Swarms of students kept the Scandinavian legend of liberal clothes management alive yesterday during the University of Bergen’s last day of frosh week, and Ragnhild and I were asked to join her friends in organizing a part of the fun. Teams of incoming students had to go around to various different posts and complete some sort of challenge. Points were awarded, in this order, for Livlighet, Kreativitet, Smisk, and lastly, Konkurranse. I was informed that that translates into Liveliness, Creativity, Shameless Sucking Up, and lastly, actually Completing the Challenge.

Our table was made up of the science department newspaper (I was made an honorary foreign correspondent), and so we had the teams spell out the name of the paper, QED. Photos were taken and the best one would be used for the next issue’s front cover. That was the extent of the rules. After that, it was all down to creativity, but mostly just Smisk.

Smisk, for us, was the best part. These students would stop at nothing to bribe us. They gave us beer (that was actually kind of mandatory if they had any hopes of winning), massages, beer and more massages. While the bribery was being conducted, their fellow teammates would hash out their plan. Some were creative. We saw a human pyramid and another group used their bodies to form the letters standing up. Lots of groups, however, just generally shed their clothes and used them to form the letters. Or they just shed their clothes.

I have to say that it wasn’t at all bad sitting behind the table and being treated like royalty while a bunch of hooligans organized themselves into silly poses trying desperately to cover their bits with scraps of newsprint or anything else they could find to retain a shred of decency.

So, now that Ragnhild and I have managed to wear off a bit of the hangover, her friends are coming over to help us choose the victors, and I’ll be sure to post the winning photo.