3am in room 305

I found the most wonderful present in my mailbox this morning - a pair of handknitted woollen socks from my dearest Mother. It was perfect timing. Autumn is settling into Lund. The nights are crisp and the wind seeps into all the cracks in your clothes. Not only are the leaves falling, but the chestnuts too. There's nothing like the gunshot crack of a chestnut falling onto the roof of a car to get your heart started in the morning.

I'm just back from having dinner with Penny and her parents. Ahhh, parents are great, aren't they? Especially when they come halfway around the world and they still try their damndest to embarrass you in front of your friends by telling them all your nicknames and sing songs in your honour to the rest of the diners. Penny's folks are great people and they shouted me my very first "eating out" experience in Lund, beautiful Thai food. It was hot, spicy, yum goodness. I FELT ALIVE AGAIN!

Penny had her 22nd birthday yesterday in her flat in Ulrikedal. I went around beforehand to have some of Dougal's superb veggie curry. About 5 of her Melbourne friends AND her mum and dad were there and the air was thick with the twang of the ole australian accent. Frankly, as an accent I don't think it rates too highly on the world scale. Depending on the company, sometimes I tone it down or try to lose it altogether (Treason! Blasphemy! i hear your cry). But last night I could let it run young and free.

It was a good, honest, ho-down party and several things of import happened. We launched the "Department of Intercultural Relations, Lund Sweden : Essential Swedish Phrases for the Intrepid Exchange Student" factsheet, complete with legal disclaimer at the bottom absolving us of any responsibility should damage occur as a result of its use.

I also got talking to Penny's Swedish flame Ludvig (I should probably say ex-flame: she quite decisively deleted his number from her phone last night). He's a member of Projekt Sex, which is a student organisation for the promotion of safe sex and an open minded attitude to sex, relations and sexuality among students. I've decided I'm going to join. Don't look at me that way. I'm trying to get involved, to give something back to the community, and this sure as hell beats pulling pints for eight hours at one of the nations. It's a cultural experience. I get to meet more Swedes. I'll learn to talk about sex without giggling and affecting a girlish blush. Pro, pro, pro.

To top it all off last night, Dup, Mikko, Sarah and I hijacked Penny's guitar and played to each other on the balcony under the fresh Nordic sky. It couldn't have gotten better.

I tried to make Berlin to be a bit of a turning point, a time where I could kind of reorganise my life and get shit together. And, in spite the crapness that was last week, it's happened anyway. I've found the motivation to study and plough on through the monstrous texts, planning out essay structures, brainstorming, etc. It's all coming back to me.

I've got two essays on the go. One's really floating my boat, so to speak. I got to choose the topic, and i'm looking into Jantelagen and the Swedish Royal Family. Jantelagen is this kind of Scandinavian social convention that can be summed up by the sentence "don't think you're anyone special or that you're better than us". It's kind of like the tall poppy syndrome in Australia and it's pretty pervasive all throughout the Scandinavian identity. I just don't understand how the Swedish Royal Family - a lavishly decorated, plushly furnished quintet of late 19th centuryesque monarchs - can still exist in such an egalitarian society. But give me two weeks and my deadline I'll let you know.