Friday, November 2, 2012

Danish Darkness Descends :S

Yeah I like alliteration and I'm not afraid to show it.

It's official. It's almost 1pm here in Copenhagen and that means I have 3.5 hours more of light today. WHAT. This is when the sun sets in Seattle at the darkest point of the year  :S

(Speaking of emoticons though... Danes are ALL about them. I can't sort it out. On the one hand super NOT emotive, but so free with the little punctuation-based emotions. Makes me realize my gendered assumptions about this sort of thing when my guy friends are always sending me smilies and hearts.... still throws me off, I'm embarrassed to say!)

This week at the HIA Senior Fellows board meeting we were setting dates for our upcoming events and it was hilarious to me how much winter weather / darkness factored in! No one wants to arrange anything in December because it's hyggelig enough with all the Christmas and people are busy and cosy.... But then someone suggested we set the New Year's brunch, workshop on conflict resolution and application reading party in February because "we'll need something to look forward to". I thought it was a bit humorous but there was nothing funny about the looks on their faces. We then realized that we were going to have chill out a bit and not have an all-HIA-all-the-time month of February...

A couple months ago my friend Rasmus told me warningly that I better find hobbies that I can do in doors and activities that will bring me in contact with other humans during the winter. Again I thought he was making fun of the situation somehow but oh hell no he was dead serious. And he's followed through, too! He helped connect me with a friend who plays frisbee and I'll be going to my first practice next week :)

THAT EMOTICON WAS ENTIRELY UNPREMEDITATED.

All this darkness has also made me realize how crazy I've gotten about hygge times and candles. The other day I was having lunch with a Canadian friend. We lit about half a dozen candles in the middle of the day and stared at them dreamily. It was at that point that we both had to admit that something is up with this place... neither of us would EVER do that at home. Nor would I find it sensible to even buy candles. Now it's like... oh, 4pm candlelight, duh!

Wish me luck with this gloomy Scandinavian business. I can't complain too much though because Hege and Lotta will remind me that Norway is further north and Helsinki is wayyyyy further north. The shortest day of the year in Helsinki is six hours long... I just looked it up. That's just sick.

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