It was with a heavy heart that I watched Norway get eliminated from the world cup by England over breakfast yesterday. It's not that I have any great love for Norway; it's just that I take a perverse pleasure from seeing England and The United States lose. I'm such a terrible person.
Anyway, one of the things that caught my attention during the match was the commentator talking about how the Norwegian team had released a video on Youtube as a response to some of the "disgraceful" commentary that had been in the Norwegian media of late.
Of course, I got curious and looked it up …
And of course, this led to me going off on a tangent of watching videos made by Scandinavian people, talking about their lifestyles and culture. Did you know that Scandinavians (as well as Finns, who are technically not Scandinavian) are renowned for being introverted? I found dozens of videos talking about this phenomenon, as well as testimonials from Scandinavians (and Finns) talking about times in their lives when they've been "freaked out" because somebody they didn't know talked to them. I also found a video by a religious missionary from America who described Norwegians as an infuriating people who tend to believe in logic and themselves (people power), rather than spiritual things. Also, a video by a Danish woman who thought Danes were a generally happy and contented people because they don't "reach for the stars", preferring to set achievable goals and have reasonable expectations. Apparently Finland even celebrates National Failure Day.
But perhaps the most entertaining video was from this Danish lass, who gave this pithy little assessment of her home country …
On my darkest, grumpiest days, I'd probably describe it as a massive vortex of narcissistic wankery; but truth be told, I love that there's a place where I can go to see videos of people on the other side of the world talking about who they are and where they come from.
God bless the interwebs.
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