Stockholm Orientation and Nation Rant

Nation Rant

I'm sure I've mentioned the Student "Nations" quite a lot in my blogs without really explaining it too much. You guys all probably already have a fair idea of it. They seem to be the student hub for food and for parties. I believe I have also stressed about the history that comes with these nations. By choosing to join a Nation - it was basically us choosing to become part of a student community with members dating back from a couple of hundred years. It's pretty mindblowing to think about it. The Nations I guess can be anything that you want and need as a student. They are run by students and run for the students. The students work there voluntarily, preparing budget-friendly meals all offering breakfast, lunch, dinner, fika, coffee etc. at different times on different days. In total there are 13 nations. The Nations organise events for their members (but people from other nations can join too) such as sporting events, clubs, parties, trips away, bowling, karaoke nights, etc. Basically, if you want something - you just have to approach the Nation and ask them and as long as there is interest, it can happen. I've so far found the Nations to be one of the key things that makes the student life here in Uppsala really great. I think it should be something done at all Universities. It creates a great community feel and is a great way to meet people. I especially love the fact that by joining a nation, it does not mean you can only go to that nation. You can go to all the nations and eat wherever you like. You can even work at other nations if it takes your fancy! So basically, that means that no matter what time, what day - you will always have a place to go with friendly students, activities and budget food and drink available!

So now that that has all been said I know that you guys are probably thinking two things. 1. I'm so jealous I wish I could be in Uppsala with these great Nations. and 2. Which Nation did you join? I can't remember if I have already talked about it so I guess it can be re-said. After much deliberation (and I am not exaggerating... it was a decision that was consuming me), we finally decided to take a perhaps "radical" twist and join Stockholm Nation (founded in 1649 with 4200 members). The reason I say this is radical is because during Orientation Week as you might have heard, we went to a lot of events and the Nations all organised events purely for us to welcome us and help us settle in...except for Stockholms Nation. The one time we visited Stockholm Nation, we went after hearing all the rumours that they are quite elitist and "posh." The first thing to happen was me trying to sit on some couches on the stage for dinner and being told that those seats were taken. We got the distinct feeling from that that there were some hierarchy issues here... Still, we decided to join Stockholm anyway despite the other nations being much more friendly and everyone else we knew joining mainly Kalmar (1663 - 1300 members), Ostgota (1646 - 2600 members) or Varmlands Nation (1660 - 2800 members). Aren't we silly, haha.

So last Monday, there was an Orientation event for Stockholm Nation arranged for the new members and it ended up turning out to be quite an interesting night. It began in quite an intimidating manner as we waited in the lounge area for it to begun noticing that we were the only four international students and all the other new members were Swedish. That was fine. We were here to meet Swedish people and here was our chance! When the event started, a few guys jumped on the stage and began to speak to us....in Swedish. We sat there blankly, confused as crap, unsure whether to laugh or raise our hands and tell them we could not understand. In the end, we just sat there as each person talked and people acknowledged things they were saying and basically not understanding anything that was happening. Eventually, one guy, perhaps noticing how confused we looked introduced himself as the head for Internationals and spoke English to us. YAY!

He then told us that everyone was dividing themselves into groups for a competition where we go around different stations of the nation and do tasks to earn points. We, the International Students, would be in a group together. Joining us were two other guys, one from America and one from Australia. Our group would be lead by two of the more head guys of the nation. Each group then left the hall lead by their "leaders" into various rooms. This is where the games begin. We were told to make a name for our team: I suggested TACK TACK PUS PUS - this means thank you thank you kiss kiss in Swedish. One of the phrases we had recently learnt which ended up getting quite a lot of laughs at each station.

 This is team Tack Tack Pus Pus (minus one guy).

STOCKHOLM ORIENTATION

Room 1: We walked into the room, a little nervous, to a room where there was a long table with people sitting behind it with various bowls and glasses on the table. They also looked a bit nervous, and then they all stood up at the same time and introduced themselves, in English (after the leaders told them we were international) that they were the "kitchen crew" and they had a task for us. The 6 of us divided into 2 groups of 3. This task was easy enough to explain, one member from each team took turns being blindfolded and being spoon fed something and the first to guess it right won. Of course, I was made to go first and I guessed it right - BEANS. Yes! Next one was Olives (thank goodness I didn't get that) and the last one was Mushrooms. Everytime we got it right, we were given a shot to drink. Woot!

They then gave us 4 words and instructed us to make up a team chant/song using the four words. They were, of course, in Swedish so we translated the words into English with the help of our leaders. The words were First Day, Helper, Tile Bar and Freshman. Obviously they sound better in Swedish...it was quite badly translated. We didn't get much time to do it so we made up a pretty bad song using the tune of "The Twelve Days of Christmas" - I don't know why and it is not the best attempt at rhyming I gotta admit. It went something like this:

On the First Day at Stockholm a Helper said to me,

Wanna be a Freshman - just like me?

We'll go to the tilebar and drink a lot of whisky

We're gonna have a party where we're gonna get Frisky!

Room 2:

We walked into this room and it was definitely quite a funny experience. It was a library, and the lights were out but there was yet another long table set up with candles on it and another group of people sitting behind it. We filed in and stood in front of them feeling quite a lot like we were being judged. It felt like something you would see on the Biggest Loser, or Masterchef or even Australian Idol! Kelsey whispered to me, "I feel like we are joining a cult..." This group were trying to be quite serious as they announced they had a task for us.... to pass an orange around our team for two rounds without using our hands, teeth or legs. Gee. What a nice way to get to know each other. The only way to do it was by necking each other which is hard when sooome people are quite short and others quite tall. It was definitely a laugh though! The next task was your classic eat biscuits really quick and the first team to whistle wins. Lastly, they asked us to sing our song and we nervously sang it...we were greeted with much cheering and applause! Oh and again, everytime we won or sang - they fed us shots!

Room 3:

Into yet another room, three people sitting in armchairs with a waffle iron. The task? Again in your team of three, spread Jam on your waffle and then eat it the quickest. Oh and don't use your hands. Yeah! For some reason, I got stuck with being the one who put jam on the waffle (using a spoon in my mouth). We then took turns eating it while the others held the plate. It was pretty silly and we didn't even win :(

At this station, they were also amazed we had a song and we won more bonus points and shots for having a team song (apparently all the other teams so far had not bothered)

Room 4:

In the next room, we had a few sporty guys who had made up a sports quiz for us. Great! And we were doing so well until now. They explained that the questions would be quite difficult and only answerably by guessing wild numbers. And they were definitely impossible ones to answer - unless you are Dylan. Although I think even you would have had trouble Dylan. They were stupidly specific but I think that was the fun of it. Questions like how many goals did so and so score in the year so and so or what was the name of the brother's wife of the captain of this team. So they took a while to get and we needed to get all of them and it was timed. Oh did I mention, we also had to do this, while leaning against a wall with our knees bent in a 90 degree angle which HURTS and if your legs give up and you stand up - you can no longer answer questions. More shots and singing!

Room 5:

In the Bar next. The Bar is situated on one of the dance floors and the three bartenders in there gave us each a beer and said that we needed to each take turns sculling the entire beer until the whole group had finished one after the other and it would be timed. Oh noes! I don't drink beer. Still, I was again, lucky enough to go first, and everyone gathered around me cheering me on and the bartender played really loud pumping techno dance music to egg us on and it was really kinda fun! Next, they had a music quiz where they played different songs and we needed to name them with half a point for each one we got correct. As a lot of them were Swedish songs, they had to skip a lot. Luckily, a few people in the group were quite knowledgeable on their pop and dance music so we didn't do too badly at all! Another rendition of our song here and we scored an extra 5 points!

Room 6:

Next, we were down to the Basement where we met the Catering crew who asked us to firstly do a weird twisty arm trick with a glass on a tray which we couldn't do. Next, we had to get into pairs - and we saw that they had kindly set up an obstacle course for us for which one person needed to stand on a trolley thing holding the tray with a wine glass on it while the other person pushed you around the obstacle course. It was a relay that was timed. Also, the obstacle course involved going into a few rooms and going around things. Not so easy after sculling a beer! Still, I think we did it like a pro! I was holding that tray and the wine glass never fell! Except when I was getting off the trolley. haha

Room 7:

Last room of the Nation, The Kitchen. Here there was another long table with a variety of different drinks with a variety of different people sitting behind it. Each drink was labelled. We were asked to try and work out who's drink was whose. We had a certain number of attempts to get it right and the drinks ranged from your normal Gin and Tonic to Pink Panther and ones I had never heard of. I'm happy to say we managed to get this one down too! Next, we had a competition where we needed to make as many glass towers (comprising of 10 glasses) as we could in 30 seconds and we were timed on that. The last and final task was to stack as many glasses as we could together with one on each end... to make kinda like a rainbow? We had to keep adding as many glasses as we felt the people on each end could hold without anyone holding it up in the middle. The people on each end had to hold the ends with only their palms! We made a good effort on that hitting a record of over 100. I can't remember the exact number.

The Dinner

After that - the games were over and it was time for dinner. This would be our first glimpse of what it is like to be at a Nation Dinner...and give us an idea for what the "Gasque" would be like - which is the ball. It was pretty awesome sitting on these long tables set up in 4 rows like in Harry Potter and we were even in the "old hall." There were candles on the table and everyone talked, laughed and ate. After dinner, they announced the winners of the games - to be TACK TACK PUS PUS!!!!!! woooo!!!!!!! Turns out, having a song had given us the edge. They asked us to come up the front to collect our prize (a bottle of champagne) and then they all egged us on to sing our song for them. Boy, there was a lot of them. We were really nervous but we tried but got half way and stumbled the words. Everyone laughed and cheered for us before they began singing their own nation chants.

Did I tell you about those? Oh all of the nations have their own Nation Chants... like they each have like a book of songs in Swedish which they chant and sing with great grandeur. Some have actions like stomping and certain things that need to be done. Traditions that have been passed down for generations I guess! Here is a photo of one of the guys giving a speech. That happened a lot too. People randomly got up and gave speeches - I dunno what they said cause it was in Swedish.

We had an awesome time here at Stockholm. Sure, there were no International Students other than us but we realised that was what made this night so special. We were really seeing traditional Swedish culture. This was student traditions and we were living it with them. Sure, we couldn't understand the language but it definitely was an amazing experience and something none of the other students got to experience. We were able to talk to lots of Swedish people as well. Stockholm Nation definitely has a very grand feel to it. Everyone dresses quite well in this nation, and the guys all have slicked back hair which I find quite funny (sorta like Malfoy). At each station, the helpers encouraged us to join them in helping and told us about the benefits such as free lunches and skipping the queue when going out clubbing at the nation. We signed up to help with everything! Everyone in the end turned out to be quite friendly and all in all - we had a very memorable night!

Last part of the night involved going to a Toga Party at Snerikes Nation. We were not allowed entry as we were not wearing togas so some people had the bright idea we should all go back to Stockholm Nation and use the table paper as togas. I think it worked pretty well, don't you? :P