Glaedelig Jul og Godt Nytår!

Happy Christmas, everybody! We'll be back home and blogging again soon, so stay tuned in the New Year!

Here Comes the Sun (Starting Tomorrow)

Well, here we are, B and me, blogging on the longest night of the year. Interestingly, it's also the eve of our (very temporary) departure from Denmark. We're heading back to the US to spend Christmas with B's family in New Jersey. The confluence of these factors naturally led us to reflect on our time here so far--and we can only conclude that we are exceptionally lucky.

We've made some fantastic friends here. Some are Danes, some are not. They've helped us and made it really fun to explore our new home.

You've already met French J and Lithuanian A, of course (see Legoland! if you didn't). But there's also German D and German M, and Danish C (and C-lets), G (and G-lets?), and E and J-C (and their offspring too), plus lots of others.

E and J-C recently helped our Dane-ification by giving us this Advent wreath. They explained that we should light one candle the first Sunday in Advent, two the next week, and so on. We've loved having the delicious wreath whiffs and last night lit the last candle!


Danish C, who can hardly be mentioned without his horde of C-lets, gets specially recognized for being our first family here in Denmark. He's the one who graciously hosted B upon his arrival here, and has involved us in some great family parties and shown us neat places here in Århus.

He also introduced us to Danish G, who was our fantastic host this very weekend. We took a little trip down to København on the train to visit her and her daughter. Here's where we started.

We wound up at København Hovedbanegaard, where we disembarked and made a vandretur around the downtown area. Everything was very snowy and festive! Then we continued on our way up to Kokkedal, where G provided us with a lovely dinner and the best of company. In the morning, we plowed through the snow over to Humlebaek, in order to visit the Louisiana art museum. We were a bit early, so we took a walk around and admired the snowy sound.

We could just see Sweden in the distance. Although it's an unusually cold winter this year, you can't walk to Sweden across the ice yet. (That really did happen once. In 1658, the Swedes tromped over the ice and invaded unexpectedly. Danes have never really recovered; this marked the true end of having a decent-sized country). Right now, there's just grødis, which is gruel-ice.

Here's the inside of the museum. It was really neat. We saw two special exhibits--one of Anselm Kiefer and one of Walton Ford--as well as the museum's regular collection. The building itself was also great; pretty much the pinnacle of Danish design, in our books.

And finally we headed home again. It is home now. And as I said to B on the train,

"You know, I kind of love Denmark."

Language Lessons: Mixed Messages

Big news this week, everybody! B and I both passed our Module 1 Danish exams, so now we can carry on to Module 2 in January. And at the end of Module 2 (at least according to the Danish government), we will have a BREAKTHROUGH!

To be perfectly honest, I'm not really sure what kind of breakthrough that will be, but I'm looking forward to it. See, right now I understand kind of a lot of Danish. At least a lot more than I used to. I can read almost all the signs, advertisements, mail. I can have unscripted conversations with people I don't know. (More about that to follow). And as aforementioned, I've passed my exam. There's one problem, though.

Danes. Danes are a big obstacle to speaking Danish. And I mean this in the nicest possible way. Many Danes are very kind to me and my fledgling Danish, letting me speak slowly, switching to English for just the part I don't understand and then back to Danish, and becoming positively effervescent about the Danish I have just spoken. That is all great. The part that is a bit problematic* is Danish language purists. They're out there, in large numbers. This is what they do.

(Obviously, this is all happening in Danish. But for your edification, I've translated most of it.)

Example A:

Danish Purist #1: So where do you live?
B: We live on Lundbyesgade.
DP #1: In the city! It's also nice near the forest.
B: Yes, I used to live by Risskov (a forest).
DP #1: Where?
B: Risskov.
DP #1: You lived where?
B: Risskov!
DP #1: I don't understand.
B: Risskov, the forest!
DP #1: Ah, Risskov!

Example B:
Danish Purist #2: E, what is your news story about?
E: It is about a problem with young sygeplejersker (nurses).
DP #2: A problem with what?
E: Young sygeplejersker.
DP#2: Young whats?
E: Sygeplejersker!
DP#2: I have no idea what you are saying.
E: Sygeplejersker! Nurses.
Dp#2: Ahh, sygeplejersker!

Try to imagine the purists peering at you intently, looking confused, and finally pronouncing the word in question almost exactly as you did. Seriously, really really close.

In fairness, Danish has a lot of words that are spelled exactly the same, but pronounced slightly differently in order to indicate a different meaning.

For instance, there's dør and dør. Meaning door, and dies. Like dying. So don't mess that one up.

Or dyr and dyr. Meaning expensive, and animal. Also good not to confuse.

As we can see, it is important to pronounce words correctly. But come on, you really didn't know which local forest B was talking about? You really have no idea what your language students are saying? Come on, how many words are there that sound remotely like sygeplejersker? Really? Meet me halfway here, purists. I know you speak better English than I speak Danish, but you also have about five times more vowel sounds than I do. So you already know how to make every possible sound out there. I'm at a disadvantage.

This probably sounds like the rant of a stage 2 expatriate. That's stage 2 according to the Kübler-Ross model, which is Anger. Mostly I'm not angry. And it's not denial when I say I'm not angry, either, because a lot of the time Danish is pretty good. It's kind of a funny language, but I like it. And I really like it when Danes speak to me and I get to speak back. Recently I've been proud to discuss my hat with a total stranger in the yarn shop, whether I'd like a package gift-wrapped, and if the biology building door will lock behind me when I leave. All those times were with real live Danes, the kind who don't pretend not to understand you! So thanks, awesome Danes. Keep speaking to me. You guys are the best.



*See how I'm acclimating? I'm getting really good at Danglish constructions.

Fog Aficionados We!

This week, the Danes, a remarkable people, invented a whole new kind of weather. It's called "freezing fog."

You might think that after six years in the Bay Area, we'd know every kind of fog there is. Wrong. So wrong.

Freezing fog, you won't be surprised to learn, isn't so much fun to be in. It's foggy, and it freezes. But, it does make everything look really nice. The freezing fog struck on Tuesday, and made everything the whitest ever.

Behold!

Bicycles and Icicles

The snow just keeps on coming! It hasn't been melting very fast, and it has been falling fast, so it's accumulating everywhere. Native Danes say this is the earliest major snow in many years. We've been trying to take advantage of it, and enjoy it as much as we can, and of course that means lots of pictures. So, here are some more shots of the frozen land we now call home.

We had some serious snow on Saturday. I was in it!

E was too! Notice her new knitted wool hood. Feel free to compliment her on her fine knitting.


A bicicle! Get it? Anyway, I'm not sure how this happens, but this bike was totally encased in ice. Personally, I think it's shameful - any real Dane should never leave his bike in one place long enough to freeze like this!

Some awesome icicles. I see these on my way to work.

This is a little lane very near our house. Saturday afternoon, they had a Christmas market there, with music, hot drinks, and various crafts. It was awesome. I felt like I was in a movie. Somehow, the Christmas traditions just feel more real when you are in real snow, it's freezing cold, and you're on a little lane that's been there for hundreds of years (I'm guessing here, but it's in an old part of town, where some things, like the churches, are 800+ years old).

And there's one such church in the background, the Aarhus Domkirke. We're actually going there tonight to hear Handel's Messiah.

You can really see the snow falling here!

The main pedestrian zone gets lit up beautifully. We had a really nice walk here on Saturday.

We'll All Be There With Snow

Snow! It's snowing right now--hasn't stopped all morning, and this is the third day of it.

We always pass this windmill on the way to Danish class.


My favorite parking lot in Denmark. See how you have to park your car between the trees?


In the Botanisk Have, or Botanical Gardens


I'm so brave about the cold! (But only when wearing multiple layers of wool. In this picture, wool pants, two sweaters, a coat, scarf, and hood. Go sheep!)


B is naturally tough and cheerful.

OK, so it's kind of cheating to take pictures of Den Gamle By, but there really are buildings just as old and picturesque as these in Midtbyen, or the downtown.

All this snow just makes me want to hygger myself! I'm planning a cozy (or as the Danes say, cosy) afternoon with tea and knitting--what better way to spend Thanksgiving in Denmark? I hope all of you have a happy and cozy holiday too!

Glaedelig Jul!

The Christmas season has begun in Denmark!

How do we know? Because there are more candles than usual, everyone is drinking "Juleøl," and we have been invited to at least three Julefrokoster. (A Julefrokost is literally a Christmas lunch, but these days it's pretty much just a drunken pre-Christmas revel of great cultural significance).

It all really begins with "J-Dag," the day on which one is officially permitted to begin drinking Christmas beer. This year it was on Sunday, 7 November.

This might seem really early. But consider that here in Denmark, we went off of "Sommertid," or daylight savings, on 31 October. So it's basically dark all the time now. You really need a special beer and some extra candles to make up for that.

Juleøl. It's special beer. It has licorice in it. Not in chunks, just licorice flavor, along with barley and hops and stuff. It's pretty good. (Dane-ification is clearly progressing nicely if I've just endorsed a licorice flavored beer).

The big business, though, is Julefrokoster. Every possible entity has one. Families, businesses, departments, apartments, etc. B and I attended our apartment buildings' Julefrokost last night, and we have plans for the biology Julefrokost, the computer science Julefrokost, and the International Club Julefrokost. (That's also why you have to start early).

It's hard for us to say if last night's Julefrokost was traditional. Some people said it wasn't; that if it had been traditional, there would have been a lot more meat and fish. (There was still a lot of meat and fish). Also, nobody drank schnapps or gløgg. (There was still a lot to drink). And it was not, in fact, at lunchtime. (Nobody cares about this. You can have Julefrokost at pretty much any time of day, I think). It was a good time.

Some people told us that you can count on Danes pretty much giving up all of their habitual reserve at Christmas lunches and airing all their dirty laundry. The day after, of course, everyone will pretend none of it happened. So we went into the whole thing pretty excited. Nobody told us about their secret lovechild or Swiss bank account, but they did tell us what they don't like about Denmark--and Danes don't like to criticize Denmark, especially in front of foreigners.

As I write this, it's 2:45, so the sun is setting. Then again, B claims it never really rose. But we can't complain too much, because Friday night we exited the cinema (Harry Potter #7! Of course we were there!) and it was snowing as we walked home. It was perfectly picturesque.

It's not snow, and it's not (technically) at night. But it is out our window and it does look great.

All this talk about Christmas lunches always reminds me of something, and it's so charming and hilarious that I really want to share it. It's the Vicar of Dibley "Christmas Lunch Incident." Go find it online and watch it. (Try youtube.) And stay tuned all the way past the end credits so you can hear the Vicar tell her joke. (Especially you, R. I know you will love the Vicar and her classy jokes).

Whistling in the Dark

You know what time it gets dark here? 4 PM, that's when.

OK, the weather website claims that sunset today was officially at 4:13 PM. But what I know is this. Yesterday I walked to my knitting club. When I left the house it was pretty dark, and when I got there, just after 4, it was really dark. Night dark.

Tomorrow will be 3 minutes and 58 seconds shorter.

I'm just going to have to walk everywhere whistling this little tune. And remind myself that as of today, it's only 38 days until the Solstice.

A Scandinavegan PSA; Plus, Cake Consensus!

B and I are overwhelmed with all the awesome responses! Thanks for reading and posting! I'll say more about cake, and about Danish decision-making, in a bit. But first, an important PSA.

Eat figs, everybody! If you live in California, I know you can still get them now. Heck, they may even be growing on a tree in your yard! Don't pass by this opportunity. You could one day find yourself living in a cold land where figs make only the briefest of yearly appearances, ruing all the figs you didn't eat before.

I highly recommend this Fig and Fennel Pizza, from NPR's "Food Blogga." It sounds weird, I know, but if you're in the land of figs and fennel, why not give it a try? It will amaze you with deliciousness. B and I made this for a California Christmas dinner with his family two years ago, and we reprised it a couple weeks ago after seeing figs at the farmers' market.

B's cheesy pizza!

I'm pretty sure none of you readers are interested in foregoing the cheese--although you can make a delicious pine nut and garlic pizza topping that's completely vegan and yummy! That's what I did. B had real cheese. If you want to make cheesy pizza too, maybe you'll buy your cheese at the Cheeseboard and say hi to everyone for us!

E's non-cheesy pizza!

So, Cake Consensus! Yes, it looks like most people are voting for option three: different weekly cakes, and bonus repeat cakes when necessary. But in the spirit of Denmark, I'd like us all to come to a consensus.

You see, Danes are quite averse to conflict. This is a defining cultural trait. Even in the Folketing--the Danish Parliament-- decisions are most often made by discussion and consensus rather than a simple vote. According to an AU professor I heard speak recently, consensus is reached over 85% of the time!

You'll also notice this desire to avoid conflict when speaking English with Danes. Two favorite phrases are

"That may be difficult" and "It's a bit problematic."

These are coded phrases which actually mean "It is utterly impossible to do that here," or "That thing you are asking about is never done."

For instance, you may ask a shopkeeper where to find molasses. And she may say, "Well, it's a bit problematic. Hmm...."

And you should interpret this as, Danes do not eat molasses. You will not find any food-grade molasses in this entire country.

To Americans, this seems somewhat odd. But then, Danes are the happiest people in the world, so there must be something to it. Let's take a page out of their book--can we all agree to option three?

Finally, the Monday Cake, Week 45!*

Roasted Hokkaido Squash with Chocolate Chips, Toasted Hazelnuts, and Cinnamon Icing.

It might not look like much, but it's delicious.


*Another Danish tidbit. Danes number the weeks of the year and use this as a reference system. Ie, Fall Break is week 42! Choir rehearsals will begin week 36! It's very strange.

Meet the Scandinavegan!

I just can't help myself. The Scandinavegan! As B says, you can't buy names like that.

So, why the Scandinavegan? Well, besides that I like to say it (over and over), maybe you'll think it's kind of interesting to know what it's like to try to cook fantastically delicious and healthful food in a foreign country.

Well, it's certainly different. Here are a few observations (and commentary, because the Scandinavegan has a lot to say)!

1. Danes don't do tofu. You can buy it in a specialty market, but I don't. Two reasons--it's expensive, about 14 USD/lb; and it comes in a jar sold on the shelf, not the refrigerator. I just can't see eating tofu that's been sitting in old water at room temperature for who knows how long. Clearly I've been spoiled by the daily influx of fresh tofu in Berkeley. Actually, I've been spoiled by all the Asian markets and products in the Bay Area. When we were in Paris, I begged B to let me bring home rice noodles and soba from a little Asian market we found. You just can't get those things here.

2. Danes also aren't really into canned beans. This is OK, though, since it's much cheaper to cook dried beans anyway.

3. They do really like faux dairy products, though. So far here I've seen soy milk, soy yogurt, soy pudding and vegan margarine; plus rice milk, oat milk, hazelnut milk, almond milk, quinoa milk, and spelt milk. Scandinavians are classically heavy dairy eaters, so I guess this shouldn't be a surprise.

4. Potatoes are also a hit. Danes are very proud of their potatoes. And with good reason; we've eaten some fantastic potatoes here. As a matter of fact, we've decided--as part of continuing Dane-ification--to eat more potatoes while we're here. It's like a world tour in potatoes. So far we've made a Peruvian chickpea and potato stew, patatas bravas, latkes, potato and mushroom blintzes, and pinto bean and potato breakfast burritos.

But enough about all of that. It's time to get to the reason for this post. Why does the Scandinavegan debut today?

To answer that, I need to explain one of our little "traditions." Every Monday, I bake a cake. Sometimes you need a boost when you know you have to go to language class after dinner and will be coming home in the pitch black, potential cold and damp. In this situation, there is nothing like knowing there is a fresh cake waiting for you.

So last night, B said to me,
"Hey, can you think of all the cakes you've made since you got here?"

Well, I could. Which seems like an accomplishment--both the listing and the baking.

Here's the list.
23/8 Banana cake with cinnamon icing
30/8 Gingerbread with orange glaze
7/9 German apple and walnut cake
14/9 German chocolate
21/9 Orange carrot cake with toasted coconut icing
28/9 Hershey's classic chocolate cake
4/10 Anise cake with poached pears (this was terrible. It came out of Gourmet magazine and it was still terrible. We couldn't finish it).
11/10 No cake. Flew to Paris. (Also, needed time to recover from the dismal pear cake of the week before).
18/10 B's mom's fantastic pear and walnut cake
25/10 Orange chocolate chip cake with chocolate icing
1/11 Coconut lime cake with lime icing

Ten cakes! No repeats! Time to publish the list and free up brain space for more cakes!

This brings us to a point of contention in our household. I think it would be awesome to make a different cake every week of the year, but B thinks it would be a terrible shame to wait a whole year to get back to the highlights. So, dear readers, will you weigh in on this dilemma? I'm proposing these three options.

Option 1: Have a different cake every Monday, all year.
Option 2: Allow repeats whenever B wants them.
Option 3: Have a different cake every Monday, but sometimes have bonus cakes, which can be repeats. For instance, this Sunday our friend Danish C and his five children are visiting, so we're making a bonus cake. It could be a repeat.

In other words, readers, this would be an excellent time to leave a comment. Let your cake voice be heard!

Finally, the Scandinavegan wants to say,
"Tak for at laese! Det var hyggelig at moede dig!"

Legoland!

Last weekend we were lucky enough to be gifted with some free tickets to Legoland! (That's the original Danish Legoland. Legos are Danish, you know). So we hopped on a bus to Billund and rode all the way to Syddanmark.

We were joined by B's colleague, French J, and his girlfriend Lithuanian A. (Sorry, I know this is getting complicated, but we already have a J and an A. And we have to protect the identities of the innocent).

The bus trip was about an hour and 45 minutes. The bus picked us up just across the street from our apartment, drove through Silkeborg, stopped at the Billund Airport, and then dropped us off approximately at Legoland. Actually it was about a kilometer away, in the middle of a field, but we didn't mind, even though it was about 7 Celsius and raining. (That's because we're practically real Danes now. Cold and wet? No, pleasantly soggy and refreshing! Brisk!)

At first, we thought the key attraction would be Miniland, a huge replica of famous locations all built out of Legos. It was in fact very cool.

Look at all the windmills!

Copenhagen harbor

Anyone recognize this location? E did! (Answer at the end of post).

A little piece of home

But Legoland has a lot more going on than just awesome models. They have boats you can ride as you tour the models! And the boats are made of Legos!

Never thought I'd be on a Legoboat! (That's French-J and Lithuanian-A behind us!)

On our second boat ride of the day! Watch out for sharks!

We made some new friends, too.

B gets cozy with a Legolady.

E poses with a genuine ancient Egyptian. Hey, doesn't he remind you of this guy?

At the end of it all was a pretty impressive Lego store. Of course, they had all of the sets you could ever want, but they also had these:

Legos in bulk! (Look closely - they're actual Lego people parts!)

B is overwhelmed

Our day ended with some excitement. We weren't entirely sure where to catch the bus back (perhaps because we'd just been abandoned in a field earlier?) and it was the last one of the day. B and French J asked at a help desk, and discovered--oh joy! that the alleged stop was a mere 200 meters away. This seemed surprising as it was nowhere near where we'd disembarked that morning.

Well, we walked along for about 200 meters and came to a bus stop... that wasn't ours. No 913 X bus at that stop! After briefly reviewing our options, we decided to go search for another bus stop somewhere in the vicinity of the morning's drop-off point. Sadly, no sign of a returning bus stop did we see. So, with only about 12 minutes before the bus was supposed to come, we decided that our best bet was to walk (really fast) to Billund Airport. We could see it in the distance and knew it to be not more than 2 km from Legoland. Well, after tearing across the Danish countryside for just about 2 km, we made it in the nick of time! Exciting stuff.

* The mystery location? Norre Vorrepoer - home of the Nordsoe Akvariet, made famous in a previous ADAFT post!

After a Daft Delay, the Daring Duo Blogs Again

Well, as you have no doubt already noticed, we've taken our time posting the rest of the photos from our Paris trip. (And by "rest of" I actually only mean a handful. Not to fear, the other 385 will be available upon request). So, with no further ado, here are some pictures that show the ADAFT side of Paris.

Here E is about to sprint over to the pyramid with the newfound realization of humanity's biggest secret!

B practices looking moody and French. Oh, the unbearable ennui of it all....

Saint Chapelle

A gargoyle at Notre Dame

Another cool gargoyle at Notre Dame

Hey, where'd they get such good-looking gargoyles?

Springtime in Paris is overrated. Here's autumn in Luxembourg Park.

Our dinner spot at Luxembourg Park

B studies the rhino at the Musee d'Orsay. It seems to have armored plates--what nonsense is this?

Just before coming home.

"Cities With an Eiffel Tower" for $500 please, Alex!

We're back from our exciting trip! For those of you who have been waiting with bated breath to find out where we went, it was Paris! (in case that wasn't obvious from the title) It was an excellent trip, and there's lots to tell, so we'll be doing this in two posts. The first will be mostly pictures. Stories and funny things from the trip will follow (probably tomorrow). We'll probably sneak some pictures in there, too.

So, without further ado, our tour of Paris in pictures!

Here's the view from our hotel room. The room itself was nothing to get too excited about, but the location was pretty convenient, and we had a nice miniature balcony. And, you could see the tops of the towers of Sacre Coeur, a living basilica on a hill above the city.
And here's Sacre Coeur. We went there the first morning, and it was pretty cool. There are really nice views of the city from this hill.


This is getting out of order, but here are some obligatory pictures of the Eiffel Tower. First, here's E on a bridge by the tower.
And, the tower from near the base.

Next up, some pictures of Notre Dame. First, from the front.

And, here it is from the inside.

And finally, there is a small park around the back. We had a lovely dinner here on our first evening.


Of course, Paris is famously beautiful at night. We particularly enjoyed being on the bridges at night, getting nice reflections of the many lights and buildings.

And here I am on a bridge at night.

Just two more for now. First, here's a picture looking towards the Grand Palais.

Finally, a funny little street full of restaurants with all sorts of styles of food. We had some pretty good falafel here for lunch one day.

Ok, that's all for now in pictures. These were some of the best of the first 200 pictures I took. Stay posted for stories from our trip, and the best of the next 199 pictures (yes, I took 399 pictures!)