Happy Solstice

Today is the darkest day of the year.  The official daylight is 6 hours, 56 minutes long.  Sun up at 8:39 am and down at 3:35 pm.  It is dark.  The Danes fight off the dark with light, especially "living lights"  i.e. candles.  Candles are everywhere.  We see them in the windows of beauty salons,  great big candelabras burning away.  Candles and lanterns are outside the doors of shops, the most ordinary taverns and restaurants and often at every cash register in stores like this big department store.

People burn lots of candles in their homes.  One can see the flickering light as we bike home in the dark.

Also in the depths of the dark time, there is Tivoli.  This is the over hundred-fifty-year-old amusement park/ park in downtown Copenhagen.  

At Christmas, they light up the place with incredible colored and white lights.  People flock to the place, riding thrilling roller coasters in the cold and dark  (I can't imagine it), eating out at the many restaurants, drinking down hot-mulled spiced wine, and trying their hand at the games of chance and skill.  It is a pretty magical place this time of year and it does cheer the soul.

So tomorrow the days begin to get longer.  We will still burn the candles for much longer.  They are a source of light, warmth and "hygge", the Danish concept of enjoying the coziness of being together.  We are in the midst of  "hygge" these days.  Hope all is well out there.

Min 60th Fødselsdag (Birthday)

Today was my 60th birthday.  Oh yeah.  I am getting older.  I celebrated by going to Danish class.  But first I was feted with raising of the Danish flag by our friends downstairs.  The Danish flag is used as a symbol of celebrations, more than nationalism.  It is traditional to raise the flag on one's birthday.

 Our old upstairs neighbors dropped some poinsettas off for me to open before breakfast.  I went to school, bringing a Danish pastry called a "Christmas Star" for my classmates.  Then at 12 o'clock on 12/12  ( the symmetry is nice), I joined Nhat, Paal and Mona for a birthday luncheon at Ida Davidsen's.  It is an old-fashioned smørrebrød restaurant.  Smørrebrød is the high art of Danish sandwich making with fine ingredients and sculptured toppings.  And all is accompanied by aquavit and beer.

 We spent 4 hours lingering over all of the above, savoring the flavors of the various sandwiches, skåling one another with our beer and snaps and talking in the cozy small restaurant.  It was a delightful way to celebrate my 60th birthday.

 I should feel kind of old, though this year, living in a small apartment with a minumun of belongings,going to class and spending a few hours every morning with 25 year olds making my mouth and tongue do impossible things trying to speak Danish, and living with skinned knees just like a kid after I dumped my bike on slippery cobblestones and train tracks,  I guess I am not too old.  I miss everyone there but am enjoying this time and celebration here.  Who wouldn't be thrilled to be eating smoked salmon and drinking snaps on  a Monday afternoon.

Life- December 1st

Life has taken on a routine these days.  After breakfast we head out. I bike to school, Nhat bikes the long way to work to get his exercise in for the day (see previous post!).    I have started biking along the main drag to town.  Nhat doesn't like it for there are so many bicyclists and the exquisite choreography demands maximal attention.  First you merge into the bike path and then pedal.  Always looking over your shoulders,  "Can I pass this old man wearing a beret and smoking a pipe?"  "Can I go around this girl not paying attention and talking on her cell phone?"   "Is that some buff young dude bearing down on me and wanting to pass?"  "Oh no, there is a delivery van in the bike path"  and we all must slow down and go single file.

The other day I was able to take advantage of the "Green Wave".  The traffic lights are timed so that a cyclist going 20 km/hr can make each light.  Sometimes it works great.  The other day I put my foot down once in the 15 minute bike commute.  Well, actually twice because a woman 3 bikes ahead stopped suddenly and inexplicably in the path and the 2 behind her and a couple behind me slammed on our brakes, just gently bumping each others wheels.  It is something to experience the peloton that is the bike commute in Copenhagen.

So school has started for me.  I was very worried for when I interviewed for class placement, the not extremely friendly school counselor after reading my little essay and hearing me speak, put me in the class I would have continued to 6 years ago, i.e. level 5.  This is the last level before the exam to prove you have the language skills to become a citizen.  I haven't spoken Danish for 6 years.  However, the first day, I knew I could hold my own and didn't get demoted as I had feared.  We have a wonderful teacher and a fun class.  Two men- Holland and Chile.  Two women from Italy, two from Spain, one from Russia and one from England.  Already 2 others have dropped out.  This is the level where people often stop.  They know enough Danish to get by and they have been here long enough that they need to get jobs.  I thought I was older than most by 25 years but there are some who are 35 years younger than me.  I am definitely the old lady in the class.  I am getting better but what a job to learn a new language, especially one so hard to speak as Danish.  Lots of swallowed words and syllables, gutteral sounds that are really foreign to my throat.  Idioms-  tons of them in every language and how to remember them.  I did learn that "hulter til bulter" is topsy-turvey, helter-skelter.  I hope it comes in handy now and then.

The companionship is quite delightful.  I realized I needed to go to school after a Saturday when I spoke for a maximum of 2 minutes all day to the shop clerk at the grocery store.  I wasn't practicing my Danish and I was pretty lonely.  We have a good time in class and today one of the Italian women offered to take me with her to the Royal Theater to watch a final dress rehearsal of  The Nutcracker.  It was wonderful.  The scenery, the costumes and the dancing were so delightful.  The theater was started in 1748 and the building is from the 1870's.  I only wish I had Clementine there who would have loved the ballet.

It was a fun afternoon but as I made my way around the city and home, with candles burning in windows and Christmas decorations everywhere, I got a little homesick.  Holidays are hard to be away from friends and family, especially here where there is an explosion of "Julehygge" or Christmas coziness.  We miss everyone.