Estonian wasabi

And now for a culinary jaunt through Estonia! After the high school event where I met Grandma, brother, sister, brother's girlfriend, mom, and dad... mom came back to my friend's place and we made dinner. I real, bona-fide Estonian meal! We made the food that is served around Christmas - it's all 'peasant food' - the stuff that really fills you up, uses all of the animal, keeps you warm in the winter.

A friend we were cooking with warned me, "You must be careful with the mustard... it's like Estonian wasabi."

Later we were discussing something and not finding the right words and he said, "It's like a cat rubbing around the hot porridge!"  Uhhhh what? Direct translation of the Estonian expression that means "beating around the bush".

At brunch this morning my friend's mom asked me, via my friend's translation, "So you don't think we're depressing and angry?!"  Hahahah... NO, I don't.

This is pork jelly... I liked everything else but. This was a challenge. It's pork in the broth it was boiled in, solidified.

The full platter! Blood sausage, pork jelly, sour kraut, mustard, horse radish, beet root, potatoes. Blood sausage is for real.

View from family brunch.... SUNSHINE!!!

Trying "kama" - it's a bunch of grains mixed with a milky yogurt and sugar. Really good! The Waitress put it in front of me and said, "You must mix it yourself!" with an excited expression. It's one of the most typical Estonian dishes apparently. 

Tillykke med fødselsdagen TIL MIG!!!!!

It was just my birthday, and a lovely one at that. Tillykke med fødselsdagen is Danish for happy birthday but it means, literally - congratulations on the day of birth! So when danes say happy birthday they often just say "tillykke!" or, to me, "congratulations!!" Which is very nice but always makes me giggle because I feel like my birth is one of the things for which I'm least deserving of congratulations. But thanks!

These photos are all shamelessly taken from Lotta's blog... http://lottaleverlivet.wordpress.com/

Nice weather on my birthday!! Apparently that means I've been a good girl this year. You're welcome, Copenhagen!

Birthday lunch

Yum, Yum.... that Danishest.

Studying....

Søde Mari made an individual apple cake for me for my birthday!

View from the window :)

Birthday pants

Rasmus, the consummate advocate of political correctness, gave me an offensive Danish children's book about pygmies for my birthday.... pretty spot on gift, he knows how to irritate me like a brother :)

My sous-chef.... whenever I mentioned that I needed something she popped up to get it done before I could tell her otherwise!

Lotta loves her jumping photos.... 

 Danish licorice shots...

Day after birthday... bahahaha

I had a great day. After waking up at 4am because I was so excited it was my birthday - YES, I am a child - I listened to some podcasts and went back to sleep until 11. hahaha.... then went to a friend's house where a group of us studied for our upcoming exam by discussing - but I came just in time for a delectable lunch, a bit of discussion and then some cake. Mari, who hosted us, was kind enough to back a cake! A traditional Danish fall cake with apple - she made one big one and then one little individual cake for me! So sweet.

Lotta helped me set up for the party.... after shopping we got back to my apartment at 5pm with the guests set to arrive at 6:30 and the place was pretty much a disaster. Lotta only remarked, "Oh, this isn't how Hege and I would have approached it!" Then I putzed around in the kitchen for a while getting stuff ready and Lotta, clearly about to burst, just said - "OKAY, we need some Nordic efficiency Alice, where is your vacuum cleaner." I did need her Nordic efficiency, a truer thing has never been said. So I order her about in the kitchen and she saved my ass organizationally.

We skyped with my family while we cooked but the connection wasn't so good so it was essentially just my mom and dad cutting in and out saying I LOVE YOU ALICE, ALICE!!! WE LOVE YOU! ALICE??? while Lotta looked on in amazement. After about fifteen minutes of love-festing she told me  that that she had now perhaps heard my mother tell me she loves me more than her mother had said that to her in her entire life. I mean, my parents even brought in the dog and declared that "Pearl loves you!!!"

As we approached 6:30 miraculously the dinner was pretty much ready... and I started to get texts from Danish guests who were going to be "late" meaning 6:35-6:40.  It was so so fun to have people over and cook for people I love. I was totally blown away by the kindness of my friends - two groups of them joined together to get me birthday gifts - it was so sweet to even think to get me anything, much less such thoughtful gifts. Vibeke got me one these ingenious Danish latte makers that I always admired in her kitchen when I lived with her this summer! Many of you can expect them for christmas, they're AWESOME. And then there was Rasmus' precious politically incorrect pygmy book :)

Most people ended up going home early since we have exams coming up... but hell, it's my birthday and I'm in Copenhagen! Lotta, Hege, and Rasmus and I went out and someone Lotta and I didn't get home until 5am... I like the Danish going-out scene. It's pretty chill! At one point we were finishing up a drink at a bar and I almost immediately was asking people what they wanted to do - stay, go, another drink? what?? and they were just like... uhhh let's just chill out, right? The nights last longer because people aren't quite so go-go-go pressured about it as I've seen in the US. We ended up dancing at a small PACKED place. It was super fun. Thanks, friends!

And thank you always to my ever-supportive family... I got birthday cards from many of you - snail mail is the most thoughtful and welcome treasure, thank you.

Kærlighed,
Alice

nye venner! / uusia ystäviä!

I have listened to the first 24 chapters of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire in the last two and a half days.... I am a PROUD fan. I've been sick, this isn't just a normal day-in-the-life-of-alice update. Last night two of my lovely new friends came and took care of me. I am just filled with love for them and wanted to blog about it. You know how everything seems horrible when you're sick just because you can hardly work up the hutzpah to make toast much less do something more long-term or interesting? Well I was feeling extremely whiney and lonely and sad... and Nash and Lotta came and cheered me up immensely.

I had been looking forward to "kulturnat" when all the museums and other spaces are open late and everyone is out and about doing things.... but that will have to wait. I did a test drive to see how i was doing and went to the grocery store half a block away to get some oranges. I had to lie down for an hour afterwards hahahaha.... so no kulturnat for me.

Lotta and Nash came and made homemade tomato soup for me and kept me company. So sweet. And beautiful soup.... Lotta took pictures so I'll post them later. Anyway... not much to say besides, thanks you two! Made my day. That and JK Rowling.

Finnish Health!

I'm still sick... so have some time on my hands since I haven't been out of my apartment lately... My lovely Finnish friend Lotta has been telling me about this diet trend in Finland and Sweden that she's totally on board with but now I'm convinced! It's low carb high fat. You're actually supposed to eat as much fatty things as you want like cheese, avocado, eggs, butter, fish, meat.... and also vegetables that grow above ground, nuts, some berries, and a small amount of fruit. You avoid sugar and carbs. That's it! Very simple.

The reasoning is much more holistic than I usually hear in fad diets... that we humans should be eating real foods. Our bodies have been evolving slowing over millions of years but it's only the last couple of decades that we've seen such a scary obesity epidemic in the US. Something I didn't know - the move away from bacon/fat/eggs/butter happened in 1984 when there was a big campaign in the US against fatty foods that was not based in actual research. Americans stopped eating real fatty foods - and obviously needed to be eating something - so the fatty foods were largely replaced with starches, carbs, and sugars. This time period actually coincides with the remarkable increase in American obesity....

Watch the video halfway down this page!

If you don't have time for the full thing minutes 3 - 12 talk about the facts about increase in obesity and the "fear fat" campaign in '84 and compares it with the situation in Sweden.

http://www.dietdoctor.com/lchf

Candle experimentation and brunch

The end result of my enthusiasm whilst blowing out the candles. I'm gonna have to calm down if I plan to last the "hyggelig" candle-filled Danish winter...

Sunday brunch. We aren't playing games.

My most loyal and beautiful blog-follower!

It took a solid portion of the afternoon to handle the situation...

She's demonstrating how you speak "Mediterranean" with your hands. Hege took an intensive Italian course in Rome in which they actually had a section on how to use your hands when you talk :)

Adorable hostess

Note the wall art.

?

Maybe she just noted the wall art.

Coooffee coffeecoffee

Gettin' down with the Norwegians

Yesterday my friend Nash and I decided that we're "eating our way through Europe"... which is slight exaggeration, but entertaining nonetheless. Tonight two Italians from our program are having us over for a delectable Italian feast and last night our friend Hege took us along to a Norwegian feast at the local Norwegian Seaman Church of Copenhagen.

Copenhagen is a pretty "blond" space... but this was extreme. It was almost all women so the straight blond hair was just EVERYWHERE. Nash is a black man. With a loud English accent. I am blond, of course, but with an overenthusiastic American laugh and strange command of Danish with a somewhat random accent (I've heard Polish, Swedish, German... and of course American). Lotta is a Swedish Finn, so she has her own issues there. And Laura is a pretty enthusiastic Belgian who was an hour late - which doesn't seem to be a very "Norwegian" thing to do. SO we integrated pretty well is what I'm trying to say. The past week or so in our course we have been studying Diasporas from various angles... and then we realized we were right in the middle of one!!

After a hardy - and I mean HARDY - meal of lamb, cabbage, potatoes the priest announced that there would be a "cosy time" in the adjacent room with coffee, dessert, and a trivia quiz. I swear, the Norwegians practically SPRINTED to clean up the dishes so they could get on to their cosy time. I've never seen a band of young people clean so efficiently. We didn't thrive in the Norwegian quiz setting but Hege did what she could for us. Of course Danish and Norwegian culture/tradition aren't insanely different... that was part of what made the whole thing funny. It was so explicitly NORWEGIAN even though much of what was happening could have been elsewhere in Denmark... just without people identifying with being Norwegian together. The language is a bit different of course. And Hege would probably want me to add that they had some Norwegian snacks and chocolates. But mostly the distinction seemed like a collective identification with not being "from here" - so in that way I wasn't really pretending. Hahahah no, I'm just kidding, we were total Norwegian posers.

Food and integration.

I have been spending in INORDINATE amount of time pondering food as of late. What to eat? When to go to the grocery store - to the local fruit stand or the the other store? Which is cheaper - how long does this food last. And always - why the hell do things come in such small packages? What am I supposed to do with six little slices of chicken? Danish grocery stores are madhouses... from my perspective. I'm sure they're lovely places if you're used to them. I walk in and there's one direction you can go, usually through randomly assorted vegetables with little islands of produce in the middle of things... then there is only one way to keep going and I can't really tell where I am - there are never any signs and the aisles are super narrow. Eventually there are a couple options, but if I take the wrong one I end up at the check out without having passed by the things I wanted to get so I meander back again.

It's hard to even articulate how the food is different because it isn't, wildly so. It's more the culture of consumption and preparation surrounding the food that is different. At home I would shop about once a week and get bigger portions of things. Here people shop about every other day, often just to get the food they'll be using right away. It requires a different sort of planning. Food doesn't last as long here - partly I'm sure because there are fewer preservatives, but also because of what is offered: more raw food, less canned/stored things. And, of course, fewer options. The other major difference is how damn expensive everything is. I find myself simply not buying enough food because I'm intimidated by the prices... but then of course I have to come back again before too long.

The final bit is how embarrassed and disempowered I feel in grocery stores. Seriously, I'm not exaggerating. For me, cooking and feeding people is central to feeling like an adult - to feeling mature and in control of my life. I am always very quiet, head down when shopping. Without really thinking, I automatically try to not stand out, to not make any trouble because it's easy enough if I hardly speak and keep my head down. That's not me though - I like joking with the check-out kid and commenting on the produce with fellow shoppers. The thing is, I don't feel bad using English with my Danish friends because we're just people who know each other well and are communicating the best way we can. But I hate, absolutely hate using English in the public sphere. When I do I feel some combination of immature, disrespectful, and disappointed in myself.

Here's the funny thing - these aren't things I ever felt/considered when I was living in Thailand of India. The difference is, largely, that I am trying to integrate here and that was never a goal when I was on my year-off. No matter what I am was never going to blend in or be accepted as Indian. And even if I could, I was only there for five months - which is long enough to establish routines and familiarize yourself with a place, but not long enough to feel like a permanent move.The differences and many miscommunications there were usually simply hilarious or fascinating. Here I am a bit harder on myself... probably because, as I've recently realized, I'm trying to integrate. Which means that messing up isn't routinely as funny or ridiculous. I'm trying to lighten up - to first at least be aware of how I'm thinking about myself, treating myself.

I've talked to a bunch of my Danish friends about this - food angst. They're so kind! Sara invited me to cook with her once a week and Sørine had me over for dinner. Thomas and I examined has fridge for a while, talked about his buying habits, and discussed what he found strange when he lived in the US for a while. I mean - I'M FINE. This isn't a crisis or anything. Really I think it's just a fascinating microcosm of the integration process - the ways that very material practical things become psychological quite easily.