the wiking museum!

There has been lovely weather last few days! Each day is spent lunching outside, lounging in the AIK hammocks, lots of reading, and taking walks. Unfortunately, every night I fight with my body to go to sleep. It appears that I have a sinus infection and yellow mucus... what can you do but blow it out. Even so, I feel happy and somewhat healthy and eat really well and get a lot of sun.
Yesterday, Cherie and I walked about 10 km through the city center and across the Limfjorden to the viking graveyard, Lindholm Høje. Before we went, I read that the vikings chose their graveyards based on hills with nice views in consideration of the mourners. There were about 700 graves total, from 400-1100 AD, the older graves starting at the top of the hill. The rounded, shorter stones represented the women buried, and the tall sharp stones, sometimes encircled by female stones (though, notably, this is only the case at the top of the hill), were placed for men. It's truly beautiful there, too, with a lot of sheep roaming freely, the wind blowing in many directions from the fjord that snakes around the site, and countryside on the valleys of the hill. We also went to the viking museum where we learned about the flint deposits under Denmark that they used as weapons back in the day, saw some skeletons of viking men and women that had been preserved over time, and ate some yummy candy with the same designs as the elaborate glass beads found on one of the female skeletons. Actually, the Norwegian crowns (currency) look a lot like the copper currency they were using in the turn of millennium... isn't that interesting?! Also, the jewelry made of amber, gold, and copper had a lot of really interesting and funny designs and some very advanced craftsmanship. You can easily see how their exposure to other cultures from trade influenced the style of jewelry and sacrificial pieces. I have more of an interest in learning about vikings now, having gained a large respect for them (but come on, Dani, they're freaking vikings!!!).
On the subject of food, I've been baking a lot, including my first really good batch of fresh bread (with the help of Jesper). I made too-garlicky eggplant rigatoni and bombass spiced apple bread for dear friends last night. On our way to Lindholm Høje, Cherie and I stopped at a bakery and had our first Danish pastries. Not too bad, not very sweet but very buttery with some marmalade in the center, like a special surprise!
Also, I've spent much time talking to people from different countries about education, food, politics, differing economic systems, and different places to travel. Talking like that gets me in a hot fever to see and experience the world, but then I remember beautiful Aalborg and I'm happy where I am right now. Sometime soon I have to start researching information about Ireland and doing my homework. Instead, I spent the morning reading about the current blockade of Gaza, and Israel and Palestine situation in general, which I think shares similarities to the Northern/Republic of Ireland situation. Anyway, tonight Séverin comes home and it will be a busy weekend, so hopefully updates will be regular.
Hilsener fra Danmark!!

Denmark: The Sequel

So I am here in sunny Aalborg finally! It is so beautiful here now, like it was in September, the first month I arrived. Hardly any clouds, sky stretching out before me for days, and the green spreading across the whole country. There is the ever-present breeze and the sun baring down harshly on you to remind you how much closer you are to it compared to somewhere longitudinally lower.When I left, the whole country was covered in ice, and the sun "light" would grace us with its presence for 5 hours total per day. Now, there's too much light! At midnight, the sun still cast a multicolored hue on the sky, and it was alive and alert at 4am. When I go to Stockholm, it will be worse. I never feel like I'm missing the day this way, however, which is nice.
Once I got to Copenhagen, I took the 5 hour travel cross-country, and I got to see how Denmark thrives in the summertime. It's magnificent! There are fields of yellow blossoms on top of the brightest green I can imagine. What a difference from winter!
I arrived at midnight on Thursday, safe, sound, tired. I slept 14 hours and haven't faced any jet lag since then. Friday I went to the city center and had dinner with friends, but we went back home early to prepare ourselves for karneval early
the next day. I woke up Saturday morning around 8am to the sound of the squawking Danish girls across the common area from me.
I suppose I should talk a little bit about karneval, seeing as that's the main reason for me coming back to Aalborg. There are family activities happening all week in Kildeparken, like music and art and far-too-expensive beer. Friday night there is a battle of costumes in the street and the beginning of the big festival in Kildeparken. The main events happen on Saturday, where everyone wakes up early and starts drinking with breakfast. The masses congregate around 11am, already drunk, and start the parade around noon. Basically, the parade is just a mass of drunk, wildly costumed college-age people walking through the city center of Aalborg until they reach Kildeparken.
It sounds ridiculous... and it is, but so much fun with all of the colors and the music and masses of people, and of course the shenanigans. Bastien and I lost everyone we'd congregated with, but we took a lot of good pictures and left the parade around 3. After a very sobering nap, we had dinner and met with other international students to prepare to venture back to the city center. Somehow, Bastien and I lost our group again, but we danced our hearts out until 4am. I have such a fondness for dancing in Europe in the smoke-free discos with poppy Euro-trash music until the late hours of the morning. I missed the last bus home, so I walked by myself about 3 miles to the AIK. As miserable as that seems, it has refreshed my enjoyment of walking. It was also light outside by the time I started walking. So far, I'd say my trip has been a success!
Other than that, I have nothing interesting to report. I've been alone most of the time since karneval, of my own volition, reading and writing and making food. I have a bit of a sore throat from the long walk on Saturday and going to the grocery store in the rain the next morning, so I find it really nice not to talk much. I anxiously await Séverin's return to Aalborg, and I have seen almost everyone I have wanted to see. On Thursday, I am walking to the Lindholm Høje viking graveyard with the girls before making dinner that evening.
http://www.vikingdenmark.com/lindholm-hoeje-viking-burial-site-jutland-denmark.html
One week until Stockholm!
And for you viewing pleasures....

Off and away before picking up my feet

I'm spoiling myself again... I've lost the drive to work hard and write a thesis. I've decided to study abroad again! I'm going to do a psychology program in Dublin and Belfast, Ireland for a month this summer. We'll be looking at Ireland as a post-terrorism society. The other exciting news, as a result, is that I'll be graduating this coming Fall... yay!! Can't seem to settle down.

Let's celebrate whatever

Adam and I were talking today about having drinks tomorrow to celebrate exciting prospects and the results of the day (his job interview and my interview with my potential future thesis advisor), and I think I've been inspired after a day of contempt, self-pity, fire-fueled diatribes, and general frustrations. As I grow up, it bothers me more and more that my bad days and bad moods are often so unjustified. I have a really great life and there is no reason to forsake that fact. In fact, it is ungrateful and immature to do so.
That being said, I have a great life with so many wonderful possibilities and a good head on my shoulders. I want to celebrate that! My friends are genuine people with passions, inspirations, and integrity, and I want to celebrate that too! Sorry for any involuntary gagging I may have conjured in you, but the best part of my day (besides the unintelligible jabbering with my niece and nephew - one of my favorite forms of communication) was realizing how much I want to have drinks with my favorite people just to celebrate how good things are. If my Unity church events included drunkenness, I imagine it would resemble my mental image of celebration drinking.
I'm going to start doing that. For particularly special prosperous weeks, something better that pbr or yuengling will make a guest appearance. I don't want to feel like things are bad because I logically know that they are not. Things come together effortlessly, and until they do, let us drink!

creeping quietly under the water

I've been a hermit crab with a mighty thick shell, a strangely comforting piece of hard shell between me and the world. Did you know that some hermit crabs will support sea anemones on their backs as an extra form of protection under the sea? The anemone eats the dregs of the crab's meals, and the crab can be alone without ever being alone. Amazing. I can relate to that sometimes.
I decided to let go of my Atlanta dream and remain in my little crab shell in the basement of my parents' house, where I spend hours upon hours hiding out, reading, listening to music. I hardly exist to the rest of the world for the time being. During the week, I spend a lot of time in Atlanta because I have class Tuesday and Thursday. Once I come home from the city, I'm scavenging the bottom of the sea. What an alter-ego.
I need a steady job.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfPLA7nO9Ao

a family drive-by

Well, I got to see my brother (half brother), his daughter, and his mother this weekend. There were here late Friday and gone Sunday midday, in and out like that. Yet somehow, since my brother's divorce, it felt like the longest, most intimate visit I've had with him in years. Hard times aren't necessarily bad times. Kyle's a new person with his old habits of enjoying the little things and speaking freely, but now he has a daughter with whom he can share his joyful attitude in life. I guess I have a lot of worries about a messy divorce scarring his daughter, and my parents have some concern for Lily (my niece), but right now I'm just really happy that Kyle is living again.
It was totally family weekend. My parents' little house had me, my brother and his family, my sister and her family, my parents and my mother's mother. Yesterday I spent the whole day recovering in seclusion. Cleaning before, during, and after family arrived, nieces hanging all over me, drinking and playing pool with my brother and brother-in-law until the wee hours of the morning, photography explosion, too much birthday cake... it was long, blissful, and very necessary.
I still haven't gone out of my way to see people since I've arrived home, even though the thought to call people has been at the back of my head for some time. It's curious, but I guess I feel like I've been inefficient with getting important things done and maintaining some of the better habits I had in Denmark. It takes me longer to write a letter than it did in unfamiliar terrain, and it's much rarer for me to make a meal from scratch. Maybe it's because I feel like I have more distractions here, or maybe it's because I feel like I should be doing certain things and going against my nature. I don't know. I still feel a little weird, and a part of that is because my progress in getting things done has come to a temporary halt. I'm on the schedule at Intermezzo again, but I have no shifts. I've found a room that I'm going to rent downtown, but I don't know exactly when I'm going to move in. I haven't really started class yet, and I think I may be anxious to start working. I thought things were going to work out with Ryan and me, but they aren't. I want to see old friends and enjoy the old social life I had, but I've grown out of a lot of old habits I had. I thought I'd already have my bike up and running, but maintenance has been delayed several times. Just be patient, Dani. It all comes together in its own time.
It's really amazing how much a culture can influence your concept of time-keeping. When I'm in Atlanta, I usually go crazy if I have a lot of free time, so I try to fill it up as much as possible until I'm exhausted from doing too much. In Denmark, I could spend hours each day writing letters and in my journal, reading, cooking a meal for an hour, taking a walk or a bike ride, whatever I wanted that would relax me. How do you take a mentality and style of living from one city to another?

Slumber jack party!

Well, after much ado, I decided to Craigslist it and check out the rooms and housing market in my local neighborhood, and boy howdy! there are some seemingly too-good-to-be-true rooms available in fabulous neighborhoods at dreamy prices. I'm completely in love with the concept of looking for something available at a weird time of the year (mid-January? who, besides people running from living situations gone awry, wants to start a lease in mid-January?), but we'll see if there is any follow-through. However, I need to feel really confident, excited, and positive about this process because I'm trying to find something for only 4 months. Tricky, tricky.
Honestly, though, looking for a new place to set up camp has gotten me out of this funk entirely and really excited to be back in Atlanta. Once (not if) I find a place to live, I can start biking again in the city, really concentrate on finding a job I'm enamored with, brewing my own beer, taking possession of a kitchen where I can cook all of my meals, and go urban spelunking. Besides, I have a certain somebody I'd like to have lunch with occasionally in the city, and it's nice to not have to drive all the way downtown just to have a date.
I realized that I'd been kind of hard on myself initially when I started feeling a little disappointed about moving back, thinking that I was supposed to maintain the high I'd been feeling for the last 6 months. Then it occurred to me that I wasn't immediately in love with Aalborg, and things were sort of melodramatic for the first 3 weeks when I had a great yet untimely romance with a now dear friend of mine. I developed strong mutual feelings for someone who had a girlfriend, and it sort of put a damper on things until I breathed and remembered who and where I was. So I think it's completely natural to feel a bit disappointed/overwhelmed/uncomfortable when you have such a huge shift in your life and you're still a little more sensitive than usual.
On another note, my current living situation has made it quite easy to start looking for a new place to live. The water pipes have been frozen for two days now and we've been waterless, my grandmother just arrived tonight for the first day of her 7-week stay, and next weekend we have 3 more family members coming for my niece's third birthday party. I'm sleeping in the basement with my belongings in a laundry basket, and I don't know what I'll do next weekend when everyone else is here. This is not exactly my definition of comfortable, but I do love being home with family.

I'm content here and now. Always trying to live it and stay with it. That's a great philosophy, you know? Here and now. (throwbacks to Way of the Peaceful Warrior for its stellar "here and now" mantra)