a farewell to Lund

I am down to the last days in Lund, and it’s starting to hit me that I will not be returning to this fantastic little city any time too soon. I have had the most incredible time exploring Lund, Sweden, and parts of Northern Europe these past five months. I am having trouble imagining how I am going to feel settling back into my life in Santa Cruz. Spending a semester away has given me a different perspective of the world, and I look forward to seeing how I react when I get back out to California. I am not quite sure what I will miss most about Lund.
















I will definitely miss the most intricate bike paths that have made my exploration of the city so easy, and the tons of little cafés; I will miss hearing the church bells ring so loud that you can hear them anywhere in the city, the old buildings that line the tiny cobblestone streets, that are really not suited for cars; I will miss hearing Swedish, German, Dutch, French, Spanish, Danish, and Japanese on a regular basis, and I will miss the friends that I have made from all of those places; I will miss Swedish meatballs with lingonberry jam even though I don’t eat them, and Kanelbulle med kaffe; I will miss hearing my neighbor’s techno music through my wall and knowing that I am not alone in the corridor, and I will miss the amazing people that I have lived with, even though our corridor was dirty most of the time;













I will miss laughing with friends and not giving all that much care to coursework; I will miss seeing hairdressers on every street corner, and the Espresso House that is as frequent as Starbucks is in the US; I will miss yoghurt in a milk carton, and caviar in a tube, even though I don’t eat that either; I will miss trying to understand what people are talking about in Swedish at the table next to me, and seeing tons of cute little blonde kids or “barns,” one of my favorite Swedish words; I will miss being a foreigner and having to defend my country by saying that, no, we don’t all love Bush and don’t all agree with the war; I will miss having to talk slower so that everyone can be included in a conversation, and I will miss responding to “what’s this called” with words like ‘spatula’ and ‘ladle’;












I will miss riding my bike by the horse stables every day; but most of all, I will miss the most incredible friends that I have made this fall, and who I will try my hardest to stay in touch with. I am thankful that some of them live in California and I will be able to see them more frequently. I love it here in Sweden and I am sure that I will miss it in even more ways that I could even imagine, but I am so excited about returning to people whom I love and who love me back. See you all soon! much love