The grand meeting

Another few days have sure flown by! Except for noticing how early everything closes around here on the weekends, I really didn't do much this last weekend. Come Monday, I was ready to do some more hunting! Found the tram station, which was right "underneath" Frölunda Torg this whole time and I had no idea it was there. Truly wasn't under, just down some steps that was underneath a walkway. Got on Tram 8 and headed to downtown Göteborg. 10 stops later and I was off at Chalmers. This was really neat because there is a stop right at Chalmers entrance! So convenient!

There was a ton going on on campus! Students everywhere, some radio station was sitting right in front of the union door blasting music. Definitely know school is going to start! There's this organization called CIRC (Chalmers International Reception Committee) that helps out international students by throwing parties, organize tours of campus and the libraries. I was trying to find their office to sign up for the tours in particular and I still have no idea where it's at. I asked many people, so either I'm blind, or totally in the wrong place. I'm sure it is much easier than I'm making it to be!

Thought about trying to find Panne, or at least where his office is for the time being. (Panne is the contact at Sweden that I have had since I first applied.) Not only did I find his office but I found Panne as well! Very, very nice and I spent about an hour in his office discussing classes and he answered about all the random questions I had about how stuff works around the city.

After checking out the campus a little more (in the rain because it seems to rain at random), I hopped back on a tram to Frölunda Torg. When I got up to my apartment I had a very nice surprise! My roommates were finally here! Two boys, Dane and Brennan, from Cal Poly in California, also in mechanical engineering. Hmmm....maybe they planned to put people from the states and in the same major together?!? They must have because the 3rd roommate arrived, Niklas, also from Cal Poly and also in mechanical engineering. Was great to chat with someone finally!

Mostly discussed each other's lives for the rest of the evening. Found out Dane and Brennan had been traveling around Europe for the past 2 weeks, and Niklas was taking summer classes in Germany, but also was traveling a bit too. Niklas also has a mother born and raised in Stockholm, so he has dual-citizenship in Sweden and the US and can understand a lot of Swedish! Great for all us Americans!

Now for Tuesday: Had to be at Chalmers by 11am for an introduction meeting and to set up times to meet with Panne or the other two exchange organizers. After the meeting ended, all four of us hung out on campus, grabbed some lunch and then hit up a campus tour put on by CIRC. Got a lot of info from the tour, definitely a tiny campus compared to what I'm used to! With around 10,000 people, it is very simple to find your way around.

Funny story too: while I was buying my sandwich at the little coffee shop inside the student union, a woman probably in her 60's from Australia came up and started talking to me. She said she came to Sweden about 30 years ago for a vacation and she fell in love! Now she's living there! Has been for the last 30 years and now speaks fluent Swedish! She told me to watch out!! She's also housing a student from India for the time being, so we were of course introduced!

Met a lot of people from many different countries: Russia, India, Pakistan, Spain, England, Nigeria, Germany. Very interesting to speak with all of these students! This was just in a group of 25, too, so to think of the whole university! Pretty crazy if you ask me! The girl from Russia sounds like a lot of fun and we exchanged numbers, so I'm sure we'll be catching up at a later point. She was telling us how she'd been living in Florida for the summer and has also been to many states in the US.

After signing up for a "Pub Quiz" that CIRC is putting on, we found a bus for IKEA. Bought a 3 month bus pass that should last for most of our time here. Got to IKEA and bought some more pans, all got some bedding, such as a duvet and cover and I also bought a rug for the floor next to my bed. Got on the bus back to Frölunda Torg and this is where I'm sitting at this moment.

Absolutely ecstatic that I finally can talk to people my own age and I know they are students! All of the international students seem to be very outgoing and easy to talk to! I am very excited about the rest of this week and all the people I will be able to meet! Already have met a ton, so I'm sure there will be sooooo many more!