Semester in Lund

Semester in Lund was very special in every meaning of the word and took place in our hearts. The semester when students have an opportunity to spend the semester together, live together, eat together, study together, and travel together. It was wonderful to share happy and stressful moments together. It made us bond, the bond that will hopefully last for a lifetime.

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During the semester we had four classes, four field trips, and three IMFSE student-led workshops. It was a very fulfilling and productive semester. We learned about human behavior in fire, assessed risk of fires in a theatre, and did Steckler room simulations with FDS. We tried out Cobra cutting extinguisher (originated in Sweden), slid down a fire pole, and sat inside the fire truck.

The semester in Lund was amazing and I am sure following semesters will be even more so.

My greatest appreciation to Lund University and IMFSE ‘18-20 for an unforgettable semester ❤ !!!

Potluck and Games

Few days after finishing our last exam in Lund, we started getting ready to pack our stuff and get ready for summer break. Naturally, having many leftover products and food, some of us decided to get rid of them without wasting. This was a great reason for us to gather for a potluck dinner. Being part of IMFSE family means being in a very diverse environment. Dinner was great. It consisted of Indian, Sri-Lankan, Bangladeshi, Pakistani, Egyptian, Iranian, Kazakh and other national food, such as dolma, potato curry, pulao, fried beef, chicken qorma, watermelon jelly with apples, and chocolate pudding.

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Then a spontaneous potluck dinner dissolved into the game night and early morning at the playground 😀 😛 .  When you have an awesome night with awesome people, you obviously would not want to stop. As a result, to continue the fun, we ended up going to Copenhagen to visit the famous Tivoli Park and the city.

The last activity in Lund before everyone went their separate ways, we decided to have an early dinner at an all-you-can-eat sushi place. As usual, quality time with friends was great and sushi was spot on. If you ever end up in Lund, definitely try Aiko Sushi, the best place to enjoy sushi in town.

Now, it is time to start the summer break after an enjoyable and productive semester in Lund ❤

Feeling at Home

And just like that our semester of studies in Lund has finished and we’ve reached the halfway point in the program.

It’s quite a strange feeling that we’ve been experiencing over the past week or so (outside of the times in which we’ve been totally absorbed with last-minute study). We’ve all gradually realised that, depending on each other’s mobility selections, there is almost half of our cohort which won’t physically be in the same location as each other until we arrive at our graduation in over a year’s time.

To celebrate the end of semester and farewell each other for the summer (or longer) we held a small, tightly packed party in our apartment. It was here that we discovered that each of had seen and experienced different aspects of Lund over the past six months. Despite this second semester being affectionally referred to as the semester of travelling, many of us had not done much travelling around the town in which we were residing. There are many great spots that each other had never come across simply because they were outside of the main routes between the university, town centre, and home.

I’ve come to realise I’m very lucky in this regard. I love riding bikes, so much so that I brought my racing bike with me from Australia. The extent of places that you’re able to see on a bike and the connectedness to your surroundings is unparalleled.

I have gotten lost, crashed, had mechanical issues and been utterly depleted, but have returned so much better for it.

As I’ve touched on before, one of the challenging aspects of this program is never feeling quite at home before moving onto the next location. Whilst others have finished with their time in Lund and are running to the airport, I still feel slightly attached to this place and luckily don’t have to leave until the end of the summer.

I can’t stress strongly enough how important it is to make the effort to explore, discover what is often hidden right under your nose and to connect to each of these places in which we reside. You don’t need to do 100 km long training rides like me to get a different perspective on these places; perhaps it is enough to ride to the next town, to the coast or even just to the local park.

It may make it harder to pack up and leave, but what you get in return is immeasurable.

Lund Football Tournament

Every year, Fire Safety Engineering Student Organization, or in Swedish, Brandingenjörsstuderandes intresseförening (BIIF), organizes a free football tournament for all the students within fire safety engineering, risk management or disaster management area. For us, it was at the weekend before the 2^nd term started. We were told by one of our seniors, just call her Farah, that IMFSE had never reached 1^st 2^nd and 3^rd place in this tournament, or in other words, we always finish last. Sad truth but that made us determined to break the record by at least finishing 2^nd to last.

IMFSE Team and Supporters

At the first and second match, we did well to secure 2 draws – the first one should be a win though but the referee didn’t see the ball going into the goal. But after those 2 matches, we suffered 2 successive defeats that resulted in us finishing 5^th out of 5 teams.

Leo feeling comfortable under the bar

However, during the break time Danny was recruited by the other team as a goalkeeper to play in the final and managed to win it to make us proud with his IMFSE shirt. It was a very good event and many thanks to BIIF for having us in this event. For the next IMFSE cohort, please win the tournament!! Semangat!

The Winner of the Tournament