While we were sitting on a bench waiting patiently to be let in, we were interviewed and photographed by a couple of men who were writing a piece in the local paper about the international students. We told them our names, age, where we were from, and what we were studying. In exchange for the information, the man with the big, fancy camera took unflattering pictures of us.
Once we were finally inside the hall, we heard from different speakers who gave us information about a variety of things on campus and welcomed us to their university. And then it was time... In the words of the International Student Coordinator, Frederik, "for something totally different."
We laughed because his tone was really goofy and we couldn't quite tell what he was hinting at. This laughter from all the students had not yet subsided when the room went completely dark.
And then... out came the "Overphosare"...
They entered into really weird music and screamed a lot of things at us in Swedish that we couldn't understand. The whole group of international students laughed and took pictures the entire time because we had no idea what was going on. But, after being called "ceros" (zeros) many times and being told to stand up and look down, we gathered that it was some sort of weird role-playing game that they had.
Apparently in this role-playing game, the International Coordinators are referred to as "Nobles" and "Generals". They never smile. They never laugh. And every time they enter a room, they play this really odd Swedish Darth Vader theme. It was hard to understand that it was role-playing at first, though, because they didn't really say much. They also had pyrotechnics in the lecture hall to add to the effect.
I managed to capture part of it on video, but it won't load onto here. Sorry!
After this bizarre show ended, we met up with the friendlier versions of the crazy people who are called the "Phosare". They were dressed in weird jumpsuits with patches and random objects covering them. Their job is to help us throughout the orientation period by showing us around and answering any questions we might have.
In case you're as lost as we were... this is the kind of "rank" that they have...
The "Nobles" and "Generals" are the organizers of the welcome period. We are not allowed to speak to them unless spoken to. Whenever their theme music is played, we are required to look down.
The "Overphosare" work with the Nobility and Generals. They handle the contact between the Phosares and the Nobility/Generals. We, however, are not allowed to speak to them either. They can be identified by the stuffed animal that they wear on their left shoulder.
The "Phosare" take care of us, the zeros. They also handle contact between us and the Overphosare. They wear the weird jumpsuits, hats, and sunglasses. Ryan thinks they look like the people from Street Fighter. What do you think?
We are the Zeros. We are lost new students here on campus.
We know what you're thinking. It's weird, we know. But it is all just a game and don't worry, Mom, it's not like some crazy hazing thing they have here. They don't beat us up or kick us out of school if we don't play along. We aren't even required to participate.
So yeah, that was our afternoon in a nutshell. After all that craziness we found out what time we have our Swedish lessons everyday and then went to a BBQ. They had warm beer and weird tasting hot dogs, but we did meet some pretty cool people there. We even met some students from the United States for the first time. They're from Nebraska and they're really nice. They've been staying here since May because they are graduate students, so hopefully they'll be able to teach us a few of the tricks they've learned along the way.
International student photos are being taken in less than nine hours. I suppose I should try to sleep tonight. Good night United States!
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