An International Reception in the Least International Year
This year’s international reception has come to an end. Saga, head of the Ambassadeur group, takes us through the year.
This year's Ambassadeur group. Saga in the middle.
Saga started as Ambassadeur in the beginning of December last year and the rest of the group joined her in January. Their first task was the spring reception, which worked as some sort of rehearsal for the fall reception.
Right after the spring reception, the group started the work for the reception in the fall. Interviews for the rest of the Phestivery (about 30 people) should take place and the events needed to be planned. Just in time for the interviews, school closed due to Corona. Because of this, all the interviews took place in everyone’s favorite place – Zoom. “This went just fine, even though it was difficult to get an accurate picture of everyone without seeing them in person”, says Saga. However, the planning of the events could be best described as a rollercoaster.
Saga and the rest of the ambassadeur group planned for 11 events and set the dates before the Corona-outbreak in Sweden. During spring and summer everything went back and forth, there were new restrictions coming up continually. Their close cooperation with THS and their international reception meant that the THS’s rules also applied for them. For a while they did not even know if the reception could take place at all. Would the international students be allowed to go to Sweden? Actually, KTH office started to discuss a digital reception in the beginning of the summer.
Luckily, the students arrived, and the reception could take place. Sags says that even though a lot of things changed from the original plan, some of them at the last minute, the reception turned out to be a success. Almost all the originally planned events took place, with some restrictions being made of course. These were for example: “Brännboll”, Kräftskiva-gasque, an evening at Osqvik and midsummer celebration (including the traditional bad weather).
The Kräftskiva-gasque (Crayfish party).
Saga thinks that the best thing with the international reception is the fact that you get to meet students from all over the world and share experiences. Also, being a part of the Ambassadeur group gives you the opportunity to, pretty much from scratch, plan a whole reception. And the greatest lesson learnt from this year? “Always have a plan B. And a plan C”, says Saga with a smile.
Frida Wistfors
Writer
