Another part of my life

It seems these post are now a monthly thing, which it was not intended to be. A lot has happened since I last wrote, such as: I have become a lot better at Danish, I have become much worse at English, I have moved to my second host family, and it has become bloody cold.

I always get compliments on my Danish. All those who I meet are amazed that I can hold a conversation in Danish. Most even try to guess how long I have been here, there usual guess is around 5-6 months. I have only been here for 4 months. I find it important to learn the language because one can connect much better with the Danes if you can follow a conversation. I find it silly that most of the other exchange students show no desire to learn Danish. I understand their logic, we won't use it when we come back to the US. I have looked up how many colleges in the whole US offer Danish as a Major, I found one. I guess there is a big interest in Danish in Seattle. Sometimes, a word doesn't sound Danish, it just is what it is. It's hard to describe but when you think of the word tree, you think of a tree not the English word tree. Other times I almost say a Danish word when I am talking English. Its an interesting feel, but since this has developed so slowly it goes almost unnoticed to me, unless I stop and think about it. This is the same with just being in Europe, I forget very easily that I am in Europe. Its not Europe to me, it just is what it is.

I love my new host family, they are nice and always include me in whatever they are doing. I have four siblings, only three live here regularly, and there was supposed to only be two living here. I have two younger sisters, one is just younger than me at the age of 16, and the other is 13. I also have two older brothers, both of which are amazingly nice to me. I have Nikolaj, who I think is 20, and Rasmus, who I think is 19. Nikolaj doesn't live here in the beautiful city of Kerteminde, he lives in Copenhagen because he is studying at a university. Rasmus, wasn't actually supposed to be here at the same time I am. He was, just before I came, in New Zealand, and was there for at least a few good weeks, but he hurt his back bungee jumping. He is home now and doing fine, just can't do much heavy lifting. When he came home, he gave me a present from New Zealand. While there he got the chance to go where the Lord of the Rings movies were filmed, and he picked up a bottle of the Lord of the Rings official beer. He gave it to me as a present, it's called SobeRing Thought. Rightly named because it is only a 1% alcohol beer. My two host brothers are always treating me nice and asking if I want to go with them. In fact on the 28th I had a Thanksgiving dinner with the other exchange students, it was a really great time, and I was going to take the bus home, but my host brother Rasmus came and picked me up and brought me to the party he and Nikolaj were attending.

Elections for the communities in Denmark were held a couple weeks ago. My host parents invited me to come along and see how the elections work here. It is much different that in the US. First off, there are over 10 parties, and in each party there are several candidates. The sheet of paper they handed Niels, my host father, was about 3/4ths my height. Some of the parties names are Konservative, social democrat, venstre(left), and radikal venstre. I found it weird when I saw that the party Venstre, is actually on the right side of the political spectrum. There are so many parties that I have no idea what they each stand for.

For almost the entirety of November, it rained. Although as soon as it turned December 1st, the sun came out, and it became bloody cold. The temperature was usually between 8 Celsius(46.4F) and 12C (53.6F), now the temperature is between 2C (35.6F) and 6C (42.8F). Sometimes in the night, the temperature dips down to -2C. There is so much frost on the grass, it looks like it has snowed, which I have been told by many Danes that it probably won't snow this winter. This cold weather has a benefit. I went down with some classmates to a small lake next to the school, and it was frozen over! It wasn't just in spots, no it was ice from one side to the other, although definitely not thick enough to stand on, I didn't dare try. I throw some sticks, probably weighing over 2 pounds, and they just skipped along the surface. After seeing that I had a smile on my face like a 5 year old, that just made my week.

The family has started some of the Christmas traditions. One tradition is to hold a big lunch, called Julefrokost. You eat tons of really danish foods, and near the end you eat one dish called Risengrød. Risengrød is made of rise and looks like porridge, it taste bland so you add cinnamon, sugar, and butter. When you eat Risengrød at a Julefrokost you put a bunch of crushed almonds in it, and one whole almond. The person who finds the whole almond is the winner and gets a present. Now the strategy behind this event, is if you find the whole almond, hide it in your mouth. Then you sit back and watch the others eating bowl after bowl frantically trying to find that almond. Det er meget sjov! If you would like to know what Danish food is like, wiki it. Turns out Wikipedia has a great big page on Danish food, it knows more than I do on it. I also did some searching online and found a place in Oakland, I think, that sells Danish food. I won't be without my beloved herrings when I come back. Jeg elsker sild med karry salat! I also heard my host mother saying that Ikea also sells some Danish food, but I can not verify this. So next time you are in Ikea, if any of the names have these letters Ææ,Åå,Øø, then its a Danish name. If they have letters with dots above them, thats swedish. A long time ago my mother, or my host father, told me that Ikea names all their toilets after Danish Cities, so look in the toilet section and think of me!

I will post another blog devoted entirely to Christmas stuff another day, I promise it will be before Christmas.

Vi Ses,
Greg