Gasque

February 25th, 2011

In Sweden, they don’t have proms- they have gasques. Gasques are so much better in many ways. First of all, it’s a great excuse to get dressed up, eat, drink and dance. Secondly, gasques contain many Swedish traditions.

Gasques occur all the time and each one has a different theme. My first (and so far my only) gasque was the international student gasque. It was on a Friday in February and we had it at V-Dala Nation.

When we first arrived at V-Dala, we had a champagne cocktail hour. I think we were supposed to have only one glass of champagne each, but we arrived a little early and I think Taylor and I both ended up having at least 3 or 4 before dinner. The international student gasque is supposedly the largest gasque held on campus each year. I definitely believe this because it seemed like every friend I had made in the last month was there. We filled up all of V-Dala nation, and they have one of the biggest nation houses.

Even though there were a lot of us, we still had random assigned seats. I think it’s pretty typical to have assigned seats but I also think they did this so that all the exchange students could meet more people. I was at the end of the table and sitting next to two people I already knew. I was sitting across from Devin, an ISU student and right next to Josh. Josh is a Boston College student from Michigan. He also happens to be a part of Uplands nation as well. He’s really reserved and I don’t think he likes me very much.

After the champagne cocktail hour, it was time to be seated. We had to wait at our chairs until everyone was there to be seated. When we sat down, our places had been set. The interesting thing about gasques is that a lot of alcohol is served. So when we sat down, we had 6 different glasses and a beer already waiting for us. The appetizer was already there as well; we had reindeer meat. I was a little nervous to try it at first but once I tried it, I finished the whole plate.

Before we could eat, there was speech by the student who had organized the gasque. There was also a speech by the two presidents of the International Student Committee or something like that. Both were really funny. The first one was funny because he told really bad jokes. The second one was funny because apparently it’s tradition to give an ironic speech on the Swedish people’s modesty. So they gave a speech about how everything good in life was a direct result of a Swede or a Viking (no doubt).

After the reindeer appetizer, I had my first taste of true Swedish schnapps and the correct way to “cheers” during a gasque. They first came around and poured everyone a shot of schnapps. Everyone then sings a song in Swedish, and “cheers” in a certain order. Guys and girls “cheers” differently (which, by the way, was why we were sitting boy-girl). For girls, I believe you cheers to the person to your right first, then the person across from you, then to the person on your left. After this, you drink half your shot of schnapps. Then, you go in different order. You “cheers” to the left, then right, and then center. I could be getting this completely wrong. Since there was no one sitting to the right of me, I only had to cheers to two people. Also, I did this about 10 times over the course of 7 or so drinks that I was served throughout the 4 hour dinner.

For the record, in Sweden, you never clink glasses with anyone you cheers with (it’s bad luck). It’s also proper to look each person in the eyes. Finally, the word for cheers in Swedish is “skål,” which is pronounced something like “skull.”

Schnapps, as it turns out, is disgusting. I’m not really a big fan of hard liquor anyways, but schnapps tastes like hot gasoline spiced with black licorice. Some people really like it; it must be an acquired taste.

Then came dinner. We had a moose steak with whipped potatoes. I have also never had moose before but that was really good as well. Everyone also got a glass of wine, water and a bottle of beer with dinner.

We also had entertainment throughout dinner. There was a band, a choir, and a few other student groups that did some presentations. Somewhere in the middle of that, we were served a second glass of wine and yet another shot of schnapps.

Point of Interest: A friend of a friend of friend or something had told Taylor, Ryan and I that the amount of booze served during dinner “wasn’t enough” So we all had bought two extra drinks on top of what was already served. We had the choice of schnapps or avec and I bought one extra a piece. This was of course, without knowing that 6 drinks for light-weight Karlea would quite enough. I’m pretty sure I traded a girl at my table my extra schnapps for her beer and I ended up giving the extra avec away to Kevin later.

Dessert was wonderful, too. It was raspberry cheesecake. Coffee was of course served with it as well. A few minutes after this, the avecs were served. Avec is a Swedish word that translates to something like “after-dinner drink.” Sometimes it’s schnapps, but it’s usually a shot of some sort of sweet liquor. I choose Bailey’s for my avec and that went pretty well with my coffee.

After dinner, there was more singing. We were standing on chairs, dancing around and lots of clapping to the beat of the band. I thought it was hilarious because it’s such a formal dinner and then all of a sudden people are singing songs in bad Swedish while jumping up and down. I tried to take a video of all of this and I’ll try to put it up. It’s hard to see what’s going on but you can hear everyone trying to sing anyways.

When the formal dinner ended, the gasque was technically over. However, there was of course the after-party. The after-party had a live band for an hour, a DJ and a separate room that had karaoke. The live band was good but they had a really odd selection in music (that is another post for another day). Devin and I happened to stumble upon the karaoke room early in the night and sang “Party in the USA.”

The rest of the night was just filled with dancing, meeting new people and hanging out with the good company. The after-party was open until really late but I was really tired after everything that night. Kevin and I ended up leaving in order to get some MAX Burger and to catch the last bus out of downtown in time.

Overall, the gasque was such a success; I really hope we find a good time to attend at least one more before we leave.