Day 70 ot - Tak!

Thanks to all of the birthday well wishers. Even if it's meant Moe Szyslak style - in that I don't wish him any specific harm.

It has been - to say the least - an interesting year. Tak og tak og tak!

Day 70 -- WotD # 17 Tillykke

Happy birthday to the best husband in the world.  Wanna leave your job, your friends and family, sell half our possessions, and move to a foreign country with one of the most expensive cities in the world, high taxes, and an incredibly difficult language to learn?   sure, why not.

you're the best.


today's word is Tillykke.  pronounced Ta-LUG-a.



 it's one of the few words I can say.  it means congratulations and is a common word to say on someone's birthday

Yesterday I made Collin eggs benedict with smoked salmon and avocado for breakfast (his request).  For dinner we tried a burger place down the block called Halifax. It was pretty good.   Last night our next door neighbors came over for some cake and dessert wine.  As I don't have any of my baking pans yet I couldn't bake him a cake so I bought one, but I did make a delicious raspberry sauce and salted caramel chocolate sauce to accompany it.

Today Collin is celebrating his actual birthday with 5 hours and 15 min of Danish classes and a 2 hour seminar on job searching.   Lucky him!  Tonight he opens his gifts but I did wrap up some cards from our nieces and nephews which he opened yesterday.

Jeg elsker dig, Collin!!

Day 67 - Full Time Student

Wednesday night. Our flat. Emily and I took our first Danish lesson with our Berlitz language teacher Nanna. Not to be confused with Nnanna. Or Na Nah Na Nah.

It is actually pronounced nAn-ah. Sorry Master P.

These lessons are part of Emily's relocation package from Novo. Our package consists of 45 lessons. Each lesson is 45 minutes long and we will have 3 lessons per evening session.

It was exhausting. The Berlitz method begins with the instructor speaking Danish exclusively. We both felt pretty stupid, but it was fun and I can't wait to get better. Nanna is very nice and understands that we are obviously unskilled.

Our workbook - which is awesomely very much a children's book - started out with learning the names of familie Peterson. There were many questions about the various members of the Petersen family. Er det Kristine? Ja, det er Kristine. Det er ikke Michael.

The hardest words to pronounce so far? Red. Also key. Also blue magazine - at least I think it was a magazine. Now I can't find the word. Blel? Something like that. Check it out.

Red



Key



Baby steps. We learned Danish words for countries around the world, where people live, land, by, colors, greetings - hvordan går det? - cats, dogs, tog, etc. Danish does not have masculine / feminine words and the associated articles but it does have two different words for the - et and en. There is no rhyme or reason to which words go with which articles. You simply have to memorize them. This wouldn't be a problem, however, the adjective used to describe the noun changes depending on the article. Poor.

Additionally, I met with a counselor at VUF to discuss language classes through the kommune. For three years, all new permanent residents in Denmark get free Danish classes through the kommune. There are four levels of classes.

1 - for the illiterate
2 - for those with only a high school education
3a - for those with advanced education but with limited foreign language skills
3b - for those with advanced education with multiple languages

The counselor - Annelie who I initially thought was Emily - pushed me to go for 3b, but I'm in 3a for now. The class starts Monday. It is four times a week for three hours each day. I start Monday.

The course is built into modules and each module takes about 3-4 months to complete. There are six modules.

So, to recap, I am taking 16.5 hours of Danish a week. Yeah.

DotW #8 - Nikolaj Coster-Waldau

Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, 1970

A Lannister always pays his debts.

Coster-Waldau was born in Rudkøbing, on the island of Langland in Denmark. This word is just ridiculous. I've already given up.

He studied at the Danish National Theater from 1989-1993. In 2001, Nikolaj broke into Hollywood as Gary Gordon in Black Hawk Down.

Today he is best known for portraying Jaime Lannister in HBO's adaptation of George R. R. Martin's A Game of Thrones. He is married to former Miss Greenland Nukâka Motzfeldt. Who knew there even was a Miss Greenland! 

Keep on rockin' Jon Snow.

Day 65 / WotD #16 - EI BLOT TIL LYST

Last night we went to the ballet with some of Emily's colleagues at the Det Kongelige Teater (Royal Danish Theater). It was an event called Dans2Go. The idea is to make an introduction to the ballet both more affordable and accessible.

It's not just for fun. We should also learn something. Thanks scolding Danish Theater!

It was, however, a lot of fun. The program consisted of three separate dances spaced with fifteen minute intervals.  Each segment was about 45 minutes and began with a short video introduction.

I really enjoyed the first portion, Chroma. It was very weird and very modern. Men wearing negligee? Check. Sparse set? Check. Strange undulating motions? Check. The best thing? Orchestral versions of White Stripes songs.

I didn't know that Aluminum existed. Good stuff.

The second segment, Unsung, was pretty much universally disliked by our group.

It was Native American themed with an all male cast and no musical accompaniment. Sooooo many long solos. Not to mention the distracting squeaks of bare feet being dragged across the stage. The group stuff was intriguing, the solos, not so much.

One of the dancers definitely did this move, so that was pretty awesome.

I repeat, I know next to nothing about dance.

Additionally, as I know nothing about dance...do neverending ovations / bowing / clapping always happen at the ballet? After each performance the entire group bowed while we clapped. Then each soloist bowed while we clapped. Then the curtain would go most of the way down and come back up. We clapped. Everyone bowed again. We clapped. The curtain would again go most of the way down and we would clap some more and then it would come back up! More bowing! More clapping! Is this normal? Would it stop if we stopped clapping? My hands and arms are tired.

The third segment was presented by the Royal Danish Ballet. It was a traditional / classical piece called La Bayadère. This was Emily's - as well as the rest of the crowd's - favorite.

I was having far too many terrifying Black Swan flashbacks to wholly enjoy it. 

From the program, Nikolaj Hübbe, the ballet's artistic director.

It is exciting to deal with the classical ballets, but it's also fun to modernize them. By getting the new and the old to meet, I hope that we can have a longer shelf life for just classicism in the old ballets.

It was a fun night, I would definitely attend another Dans2Go evening. It's a great venue to see a performance.

On my way to the theater, I snapped the following video. The metro in Copenhagen runs without a driver. As such you can watch the tunnel pass by as you hurtle through it. The whole experience feels a bit like a Death Star trench run.

Day 63 - Louisiana

Saturday, Emily and I took the train to Humlebæk to visit the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art.


View Larger Map

We decided to learn more about the rejsekort system before we left. The ticket agent explained that there is just way too much information regarding the rejsekort. Too much to convey at the ticket counter. Hmmm.

No, we were not whisked away to a rejsekort VIP lounge where the entire complexity would explained to us by Viggo Mortensen and Scarlett Johansson. FYI, they bring out the half-Danes to appeal to American sensibilities.

No, we were told to go to the website, read more, and come back after we became appropriately knowledged.

With some convincing, were instead given application forms. And pamphlets. In Danish. Once Emily translated the application documents on her phone, we reached the obvious conclusion that the rejsekort was for us.

An aside. The above is the main sort of problem that we've continually run into in Denmark. The information is there. The Danes can speak English. There's just - I don't know - an overall resistance to taking the extra step to provide that information in an easy to understand manner. It's not everyone and it's not everywhere, but it's common.

Bonus points for the rejsekort;

- It automatically calculates the number of zones you need
- It automatically reloads from your debit card if it dips below 50 dkk
- 20% off fares during non-peak times. Weekends are non-peak.

You tap in when you get on the train. You tap in again if you switch to another train, the metro, a bus, etc. When you're done, you tap out.

Hilarious things about the rejsekort;

- There is no way - at least as far I can discern - that the agents on the train can confirm that you have tapped in. On the train, an agent will ask for your ticket. Flash your rejsekort and you're done. Trust. Honor system.
- Going to Humlebæk is 49 dkk during peak time. Our trip out cost 39.20 dkk - this was from København H. On the trip back, we wanted to get off at Frederiksberg, so we transferred to the metro at Nørreport and took the metro two stops to Frederiksberg. I think this trip is longer. It uses more types of transportation. It cost 2 dkk less b/c the it is closer to the starting destination - Humlebæk - than København H. Go figure. Go rejsekort!

I've always found, for lack of a better term, the standard European train station platform beautiful. Steel gridwork arching up to meet the sunlight. Love it.

It's about a 45 minute train ride from København H. I was super comfortable, although stupidly riding backwards.

Once at Humlebæk station, it's a quick walk to the Louisiana. On the way I laughed immaturely at this.

So, the Louisiana. It looks like this at the entrance.

And the layout is such.

The museum surrounds a sculpture garden, which is visible as you walk through the museum. Collin's major complaint; loud Danes and Danish children. Call me cranky, when I'm at an art exhibition / museum, I like to think, walk slowly, and be quiet. Whispers. Reflection. This was not that.

The current "visiting" exhibits of interest are Warhol's early drawings and an exhibition by Tara Donovan. At this point I'll obviously mention that I in no way know much of anything about art. I like art. I know what I like.

I enjoyed the Warhol exhibit. Tons of early pen / pencil / prints he produced just out of art school. Emily did hit it on the head that it's essentially an art student dabbling. There were a few different styles, some very angry. In the angry ones, a ton of start / stop with the pen / pencil that gives everything this tense / frenetic feel. Several drawings of Huey Long. Mostly I love the way he draws hair, as here.

There was one that I particularly liked of a couple curled up on a couch. Mostly this exhibition was fun for me probably due to my love of pen and ink forged at a very young age by David Macaulay.

The Donovan exhibit was just great. I love the idea of the viewers perception completely transforming a piece. I'm not so into the cubes of pins / toothpicks / etc, but the stuff that plays with light / vantage point? Unbelievable. It's hard to convey this with pictures, here's the video on the exhibition.

The entry piece, looks like this.

As you walk in, it looks like some sort of amber / mirrored glass. Shiny. Reflective at the center. Cloudy at the edges.

Get closer? It's hollow. Ribbons of plastic weaved about this way and that way. Gorgeous. Devious.

All of the pieces need to be seen in person and need scale. They're all made of common junk. They all involve the viewer in a very unforced way. With each step you experience the piece differently - which is probably true with all art, but this experience makes it far more obvious.

After strolling through the Donovan exhibition we went outside and walked around a bit.

Outside, there's an art installation that should be simply titled DANGER where you can, without ropes, waivers, or other sensible supports, walk a thin slippery ledge around a portion of the museum. It overlooks the Baltic. On the edge of a cliff.

It was a fun trip. The grounds were great. Sadly there was no chrome gorilla. Mount Vernon wins again. A whole wing of the museum was closed, but it didn't really matter. I'd like to see it during another season.

Watch out smug Collin! That bronze guy looks like he's up to no good.

WotD #15 - en to tre fire fem, seks syv otte ni ti, elve tolv

It's this - although sadly not as catchy.



The Danish numbering system is notoriously difficult and ridiculously archaic. Read on. If you dare.

Danish has a rather weird number system. 

The tens from fifty on are not based on the number 10, as is the case in most European languages (French being another outstanding exception). 

CARDINALS				ORDINALS
1	en	10	ti	1.	første	10.	tiende
2	to	20	tyve	2.	anden	20.	tyvende
3	tre	30	tredive	3.	tredje	30.	tredivte
4	fire	40	fyrre	4.	fjerde	40.	fyrretyvende
5	fem	50	halvtreds	5.	femte	50.	halvtredsindstyvende
6	seks	60	tres	6.	sjette	60.	tresindstyvende
7	syv	70	halvfjerds	7.	syvende	70.	halvfjerdsindstyvende
8	otte	80	firs	8.	ottende	80.	firsindstyvende
9	ni	90	halvfems	9.	niende	90.	halvfemsindstyvende

This strange system combines two archaic ways of counting: 

1. 20-based instead of 10-based
2. fossilized expressions for two and a half, three and a half and four and a half 

50	halv-tred-s(ind-s-tyve)	half-third-t(imes-of-twenty)
60	tre-s(ind-s-tyve)	three-t(imes-of-twenty)
70	halv-fjerd-s(ind-s-tyve)	half-fourth-t(imes-of-twenty)
80	fir-s(ind-s-tyve)	four-t(imes-of-twenty)
90	halv-fem-s(ind-s-tyve)	half-fifth-t(imes-of-twenty)

In cardinal numbers the part in parenthesis is almost always omitted. The full forms are very rarely spoken nor written, giving them an archaic, pompous feel. But in the ordinal numbers the full forms reappear obligatorily, yielding 

50 = halvtreds, 50th = halvtredsindstyvende
60 = tres, 60th = tresindstyvende
etc. 

The awkwardness of these ordinal forms can not be reduced by truncation, only by reformulation:
halvtredsindstyvende -> nummer halvtreds,
and this anglicism (?) is becoming very widespread. 

Only the initial consonant of the word for "times of" = "sinds" is realized. "Sinds" is genitive of "sinde" and both are obsolete - the modern Danish equivalent is "gange", genitive "ganges" - and occur only in numbers and in fossilized compound expressions like "nogensinde" = "ever".
The bases that 20 is multiplied with also have strange archaic forms that are now unproductive and hardly recognizable: 

2,5	halvtredje	half-third
3,5	halvfjerde	half-fourth
4,5	halvfemte	half-fifth
A similar construction is still in normal use, though
1,5	halvanden	half-second

Furthermore they are truncated: 

halvtredje, but halvtred(je)s
halvfjerde, but halvfjerd(e)s
halvfemte, but halvfem(te)s 

Also:
fire, but fir(e)s 

The "logic" of the system is NOT transparent nor generally known to native speakers. This, together with the fact that _d_ is silent in the clusters _ds_ and _rd_, creates very common spelling errors like; 

halvtres, (should be halvtreds (50))
treds, (should be tres (60))
halvfjers, (should be halvfjerds (70)). 

A Scandinavist language reform movement tried to get the 20-based forms replaced by 10-based like Norwegian and Swedish have. With absolutely no success. 

Danish 10-based forms are only used in inter-Scandinavian communication and money documents like cheques.  

They are: femti, seksti, syvti, ot(te)ti, niti

Just try and wrap your mind around that!

I can't wait to learn how to count. Hopefully I'll never need to refer to any number larger than fifty. Although really, maybe I only need three.



Thanks to Ole Stig Anderson for his description of the Danish numbering system.

Day 60 - Odds and Ends around Frederiksberg

Today I went out to return the keys for our new flat. Our lease doesn't start until the 1st of March, but the agency allowed us to borrow the keys so that we could measure windows for curtains and what not. As this is a land of eternal summer sunshine and we'll living in a second floor apartment on a busy street, curtains are not optional. I see an IKEA trip in my future. I can't wait.

Our shipping container full of stuff from America will arrive on the 8th of March. I can't wait to have my own stuff again. Particularly in the kitchen. Now to book my return trip to Chicago to get Charlie. I'm thinking the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament, maybe the 21st or 22nd. It's too bad there isn't a Chicago site this year. The first weekend is - maybe next to the Super Bowl - my favorite sporting "event" of the year. I hope to stay for 7-10 days, we'll see.

Note to visitors - if you buy a klippekort...

...do not store it in your wallet. Once it has been folded, it will no longer work. When you want to use public transportation you put the end nearest my thumb into the slot in the yellow box that looks like this.

The box klips your kort. Each time you klip, the box removes one of the numbers on the left side of your klippekort and stamps the time and date on the right.

Once you've been stupid enough to put the klippekort in your wallet, the machine can no longer klip it. There's just not enough force to put the card into the box - it just bends ineffectually. The user - me in this case - ends up looking like an idiot, failing again and again to klip the stupid kort. Klippekort!!!!

The options are to trade in the old card for a new card and pay for the klips used or go to the store where the card is purchased and a cashier will manually klip the kort each time I need to use it. This becomes a problem at smaller stops without stations. Decisions, decisions.

Actually, there is another option. The rejsekort.

The rejsekort seems very futuristic. When you use it to travel, you tap the card onto this weird glowing blue dome upon boarding the train and then again upon disembarking. The rejsekort calculates the cost, there's no need to figure out the number of zones traveled. It seems much easier than the klippekort. Perhaps I'll go that route.

Earlier I mentioned the weird stuffed animals displayed in jewelry store windows. Today I took some pictures.

I don't know what they mean. I like the polar bears the most.

This just made me chortle, because I am terribly immature.

As best I can tell, it best translates as closeout / end of sale. 

Edit: I forgot to add this awesome picture that Emily took the other day.

Yes. Those are dolls and teddy bears hung from ropes by their respective necks. Yay!

Day 59 -- Happy Valentine's day!

Denmark does not really celebrate Valentine's Day.  At least not like America.  Although they are moving towards that.  Some one did bring heart-shaped chocolates into work today for our coffee break...of course she was actually Swedish, where maybe it is getting a little bigger than it is here.  I wore red to work but was the only one :)   Collin and I do live by a large amount of floral shops, bakeries, and a few chocolate shops.  so I have seen a lot of Valentine displays but I think that is pretty unusual.  Everyone at work seemed very interested though to hear what Collin and I had planned....they may not celebrate Valentine's Day but they know America does and seem fascinated by it.  I'm not sure if flowers and a specially prepared dinner satisfied what they were craving from us!  

Collin did purchase a heart shaped platter of sushi as an appetizer.   I should have taken a picture for this blog but sadly didn't think about it until after we ate it.  It was pretty fun though.  He did buy me these gorgeous tulips.  One thing Denmark definitely does right is flowers.  I am amazed by the spring flowers that have been for sale at our local florists since we moved here...tulips, hyacinths, crocuses.  Beautiful and inexpensive.  and often outside.  I'm not sure how that works with all the snow and below freezing temperatures we have been experiencing!  but I still see them all going strong.

After the sushi we shared a bottle of cava and some spaghetti and meat sauce (with ground beef left over from the nachos I made this weekend, but my request nonetheless!)  for dessert Collin bought some special "Hello Kitty" treats.  Why Hello Kitty?  Why not?!   This is the first valentines in years that I did not bake anything.  My chocolate chip cookie experience a few weeks ago depressed me until I get all my own kitchen utensils/equipment back and figure out what kind of butter I purchase.  maybe I will be up and running by St. Patrick's Day!?  we get our stored stuff back March 8.  I can not wait!  Stay tuned.

Happy Valentine's Day!!!  Glædelig Valentinsdag!

DotW #7 - Morten Andersen

Morten Andersen, 1960

Morten "The Great Dane" Andersen is the leading scorer in NFL history. In his 25 seasons as a placekicker, he made the Pro Bowl 7 times and was named All-Pro 3 times. Next to George Blanda, he is the second oldest player to play in an NFL game.

Andersen was born in Copenhagen, but grew up in Struer, the home of Bang & Olufsen. He was a star athlete in gymnastics, track, and soccer. At 17, he left Denmark for Indianapolis as part of the Youth for Understanding foreign exchange program. For fun, he gave kicking a football a go. He immediately became the varsity placekicker for Ben Davis High School.

With only one season of north-american-football-style kicking under his belt, Michigan State offered Andersen a scholarship and he accepted. Today he is the Michigan State all-time leader in field goals, extra points, and scoring. His 63 yard field goal against tOSU is the longest in Big Ten history. He was elected to the MSU Hall of Fame in 2011.

The New Orleans Saints drafted Andersen in the 4th round of the 1982 NFL Draft. He is the all-time leading scorer for the Saints. Upon being released by the team following the 1994 season, Andersen signed with the Atlanta Falcons. He is the all-time leading scorer for the Falcons.

Morten Andersen holds the NFL record for games played, points scored, and field goals made.

He is often confused with Gary Anderson, the South African placekicker with which he shares a Matrix-like-frighteningly-coincidence-y career.

There are a number of interesting coincidences between Andersen and former NFL placekicker Gary Anderson. Anderson and Andersen have nearly identical last names, were born within a year of one another outside the United States (Anderson was born in South Africa), came to the United States as teenagers, had long and successful NFL careers throughout the 1980s and 1990s, and hold first or second place in a number of NFL records for scoring, field goals, and longevity. Their overall accuracy is also nearly identical; their career percentage being within .5 % of each other on both FGs and PATs. Also, Anderson missed a field goal in the 1998 NFC Championship Game for the Minnesota Vikings before Andersen kicked his winning kick, both from the same distance as well.

And all of this reminds me of this. Boo Green Bay!

Day 57 -- Restaurant Week hits Copenhagen

This week marks restaurant week in Copenhagen, or "dining week" as they call it.  A select number of restaurants (i think 100 or so) offer discounted 3 course menus (DKK 200, about $36, very similiar to Boston's menu) which includes a large bottle of sparkling water. Although, the nice thing about Danish dinners is that that price of DKK 200 includes tax and there is not usually tipping, so it's quite reasonable.   and no, Noma did not partake in this deal.  Collin and I decided to go out to celebrate Valentine's Day.  Sadly we were not made aware of restaurant week until recently so most of the good places were full on Thursday which is why we went out tonight instead.

We went to a relatively new restaurant called Oliver and the Black Circus, an "unpretentious approach to fine dining".  Up until last August it was called Mums, but changed its name to something hipper I guess.  That's what our waitress told us anyway.  They pride themselves on having a "down-to-earth approach" "challenging conventions" and offering guests "high-end dining at affordable prices"   I kind of feel like zagats there except I stole all those "quotes" from their website.



This was our menu for the evening

Mussel - Tapioca - Root - apple
~
Pig – Dark beer - Parsnip - Shallots
~
Vla – Mountain tea - Skyr


Collin started with a gin and tonic and I had a "lady boy" which was some sort of lemongrass infused gin with a little coconut cream, lemon and shredded coconut...VERY tasty :)

The first course was a delicious soup with mussels and apples in a light cream broth.  I saw this on their regular menu which I think is pretty much what we had
Musling – æble – kærnemælk – vandpeber
Blue mussel – apple – butter milk – water pepper

The second course was a terrain of meat (we both missed hearing what the meat was but i guess it was pork!) in a really good beer broth with glazed parsnips, potatoes and a really well cooked, yummy shallot/onion.  

The final course was a flat crispy meringue with some sort of "bubble gum" flavored sauce -- reminded me more of a peppermint than bubble gum though, maybe a peppermint gum.  Not sure what the dessert description above means.  I think a lot gets lost in the translation.


Overall we really enjoyed the experience.  The restaurant had great ambiance and everything was delicious.  The staff seemed really good too.  I think we will go back!

Day 54 -- My first all-European business meeting

Last night I returned from three days in Warsaw, Poland for a clinical hemophilia conference -- or haemophilia, as I am now forced to spell it.  Flying from Copenhagen to Warsaw was a wonderful experience.  The airport is a 20 min metro ride away, with the metro dropping you off literally inside the airport.  It does not get more convenient than that.  I did not have to remove my shoes at the airport which is always a nice touch, and also did not have to show any ID at any point during my time at the airport.  The flight itself was about an hour.  Probably ranks up there as one of the shortest flights I have ever been on....I look forward to Berlin in a few weeks.  Once we arrived in Warsaw, a group of us shared a short cab ride to the Westin where sadly my room would not be ready for a few hours.  But that gave us time to walk around a little and have lunch.

Warsaw is pretty much how Collin described it in a previous post.  An odd mixture of old-style quaint village in the appropriately named section of "Old Town" along with a combination of very modern, glassy, skyscrapers and grey, 1950s era communist/eastern European cement block building.  I know Collin already shared this picture taken from my hotel room but there were tons of this exact building all around my hotel.

although they do look a little better after a day long snow storm

 The Westin is one of the more modern buildings with a large elevator system that is actually on the outside of the building surrounded by glass, so you can see out as you travel up.  It was a bit disconcerting when we traveled to the 11th floor

Views from inside the elevator looking out on the left and trying to look down on the right

A shot of Old Town

A combo of old and new buildings

During our walk we also decided to explore this odd bit of road on the map.  It was pretty impressive to look at but didn't turn out so well in the photo; I needed to be above it more.

That little blue corner on the upper right of the map is the Vistula River.  We were going to walk to it but it was really cold and starting to snow, so since we could glimpse it from this part of the road, we decided that was good enough.  Unfortunately you can't see it in the picture.  

Another point of interest that we visited was the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.  I enjoyed reading the Wiki page as I prepared this post since there was no description of any sort by the actual tomb.   Because it was freezing though, it was nice to see the soldiers were standing on what looked like heat pads with what I can only guess was hot air blowing on their legs.

  

We did warm up in a Starbucks.  My Danish comrades seemed very happy to see it.  I was surprised, seeing how Denmark only has one Starbucks and it is located in the airport.

Warsaw also had a surprisingly lot of buildings that were sadly in need of repair.  Don't be fooled by the plaque, that was for the building itself and not the disintegration.

Also, I was not able to get a picture of the guy checking me into the hotel without looking like an idiot, but he easily was a dark haired doppelganger of Collin's good friend Chris Potaczek.  In fact, there were Potzies everywhere!

The conference itself was fine and uneventful.  My Danish colleagues claim American conferences serve way too much food but I think this one gave them a run for their money.  I did have some "authentic" Polish pierogi, but I still prefer my grandma's Slovak ones.  I  also enjoyed paczki as we were fortunate enough to be there on "Fat Thursday", a Polish variation of Fat Tuesday.  I also enjoyed seeing my name tag for the conference, as I am now no longer from America!

The flight home was equally easy except we did have to remove our shoes at the Warsaw.  And I learned I could take a cab home and charge it to the company which was really nice. However, once we move to the new apartment in March we will be so close to the metro I don't know if a cab will eve be worth it!

Day 53 - Fastelavn

So today is fastelavn. It's a sort of Fat Tuesday / Carnival / Halloween hybrid.

Kids dress up. There's even a danish piñata! In Danish, it's slå katten af tønden, or "hit the cat out of the barrel". Like this.

The barrel is filled with candy / toys / etc. They usually draw a cat on the barrel. In the old days the barrel contained an actual live cat. A black one. Kids would beat the barrel until the cat escaped. Oh the fun of kids terrorizing trapped domesticated animals!

Danes also eat fastelavnsboller on fastelavn. They look like this.

Danes don't mess around with pastries. These look delicious.

Sadly I didn't see any miniature Spidermen bashing barrels with sticks today. There's always hope for next year.