Welcome to the published part of my life!

Do you remember the German game called Brennball? I played it a lot in school when I was a kid but totally forgot about it.

But here in Sweden Brännboll is just played by everybody, every time and everywhere. In parks, on the beach, in the backyard…

So last weekend I was invited by Emma to play Brännboll in the park with many other Swedish people. It was really fun and quite exhausting actually.

Another check mark for a real Swedish experience

Two weeks ago I finally had the chance to see the beautiful Lund University Main Building from the inside.

My roommate is playing in the University Orchestra and asked us to come to their performance in Lund. It was nothing really fancy, but it was really nice to listen to the music and enjoy the nice atmosphere of the concert hall.

It was a nice change from all the student parties I’ve been so far.

In my point of view such cultural events are always worth going to!

Do you remember this blog entry about my trip to Copenhagen in March saying

I can really imagine, that Copenhagen is a very nice city, when its sunny and people are on the streets. But we didn’t see any of this side.

Therefore a couple of weeks ago I went back to see the sunny side of Copenhagen. And I have to admit, it’s really a beautiful city! The atmosphere was totally different with all these people in the streets and the many Cafés with their tables outside…

So we walked around the city all day, did a guided boat tour and had a luxourious coffee in a park. All in all a wonderful day!

(Ny Havn – “Neuer Hafen”)

(Copenhagen Playhouse – Kopenhagener Schauspielhaus)

(New Opera – die neue Oper)

(canal in the district “Chrisianshavn”- Ein Kanal im Stadtteil “Chrisianshavn”)

(Nyhavn after the boat cruse – Nyhavn nach der Bootsfahrt)

(Rosenborg Castle – Rosenborg Schloss)

(Rosenborg Park)

(Peblingsoe Bridge – Peblingsoe Brücke)

(Oerstedsparken – Oersteds Park)

More pictures are available for download here.

I was told that a “Sittning” is a real Swedish Student Experience I have to have! Because there is so much told about it and it happens so often every week, we decided to go last week. And I have to say it was really worth it. I had a lot of fun and the food was really delicious.

To give you a heads up about what a sitting is,  and because I am lazy, I’ll cite wikipedia (eventhough their English isn’t really good in this article)

A student sittning in Sweden is usually a dinner at the student union‘s property, usually a pub room or such. The meal is prepared and served by the students themselves (a group of students usually cook and serve – the guests are not expected to, but may assist if they so wish). The number of dishes vary, but alcohol is usually included in the price (beer or cider and snaps along with punch). The dress code is different depending on occasion, everything from black tie to student overall can be the evening’s dress code. Sittnings often have themes, and the guests are encouraged to dress to match the theme.

As you can see, our theme was “Black & White”

A vital part of a sittning is singing. The guest is usually given a booklet with songs they are expected to sing during the sittning. Everyone sings when a song is brought up, songs are often related to the current progress of the sitting. Sittings often begin with a certain song, end with another, songs are sung when drinking snaps and there is often a song to honor the students serving and cooking. These songs differ depending on student union.

I have to admit, that I didn’t think that it is really that crazy with the singing. People of our group who have been to a sittning before suggested to make a Songbook with German songs beforehand to bring with us (a Swedish songbook was available at every table), because we were mostly Germans. So we did, putting in it whatever came to our mind, including

• Er hat ein knallrotes Gummiboot
• 10 kleine Jägermeister
• Party, Palmen, Weiber und nen Bier
• Auf der Reperbahn
• Trink, Brüderlein, Trink
• uvm…

I have to say that it is really hard to sing Swedish songs along, even if you have the lyrics in front of you. But we tried and I’m sure it sounded hilarious.

See the video below to get a feeling for the atmosphere (its too big to upload it here so please klick on the link and download it)

Video of us singing at the Sittning

Since there was quite a lot of alcohol involved, you can enjoy a couple of funny pics below, where Mike (a girl from my lab) tries to take a picture of Lorenz and me and finally only succeeded after inviting Christian to join us after he came back from the washroom

1. Lorenz and me trying to not look trunk. He succeeded I didn’t

2. Lorenz and me trying to not look trunk for the second time… He didn’t make it this time… You can ague if I made it or not… At least I’m awake this time

3. Christian coming back and fucking up the picture where both Lorenz and me managed to look kinda normal …

4. finally a nice picture with all of us

After those sittings usually a Nation Party starts and you just stay there, having more beers at the bar and dancing and singing and so on… Those Nations with their Sittnings and Parties are a big part of the Swedish student life and I’m really glad I can experience it. It was a great night!

Exactly two month ago I got this wonderful farewell present from my friends from Magdeburg with the hint to give “feedback ” (haha) when I’ve lisented to it. 

First of all I want to say, that you guys did a really good job and I enjoyed listening to all your contributions a lot. And I always had to think that everything I listened to fitted so well with the person who choose this topic and therefore was talking about it. I also liked the little pices of Tommy and Christian  which always managed to make the other pieces stick together.

To give you an idea what I thought when I was listening to the GGK and to give some special feedback to some people, I will just write down some thoughts from the top of my head.

• “intergalaktische Ausstellung für Astrokybernetik” und das auf dem Mars…. Jawoll Jungs 
• Pauls luggage guidlines:
  I really, really liked the story you picked! Its just so funny! And I think it just so gets the point! But please allow me a little critic on your ability to read it fluently I still enjoyed listening to it a lot! (If you had no chance to listen to the lullabies please make sure you click the link and read it!)
• “technischer Leiter für Worbkern-technologie” – jawoll Christian, das passt zu dir *g*
  “neue europäische Elite- Universität in Magdeburg” – Ich sag nur “Harvard des Ostens”
  a black racist in America… I have no clue how you come up with stuff like that… OK, well… I should know you better
• Martin about Team America
  Well, you already know that you did a good job because you actually made me watch the movie when you where visiting me. I have to admit that I don’t share your passion completely but I see why you like it. I still had a great time watching it, and of cause, exploring Skåne with you.
• Tommys Grouptheory in the Bedroom
  Well, I always knew that math people are somehow crazy But actually I liked those proofs about the mattress  flipping because I could really picture what the group theory meant in this case. And of cause, you have a great way of pronouncing what you read. That made everything way more understandable!
• René’s Tapferes Schneiderlein
  Omg René, this is so you! And thats the best part of the whole story! You can’t imagine what a great time I had listening to it! I especially liked the “Problembär Bruno” reminding me a lot of the great time we had in St. Johann last summer!
• Wer hat da wohl die großen Hände?! René oder Stefan?! Ich tippe ja eher auf letzteres *haha*
• Stefan about breasts
  I honestly already knew what you will talk about before I even read the headline of your piece. Its just so cool that you always stick to the possibly more that true image connected to your person You did a great job in educating the male part of SigmaTauKappa about their advantages from the pregnancy of their loved onces and therefore will hopefully produce many SigmaTauKappa Babies
• “ten times inverted pendulum” well… No comment on that one
• Christines edele Punschtorte
  Oh Christine, I’ve missed your incredible cakes for nearly two years now and I have to say again, even if it’s off topic here, that I’ve always enjoyed them! When I listened to your recipe and your explanations how to employ a “Küchengehilfe” for all the little things that have to be done around the actual backing process I had to think about the time when we did backing and cooking together in Magdeburg and I didn’t mind to be this person Thanks for the recipe that honestly sounds incredibly tasty.
• Ok, so in your imagination I didn’t take a chair in Zürich and am doing my third PhD in New Zealand. Not a bad idea acctually
• Ulf about my Seattle post
  When I started listening to your piece I immediately had to laugh because your way of talking about something is so unique! I have to admit that I didn’t remember all the pictures you described while I was not having the blog entry in front of me, even though I still remember the trip, because I really enjoyed it. To give you a chance to also see the picture my mom was referring to, you can see it below. I sent my mom some more pics about the exhibition, and this was one of them. As you can see, it is also from Alexander Calder.
  
• I am sorry guys, but I didn’t get this transition….
• Christian on OLeds
  This was a very, very interesting documentation about OLeds with a wonderful clear voice explaining everything. I really didn’t know, that they are already so close to serial production! After I listened to your piece, I was telling my workmates about it and nobody of them knew a lot about it! So you didn’t only educated me, but by telling it in a way that I really remembered many facts, you also educate my workmates
• “black whole generator” reparieren… Schon klar
• Astrit about ten ways to destroy our planet
  You know what?! Before I was writing this blog, google told me that today is “Day of the Earth” and I had to think about your story immediately
  
  But even with knowing what crazy stuff is necessary to destroy the earth physically I still think that its most likely we destroy it biologically (sorry guys, I just had to say it!).
• “SigmaTauKappa wieder zusammentrommeln”?! Au ja!!!!!
• Tobi’s Extrapiece about the Frank-Hertz Experiment
  You know what I really liked about your piece?! That you actually put some sounds around it to make it sound like a tape and like an actual drawing of the graph you where referring to.  Since I just listened to your piece last night I didn’t have time to derive an equation for the mass of the liquid in the bottle. But I guess thats a wonderful task for our “SigmaTauKappa Sommerakademie”, where we will hopefully all meed again.

Thanks again for all your work that went into producing these lullabies and I hope to see you all again soon!