What's Åre?
It is a ski town in Sweden about 2 hours away from where I live in Hegra.
Today they held the world championship of down hill ice skating.
I didn't even know it existed until about a week or two ago when Pappa decided this would be a good way to spend the first day of vacation. And, indeed it was a great way to spend the day!
We left Hegra a little after 8 and headed to Åre. Before we went into the town, we made a couple of stops at stores first. We went to the liquor store and then the grocery store. I got some chocolate for the AFS weekend that is coming up soon! Yum!
Also we bought Cheez ballz which are the best thing on the face of the planet!
 |
| The result of letting Thea, Pappa and I loose in a store... |
We drove into the town and went shopping a little more. We looked at some clothes, bought some candy and eventually we made our way up the hill to where the track for the skating was.
We were greeted by a peppy young woman with collagen lips and an iPad. She explained (in Swedish) that we could bet on who was going to win the championship tonight. I understood enough to get the general idea of what we had to do. There were only two Americans on the list, the brothers Andrew and Daniel Bergeson from Duluth.
I decided I would try to bet on Andrew but for some reason I couldn't, so I placed my bet on Daniel! Thea bet on a Canadian and Pappa bet on a Swede.
The competition wasn't until 6 p.m. so we didn't actually get to see any races, but we did see them practicing!
It was really impressive! I know if I tried to do that it would wind up worse than swing dancing (if you have yet to read about my pathetic attempts to dance, you can just click here!)
We saw an American come down the track once! I got so excited and really wanted to go talk to him but then chickened out and decided I was hungry (what does that have to do with anything?).
After watching a few runs Thea and I decided we would go to Max to eat.
We had burgers.
Ahh, I guess I should say Pappa and Thea ate burgers. I ate ketchup with a little bit of burger on the side... They make fun of me so much for my (border-line-disgusting) love of ketchup, but like the Great Ben Franklin once said, "Eat to please thyself..."
After lunch we got new tee-shirts and I bought a hat for myself! Almost everyone there was walking around with either one of two hats on, the cap or the beanie (I got the beanie).
I decided not to put my on yet.
We looked in a few more shops and Pappa got some guy to give me a little black sheep stuffed animal.
We were going to leave when I spied some Burton gear in a shop window and I just had to go check it out Burton is a Vermont company and also they claim the title of having the world's very first snowboard factory! I dragged Thea along with me (but I asked Pappa to hold my wallet before I went in because I really didn't need to spend any more money...) and I drooled over the colorful jackets, snow pants and boots, the sparkly bindings and bright boards.
When we came out of the store Pappa was talking to some people.. big surprise! He is one of the friendliest people I have ever met.
The lady he was talking to was explaining how the computer thing they were looking at worked. She said she would help me next but then one of the guys there said he could show me on another screen. He gave me a red bracelet and told me to scan it and sign into my Facebook. One of his friends came over and they were talking. Once I was signed in he gave me some instructions and I was able to do the first few steps but then I didn't understand what he said after that... He was speaking Swedish after all... That's right, I understand a limited amount of Swedish too! The languages are relatively similar.
Anyways, I got a little flustered and muttered some words, part in Norwegian, part in English and part incoherently.
They stared blankly at me..
I looked at them.
I'm sure you all know that little feeling in your stomach when it tightens, then you get butterflies, then your face gets hot and you get light headed all in just a few seconds.
Paaaanic!
What the heck did I just say to them? I didn't even understand me....
I shook my head a little: "Oh, I'm so sorry... Do you speak English?"
Their half confused frowns immediately broke into wide, patient grins.
"Ahh, of course we do! Where are you from?"
I gave the whole "Vermont, USA to Norway exchange student for the year" explanation.
So after that he finished explaining to me in English. The computer took a picture of me and posted it on my Facebook.
Then he told me if I wanted to take another pictured I just had to swipe the red bracelet but I didn't have to sign into Facebook again. I figured, why not? so I swiped the bracelet and the guy's friend pretended to jump into the picture, laughed and stepped back out. I laughed too and motioned for him to come back.
A lovely picture!
Once it had been snapped the guy that was helping me was like "There, now that is posted to your Facebook too!"
Wait...
What?
The guy in the picture with me was like "Oh no! I didn't realize that would go to your Facebook! I'm SO sorry!!!"
I cracked up.
"I didn't know it would go to my Facebook either... Don't worry about it."
After I found out that my bracelet sent the pictures directly to Facebook I invited Thea to join me.
Then Pappa.
When we were done with our photo shoot, we decided it was probably time to go home.
On the way home Pappa said we were going to stop at a museum for a little while.
On the way there we came across a car.
Do you see it?
We thought that was absolutely hilarious.
The museum was about an old trade route and an open mine that was a really special type of rock.
We ate waffles while we were there and they were some of the best I have ever tasted.
The ride home was interesting to say the least. Thea and I had eaten quite a bit of sugar and we had both gotten free Red Bull because they are the sponsors of the Crashed Ice World Championship going on today.
Yeah... just use your imagination....
We got home and Pappa and I found a live stream of the competition on the internet. Two Americans were competing and imagine my surprise when neither of them were Bergeson's....
One of the Americans was eliminated in the quarter finals, and the second one, Tigh Isaac, fell and was eliminated in the semi-finals.
The final race was really exciting! The guy favored to win was from Finland and he wound up falling pretty hard and came in third. A Canadian boy took the race.
Congratulations Adam Horst!
I don't quite understand how it works but I believe the World Championship is more like a tournament and this was just the part in Åre. Next the boys are off to Quebec. Where they place in each competition gives them points to add to their final score and I think the one who ends with the most points wins (but I really don't know how it works for sure).
Anyways.....
Y-eh Canada!
ReplyDelete