Editor's note: Adam Burish will fill you in on all the Team USA happenings during the 2008 tournament. Check back often for the latest installments of Burish on the Boards.
Hello again USA fans,
Just another update as to what our team has been up to the past two days. On Monday, we woke up and went to practice. Following practice the coaches informed us they set up an afternoon of paintballing for the team. So we all jumped on the bus and drove a half hour outside of Portland to a paintball field. We set up two teams, the "old guys" vs. the "young guys." The " old guys" were 25 and older, which is called old in this bunch of guys. The funniest part of the experience was right when we showed up Matt Greene and Zach Parise went right to the middle of the field and on the count of three started shooting point blank at each other as we all looked on. If you have ever gone paintballing you know that when those balls hit you it really hurts as they travel between 60-80 mph. It was hilarious to see them jumping around while they freely shot each other. The next day at practice everybody was laughing at guys that had their bodies covered in welts left from getting shot all afternoon.
Yesterday, Tuesday we had a good practice again, and that night we all went down to the water for a lobster bake. A group of lobstermen, who are men that catch lobsters for a living, hosted our whole team and staff for an unbelievable dinner of fresh caught lobsters, clams and mussels. It was great to see all the guys put their bibs on and make a mess learning how to properly crack and eat their lobsters. Our massage therapist, Inar, set the record by eating three lobsters.  It was another great opportunity for all of to sit around eat, share stories, and get to know one another even better. It is so important in short tournaments like this for a team to gel and become a close group of guys, and so far this team has been so much fun to be around, and it seems as though we are becoming pretty close, which will be very beneficial as the tournament begins.
We are flying out today from Boston to Halifax. We will have one more practice Thursday before we begin competition Friday against Latvia. We are all excited to get started. I will check in again soon.
Adam Burish
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