Hello and welcome to your first issue of the Gustavian Weekly. And your first weekend at Gustavus. Your first semester as a college freshman. Or first-year. Whatever it is I’m supposed to say. This week is going to go by fast. Like, super fast. Meeting new people. Starting new classes. Unpacking. Eating new foods (I recommend checking out the cookies in the Market Place and running them through the toaster).
Moving in might feel daunting and all the new people overwhelming, but don’t worry about it. It won’t take long for you match names with faces, and soon enough everyone will know yours, too. It’s like that show, Cheers. I won’t type out the lyrics to the theme song. Nobody needs that stuck in their head.
As fast as it gets and as busy as you feel, make sure you find ways to de-stress. The Dive has some pretty fantastic couches that make homework nearly impossible and napping entirely inevitable. It’s also got air hockey and pool. The sauna in Lund is the coolest way to relax. That was a terrible attempt at a joke, and I am only mildly sorry about that. But in all seriousness, the sauna is awesome. And a great place to meet people. And there’s oils. In the cold winter months on campus, you can close your eyes and almost believe that you’re somewhere tropical. Or you can embrace the cold and do a sauna snow-roll. It’s extremely refreshing if not completely terrifying.
Each first-year residence hall comes equipped with ping-pong tables, pianos, communal cable TV, new neighbors and your very own personal roommate. Of course, they lack A/C and the appropriate amount of washer/dryer to student ratio—but five out of seven isn’t too bad. It’s also a convenient ratio for me, what with me being an English major and it being completely reduced as-is. So it works for all of us. Hypothetically. Unless you prefer decimals. But, I digress.
As this year’s Editor-in-Chief of The Gustavian Weekly, I hope I can be a resource to you and that the paper can be the place you go first for news and opinion exchanges about what happens on and around campus. Enjoy your new “firsts” and be sure to take advantage of everything this campus has to offer.