Street: What’s it like to be the perfect blonde haired blue eyed man?
Jacob Wallenberg: Back home I’m not particularly blonde, I have hair like most people do. And so for the first time in my life it was like “That is what you are. That is what you’re known as. You are Swedish. You are blonde.” It forced me to make the rest of my personality louder. It is very easy to be flattered. Which is fun! Because I was never that flattered back home.
Street: So are you Sweden’s ugly?
JW: Average. For example, in my group of friends, we’re 10 guys. There were two guys who were stopped on the street and asked to be Hollister models whereas I was not.
Street: Swedish or Italian meatballs?
JW: Swedish.
Street: Have you found any great places to get Swedish meatballs in Philly?
JW: Ikea. I’m not even joking. When my friends and I have any excuse we have to go to IKEA, we’re always like ‘Yes! Swedish meatballs.’
Street: Tell us about what Swedish Fish are like in Sweden. Are they an ironic candy?
JW: They don’t exist. I’ve never seen a package of Swedish Fish in Sweden.
Street: You’re president of IFC. That must mean you love all things Greek Life. Which Greek god are you most like, and why?
JW: I hope I’m not Hades. Hmm...well Achilles has his heel as his weakness. I would say he’s the most human god. I like pointing out my own faults, so I guess that sort of works.
Street: Does the Castle house have any trapped doors? Guillotines? Moats?
JW: I think the idea for a moat came up at some point.
Street: Is Tuttle sanitary? (Ed. note: Tuttle is the mounted moose head in the fraternity house)
JW: He gets maintained very well. He actually got shaved when the Transformer’s 2 party scene was in our house. The director, Michael Bay, is a Psi U alum and he said he’d repay us. He’s stopped answering our e-mails…
Street: We heard you took the monk class. How was that?
JW: It was definitely a cool experience, but I think it’s over-hyped a bit. When someone asks me if it was the most meaningful experience of my life ever, I don’t think it was...But it was interesting because you realize that you don’t matter. Everyone likes to think they’re important. I like to think my presence is known. But everyone gets by, and you get by too, which is kind of crazy...When people ask me the one thing that I take away from it, I always say I learned that most of my choices are choices I’m very happy with. I can appreciate being alone, but I found I missed my friends a lot and I was excited to get back to college as I had known it.
Street: Is there one stupid thing you wish you could have said during it??
JW: We only had $80 to spend for food for the week, so we had to basically only make rice and beans to survive. I lived in Castle at the time, and you can imagine how respectful drunk 20 year olds are when there’s food around. Some days I’d come down and think ‘Yay! I have $5 left for this week, and I have rice and beans for a few days!” And then I’d see there’s rice all over the floor... I wish I could have spoken on days like that.
Street: Who was your first celebrity crush?
JW: I think I told my sisters I thought Emma from Spice Girls was the ugly one.
Street: Wait, you don’t like Baby Spice??
JW: No, I did. I think that was my defense mechanism.
Street: Kill, Fuck, Marry: Amy Gutmann, The Quaker mascot, Kweder.
JW: Kill the mascot. Fuck that guy. You could marry Gutmann for the power, but then fucking Kweder sounds... ew. Marrying Kweder could be fun, because then you’re married to a rockstar. You know what, I’d have a one night stand with Kweder.
