Maybe you heard about the Orientation Program (OP) before. Before I start, let me just say, that those four weeks were freaking amazing! I honestly don’t remember a time, where I had that much fun before and also got to know so many great new people – and that’s not because my life is boring.
I don’t even know where to start. Let me just take you back to the time, before I got to Örebro, which is by the way an awesome city for doing Erasmus. Back home, I’ve already received some emails from my future group leader, who introduced the Orientation Program a litte, so I kind of knew what to expect. At least, that’s what I thought back then… If I look back now, I HAD NO CLUE WHAT WAS COMING.
It all starts with getting to know your so-called Fadder-Group, usually consisting of a handful of Fadders, which are mostly Swedish students, and 20 to 30 international students.
The first few days already start with a lot of parties. We had many different theme-parties, which were fun to dress up to, like a Swedish-theme party, a pirate party or (my favorite) the Toga-party, where everyone basically uses a white bedsheet to wrap him/herself up like a burrito.
In between those parties, there are always super fun activities during the daytime. You get to know the campus by contesting against the other groups in different tasks. You learn Swedish during a crash course. You experience the town of Örebro by doing different challenges throughout the whole center. And what I, personally liked most, was that you constantly stick to your Fadder group, so that you all get very close. What’s also great, is that you get a chance to interview some Swedes and ask them anything you want to know about Örebro or University stuff.
Once a week you have a Fadder-Group get-together, where you can basically talk about what happened during the week and try to reconstruct the weekend, if necessary. On those meetings, the Fadders usually organize something chill, like having a BBQ outside or just playing board games.
I know, it sounds like they’ve planned activities for almost every day and, honestly, yes, it is a lot of program! But the cool thing is, that you can just pick between those offered activities and just do whatever you’re in the mood for. You’re not expected to attend all of the activities, since everyone needs a few days to rest sooner or later. Or in other words: OP sickness is catching everyone! They say, if you didn’t get a cold during the OP at least once, you didn’t do it right.
When the OP is over, you have like one week without any program, before the final „Welcome Dinner“ takes place. That is a fancy dinner with all of the ESN people, where they show all the photos taken during the OP and also do some program on stage. Afterwards, you can already guess it: Party in Örebro’s lovely town!
Well, the OP is now over since a few weeks and I can’t wait for the one next semester! If all this is still to come for you, prepare yourself to get a bunch of new friends and collect some indescribable memories.
Photographer: Tom Sternberg.
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