Saturday, August 1, 2009

Finnish Baseball Camp

Well it's not exactly what us Americans would call a camp. Instead of the tents and wilderness, it's a tournament that brings competitor teams from the West and East of Finland to duke it out against each other over the course of six, long grueling days that include at least 10 games.

This camp, for the lack of another official word, was for the under 17 (years old). About 1500 players were there for the week-long competition.

It was actually complicated to understand at first. There are various and numerous amounts of camps throughout Finland, throughout the year. This camp was for my host sister, and it was her last as the camps have age limitations.

The girls were docked in a school building in Nurma. Classrooms served as their "dorm rooms" and the girls had to bring their own mattresses. There are a few restrooms, the size for small children of course, and a separate shower for boys and girls, although I believe only three could shower at a time.

While my host sister was in the isolation of teenage girls and boys (who also occupied the building and often walked past the hallway, across the room half naked to go to the showers), my host bro and I shared a comfortable Sokos hotel room in the nearby city Seinäjoki.

I attended many of my host sis's games as a supporter, but I can honestly admit that I can't bear to watch so many games in one day, and definitely not back-to-back games. It's just too much, despite these games being exceptionally shorter than normal games due to the amount of games and teams that must play on a limited number of fields.

It was a difficult week. Everyone in the family had a part in baseball, and my host bro is also a coach for one of the competing teams. So I knew they were udner a lot of stress and exhaustion, and gave them their space. But that also meant that I was alone and by myself often with nobody to talk to.

I did use some spare time to go shopping and walk around the (small) city center, but that got boring quickly since there is nothing to do. I found myself watching tv alone most nights...

But needless to say there were highlights! KaMa 1 (or Kankaanpää Maila), the team my host dad coaches and my host sis plays for, finnished in a respectable fifth place out of twenty "level 1" girl teams. There were of course more girls' teams, but like I said, it's confusing - "level 2" are the majority who play for fun and aren't as good, thus they have their own division.

And there was a sign that I have watched too many games. I helped as a scoreboard attendee, or whatever you would call the dude that changes the numbers and puts up the signs for outs. And I did a damn perfect job I'd say. I knew what was going on and what to do, even without the referee's whistle calls. And my host mom, who was also helping out with the tracking sheets, said I did very well - better than a lot of other people. =)

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