It's all about Nobel!

Nobel Nobel Nobel, the last days have been all about this one topic! Last week the Swedish media portrayed this year's nobel prize winners and gave plenty of useful (as well as unuseful) background information - from the "male" history of the famous prize to Astrid Lindgren's rememberance and Mario Capecchi's "horrible childhood". On Saturday, the laureates of the physics, chemistry and economy prizes held public lectures in Aula Magna (I attended the one of Eric Maskin on "mechanism design theory").

On Monday (Nobeldagen) Swedish TV broadcast and commented the Award Ceremony (Prisutdelningen) and the famous Banquet (Nobelfesten i Stadshuset) - but one thing wasn't part of the media coverage: the inofficial after party (Nobel NightCap) which is every year hosted by one of Stockholms universities! This year it was Stockholm University's turn - and of course jag var med!
Together with about 80 other Swedish and exchange students I volunteered to help at the party - which included preparations in advance as well as cleaning afterwards. Our first big task was to build the decorations last weekend. We had big fun stamping bricks and attaching them to the bar in Allhuset for one whole day!

We had also been looking forward to trying on the dresses we would wear - as the party's theme was "The roaring 1920s" they were especially lent for this event. Many were really nice although most of them were quite big and the materials where not the most comfortable to wear.

After many hours of building, dressing up and waiting the after party eventually started at midnight when the first guests arrived straight from Stadshuset. And our efforts had been worth it! The atmosphere was amazing: a big dancing hall with big band, fashion and dance show, a lounge with coktail bar and piano music and the Moulin Rouge with more music, casino tables and a burlesque dance show at an advanced hour.

I myself served hors d'oeuvres in the dancing hall (which was quite fun thanks to my waitressing experience) - I now know the incredients of "cobbsallad" by heart (to be sure that no one allergic to gluten or nuts deceases on my account)! Roquefort, chicken, bacon, red onions etc etc...just ask me for more information...
All in all, it was an exhausting but one-time experience and I hope you agree with me after my report and don't juge the party by Aftonbladet's very limited coverage (which is the only newspaper article I could find)!