Subtitled Valborg videos

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JL29pgHOaRM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnbIFXjJtmo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yaIotHxTeKk

Try these Valborg videos instead!

Vårbal & Grand Show

So, me and Fredrik woke at the glorious hour of 4am Thursday, packed up a picnic bag and chairs, and headed down to Snerikes nation to get in line.

Arrival time: 4:25am. Already 20 people waiting in line.

And spent a wonderful(ish) 6 hours waiting for the office to open at 10am. And, it's a good thing we got there when we did. There were 30 ticket pairs left after the nation seniors and workers bought theirs... and we got the 19th pair. Anyone who got there after 5am went home empty-handed. Crazy stuff.

Making a caviar sandwich in the lineup.

Last night I went with Fredrik, another Fredrik, and Johan to see Johan's girlfriend performing in a show. I wasn't sure what to expect... and was of course extremely surprised. The show was called "Grand Show" apparently a yearly thing. It seems to be a Norrlands nation thing, with the "Swedish Show Orchestra" (loose translation) and was essentially two hours of showtunes with a live band, dancers, and singers. Some acts were dramatic, some were funny, others downright odd. Some examples: man singing in his pajamas complaining about the dancing lamps (female dancers wearing lampshades on their heads). Dance debate on which came first, the chicken or the egg (complete with an egg in pink tights and two very rowdy chickens, Aristotle, and several 'scientists'). A princess searching for her frog-prince among varied frogs, including an aerobics frog and a gangsta frog. Some 'old people' dancing with walkers and wheelchairs. A horse playing saxophone at a picnic. A Robin Hood-style dressed guy trying to cheat death, offering to play chess with death (referencing classic Ingmar Bergman movie Seventh Seal) but they then end up playing twister and ping pong. A man's neighbours all go on holiday and leave him with their chores to look after, including a lawnmower, a dog, and a baby, and he sells them all at a garage sale.

Keep in mind all these were in Swedish, and nearly all involved some form of dancing.

Overall I was super impressed. Everything was done live, they had great costumes and props, and everybody was very professional. They had some really great dance numbers, classic showgirl-style, modern stuff, Charleston, all kinds of things. All this in a tiny theatre, with maybe 15 orchestra members and 10 dancers/singers. 

Horse playing sax at a graduation picnic, in front of an old 'lady's' house... ??

Första två veckorna!

The first two weeks!

Hello again blog reading family.

I have been having a very busy two weeks here. As I wrote already last week, it started off with a lovely surprise party here in the apartment! The next few days were full of Valborg celebrations.

I found these great cheesy videos done by Uppsala University which explain some traditions of Valborg:

Grundkurs 1A : It's called 'basic course' in April's last day traditions. There are 9 videos in the playlist, the first few are the best.

We started off in the morning by the river, waiting for the boats:

While waiting, we had our classic 'champagne breakfast' (champagne & strawberries) which Fredrik managed to explode on his pants... and climbed up on a wall to try to see something.

We only managed to see the first boat come by, then the police made us all get down from the wall. We headed over to Ekonomikumparken, where traditionally everyone picnics all day (thousands of people...)

It was a bit chilly in the park...

Representing their countries... international students love Valborg.

Some people like to dress up in silly costumes, just because they can

My building. Needless to say it was pretty messy the next day... first choice for bathroom break

My friends! Fredrik on the left. We were a bit late in establishing ourselves so we're at the far edge by the parking for the uni.

At one point it started to hail...

Some people stuck it out but most ran for cover. My friends came to have a dance party in my apartment.

This isn't my picture, but it's what we might have seen from the roof :)

Students as far as the eye can see...

In the evening the sun came out again, so we moved across the street where they had set up a DJ.

After all the fun, it was time to do some good ol' waiting in line. On business days only, between 10am and 4pm of course. One hour at the bank, one hour at the tax agency, three hours at the job agency. Result? A bank card I can't use until I get the pin in the mail, a reminder that in several months I will get a letter that I must take back to the tax office to wait in line again to pick up my fresh ID card, and instructions to come back to visit the job agency three times in the next two weeks. Sweden. Zzz.

Also, more trips to Ikea to make a bit of storage space for me... and we put up some blackout curtains to block off the bed from the 5am blazing sun.

It's been 20 C for the last few days and absolutely gorgeous sunshine most of the time. Most people are working on papers and theses and general finishing up, so I have lots of time to wander around the city and organize in the apartment.

Tonight Fredrik will drive us out to Västerås and we will meet a couple of his friends living there for a BBQ, and tomorrow hopefully we can buy our tickets to the extra-popular Vårbal, the annual spring ball hosted by the nations. Everybody wants to go, so tickets are hard to come by. At the most popular nations (like mine, Snerikes) people literally line up at 4am to buy their ticket at 11am when the curator's office opens. In every nation, the first ticket-selling day is only open to 'nation seniors' and those who run the nation (curators etc.). There are a few remaining, which are snapped up my nation members the next day, and if by some strange chance there are any left after the members go at them, then members of other nations can try to buy them. Nobody who isn't a member of Snerikes ever gets a ticket to the Snerikes spring ball... ever. Today we tried to get tickets to Värmlands, but there were only 5 tickets left for non-members and (surprise surprise) we were too late... our next hope is to go to the biggest nation, V-Dala, which has space for 350 people. All the tickets are sold out, but if those who 'claimed' tickets have not paid by tomorrow, they turn to the 'reserve list' (which we are hoping to get on tomorrow). Fun times... fingers crossed.

Something for Fiona to work on this week: try not to vomit when Fredrik eats a cold boiled egg with a big squirt of caviar on top.