About a year ago, to pursue my academic career I moved from Italy to Sweden, specifically to Uppsala, a lovely town near Stockholm. I am now a PhD student in the local university and in some way I feel that my undergraduate days are well behind me. But you know, Uppsala is a very special city full of students from all around the world who certainly “rule” the town. Here, even if you are no longer a student, you can easily feel like one again just walking into a specific neighborhood at a specific time of the day… Or should I say night?
This neighborhood is called Flogsta, it is located in the west part of the city and most of its inhabitants (basically everyone) are students at Uppsala University. But what’s special about this place you might ask? There, every evening at about 10 p.m. the “Flogsta Scream” can be heard. If you’re from Uppsala you will surely be familiar with this particular “ritual”, or at least have heard of it. Literally. If instead you don’t know anything about it, the Flogsta Scream is (as the name suggest) a scream, but it’s also something more than that. It is a collective act in which students scream together from windows, balconies and rooftops. According to the student population, this act is a kind of “safety valve” or “a cry of anguish” over the accumulated stress of the demands of college life.
Truth be told, it is just an occasion to socialize and make some noise together, but for Uppsala students it is something that you can count on every single day. Sometimes everyone need to scream a little in life, might as well do it the Uppsala way.
This article was written by Niccoló De Berardinis as part of an ongoing series of scientific communications written and curated by BioTrib’s Early Stage Researchers.
Niccoló is researching Bioimaging of biomaterials and biological characterization of 3D-printed alloys for reconstructive surgery at Uppsala University, Sweden.