Here in Denmark I have the feeling that Christmas spirit fills the streets as soon as Halloween is over. The towns seems to shine even brighter every day as there are more and more lights put up. As you walk in the streets you can litteraly see candlelight in every living room, people enjoying the afternoon at home, drinking a lot of coffee, eating cake & cookies, spending time with their loved ones and making the best out of the Danish winter days. To me all those small things seem to counteract the heavy cold, the storms, the steady rain and especially the darkness. Actually I have to say that it works pretty well. Surprisingly I have never even once felt depressed by the Danish weather so far. I basically just started to enjoy every sunshine that touches my skin and every hour of light and every cup of warm coffee. All this is part of a feeling that the Danes call "hygge". It is really hard to describe the meaning of it. You just can't translate it with in one word. And even if I wrote a book about it - it is something you have to experience. It is about spending time together with the people you like to be with, inviting friends (or a stranger) for a cup of coffee, sitting next to a fire, spending an afternoon in your living room, being wrapped into your blanket and a lot more... It is kind of a special "coziness" that plays a big role in the life of the Danes in every season - but especially in the wintertime. It makes people happier, draws them closer to each other, makes their homes nicer and helps to get through the winterdays. It is one of the things that enables Denmark to be one of the happiest nations on earth. It is one of the things that I really enjoy and appreaciate. It is one of the things that I will definitly try to bring with me when I get back to Germany.
After we slept in today and had breakfast, we went for a walk in Løgstør. The weather was really bad. It's so windy you think you are going to fly up and away and the icecold rain is punching you steadily. But still, we didn't want to just stay at home so I showed him the my working place and a part of the beach.We were lucky and it stopped raining for a while when we were walking to the beach. And btw: We've seen a lot of rainbows today.
One of the Danish specialities I have tried so far is the 'Drømmekage' which means something like 'Dreamcake'. Since my boyfriend is going to visit me this weekend and we want to celebrate his birthday I thought I could try to make a Danish cake. Danish cakes are very sweet in my opinion - but still not too sweet to enjoy a piece together with a cup of hot coffee. I am looking forward to try my selfmade cake tomorrow and to see wether it tastes like the ones made by real Danes haha. :-)
This weekend we are on the so called Autumn camp of our coordinating organization ICYE. Here we are working on different dissamination projects and getting to know a lot of other Volunteers from all over the world. There are more than 100 people taking part in the camp. It is awesome to share all of our experiences and to hear about all their home countries. The dissemination project is done by everyone doing a European Volunteer Service to show that all of us really deal with the things we experience in some kind of way. Tania, Fatou and me decided to make a movie about our lives as EVS Volunteers in Denmark. So next week we will start collecting material and recording our work place and daily activities. I am looking forward to finish the movie in January.
"Juleøl" Means "Christmas beer" and is another kind of tradition in Denmark we are experiencing right now. The official release date of the 'Christmas beer' is the so called 'J-dag' (engl.: J- day) which is the first Friday in November. Every year on 'J-dag' at exactly 8:59pm the Danish brewery Tuborg releases their 'Juleøl'. It is a nationwide event which serves as kind of a jump into the Christmas season. On J-dag the whole nation is going to the bars, celebrating the beloved tradition and enjoying their Danish 'hygge'. In a lot of bars the first Christmas beer is for free. I haven't been to a bigger city tonight because we're going on a camp tomorrow, but a lot of people told me that the bars in the cities are totally crowded with excited people, waiting to finally start the Christmas season with a 'skål!' (which is the Danish way to say 'cheers').
To be honest at first I thought it was a joke when they told me about a so called "Christmas beer" and its' famous release date (and it still seems to be kind of funny to me) but I love to experience all these traditions that you won't find anywhere else.
Finally we had our first Danish lesson today! We're now attending a language school in Farsø - a town which is about 25 km from Løgstør. We are able to take the school's car to go to language school after work twice a week. The lessons lasts 2 1/2 hours and sometimes it is challenging to pay attention since it is late in the evening and we don't have a real break between work and language school, but our teacher is so funny and very motivating so it will be fine. It sucks that I understand what people say in Danish but mostly have to answer in English so I am really looking forward to be able to answer everyone in Danish!
After we slept in today and had breakfast, we went for a walk in Løgstør. The weather was really bad. It's so windy you think you are going to fly up and away and the icecold rain is punching you steadily. But still, we didn't want to just stay at home so I showed him the my working place and a part of the beach.We were lucky and it stopped raining for a while when we were walking to the beach. And btw: We've seen a lot of rainbows today.
