After 5 failed attempts of me trying to be clever, I have resorted to being blunt and extremely unpoetic. Intros have never been a strength of mine.
Christmas in Denmark was honestly and truthfully, not that much different than it is in the US. Right away it seemed heaps different, until I realized that, well, it isn't. People exchange gifts, just like in the US. There are seasonal movies on TV, just like in the US. Everyone is, generally, in a jolly, "christmas-spirity" mood, just like in the US. Everyone dances around the tree while holding hands and singing holiday songs, just like...oh wait, no. Okay, so besides that and the total lack of Christmas lights on houses and blow-up Santas on lawns, Christmas in Denmark was very similar to how it is in United States. However, one major difference, FOOD! I know I have meantioned this before, but the Christmas food in Denmark is truly magnificent. In the days leading up to Christmas, we had all this traditional food. And/duck, risengrød/rice pudding, risalamande med kirsebærsauce/rice pudding and almonds with cherry sauce, brunede kartofler/caramelized potatoes, æbleskiver/something like apple pancake donut holes, and more. Also, Danes celebrate on the 24th. That is when all the gift-giving, dancing (more like walking) and christmas spirit happens. Leaving the 25th to be a lazy day of playing with your newly aquired presents and eating all the leftovers, YES! The food is already something I know I will miss. Knowing that I feel this way, my host brothers bought me a Danish cookbook for Christmas called "God Mad" (Good Food)! It was by far my favorite present. I made sure it has all my favorite recipes. I cannot wait to get back and make all these crazy Danish dishes. I guess I have the next 6 months to practice them!
The 26th was a family gathering of Kjeld's, my host dad, family. Many of them came early and I had lots of awkward conversations with them. My life is about 70% Danish now, refering to language. For the majority, Aske and Hjalte speak English to me. Not for my benefit, but for theirs. However, recently, they have begun to speak more and more Danish to me. I would classify my Danish as a 2/5. Suffcient, but LOTS of room for improvement! :) Anyway, back to the family gathering. It was pretty much just a lot of talking and playing cards, but it was fun. We had Vietnamese food and we ate with chopsticks, which I am surprisingly decent at using. It was really delicious food. Afterwards, we exchanged presents. I was happily surprised to get 2 presents.: running socks and a gift certificate to the movie theater. I felt bad that I hadn't gotten anything for the gift-givers, so I went to my room and searched for something to give them from all the gifts my mom sent. I think that they were also plesantly surprised that I had returned the favor. All-in-all, it was a really nice evening.
New Year's is coming up and I am glad to say I have plans. Never in my life have a made plans for New Year's earlier than the 31st, so I was glad to break that. I am going to spend it with an Australian exchange student who has already been here for 11 months. She leaves the 4th and since I will be in NORWAY, I will not be able to see her off. But, I am not too sad, because I will be in NORWAY! I am super-duper excited! We leave Jan. 2nd and come back the 9th. It will be a week of skiing and having fun. I am pretty sad that I will miss a week of school, though. ;)
I hope everyone had a tremendous Christmas season and has a fun, safe New Year's. Take care!
Andy
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Thursday, December 17, 2009
One word...SNE!
This morning I woke up and was greeted with a snow-covered window. I sat and looked outside for a couple seconds. The excitement set in. I quickly took a shower and ate breakfast. Gerda told me that usually whenever it snows the train comes late and so I probably did not have to hustle to the station. Being a Wisconsinite, snow is nothing new to me. I have seen and done many things, that to foriegners would seem utterly strange. For example: snow in October or April, having back-to-back snow days, the whole concept of a snow day, snow plows, shoveling your driveway once and immediately starting over, snowmobiles, etc. One thing that not many Wisconsinites get to experience is riding a bike in snow. To Danes, riding your bike in snow is like any other aspect of their day. To Wisconsinites, riding your bike in snow is something that only mad people would do. So, I was excited.
I got all bundled up and headed outside. An immediate smile came to my face. I hopped on my bike and started my usual 6 minute bike ride to the station. Right off the bat I ran into problems, literally. The snow drove my bike off course and into some shrubs. I laughed to myself and continued on. It was pretty difficult as I was on a road that is not driven on very often and I soon realized that it didn't help I cycling in a small drift. I found an easier path and continued on. Not as hard as I thought it would be, as long as I stayed out of the drifts. As I turned onto the main road I bike on, I struck the normally visble curb. I was thrown off balance and I ended off almost falling off, but I didn't. As I reached the station I realized that it was 2 minutes past the time that they train comes, however I saw many people still standing on the platform. I quickly locked my bike and headed up to join the crowd. A few seconds later the speaker said (in Danish, obliviously) that the train was cancelled. So, I waited inside the station building and watched as the group grew and grew. 40 minutes later the next train came..10 minutes late. The train was already full and I luckily got a seat. As the train stopped at the rest of the stops, the train became more full and more full and more full. People ended up standing in the asile awkwardly and scouting for open seats. I thought it was "hyggeligt" (no exact translation, but it means something like "cozy".)
When I got to school (25 minutes late) I meet some of the students in the cafeteria and they said that our teacher hadn't come yet. Just then she walked in. She also takes train and no surprise, it was cancelled and delayed. The rest of the day continued as normal minus the 30% of the school's students absent. My train home was delayed and I ended standing in the cold for 50 minutes. I was freezing. The train ride back was not a repeat of the morning train, thankfully. My bike ride home was also quite a bit easier as than the morning. Because of this, I completely regarded that there was ice on the road and Mother Nature sure taught me a lesson. I was riding my bike past two old ladies when I hit some ice and feel off my bike. It was like slow motion fall, which made me feel like I was in some kind of action film. The old ladies watched it all happen and quickly made sure I was okay. They kept saying a phrase similar to "oh my goodness". As a result of the fall, my chain fell off my bike. I attempted to get it back on, but the old ladies kind of distracted me. I told them "Goddag and pas på" and swiftly left them pushing my injured bike. By the way, I am totally okay. I thought it was more fun than painful.
If the snow stays, which is a possibility, it will be the first "White Christmas" in Denmark in 14 years! That is so crazy! I am really looking forward to it. I should probably do my homework now. Who knew English could be so hard!
God Jul and Nytår!
Andy
I got all bundled up and headed outside. An immediate smile came to my face. I hopped on my bike and started my usual 6 minute bike ride to the station. Right off the bat I ran into problems, literally. The snow drove my bike off course and into some shrubs. I laughed to myself and continued on. It was pretty difficult as I was on a road that is not driven on very often and I soon realized that it didn't help I cycling in a small drift. I found an easier path and continued on. Not as hard as I thought it would be, as long as I stayed out of the drifts. As I turned onto the main road I bike on, I struck the normally visble curb. I was thrown off balance and I ended off almost falling off, but I didn't. As I reached the station I realized that it was 2 minutes past the time that they train comes, however I saw many people still standing on the platform. I quickly locked my bike and headed up to join the crowd. A few seconds later the speaker said (in Danish, obliviously) that the train was cancelled. So, I waited inside the station building and watched as the group grew and grew. 40 minutes later the next train came..10 minutes late. The train was already full and I luckily got a seat. As the train stopped at the rest of the stops, the train became more full and more full and more full. People ended up standing in the asile awkwardly and scouting for open seats. I thought it was "hyggeligt" (no exact translation, but it means something like "cozy".)
When I got to school (25 minutes late) I meet some of the students in the cafeteria and they said that our teacher hadn't come yet. Just then she walked in. She also takes train and no surprise, it was cancelled and delayed. The rest of the day continued as normal minus the 30% of the school's students absent. My train home was delayed and I ended standing in the cold for 50 minutes. I was freezing. The train ride back was not a repeat of the morning train, thankfully. My bike ride home was also quite a bit easier as than the morning. Because of this, I completely regarded that there was ice on the road and Mother Nature sure taught me a lesson. I was riding my bike past two old ladies when I hit some ice and feel off my bike. It was like slow motion fall, which made me feel like I was in some kind of action film. The old ladies watched it all happen and quickly made sure I was okay. They kept saying a phrase similar to "oh my goodness". As a result of the fall, my chain fell off my bike. I attempted to get it back on, but the old ladies kind of distracted me. I told them "Goddag and pas på" and swiftly left them pushing my injured bike. By the way, I am totally okay. I thought it was more fun than painful.
If the snow stays, which is a possibility, it will be the first "White Christmas" in Denmark in 14 years! That is so crazy! I am really looking forward to it. I should probably do my homework now. Who knew English could be so hard!
God Jul and Nytår!
Andy
Thursday, December 10, 2009
The Baker's Party
I figured it was time that I stop being lazy and write another blog post. So...
Two weekends ago was my "Julefrokost" with my class. It was at one of the girls in my class's house. There were about 20-25 people that came and it was really nice and I had a really nice time. It was two days after Thanksgiving and the meal was seriously bigger than any Thanksgiving meal I have ever had! There were 5 courses. Course 1: Fish on bread with remoulade (a delicous Danish sauce similar to tarter sauce but better!) Course 2: Tarteletter (a Danish dish similar to chicken pot pies) Course 3: Frikadeller (little round, fried Danish meatloafs, but again, better!) Course 4: Flæskesteg (roasted pork) and finally Course 5: Ris a la mande (rice pudding with almonds). It was super delicious and was some of the best Danish food I have had yet. After dinner, things got a little crazy. There was a lot of dancing and some heavy drinking. There were also a few "regurgitation-happenings". About 15 people spent the night and the others went home. I stayed and slept on a hardwood floor with 1 blanket. Not the most comfortable sleep I have ever had! The next morning we had a very typical Danish breakfast of hot rolls with butter, jam and smelly cheese. I took the train home and that night went to my host mom's mother's house (my host grandma..if I can call her that). Ironically enough, she lives near Herfølge, the town that I lived in first. It was a very large dinner with endless portions. Duck, potato, a really good cucumber salad and of course cake! I was pressured with my Danish because "bestemor" (grandmother) speaks fast and mumbles: like most Danes do! All-in-all, it was a really nice evening.
This past weekend was really fun as well. Gerda, the boys and I drove to Fyn on Saturday. Actually, first we went to Aske and Hjalte's swim meet and then we drove to Fyn. Fyn is the little island between Zealand (the island Copenhagen is on and that I live on) and Jutland (the peninsula connected to Germany). It is often called "The speed bump of Denmark". Danes are so funny! :) Anyway, we visited Kjeld's (my host dad who works in Bangladesh and comes home soon) sister, Helle, and her husband, Jørn, and their twin daughters, Justine and Therese, who are 15. We got there at about 6 p.m. and had dinner and then just relaxed. The next morning Gerda and I ran really far and then my ankle started to hurt. (I cannot remember if I wrote this in a previous blog, but awhile ago in gym class I was playing volleyball and landed funny on my ankle. That night it had gotten really puffy and I iced it, but it still hurt a lot. I couldn't walk on it and so I took a "recovery day" and stayed home from school. It has gotten a lot better, but every once and awhile it starts to hurt again.) So, halfway or so through the run I walked back to the house. It was a really nice run and it was great to run with some different scenery. So, the rest of day the 5 of us kids make Christmas cookies. Det var virkelig hyggeligt.
Christmas has come to Denmark! Although there is no snow, not many decorations, no people caroling and it rains (almost) daily, there is a really big, lit christmas tree by my school that I walk past every day and that is good enough for me! The Danes are really big on Christmas, not so much with decorations and presents, but with food, candles and something called julekalendar. First, the Danes have a lot of food that is strictly christmas food. All the food we had at the julefrokost was really christmas food and if you had it outside of winter, people would make fun of you (except fish, obvisouly, and frikadeller). There is also something called risengrød, which is a mixture of rice and milk and you put butter and cinnamon and sugar on top. It is really filling, but really good. Pretty much every Dane has some way to count down to Christmas. Most popular is candles. You may have a big candle that you light every day and gradually gets down to the 24th or you might have 24 little candles (like we have). Note: Danes celebrate Christmas on the 24th instead of the 25th, no explanation except for the fact they want to be unique. And finally, julekalendar! There are some TV programs that show a 30-minute clip of a show from Dec.1st until the 24th. Two channels have them and each has 3 different shows: one for todlers, one for children/exchange students and one for adults. You can buy a calendar that count down the episodes, which is why it gets the name julekalendar (jul(e)=christmas and kalendar=calendar). My favorite show is called Pagten and it is about this boy who meets an elf (nisse in Danish) and they have to save everyone from the Ice Queen (Isdronning). It is really addicting! I will write more about Christmas after it actually happens.
I am actually quite busy for the next for weeks, and months at that. Here are some of the bigger things I will be doing in the coming months.
Dec. 23-Jan. 3- Christmas Break
Jan. 1- 8- Skiing in Norway with my host family and Justine and Therese from Fyn (my host cousins?)
Jan. 17-24- Mini-Stay with a family in Jutland
Feb. 14-21- Skiing in Norway with my host family, AGAIN!
Mar. 14-20- Trip to Spain with my class
I may not write again until 2010! So, I wish everyone a safe and merry christmas and wonderful new year. Glædelig Jul og Godt Nytår!
Andy
Two weekends ago was my "Julefrokost" with my class. It was at one of the girls in my class's house. There were about 20-25 people that came and it was really nice and I had a really nice time. It was two days after Thanksgiving and the meal was seriously bigger than any Thanksgiving meal I have ever had! There were 5 courses. Course 1: Fish on bread with remoulade (a delicous Danish sauce similar to tarter sauce but better!) Course 2: Tarteletter (a Danish dish similar to chicken pot pies) Course 3: Frikadeller (little round, fried Danish meatloafs, but again, better!) Course 4: Flæskesteg (roasted pork) and finally Course 5: Ris a la mande (rice pudding with almonds). It was super delicious and was some of the best Danish food I have had yet. After dinner, things got a little crazy. There was a lot of dancing and some heavy drinking. There were also a few "regurgitation-happenings". About 15 people spent the night and the others went home. I stayed and slept on a hardwood floor with 1 blanket. Not the most comfortable sleep I have ever had! The next morning we had a very typical Danish breakfast of hot rolls with butter, jam and smelly cheese. I took the train home and that night went to my host mom's mother's house (my host grandma..if I can call her that). Ironically enough, she lives near Herfølge, the town that I lived in first. It was a very large dinner with endless portions. Duck, potato, a really good cucumber salad and of course cake! I was pressured with my Danish because "bestemor" (grandmother) speaks fast and mumbles: like most Danes do! All-in-all, it was a really nice evening.
This past weekend was really fun as well. Gerda, the boys and I drove to Fyn on Saturday. Actually, first we went to Aske and Hjalte's swim meet and then we drove to Fyn. Fyn is the little island between Zealand (the island Copenhagen is on and that I live on) and Jutland (the peninsula connected to Germany). It is often called "The speed bump of Denmark". Danes are so funny! :) Anyway, we visited Kjeld's (my host dad who works in Bangladesh and comes home soon) sister, Helle, and her husband, Jørn, and their twin daughters, Justine and Therese, who are 15. We got there at about 6 p.m. and had dinner and then just relaxed. The next morning Gerda and I ran really far and then my ankle started to hurt. (I cannot remember if I wrote this in a previous blog, but awhile ago in gym class I was playing volleyball and landed funny on my ankle. That night it had gotten really puffy and I iced it, but it still hurt a lot. I couldn't walk on it and so I took a "recovery day" and stayed home from school. It has gotten a lot better, but every once and awhile it starts to hurt again.) So, halfway or so through the run I walked back to the house. It was a really nice run and it was great to run with some different scenery. So, the rest of day the 5 of us kids make Christmas cookies. Det var virkelig hyggeligt.
Christmas has come to Denmark! Although there is no snow, not many decorations, no people caroling and it rains (almost) daily, there is a really big, lit christmas tree by my school that I walk past every day and that is good enough for me! The Danes are really big on Christmas, not so much with decorations and presents, but with food, candles and something called julekalendar. First, the Danes have a lot of food that is strictly christmas food. All the food we had at the julefrokost was really christmas food and if you had it outside of winter, people would make fun of you (except fish, obvisouly, and frikadeller). There is also something called risengrød, which is a mixture of rice and milk and you put butter and cinnamon and sugar on top. It is really filling, but really good. Pretty much every Dane has some way to count down to Christmas. Most popular is candles. You may have a big candle that you light every day and gradually gets down to the 24th or you might have 24 little candles (like we have). Note: Danes celebrate Christmas on the 24th instead of the 25th, no explanation except for the fact they want to be unique. And finally, julekalendar! There are some TV programs that show a 30-minute clip of a show from Dec.1st until the 24th. Two channels have them and each has 3 different shows: one for todlers, one for children/exchange students and one for adults. You can buy a calendar that count down the episodes, which is why it gets the name julekalendar (jul(e)=christmas and kalendar=calendar). My favorite show is called Pagten and it is about this boy who meets an elf (nisse in Danish) and they have to save everyone from the Ice Queen (Isdronning). It is really addicting! I will write more about Christmas after it actually happens.
I am actually quite busy for the next for weeks, and months at that. Here are some of the bigger things I will be doing in the coming months.
Dec. 23-Jan. 3- Christmas Break
Jan. 1- 8- Skiing in Norway with my host family and Justine and Therese from Fyn (my host cousins?)
Jan. 17-24- Mini-Stay with a family in Jutland
Feb. 14-21- Skiing in Norway with my host family, AGAIN!
Mar. 14-20- Trip to Spain with my class
I may not write again until 2010! So, I wish everyone a safe and merry christmas and wonderful new year. Glædelig Jul og Godt Nytår!
Andy
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