Thanksgiving / I have a culture.

I could have let this Thanksgiving go by largely unmarked but I'm so glad I didn't. Gathering people together to give thanks... I know that is not ALL that thanksgiving is about. The thankful pilgrim/happy Indian trope doesn't really ring true to the brutal domination that pilgrims and American settlers brought to the continent. But frankly, I still love Thanksgiving. I choose to acknowledge the unsavory aspects and take the good with me. Love, gratefulness, honesty (I found out), togetherness, food, laughter. That's good stuff.

This was a particularly emotional Thanksgiving for me. I'm so glad that I gathered people around me because it could have been very depressing... but it was wholly heart-warming. My brother's new baby daughter had her first thanksgiving and I was so grateful that they could be with my parents and grandparents as well as her mom and cousins. That was a beautiful thing. Skyping with her I am amazed at how vivacious and laughter-filled she is.

I spent almost all of Thanksgiving preparing to cook, cooking, and eating. Of course I've helped before but I've never been in charge of one entire metric thanksgiving dish! I had to admit to myself that I was pouring my nostalgia for home into the cooking... but that's a totally great way to cope, in my opinion. I went a little wild. Stuffing is my favorite so I made a giant heap of it... there weren't any granny smith apples but I found so good, tart, Danish replacements. Stuffing is complicated! But kinda fun... I found myself wondering why we don't make it any other time of year. That's something I always ask people with other culinary traditions and they "just because....". And that's really the only answer I can come up with here. I also made my favorite "mom" dish  hazel-nuts and carrots and a pie crust..... and then bussed across town to my friend's to cook the rest (forgetting the pie crust at home.... but what would a holiday be without messing something up?).

My dear friend Lotta went shopping for me while I bussed over.... it took is an online US - metric converter, google translate, and picture-google to get it across but we nailed it! Or, I should say, Lotta nailed it. Hege then came and they helped me make a roast chicken and pie.... it was going to be pumpkin pie but pumpkin was nowhere to be found, then pecan pie..... then we settled on walnut pie :) I had thought about making a turkey but... wahh talk about expensive and time consuming! Plus turkey isn't so big in Denmark so there was a chance that I'd have to go to Sweden to get it. Which, all things considered is not so far away... but again, a bit too much of a time/money commitment for a student thanksgiving! One of my Italian friends asked me if the chicken was a turkey though! Hahha... (I'm not making fun of you, it was just really sweet...)  One friend who spent six weeks in the US (Alaska) brought rice crispy treats from a recipe her host mom taught her heehee... the only other North American in attendance (from near Toronto) brought the mashed potatoes and lots of bread!

I had told several friends about the go around the table "I'm thankful for" thanksgiving tradition we have - as well as the thankful boxes where we write something we're thankful for about each person. I wasn't going to make my Scandinavian friends do the box thing... way too intense and deliberate... but I wanted to do some form of it. And a lot of them were excited about celebrating real like "American traditions" :)  We did share and I managed not to cry... it was a lot of fun. Not everyone wanted to speak up, but I really didn't care, it was just fun to see what it was like with them and show them what we do. One of my Danish friends said he was thankful for me making them actually be genuine rather than sarcastic about their feelings. It was very sweet. And genuine :)

I got to skype with my dad, brother, and niece! She is SO CUTE. I don't know where my mom was... it was all a bit hectic since I was at my thanksgiving party and she was probably cooking.

It's so fun to be hanging out with people from all over Europe... since so many of us are away from home we're very supportive about celebrating each other, and the important days for each other. Soon we'll be celebrating Finnish independence day with Lotta!

Something I have been wanting to say for a while now..... I HAVE A CULTURE. It really really gets on my nerves when people - American or otherwise - say that the US doesn't have culture. It's absurd. Essentially what that statement conveys is that the US is "neutral" and all those "other places" are deviations from our normal and, therefore, have "culture". There is no normal society. The US has a young culture, fair enough. But then again, if we look at the history of the United states as a continuous account of the people who have lived, loved, and died on this continent.... not so young. 

It was so fun to be sharing something that was really from home. I have become way more embracing of my home, my roots in the past couple of months. Many Americans abroad might on occasion lie and say they're Canadian because Canada has such a better reputation... but I'd never do that (ok, never say never, I'd do it if my life were in danger). I'm not proud of a bunch of aspects of my government and society but I am proud that I can say that freely.

Chicken, pre-oven...

More help arrives!

STUFFING!!!!! My favorite thanksgiving thing.... and I think people agreed it was the most new/different thing for their tastes. It's a pretty weird idea, really.

They got a pre-made crust for me since I left mine at home...

Guarding the buzzer / welcoming guests...

I did it! Thanksgiving!!!

Family skyping with THE CUTEST BABY.

Anyway.... happy thanksgiving everyone. I'm grateful for so very much.

And today in "Alice mauls the Danish language":

Theme song for today: Madder Red

A couple weeks back I was practicing my Danish with a Danish friend. Doesn't seem like I'd need to make that distinction... but sometimes I practice with Norwegian or Canadian or Swedish or Finnish friends and it does some pretty funky-fresh things to my accent. I was trying to talk about Bosnia, my trip there this summer, the religious situation there.... but instead of saying "There are many Christians and a large Muslim community" I said, "There are many Christians and a huge male-mouse population". "Musulman" is French for Muslim... Mus mænd is Danish for male mice. Sometimes I mumble French words into my Danish. Sometimes I speak them with confidence and authority, which is even probably even more confusing.

On the night we celebrated our exams being finished I tried to tell Hege that I was so happy she's in my life.... but I actually said, "I'm looking forward to having you".

Last night I had a friend Theis over for dinner and I was telling him a story from the weekend. I kind of have to explain for it to make sense - I spent the night at my friend's place because she lives close to where I clean so it saved an hour commute time in total - but she was out until 7 in the morning so I used her key to get home earlier than that seeing as I had to leave for work at 8. I kept trying to tell Theis that it was okay, I got into the house because I had the key - but I really told him that I used my hooves and claws to get into her apartment. French key = clé, pronounced 'clay'. Danish hoof = klov, claw = klo.... So I tried to danskify "clé" and it backfired.

My most charming language-learning moment is - and I think will always remain - the time I told my friend's host brother in the Dominican Republic that, "Ahora, cuando hablo español estoy embarazada, pero todavía estoy excitado". I was trying to let him know that my Spanish was improving so I was a bit embarrassed when I spoke but still excited to be speaking Spanish.... instead I let him know that even though I was pregnant I was still very turned on.

I finally made it to Københavns Sprogcenter to sign up for an interview for free Danish classes!!! Which means I'll probably be having more of these little magic language moments as I hiccup my way into speaking this crazy lil thing called dansk. I've found that Danes are often not terribly friendly or helpful to foreigners when on the phone. I spoke with the office a couple weeks ago and she was really cagey, telling me I had to come in with my passport, proof of residence, work permit, and CPR card in order to even set up an interview time. When I got there, however, the guy just asked for my CPR number and told me to come back in a week and have a good one. Similar thing this summer... I was speaking with a company that rents flats out and she basically told me that there's no way I'd ever be able to live in Copenhagen... and then I gave her to my Danish friend and all of a sudden I was lined up to be living somewhere in six months. I don't really know what the deal is. Obviously it's not all Danes, but I do find that in general Danes are extremely nice to me in informal settings and a bit brusk in official encounters.

Here are some more photos that have nothing to do with what I'm writing about - but are lovely all the same!

From the exit of Vestre Kirkegård.... um, creepy?

The next few are from a bridge that goes over the main train lines through the city just before Enghave station, which is in the western part of Vesterbro.

The old Carlsberg factory

That bridge is only open to foot traffic and bikes - it heads into Vestre Kirkegård. The first time I went there was an accident, when I was still trying to take a different route to school every day to get to know the neighborhoods better.

The red ones are the 'typical' Copenhagen trains... I'm not sure but I think the grey/silver is a more regional train.

Carlsberg factory in the background there...

Outside the language center in Vesterbro... just some Danes rockin' the Danishest of fashion statements: BigScarfTightBlackPantsBikeBun.

Found in Hege's apartment... Haha she's mentioned more than once that if we really wanted to make the Danish flag really look nice we could just go ahead and add a blue cross.

Views from Hege's on Vesterbrogade! Super active area, as you can obviously see. Lots of great restaurants, cafes, fun businesses, hipster-y things. and also where the prostitution in Copenhagen happens.

annnnd about two hours later.

Out with Global Refugee Studies friends after we finished exams! My camera isn't really made for indoor / bar photos so I put it away after this.

Rådhuspladsen! The town hall square.

That's the actual Town Hall building on the right there.

Industrial Copenhagen... This is near Dybølsbro Station / Fisketorvet.

Vestre Kirkegård / exam OVER!

The exam is OOOVVVERRRRR!!! My first act of celebration was to wander around and take photos. So relaxing and fun. This first batch is from Vesterbro Kirekegaard. I realize I have been posting a strange amount of cemetery photos on the blog.... so I started to thinking why that may be. First off Danes actually hang out in cemeteries quite a bit - they're like public parks. Also, there are simply more cemeteries in Europe than in the US because people with the tradition of cemeteries have been populating the place - densely - for so much longer. Perhaps that's why I'm drawn to them.... the feeling of stories and continuity and timelessness. But then of course now that the leaves are turning it's just a prime place to find some foliage.

After the photo walk I met up with a friend for kebab and relaxation. My brain had definitely decided not to accept any new information at that point... we met up with more than half the GRS program for drinks and celebration that lasted for hours and hours. And thennnnn I had to clean this morning for four hours (for work... not masochism). Oy. That was rough.

There were more Chinese and Vietnamese gravestones than I would have expected in the cemetery. Some with very obvious Christian imagery and others with a combination of Christianity and incense and recent offerings of oranges. I like the young woman walking by in the background of this one.

Did someone forget to tell Mr. Knud Rasmussen about Janteloven???  Janteloven according to ME

Casual baby sighting. Just further proof that I'm right about the Danish baby conspiracy: Danish babies taking over CPH.