New in Lund? Curious about nations? Lundagård’s columnist Jesper Lodin drops some choice knowledge on how to make the most of your nation life.
¡Hola! By now the fall semester is in full swing, and if you’re a freshman, you might be reeling like a deer that’s inadvertently grazed its way into a dubstep gig – the socio-sensory overload can be quite intense during these first couple of months. Even so, I’d auction off my coccyx to get to relive that first, wide-open period when it seems like you can’t go for a haircut without getting roped into the Tuesday bender of a lifetime, and it is with all sorts of conflicting emotions that I’m preparing to leave the academic sphere come next summer. First, however, allow me to sprinkle some Mårtenstorget wisdom on all you new students.
Now, regardless of your personal wishes in the matter, there’s a good chance that your social life will come to revolve around a nation here in Lund. Nations are unlike anything else in society, self-sustained little social ecosystems that somehow hold together as the hubs of Lund student life, despite running exclusively on a White Russian-esque mix between the milk of human kindness and colossal amounts of alcohol. Not only are they bustling student warrens, in which spirits are perpetually high and sanitary conditions are intermittently icky, there’s a whole array of appealing services offered by nations, and you would do well to take advantage of them. Here, have some complimentary pointers on how to make the most of your nation life:
• Do go to the freshmen parties – they’re usually pretty flippin’ wondrous. However, by the time you’re reading this, they’re also pretty flippin’ underway, so I hope you got yourself a ticket. If you’re reading this on your smartphone, tablet, or (God forbid) Nintendo DS while attending a freshmen party, put it away and go interact with a human being instead, you fool of a Took.
• As activity playgrounds, nations are downright laissez-faire in their compliance to accommodate ambition: we should probably count ourselves lucky that someone like Otto von Bismarck didn’t get born in the vicinity of, say, Wermlands, lest that might have been an actual nation by now and not just a place where students go to party. Seriously, most anything you feel like doing, you can probably do in a nation setting; ecological house clubs, surprisingly competent soccer teams, all sorts of culinary endeavors… (Please don’t attempt to sell slaves though)
• Keep in mind that nations aren’t favela gangs – they won’t start greeting you with a hail of Uzi fire just because you did some work for their rivals down the road (well, Smålands might, if you defected to Malmö). You can be as socially promiscuous as you like – there’s no such thing as a ”turncloak” in Lund. As of this writing, neither is there a Sorting Hat, so you might want to shop around a bit before you get serious with a nation.
• Nations also offer cheap food, but in my experience you stand about as good a chance of being served something dredged up from a stygian riverbed as you do an edible meal. I’ve had some good food at nation pubs, but just as many impromptu trips to McDonalds at 11 P.M. to silence the howling void in my belly. Protip: Due to the wildly varying level of culinary quality, it’s often a good idea to ingest a sort of proto-dinner at home before you mosey on down to a sittning. Just take care not to ralph two complete meals onto the sittning table if the served food actually turns out to be too delicious to resist.
