Experience report ANR: 360178 Name: Eva Timmermans E-­‐mail: E.timmermans@uvt.nl Exchange semester: Spring Academic year: 2014-­‐2015 Host University: Lund University Country: Sweden Admission, arrival, housing The application process went really fluently, the Swedish coordinator responded really fast on my questions and had some helpful advice. It is possible to get housing by the International Housing Office in Lund. I heard that the admission could be quite stressful since there is not enough housing. So when the application for housing opened I immediately signed up for housing and luckily I got assigned a room without being placed on a waiting list. It is quite hard to choose the building you want to live in since the information on the Lund University website is limited. If you want to have more information about the different building feel free to email me! The university organized an official arrival day. People were waiting at the airport to show you were you can buy train tickets and which train you have to take. Until the arrival in Lund everything went fluently. However, I took quite a while before there was a van available to pick us up and drive us to the location where the registration started. On the official location you could collect your room key, received a sim-­‐card (with free internet on it!), general information about the town and the university and much more. Thereafter everyone was dropped of at his or her accommodation. Although flying to Lund is a very short journey, it was an exhausting day, but it was a good preparation for the rest of my stay. The university organized an orientation week. In this week there were opportunities to participate with different activities with your mentor group. However mine wasn’t really active so I mostly joined other groups. There were some compulsory meeting, with talks from a policemen, a firemen etc. and if you participated with the SUSA course you had Swedish lessons. I really recommend taking the SUSA course, since it is good way to meet new people and it’s fun and useful to speak a few words of Swedish. There was as well a lot of spare time this week, but this was very useful, since it takes some time to find a bike, explore the city and make a trip to the Ikea. Location of university/city Lund is small, old town in the south of Sweden. There are amazing old building in the city centre and everything is just around the corner. The faculty of law is located in the middle of the city centre, which was very convenient, since I was able to walk to school. The advantage of being so small is that you almost always bump in to people, wherever you’re going. The downside of Lund being so small is that it sometimes was a bit boring, especially on Sundays. But you are in Copenhagen within an hour. Academics The law courses are worth 15 ects, so I only took two courses. The fist one is Comparative European Legal History and the second one Licensing in an International Context. The level of the courses is about the same as in Tilburg, however since I only took one course at a time I had the feeling I didn’t had to do a lot. Besides the examination procedure is less stressful as in Tilburg. For the course Comparative European legal history the written examination was only partially my final grade and the course Licensing in an international context didn’t had a written examination at all, only a paper and participation in class. As a result my final grades for both courses were really high. The course European legal history didn’t contribute much to my program at Tilburg, since I already followed a course about legal history. The second course was to me much more interesting. It covered a totally new subject of law and had an interesting way of studying; we had in class discussion and had a couple of fieldtrips. If you are interested in licensing I really recommend taking this course. In general I really liked the teachers I had, they were more involved then the most teacher in Tilburg. I even got invited to a potluck party at my teacher’s house. Social life In the beginning of the semester the university organized an introduction week. In this week you really got to know a lot of students. But also throughout the semester the university organized social activities such as game nights etc. a big part of the social life is ESN. They organize great parties and trips for example to the northern lights and Stockholm. Throughout the semester you get to know a lot of students, but almost only exchange students. I met some local students in class, but didn’t spend time with them outside class. Another important feature of Lund's student life are the nations. Nations are a sort of student association. They organize parties, lunches, movie nights, dinners and much more. You must become a member of one of the nations to have access to them all. However I doesn’t really matter of which nation you become a member. Just see what people around you choose. I was a member of vastgota nations, but a lot of other students became member of ostgota nations. Ostgota organized more for new students. Another big thing in Sweden is having a Fika. Fika is drinking coffee with usually something sweet, such as a ‘kanelbulle’. I really liked these short breaks during the day and now I’m back I really miss them a lot. Living costs I financed my stay in Lund with my Erasmus grant, savings and money I received from my parents. My living expenses were higher than in Tilburg, since almost everything is more expensive. Especially alcohol is very expensive, so every time someone came over to visit me I asked them to bring me some. But also other expenses such as my rent (÷ 400), groceries and trips cost a lot. Especially my trip to Lapland was quite expensive, but definitely worth the money. I went with ESN, but if you want to save some money, organize it yourself. Be prepared that on average the living cost are higher. Culture I didn’t experience a culture shock. Swedes are in general quite the same as Dutch people, however there are some small differences. Such as their love for queuing. They really like to queue up for everything. I you want to go out in a nation make sure you’re on time, otherwise you have to stand in line for an hour. Oh and when you go out in a nation they’re only open till two. Which is actually quite convenient if you have school the next day. Another funny aspect of Swedish students life is the pre-­‐pre-­‐party, a normal pre-­‐party and an after party. The nations organize sitnings. These are dinners where people drink quite a lot and sing songs. But before students go to a sitning they have a pre-­‐pre-­‐party. After the sitning a normal pre-­‐party, whereupon they go out and finish the night with an after party. Another difference is that Swedes are in general more polite and trust each other more. Apart from the swedes I also got to know a lot about other cultures, since I met so many people of different nationalities. Learning about other cultures also implies that you get to know more about your own culture. When I was back in the Netherlands there were some characteristics that stood out, which I didn’t notice before. Such as that we’re really direct and have lots of small talk with people we don’t know. Tips for future students I would really recommend going on an exchange. I really had the time of my life and wouldn’t have done anything different. Of course you still have to settle down in the beginning and adjust to your new life but this went so quickly and easy. I liked all the aspects of my exchange and time flew by. I also fell in love with Lund. It might not be the first country or city you think off when going on exchange but it surprised me in a positive way. Although it is probably not the most exiting and vibrant city it is a perfect student town and a good gateway to the rest of Scandinavia.