[ESN EVENT] Erasmus Paintball tournament

On Sunday the 16th of September it was time for the ERASMUS Paintball Tournament. This tournament was held in Saulkrasti. According to ESN, one of the most famous party cities in Latvia. Although I can’t say whether I agree or not, the Paintball Tournament was a party indeed. It did take some time for me to get in the mood though, maybe due to the lack of sleep from the night before, still needing to wake up.

From the outset, during our 45 minute travel by bus from Riga to Saulkrasti, many of the participants were imagining how our first paintball experience would be. It is also in the bus were we teamed up, as we would be involved in a small competition. My team was initially called ‘’The Fighting Guys’’ and whilst I did not find this to be the most thrilling name (my suggestion ‘’The Elite Squad’’ (in reference to the movie with the same name) was found to be too professional) I was okay with it. Luckily, it was later changed to the ‘’Mad Bitches’’ on one person’s account, but I did not mind and agreed that it was a much better (and fearful) name. After this paintball adventure I discovered not only what it is to eat paint (which I incidentally had to, thanks to the Balkan Squad) but also that paintball in itself does not hurt so much as most people are mentioning. However, the people reporting this possibly have been shot from too close range, which can be quite dangerous. Even if you get hit from a moderate distance, not suffering much pain, you will still have some red circles on your body for one or two days. All in all, I can say that my first paintball experience was enjoyable. After having shot around with paint for some time our enemies had become allies and together we enjoyed a lovely barbeque. Finally, we ended the day with an informal award ceremony, in which each team gave appraisal for each other their effort.