Overalls – What are they, and how and when to use them.
At most Swedish universities there is a tradition of having a section specific overall in varying colours and stripes. This is then used at parties and events when you have pimped it out with your name on the right leg and then you collect patches on the left leg. Patches can be bought and obtained for different reasons, they might be from parties you attend, you can have patches from the area you live in and organizations you involve yourself in. It’s a lot of fun to see everyone else’s overall and feel like you are a part of the student spirit. There are events that sometimes have the word “Kravall” in the title, which means overall required, at those events you really can shine with your pimped out overall if you choose to get one.
Obtaining section specific overalls is only possible for an exchange student if you are staying at least one year, you then contact the section of which you belong to and ask to buy one. In other cases ESN have overalls for exchange students that we sell at cost. The ESN overalls are dark blue and should have yellow stripes put on the legs, these are very popular each semester among the incoming students and generally the cheapest of all sections.
But, before you start putting anything on your overall there is a big event you will want to attend first, The Overall Inauguration. This is yet another tradition that you don’t want to miss, before the overall can ever be used, you need to get it really dirty. This is done through an inauguration event where you will perform different activities such as food and colour wars and crawling through mud among other things. It’s all built as competitions where you get divided into groups and compete at the different activities. This event is usually the one that the most people will look back on as the most fun event of their stay in Linköping.
Student dinners
Student organisations at the university hosts different kinds of dinners for their members during throughout the year. These dinners are in Swedish referred to as “Sittningar” which can be roughly translated as “Sittings”. Sittningar comes in many different styles but can generally be categorized into two main categories, Fin-sittning and Ful-sittning (Formal Sitting and Ugly sitting). Like Ugly wine the ugly in the name here does not refer to its looks, but rather it is not quite as refined as a formal sitting.
The Formal Sittings have more guidelines too them. For example, they can generally be considered black tie events and a common location is Kårhuset Kollektivet although other locations are possible. Traditionally Formal Sittings is a three-course meal, Appetizer, Entree, and Dessert. Commonly the meals are served with white or red wine or Cider, an alcohol-free option should always be available as well. Different organizations on the school have different customs at Formal sittings, an example of this is the Economics and Industrial management sections who sing the Swedish Royal Anthem before getting seated.
The ugly sittings come in many different forms and shapes ranging from Toga sittings too Theme sittings where you dress up in a pre-set theme such as. Locations for these sittings can range from outdoors to any indoor location large enough to hold the intended crowd. The dress code follows the theme of the sitting. The kind of food served can come in various forms, however, it generally only comes as a single course. Drinks can also vary greatly but there should almost always be a non-alcoholic option available.
Common for all sittings is that they tend to have Toast Masters and a theme. The Toast Masters, commonly referred to TM, can be considered the conductors of the sitting. They usually come as a pair, often one man and one woman, and they keep the pace of the evening on track and call out and take the lead when songs have been wished. If your table want to wish a song you need to get the attention of the TM’s, which is achieved by answering the evenings’ “theme”. The Theme is announced during the start of the sitting by the TMs and usually is the beginning of a statement. e.x. “Tonight I want to….”. It can also come in the form of a statement e.x. “I want to do this at KK:”
Parties
Some student organizations on campus exist with the only, or main, goal to create amazing parties for the students at the university. These organizations are usually, but not always, tied to a student section, for example the Teacher’s section or Human Resources’ section. These parties are commonly hosted on Thursday, Friday, or Saturday and are generally advertised on Facebook and physically at the school.
The parties are commonly hosted at either Kårhuset Kårallen, usually only called Kårallen, or Kårhuset Kollektivet, usually referred to as KK. If you wish to attend this parties you need to obtain a ticket and the place and time of sale is usually announced in the events Facebook page. Price for these tickets varies but generally lands around 100 SEK ≈ 10 EUR.
Like the Student dinners, Parties come in different forms, Themed parties, Kravall, or un-themed. The themed parties come in basically any form, from toga to pirate parties and so on. The one might be good to know more about and you can read a quick introduction to this topic under the Overalls Section.