Nordic Games 2009

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Wow! It started Tuesday morning, Sept 22 and just finished today September 27th at about lunch time. I was into the beer at 9am on Tuesday morning, and it didn't stop until my last sip of wine for breakfast this morning. And this was a sports trip...

Every year, students from Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland studying at Life Sciences Universities get together to participate in the Nordic Games. There is track and field, swimming, soccer, hand ball, floor hockey, volleyball, basketball, horse riding, shooting, orienteering, etc. I participating in swimming, soccer, volleyball, and orienteering. Its a pretty packed schedule, with sleep only being scheduled between 5am and 7:30. Sports all day, then pre-parties, parties, and after parties.

We slept on concrete floors of a basement in an apartment building on air mattresses. By the end of the week, it was pretty foul in there with the smell of sweaty soccer cleats and spilled beer. Not to mention black walls from our Exxon Valdez oil spill party...

There was so much singing! I think the only Danish I managed to learn came from the songs translated to "My father is so proud of me" and "Your mother is a whore", and of course some bashing of Sweden, Norway and Finland. My favourite quote of the week came from a Finn who stated when talking to a Dane for some time - "You talk too much and drink too little". So if I thought the Danes could drink, the Finns are even worse! Also marching around with our flags, trying to steal the other team's mascots and get the members of the teams you had to play against first thing the next morning even more drunk than you.

Well, I think the pictures will speak for themselves... What a week!

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