Lund’s student nations live to serve you. Did you know they can also be served BY you? That is, through the many volunteer opportunities the nations offer year round. Get involved with Lund’s student nations, and discover the fascinatingly unexpected ways Swedish students enjoy spending their time.
That dreaded Skype date with your family looms ominously near. It suddenly hits you that your last month has seen only mayhem in your corridor and the blurry bottoms of Absolut bottles. Explaining this to your parents will be a daunting task.
How about telling them you can prepare a killer martini, or that you are ready to seize the family title of top chef from your grandma?
You have only just arrived, but will soon find that the nations are the heart of student life in this quaint, little town. Sweden is an expensive country. Locals complain of a winter chill that creeps through a hole in their pockets where their wallets used to be.
If you say a hearty “nej, tack!” to local prices, come to the nations, which offer low-cost meals and awesome nightlife almost every day of the week—only to students! They might sound strange and foreign now, but rest assured, you will spend more hours there than in the classroom.
Fascinatingly, the source of the nations’ low costs is voluntary student labor. People volunteer their time for their fellow students, and that generosity is reciprocated—behavior you would expect from people who hail from the “socialist paradise”.
You might not like the sound of it. “Volunteer work” might recall memories of mind-numbingly dull labor, done solely to fulfill a school or church obligation.
Working at the nations is anything but drudgery, though. The responsibilities are unique, jobs you probably won’t have the chance to try out later in life. Life behind the bar at a hot nightclub is a thrilling, fast-paced environment. So is work in the kitchen, learning to craft meals that will grant you the reckless confidence to challenge Gordon Ramsay to a cook-off.
Sound stressful? Relax. There is a shared understanding among students to go easy on workers. They are offering their services for free, after all. And your bosses—who are also students—know how to shower you with appreciation, whether in the form of a dinner party, alcohol, or possibly free night club entry. It’s no wage, but probably what you would have spent your money on anyway.
Most importantly, it is an effective way to make friends—especially Swedish ones. Share with them the gratification of accomplishment through teamwork, when hundreds of students are happily fed (or drunk) thanks to you. Your new friends might even teach you a few Swedish words, which is more than you will get from chatting people up on the bus (do not try).
So stop inside a nation office, and peruse the varied activities they offer. Sign up for something you have never done before. You came to Sweden for novel experiences and new friends. That is what getting involved with the nations is all about.
