Ascension holiday in Linköping

I've been in Linköping since Thursday and I have really had a lot of fun.

GF Reunion
The main reason for going down to Linköping was to meet up with everyone from Gudfadderiet 2010. After much consultation and changing of dates we finally settled on a date and place where all 9 of us could meet up. Having worked so much together during Nolle-P 2010 (Welcome Reception for new students) we have grown to, if not love each other, endure each other and can comfortably be ourselves in each others company. An evening of eating, talking and grieving of how it was "bättre förr" was something that was long needed and definitely lifted my spirits.

Two from our group in our uniform

Skäggetorp
While Matte chose to spend Thursday night at B's place I followed my friend D to Skäggetorp to my sisters apartment. The conversation flowed all the way there and through the night, covering topics of group conversation dynamics, future plans, sibling differences and relationship issues. Half past 6 in the morning is the last time I remember on the clock before drifting to sleep

Lunch and LinCon
Friday morning found me pretty hyped from too little sleep and too much coffee. D was going home-home to her family and I had a early lunch appointment.

I have tried to keep up the sporadic tradition of visiting K's grandparents for lunch. It started with K inviting a few classmates during the first couple of weeks at uni to lunch with his grandparents who don't live far from the campus. They are a lovely pair, welcoming with many interesting stories that they gladly share with the group of 4-8 students that now will visit them 1-2 a year. They listen with interest our stories from our studies, our political statements and sprinkle them with their own experience and thoughts making the conversation a unique encounter that I treasure. I have now received L's memoirs which I have started reading with great interest.

After, once again, a lovely lunch and visit, K, B, L and I went to the uni campus where LinCon was in full swing. Board-games, card-games, rollplay-games, costumes and loads of people was the main image that I got. K easily guided me through the rooms showing me classroom after classroom with students having miniature battles with action figures and models, discussing in deep the strategic course over a fantasy map, inviting us int to get a better look at different games and trying to explain the gist of the game without losing concentration on what the other players were doing. In one room there would be landscapes that looked like Mars, another with battlefields with tanks and military soldier figures and yet another with green fields and model dragons.

A group playing SmallWorld

Two people playing WarHammer

I didn't know what they were playing here but I liked the pyramid

I could have spent hours there but as my goal was not to be there but spend time with friends I was soon following B, our temporary lodger, back to his place where we had dinner together before I went back to Skäggetorp.

Kårtege
SOF (Student Orkester Festival) is held every other year in Linköping and is a three-day festival with orchestras from all over Scandinavia gathered and doing shows.On the Saturday there is a procession through the town which is very entertaining.as they can come on all sorts of things. Below is a selection of my favourites

"We promise, this time the world will end! We counted wrong by a few months!"

Mr Burns

Motor-driven sofa

Pride truck

Motor-driven scooter

Tjenobyl

Avatar creaturs

"Lost everything in the stock market crash, even one of my crutches"

I met up with T, a PhD student, at the procession so afterwards we went and ate sushi followed with a coffee at the newly renovated Expresso House. We decided to pre-party together later that evening with some of K's friends. I was a bit sceptic first, as it was Spex people, who have a tendency to have many internal jokes, but I was pleasantly surprised to have a very enjoyable evening before we made our way towards the SOF area.