Osqledaren #1 2022/2023 by Osqledaren

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Editor in Chief Benjamin Javitz Responsible Distributor Benjamin Javitz Layout Anna Pavliashvili, Benjamin Javitz, Ludvig Kalinovski, Méline Parent, Roisin Callaghan, Tingyu Su Cover Page Roisin Callaghan Print Norra Skåne Offset Paper Pages: 100g Amber Graphic Cover: 250g Multiart Silk

OSQLEDAREN

Subscription You do not want to get a physical copy of Osqledaren sent to your mailbox? Send an email to unsubscribe@osqledaren.se with your full name and address and the subject “Unsubscribe”. You expected a copy of Osqledaren but didn’t receive it? Check that your address in Ladok is up to date and that it is a valid Swedish address. If you still didn’t get Osqledaren at home, you can pick up your copy in Nymble or read Osqledaren digitally, at issuu.com/osqledaren.

About Osqledaren Osqledaren has since 1959 been the magazine of THS, the student union at KTH. Published quarterly with 10 000 copies per issue, the magazine is distributed to Student Union members. Our mission is to cover, investigate, and review the happenings within THS and KTH. Osqledaren continues reporting during periods between magazine releases: Online at osqledaren.se.

Contributions Do you want to contribute to our next magazine? Write an insändare and email us at osqledaren@ths.kth.se The editorial staff has the right to refuse submitted material at any time.

Statements appearing in the magazine should be, unless otherwise indicated, regarded purely as the opinions of Osqledaren.

OSQLEDAREN #1

Buying adspace in Osqledaren Contact our ad agency! FörbundsMedia AB ricard.sjoberg@fbmedia.se osqledaren.se/annonsera Contact osqledaren@ths.kth.se Individual editorial staff member: [firstname.lastname]@osqledaren.se /osqledaren

@osqledaren

Adress Osqledaren Tekniska Högskolans Studentkår 114 28 Stockholm Produced with love  in Nymble at KTH Valhallavägen

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LEDARE

Oreligiös, opolitisk, obeslutsam – THS? TEXT CHEFREDAKTÖR | EDITOR IN CHIEF, BENJAMIN JAVITZ

It is not easy to create a newspaper. Articles have to be written, texts edited, photos taken, illustrations drawn, put together and sent to print. Paper is cut, colours printed one by one, cyan, magenta, yellow and black. Pages are sorted, folded, stacked, laminated and cut again. The magazines are then sent out to you, students, THS-members, our readers. When they arrive in your hands, they have completed a long journey that started in ours. Many of you have started a long journey as well or are continuing to follow your paths through student life. As the student union magazine, Osqledaren should strive to follow all the interesting choices people at KTH make, all the innovations that are created, all the discussions started, all the controversies uncovered. Every year, Osqledaren gets a new editor-in-chief and has to find a new balance of our four missions: to examine THS and KTH; to give attention to the important work THS and all our chapters and associations do; to cover and report important events and developments on our campuses as well as in student life; but also to entertain you. Some years OL might be more focused on developments in the world, some years we might get into THS and chapter politics, some years we might focus on scrutinizing KTH. Some years, OL will just bubble along and talk about random, mildly interesting topics. I want us to do all of that, but we can’t. It hurt me to realize that I can't give every chapter and association the space in Osqledaren they deserve, that I can't create a platform for every important debate, report on every chapter meeting, career fair, gasque, festival or event, discuss questions like internationalization, digitalization, housing, economy, CSN, KTH, THS, exams, budget, money, JML, discrimination, cooperation, unity, division, dialogue, standstill. All of these deserve attention. Most of all the people behind all of these topics deserve our attention. And they deserve much more

attention from THS than they currently get, as well as better ways to decide what our student union should look like. One topic has been bugging me throughout the last few months. To me, THS often feels like a huge, lazy, boring grey whale - neutral, big, slow and cold. Not exciting, quick, active or warm. Political activism? Well, let's think about it first. Party events in Nymble, from Vänster to SD? Well, we want to be neutral, so we'd probably have allow it, right? Companies buying small parts of Nymble for 5 years? Sure, for the right price. But naming rights to our whole building? Actually.. maybe we'd need a discussion about that. Inbetween though? Grey zone. The main colours our student union uses are a light blue and grey. Oh, and orange, but only sparingly. When the brandbook allows it. This is not in itself wrong, it's just surprising to me. What I want to say isn't that THS is stuck in it's ways, it's that those ways should be decided by YOU: students,

THS-members, our readers. I want YOU to care. We can do so much good if we discuss these things in public, not behind closed doors in Sammanträdesrummet. Tell us what you want THS to be! Go to KF (the union council) and make a scene. Visit KS (the union board) on Mondays at 18:00 in Panorama, to tell them how you really feel. Please fill out our survey on the next page and tell us how boring or amazing you think Osqledaren has become (and win a lunch or coffee card)! During this year, I want to leave my mark on this magazine - I want you as THS members to start turning to OL when you are wondering what happened on campus this week, and what will happen next month. I want you to tell us what happened to you, so we can write about it, to let us know what is bothering you and to join us in the most important debates we should have about student life at KTH. It will not happen overnight, and so this magazine still looks and feels a lot like the previous ones. But send us emails - and we will print them. Tell us who we should interview - and we will talk to them. Tell us what you don’t like about THS - and we will investigate. Just as the paper you’re holding right now, I have made it to another stop in my journey. I’m not Swedish, I'm a German exchange student that a series of steps, decisions, and experiences led to this point. I don’t know how things used to be done around here, but I will look around as much as I can and try to understand. And I’ll cover the things that seem a bit off. I didn’t know what to expect when I started this part of my journey, so this magazine will cover expectations - how to deal with them, how to handle disappointment, in yourself or in the people around you, even how to live without any. Enjoy :)

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

SAMHÄLLE

A Freshman Knockout 6 Kan förväntningar göra oss lyckliga? 10

KULTUR

When the Expectation Becomes the Norm 12 The Comic Page 15 Förvänta dig (o)rättvisa 16

OL GRÄVER

Innovation för ny energi 18 Nya tunnelbanan 22 Reality is an Illusion 24

UNDERHÅLLNING Don't Expect the Worst 26 Unexpected Puppy 30 No Expectations 32

PÅ CAMPUS

Mottagningsspecial Reloaded 34 Om pariserhjul 38 OL History: Phös 39 Taking the Long Way to Graduation 40 The Creation of Student X 42 Hur THS planterade ett frö som spränger betong 44 Maintaining Relationships 46

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SAMHÄLLE

A Freshman Knockout

A Freshman Knockout TEXT AYAN ALLWAN PHOTOGRAPHER ANNA PAVLIASHVILI

Sometimes we intertwine the expectations we have on ourselves with our identity. We find comfort in thinking we know who we are based on our experiences. But knowing what you are is not the same as knowing who you are, because that little security blanket that you call self-awareness is nothing short of an illusion that will crumble the second you get hit with the truth/reality: you ain’t shit.

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SAMHÄLLE

That's right. Somebody had to say it, because you would NEVER. It is highly dangerous to come from a trail of triumph. And all I can say is that I have come to the conclusion that nothing you think really matters. Think of yourself as a clean slate meant to learn and evolve. And whatever you think defines you, will only stand in the way of you being you: none. You are energy. An identity wavering. This was something that I failed to realize I was put on Earth for. Instead I believed I was invincible. I thought my spot at university was something I had earned, not necessarily because of my previous accomplishments, but more so because I was supposed to be here. At that point, the personality I had curated relied on me being solidly “good”. However, I had no idea of what I was getting into and subsequently completely lacked humility and modesty over the accomplishment. I was essentially going full speed with my head in the clouds.

A Freshman Knockout

I felt overwhelmed when I couldn’t. I felt like I was a disappointment to myself and to the world and to all of my accomplishments and to my family and to my childhood self who read herself to sleep and dreamt of living in peace.

"Think of yourself as a clean slate meant to learn and evolve. And whatever you think defines you, will only stand in the way of you being you: none. You are energy."

The walls came quickly. One after one. I thought I knew math. I thought I could work part time and study full time. I thought I could manage weekly seminars and laboratories. I thought it was a great idea to study my program because of its breadth. I thought I could do so many things and that I knew how to manage it all.

I had let her down. She would not have let this fly! She would think I was lazy, and she would do what needed to be done instead. She would manage it all, and she was the superhero I thought I still was. I couldn’t meet the expecta-

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tions I had set on my life, and I couldn't bear the reality of it. And with the pandemic entering the chat and self-isolation being the gift that kept on giving, digging myself deeper and deeper into my pretty pit of depression was now the most comforting thing I knew. Through applying the “just dont think about it”-philosophy and reconnecting with the ones I trust and love the most, I got over this most self-centered of confusions. I learned with time that if you want to lead a life where you are in control of your happiness, you have to burn the box of conditions that dictate who you are - because that has nothing to do with who you are. For me, that meant an academic restart, a change of attitude, and a whole lot of adventure. I met new people, went to places I had never seen before, and did things I didn’t know I could do! I exposed myself to unknown things, so that I wouldn’t know who I was anymore, and made myself at home in that space. Today, I am writing my story here. Hopefully someone will find it helpful and feel a little less alone in their “vain war”. Don’t confuse your expectations of yourself with your identity. Detach – or else, this royal institute will knock you out!

SAMHÄLLE

Kan förväntningar göra oss lyckliga?

Kan förväntningar göra oss lyckliga? TEXT LINA LÖFSTRAND ILLUSTRATION MY ANDERSSON

Hur sätter man sina förväntningar för att inte bli besviken senare? Vilken strategi är bäst när man fattar beslut? Vinner man på att anstränga sig för att maximera allt man gör, eller är det bättre att bara välja något som får jobbet gjort? Jag blev nyligen inbjuden till ett födelsedagsfirande för två nyblivna tioåringar som jag egentligen inte känner så bra. Födelsedagskalas är alltid kul, så det var självklart att jag skulle gå dit. Men med en inbjudan kommer också många frågor som måste besvaras. Vad ger man i födelsedagspresent till en tioåring? Vad tycker barn om, och hur ska jag se till att inte råka ge dem något “töntigt”, så att de fortsätter tycka att jag är cool, och helst blir lite imponerade över hur bra jag är på presenter? Hur pass fixad ska jag vara, och vilken tid ska jag dyka upp? Många roliga situationer kan lätt bli stressmoment när man blir fixerad vid att göra allt rätt, men hur gör man om man verkligen vill se till att utfallet blir perfekt? Och hur mycket tjänar man egentligen på att stressa upp sig över varje scenario?

Vi människor är just nu mer framgångsrika än någonsin. Vi har bättre teknologi, fler tjänster tillgängliga när vi behöver dem, och vi har i snitt mer pengar än förr. Vi har heller aldrig tidigare varit lika missnöjda och olyckliga. En del av det är bättre rapportering av psykisk ohälsa, en annan del är fler valmöjligheter och stressen som kommer av det, men en stor del är också våra förväntningar. När vi får många valmö-

jligheter presenterade för oss är nog det vanligaste att vi försöker välja det alternativ vi tror kommer ge bäst utfall. Ofta försöker vi se situationen framför oss, och vi föreställer oss hur bra allt kommer bli efter att vi har valt det där perfekta alternativet.

SAMHÄLLE

Eftersom verkligheten sällan är perfekt är risken dock stor att vi blir besvikna när resultatet inte blir lika härligt som vi har tänkt oss. Vi blir missnöjda, och – när detta fortsätter hända gång på gång – olyckliga. Skulle mitt presentdilemma få dig att spendera timtal på google i jakt på svar på vad en tioåring egentligen vill ha, för att sedan inte köpa något förrän du utforskat varenda hörn i varje butik? Då är du sannolikt en maximizer – en person som strävar efter att få ut så mycket som möjligt från varje val du gör. För att uppnå bästa möjliga utfall är maximizers redo att investera en hel del tid och energi i jakt på det bästa alternativet, och de är ofta perfektionister. När beslutet väl är taget har de dessutom en tendens att ifrågasätta det, och fundera länge på om det kanske hade funnits ett bättre alternativ. Motsatsen till maximizers är “satisficers” – individer som letar efter ett alternativ som helt enkelt är bra nog. I jakten på den där födelsedagspresenten skulle de antagligen besöka en eller ett par affärer, och nöja sig så fort något passande dök upp. Dessa personer frågar sig om beslutet uppfyller deras behov, och när det är bestämt spenderar de ingen tid på att ångra sig. Även om ett bättre alternativ dyker upp i efterhand är satisficers fortsatt nöjda. Enligt

Kan förväntningar göra oss lyckliga?

forskning upplever maximizers mindre lycka, sämre självförtroende och mer ånger, samtidigt som de får i snitt 20 procent högre ingångslön än satisficers. Man skulle alltså kunna påstå att maximizers ofta lyckas bättre än satisficers, men är de nöjda? En bronsmedaljör är ofta mer nöjd än en silvermedaljör, då silvermedaljören hade hoppats på guld, medan bronsmedaljören är lättad över att ha kommit på tredje plats istället för fjärde. En person som har tittat på internet och i resebroschyrer blir ibland besviken när denne äntligen kommer fram till resmålet och inser att det i själva verket är trångt, fullt av folk, och inte lika ståtligt och med samma fina filter som på bilderna. Ett barn som får höra att hen är speciell och kommer bli en superstjärna har stor risk att bli besviken senare i livet när detta inte inträffar. Om födelsedagsbarnen inte verkligen älskar mina presenter så som jag har målat upp i mitt huvud är det lätt att jag börjar tänka att jag har svikit dem. När vi hela tiden förväntar oss det bästa blir vi besvikna om verkligheten inte lever upp till det, oavsett hur bra vi får det. Att uppnå bästa möjliga utfall i allt i livet är i princip omöjligt, och resultatet av maximizing blir därför ofta ånger, övertänkande och besvikelse. Maximizers har dessutom en tendens att i hög grad klandra sig själva för eventuella misslyckanden, och inte ta hänsyn till yttre faktorer och begränsningar som ligger utom deras kontroll.

Trots till synes bättre resultat har maximizers därför sämre självförtroende än satisficers, och många lider av ‘FOBO’ - fear of better options. Tänk om jag bestämmer mig för det här nu, men det sedan dyker upp något bättre? Sådana här tankar kan vara nästintill paralyserande, och gör att även enkla beslut blir svåra och tidskrävande att fatta för en maximizer. Vid en middagsrestaurang kanske en maximizer gärna läser menyn i förväg, går igenom alla sidor noga och föreställer sig hur det kommer smaka och se ut, för att sedan bli osäker om någon annan beställer in något som låter bättre. En satisficer tar däremot en snabbtitt på menyn, kanske kikar vad folk runtomkring äter, och bestämmer sig på några minuter. Och får oftast en god middag. Så hur ska vi sätta våra förväntningar för att slippa bli besvikna? Det bästa vore att undvika impulsiva beslut utan eftertanke, och samtidigt komma ihåg att man inte behöver granska varje situation in i minsta detalj. Kanske räcker det att vara en satisficer för de flesta vardagliga besluten, men att maximera när det verkligen gäller, om beslutet har stor påverkan på framtiden. Vid dessa tillfällen är det dock viktigt att återgå till satisficing så fort beslutet är fattat, för att undvika att ifrågasätta det för mycket i efterhand. Maximizers och satisficers kan nog lära mycket av varandra – om man har en tendens att övertänka kan man börja med att stryka några alternativ, och om man alltid tar väldigt lätt på beslut kan det vara värt att fundera lite extra, och kanske överväga potentiella för- och nackdelar. I mitt fall, när presenten till sist är fixad och kläderna är utvalda, kan jag äntligen omvandlas till en satisficer. Presentpapper och gratulationskort är också viktiga, men jag är säker på att jag ska kunna hitta några som duger alldeles fint.

KULTUR

Kan förväntningar göra oss lyckliga?

KULTUR

OSQLEDAREN #4

KULTUR

When the Expectation Becomes the Norm

When the Expectation Becomes the Norm TEXT NOUR QASSIM DERWEESH ILLUSTRATION SANDRA KÅHRE

Most meals can be ready in 30 minutes or less, so no matter how much time you have, you can enjoy a home cooked meal prepared in no time! Go to hellofresh. com and use promocode “2SAMHET” to get 16 free meals and…

OSQLEDAREN #1

KULTUR

Okay, that’s enough. I've gotten one too many HelloFresh ads, so I might as well try it. I mean, people keep raving about how great it is and I don’t particularly love cooking all the time so it’s only logi—the smallest portion size they offer is for two people?…are you fucking kidding me?! In Swedish there’s a word called “tvåsamhet”. If you translate it, Google will tell you that it means “duality”. And it does, technically speaking. Tvåsamhet is much more than that though, it embodies the concept of being together as two (två), the very concept our society has been built upon for thousands of years. Tvåsamhet is a pillar of monogamy, which is in large part still the majority of the world’s societal structure.

When the Expectation Becomes the Norm

We are all apparently bound to eventually find the right person to spend the rest of our monogamous lives with. Tvåsamhet is the end all be all. Most if not all types of media direct us to the idea that tvåsamhet is the end goal. We even have a political party here whose whole ideology revolves around “preserving tvåsamhet”. There’s of course less serious things connected to tvåsamhet like family discounts, cheaper hotel rooms - how many activities are advertised as things you have to do in a duo (movies, theme parks, museums, vacations)?

The expectation of tvåsamhet is so ingrained in our society that even services like HelloFresh don’t offer a singles’ option! Like what the fuck, why? We can even ignore the aspect of “end all be all''. Let’s assume that you, the reader, is going to end up in a tvåsamhet like the majority of the world. Completely fine, but what about student life? A lot of students are single and have no tvåsamhet for the moment - so what if I want to subscribe to HelloFresh? Food for two people doesn't fit me. This is one of the less major examples, I can of course eat the second portion for lunch. But you get the gist! There are serious effects to all of this too: think about the housing situation in Stockholm for example. There’s simply not enough places to live for the people that live here, and that crisis has extended to the student housing crisis. Now, what if you’re in a tvåsamhet? The two of you can separately stand in line for the student housing queue despite planning to live together. The probability that you find something is greater when you are two people searching for separate places at the same time. There it is again, tvåsamhet giving an unfair advantage.

As most of you know, it hasn’t always been like this. I mean, the phrase “It takes a village to raise a child” comes from somewhere, right? Historians date the start of monogamy back to our primate days, when we changed from “promiscuous mating” to a more structured mating system. If we combine all that history with the various religions and practices around the world, it’s not so difficult to imagine why the idea of tvåsamhet is so central to our lives.

What’s the end goal here, reader? I don’t necessarily want to see people who abide by tvåsamhet be punished, but rather that the visibility of something other than the choice of tvåsamhet be elevated. For singles’ sake, HelloFresh! Offer a meal choice for 1 person - that’s visibility. Reader, I’m not pissed, I’m just frustrated and tired. Life is hard as it is, should tvåsamhet really have so much influence over how I can live my life? Do I really have to eat the same thing twice in a row?

At the end of the day tvåsamhet is nothing more than the expectation of monogamy in our everyday life. We even have the word sambo in Swedish which refers to two people in a partnership living together. You get the idea I’m sure. If we broaden our horizons and think about how every other aspect of society is connected to tvåsamhet and monogamy, you’re bound to find a pattern. A popular one is the idea of “The One'' existing for each and everyone of us.

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KULTUR

The Comic Page™

The Comic

Page™

ILLUSTRATION LUDVIG KALINOWSKI

Huvudet på Schmeck

Priorities

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Förvänta dig (o)rättvisa TEXT & FOTO OSCAR STENSTRÖM ILLUSTRATION ANASTASIA ANGELI

KULTUR

Förvänta DIG (O)RÄTTVISA

Orättvisor - ett resultat av att kostymnissar vid makten är okunniga. Den värsta orättvisan jag kan komma på är nog att champagne inte längre kommer kunna bryggas i Champagne, på grund av klimatförändringar. Tjorvigt värre. Näst värsta kanske är krig, eller massutvandring. Men dessa orättvisor går att tackla om vi lägger förväntningarna rätt. Om du också får en dålig känsla i magen av framtidens orättvisa tillgång till franskt finbubbel – hör gärna av dig. Detta rykande heta inlägg i Osqledaren är baserat på (min) magkänsla om orättvisor som uppkommer då politiker och andra makthavare (läs: “kostymnissar”) inte kan sin skit. Och när det görs prioriteringar baserat på just magkänsla. Jag sysslar med energi och klimat, så första tankeställaren blir såklart: vadå ingen champagne? Det nyanserade svaret verkar vara att temperaturhöjningar gynnar champagneproduktionen på kort sikt, men på lång sikt så kan druvodlingarna behöva flytta till norra England, där det är något svalare. Helt orimligt. Tänk på de framtida bubbelkonsumenterna! Tänk på barnen! Vidare har kanske du som smart läsare tänkt på denna miss: kostymnissarna gick till val med klimatpolitik som var helt insnöad på kärnkraftsfrågan. Med lösningar som på sin höjd kan tackla utsläpp från el- och värmeproduktion, motsvarande ungefär åtta procent av Sveriges utsläpp. Resten då? Kärnkraft har givetvis synergier med andra sektorer som minskar sina utsläpp, men en enskild insats räcker bara så långt. Det här är att vara oinsatt, och att föra politik baserat på magkänsla. Resultatet blir orättvisor. Med det sagt handlar inte alla orättvisor om energi och klimat, men jag har lärt mig från mitt jobb på KTH Climate Action Centre att många orättvisor gör det, och dessutom fler än man kan tro. Invandring, anställningsgrad, utbildning, ekonomisk

tillväxt, jämställdhet… Oavsett vilken rättvisa du söker – om det nu är rätten till CSN, champagne från Frankrike eller ökad jämställdhet mellan könen globalt, så är energi och klimat centrala. Tillbaka till barnen. De unga, eller Gen Z, har en tuff framtid framför sig. På ForskarFredag, en forskningsmässa för unga som anordnades i september, träffade jag många av dessa, och flera kände för det första att klimatkrisen ballar ur, och för det andra att de inte kan påverka detta. Och med all rätt: energi- och klimatkriser är kopplade till ogripbara problem såsom resursbrist, massutvandring, naturkatastrofer, krig. Det är rätt onajs. Att förhindra dessa saker tycker jag själv är rätt. Och rättvist. Det kan även vara lätt. Speciellt då all kunskap för att bromsa klimatförändringar finns: det handlar bara om implementering. Jag pratade med Agnes Olsson från lobbyorganisationen Promenadorquestern och med Baletten Paletten, som höll med om saken: speciellt kostymnissar måste börja prioritera och föra politik baserat på kunskap. Inte på magkänsla. Det är ungefär här som titeln “Förvänta dig (o)rättvisa” blir relevant. Vad menas då med en “förväntning”? Det kan vara en passiv förutsägelse: du tror dig ha en uppfattning om vad som kommer att hända, och sedan

OSQLEDAREN #1

händer detta, eller inte. Det kan också vara en aktiv uppmaning: du kommunicerar att du vill ha något på ett visst sätt. Du får förstås ha båda typerna av dessa förväntningar i din vardag, men på vilket sätt vi sprider och delar våra förväntningar gör alltså skillnad. Jag tror att rättvisa kan uppnås om kostymnissarna, våra beslutsfattare och politiker, får höra att vi förväntar oss att deras prioriteringar baseras på kunskap. Läs det där en gång till. Och Agnes tror detsamma. Några fler? Ja, många fler. Och många politiker har faktiskt visat intresse för att lyssna. På jobbet anordnar vi en eventserie – Climate Politics in Action – där studenter och politiker bjuds in för att diskutera lösningar för klimatomställningen. Det här är ett tydligt exempel på hur diskussionerna borde föras kring hur kunskap lägger grund för politiska prioriteringar, och då hamnar rättvisefrågan aldrig i skymundan. Vissa åsikter måste få formas baserat på magkänsla, som den här lilla avhandlingen till exempel. Då får vi även förvänta oss att vissa orättvisor kvarstår oavsett hur mycket vi hötter med aktivistnävarna. Men med det sagt borde kostymnissarna ändå bli påminda om att det är oansvarigt att vara oinsatt. Och att kunskap ger förtroende. Jag tror att det här bidrar till rättvisa i stort, både för Gen Z och för framtidens bubbel.

OL GRÄVER

Innovation för ny energi

Innovation för ny energi TEXT ALEXANDRA ANDERSSON ILLUSTRATION TINGYU SU AVAILABLE IN ENGLISH ON OSQLEDAREN.SE

Få politiska frågor i Sverige har orsakat lika många kontroverser som kärnkraft. Nyligen tilldelades Janne Wallenius KTH Innovation Award för sitt arbete med Blykalla som utvecklar små, modulära kärnreaktorer med ambitionen att vara en del av lösningen på klimat- och energikrisen. Synen på den svenska kärnkraftens framtid tycks hålla på att ändras.

OSQLEDAREN #1

OL GRÄVER

– Det var lite som att köra in huvudet i en vägg i början, säger Janne Wallenius. Han syftar på att forska inom ett område som i Sverige länge ansågs utdaterat och där ingen var intresserad av nya innovationer. Men för ett par år sedan förändrades det. Då startade den svenska stålindustrins planer på att bli fossilfria, vilket förväntas kräva en fördubbling av Sveriges elproduktion. – Det gjorde att det plötsligt fanns en marknad i Sverige och ett intresse från svensk kärnkraftsindustri, säger Janne och menar att det blev en brytpunkt för synen på behovet av kärnkraft i Sverige. Janne Wallenius är professor i reaktorfysik på avdelningen för kärnenergiteknik på KTH. Han började forska här år 1997, då med fokus på återvinning av kärnavfall, och år 2013 startade han och kollegan Peter Szakolos, verksam inom yt- och korrosionskemi, bolaget Blykalla. Syftet var att utveckla små, blykylda, modulära kärnreaktorer för kommersiell elproduktion. Små, modulära reaktorer (SMR) är kärnreaktorer med en elektrisk effekt på högst 300 megawatt. Att reaktorerna är modulära beskriver Janne som att deras delar byggs ihop som legoklossar på platsen för reaktorn. – I vårt fall är vi ännu mer modulära, då hela reaktorn är en enda enhet som man bygger i fabrik och sedan transporterar till platsen där den ska installeras, förklarar han. De SMR som Blykalla utvecklar har en effekt på 55 megawatt jämfört med 1200-1600 megawatt hos stora reaktorer, och de är 5 meter höga istället för 20-25 meter. – Det kan man åstadkomma tack vare blykylning. Vi räknar med att blykylda reaktorer kan bli mycket enklare och snabbare att tillverka i fabrik. Idag tar det sju år att bygga en stor reaktor och vi ska få ner den tiden till två år. Det kan vi uppnå genom att göra all kvalitetskontroll på plats och serietillverka reaktorerna i fabrik. Blykallas resa har inte varit spikrak. Inledningsvis fick bolaget stöd från KTH Innova-

Innovation för ny energi

tion och Vinnova, Sveriges innovationsmyndighet, för att leta efter potentiella kunder. Det ledde Janne till Kanadas nordkust, där intresset för tekniken var stort. Men ett stort nederlag för Blykalla kom 2017: – Vi fick tyvärr en oseriös investerare, som tyckte att de skulle investera två miljarder kronor i projektet för att vi skulle bygga reaktorer i Kanada. Vi skrev på ett jättestort avtal och var i världspressen med det, men det kom aldrig några pengar. Det var en väldigt besvärlig upplevelse.

"Nu hoppas vi att studenterna kommer se att det finns en framtid inom svensk kärnkraft."

Åren efter det låg fokus på ny forskning, och därefter lyckades Blykalla få ett bidrag från engelska staten för att utveckla en SMR för det engelska elnätet. Den svenska elmarknaden var aldrig målet för Blykalla, då det inte fanns varken behov av eller intresse för ny kärnkraft i landet. – Vi tyckte att vi hade upptäckt något fantastiskt bra och så visste vi att i Sverige var det meningslöst. Vi har hela tiden fått tänka att vi ska bygga de här någon annan-

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stans, säger Janne och poängterar att det fram till juli 2006 var förbjudet att ens ta fram ritningar för ny kärnkraft i Sverige. I och med insikten att den svenska stålindustrin skulle behöva mycket mer el för att bli fossilfri ritades dock spelplanen om. – Då tyckte energiföretaget Uniper att de skulle kontakta mig och se om vi kunde samarbeta om att utveckla de SMR som Blykalla har designat. Och där är vi nu. Tillsammans med Uniper har vi fått 99 miljoner kronor i bidrag från Energimyndigheten och KTH har fått 50 miljoner kronor av strategiska forskningsstiftelsen. Nyligen fick Blykalla också en privat investering från riskkapitalbolaget Norrsken på 25 miljoner. I början av terminen mottog Janne Wallenius KTH Innovation Award, ett pris som delas ut till en person med koppling till KTH som genom en innovation präglad av kreativitet, uthållighet och mod bidragit till samhället. – Det var en överraskning, och det är fint att bli hedrad på det viset. Det där med uthållighet kan man säga att jag uppfyller ganska väl, för det här har jag hållit på med i nio år nu, och det har varit svårt att hitta finansiering och bygga det här företaget. Janne är hoppfull inför framtiden och hoppas att priset kan rikta ljuset mot den utveckling som sker inom kärnkraften idag. – Att det här är på väg att bli något på riktigt nu, det tror jag är nytt och spännande för många. Det finns också en förhoppning om att öka intresset bland KTH-studenter inom fysik: – Som det är nu har vi väldigt många studenter på masterprogrammet i kärn- och energiteknik, men de allra flesta kommer från andra länder. Så nu hoppas vi att studenterna kommer se att det finns en framtid inom svensk kärnkraft. Blykalla är ett av många företag på en marknad under uppsegling, och i deras SMR används alltså bly som kylmedel. – Till skillnad från vatten kokar bly först vid 1700 °C så det är svårt att få en olycka på grund av att man kokar bort kylmedlet, vilket

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hände i både Tjernobyl och Fukushima. Sedan är bly ett fantastiskt bra strålskydd, så här bygger vi in strålskyddet i själva reaktorn. Vi kan åstadkomma jättehög säkerhet i ett mycket mindre och billigare format. – Nackdelen är att bly är ogenomskinligt vilket gör det svårt att titta på bränslet, så vi måste utveckla nya metoder för det. Bly fryser vid 327 °C, så istället för överhettningsolyckor kan man få frysningsolyckor, så vi måste säkerställa att bränslestavar och ångeneratorer inte går sönder när blyet fryser. Bly är också väldigt tungt så pump-impellern har kort livstid. Därför ska vi bygga en pumptestanläggning på KTH nästa år där vi ska visa att vi kan köra pumpen i tolv månader utan att den går sönder. En viktig innovation för Blykalla är ett stål som har utvecklats på KTH av Peter Szakolos och som är tänkt att täcka alla ytor i reaktorn som står i kontakt med bly. – Det är ett stål som är både strålnings- och korrosionstolerant i bly och den kombinationen är helt unik, förklarar Janne och berättar om det aluminiuminnehållande stålet: – När aluminium växelverkar med syre bildas aluminiumoxid på ytan och det är ett fantastiskt korrosionstolerant material. Det är dessutom det näst hårdaste materialet efter diamant så det är väldigt tolerant mot mekaniska skador. Det är också självläkande, för om man lyckas göra en repa och skadar ytan kommer nya aluminiumoxid bildas på ytan. Våra konkurrenter har inte den här lösningen. De har visat att de kan svetsa stålet och nu ska stålet bestrålas i en forskningsreaktor. Blykalla utvecklar också metoder för att kunna titta på stålet och bränslet under blyet, exempelvis med ultraljud. – Det här är ingenting vi förväntar oss kommer utgöra fundamentala risker för projektet, utan det är mer en fråga om livslängden för olika komponenter. Det kommer ha en inverkan på ekonomin, och om det blir något sämre eller något bättre än vi förväntat oss.

Innovation för ny energi

– Vi har fått pengar från energimyndigheten för att bygga en demonstrationsreaktor i Oskarshamn, som ska tas i drift om två år. Där kommer vi göra integrerade experiment där vi provar alla komponenterna och hur de fungerar tillsammans, med eluppvärmda bränslestavar. Då kommer vi även se om vår naturliga cirkulation av kylmedlet, ett säkerhetssystem för att kunna kyla bort restvärme när reaktorn har stängts av, fungerar som tänkt. Efter det kommer det slutliga beviset och det är att bygga en nukleär demonstrationsreaktor, vilket vi planerar att göra innan 2030. Blykalla planerar också att starta en bränslefabrik för att tillverka ett särskilt kärnbränsle – urannitrid. På KTH har en avancerad tillverkningsmetod utvecklats, som går ut på att man pressar urannitridpulver genom att köra en stark ström genom det, vilket tar tre minuter istället för tidigare åtta timmar. – Det här funkar jättebra i labbet, men nu måste vi visa att det fungerar i en industriell anläggning så då är tanken att bygga en pilotbränsletillverkningsanläggning. Man har använt urandioxid som kärnbränsle i 60 år, men volymen i bränslestavarna upptas huvudsakligen av syre, så om vi byter det mot uranitrid får vi in 40 procent mer uran i samma bränslestav. Dessutom har det sju gånger högre värmeledningsförmåga, så då eliminerar vi risken för bränslesmältning.

Just nu ser Janne positivt på framtiden för kärnkraft i Sverige: – Det har vänt från ena sidan till den andra väldigt fort. Vi skulle ju avveckla i Sverige, i princip ända fram till förra året, men nu finns både klimatkrisen och energikrisen. Politiken har spelat en väldigt stor roll i Sverige i och med att det har funnits en politisk vilja att inte fortsätta med kärnkraft. Det har inneburit att vi inte har fått så många intresserade studenter. Vi hade till exempel inte en enda doktorsavhandling i reaktorfysik på 17 år och det var väldigt illa för forskningen. Men nu finns det ett stort politiskt stöd för att utveckla ny kärnkraft. – Nu tänker vi oss att det är Sverige som är först ut på banan med vår innovation, då vi har ett system som gör det lättare att få tillstånd för en helt ny teknik här än i andra länder. Sedan har Sverige fortfarande begränsningen att man bara får bygga tio reaktorer och bara på tre platser, och för att det här ska kunna bli kommersiellt behöver lagen ändras. Det var inte så troligt med den förra regeringen även om de tillsatte en utredning för att kunna göra det, men med en ny regering kommer det förhoppningsvis gå ganska fort. Då kommer Sverige vara en väldigt bra plats för att bygga de första kommersiella reaktorerna. Slutligen skickar Janne med ett par ord till studenter med egna innovationsdrömmar: – Om man har en idé, prata med en industri som ligger någorlunda inom området, för att få lite återkoppling från dem. Många forskare jobbar väldigt långt ifrån industrin och då utvecklar de saker som är spännande på pappret men som kanske inte vare sig industrin eller samhället har ett behov av. Nu när jag jobbar nära kärnkraftsindustrin blir det mycket tydligare vad som är viktigt och går att göra, och samtidigt får man tillgång till deras kompetens. Och de är jätteglada att få tillgång till dig som ung och påhittig ingenjör eller forskare.

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Nya tunnelbanan

Nya tunnelbanan TEXT & PHOTO ANIRUDH DWARAKANATH

A lot can be said about Stockholm’s expansive metro network. But while we can lay praise on a surprisingly long system that serves a city that is often dubbed “the smallest large city”, is it enough to sit back and underinvest in the future? As a common expression goes, infrastructure is the backbone of economic growth. It is a means for gainful employment, as well as the creation of a public good that can be used for the years to come. Through much of history, different heads of state have sought to bolster their public standing by making grand statements in the forms of public infrastructure. From the aqueducts of Rome, to the academies of Ancient Greece or even the complex water and sanitation systems of Indus Valley Civilization. In modern times, the desire of world leaders to build infrastructure has typically taken the form of transit projects, seeking to make the world an ever-smaller place. In this context, we ask an important question: has the urban transit infrastructure of Stockholm kept pace with its expansion and its place as an important world city? But first, a history lesson. Sweden has the distinction of being quite adept at railway technologies in spite of a smaller population. The Roslagsbanan is one of the oldest electrified railways in the world. Even the main topic of today’s article, the Tunnelbana, is amongst the 25 oldest metro systems of the world. Built on the foundations of metro-grade suburban tramways built in the 19030s, the tunnelbana officially opened in 1950, with what has now become the Green Line. Much of the plan for today’s network was laid down in the Tunnelbaneplan of 1965, even if some recommended routes never were built. Due to such foresight, planning, and a strong Swedish economy, the system steadily expanded adding two more colour-coded lines over the next 44 years, totalling 100 stations on over 100 kilometres of track, truly keeping up with many cities of the world. Since then, however, there has been a noticeable stagnation. A lot has changed in the last 28 years. Yes. That is how long it has been since there last

was an expansion to the metro system. The population of the county has risen by 50%. The share of commutes done in public transit has gone up from 54% in the early 1990s to 71% today. In tandem, this implies an increase not just in the number of trips carried out in the city, but also the number of such trips through more sustainable means. The end result is a peak metro ridership of 462 million – a staggering number for a city of this size. The world has also become more environmentally conscious – and in a nation where this is as much of a focus as Sweden, I feel that there is no alternative to investing in public transit infrastructure. Considering this, you would assume that it is in the interest of every transit network to keep costs low. Yet, a chilling undertone of this is that while the price of petrol (prewar) has risen by 130% in the last 30 years, the price of a monthly SL ticket has risen by 330%. Sadly, seeing overcrowded trains

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and frequent technical failures, it may feel like there has been precious little money invested in keeping this system up to date. The picture is not as bleak as I have put it, so far. For one, Stockholm definitely punches above its weight when it comes to metro systems. It is the 28th longest system in the world, but is not even amongst the top 100 cities in the world by population. We have seen two new generations of rolling stock grace the Tunnelbana, bringing a much-needed wave of modernization. The ageing signalling system, especially on the green line, was installed to improve train frequencies. A whole new ring railway, tvärbanan, has made its way to the streets and suburbs that offers connectivity between suburbs that is lost due to the radial nature of the tunnelling. Tram networks got newer, or refurbished trains. The dedicated tunnels (citybanan) improves service on the

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commuter train network. The city’s extensive bus fleet has been converted to run on fossil-free fuels, making it the world’s first capital city to do so. Albeit, there remain two lacunae which prevent improvements in service – metro expansion and depot construction. The driving force behind these improvements was a controversial infrastructure package we explore next. Who was Dennis (and was he a menace)? In 1992, the then chairman of the Riksbank, Bengt Dennis, chaired discussions between the Moderates and the Social Democrats to bring out the so-called “Dennispaketet”

– a plan for investment into improving Stockholm’s rail and road infrastructure. Many of the improvements to the metro I noted in the previous paragraph were part of the aforementioned plan. This plan drew some heavy criticism, especially from the quarters of environmentalists, for a lot of money was dedicated to roads. However, I opine that many of the road projects were necessary with the way transportation evolved in the 20th century. In the end, the plan was dissolved in 1997 due to this outside pressure and some projects – both rail and road – were left incomplete or were never started. The city’s metro had to wait another two decades for any new life. En ny tunnelbana? Eller en gammal? After much deliberation, the new metro plan was finally announced in 2013. I shall try to not harry you, the reader, with too many specificities about this plan. The parts

Nya tunnelbanan

under construction include northerly and southerly extensions to the blue line and a new yellow line that runs parallel to the green line to ease central traffic and bring the metro to new places. A controversial part of the plan is an automated metro link between Fridhemsplan and Älvsjö, improving connectivity in the inner city. This announcement also included the much-needed construction of new depots to house more trains, improving service. The current cost estimate of this project, 30 billion SEK, does certainly not sound like a paltry sum, especially for 19 track-kilometres. While work has been slow, it has garnered praise

from transit researchers for being quite cost-effective in this modern world. This plan addresses many of the key weakness of the system. Chief amongst them are the lack of metro lines in newly developing suburbs in Solna and Järfälla and the imbalance with the blue line to the south of the city. There is one absolutely incredible facet to this plan for the “new metro” withal – it is actually very old! The Southerly extensions of the blue line were part of the 1965 Tunnelbaneplan mentioned above. Yes, planners were able to predict the demands being high 50 years before a single rock was dug up to build the new metro. The northerly extension to Järfälla was part of the Dennispaketet of 1992. In effect, a large part of this plan had already been recommended and had sadly been shelved through several decades of underinvestment.

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“30 billion SEK for this? Are we better off investing the money elsewhere?” As mentioned before, this plan solves many of the problems that the system faces today and is absolutely essential. On the contrary, we need to invest more in alleviating other issues with connectivity that remain because of the way the network branches out away from the city centre. And the increased number of trains in the inner city may simply lead to inducing even more demand, keeping that part of the network crowded in peak hours. For this, I propose investment into even more surface rail in the form of tramways – since they are more efficient in usage of space. A spiritual successor to the Tvärbanan in the form of Spårväg syd is taking shape to the south of the city, providing reliable transit to new suburbs in the region. An announcement of the stations and alignment has just been made, and I look forward to its completion. I won’t, for a second, claim that this work is easy. As a man equipped with a keyboard, I have waxed lyrical about the importance of public infrastructure and have been both congratulatory and have criticized the investment into public transit in Stockholm. I do, concede that infrastructure planning is a region fraught with several landmines – politics, people, and overspending on projects that become white elephants. The growth of Stockholm also meant the emergence of new suburbs – many of which are governed as separate cities that come under the umbrella of Region Stockholm. This approach to governance is reminiscent of the London Borough system and brings with it similar issues. Local politics has got in the way of some meaningful extensions to the metro. For example, there was a plan to extend the red line towards Lidingö, since the population centres of the island is actually not connected to any rail transit. However, this was rejected by that city because it came with the condition of building 10,000 new flats. Soon, the city of Solna shall have 8 metro stations served by 3 separate rail corridors, while Lidingö has none. Similar stories can be found in other suburbs – going back as far as the 1965 Tunnelbaneplan. “So, what are you on about? Is this good or bad, you don’t seem to be able to make up your mind!” I have intentionally tried to present this article as a tale of contrasts – between excellent planning and relative neglect, between pragmatism and fiscal conservatism. The work we put in today has far-reaching consequences decades into the future. It is therefore very important for the timely execution of the existing projects and continued investment.

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Reality is an Illusion Built by Expectations

Reality is an Illusion Built by Expectations TEXT IRAKLI AMBOKADZE ILLUSTRATION TINGYU SU

Have you ever been in a bank robbery? It’s not a pleasant experience having a gun pointing at you, right? Well, even those who have not had the pleasure of experiencing these life-changing moments can easily imagine the terror of it. Do you know what all the poor bank customers lying on the floor have in common apart from bone-chilling terror? None of them were expecting to walk into a hostage situation when they entered. Our feelings and attitudes are tightly connected to our expectations. In other words, objective reality is perceived through our expectations about it and when these anticipations mismatch the truth, it often causes displeasure. How many times have you heard someone say “I expected more”? Remember how many times you have heard people discussing a movie outside of the theatre, claiming that they “expected more”, whilst, in truth, they just expected something else. Usually the first movie of the franchise is the most successful. I remember when the Transformers came out in 2007. It was a huge sensation and people loved it. After two years, a second movie came out. From an average movie viewer's perspective these two are quite similar. However, if we trust Rotten Tomatoes, the average audience score had decreased from 85% to 57%. I remember my friends and I also hating the second part, simply because we all expected more. The first one was ground-breaking and innovative, so why shouldn’t the second one blow our minds similarly? How many times have you expected better weather and got

badly disappointed? If you love to hike, especially as unprepared as I usually do, you’ll be familiar with the coldness of the first raindrops when you were hoping for a a sunny, cloudless sky. On the other hand, I cannot even count how many times I have said with irritation, “the forecast said there was 98% chance of rain, but it is sunny outside”. It is ultimately better weather, just not what I had expected. Unfortunately, not having your expectations met can lead to consequences more serious than just not liking a movie. I worked at a couple of places during the last few years - the most common attribute of each workplace was disappointed employees. We expect that employers will praise our every teeny-tiny achievement and are disappointed when they don’t. At the same time, we forget that our employers are humans too, with their own challenges. When we expect a salary raise, they might be struggling to keep us employed and not go bankrupt in the process. The moment we become team leaders and take some steps in their shoes, we expect

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those under us to be motivated and excited. During this process of criticizing employers or employees, we often forget to ask the most important question: “are they obliged to do what we expect, or are these expectations just ours?”. In most cases, the employers who are disappointed by the unmotivated staff have not actually created a supportive and engaging work environment. An environment where their employees can fulfil their own expectations. It is without a doubt that expectations influence and govern our perception of reality, be it regarding the movie, weather, education, or an employment. More often than necessary, we base our decisions on them. Man ypeople are still having trouble establishing and freely expressing their sexual orientation, especially if it they live in a slightly more conservative country than Sweden. In her TED talk about self-imposed expectations, Elizabeth Higgins Clark, an LA-based writer and actress, tells the audience how hard it was to tell her parents that she was gay because she expected that it would “crush” their dreams.

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“What would people think?” – have I often heard. Consequently, I have often restricted myself from doing certain things. But if some rebellious spirit awakens inside you and you do it anyway, you will be surprised by how little people actually care. ’If a mind tries to live up to every expectation, it can become a very dangerous place” - concludes Mrs. Higgins.. I believe it is unwise to base our actions on what society would think - even if you walk on water, there will be someone mockingly commenting “hah, you don’t know how to swim?”. Don’t get me wrong – I am not saying that we should ignore expectations. Dr. John Hatti, an education researcher and director of the Melbourne Education Research Institute published a research paper, stating that during student education the most influential aspect of academic growth (more than doing homework!) is the teachers’ expectations of students’ achievement. Every teacher unconsciously projects their expectations regarding the specific student’s capability. After an extended period of time, students start believing and actually adapting to those expectations. Expectations form our reality. Interestingly another highly impactful factor to academic growth turns out to be students’ own expectations of themselves. As students, we achieve the level we expect to reach. Expectations can be extremely positive or extremely harmful. But what can we do? Should we ignore others’ as well as ours, and go through

Reality is an Illusion Built by Expectations

live with no expectations at all? I hope you have not been expecting to find the answer to that question here - you would be dissapointed. Still, be open-minded and look at everything from a new perspective. When you meet a stranger, do not surround them in a boundary ofstereotypes. It is always good to give everyone a chance regardless of predefined expectations that might not even be ours. On the other hand, try to take others’ expectations into consideration. Ask yourself “what do I expect from this particular engagement?” and “what do others expect?”. That will help you to figure out what you want and actually set everyone on the same page. Secondly, as American author and coach Tony Robbins said, “trade your expectations for appreciations” – try to appreciate things that you do not have control over. How many times wereyou surprised that the barista at your local coffee shop was surprisingly nice and engaging? Honestly, I have no idea! Such events usually get ignored and forgotten but I am sure they are plenty. Would it not have been betbetter if we did not take them as granted? Expectations are a powerful thing. They are terrifying and inspiring at the same

time. They might determine, guide, and govern your decisions. As objective reality is perceived through our expectations, you could say that we are even living in the illusion our expectations create. Somewhere out there might be a girl who did not expect her coffee to be that hot and burned her tongue; I absolutely did not expect to have to shorten this article because I am over the word limit but here I am; there might be a bank robbery hostage who absolutely did not expect to end up lying on the floor; there might be a kid somewher who is told that he is lazy and cannot achieve anything with such an attitude; there might be a girl attracted to a female classmate, but too afraid to admit it because she expects that her parents would not approve; there is definitely someone in the east who thought that he would win a war and march into Kyiv in a couple of days. Expectations can be impactful, they can have direct physical or mental influence, they can determine your decisions and actions, they can alter your perception of events and they might even cost a war, resulting in lost lives, destroyed families and cities, lost generations. Be aware of how much those expectations form your own reality. Sláva Ukrayíni! Heróyam sláva!

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Don’t Expect the Worst

Don’t Expect the Worst TEXT & ILLUSTRATION SARA KATZER

Lost baggage, no accommodation, shattering the expectations of an enjoyable "orientation" period were only the start to my Swedish journey. Does this sound familiar? Here is what that hectic shift really looked like for me. No sunshine and rainbows, but a good story to tell.

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Yup, that’s definitely my suitcase. I could recognise the gold star stickers from a mile away. And right now I see that sticker-covered luggage being shoved onto a plane. Not onto the one I am currently sitting in though, but the plane I see out of my small drafty window of the cheap Ryanair aircraft. “Hm, interesting start to my Stockholm journey”, I think. “But maybe I should give the benefit of the doubt and hope that somebody also has questionable taste in suitcase bedazzlement and the suitcase I am seeing being packed away to a neighbouring flight is, in fact, NOT mine.” I doubt that, however, in the current circumstances, it seems like lying to myself is the best option. I decide on the storyline that this orange plane next to ours is also going to Stockholm and will simply act as luggage transport. After a short one hour flight, and a somewhat aggressive landing that I have grown accustomed to having been a loyal Ryanair customer, I land in Stockholm Arlanda. Aah finally. I look out the window to spot the familiar orange airplane touching down on a runway on the horizon. Huh, maybe my very wishful thinking actually came true. I wait out the extremely impatient passengers. They push and shove to be the first to leave, because GOD FORBID being the last person to disembark! I eventually get to baggage claim utterly hopeful that maybe SOMEHOW my luggage did in fact land in the big orange plane.The belt jolts into motion and I stare lifelessly at the never-ending parade of black suitcases. Do people not like expressing their personality anymore? Dreadful.

Don’t Expect the Worst

there it appears in its full star-stickered glory. I yank my suitcase off the conveyor belt clumsily and we pass customs happily united. Full of gratitude about the fact that I would actually have clothes to wear during my stay in Sweden, I don't even mind waiting for the KTH bus for another hour... Some time and events pass before I arrive at the right address of my hotel, but I am here and I am relieved. With the keycode open on my phone, I walk up to the door proudly. I press the numbers into the lock one by one and.. A red LED stares at me as I stare back. No no no this can’t be happening. Not today, not when the sun is setting and I am miles away from the city centre, on a Saturday night surrounded by empty streets of an unknown neighbourhood in a country that I don’t speak the language of. Not in this hotel I booked that turned out to be a no reception, only self-checkin-service extravaganza. And not with the “24h pHoNe cUsToMeR sErViCe” that is inactive during the weekend. I press the sequence of buttons again. Unbothered red. Still flashing. Great. “Damn it, stupid technology! What’s the point of the flashy futuristic advertising if you can’t get in in the first place?!” I take a deep breath whilst silently considering my options for my sleeping locations. Bridge? In a tree? Not sleeping in the first place? I decide to give it another go. This time analysing the keypad first and well,well, well… I notice a little tick icon. Perhaps if i click that button after entering my passcode.. YES! Success! I’m in! Goodbye raccoons!

Distracted, I reach for my phone and shift my backpack that I had placed on the floor. Good thing the flight attendants didn’t pick me for their “random” baggage selection to check the weight and size of this thing, because believe me, it would not have passed the test. And right as I had come to terms that it’s time to go to the “lost baggage” desk,

You might be wondering - Sara, aren’t you studying in Sweden for the next two YEARS? What are you doing checking into a hotel? Ah well, my friends, I actually moved to Stockholm this day without any offer on accommodation whatsoever! Yes, I did check Blocket. Yes, I joined multiple facebook groups that were a jumble of the words “student”, “Stockholm”, “housing”. Yes, I did apply on SSSB (15 times = 45 rooms). I even allow my photo to be plastered on LinkedIn with an extensive description of my dire need for housing by a distant family friend that I have never met before. I tried EVERYTHING. Yet, no luck. So I opt on stressing my parents and myself out by booking a hotel in Stockholm and hoping that my physical presence alters my fate of being homeless for my first year of master’s. Let’s fast forward to a week later. Still no accommodation offer. Still staying at the hotel and anxiety is knocking at my door. It takes another 1.5 weeks in the hotel until I desperately apply for a private company’s student accommodation that is wayyyy over my budget. And low and behold I actually get an offer! Did the transfer go through correctly the first time round? No. Did I get confirmation that I can move in, only the day my hotel booking finishes? Yes. Now that I have my accommodation sorted for the foreseeable future, my parents sent me a parcel. Just last week updates on the parcel’s status portal stopped coming. After a few phone calls and emails I found out it’s stuck somewhere in Rosersberg, wherever that is... But hey, let’s not expect the worst this time! .....Right?

OSQLEDAREN #1

UNDERHÅLLNING

Don’t Expect the Worst

Student in Stockholm: Bingo Mark your experiences and see if you can get four in a row!

Got a scam offer on Blocket

Had their first Fika(s)

Took the metro in the wrong direction

Lived in a hotel or hostel for at least a week

Procrastinated getting their Swedish Personal Number

Took the SL Ferry

Did their first Swedish IKEA trip

Did not bring winter clothing and is in denial that it’s really THAT cold

Bought vitamin D supplements

Caught “Fresher’s Flu”

Is still queuing on SSSB

Got 3 patches

Forgot the name of a person you just met

Forgot that Systembolaget has very peculiar opening hours

Stood in line for more than 40mins at a Tentapub

OSQLEDAREN #1

Declined an invitation due to “plans” (which were to lay in bed & watch Netflix)

UNDERHÅLLNING

Unexpected Puppy

Unexpected Puppy TEXT DAVID FERNANDEZ BONET ILLUSTRATION LUNA MANSOUR

During my brief five year-old life I have learned many things. It might not seem like it, but five years contain plenty of time: I learned to count, to spell, even to rhyme! However, the hardest lesson I learned is that I never, ever, get what I want.

OSQLEDAREN #1

UNDERHÅLLNING

For instance, that day I was craving spaghetti with meatballs? Got broccoli, because “kids have to grow”. That day we were going on a school trip to the zoo? Got sick, and stayed home while my friends had fun. That day I was supposed to ride a rollercoaster? Couldn’t ride it, I wasn’t tall enough. If I am not tall enough, what am I eating broccoli for? Regardless, all such events are nothing but trivialities compared to what I honestly, truly want. A dog. But do I get a loyal canine friend? Well, considering that getting what I want breaks the very rules governing the universe: no, I do not get a loyal canine friend. I have asked for a little puppy from everyone possessing the power to provide me with one. I insistently begged mother, I tearfuly implored father, I even corresponded with Father Christmas… only to get a negative. While my parents say they can’t afford it, Santa Claus is straight-up ignoring my plea. Which is painfully strange, as evilness is yet to corrupt my soul, or in other words, I am a very good child. Indeed, the only scenario in which Santa does not bring me a puppy is the one where health-related issues are at play. Let’s be real for a moment: a fat, old man should not have such an important responsibility. I mean, should Christmas be jeopardized because of the whims of a heart attack?

Unexpected Puppy

a little sister, aren’t you happy?”. My whole world collapsing. The word “happy” echoing through the room like a haunting ghost. After a long silence, I go into my room and close the door as carefully as an angry elephant would. Why would I be happy to share my space, my time, and essentially my life with what seems to be an unfinished bald blob of meat? Before she was born I was half-expecting her to be beautiful, you know, the miracle of life and all. However, miracles were nowhere to be found in the aesthetics department. And don’t get me wrong, I am not the kind that judges a book by its cover.

However, that thing’s beauty is neither outside nor inside. Most definitely not inside… when she goes number two? I am forced to leave the building. No smell can get as intense as a baby's feces. To the best of my knowledge, atomic bombs are made with Uranium-235 and a little bit of my sister’s poop. Nonetheless, I could live with that if it weren’t… if it weren’t for the endless bellowing nights. And I say “bellowing” with plenty of knowledge: crying is too soft of a word. No doubt my sister will become the future of the opera world. How fun it is to suddenly wake up to the sound of an ambulance! Except it is not an ambulance, it is my little sister forcing her vocal chords to the human limit. In short, out of the five senses, my sister completely covers the spectrum of sight, smell and sound. And all I ever wanted was a cute, fluffy puppy. My parents are trying to make me like her, so we are having “family park evenings”. We simply go to the park, and while I get to play, the baby gets to sleep. Sounds like a good deal to me. Today they bought her a lollipop and they sent her to play with me. I don’t mind her, as the lollipop prevents her from crying. However, I could not foresee that the damned lollipop would be attracting unwanted attention. A big, muscled unleashed dog starts running towards my sister, surely expecting to get a lick out of the lollipop. A dangerous situation for a baby, I think. I act fast. When the excited dog gets close, I position my foot on his Achilles heel, the tail. As a result, the dog wails and runs away, defeated by my heroic prowess. My sister, who has seen it all with a dropped jaw, offers me her lollipop. In that moment, my heart melts and I realize again that I never get what I want. I wanted a puppy to play with, and I got a sister to love.

Until the day comes. Not Santa having a heart attack, no, as likely as it might be. The day that changes my life. I can feel good news are coming. Moreover, it is not only a feeling: spaghetti with meatballs for dinner, broad smiles at the table, juice instead of water. Every element is a clear indicator that something good is about to happen. Except it does not happen. In the midst of it all, the dreadful news are revealed: “Sweetheart, you will be getting

OSQLEDAREN #1

UNDERHÅLLNING

No Expectations

No Expectations TEXT CHEN TIAN

"When you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing", it says in the Bible. Whether you are religious or not: having no expectations could give us true freedom, right? No expectations - no disappointment. But is that even possible? I recently joined a team building camp. One of the sessions we had was called "fast dating", where team members give each other feedback using the "fast dating" method. We just emulated the world we live in - we constantly receive projections and expectations from others, while at the same time we also put our own projections and expectations on the people around us. Sometimes that is really helpful, it can help us to be more aware of ourselves. Sometimes, however, it is the main ingredient of disappointment. "Projections - Expectations - Separations - Judgments - Rejections". Have you ever entered into this circle with the people closest to you? Have you ever thought of escaping from this circle? We prepared some interesting questions and reached out to some students on campus to find out what they think about these concepts. We hope the thoughts they shared can give you some inspiration. What do you think of the idea of having “no expectations” in different areas of your life? Karl: "I think that you should have expectations in most cases; you should have expectations in order to reach certain goals and standards, particularly when it comes to school, for example. As expectations mean, thinking certain things should be a certain way, having no expectations could mean that you "let things slide"." Sandra: "Having no expectations could in some ways be beneficial - you're not setting yourself up for disappointment, but it also feels like taking the easy way out." It would be interesting to think outside the box, just deciding to say no to expectations as much as you can. Sometimes we are stressed with the expectations from others, especially from people close to us. Do we dare to live out the life we would like to live?

Do you think it is hard to live without expectations? Karl: “We humans think a lot, it can be hard to suddenly not think about something. We have a strong tendency to let our minds wander, picture certain things a certain way, and to actively try to not think about it will only make it harder. We can't really think "don't think about it".” Sandra: "Yes, it's hard to have no expectations. I feel like there is a line between having low expectations and no expectations, and crossing that line is very hard." Paul: "I think it is natural to have expectations, but if the expectations make me unhappy, I wish I could lower them.” Are there expectations you have on yourself or others have on you that are stressful? Karl: "Yes, most expectations that apply to yourself are the more stressful ones, because they are usually high. We tend to want to do a good job and so we put high expectations on ourselves. Stress comes when we don't meet them." Paul: "When I entered high school, I became bad at mathematics. I could feel the disappointment of my father, because I just could not meet his expectations. I felt that my father would love me only if I met his expectations." Expectations are expectations, and they might not be true. Love & relationships should never be based on it. Do you have high expectations when it comes to your studies at KTH? Karl: “Not a lot, since I don't really know how everything works yet, but I do expect the education to reach a certain standard, that I'll learn something and things will work as expected, that I'll meet people and friends.” Sandra: “I actually expected that the schoolwork would be easy, that I would study all the time, be caught up on everything. Those expectations were not met when it came to that.” OSQLEDAREN #1

And on yourself? Karl: “I can be hard on myself. I think that's true for a lot of people, you don't give yourself the benefit of the doubt, you're not as kind to yourself and you don't give yourself the same leeway for mistakes that you do to other people. I expect a lot from myself, and that's not always good.” How would you feel if someone important in your life said that they had no expectations on you? Sandra: "That would actually be hurtful..." Karl: "It holds a bit of a negative tone..." Most of us want others to have healthy expectations on us. We’d actually feel hurt if people didn’t expect anything from us, even though we often struggle with our own expectations on ourselves. How about adjusting expectations? Karl: "I don't think that you should be afraid of changing and adjusting your expectations when you’ve collected more knowledge and experience. You should rather use them to set your expectations accordingly." Paul: "Don’t be obsessed with specific expectations, it will put you at risk." Having expectations is a very natural thing, all we need is to get a deeper understanding about them. When what we are expecting does not become true, try to accept the situation and make adjustments. For the people we love (including ourselves), lower your expectations! Accept people as they are - you are a human being, not a human doing. Your actions and how well they fulfil expectations don’t define your worth. Let’s end with some words from the book "Projections Expectations Separations Judgments & Rejections" by Gary Douglas:"If you're not doing the world based on your projections and expectations, you get to see what is in front of you and you get to change anything."

UNDERHÅLLNING

No Expectations

Word of the Day TEXT POORIA GHAVAMIAN ILLUSTRATION ANGELOS MILIADIS

There are some moments in our lives, when familiar everyday objects feel peculiar. A feeling of not really knowing what they are: a momentary disconnect between the word and the mental representation of the actual referenced object.

Roquentin, the protagonist of Jean-Paul Sartre’s Nausea goes through a strange situation where he finds himself unconsciously unshackling the radical absurdity that hides behind designated names. A feeling of objects escaping their “essence” induces a feeling of nausea in him. An early instance of this is when he recalls holding a pebble in his hand and feeling a “nausea of the hands”. He sees through the essence (e.g. dryness, color, weight, use) that allowed him to recognize the pebble and is faced with its being per se. He continues to have these re-discoveries and ends up with the same feeling of nausea. A similar concern is raised in Friedrich Nietzsche’s On Truth and Lies in an Extra-Moral Sense. To him words are metaphors that are inadequate in capturing an original stimulus. “We believe that we know something about the things themselves when we speak of trees, colors, snow, and flowers; and yet we possess nothing but metaphors for things–metaphors which correspond in no way to the original entities.” he reminds the reader of the seemingly arbitrary relationship between the signifier and signified. Nietzsche also mentions human’s tendency to categorize everything and how this Roquentin, the protagonist of Jean-Paul Sartre’s Nausea goes through a strange situation where he finds himself unconsciously unshackling the radical absurdity that hides behind designated names. A feeling of objects escaping their “essence” induces a feeling of nausea in him. An early instance of this is when he recalls holding

a pebble in his hand and feeling a “nausea of the hands”. He sees through the essence (e.g. dryness, color, weight, use) that allowed him to recognize the pebble and is faced with its being per se. He continues to have these re-discoveries and ends up with the same feeling of nausea. A similar concern is raised in Friedrich Nietzsche’s On Truth and Lies in an Extra-Moral Sense. To him words are metaphors that are inadequate in capturing an original stimulus. “We believe that we know something about the things themselves when we speak of trees, colors, snow, and flowers; and yet we possess nothing but metaphors for things–metaphors which correspond in no way to the original entities.” he reminds the reader of the seemingly arbitrary relationship between the signifier and signified. Nietzsche also mentions human’s tendency to categorize everything and how this has given rise to the platonic theory of forms by stripping away distinctions, which creates an illusion of the ideal. “Just as it is certain that one leaf is never totally the same as another, so it is certain that the concept “leaf” is formed by arbitrarily discarding these individual differences and by forgetting the distinguishing aspects. This awakens the idea that, in addition to the leaves, there exists in nature the “leaf”: the original model according to which all the leaves were perhaps woven, sketched, measured, colored, curled, and painted–but by incompetent hands, so that no specimen has turned out to be a correct, trustworthy, and faithful likeness of the

OSQLEDAREN #4

original model.” We have heard how language and words are a great “tool” for communication, but we rarely describe it as a “lens” through which we perceive reality. Language, in many cases, decides the essence of objects. Take for instance the study done by Lera Boroditsky which investigates how different vocabularies from different cultures manipulate the emotional response to an object. The object in one of her studies is “Viaduct de Millau”, the tallest bridge in the world constructed in southern France back in 2004. Newspapers in Germany described the bridge with words such as “elegant”, “light”, and “breathtaking” whereas French newspapers highlighted the strength of the bridge by describing it as an “immense concrete giant.” Little did we know, in German language “bridge” is assigned the feminine noun, Brücke, while the masculine noun Pont is used in French. An arbitrary gender assignment, thus, sublimates to a drastically different emotional visualization of the same object [1] . There is convincing evidence that language does in fact filter and modulate reality to a great extent and it can change the essence of objects we see. Integrating Sartre’s ideas to Nietzsche’s, have we satiated the need to curb the feeling of nausea through language? Does language work as a defense mechanism in stopping our brains from overloading on so many unique stimuli? We must realize that we can separate the essence of objects from their existence, but it feelsseful and nec

ILLUSTRATION ROISIN CALLAGHAN

PÅ CAMPUS

Mottagningsspecial Reloaded

Mottagningsspecial Reloaded TEXT OSQLEDAREN ILLUSTRATION ROISIN CALLAGHAN

Reception is for many the most exciting period of the year: thousands of new students start at KTH, welcomed by hundreds of buddies, faddrar, mottagare and phös. Many receptions have their own traditions - dances and songs, weird tasks, fun events and beautiful gasques to finish off this period (be it nØllegasques, Ettans Fester or International Banquets). Our last similar Reception Special was 10 years ago, so it is time for an updated version!

OSQLEDAREN #1

PÅ CAMPUS

Mottagningsspecial Reloaded

What was your most fun event during the reception? The Banquet is our final and our flagship event, where we get to see everyone come together to celebrate the end of a fruitful reception; that event was very special and extra fun as we got the chance to engage with the students during this celebration in a fancy and memorable night. The arrival days are also super special as they commemorate new students’ first day in Sweden, and it’s always fun to be there for them when they first arrive to both guide them but also to welcome them with our signature dances!

IntRec

Number of involved: 31 in Project Team, 120 Buddies Number of new students: 1700+

Vad var det roligaste evenemanget under er mottagning? Stugan! En heldag fylld med aktiviteter, bad, story-element och en avslutande gasque ute på Osqvik. Då vår mottagning använder stugan lördag vecka 2 agerar Stugan som en avlutning på Mottagningsveckorna där det brukar vara högt tryck, bra stämning och sjukt taggade nØllan.

Luna Mansour

Vilken tradtion har ni som alla olika sektioner också borde ha? Tunnelbanemiddagen: En av våra avslutande aktiviteter består av att vårat Föhseri tar plats på tunnelbanan vid Fruängen för att bli serverade en tre-rätters måltid av nØllan under färden till KTH. nØllan stiger på vid olika stationer för att servera för-, varm- och efterrätt samt att uppträda med gyckel m.m. När Föhseriet väl är framme vid östra väntar en transport till borggården, även denna planerad av nØllan. Antal NØllan: 215, Antal Mottagare: 150

Vad var det roligaste evenemanget under er mottagning? Ett event som var väldigt uppskattat av n0llan var vår vistelse ute på Osqvik. Där fick vi bland annat uppleva ett oförglömligt dance battle och gasquea under bar himmel. Efter ett uppfriskande dopp med efterföljande bastu väntade mys vid lägerelden, för att sedan packa ihop n0llan som sillar i sovsäckar inne i stugan där de somnade sent. Och de fick inte direkt sovmorgon nästa dag... En aktivitet som brukar vara uppskattat är mottagarmiddagen. Där får n0llan chansen att träffa faddrarna i sin n0llegrupp i civilkläder och off campus, en minst sagt unik upplevelse under mottagningen! Antal Mottagare: 70 Antal NØllan: 88

Emmelie Grund, Linn Almsätter, Christian Schlüter Prieto, Jakob Kiderud, Melissa Svensson & Frida Lagergren OSQLEDAREN #1

Vad var det roligaste evenemanget under er mottagning? Så många saker var bra, men man måste välja något! En gasque vi hade var på världsrekord-tema. Vi hade en (fejkad) representant från Guinness World Records, fullt utrustad med anteckningsblock och tidtagarur. Alla deltagare fick chans att på olika sätt slå världsrekord under kvällen. Med ett märke specifikt för gasquen var detta helt klart en av höjdpunkterna!

PÅ CAMPUS

Mottagningsspecial Reloaded

Vilken tradition har ni som alla andra också borde ha? Bästismiddag! Det är en middag som alla adepten hemma hos sina närmsta faddrar. Det brukar vara väldigt uppskattat, och är ett bra sätt att avsluta första mottagningsveckan. Antal Mottagare: 60 Antal NØllan: 50

What was your most fun event during the reception? Our concert with PQ and Kårspexet!

Knäppis

TBas

What’s a tradition in your chapter/reception that everyone should adopt? We don't really have any traditions as we're a very new reception. The project was very last minute so we didn't really have time to build expectations :') But with the time we had i think we did quite well! Number of new students: Around 200 out of the 700 admitted students. Number of organizers: 10

Vad var det roligaste evenemanget under er mottagning? Ett av våra roligaste evenemang är Extreme Playday. Under detta event får NØllan prova på olika aktiviteter och tävlingar som t.ex. gladiatorspel på uppblåsta arenor, mekanisk tjur, bubbleball och mycket annat. Under detta event bjöd vi också in Kista och Flemingsberg så det kunde bli en riktigt rolig dag!

Niclas Hansson Mejía

TT TT

Vilken tradition har ni som alla andra också borde ha? Vi älskar Flottracet som sker varje mottagning. Detta är en fullspäckad eftermiddag då NØllan får designa och bygga flottar för att tävla mot varandra på stadskanalen Maren i Södertälje. Självklart följs det upp med en avsvalkningpubb i Snequan på kvällen. Antal Mottagare: 25 Antal NØllan: 90

Alexander Mlakar

OSQLEDAREN #1

PÅ CAMPUS

Om pariserhjul

Om pariserhjul TEXT MOTTAGNINGSSAMORDNARE, FILIPPA LARSSON AVAILABLE IN ENGLISH ON OSQLEDAREN.SE

Visste du att så fort mottagningen tagit slut så börjar arbetet med nästa? För dig som engagerat dig i mottagningen som mottagare kanske det är en självklarhet, men jag minns själv hur förvånad jag var när jag förstod att mottagningen är som ett pariserhjul, och det slutar aldrig snurra. Om vi fortsätter med analogin om pariserhjul, så ser nog de flesta mottagningen som höjdpunkten av hjulet. Det är där man ser den vackra utsikten, kanske får lite pirr i benen när man tar en glimt ner till marken. Men vad är nästa steg? Jo, nästa steg är torrt sagt “utvärdering”. Du som är ny student känner förhoppningsvis vagt igen ett mejl om någon utvärdering som skickades ut tidigare under hösten, i anslutning med att din mottagning avslutades. Förhoppningsvis så inte bara såg du mejlet, utan fyllde även i enkäten. Det är genom den som vi försöker lista ut, för att dra analogin långt förbi sin spets, hur högt pariserhjulet nådde i år, var det någon korg som hade trasig säten, och – gud förbjude, var det någon som föll ur sin korg och skadade sig? Så nu kanske du tänker: “jo, jag kommer tydligt ihåg att jag fyllde i den där utvärderingen”. Grattis! Du är en av När du fyllde i utvärderingen var du såklart helt anonym, och ingen kan spåra hur just du svarade i utvärderingen. Men vad hände sen? Några olika saker: en sammanfattning av statistiken från utvärderingen för din sektion har skickats till mottagningsansvariga för din sektion, en rapport utifrån den globala statistiken håller på att sammanställas och kommer bli tillgänglig när den är klar för den som är nyfiken, samt såklart att resultaten i råform fortsatt utgör ett underlag för beslut kring framtida mottagningar.

Men för den som inte kan bärga sig, eller som vet med sig att den inte kommer palla att sitta och gå igenom en hel rapport bjuds det redan nu på lite grafer från resultaten av enkäten. Först kanske man undrar, vad tycker de nyantagna om mottagningen egentligen? Hur upplevde du mottagningen som helhet? 0

Tänk på tiden efter mottagningen. Upplever du att mottagningen har hjälpt dig med ditt sociala liv vid KTH? 0

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Definitivt Mestadels

Mestadels inte Inte alls Jag vet inte

Verkar som att den är ganska populär! Sen kanske man undrar, hur mycket av mottagningen deltog de i? Hur mycket av mottagningen deltog du i? 0

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Tänk på tiden efter mottagningen. Upplever du att mottagningen har hjälpt dig med dina studier vid KTH? 0 20% 40% 60% 80% Definitivt Mestadels Mestadels inte Inte alls

En del Inte så mycket Jag deltog inte Medianen deltog alltså i mycket, men inte allt av mottagningen. Men, vad har mottagningen haft för värde för de som deltog?

OSQLEDAREN #1

Jag vet inte Det verkar som att det inte finns något tvivel bland de som svarade på enkäten att mottagningen hjälpt till med det sociala livet, men åsikterna är mer spridda kring huruvida den hjälpt till i studierna. Det skulle vara intressant att veta om konsensus skulle kristallisera sig om man ställde samma fråga längre in i studietiden!

PÅ CAMPUS

OL History: Phös

OL History: Phös TEXT EDITOR-IN-CHIEF BENJAMIN JAVITZ ILLUSTRATION OSQLEDAREN 1992/SUPERREDAKTÖR PUNKIS

If you have taken part in a reception, you’ve met phös. Older students with dark sunglasses, schmecks and elaborate outfits or fracks. They sing, they dance, they shout, some say that they perform secret rituals or even kidnap new students - phöseriet, fösare, phösarpolisen are and always have been controversial, and this is a short story about them.

When Osqledaren’s nØllenummer 1991 had the photo above as it’s cover, it didn’t take long before KTH reacted. Employees at KTH saw fascist or nazistic tendencies in how the phös dressed, behaved and how the three members of Maskinsektionen's PHÖPO (Phösarpolisen) looked on the photo - so they protested and demanded that something like this should not be allowed to appear on Osqledaren’s cover. The student union reacted, recreating the photo with the same 3 students, but in suits, and slapping it on Kårkatalogen, a yearly catalogue that included important information about THS, just like our website today. The person that had criticized OL’s cover was still not happy and sent another angry letter, but KTH bought a large number of student union catalogues nonetheless. What the photo was missing

were some female students, the letter said. And Osqledaren complied, by putting the rightmost photo on the cover of 1992’s reception edition. Exactly 30 years ago! A little more context: the '90s were a time when the whole reception was controversial. The discussions at KTH culminated in 1994, when the president of KTH, Janne Carlsson, expressed his concerns in KTH’s employee newsletter, in a debate article in Osqledaren, and in Expressen, a nationwide newspaper. In his opinion the reception (or "nollningen") could create associations with neonazism. “Delar av fösningen ger KTH dåligt rykte hos allmänheten. Fösare utstyrda med mörka glasögon och våldsattribut ger associationer till extrema grupper i vårt samhälle. [...] Ta av de mörka glasögonen så att nollan kan se er i

OSQLEDAREN #1

ögonen! Kasta våldsattributen!” - "Parts of the reception give KTH a bad reputation among the public. Phös wearing dark sunglasses and ‘symbols of violence’ create associations to extreme groups in our society. [...] Take off the dark sunglasses so that new students can look you in the eyes! Cast away the violent symbols!". Think of this what you will. The receptions of today look different than 30 years ago, and most of the rituals, hazing and violent image of those times are no more - and that’s good. What was your experience in 2022? How did you feel about the older students with their dark sunglasses? Or if you are one of them - what do you think about the history behind the reception? Send us an email at osqledaren@ths.kth.se and tell us what you think!

PÅ CAMPUS

Taking the Long Way to Graduation

Taking the Long Way to Graduation TEXT ALCINA MUNENE PERSSON ILLUSTRATION ROISIN CALLAGHAN

The journey of the typical student in KTH is likely far from linear. Each and everyone faces their own obstacles as they attempt to reconcile with their own expectations. And sometimes, just like the tortoise who beat the hare, it’s better to take it slow and steady and finish on your own terms. It started off with less hours of sleep, homework and performance induced stress and non-existing physical activity, to put it simply: an overall disregard of my wellbeing. While this combination does sound like an awful thing to experience already, I couldn’t have imagined how much harder university was going to get for me. Everything present in that first sentence, while a bit exaggerated, isn’t too far from the average experience of a student attending higher education. In fact, it’s an almost glorified aspect of being a true university student, and more specifically an engineering student. For my first year at KTH I embraced the reality of this shared life experience all KTH students seem to have, with the add-

ed bonus of early pandemic confinement which just amplified the whole ordeal. Was it tiring at times? Most of the time! But could I find the fun in it? Yes, with the right people around you, anything is possible. In all, the year was tough on me, especially on the mental front, but I made it through. Unknowingly to me, the base for my eventual breakdown had been set, strong and steady. The second year crept in as the summer days grew darker, I was optimistic but very unaware of how much the previous year had affected my performance. The year struck August 29th and it continued on the wrong foot for the coming few months. Somehow, getting a break between the first and second year made my body realize how much I had actually put it through, and understandably

it revolted. No matter how much I pushed, I could not manage to work as much or for as long as I used to during my first year. My alarm clock time went further into the day and my sleeping time further into the night, and in no time I was sleeping during the day and working during the night. Somehow, I managed to pass most of my classes, all thanks to the emotional support from my family. Sure, I was somewhat holding up academically, but on all other fronts, I was standing in an empty room, with nothing but my immediate family to shield me. While their support was needed, I also had to figure out how to stand on my own. Following the disaster that was fall 2021 and a very emotional Christmas period, I took it upon myself to at least remedy

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one part of my issues. I started to come to school at 8.00 for at least 3 days out of the week. With that things took quite the positive turn. Being in school and around my classmates naturally brought back my will to study and stick to things. To be quite honest: academically, the spring term of 2022 rocked! However, here enters the real life embodiment of a video game’s final boss: unexpected circumstances, that I have yet to defeat and that can stand in the way of many students' academic careers. University gathers people from different walks of life, all moving through life at their own pace, whether it is self-imposed or not. As students, throughout your academic career you gain the perspective and tools to understand your relationship to learning in academic institutions. You might prefer to go over the material before class or be lucky and just get it! In those types of situations, you have the bigger part of agency to affect your engagement in your educational future and thus deciding the duration of that period of your life. You’re a student, but most importantly you’re a person like any other, affected by events outside of your control. Events that shake the very stability of the expectations you had in your life. How do you react to forceful changes brought about by your environment? At the time unpredictable events happen to someone, it might feel appropriate to descend down the five stages of grief. Denial aided by your own, or worse, others’ expectations settles in. After all, you got accepted into a prestigious school, you are supposed to be able to handle this, to do

Taking the Long Way to Graduation

well. Fret not, this is all just a small rough patch! Things will go back to normal, you have got to just stick with it, right? As the days move and you feel no closer to things shifting, denial turns into anger and your ever growing aimless frustration redirects to the closest object it knows: you. It’s all your fault, your shortcomings. Time passes, you have less energy to remain angry and bargaining doesn’t sound too bad at the moment. An excess of possible ifs clutters your conscience: “If I just had more time, I would be able to finish all my school work”, “If I didn’t have any of these life problems, things would be so much better” etc… The bargaining period runs its course to morph and give rise to depressive feelings of helplessness and overwhelm. Each and every one of us has their own breaking point, but at some point no amount of organisation and positivity can soften the blows thrown by unexpected changes in all different spheres of life. Your family, health or relationship issues might have been getting worse or better, when the last stage comes around. Following a turbulent period, almost at the end, before you feel your tank run out of fuel, you’re forced into a state of acceptance regarding your current situation. That acceptance grows and matures, you either figure out how to manage things on your own or you reach out for help, nonetheless the guilt remains behind all of it. Personally, I have yet to let go of all the guilt, but a few realisations have helped me along the way.

The course of a student’s academic career is affected by dozens of factors. University is a place you go to create an education path that serves you, and if at the moment you need a bit more time than what you expected, so be it. If some consolation is needed, do tell yourself that a lot of students take longer to graduate than expected, you’re far from an anomaly. However, if graduating is a matter which you place a lot of importance on then you might want to give yourself some leeway, you rarely solve a problem by simply staring at it. Start by setting up a concise plan for how you want to go about tackling each issue, this allows you to feel more in control of your academic situation once again. Reaching out to the aid available on campus, to family and friends can be a great start. Before you begin with anything, especially when you have high hopes for it, expectations can’t help but be attached to it. In a place like university, where you can see so many succeed with the very thing you might be struggling with, it takes a different kind of backbone and courage to forgo your own expectations. While taking it slow inevitably means taking longer to finish, taking the long way might allow you to set down your foundation steady and strong, ultimately allowing you to happily graduate when the time comes. And yes, it will come.

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The Creation of Student X

The Creation of Student X TEXT DIANA CRISTINA CULINCU ILLUSTRATION MÉLINE PARENT

It’s 8AM. You wake up, pour yourself a cup of coffee, open your laptop and join Zoom. It’s dark and snowy outside, and you are in your PJs. Your teacher is talking about Advanced Quantum Mechanics and the meeting is being recorded. You take a sip of coffee. Life is good.

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The Creation of Student X

I should have stayed at home. I should have stayed at home. These were the words I kept repeating to myself last year when it turned out all my classes were online. I was alone, in a foreign country, ready to meet other people and experience real student life, and KTH had just pulled the plug on campus-based attendance right before classes were due to start. In retrospect, was that a bad thing? Or did it force the push of education to its next evolutionary stage?

Students' grades and attendance are already being registered online in many places, along with calendars and course modules, supporting materials, and class notes. There are millions of videos on YouTube and other platforms from teachers and experts explaining advanced course topics for people to understand and research at their own leisure. With the advent of the internet age, it is conceivable that the rigid frameworks of classical education need to be restructured.

“Education is an ornament in prosperity and a refuge in adversity”, said Aristotle nearly 2400 years ago. While there is no clear evidence of modern-like schools in Ancient Greece, the public Ancient Agora and the Ancient Greek Academy were the places where Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle met to discuss and teach pupils about philosophy and ethics. During the Middle Ages, schools were centered around religion and access was granted exclusively to boys from aristocratic families. You would probably not have had the privilege of education were you born during those times. Education was a privilege for the wealthy. What about now? Universal access to education without discrimination has been universally recognized since the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948.

By integrating digital learning with dropin hours on campus or simply live-stream-

The right to education is a fundamental human right. The unfortunate reality is that not everyone is born in an area where the best education is available to cultivate their specific skills. Getting a good education is not always affordable for everyone due to varying financial circumstances. The global revolution in literacy evolved from 1 in 10 adults who could read and write, to 9 in 10 adults with these skills in 200 years. Perhaps the continuing gap in higher education suggests that universities gatekeep the way for students by forcing on-campus attendance. 5 billion people use the internet today, around 63.1% percent of the world’s total population. PC penetration rates are not standardized worldwide, however, we can safely assume that the share of households with computers is steadily increasing alongside the spread of internet access.

“Education is an ornament in prosperity and a refuge in adversity” Aristotle

ing courses from the classroom, we could combat educational elitism by making learning programs accessible to students from remote areas. Distance-learning students are not the only ones benefiting from “edtech”. Parents who want to go back to school but don’t have the time, working professionals who cannot abandon work to further their studies, older individuals who might be ashamed of the social stigma of being the old student. Anybody anywhere can become Student X. Flexible, unrestricted by location or economics, equal.

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What superhero gadgets does one need to be Student X? A working computer or tablet, access to the internet and headphones to avoid sound pollution and protect privacy. What about sustainability? Student X reduces their carbon footprint. While screen time increases, transportation time and the associated energy use is reduced. Nearly 45% of the decrease of fossil fuel CO2 emissions during lockdown was due to surface transport emissions. Reducing transport frequency is also beneficial for eliminating dead transit times and increasing productivity and comfort. Digital access has its downside, though: social isolation. Interpersonal interactions are as much of a feature of university education as learning and academics. Depending on your location, you might be relegated to a 2-dimensional figure slaving away in front of a screen with little contact with your peers. The process of finding friends isn't only important from a social perspective, but also from an educational perspective, since many projects require teamwork and teams are not predetermined. People are social animals. What could be our expectations? Attending class from a beach in Bali, taking an exam from a café in New York, presenting our project from the International Space Station. If there is just one unmitigated insight to be carried forward from the Covid Era, let it be the realization that one can learn without being tied down to any place. Many have likened information to oxygen in the modern age, so let us step forward and change the foundation of access and delivery to education.

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Hur THS planterade ett frö som spränger betong

Hur THS planterade ett frö som spränger betong TEXT CHEF FÖR UTBILDNINGSINFLYTANDE, FILIP AXELSSON ILLUSTRATION ROISIN CALLAGHAN AVAILABLE IN ENGLISH ON OSQLEDAREN.SE

Saker rör sig inom KTH. Det viskas i korridorerna och sägs högt på mötena – utbildningen på KTH ska snart förändras i grunden. Initiativet heter Framtidens utbildning och det håller äntligen på att spränga de uråldriga utbildningsprinciperna som gällt på KTH de senaste 100 åren. Och nu gror fröna som THS planterade under 2020 och snart bryter de sig igenom betongen. Tredje september 2020 trillade ett mejl ner hos KTH:s studenter. I mejlet fanns en enkät med titeln "KTH och Covid-19" med frågor kring KTH:s pandemihantering och studenters upplevelse av de nya undervisningsmetoderna som snabbt utvecklades. Avsändaren var THS – Tekniska Högskolans Studentkår – eftersom vi ville ha underlag på vad vi skulle säga till KTH i ett oroligt läge. Påverkansarbete kan ofta vara snårigt och väldigt sällan går allt som man först tänkt sig. Det är inte konstigt egentligen; komplicerade saker är per definition inte enkla. Men såhär i efterhand kan jag ändå säga att enkäten som skickades ut under början av september 2020 skulle visa sig ha en mycket djupare påverkan än vad vi tänkte när vi tog fram den. Enkätens svar analyserades i djup och bredd och presenterades för både högt uppsatta på KTH och vanliga lärare. Något som snabbt blev tydligt var att många studenter hade farit illa under pande-

min. Många upplevde en stor ensamhet i distansplugget och en utsatthet under zoom-tentor. Men i mörkret fanns ändå en ljusglimt – många saker hade trots allt fungerat! KTH fyller 200 om några år, så vi har alltså en glad pensionär att göra med! De undervisningsmetoder som fram tills nu varit dominerande – föreläsningar, övningar (om man har tur) och en tung salstenta i slutet – har idag 100 år på nacken. Förändringsarbete går långsamt men något hände under 2020 – helt plötsligt fick hela lärosätet eld i baken och ingen kunde se framför sig hur fort det faktiskt kan gå. Det blev tydligt för oss studentrepresentanter att KTH måste ta vara på chansen att ta åt sig av det som fungerade under pandemin. Ta vara på inspelade föreläsningar och de kurser där tentor framgångsrikt ersattes med inlämningsuppgifter och kontrollskrivningar. Och vi fick gehör! På våren 2021 påbörjade KTH projektet "Framtidens utbildning".

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Ibland känner man sig lite tjatig när man är studentrepresentant. Jag kan inte på mina två händer och två fötter räkna hur många gånger jag har bett KTH att "kommunicera detta aktivt till studenterna". Men ofta behöver något höras ett dussin gånger för att ett budskap ska nå fram. Så vad kommer Framtidens utbildning innebära för studenterna på KTH? Kort sagt – väldigt mycket! Det arbetet mynnat ut i är 13 principer som ska genomsyra KTH:s utbildningar framöver. Allt kommer inte ske direkt och allt kommer inte ske på samma sätt överallt men som jag ser det är det här ett stort steg framåt. Och detta hade inte varit möjligt utan oss studenter. För två år sedan sådde vi studenter frön under KTH. Nu spränger de fröna igenom betongen som legat under campus i 100 år. Vi står med spänning och tittar på vilka träd just dessa frön kommer växa upp till.

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Hur THS planterade ett frö som spränger betong

13 principerna för Framtidens utbildning

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Väsentliga ämneskunskaper KTH:s studenter ska inte bara lära sig teori utan de ska också få kunskap som är relevant ute i verkligheten. Studenter ska få kompetenser inom flera områden; man ska få flera ben att stå på. Förmåga att hantera omedgörliga problem för en hållbar samhällsutveckling Studenterna på KTH ska vara väl rustade för att ta sig an problem inom hållbar utveckling, dels miljömässigt men också socialt. Aktivt studentcentrerat lärande Utbildningen ska använda pedagogiska metoder där studenter själv får ta ansvar för sitt lärande. Det ska finnas tydlighet i kommunikation och tillräckligt stöd för att detta ska kunna ske. Bedömning och examination för lärande De examinationsformer som används ska vara anpassade för kursens mål och ha en mångfald. Ens utbildning ska inte bara bestå av åtta veckors plugg följt av en tenta som ska täcka allt i kursen. Mer kontinuerlig examination ingår också här.

Öppna experimentella miljöer Studenter ska i större utsträckning ha självständig tillgång till laborativa miljöer, exempelvis makerspace eller liknande.

Livfullt campus Campus ska vara en naturlig samlingsplats för studenter, med både undervisning och aktiviteter där studenter kan lära känna varandra. Det ska alltid finnas något intressant som händer på campus.

Ett användarorienterat verksamhetsstöd

Lärare och annan personal på KTH ska få det stöd de behöver från administrationen för att kunna genomföra sina uppdrag så effektivt som möjligt. Flexibla och strukturerade studievägar KTH ska undersöka hur utbildningarna kan utvecklas för att ge studenter mer flexibilitet under sin utbildning. Det är inte självklart att ett strikt strukturerat program är det bästa i varje situation utan olika möjligheter ska finnas.

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En utvecklande utbildningskultur Både studenter och lärare ska uppleva att utbildning är givande och utvecklande. Det ska kännas som att man är en del av något viktigt när man går på KTH. Kontinuerlig kompetensutveckling i lärarrollen Lärare ska hela tiden bli bättre och få uppdaterade kunskaper inom både ämnena i sig och i pedagogiken. Ett ledningssystem för kvalitetsutveckling KTH ska bygga upp processer för att utveckla kvaliteten systematiskt. Breddad rekrytering och deltagande KTH ska verka för att de studenter som kommer till KTH ska spegla samhället i stort. Detta ska inte sluta när de är antagna, utan även påverka hur KTH arbetar under utbildningens gång. Integrerat livslångt lärande Som tidigare student på KTH ska man kunna återvända för att utveckla sin kompetens senare i livet.

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Maintaining Relationships Abroad

Maintaining Relationships Abroad TEXT PARISA RAZZAGHI ABYANEH ILLUSTRATION MY ANDERSSON

We all have relationships, be it with our family, friends, or partners. Maintaining them and making new ones isn’t supposed to be a complicated thing right? We’ve been doing it our whole life so we’ve had all the practice we need. But why is it that sometimes things don’t go in the direction we want them to? When I was packing my suitcases to move here, I made drawings on plates for my loved ones, writing a personal note on the back of each one, telling them that nothing is going to change. Even though we can’t see each other in person, we’re going to talk over the phone all the time. Then the move happened. Now it’s been a year and a half and I talk with them once or twice every few months. To the people whom I used to spend even 10 hours a day talking to. At first I felt so guilty, I kept telling myself that I’m breaking the promise I made and that I’m not a reliable person. Telling them about how busy I am and how bad I feel every now and then didn’t help either, it was getting repetitive and I kept feeling like I’m making up excuses to not call them. “How hard is it to pick up your phone and call someone for 10 minutes every few days or so?” It’s not like I had 10,000 friends that I needed to keep in touch with. There were only a few close people that I made that promise to.” These were some of the thoughts that occasionally popped into my head. But the truth is: even when I didn’t have anything to do, I was so mentally drained and tired that I couldn’t even open my mouth and talk to my partner, let alone call someone and talk for hours. I guess it’s inevitable to feel mentally ex-

hausted when everything is new and there is so much to learn. Take buying milk as an example. It took me a while to comprehend that filmjölk and färsk mjölk are two different products. The last thing you want is to get home with the groceries you’ve bought, only to find out that you’ve managed to get the wrong items despite hours of translating everything in the shop.

At times, things certainly turned out differently from how I imagined they'd be. But in the end, it didn't ruin the relationships I had. Sure, it was hard to find the time to talk to each other, it still is. But these people were the ones who knew the real me and cared about me. I wasn’t perfect, I didn’t answer their texts for days but they still stood by my side. Perhaps some bonds cannot be broken by distance. OSQLEDAREN #1

I talked to other international students to find out what their experience was like - did it feel the same for them, could they keep the relationships they had at home even after they moved to Sweden? How about creating new ones? A friend of mine said that he didn’t even bother to start new relationships when he first moved to Sweden - after all, what’s a semester (or 5 months) abroad, you can always zoom with your friends at home. And he thought that he’d be going back home anyway. However, things changed and he had to stay longer - starting all over again from scratch! It was similar for me: I already knew the best people in the world, and they were not in Sweden. But after a while, I started to miss going to cafes with people. You can only spend so much time alone and sometimes, you need someone to be with you when you go somewhere, you need people close to you, in the same place, more than once or twice every few months. It was then that I began to look for new friends, but it had actually been so long since I’d made a new friend that I felt out of practice. The more I tried, the more I struggled in connecting to people. I just didn’t know how their mind worked. I still don’t have all the answers to my questions. Even so, I am grateful for the few people I can have coffee with. And my friends abroad that still feel close, even during that short phone call. All in all, it’s alright if things don’t turn out the way you want them to, just give it some time and know that you’re not alone.

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