Snerikoren

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One of the best decisions I have made on my exchange thus far has been to join the Snerikekoren.
Now that probably means little to none to most of my loyal readers so i'll begin by giving you the backstory. and then you can judge me...

In the first few weeks here we are inundated with information about clubs and nations and things to join and sign up for. At one of these sign up events me and fellow australasian hailing from the insignificant country town of Canberra decided to add our emails to the choir list. Now I know what your thinking, Gandhi the choir boy has the voice of an angel its only natural i should join a choir. But I was also swayed by the promise of cheap alcohol and many a party with 75% woman to man ratios. I am here to confirm both points were in no way exaggerated, and the choir and its accompanying experiences has become something I will cherish forever.

Firstly, being able to participate in a group working productively and actively to achieve a common goal to creat harmonised ballads and pop songs has rejuvinated my passion for making music - whether it be by voice or through instrument.

And secondly, little did I know on that first sign up day, but I have had the rare privelage, that not many exchange students take advantage of, to see another side of swedish culture first hand. Some highlights of my choirboy experiences include:

The weekend away.
A few weeks into the weekly monday rehearsals we were informed in swedish, javisst, of an upcoming trip to a mystery location in order to get some solid practice in before the big performances kicked in.
The night before we were to head off, each section (bass, tenor, alto, soprano) got together and prepared the meals.
Me and my fellow 3 basses cooked up a storm of pies. (note the labelling of a special pie).
The next day the 50 or so members jumped on a bus and headed 2 hours out of town, to a small resort with the usual dormatries, dining, kitchen and of course the scandinavian sauna. A day of singing practice preceded the saturday night party - complete with the 90s theme (hence the ridiculous costume worn by yours truly).
Running on schnapps and punch a group of us decided to conduct late night rehearsals in the sauna and sing the night away.
The next day, running on minimal sleep as usual, we were packed back into the bus and shipped of to the 'Bandyfinal'.
Now i had now idea exactly what a bandyfinal was until I actually arrived, but I have to admit, I was impressed.
Picture a sport similar to Ice Hockey, only played with a hockeystyle orange ball. Now picture the domestic final being held in Uppsala, resulting in crowds of 50,000 swelling into the town creating a major buzz of activity and orange carnival atmosphere. Everything was bright orange, including the scarves given to us to symbolise our participation in the choir as the halftime entertainment and thus enabling us free entry.

So before I could sing do-re-me, I was standing amongst hundreds of other choir members from all the univesity nations, perched in the stands and ready to watch my first Bandy game - the final no less. The game was a blinder going to extra time and even if i dind't quite catch on to the rules i still learned many a swedish sporting chant, and less than proper terminology to direct at the umpires.


THe choir gasques.
I'm pretty sure i've already given you the low down on what gasques are all about - at least the best I could describe them to you. So now i'll crank up the volume and fill you in on what the choir gets up to in these traditional dinners.
We arrive a few hours before the guests, practice some, and then sometime during the guests meal stroll into the big hall and fill the room with sounds that would make unborn unicorns shed tears. Afterwhich its time to let the games begin. Imagine a normal gasque, but instead of everyone drunkly stumbling through the songs half knowning the melody and words, replace that with a well rehearsed choir soulfully executing 4 part harmonies and key changes. Also throw in the mix the fact that one guy is surrounded by at least 5 lovely ladies due to the excess female numbers. Might I also mention that due to our performance, all alcohol and food is provided at a subsided value of half price to the upstairs usual guest price - enabling us to consume many a more beverage - ah the sweet taste of saving da monies.

Spring Ball weekend.
The gasque to end all gasque. Strictly tails and white bow tie event. Once again, dinner entertainment provided by the choir. But with a special twist. The night before the spring ball serves as a very traditional and romatic night for the choir. All 9 male members got together in the tower room for some solid vocal training. For every year, the tradition the night before the spring ball is as follows. The choirboys dress up in tails and ride around town to the various locations of the girl choir members (who group up to make things easier). Once there, the girls must hide themselves and only indicate which window is theres by lighting a candle. Then the male choir seranades the girls with romatic european ballads, whilst the girl lowers down bottles of alcohol and food for all the hard work and service. Hence as the night goes on (i think we made 8 stops from memory), the singing gets worse, the food tastes better, the cycling takes longer, and the good times roll on.
The highlight of the night, and perhaps my whole exchange experience thus far, would have to be when we hiked up the hill to the castle and started to serenade the princess of the uppsala land. However instead of lowering down some alcohol for all our hard work, she simply turned away when we had finished and disappeared from her balcony, back into the castle. Admist our disapointment we barely noticed that within a minute, the butler threw open the doors to the place and invited us in for a drink in the private residence of the castle. Sitting amongst the royal furniture and helping myself to whisky and schnapps from the crystal glasses i decided to do what any quick thinking amature would do. excused myself to go to the bathroom and gave myself a private tour of the place, finding that inside these modern palaces, everything happends to be imprinted with royal emblems.

The following night at the actual spring ball was like the aformentioned choir gasques, only with the special feel of having a bowtie and tails on. And the fact that all nations congregated for a mass afterparty till 7 in the morning so by 8 the town was full of destroyed students dressed to the nines. Being spring, the sun has also started to set at 11 and rises by 3, so the walk home at 8 in the morning felt more like lunchtime. The ball also had a live jazz/big band, so waltzing and two-stepping was in order. I've had no idea what was going on and I loved every minute of it.

Tack for att ni latit oss vara en del av den har fantastiska koren. Det var javligt mycket roligare och Hurrah!

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