O-Ringen is special. Although I don't believe it to provide much insight on Sweden and Swedes in general, given the multinational nature of the people competing, I do think it says something about Scandinavians and about orienteers. See the Remarkable and Interesting Facts and Observations.
In the meantime...

7/21/07 Copenhagen-Mjolby
Around one in the morning, Ryan and I arose as quietly as possible (which was not very, given the creaky beds made of broken particle board with a thin foam slice atop) and walked downtown past the many very loud nightclubs to the bookstore, where we purchased the new Harry Potter book (not because we were planning to read it at that hour, but because in the morning, when the store reopened, we would be on a train to small-town Sweden, where we were dubious of our English-language books options (this turned out to be unnecessary; we found the book in Mjolby's one bookstore on the first day as we walked by)). Upon our return to the hostel, we discovered Eileen, waiting at the foot of the stairs for us. She hadn't gotten any more sleep than we had. As she led us downstairs to our newly assigned room, to which she had moved all of our belongings, she told us about the people who came into our dorm room, turned the lights on, and tried to convince one of our roommates to come out clubbing. The roommate in question promptly threw up as Eileen left the room to see if we couldn't be assigned to someplace more likely to be somnolent. Our new room was a windowless non-bed room, with extra mattresses on the floor and some rather creepy murals on the walls. It was much more comfortable than our previous rooms, and we fell asleep immediately.
Our train left at ten in the morning, and we crossed the bridge from Denmark to Sweden and then passed through a few cities, marveling at the flatness of the terrain.
Upon arrival in Mjolby's train station, we walked (without the benefit of a map- they had mailed us a packet of very useful information (to our house) around the time we were in Italy) into town, eventually locating the O-Ringen Event Center, which was really big and covered in official white tents and surrounded by camping tents and RVs. We checked in, a process involving far too much standing around with packs on, received our packets, and were informed of our accommodations, which we had apparently walked past on our way in. These, when we arrived, were army cots in an empty elementary school classroom, to be shared with seven or so other orienteers, two of whom were giggly twenty-something-year-old girls, two more their same-aged male friends, and the other three, old men from either Sweden, Norway, or Finland.

7/22/07
After a cold night on the uncomfortable cots, we went and bought training maps to the only training event close enough to walk to (as this was the only mode of travel available to us). The bushes were thick, but well-perforated with elephant tracks (for those of you who are unfamiliar with such a term, you can probably imagine its origin: it means a brand-new trail caused by a lot of people crossing the terrain in the same path). For the night, we moved into the room next door, which had no other people, only soft (though short) couches on which we slept. The only issue was the lack of door, which let in all the giggles from the group of young Finnish girls in the third room. Ryan says the shortness of the couches was also an issue, but I guess that's the problem with height.

7/23/07
The first day of competition- it rained. You know that sort of rain that looks wimpy, but if you actually go out in it, it soaks you rather thoroughly? It was that sort of rain. As we have no mode of transportation here other than our feet, we walked (without umbrellas or rain gear or anything sensible like that) the lovely long (3-4km) walk (which will be the same tomorrow and the next day) to the finish area, then followed the signs relating to our categories' start (these are named for sponsors, so we got to follow the smiling orange gumby and matching spiral to the Östcraft start) for 2.4 km, the second shortest of our walks to the start. By the time I arrived, every fiber of clothing and hair were saturated by the rain, and every pore of skin infiltrated as well. The wind picked up about the time I arrived at the start, so I had a good half hour of warm-up in order to prevent hypothermia. On the (wet, swamp-filled) course, I fell only twice (all the way under) in the water that was already over my waist. The mud was also just delightfully sticky. After running, finishing, and walking the long walk back to our lodgings, I couldn't stop my teeth chattering until after a very hot communal shower and bowl of soup.

7/24/07
A much drier race, but all the swamps are nice and full, and there's still plenty of mud to go around, so no worries there. Also, the finish chute was the same as yesterday, and therefore almost as muddy as the walk to the start. I anticipate what the very same churned up ground will look like tomorrow with ever-increasing alacrity. I do love mud, especially the kind you can't even get off with your fingernails, and especially here, where we have no way to wash our clothes (same race clothes every day, and the shoes are the best part, putting them on wet and slimy in the morning!).

7/25/07
One might call it hot today, but one would nevertheless be soaked and muddy from running.

7/26/07
We had a different meet site today, closer by about a kilometer to our lodgings. An earlier start meant I got on the list of results (they only post the first 56 in my category of 205) for a while, but it didn't mean that the walk to the start or the finish chute were fresh and clean, so of course I was grateful for the sticky, heavy, oozing mud.

7/27/07
Last race, a chase start. I was awful. After running, we cleaned up, packed, and took a train to Stockholm. We're now staying in a very nice youth hostel.



Remarkable and Interesting Experiences, Facts, and Observations from O-Ringen
-Rain+several thousand people+grassy field or finish chute or walk to start=absolute mudpit!
-O-Ringen is big- more than 11,000 people here (though the biggest ever meet was O-Ringen a few years ago, with more than 25,000. Just look it up in the Guiness book.)
-Because this many people tears up the woods more than a little, spikes on O shoes are not permitted. Also, this map won't be used again for about ten years, by which time it might have healed.
-They don't want blood on the bushes, either. Minimum dress code is a short sleeved shirt and full leg coverage. No ripped clothing allowed, either.
-On the (2.4-3.5 km- just about as long as some of the courses) walk to the start, there are several stations, always in this order: the Duct Tape Station, where they tape anything that defies the dress code into submission. Ryan says he saw an old lady get chased down and taped for showing two inches of leg. I saw a guy, as soon as he was out of sight of them, rip the duct tape right back off again. Next is the Sport Ident Clear Station. Those of you who orienteer will find it interesting that they don't have you check the SI's until you start, just clear. The rest of you don't know what I'm talking about, and probably don't care. Next are the improvised toilets, which is to say the area of the woods with a big piece of paper in front and between the women's and men's side. Inside are buckets with seats on them. Not for the squeamish, not for the modest- I really pity the lady who hauls the full buckets. Definitely an Experience, and apologies to those of you who are Delicate of Composition. Finally, the Water Station, where meet officials with watering cans are constantly filling little plastic yogurt cups with water. The used ones go on top of stakes put out just for that purpose so the officials can pick them up all stacked, nice and neat, without having to dredge garbage from the mud. Then, the usual graduated start where you pick up control descriptions, maps, and go off, as is generally done.
-The finish is sorted just like the start, separate chutes by sponsor; find the slightly creepy smiling orange gumby thing and run towards it. It's really long, and also muddy, though not as much as might be expected. A large video screen presides over the finish, with a stage for the announcer beneath and various cameramen on stands by the finish chute. The announcer gets very excited about things and starts yelling. Sometimes it's even in English, so we can figure out what he's yelling about. Other times, not so much. Winners are presented with wreaths as they run in (unless they're, like, actually racing someone at the time, at which point that would be a little awkward).
-The event center (which is not the same as a meet site) is a large barn surrounded by tents. There are vendors from different countries, people selling food; a grocery store in near entirety (I hear it's sub-par in the bread department) relocated and set up for the use of orienteers under a really big tent canopy; a sporting goods store, much like the grocery; live music; a five-day Catching Features (if you don't know what it is, look it up on Google and download and play the free demo. Yay virtual orienteering! It's like reality, only the thorns don't hurt and you don't end up covered in mud!) on-site tournament, with an elite class and a standard division playing different courses; one of those bungee jump things like at the fair.... the list goes on.
-Surrounding the barn and official-type tents, there's a ton of camping tents (actually, in a more literal sense, probably a couple of tons), organized by club, each with their club banner, symbol, or suit flying above. One we passed had its own plasticized board outside displaying members' start times and daily results.
-Mud is sticky, wet, and everywhere.
-Showers are rather- by which I mean very- communal. All modesty save gender separation is obliterated in the face of the twenty or so people per gender who need to get clean in the one small room provided (there are three spigots in this one room) at any one time. Those of you Delicate in Constitution probably ought to be over yourselves at this point, as this would also have to be called an Experience.

See? O-Ringen is special.

I'm going to try to write the final email and send out pictures in the two and partly hours before I leave for Colorado. More orienteering. Yeah, life is tough, isn't it? Wish me luck. If I don't get to it, I'll do it when I get back in two weeks.

--
Kelsey BresemanñÑ¿?¡!ªº
www.northwestforestfrenzy.googlepages.com

PS You all know that I'm kidding about how much I love mud, right? It's delightful in that I'll-never-be-really-clean-again way...