The Novice Week has been a spectacular happening for new business students for many years. The event is created by the Novice Committee and the main purpose is to introduce new students to Lund as a city, the student union of LundaEkonomerna, and most importantly all their new friends. The COVID-19 situation has affected all social events all over the world, as well as the Novice Week. But finally, this semester the Novice Week in August 2021 was the first since the pandemic started to be back to normal, or close enough.
Today the student union of LundaEkonomerna has 3200 members and during this week 400 of them who are new students, participated as novices in different activities all over Lund. It’s a lot of people! Being a fadder comes with a lot of responsibilities, they have a big impact on the new students and they influence their views on Lund University. We have had the chance to get an insight into the happenings of the week from the fadders’ perspectives. In this article, we can hear Johannes and Alicia talk about their thoughts and impressions of the Novice Week.
What made you want to become a fadder for LundaEkonomerna?
“Eric and I were in the same group as novices and ever since then, we talked about creating that same experience for new novices. We wanted to make them see LundaEkonomerna in the same light as we did, to portray the union in a way that wanted people to get engaged and gain that same value that we felt that we did from our fadders.”
– Johannes
“I think I had so much fun when I was a novice, back in 2019, so I wanted to contribute with that to all the new students in Lund. I also believe that it’s a great opportunity to meet new people and meet new friends. Both novice’s, other fadders, and the novice committee as a group. It’s such a fun week with a lot of fun games and experiences, even if I’m not playing the games.”
– Alicia
Was the experience of being a fadder like you expected it to be?
“We didn’t expect to have any restrictions when we planned for it during the spring. So that was a bit different. But I still think that the novice committee did a great job on making it as normal as possible and then again, I have never experienced a proper novice week without restrictions. So, in that way I guess I don’t know anything better, it was an amazing experience. I didn’t expect how draining just physically it would be. Just walking around everywhere, late nights, early mornings, having lots of stuff to carry around and lots of logistics to take into consideration.”
– Johannes
What was the most unexpected thing that happened during the week?
“The number of friendships that were created between the fadders was something I didn’t expect and I know other fadders didn’t as well. All fadders became friends even though you didn’t know them before. Whenever you met someone that was a fadder you talked to them as if you were old friends even though we were pretty unfamiliar with each other, and sometimes we didn’t even know each other’s names. Being a sober fadder was a blast as well, but I kind of expected it to be!”
– Johannes
“Something very unexpected for me was that it was so much fun to be a sober fadder. But it was such a good opportunity to talk to everyone else. When you’re drinking and everything like that, then you focus more on that than enjoying the company. Also, that all our prank calls went through. No one caught on to it. When people start, they usually know that their fadders are going to call them. But it didn’t seem like any of our novices knew. So, everyone fell for it.”
– Alicia
During the week a lot of fun things happened. We asked the fadders if they had a special memory from the week.
“I think that the one that stands out the most, that kind of talks through the whole week as well, was during Thursday night after a long week, only one day left. Eric and I came home to Eric’s place after an afterparty just to eat and talk through the daytime, as you do. When we got home to Eric he went down to untie his shoes and just fell on the floor just to lay there for a bit. Because he was just so tired and exhausted from the week. He was even sober fadder that day, so it wasn’t even alcohol, it was just him being exhausted from everything that had been going on that week. So, we just sat there at Eric’s place on the floor and kind of took a moment to recover and to laugh about things that had happened. That was a pretty weird moment, but a fun moment that kind of captures the whole week for us fadders.”
– Johannes
“I think our fulsittning was very fun. It wasn’t very planned. We just met up and found these very long tables outside LTHs property basically. And we just put up these long tables and then placed everyone down, which was our group and our friend group. Then it was fun to watch them all get along. Afterwards, when the music was put on everyone got on the table and then the table broke. It was fun to watch everyone’s reactions and to not be a part of it but still be a part of it.”
– Alicia
Do you regret anything that you did during the week?
“There are a lot of regrets I think, and there should be. Because if it’s not then you weren’t engaged enough, The first day when we were practicing the dances, about ten minutes in when we were jumping around, showing all the novices how all the dances were done. Then I kind of slipped and injured my ankle a bit, so that was unfortunate timing. But it worked out for the rest of the week, though maybe I couldn’t be able to be as hyped as I wanted to or maybe I couldn’t be as engaged during some of the competitions as I wanted to, as a very competitive guy.”
– Johannes
Personally, as a novice, I think that the novice week gave me a lot. Walking around in Lund for hours, meeting a lot of new novices and fadders daily, and waking up early in the morning after long night out was off course hard and exhausting, on the other hand just how I wanted it to be. The week was absolutely one of the most intense weeks I have ever experienced. I am grateful that I had this opportunity to meet this many new people and create all these memories in such a short, limited time.
