Countdown to Jul

The Danish celebrate the days of advent leading to Christmas (Jul) and yesterday was the beginning of the first week of advent. What I have enjoyed the most so far are the candles! They are everywhere. They sell them like water at every super market and they have a number system - so you have a candle you burn each week leading to Christmas, you can also have a long candle that is marked like a ruler with 24 days that burns each day of December, you also put candles on your Christmas tree. I have yet to light any of these, but I did ask Chris to pick up a fire extinguisher on his way home today just to be prepared. These folk love light - which is just as well because it's 8 am as I write this and the sun hasn't even come up yet! Even our residential street gets dolled up, have a look:






We went last night to watch the lighting of the Christmas tree downtown, we were warned that it was a kids event but it was still cute. For several minutes we were trying to figure out what the purpose of having people dressed up as pandas with flames on their heads, dancing around the Christmas tree. Then we made the connection: COP 15!! Talk about continuing to send the message to all ages. The mayor then spoke about how this city will soon play host... I was so proud of myself for understanding what she said! Enjoy the video, and Chris' commentary!!

Equality gone wrong???

Since I arrived, I've been scouting networking groups in order to find people with common goals and interest. School has been the best place to meet people because we are all in a similar situation, our spouse works here and we (mainly women) are trying to find our niche. I've attended a couple of really great expat seminars that have given me lots of ideas on how to approach the job search and what to expect out of this new culture and life style. I am still trying to get used to the fact that here, men find it okay to yell at women. On several occasions, I have seen (and thankfully NOT experienced) this in action. Coming out of the grocery store one day, this lady brushed up against a child with her bike - I guess she didn't see the little girl but the girl's father looked like he was ready to hit the poor lady on her bike! He strongly cussed at her, loudly and come face to face with her. I thought they were going to fight. Another time a man cut off a bike while he was driving, so the cyclist (a woman) yelled at him. He immediately got out of his car and approached the lady, yelling and screaming at her, in her face, at the top of his lungs! I found this a little strange and when I asked one of my fellow expats she said, "It's simply their freedom of expression and equality". She also proceeded to tell me that along with this sense of equality, one must expect no special favours or treatments from anyone. She experienced this when one day she went to her local bakery to order a few dozen sandwiches for a meeting. She asked if she could get a discount and the baker turned very sour and went on to ask her why she would ever expect a discount and why she thought she was so special... the baker went on to argue that if the old age pensioner that buys a sandwich once a week has to pay full price than everyone has to pay full price.

After having this conversation I realized I have a lot to learn about this country! And apparently it takes a while. Chris has a colleague from the States, that has lived here for about 20 years, who says that still to this day, his Danish wife corrects his mannerisms, expressions, body language, etc. Who knew moving to another "Western" country would still leave room for loss in translation!

Danish Level 2

I've been completely ignoring all things non 'dansk' in order to prepare for my level 1 exam last week... and guess what? I passed! It felt good to have that under my wing... so on to level 2. Not much time in between courses though as I started again on Monday but I am giving myself the gift of time by reducing school to only twice a week instead of 4. This will give me more time to dedicate to my extra curriculars :-P

It's been amazing to see just how different our North American expectations are when it comes to shopping. I wanted to treat myself to a haircut the other day, found a place that I'd like to try, called them and found out it takes about 5 weeks to get an appointment!!! (IF you are flexible and can come in any time of the day). Chris and I decided that we would accept the fact that winter will be dark, cold and rainy and a TV would be nice to have. We went to the largest shop in the area to try to get the largest selection only to learn that there is a nation wide shortage of TVs and that only 2 out of the dozens of models are available at this time. Sales guy couldn't say when more stock would come in... We went to buy a lamp for the living room and same thing... they took my details and will call me when the one we chose is available... went to buy a coffee table and same thing... maybe they will make more before Christmas but maybe not.... he couldn't say when they'd have more... are you seeing the pattern? I felt like saying, what do you mean you are not able to sell me what you sell? And the overall impression I get from people is 'Oh well'. The other day I asked a store keeper about her rain coats, she had a small but nice selection. When I asked her about them she said "Oh, these, we'll I think they are too expensive, I am not going to sell them anymore."

On a nature related note, we recently went to the Deer Park. It's called that because back in the day it used to be used as a hunting ground (how sad!) but now it's a pretty park with hundreds of deer! They are all over the place, just chillin'.

Check them out:

The beach is also very close by: