mokudekiru

Weirdest night so far in Lund.

Part 1: Dirty children’s songs at a Sittning

The night started with a sittning at Krischansta nation. A sittning is apparently the traditional Swedish way to party – you sit at a really long table and eat and drink and sing — they give you a song book with song lyrics in it, and there’s a person in charge of telling people when to sing. Normally all the singing would be Swedish, but this was a sittning organized by the Erasmus Student Network, so it was only for foreigners and most of the songs were English (and a few various other languages).

Many of the songs, however, were extremely dirty. And involved sexual positions/preferences of either girls, or worse, cartoon characters (I know way too much about the private life of Yoggi Bear now).

Our table:

Oscar was in charge of leading the singing:

Other side of the table:

Sometimes we had to stand on our chairs while singing too:

After the sittning was over, they cleared out the tables to make room for the dancefloor and the Kristchansta pub/club started. It looked like this:

Part 2: Awkward dancing and the mystery of the disappearing iPhone

Now, I’ve been to a ton of club nights so far. Usually I don’t have a huge problem with unwanted advances, and if you’re not up for meeting new people it’s pretty easy to stick with your friends (due to the non-grinding rule of swedish dancing). But for some reason, tonight, several guys of various nationalities decided with great certainty that I was highly interested in dancing with them for extended periods of time. I’m really not sure where they got this from — probably the lack of eye contact. After awkward dancing encounter #2 or so, I realized my phone was gone!!! DISASTER!!! I figured it had fallen out of my pocket on the dancefloor and that someone would eventually return it to one of the bars or counters (or that it would be trampled, but I didn’t see any iPhone crumbs on the ground).

So phoneless and avoiding a large percentage of the attendees at this club, at some point I went to the bathroom just to take a breather.

Part 3: Strange Bathroom Encounter

The girls’ bathroom had 4 stalls, and 2 sinks. When I walked in, there were about 5 girls standing in front of the mirror doing makeup or washing hands, and all the stalls were full. After about 30 seconds, two guys walked out of two of the stalls simultaneously. People here apparently don’t take the gender segregation of bathrooms very seriously. Actually, there seem to be hardly any bathrooms that are even separated by genders — most bathrooms are just 1 room for each toilet/sink anyway, but I’ve seen some larger bathrooms with stalls that are also coed. Anyway, I digress.

So the dudes walk out of the stalls, and despite all the other people there (maybe it’s because I was giving them a weird look) they started talking specifically to me. Our conversation went like this. My commentary in italics.

One of the Dudes: Hej.
Me: Hej…? (but probably it was actually “hey” since I have an American accent)
Dude: Whatcha doing?
Me: Umm… just chillin’, I guess
Dude: Who just chills in the bathroom??
(so first they come into MY bathroom and then question ME what I’m doing there? Do not understand)
Me: I dunno, it happens.
Dude: I’m a guy so I don’t really understand the concept of “just chillin'” in the bathroom
(I’m pretty sure that by having this conversation with me they were, in fact, “chillin’ in the bathroom”)
*Awkward pause where we stare at each other*
Dudes: Well, see ya.
Me: Bye…?

Then they left.

Part 4: Meeting Swedes and the great iPhone search

If this night is sounding just full of awkward, here’s the part where it takes a turn for the slightly better. I found some cool Swedish people to talk to while I waited for the club to end. Once the lights went on, I asked everyone working at the pub/club/door to look for this phone, and after about 15 minutes, someone said they’d found it! She had seen it on the dancefloor, taken it into the kitchen, but then claimed it had disappeared once more. She did eventually recover my phone though, for which I was quite grateful. I worked hard to get that thing to work here.

Part 5: Chili-chocolate ice cream

This was probably the most successful part of the night. Ian and Jack walked me back to Sparta in exchange for snacks. My favorite Swedish ice cream flavor, chili-choklad, was involved. It’s mostly just chocolate ice cream but then you occasionally get a spicy piece of chili pepper. I swear it’s better than it sounds.

And proof that my korridor keeps its countertops clean and shiny:

A lot of time in Lund is spent dancing. As someone who enjoys dancing in America, the first night dancing here in Sweden came as a bit of a (culture) shock to myself and the other Americans I was with. Other nights out have confirmed the following difference between Swedish and American dancing.

Rule 1: Dance in Circular Formations
This can best be illustrated by a birds-eye view diagram of a dancefloor. American dancefloors tend to be filled with grinding couples, and the occasional pair of girls who are friends and are either creeped out by all the other guys in the venue or are trying to impress someone.

In contrast, Swedish dancefloors are divided up into circles of dancing people.

Rule 2: No Grinding; Dance with your Arms
It might sound crazy, but they actually have different dance… moves here. As in, if you just shake your hips from side to side for three hours, people will think you DON’T KNOW HOW TO DANCE (everyone’s biggest fear, of course). Lots of fist pumping, jumping, headbanging, and there is no significant difference between guys’ dance moves and girls’ (how progressive, Sweden, how progressive).

You also have to dance really low, squatting on the ground, while the music builds, and then jump up at the appropriate time when the bass comes in (which happens roughly 16 measures later than it would in American remixes, so I always screw this part up too).

Grinding is nonexistent. Try it and you will freak out Scandinavia.

Rule 3: Always Make Eye Contact with your Dance Partner
Like rule 2, this is another rule that’s the polar opposite of the rules in the states. I mean, who makes eye contact with their dance partner in American clubs? Actually, in America, it’s best not to look at who you’re dancing with at all. Half the time they come up behind you and you just have to look at your friend who will make a disgusted face or a happy face, depending on how ugly your new dance partner is.

However, in SWEDEN… you must maintain eye contact at all times. At first, I found this pretty unnerving. Actually, I still do. It’s weird! In general, the things that are considered intimate here and in the US seem to be exact opposites: Americans are fine with grinding and being grabbed in inappropriate places, because it doesn’t seem all that intimate. But eye contact, and being touched on the shoulder, or maybe the leg, are weirdly personal to me, yet the norm here.

Rule 4: Change Dance Partners Every 30 Seconds
Remember those eye-contact dance partners you don’t actually touch except on the shoulder? Make sure to mix it up, constantly. Even couples kinda keep their distance. Flip side? It’s easy to accidentally end up dancing with someone else’s SO. Watch out for that

Rule 5: Pushing and Shoving is OK
Those circles of dancers are also constantly changing. Shoving people out of the way happens often (the bar area is especially dangerous), but I have yet to see any legitimate anger – no barfights. And ladies, you can push and shove just as much as your male counterparts. Remember, this is Sweden. EQUALITY!

Rule 6: Dancing with someone of the same sex is OK…if you’re a guy
Another one where the rule is exactly opposite of the US. Bromancin’ dude couples are common (and the one case in which grinding seems to be acceptable). Girls don’t dance with girls as much, at least not one-on-one.

Rule 7: Know Every Robyn Lyric
Robyn, Sweden’s #1 pop star, is indisputably important. She doesn’t seem to be polarizing like Lady Gaga or Koda Kumi characters. I think she’s bigger than Pippi Longstocking. Know all her songs. They will be played.

The good news is, other than every Robyn song, there are only about five songs you need to know, because every club is going to play the same ones over and over and over and over. I am Waka Waka-ed out like you won’t believe. For this purpose, I’m keeping a playlist of songs that are overplayed in Swedish clubs while I’m here. Enjoy! You must listen to Duck Sauce at least 5 times in the same evening to get the full Swedish effect.

Rule 8: Dance Forever
This last one is a good rule of thumb. I have already danced here more than an entire normal semester. The bottom of my feet are getting red and tough from dancing — I guess I’m just an American n00b.

Alright, peace all! Classes are starting up, so perhaps something a bit more academic? I think there are at least 2 more installments left in the Swedish Party Culture series, so we’ll see. Hej då!

Lund Universitet is a party school that has its act together.

In many ways, Lund is a lot like home: big school in a small college town, flat, technical/innovation focus (though not nearly as computery as home), lots of international students… but the way they’ve worked out the party scene is incredibly organized and, well, seems to work. Here’s a rundown, and key terminology for later when I’m referring to “party @ nation X” etc.

Nations

Nations are the core of Lund social life. Think of them as a cross between frats, and the Harry Potter house system. Instead of 4 houses, there’s 13, and you get to be the sorting hat. Each of them is named after some region of Sweden (Lunds, Malmö, Göteborg, etc.) Each has their own building, usually with some housing in it (for some, but definitely not all members of the nation) and an area or two to hold events, mostly pubs and clubs (see below). All of the nations are connected under one umbrella organization, Studentlund, affiliated with the school. Most importantly, if you join any ONE of the nations, you are allowed to go to parties of any other nation if you show your nations card (except one nation, Smålands, which apparently doesn’t play with others. People say they’re also the anarchist group. Anyway…)

It is vitally important to join a nation as soon as possible. For the first week of the semester, you can get into parties if you present an ID and your letter of acceptance, but after week 1, you have to show your student card, and a receipt that you’ve joined a nation, while you wait for your nation card to come in the mail.

This semester is certainly the first time I ran around on a Friday or Saturday night waving my university acceptance letter at bouncers.

Nations seem to be entirely student-run, despite their affiliation with the school. Some nations are really big – thousands of students – so I imagine running them is quite a bit of work. In fact, some students who are nation leaders even take off a year from classes JUST to run their nation (Whoa! That might have been helpful for running the ACM Conference or something…) Student workers are also the bartenders, DJs, servers, waiters, and cooks for all of the nation events.

The nations completely seem to run the nightlife of this town. Partially because of the by-students-for-students aspect of it, but also because the prices at nation events are much lower than going to “real” restaurants, bars, or clubs (I doubt there are any real clubs here besides nations, actually). Food at a pub goes for ~45 SEK ($7) whereas in a restaurant you’ll have a hard time finding a meal for less than twice that, with the exception of falafel & pizza (there’s pretty much a falafel/pizza place on every corner here) which aren’t that expensive. Drinks are also around 1/2 or 1/3 of the price as a normal cafe/restaurant.

Pubs

Pretty much every nation holds a pub at least once a week. You can come and eat food, and although there’s usually only 1 or 2 choices of what to eat, I think they tend to post what they’re serving online ahead of time. On Thursday at Sydskånska they had veggie or meat lasagna, for example, and on Friday at Kalmar the choices were Fish n’ Chips or Hamburgers. Sometimes there’s live music (especially at Sydskånska, since they are the music-themed nation) but the key element seems to be candlelit dinners with your friends. I’m skeptical of the safety of having a bunch of people drinking right next to candles, but it is kind of cozy.

Sydskånska’s pub on Thursday:

They had a DJ for the first part of the evening:

Then this girl on a keyboard started playing. She was pretty good. Think Swedish Regina or Kate Nash.

Kalmar nation’s pub on Friday with my Mentor Group:

Me included this time:

Clubs

Most, but not all nations hold clubs, often in the same room or a neighboring room to their clubs. There’s a bar or two, and of course djs and LOTS OF DANCING. There is a kinda steep cover, about 60 SEK, but coat check is free (and pretty much mandatory), and I have to say I appreciate not getting my coat stolen or freezing. Lights, dancing, mayhem. I think “Rules of Swedish Dancing” deserves its own post so stay tuned for that, but there is an AWFUL LOT OF DANCING here in Sweden. By the end of week 1, the bottom of my feet were sore from dancing, which has definitely never happened before.

Also, it is noteworthy that while clubs go on in nations (mostly), sometimes there are clubs for random parties in university buildings, such as the welcome party for exchange students which happened in Kårhuset (basically the Lund Technical University Students’ Union building).

Club @ the party I just mentioned:

Club at Helsingkrona nation yesterday (there was a looooong line to get into this one):

Sorry for slight blurriness:

Choosing a Nation

Everyone says it doesn’t matter what nation you join, because of the whole “member of one nation means you can party at all nations” rules. Thus, exchange students tend to be overwhelmed at the range of options. On the second or third day after arrival day, there was an open house in the Kårhuset building where each nation had a booth and could tell you why to join their awesome nation — basically the nations version of Quad Day at UIUC, plus a few other random non-nation student organizations.

I decided to join Sydskånska because they are the music-themed one, so each of their pubs, clubs, and events have a different style of music, so it seemed a bit less generic than the other nations to me. Additionally, it’s very close to my dorm (about a 5-7 minute walk). 90% of exchange students join Västgöta (or VG for short), for no other reason it seems other than that’s the one that all the exchange students join. They have a good club on Wednesday, but I didn’t see any particular reason to join it. Sydskånska people I talked to also seemed pretty cool, and their nation itself had more of the grungy parents’ unfinished basement sorta feel to it than some of the other nations.

My new nation home, Sydskånska, from the outside:

Nations’ Schedule

During the arrival nations “quad day” they also handed out the nation schedule. As you can see, the only sorta dead nights are Sunday and Monday. This school seems pretty seriously devoted to making sure that its students get their partying in.