December 11, 2023
Orange is the new black: My Overall Inauguration
On the 11th of November, I got a unique insight into Swedish student culture, as it was the official day of my overall inauguration. Personally, I feel that no other symbol represents Swedish student life more than the colorful piece of clothing often referred to as “Ove”.
A typical overall usually has patches on one side and your name on the other. Colors play a big role, not only on the overall but also on the ribbons that run down the sides of your trousers, as this indicates the course you are studying, for example, mine is orange with a red stripe.
However, before you can wear your jumpsuit in public, you have to go through a full day of initiation, which takes some commitment, especially as it starts at 8am on a Saturday. My overall initiation included lots of fun group games, fulvin (ugly wine), and different foods to get on your overall, but was also quite exhausting. As every section had their overall inauguration that day, the final activity was to go to different stations, each with a different game.
So afterwards my overall was quite dirty, but the last step is that you cannot just put your overall in the washing machine as you can only wash it with yourself in it which definitely makes it a bit trickier to get your overall ready for the next round of wearing.
Thank you for tuning in and talk to you soon. – Love, Barbara
