The initiation ceremony that has captured the hearts and minds of Kungsholmers. And assaulted their noses with the unbearable stench of raw fish. We caught up with our beloved first graders at Smiska fisk, in the thick of the maritime mayhem.
A mass of curious first graders and the odd second grader huddled in the playing field, hopelessly unaware of the slimy commotion that would ensue. Smiska fisk is one of the Student Union’s crazy events designed to help new students to comfortably wriggle into life at Kungsholmen. These events are all optional, and effectively root out the need for contemptible traditions such as nollning, or initiation bullying.
Today, the audience were treated to a few matches of ultimate frisbee, replacing the frisbee with raw, bloody fish and some glamorised target practice, with humans as the targets. To top this off, a Gangnam Style flash mob was met with scores of laughter and applause. Flying fish, K-pop; who says that Kungsholmen can’t do creative?
To a beginner at Kungsholmen, this must have all seemed positively insane. I myself remember raving about the ‘refreshingly daring’ Student Union last year. But I couldn’t help but notice a general sense of indifference among the second years. How could this be? It turns out that after a year at Kungsholmen, we get perfectly acclimatised to the raving mad lunacy of a lot of the antics that occupy our every waking moment. This is our normal.
So, a message to the first graders. Welcome to your new normal.