Up until last night, I had only worked at Wermlands Nation, which technically isn't even the nation I belong to. The Kalifornien girls and I had worked in the kitchen making burgers and fries on a pub night, and then worked an 80 person sittning a few weeks ago. I have to say, it was stressful going around crowded tables, reaching over people, trying to grab any empty bottles/glasses or plates only to have them glare back at you in a manner to communicate "No, I am not finished," or my personal favorite, a sort of hand gesture that has the same effect. Anyways, I had only done these two tasks which have a relatively low level of stress (of course I get stressed out extremely easily and would say that it was very stressful but please, for that reason, don't listen to me)...and when Kristen said that Lunds Nation (the nation I actually belonged to) needed some extra help during their Thursday club night, I was reluctant but said yes in the end. Let me explain, I'm the kind of girl that will let boiling water give her anxiety..so the thought of serving drunk people even more drinks, oy vey, not something that sounded all too appealing. But after I found out that Calle, Norberg along with some of my Kalifornien girls were also working, I decided that it was now or never.
Before the night even begins, we get to eat some yummy food: some sort of white breaded fish, mashed potatoes and some herbed bread..not to mention UNLIMITED soda. Oh yea, my dentist is going to love me. So the way it works when you work at nations is this: you have different rotations, each lasting for an hour throughout the night. My rotation schedule was 1. coat check 2. entrance (which included taking peoples money and stamping their wrist) 3. big bar 4. smoking area. Coat check was pretty slow overall but when there was a large
group of people, I found humor in those few people who asked where Jennifer and I were from, or those couple of guys who refused to speak to me in English and tried to speak me Swedish..at which I tried to repeat, smiled, laughed, and walked away to put their jacket away. I find amusement in the fact that Swedes and I look at each other in the same way, like some sort of rare animal. My next rotation was entrance, which was really nothing to speak of, I sat at the register which I could barely see into and had the same line of "Hej hej, femtio..tack." Seeing some already fairly inebriated people fumble through their wallets looking for their ID's, or money was quite amusing, along with those couple Swedish guys who tried arguing with the security guys for various reasons. And my next rotation was dun dun dun...the big bar. I walked in through the kitchen and to behind the bar, only to stare at a group of people (mostly men), all waiting. I go up to the first person I see and get a mixed drink order, two appletinis I believe. I nod obediently and go to the list of drinks and stare at the ingredients for the drink and I suddenly freeze and have an inner freakout. Fear not, I did make that drink and a variety of other drinks in a calmer manner and somehow managed to survive the bar (and actually really enjoyed it). I have learned from my Swedish counterparts, especially at cafes and other nations, to just take my time. Those who want shots, beers, drinks, will still want them even I take my time..and hell, chances are they're probably a little too drunk to notice anyways, right? Right. Another mess up of mine during the night was about beer on tap. I have never dispensed beer on tap, and pulled down the handle with hesitancy/not all the way down so that all that was put into the cup was foam; "This can't be right," I thought to myself, "I don't even drink beer, but I'm pretty sure you don't have this much foam." By the end of my hour at the bar (which was between midnight and 1 a.m.) my brain was barely functioning, I was struggling with the total of an order of 3 shots, 1 beer and 1 mixed drink..closing one eye and trying to concentrate while the booming music is only 12 feet away from me. My last rotation of the night was the smoking area which is outside on this large patio with a beautiful view of Lund. Although the outside area can undoubtedly accommodate a lot of people, their were complaints on noise from neighbors, and now they only allow 15, yes, 15 people outside at any given time. So here are Jennifer and I, two very petite, Californian girls attempting to regulate a group of drunk Swedes. Not only did I hit my own heels with the back of the door multiple times, but I also had my personal space invaded too many times by very tall Swedish men trying to convince us to let them outside, "But we're very quiet, what's two more people?" Jennifer and I gave no mercy. And after we were done working the smoking area, all that was left to do was walk around and pick up empty glasses/bottles and....DANCE, and oh, did we dance! After the club closed at 2 a.m., we were around cleaning up until 3 a.m. and then set free to bike ride in zee freezing cold.
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