Christmas Elf of Papers

Dear Christmas Elf of Papers,

I know I should be almost done with my assignments, but the world has conspired against me.  I would still like to get a 12 on my paper (otherwise known as an A) despite my seeming lack of diligence.  I think that once you see what has been put in my path you will understand and help me.  O please help me. 

1) The first snowfall in Copenhagen, was also the first snow for many of my friends.  (See Berta and I -->)  There is no way to miss their joy and wonder at the white cold wet stuff that falls from the sky.  I would be remiss if I kept working through that. 

2) The United Nations Climate Conference is still going on and the protests are getting larger everyday.  This means that the metro shuts down or there are really weird delays and then I am late for everything and I can't get my paper done when I am suppossed to, because I am still on a train, or bus, or subway. 


3) All of those protestors make a lot of police come out and some of them are GOOD LOOKING.  I have to just stand and stare.  There is no other solution.  And of course, more valuable time is lost.

4) I went to Älmhult over the weekend to work, note how studious and responsible I am, but my parents don't want me to ever finish this paper.  I know this because they own a TV.  The TV had a magnetic pull to it that I could not refuse.  There were even shows in English and this thing called a remote so that I could sit in one place for hours.  Amazing.  Simply Astounding.  No work done.

5) I went to the library at school and I got hungry so I went to the kitchen for students, where we have ovens, stoves, and microwaves.  My plan was to cook with my class and then write a bit more, but the administration noted how much the internationals were at the school and put a table football in the student area.  (See us playing it - note Christmas Elf that they are NOT writing either!) Administration gave us a gift.  It would be very rude not to use it. 

So none of these things are my fault.  Please overlook all of these ummm... obstacles to be covercome ...  and help me get a good grade and then a good oral defense and while you are at it, some æbleskiver would be nice.

Sincerely, your friend, the hard-working student and all around nice gal,
Jenny

Some further dance steps

I am an American; there is no use in denying it.  What's more I was born in Missouri in a town of 17,167 people.  My town was surrounded by cornfields and cows and the nearest mall was two hours away.

So imagine the difference of today.  Not only is the nearest mall 5 minutes away (Oh joy! - its on the right), but the nearest country is only a half hour away. (Which is great because their malls are cheaper.  Double joy!) I spend my entire day becoming international.  I work at an international school where I interact with students from 14 different nationalities on a daily basis.  Not to mention that my university cohort encompasses 10 other nationalities.  Oh and then I go home to a houseful of Danes who are trying to teach me Danish. 

So what is culture?  Sometimes being an American is great and I can relax and follow all of the unspoken cultural rules I have always known and sometimes it is best not to be so unbendingly American.  For instance, lots of my friends come from countries that my country... ummm ... bombed.  Ouch.  Some of them have stories from when they were hiding in their basements while American bombs were dropping on their cities.  I remember playing childhood games where we were American spies fighting those evil Soviets.  Now former Soviet block countries have given me some of my best friends.  (Case in point: here is Jelena who is from Serbia, which is part of former Yugoslavia.)

It is eye opening.  Recently, when I was in Spain, I met an earlier batch of my University cohort.  I met a few Americans and I was shocked at how "American" they were.  They seemed brash, opinionated, and rude to me.  Jelena, who is Serbian, came over to me later that night and thanked me for not being very American.  I took that as a huge compliment.  Not that I don't love the US, because I do, but I want to both love it and love beyond it.  I want to learn how to see what things are important, what things are personality, and what things I can change. Its a process that is far from pretty in my emotions, but in the end its a great process.  A wonderful, painful, awful, beautiful process that I wouldn't trade for the world.

Lily finally got her own movie

The love of my childhood was a purple bear named Serenity.  It was important because it came from my best friend Serenity.  (You can see the amazing creativity I seemed to possess as a young person.)  She has always had dreams that were big and I loved that she dreamed in such a large fashion.  She seemed to reciprocate that feeling and believe in my dreams as well.  Go to Hollywood?  Sure!  Meet famous people for lunch? Sure.  Choose to believe that the small life you are currently leading is not all that you will ever do?  Absolutely. 

So now she is writing books that I KNOW will be published and I choose to believe that she will be successful at it.  I call her my own personal Hannah Montana because I like the idea of her having "the best of both worlds."  So if she is Hannah that makes me Lily.  Her friend that supports her and gets to spend a lot of time wearing a blue wig.  I love blue hair.  This is a win/win metaphor for me.

This week Serenity informed me that she thinks its about time that Lily got her own movie, which means many things to us, but more that she wants to see some of my dreams come true.  Little did she know that an hour later my dad would send me this video that does, in fact, star me.  Dream big because answers  can come in all kinds of ways.

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Smiles instead of Homework

Module Papers = hours spent reading research articles + learning economic theories + long supervisory meetings + putting it all down on paper.  It seems like such an easy formula, but I missed the part about not sleeping so I can get it all done.  This is what my work table looked like after an hour the other day. 

So, instead of writing that paper on the market model of education, I'm sitting here thinking about several things that make me smile.  You might feel the same way.

It's the climate change conference here in Copenhagen and environmental ads are everywhere.  This is a giant globe climate art thingy that is in the entrance to the Forum metro station.  All the random art from across the world is making me smile these days.

Dexter.  I taught all of the internationals how to carve pumpkins this year, thanks to Kristin's amazing gift of pumpkin carving utensils.  I opened the package at the university and you should of seen the excitement when I started handing out those little carving saws for our carving contest.  This was my entry, which I thought was quite amazing.  Unfortunately, Dexter's lab was unknown over here and I lost the contest. 

This is Samuel and I acting like idiots in front of Burger King.  This one is at the airport and it makes us super happy to be there occassionally.  Danes are so healthy its nice to be able to go the local American Embassy (AKA Burger King) and get your "passport stamped" by eating some quality unhealthy fries.  We are giggling in anticipation.

Thanksgiving gives culture shock a punch in the face

Culture shock.  Its a nasty, dirty word; almost to the point of being a 4 letter word. It comes in waves throughout your time away from your home culture and it can mess with your mind in ways that evil comic book villians would love to.  Thanksgiving was the most recent trigger of the evil word.  These were the four major hurdles that brought it on.

1) Turkey you say?  Impossible to find here and when you do - its expensive.  A typical 20lb bird costs over 550 DKK or over a $100.

2) Sides.  We spent days trying to figure out what vegetables we could and couldn't get.  The Pakistani store next door saved us on the last day with putting out 3 sweet potatoes.

3) Holiday?  Well not so much.  I worked Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday but I knew the US was off.  It plays weird tricks on your mind and makes you a grumpy worker.

4) I wanted to blame Denmark for not celebrating an American holiday, but how unfair is that?

In the end, my family and friends helped cook an absolutely huge meal that my international friends joined us in.  Despite all of the up and down emotions of the holiday and the extreme amount of work it took to make Thanksgiving basics, it ended up as the best Thanksgiving I have ever had.  It met all the requirements of food, family, and friends and added an international flavor it had never had before.  After all my fuss it was the Thanksgiving of my dreams.  Which means that the next time culture shock wants to come and mess with my emotions, I'll remind it that this Danish life and all the stuff that comes with it, is part of what I've always wanted. 

Take that culture shock.  This time you did not win and if we are keeping score, I don't think you'll win next time either.  Just a heads up.

Did I mention that we made a lot of food?

We tested unusual coffee creations

Made sure that there was a competition over the wishbone

Added Czechs and Ethiopians to the festivities

And made sure that Aaron could have one plate that was just stuffing.

Out of the box

Copenhagen. I love that I live here. Its a huge city, where I take all forms of public transportation every day. I love public transport. I know thats a little weird. Especially because it takes longer than a bike, which is the preferred way of travel in this city. But when I get on the Metro and its so packed that people are touching and I have to stand in just the right way to not fall over when it lurches, I know I am happy. Or when I pull into Nørreport station, the busiest station in Denmark, and any way you turn there are people moving in a river like current that you cannot fight against, I love that too. I love the amount of people. I love the languages. I love not being able to understand what people are saying so I can feel free to tune them out.

There are annoyances all the time and I need to learn Danish, obviously, but I think I LOVE feeling free. Thats why I love the people press. It makes me feel free from all the strings people wanted to put on me, or the little boxes they wanted to fit me into. At one time in life I thought that box was everything. Now though, I see how many people are not living in that box and I realize that my world was too small. So I love the painfully wonderful progress of meeting the world with open arms and letting it expand.