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.

Happy Halloween og en god Tub'år!

Before Halloween I had been repeatedly warned that it isn't such a big deal here, I shouldn't get my hopes up, etc... But a bunch of my international friends promised to celebrate this weird American holiday u with me more than a month in advance - very sweet. We ended up going to Studenterhuset because they had an international student Halloween thing... quite fun - and CROWDED. I noticed that the costumes (this party was pretty much the only placed saw costumes all day) were more traditional Halloween outfits than I'd see in college. Lots of witches and zombies. There's such an obsession with coming up with THE MOST CREATIVE idea at home... my best in recent memory was freshman year og college when I dressed up with four friends. We had an awkward turtle, a TMI turkey, two sexual tensions jellyfish and me, the PDA porcupine. I was a carrot this year.... photos on the way.

But J-dag! That was something new! On the first Friday of November Tuborg releases their new Christmas beer, and with plenty of flair. Across the city people dressed as Santas in all blue (then there are bunnies too I think? I was missing out on some of the finer details) parade around spreading free beer and give-aways... I wound up with a free Tuborg blanket. If you can guess where they're going - this is made all the more strange with people using Facebook, etc. to do stuff - you go ahead to the location and await crazy dancing Santas and Christmas songs. I gotta say - I always thought the US was gross about Christmas commercialism but its even crazier here! Already stuff in the stores in mid October and jolly dancing blue Santas at the start info November. I'm always torn about this- I loooooove holidays cheer and Christmas and everything but the crazy commercial domination isn't so attraction. I might as wll just admit though that I love it even if my moral compass is sounding the alarm.

Trying to figure out where the next santa stop is.... modern navigation...

The "limited edition!" free beer I got. Definitely gonna keep it.... I'm sentimental like that.

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

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.