Some things are harder to explain to new arrivals from abroad. If you are not from neighboring Sweden or from as far as Canada (where a lot of Finns and Swedes have immigrated a long time ago) then you will need a short course in student overalls or the boilersuit.
This used to be an exclusively engineering student (Teekkari) thing, but it has slowly spread over the past few decades to cover other fields as well. There are a couple of reasons – 1) it’s quite warm and easy to keep clean(ish) at student parties and 2) you can relay all sorts of messages with the patches and prints and alterations. There’s even some special ones for exchange students, if you want to spread the tradition: ESN Overalls.
It’s a good thing that studies last a few years, as you will need time to figure out a few things:
- color of the overalls for your faculty / study field?
- what are the best patches to have for free entry into clubs and discounts on useful stuff?
- why you should need to learn how to sew once you start dating someone?
All this being said, the overalls are not mandatory… and neither is partying. Both just happen to happen near some students. 😉
