Europeans and Hobbies

So it's Mikko's birthday today, he's a friend of Liisa's who I met in Finland. I went to write Happy Birthday on his wall and I saw all of his fancy-dancing pictures on his profile as well. And I thought, wow, Liisa and all of her friends are always so busy! Mikko dances, and Joel does dog sled racing, and Liisa has rock-climbing... any one of those is more interesting than the hobbies most of my friends in the states have. And thinking about other European friends that I have, to a lesser extent, they also have pretty well defined and serious hobbies. (But the Finns most of all, for some reason, or maybe its just coincidence.) I mean I tend to think of all of those as hobbies that you have to take somewhat seriously, get better at, etc. When I try to think of hobbies for my friends here, I come up with more categories... Nash is interested in politics and psychology... Tabi is interested in metaphysical stuff... Tina is interested in environmental issues... etc. Well of course I know they have other interests and so do the Finns, I mean Liisa also used to horse-back ride, and she is getting interested in wine tasting, she likes languages and she loves traveling, scouts, etc... but hmmm, this is so random (also it's 2 in the morning, I just finished a long paper, and I'm drinking cheap free wine in the hotel room). but yeah, I just have this feeling that they're taking their hobbies more seriously. I mean if you think to yourself, "rock climbing is my hobby," you might take it more seriously. And if you really want to do something badass like dog-sledding or figure-dancing (I don't even know the names for it, lol, thats how bad I am) then you need to practice and take it seriously. Anyway, it's just my sleep-deprived, Facebook stalking thought of the day!