Student blogs

This year I got to see intro week from a new perspective, no longer as a new student, but rather as a current student working for the student union’s “reception committee”, in Swedish: “mottagningsutskottet” (abreviatted to MU.) It was a busy week of socialising and partying… the perfect way to start off the year!

What is a “fadder”?

The reception committee, composed of (for now) just Swedes, struggles to explain what “fadder” means. There’s always a bit of a weird association of us being “fathers” to the new students, but that is not the correct translation of the word. (…I’m still unsure of the exact meaning of the word…) Either way, “fadder(s)” are there to guide new students through intro week. They’re helpers in organizing activities and are each assigned a group to take care of.

From pub crawls, clubbing, to a Stockholm stroll

In just a few days, we fadders spent a lot of time with our designated team, that was also assigned a specific theme (that is important for the last day, the amphiox games!) My team was St. Patrick’s day, and they did an absolutely amazing job on all the challenges…we should’ve won.

All these activities throughout the different days are a great opportunity for students from all different programs to bond and have fun before the stresses of uni kick in. And what I realized this year is that it’s still a fun time for current students too. You get to meet new people, and share the excitement and wisdom of being a current student too! We know just how scary it can be moving away from home, and getting all the documents, bus tickets, etc, all set up. It’s quite a process, and it’s nice to have someone there to ask for help- which is why we’re there!

Amphiox full-sittning

This is a very unique Swedish student-life experience, and one of the biggest sittnings at KI throughout the year. It’s filled with singing songs, making toasts, and watching teams perform on stage to entertain everyone while enjoying our meal. It happens right after the amphiox games, which is a bunch of random games created by each section of the student union dispersed around the campus. Everyone also dresses up as their theme for the whole day. The winning team this year was Hawaii….and not St. Patrick’s day unfortunately… we tried our best.

I am so happy I got to be part of this years reception! It was great fun, and I’m excited to hear how all the new faces at KI will be doing in a few months time!