What is a nation?

I may be wrong, but I am guessing that your homeland doesn’t have nations... at least, not in the Uppsala sense of the word! Yeah, a nation is a bit like a pub, a bit like a café, a bit like a student club, a bit like a college, even something like a fraternity or sorority... but not really! By joining a nation you will be joining a tradition that stretches back almost 400 years, and you yourself will be contributing to this history!

A nation is a place where you can feel at home with hundreds of other students – you will work there, you will party there, you will definitely make friends there! It is much more like a family than a pub or a restaurant or anything like that, and as such you should treat your nation with respect.

Nations are exclusively for students, and you must be able to show your ID and your paid student union identification to get in. The good thing about this is it gives the nations not only a special atmosphere (you will notice that there are no seedy old guys hanging around at the edge of the dancefloor for instance). It also means that if you have friends visiting and you want to go out to the nations (which you will!) then you need to get a guest card for them. You can get these in the Student Union building. Check out the website of the Kuratorskonventet (United Nations of Uppsala) to find out more - click on the flag at the bottom of the page to see the English website.
» Kuratorskonventet 

If a nation is going to have a restaurant, a club, a pub, sport groups, choirs, theatre groups and so on, it needs people to organise all of this: it needs workers! And the best part of all this, is that many of the people working at the nations do it for free. Yeah, if you work a Friday night at Värmlands you will get a bit of cash to go home with, but the klubbverk (the people in charge) sure won’t. So when you are buying your beer that costs literally half as much as at any regular place, be sure to give the workers a tip. If they mess up your half-dry martini or your hamburger takes a few minutes longer than at McDonald's, don't stress! It is students just like yourself who are providing the service.

You may also notice the security guys standing outside, watching... looking scary. Seriously, Swedish security guys are huge. I am pretty sure they eat Australian bouncers for breakfast. Unlike their smaller Aussie counterparts however, these guys not only have official police powers (which is good reason not to mess with them, criminal records are bad okay!) but they also have a strong coupling to student life – some are ex-students, ex-curators, and they are a hell of a lot nicer than the ones you may meet at a nightclub in Melbourne. So, give them their dues and maybe even be a bit nice to them. And don’t even think about bringing in your own alcohol. Not only is it fairly illegal it also brings out the bad side of the bouncers. 

You should also note that being a member of a nation is not a one-way process. So that you get the most out of your time here it means that you have to get involved. The great part about this is that nations are quite flexible, and have a lot of members, which means that if you want to do something then it is quite probable that there are more people who would like to do that activity. Want to start a cricket competition? Talk to the person who is responsible for sport groups. Want to organise a Chinese food night? Talk with the Pub-master or Kitchen-master or the International Secretary. Have you only got three people at your nation who want to play cricket? Contact another nation and join forces! You are limited only by your creativity and energy.

Nations are a whole lot different in many ways to any place you’ve been before. Ask someone who has been around for a while when the last time anyone had a fight at a nation was. I am betting the answer will be “er... um... nah... I can’t think of any”. And that sums up the nations – everyone takes care of each other and they are a cool place to be.

Want to get more information about the nations in English? Visit www.nation-hub.com.