with my choice. In particular the examination for
Gastronomy: Sustainable Eating I liked, because it was quite free and made me really work
with what I had learned, rather than regurgitating information with standardized tests - as our education system still seems to find appropriate as a means of examination.
On arrival, I met with a student advisor at Lund University who was helpful. In particular Lu Yi Nilsson was so quick to reply and helpful which I am grateful for. I always felt like I was able to pass by anytime to ask. But generally everything was pretty
straightforward.
Concerning accommodation, I was worried before coming to Sweden that I wouldn’t be able to find a place, since I had missed the deadline to sign up for accommodation arranged by the university. I was in India at that time and had trouble finding time and space to search for accommodation online. I signed up for several housing agencies, which mostly weren’t helpful as far as I remember. I read that a lot of students studying in Lund also live in Malmo, which is only 15 minutes away by train and I decided to look there too. There the search was easier and I started talking to a Lebanese man living in Rosengard who was renting out a room in his apartment. I had always lived in student houses in the Netherlands and I was not sure how living with Kamal would be. It turned out to be a wonderful man who made my life in Malmo so much more comfortable. He was always concerned about my well-being, took me to the best and least-known Arabic restaurants in town and even had a bike for me. I still go and visit him some time and remember him fondly.
Sweden is quite expensive as a country. I am vegetarian and generally am not so fussy about what I eat, but ended up spending quite a lot of money on groceries. My room was cheap, only about 300 euros, which is far less than what I heard from other people. That was a relief and I probably would have been in trouble otherwise. I imagine that I would monthly spend 150 euros on groceries and 80 euros on a ‘jojo’-card, which is the travel card for busses and trains. I would recommend to go to the market in Möllan, which is right in the hippest neighbourhood in Malmö. There’s a lot of bars and cafes and the falafel is amazing. There are
so many falafel places, which are also super economic, wherefore I ended up eating quite a lot of falafel during my time in Sweden.
Personally, I would recommend to live in Malmö, rather than Lund. It’s bigger and busier and even though Lund is beautiful as a town, if you want to enjoy your stay abroad I would always try to find a place in Malmö. You’re closer to the sea too and can enjoy a day in the most beautiful sauna (Ribersborg) right at the sea. I am not a big fan of the
fraternity/sorority culture that I saw in Lund and would therefore recommend to find your people in the places you like to frequent. Everybody I met was very open and I made good friends, Swedish as well as International.
