Great Perk About SLU Housing and Things To Do During Summer

Dear readers,


I hope that all of you are enjoying some nice sunny and warm summer days, wherever you are. Here the days have been quite pleasant, although the last few days have been somewhat grey and windy. There are two things that I would like to discuss here in this blog.

The first thing deals with on-campus housing at SLU. During the months of June and July SUSBO (the on-campus housing contractor) does not require that you pay rent. That means that you can stay in Uppsala for free during the summer break. Actually this is sort of pleasant. Yes, Ultuna (SLU campus and also the location of the on-campus housing) is somewhat dull and not much happens here. During the summer though and when the weather is nice here and you have one or two friends around, Ultuna can be quite a blast. Especially since all the dorms are practically empty no one will bother you if you play loud music at 2 am! :-)

The second thing I want to cover is ideas of what to do in the Uppsala area during the summer months. Besides going to the city and enjoying the warm summer days in one of the many parks in Uppsala, you can also go to one of Uppsala's many restaurants and bars.

Unfortunately most of the student nations are closed during the summer months due to a lack of students. It wouldn't make sense to keep the nations open during the summer without any customers (a.k.a. students) around.

Here's another idea! As you have maybe read in my previous blogs, in the Uppsala area there are a multitude of camping, hiking and sports opportunities. This past weekend my girlfriend and I went camping on Lake Mälaren, the lake just to the south of Uppsala and the SLU campus. Lake Mälaren is a huge lake with a very extensive and diverse shoreline. There are many nature reserves, small beaches and great large and small camping sites along the lake's shoreline. If you feel like camping at some large and official camping ground you can do that, or what I prefer is to find a tiny and hidden spot along the lake. Choose whatever you prefer.

Here in Sweden you are allowed to camp on private properties for one or two nights. In Sweden the term used to describe this is "allemansrätt" or in English this means "freedom to roam". This is a truly great thing about Sweden. Basically it states that everyone can use nature and forests as they want, provided that they follow some basic etiquette guidelines. Don't create trash and don't disturb other people. Here's the Wikipedia link on "freedom to roam":

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_to_roam

This is sort of nice, because in the USA some farmer dude may threaten you with a gun if you're on his property. This intense situation will most probably NOT occur in Sweden, besides the fact that in my opinion most Swedes are anti-gun and pacifists. GO SWEDEN!!!!!

Anyways, there are many things to do in Sweden over the summer. I recommend to stay here in Ultuna for free over the summer and use the rent money that you save to enjoy some of Sweden, as this is not really as possible to do during the cold winters and during the school year when you're crammed with school work and projects.

ENJOY A PIECE OF SWEDEN DURING THE SUMMER!!!

Peace and love people!

Julian