Thanks to Related to Moon, AusHunIsForever777, camry72 and SansTheLanguage218 for reviewing.

Disclaimer: I don't own Hetalia.

Ukramania: Tradition

Katyusha let out a deep breath, wiping the sweat from her brow. It was hot, and they had walked quite a distance. She thought she could hear one of the more girly-girls complaining about blisters.

It was the orientation period for the university that she was attending, which took place in the heat, and involved a lot of walking. They said that this was 'the most fun part of your life that you never wanted to relive'. Perhaps she would think of that in the future, but for now, it was torture.

Oh well. At least they would be able to relax that evening. Their hostel partners would be coming that evening, and she wondered what they were going to do.

…

Dancing, it would seem.

Katyusha laughed in delight as the boy she was dancing with led her over the grass. They weren't allowed to take off their shoes, which was a shame. She wanted to feel the grass beneath her toes. When the song changed, everyone changed partners, and she allowed herself to be swayed by the next boy.

The very next time, the boy she was dancing with had strawberry blond hair and red eyes. She blushed slightly when she noticed how cute he was, and was thankful that it was so dark.

"So, are you enjoying yourself?" the boy asked.

"Tak," she said. "This is fun."

"…You're Eastern European too?"

Her eyes widened when she registered the accent.

"That's right," she said. "I'm from Ukraine. You?"

"Romania," he said. "My name's Vlad."

"I'm Kat."

The two danced for a while, and when the song changed, she expected that they would change again, but as the first chords of the new song started to play, Vlad suddenly dropped to his knees.

"I'm sorry about this," he said, grabbing her hand.

She was confused, until the song's vocals started, and Vlad was singing along. Her eyes widened when she realised that it was a love song, and she blushed as Vlad was staring her straight in the eyes.

She looked around, and was kind of relieved to see that she wasn't the only girl in this position. In fact, all of the boys were on their knees, holding the hands of a girl as they sang the song.

She knew that each hostel had its set of traditions. Her own had, for example, a tradition that if you were to wear open-toed shoes, your toenails had to be painted. She wondered if serenading was a tradition of the boys' hostel.

She turned back to Vlad, and she was glad to see that she wasn't the only one blushing. And as the song continued, she found it increasingly difficult to look him in the eye.

Once the song was over, Vlad rose to his feet, and he shuffled them awkwardly.

"Sorry," he said. "Tradition, you know?"

"I understand," she said, smiling.

Vlad returned the smile, and they had to change partners again. She wondered if she would have a chance to talk to Vlad again. Well, there was still a week and a half before the end of orientation, and then she had four more years. She was sure they'd meet again.

Alright, so, a bit of an explanation: My university has an orientation period for the first years that starts three weeks before classes start. The first two weeks are reserved for the orientation (showing the students around campus, doing the registration, taking academic literacy tests, taking psychometric tests (if necessary), etc). The third week is reserved for RAG (or JOOL in Afrikaans, which roughly means 'your unconditional sacrifice for charity'). My university has 28 hostels, divided evenly between male and female. Each year, a male and female hostel are paired up, and this orientation period is when you work together the most. We call it the sleep (Afrikaans word for 'drag'), which doesn't make sense, but whatever. During the year, a lot of parties are organised between different hostels, and the orientation period is no exception, except that these parties are usually just dancing. This was actually the first time that I had danced with a guy. I wouldn't call it a slow dance, but you get the idea. Anyway, each hostel also has its share of traditions. The one with the toenails is a genuine tradition of my hostel. But the hostel that was our sleep in my first year… They have this tradition where they go down on their knees and serenade a girl when a specific song plays (Liefling, from Steve Hofmeyr, and the title translates to 'sweetheart' (just imagine the German 'Liebling', and you get the idea)). Encountering this tradition for the first time without having heard of it… At least the boys also had the tradition of wearing sunglasses (even at night), so I didn't have to look the guy directly in the eye. Some girls had two boys serenading her since they outnumbered us.

There are a few strange traditions among the hostels. The serenade thing aside, another hostel celebrates St Patrick's Day (their whole theme is Irish due to being named after the clover field that their building was built on), and another has 'Summer of '69' as their anthem (due to being founded in 1969). My own hostel dances a specific routine whenever 'Samsara' plays at a party (with the Macarena being incorporated in the routine). Another hostel has canes for those that are third year and above. And let's not even get into detail on the mascots. My hostel has the Pink Panther because pink is our primary colour (with black, white and grey as supplemental colours), another one has Minnie Mouse, and another has Betty Boop. I think ours are the only ones with famous mascots. Turtle, donkey, giraffe, red cat, kudu, eagle…

I actually considered doing a multichapter story based on my experiences as a first year student, and showing the college experience of South Africa. I had considered putting it in the Nyotalia universe (partly because I'm a girl, so I can write my experiences from that perspective, and partly because my university has girls outnumbering boys 7:1, so having more females makes sense). What do you guys think?

Oh, and that part about 'the most fun part of your life that you never want to relive'? That's actually what they say about the orientation period. And I did enjoy it, but I don't think I'd want to experience it again.