Herräng 5

Speed-dating. Has anyone ever done it? I know Kat has, and from what I’ve heard it is a serious matter where you are face to face with a guy and you try to make a good first impression in 3 minutes, before you are put in front of the next person. In the end you choose the people you liked and want to see again, and if it turns out that two people chose each other they’ll get each other’s contact information.

Herräng speed-dating was different. I first had moral reservations against participating, since I’m already taken, but then the set-up looked like a whole lot of fun and my friend Alanna wouldn’t go if I didn’t. So I went.

We sat in a big tent which was usually used for dance classes. The floor was decorated with roses and pillows. People wanting to meet ladies (mostly guys) were sitting in an outer circle, while people wanting to meet guys (mostly ladies) sat across from them in an inner circle. We were given tasks to fulfill before we would rotate and end up in front of a new partner. The first task was for the inner circle to rotate for two seats so that everyone would sit across a different person. Then, the guys had to give the ladies a nice back rub, and after a minute, the roles were reversed. The next task with a new guy was to discuss solutions for the European financial crisis. Next task was to look into each other’s eyes for a whole minute without talking. I’ve never experienced such a long minute and this much awkwardness.

We had to talk about our regrets in life, what turns us on and puts us off, most important aspects of a relationship, ask each other all the questions we wanted to ask (without getting answers), invent a secret handshake, give each other a hand massage and at the same time ask the partner the question: What’s your problem?

It was a lot of fun, and successful matches would get a dance card with an agreed time and location for their dance.

Unfortunately, the organizers messed up the results so that at one point five guys were waiting at their meeting points for their dates who never showed up. Also, neither did I get any dates nor any words of consolation for that from my boyfriend :)