Reykjavík Grapevine - 26.08.2011, Síða 18

18
The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 13 — 2011
Back To School | Party time
Are students these days 'drinking too much'? Is that maybe a
problem? Or should ones 'college years' be all about socialising
and 'experimentation'?
Nordic House Sturlugata 5 101 Reykjavík Tel. 5517030 www.norraenahusid.is
The Nordic house offers a tour with world famous architect Alvar Aalto (portrayed
by an actor), where guests are taken through the history of the Nordic House,
inroduced to the designs and history of the master himself, along with sampling
culinery delights from Dill restaurant, the top kitchen in Iceland. Come and
experience an architectural gem right in the heart of the city...

TAKE THE TOUR WITH ALVAR AALTO
Please feel free to drop
by monday to saturday
at 11 am and 13 pm.
Price 10 €
Icelandic nights get lon-
ger, the sun bids its
goodbyes and the rain
washes away the sum-
mer. The tourist season dies down
and international students arrive.
The home coming ball is the first of
many events on the student calen-
dar that add to the university expe-
rience after hours of lectures.
WELCOME TO ICELAND
The welcome orientation at the begin-
ning of a new school year gives inter-
national students the chance to mingle
and get to know local students. There
are two to three days of orientation at
most of Iceland’s universities. At the
Reykjavík University, the three day ori-
entation is followed by Tuborg Útilegan
(“Tuborg Camping”), a bout of spon-
sored camping trip fun for both inter-
national and local students.
As the school year goes on, the
calendar is filled with concerts by well-
known and successful local (and some-
times international) bands to keep one
occupied. Nasa, Faktorý, Sódóma and
Rósenberg all regularly host shows and
concerts—look for ads on your schools’
bulletin boards or in the Grapevine list-
ings.
WEEKLY PARTIES
During the weekdays, the party scene
is naturally more subdued than it is dur-
ing the weekend, but there is still plenty
to get up to for the burgeoning alco-
holic dropout. For instance, the Eras-
mus Student Network (ESN) throws
parties every Wednesday from 21:00
to 1:00, which is incidentally when bars
close in Reykjavík on weekdays. Parties
organized by ESN are often themed or
celebrate international holidays. Keep
your eyes peeled.
Otherwise, Fridays and Saturdays
are the days to go out partying. The
most frequented bars and clubs by the
students vary. “For us, the first semes-
ter place was Café Oliver, we went over
there quite often,” ESN assistant Luis
Ignacio Huete said. “Nevertheless, the
second semester we spent almost all
our time at Bakkus. Those have differ-
ent styles; one is more commercial and
the other one more alternative.”
Students like to pre-party before
going out in their student apartments
on weekend nights, which is definitely
the style in Iceland. Usually, the noise
doesn’t cause any tension with the
neighbours as long they quiet down at
a decent hour. But be civil and maybe
alert them before inviting everyone over
for a drink.
ANNUAL PARTIES, THE ONE-YEAR
WAIT
The most anticipated events are the
university galas and the festivals that
attract thousands of people, like Ice-
land Airwaves, Oktoberfest, ‘Final ESN
Party,’ ‘Annual Gala’ and the Prom
Christmas Party. Those are all great fun,
and they are anticipated for a reason.
These huge events are of course a
great draw, but one needs not get
bored while waiting for them to come
around. According to some interna-
tional students we talked to, their most
frequented places are Bakkus, Kaffi-
barinn, Bar 11 and Barbara (while many
former students still lament the pass-
ing of Stúdentakjallarinn... those were
the days). Those ones close a little later
than many of the other establishments,
which usually makes them a final des-
tination.
Reykjavík, After
Class Lets Out
PARTY 101:
Back-to-school party guide
MARTA BARDÓN
PÁLL HILMARSSON SIGURÐUR KJARTAN
Now that the bells have
begun ringing your asses
back to those classes.
Don’t be sad. You gotta
stay positive, and you’ve got to keep
in mind that even though that an-
noying and needy RRRRIIING that
sounds every hour or so through-
out the school day signifies your
enslavement to the books, it also
rings in your FREEDOM TO PARTY
every Friday afternoon. Or every af-
ternoon if you’re thus inclined.
The jargon your professors write on
the blackboard all day often seems
wonderfully straightforward compared
to what happens when school’s out:
all those ‘science-trips,’ student festi-
vals, not to mention the endless codes
of conduct, rules and hierarchy of the
party-scene of 101 Reykjavík. So if
you’re a virgin to the roundabout, here’s
a recap of the basics.
DRAWING THE LINES
To start things off, a quick guide to
who-hangs-out-where is appropriate,
so you may avoid kicking back with
the ‘wrong’ crowd. We all know gossip
travels faster than light, and if you just
started scraping out business plans
with some trust-fund babies at Reyk-
javík University, they won’t forgive a
Bakkus bender. At least not until next
semester, and that we cannot risk. So
let’s split things into three categories
to simplify up: ‘Humanities,’ ‘Arts’ and
‘Business.’ I realise this categorisation
is a bit shallow, but I mean, it’s a fair as-
sumption that the people studying sim-
ilar subjects aim for a similar lifestyle
and like to talk to similar people. Similar
stuff. There are of course people that
actually enjoy talking to folks who don’t
mirror them completely, but this is rath-
er an exception, so let’s get to business.
THE THREE KINGS
So if you’re studying business or some-
thing in a related field (that optimally
gets you a lot of money) you’re likely to
want your drinks professionally mixed,
surroundings fancy, or at least tidy, and
your fellows stylish and neat. The mu-
sic has to be catchy rather than ambi-
tious, and a Colgate smile and nicely
waxed tail is more important than witty
remarks. The places that fulfil your
criteria these days are B5, Austur and
Laundromat (open ‘til 3 AM). Art kids
usually crowd Bakkus, where you can
get stale beer from rusty pipes, listen
to exemplary music at all times and feel
old if you’re over twenty. If you’re more
into performance arts you might wanna
head up to Næsti Bar, where local ac-
tors and other mini-celebs encourage
each other’s spirits with drunken soft-
soaping, or even up to Kaffibarinn,
the notorious hang-out of ’93 that still
survives on the reputation of long lost
parties. Humanity-studying kids are the
hardest to shallowly narrow up, like I’ve
done with the other two groups. That’s
mostly because that swarm is a split be-
tween scholars and intellectuals on one
hand and people that just don’t know
what they want to do with their lives on
the other. So I recommend a nice bottle
of vino, and once finished they should
bend either in a more artistic or money-
thinking direction and at that point they
can refer to the above tips.
SCHOOL-OPERATED FIESTAS
Everyone knows you can’t hang out all
the time at the local bars, it’s way too
expensive and boring, and that’s why
the universities have various student-
party thingies. So-called ‘science-trips’
(“Vísindaferð”) are the most popular. In
theory, a ‘science-trip’ is a party thrown
by HR departments of companies
scouting for new blood, but in reality
these shindigs are just a competition
amongst students who can thrust the
most free booze down their throats in
the two hours some guy is babbling
about the company’s excellent func-
tions. With a really fancy name, that
surely vindicates getting wasted at 5
PM.
So please go get trippy on science
if you can! Beer-festivals like Oktober-
fest and the like can be found in most
educational entities around, and they
should be frequented; the beer is al-
ways subsidised by the university for
‘cultural reasons,’ and it’s almost like
going to a crazy outdoor festivals with-
out having to sleep in a tent.
Balls and annual celebrations are
OK if they are conducted by your de-
partment. However, if they’re open-for-
all, forget about it. Unless you want to
listen to cliché Páll Óskar tunes and
jump to Rage Against the Machine
whilst watching the next guy shove his
tongue down some sweaty social misfit.
There you go! Now there’s nothing
to do but wish you a nice and boozy se-
mester!
“Everyone knows you can’t hang out all the time at the local
bars, it’s way too expensive and boring.”