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!