Lunds Universitet

Now I´m writing my report for a realy wonderful time in my life. I´m studying food technology at the Technical University of Munich. And already one year ago I decided: "I would like to get to know the Nordic countries a little more". So I made my decision to spend one semester in Sweden. My town of choice was Lund in the south part of Sweden. It is a wonderful town full of students. Lund has around 100.000 inhabitants including 35.000 students. It is a tiny historical city, every thing can be reached by bike. And the best thing only ten minutes by train and you are in Malmö, the third biggest city in Sweden. So a perfect location. The University is spread out all over the city and you can study nearly everthing you can imagine. In Lund there are several dometories, but they are all crowded and it is hard to find a place in this areas or anywhere else. So if you decide to join the Lund University organise your room with the help of the International Housing Office in advanced. They are all nice and are trying to help you to find a room. One advice, make sure before you leave your hometown, that you really got a room. Because at the beginning of the semester the housing situation is quite bad and some of the exchange students had to go back home, because they could not get hold of a room to stay!!! In the first two weeks of your stay in Lund there are several activities organised by the International Desk, they organised languages courses and a lot activities to get to know the swedish culture. And the Swedish culture is more different than you think, if you come from Germany for example. The first thing you have to do at the beginning of your stay you have to get a member of a students Nation!!! That are the areas where the parties are going on. I think all over Lund there must be around 15 or more Nations. It is similar to a social club which is run by students. There a students rooms to stay, always a disco, Café, Restaurant and a lot of activities!!! Join them it is fun!! You can get part of the organisation team, the students in the nation and sure all other swedish students are always happy to meet new people from different countries. So don´t be shy and get a part of the students life. I just joined a nation and served at the restaurants it was fun and the parties were always spectacular!!! But back to university….the courses are quite small only around 30 students. The courses are organised by two or more professors. They are always very helpful, so you can ask them any time …and there are all english speaking so swedish ist not really necessary to learn!! It is quite different from German universities, every is organised you will know exactly which book you have to study, a lot of project work, essays and presentations…different but perhaps also a little bit better than the Geramn system! My final word will be…go to Lund you will have a wonderfull time!!! Yours Katja

Try to get a place to live as soon as possible and bring with you a lot of warm clothes. However, always remember to bring something for the rain if you come in winter, that is what you will probably see the most. Get a JoJo Card for public transport, since you cannot move around with the bus without it. But even more essential is to get a bike very soon and secure it well. Bikes are your most valuable object in Lund, and they get stolen really easily. And... learn to love coffe!!

My exchange semester was the best experience I've ever made. Try to travel as much as you can in Sweden but also to Danmark, Norway, Finland and Russia (I really can recommend the organised trip there!).

Many travel opportunities, even last-minute. Many opportunities to have fun in the nations : try everything ! Most practical things are managed by the host international desk : it's esy to settle there...now just take the best of it !

Final Comments: Scandinavia offers you beautiful nature and wilderness! When you study in Lund you have the opportunity to see a lot of it and I can recommend it to everybody. I travelled a lot in Scandinavia and have seen beautiful things. One final tip for this, take the train to stockholm visit the city a couple of days and go from there to helsinki by boat. Not very far from Helsinki is Talinn situated and this city is worth taking a look! Travelling by boat saves you money for hostels (night boats) and is a nice experience!

If somebody want to travel I recomand them to keep in touch with the student organizations and the international office at the host university. They try to offer the best for the exchange students.