More Copenhagen

The results page are up now at the results link that I put down below somewhere. The PDF version that you are taken to only has scores from rounds 6--8 (and, of course, the totals); to see scores for the first five, change the "8" in the URL to a "5".

I played with actual tiles, against people in the same room, for the first time ever in the hotel Thursday night before the tournament (I've been telling people here that it had been "several years" since I had a group of people to play with, which I suppose is true). I think I was consciously playing a part on the first day as the person who was not at all scared mindless, whereas on the second and third day I was feeling more myself. It is probably not a coincidence that on the first day I scored eight points (of a possible twelve) and on the last two I scored three (out of a possible twenty). There is a lesson here somewhere. I don't think the lesson is particularly politically correct, but there it is.

There were other lessons learned as well, namely that I still cannot understand spoken German very well at all; that apparently I'm the last person on earth with neither business cards nor a cell phone; and that everyone, even the Danes, know Monty Python. (We had a midsummer night's bonfire on Saturday night with the traditional witch-in-effigy on a pole, and there were several shouts of "Burn her anyway!" and "Churches!" and the like.)

There were six Americans there in total; the four of us on the Mahjong USA team, one guy who showed up with Ben who ended up being a Russian for the tournament, and a professional from Japan who didn't play, but who was there for moral support and pictures and whose link is now embedded in the sidebar. Obviously we were there to mingle, and we did, but none of the team had met each other before, so we were mingling as much with each other as with everyone else (with the added advantage that we all spoke English). But they are all good people, all one hundred thirty-odd of them, and we are all pretty damn odd.

When I get back, the pictures I have will get posted somewhere, but don't expect it before the weekend.