“Wait!” cried Ryan, looking back to Erik. “I thought you were from Switzerland!”
For a moment, Erik looked a little peeved. Then his face relaxed. “You Americans don’t know your countries. I’m from SWEDEN,” Erik over-pronounced the word with an American accent. He pointed to his soaked T-shirt, printed with the blue and yellow flag.
“Swedish flag, Swedish language. I’m fucking Swedish!” said Erik—it was the first time anybody had ever heard him say the word fucking, and it made the team laugh.
“Switzerland, Sweden, whatever! Same difference,” yelled AJ, egging Erik on.
“Same difference,” said Erik, “Except that we’re about two thousand kilometers from Switzerland. Oh and we speak a different language and have a different capital city, and we’re surrounded by the ocean and Norway, while Switzerland is totally landlocked…”