This will be my last blog entry from Olympia, Greece.  Tomorrow morning we will head back to Athens, and then most people are flying back on Wednesday, June 30th.  I hope that you have enjoyed reading about my time so far.  I am fairly sure that I will be able to blog at least once more, as we have our final social tonight.   More on that in a little bit.
 
Before I get writing, I just wanted to thank two people.  One, my brother-in-law Jeff for being the first person to suggest that I blog on this trip, and two, Jason Bryant at USA Wrestling, as his prompt was enough to get me to start typing.  Jason has also been the one posting these blogs for me, so thanks to both of you guys.
 
I was talking with one of the British delegates yesterday, and we both agreed that our English skills have diminished in the last two weeks.  It's simply a case of speaking with very simple words and taking out words that really aren't needed to communicate with someone who does not speak English as a first language.  I notice myself talking in the same not-so-good English (how's that to describe my diminishing English skills?) when even speaking with Angie, one of the other two delegates from US.
 
For people who aren't familiar with Switzerland, it is a country that has four languages – German, French, Italian, and Romansch.  One of the Swiss delegates, Jerome, is from the French speaking part of the country, but his English skills are quite good.  If he doesn't catch something we say, he'll ask us to repeat it.  Suffice to say, he's picked up a few of my favorite expressions, most recently "gong show."  No, I'm not talking about the old TV Show, either.  
 
After the closing ceremony this morning, many pictures were taken.  Angie, my fellow River Falls High School alum, and I were sure to get a picture together.  She remarked that it reminded her of graduation, as people were running around snapping pictures with their friends.  Not that you don't want to help and return the favor, but if one person sees you not taking a picture, quickly you wind up with a half-dozen cameras wrapped around your wrists listening to people say "cheese!" or "Greece!"  Fortunately I haven't seen the rabbit ears in any of my pictures.
 
What is going on with my Minnesota Twins?!  They have been struggling since I left, losing 6 out of the 9 games since I landed on foreign soil.  Hopefully they can turn things around before I get back, because I just do not like seeing that they're losing.  They have a half-game lead on the Tigers, so a sweep of them this week would be lovely.  Hopefully it starts tonight with Liriano on the hill for the Twins.
 
I will fully admit my naivety about the differences between Norway, Sweden, and Finland.  Like most Americans, I know that we refer to them as Scandinavian countries.  I also know that I'm 1/8th Swedish (my second reference to my ethnic heritage in this series), but beyond that I really don't know much.  We have spent a good amount of time with the Swedes and Finns, and last night I heard something interesting from Tiina, one of the Finns.  She said that she wishes that she were Swedish – a comment that surprised me, as I thought that people would be more "proud" to be from where they're from.  Anyways, she went on to explain that Sweden has a better economy, better weather, among other things, so it made a little more sense.  Like I said, I was surprised by this comment, but after thinking about it, I guess that all of the Nordic nations have been packing around together while in Greece.  No animosity, I guess.  I wonder if Nina, who competed in the 2008 Olympic Games as a judo player for Finland, would feel the same.  
 
As I previously mentioned, the last social is tonight.  First we were presenting, then we weren't, but as of yesterday, we were put back on the docket.  We will be playing a quick trivia game with people from the crowd shouting out the answers.  Sounds like chaos a little in the making, but we'll throw out some cool swag to those who know the answers, and then we're going to teach the Cupid Shuffle.  Wait, let me rephrase that – I'm going to teach the Cupid Shuffle.  I'm telling you, being in front of 180 people on back-to-back nights DANCING is totally out of the ordinary for me.  My dancing rivals my singing, as I am a star when no one is around to see or hear me.  
 
Oh, one quick story that reminded me of home last night.  Most motorcycles in Greece aren't "motorcycles" in my mind, but much more like mopeds.  I saw a Harley-Davidson downtown in Olympia, and it even had drag bars and S&S chrome.  Reminded me of being on my motorcycle on mountain roads in Colorado…
 
Citius!  Altius!  Fortius!