IMFSE Lund

Lund University LTH V-Building, where one becomes a jedi master in fire:

Fire suits, or astronauts in training?

Ah, boiled potatoes, lingonberry, meatballs, brown sauce, the essence of hearty Swedish foods:

Dennis, proud of his little fire experiment:

With the president of Lund University:

Ninja like concentration is necessary to study fire:

Never too cold for a barbecue (Boras, Sweden):

Robert organizing a great field trip. Here learning about fire doors:

Marta & The Mustaches present about risk assessment:

Group lunches in V building:
Prof Henrik & Marcus, displaying pure joy in anticipation of correcting 20 risk assessment exams:

The preferred method of travel around Lund:

Getting a feel for people density in human behaviour. Otherwise known as a good reason for spontaneous dance party:

Here we have unequivocal, scientific proof that wearing a tie in Sweden does not make you any smarter or better than your neighbor:

!Caught on Camera: Intense learning!

Class trip to SP fire in Boras, Sweden:

The class with our fearless teacher, Daniel Nilsson:
Birthday celebrations on an international level:

The beautiful Lund cathedral:

Minutes, wait.... possibly seconds, after completing the last exam of the semester, smiles and drinks:

Student absorptivity=1, unfortunately, teacher emissivity here approaching zero.

Marta secretly places the cameras for the evacuation experiment:

So, after all these years, this is what the promised land looks like:

A quick bike ride only 5 minutes outside Lund:

A winter Siberia could sympathize with:

And finally, the amazing graduation garbs:

Valborg

Walpurgis Night( Valborg in Sweden), is a day in Sweden and many other Northern European countries intended to celebrate the coming of spring, commonly accompanied by large bonfires and other traditions, on April 30th and May 1st.

Celebrations differ even within Sweden. Calm or traditional celebrations are found in Stockholm or non-University cities. The most pronounced celebrations are in the two main University cities of Uppsala, as well as here in Lund. Here in Lund, on May 1st, the men's choir sings on the steps of the academic building in the town center, and this has been broadcast for years to the rest of the country on live TV.




I guess, however, that if the men's choir singing is considered a big celebration, then we're in trouble. The celebration that really engulfs the city focuses around its university population and takes place on Saturday.

Essentially, groups of students from all over the University, thousands, plus people from neighboring cities (Malmo, Copenhagen), get up early, between 7 & 8am, and begin the day with some champagne and breakfast. Then, they drink some more, and then more, and well, for thousands of people it seems to amount to a whole day of intoxication. This is accompanied by picnics, barbecuing, and lots of dancing.

The whole event takes place in the city park of Lund. It was reported that a record 25,000 people were in the park. The pictures below show the massive crowds.

A sad part of this whole event is that the amount of trash created and wreckage left behind is unbelievable. The city had to pay 150 people to clean up after all these people. A little theme I've noticed here, university student's seem to expect other people to pick up after themselves.

The cleanup:



This photo is titled 'Stupidity Reigns'






Andrej, Dennis, Mark:


The bonfire pre-burning:


In the US these guys at the very least probably get kicked out. In Sweden, the police tell them to get down, shake their hand, and have a laugh:


People dancing to some electronic music:


The wreckage. I think the can collectors enjoyed this day.


An article:
http://www.thelocal.se/3671/20110429/#

Fish Balls

Per the usual, I've been doing my best to sample just about everything I can find in the grocery store, without reserve, discrimination, or food racism. Here's my latest in Swedish findings:

Quite possibly one of the most disgusting foods that has come into contact with my taste buds recently is fish balls! Basically, like a hot dog in fish form (leftover fish scraps), but formed into a ball instead of a weener. I'm not sure the problem however lied with the fish balls themselves. Rather, they were smothered in some creamy, thick dill sauce in the can and well, after nearly upchucking, I really had to throw the whole can out after 1 bite! That is one purchase that will not occur again.





This plate contains several Swedish staples. Boiled potatoes galore (taken straight quite often but sometimes with a delicious cream-based gravy sauce). And, lingonberry jam. Yum. Lingonberry jame is placed quite often on meatballs and various other meat products. In this case, a side for a Swedish style meatloaf that was actually very good. An odd, but surprisingly decent combination.


The Pizza Kebap! Okay this isn't exactly Swedish since it is of kebap origin and the pizzeria I bought it at is run by middle eastern guys. But, it is not something they sell in kebap shops in England or Germany or many other places in Europe for that matter. Not bad though.


Some fluffy chocolate balls with coconut, yum:


Meatballs:


Still waiting to be tested in the fridge are Blodpudding and Fiskpudding (Fishpudding)

Central Lund

The central plaza in Lund:




Still cold, but finally the days are getting longer. Hooray for seeing the sun after 5pm!