Monday, June 28, 2010
Texting
Also, you can text me at (530) 567-4818 and it will be sent to my iPod. I will receive it and be able to respond when I have Internet. Tell me who you are the first text you send because I don't have numbers saved on here. (This is not my new cell number or anything, I am just using an iPod application for the summer.) You can also Skype me; my username is lolden10.
DKizzle
Watching the Denmark game in their city square was insane. We had to shove our way into the crowd to get a spot. People were sitting on top of pølse (Danish sausage/hot dog) stands and every time Japan scored, people threw their partially-full beers up in the air. It was fun to experience the atmosphere. We watched the game with a UO professor of mine who is teaching at Copenhagen Business School this month and who used to play basketball with my Danish coach 25 years ago. It would've been fun to celebrate with so many people after the game, but Denmark lost 3-1. Unfortunately, Europe is not faring too well, so the number of countries we can watch games in to cheer with the local people is dwindling (pretty much just Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, and Portugal).
The night of the game, local grocery stores were sold out of the regular cans of Carlsberg beer (Denmark's most popular beer, distributed globally). My coach didn't believe us when we told him they were selling 1-Liter Carlsbergs. The cans said "Endlig en øl, den er stor nok at dele"... which means, "finally a beer that is big enough to share." Jeff and I were like, "Share? Ya right! They're the perfect size!"
One of my former teammates asked me to come to her high school graduation on Friday and it was so interesting to see. My coach's son and a few of my players were also graduating, so it was great to see them. It was much more similar to ours than the Danes had made it out to be. The speeches were kind of a wake up call that reminded me of how rusty my Danish is! Jeff obviously didn't understand any of it, but he said he could still tell which speeches were good just based on their tone of voice and how bored the audience looked. :)
THEN I was introduced to the best Danish tradition I have witnessed so far: post-graduation party tour busses. Danish students take most of their classes through their high school career in groups of 20-30 (there were 11 of these "classes" graduating in the one ceremony). Each class rents a big open-air army vehicle and decorates it with leaves, baloons, posters, etc. and drives through the city and visits each student's house for about 15 minutes to meet the families, eat, and DRINK. The posters said things like, "honk once and the boys drink, honk twice and the girls drink, honk three times and the virgins drink" and every vehicle also had posters saying the name of the school and that they were graduates. We'll post pictures at the end of the week of our travels so far, so you can get a better idea of what I mean. I immediately started thinking of all sorts of excuses to have this type of party bus... it's kinda dangerous with all the drinking, but I want to figure out a way to introduce the tradition to the US. Lots of high schools had graduation that day, so as Jeff and I biked through the city, lots of vehicles passed by us, yelling on megaphones and blowing blow horns. It looked like fun.
Friday night, Jeff taught me how to play chess. I've learned before, but now I have actually played a few games. He says I am not bad for a beginner... whether I will continue with the game remains to be seen, but I kind of like it.
This weekend, we went to my assistant coach's summer house about an hour outside of Copenhagen on the beach. We had perfect weather and went to the beach for a little while. We're trying to ease our ghastly pale skin into the European sun a little bit at a time. The water was about the same temperature as the Oregon coast, maybe a little colder (about 15 degrees Celsius, maybe).
It was my coach's 3-year old's birthday weekend, so we had a fun time celebrating his birthday with about 20 relatives. The group spoke ridiculously good English, for various reasons. My coach's brother-in-law is American, so their whole family obviously speaks impeccable English (even the young children). My coach made fun of me for rinsing the dishes off after scrubbing them with soap because apparently when you dry them off with the towel, that is sufficient to get the soap off. Just another small difference...
After being up at the summer house for a couple hours, we went on a walk with the family and I kind of kept Jeff informed about what people were saying and what was funny. After a while, Jeff said, "You actually understand Danish pretty well!" To which I replied, "Jeff, they're speaking to a THREE-YEAR OLD; that's why I can understand!" haha
We came back last night and we had sushi with three of my teammates that I was especially close with. It was "hyggeligt" a common Danish word that the closest translation for is "cozy" or "comfortable". My friend's chinchillas are named "Bimbo" and "Cheek" (as in butt cheek) in Danish and the names actually sound kind of nice in Danish, so an unsuspecting America wouldn't think anything of it. So, we joked around for an hour about all the Danish words I could convince an American to name their child that would lead to a rude awakening were they ever to travel here. For instance, I feel like Fanden is not that far off from other American names like Landon or Fulton, etc... but it translates to a not-so-nice four-letter word in English.
Okay, I'm off for now, we might go to the park this evening for a the large weekly dance lessons they put on during the summer. Tonight's style is Balboa swing... this could be interesting.
The night of the game, local grocery stores were sold out of the regular cans of Carlsberg beer (Denmark's most popular beer, distributed globally). My coach didn't believe us when we told him they were selling 1-Liter Carlsbergs. The cans said "Endlig en øl, den er stor nok at dele"... which means, "finally a beer that is big enough to share." Jeff and I were like, "Share? Ya right! They're the perfect size!"
One of my former teammates asked me to come to her high school graduation on Friday and it was so interesting to see. My coach's son and a few of my players were also graduating, so it was great to see them. It was much more similar to ours than the Danes had made it out to be. The speeches were kind of a wake up call that reminded me of how rusty my Danish is! Jeff obviously didn't understand any of it, but he said he could still tell which speeches were good just based on their tone of voice and how bored the audience looked. :)
THEN I was introduced to the best Danish tradition I have witnessed so far: post-graduation party tour busses. Danish students take most of their classes through their high school career in groups of 20-30 (there were 11 of these "classes" graduating in the one ceremony). Each class rents a big open-air army vehicle and decorates it with leaves, baloons, posters, etc. and drives through the city and visits each student's house for about 15 minutes to meet the families, eat, and DRINK. The posters said things like, "honk once and the boys drink, honk twice and the girls drink, honk three times and the virgins drink" and every vehicle also had posters saying the name of the school and that they were graduates. We'll post pictures at the end of the week of our travels so far, so you can get a better idea of what I mean. I immediately started thinking of all sorts of excuses to have this type of party bus... it's kinda dangerous with all the drinking, but I want to figure out a way to introduce the tradition to the US. Lots of high schools had graduation that day, so as Jeff and I biked through the city, lots of vehicles passed by us, yelling on megaphones and blowing blow horns. It looked like fun.
Friday night, Jeff taught me how to play chess. I've learned before, but now I have actually played a few games. He says I am not bad for a beginner... whether I will continue with the game remains to be seen, but I kind of like it.
This weekend, we went to my assistant coach's summer house about an hour outside of Copenhagen on the beach. We had perfect weather and went to the beach for a little while. We're trying to ease our ghastly pale skin into the European sun a little bit at a time. The water was about the same temperature as the Oregon coast, maybe a little colder (about 15 degrees Celsius, maybe).
It was my coach's 3-year old's birthday weekend, so we had a fun time celebrating his birthday with about 20 relatives. The group spoke ridiculously good English, for various reasons. My coach's brother-in-law is American, so their whole family obviously speaks impeccable English (even the young children). My coach made fun of me for rinsing the dishes off after scrubbing them with soap because apparently when you dry them off with the towel, that is sufficient to get the soap off. Just another small difference...
After being up at the summer house for a couple hours, we went on a walk with the family and I kind of kept Jeff informed about what people were saying and what was funny. After a while, Jeff said, "You actually understand Danish pretty well!" To which I replied, "Jeff, they're speaking to a THREE-YEAR OLD; that's why I can understand!" haha
We came back last night and we had sushi with three of my teammates that I was especially close with. It was "hyggeligt" a common Danish word that the closest translation for is "cozy" or "comfortable". My friend's chinchillas are named "Bimbo" and "Cheek" (as in butt cheek) in Danish and the names actually sound kind of nice in Danish, so an unsuspecting America wouldn't think anything of it. So, we joked around for an hour about all the Danish words I could convince an American to name their child that would lead to a rude awakening were they ever to travel here. For instance, I feel like Fanden is not that far off from other American names like Landon or Fulton, etc... but it translates to a not-so-nice four-letter word in English.
Okay, I'm off for now, we might go to the park this evening for a the large weekly dance lessons they put on during the summer. Tonight's style is Balboa swing... this could be interesting.
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Just Like Yesterday...
It is so weird--and when I say weird, I mean amazing--to be back in Copenhagen. It feels like I was never gone (and multiple people have said this to me too). It's wonderfully sunny here, i.e. perfect biking weather. Words cannot express how awesome and bittersweet it is to see all of my friends from last year. I played basketball with some of my teammates yesterday and it was so much fun. Granted, I hadn't ran for a month so my face looked like a tomato within 15 minutes, but it was fun nonetheless. It really was as if nothing had changed... OJ (my former coach) was still telling me to shoot long as we were playing open gym because he hates it when we miss short. :)
We've just been hanging out with my friends and coach's family. Many of the Scandinavian countries celebrate the summer solstice, so a group of us went to a large park in Copenhagen to see the bonfire that the city puts on. At the top of the burn pile, they construct a figure to look like a witch that supposedly flies away when the fire is lit. There was about 10,000 people there to watch the lighting, which only lasts about 15 minutes. Jeff and I laughed and took a picture because they lit the fire at 10pm, but it was light enough outside that it seemed like it could be 6pm. (Copenhagen is about the same latitude as Juneau, Alaska.)
The city is showing the Denmark-Japan World Cup game tonight on a big screen at Rådhuspladsen, the city square. Apparently there was about 30,000 people there for the last game. One of my professors at UO used to play basketball with OJ 20 years ago and is teaching at Copenhagen Business School this summer, so I think he might join us for the game.
This weekend, we're going to my former assistant coach's summer house to celebrate his three-year old son's birthday. I am excited to meet their newborn daughter as well. I'll let you know how everything goes. It is SO great to be back!
We've just been hanging out with my friends and coach's family. Many of the Scandinavian countries celebrate the summer solstice, so a group of us went to a large park in Copenhagen to see the bonfire that the city puts on. At the top of the burn pile, they construct a figure to look like a witch that supposedly flies away when the fire is lit. There was about 10,000 people there to watch the lighting, which only lasts about 15 minutes. Jeff and I laughed and took a picture because they lit the fire at 10pm, but it was light enough outside that it seemed like it could be 6pm. (Copenhagen is about the same latitude as Juneau, Alaska.)
The city is showing the Denmark-Japan World Cup game tonight on a big screen at Rådhuspladsen, the city square. Apparently there was about 30,000 people there for the last game. One of my professors at UO used to play basketball with OJ 20 years ago and is teaching at Copenhagen Business School this summer, so I think he might join us for the game.
This weekend, we're going to my former assistant coach's summer house to celebrate his three-year old son's birthday. I am excited to meet their newborn daughter as well. I'll let you know how everything goes. It is SO great to be back!
Saturday, June 19, 2010
When I was a young chap...
Spending two and a half months in Europe with my brother is bound to lead to some adventures, so I figured a blog would be the best way to share our stories. So, as I sit in our hostel lobby in London (waiting for our laundry), I thought now would be a good time to start.
After watching three great movies but not getting any sleep on the flight, we got in to London on Tuesday and immediately began our search for wireless and then a hostel. We ended up at Clink 261 in an 18-bed room. We met some Germans and a guy from Holland; we're intentionally trying to meet new people and find out what their story is all about. It's funny to see different people's reactions to our situation. "You're traveling all summer? With no plans? Oh you Americans!" (haha)
Jeff's never been here before, so we saw the changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace and walked through Hyde Park. It was nice to see the changing of the guards again because it reminded me how much more formal people are here (plus, there's a lot more people walking around in suits). Also, after the guards changed, the newly posted guard's feet flew out from under him! He fell right on his butt and the remaining crowd gasped... it was hilarious! I can't believe Jeff missed the picture! (Maybe if they weren't so darn deliberate with their steps, they could just focus on staying on their feet!)
Yesterday, we decided to take a day off and go to a big open market and then find a pub to watch the England-Algeria game... it was so fun to see everyone get so into football! People seriously weren't even talking to each other, just watching the game and cheering--conversing would just distract people from the game! We talked to two young Brits before the game about drinking ages, American sports, and beer... they were just as interested in us as we were in them.
It didn't work out for us to couch surf here, but we'll try to set up some plans for Spain while resting in Denmark.
No funny stories... YET. I think we're going out tonight, so I'm sure we'll cause some raucous. I usually only like to blog when I have something funny to say, but youlll have to bear with me this first round.
I will probably update this once a week or so; just check back when you feel like it. (Although I ended up only updating once a month when I was in Denmark.) I'll probably update our current location in the tagline underneath my Facebook picture.
Cheerio!
After watching three great movies but not getting any sleep on the flight, we got in to London on Tuesday and immediately began our search for wireless and then a hostel. We ended up at Clink 261 in an 18-bed room. We met some Germans and a guy from Holland; we're intentionally trying to meet new people and find out what their story is all about. It's funny to see different people's reactions to our situation. "You're traveling all summer? With no plans? Oh you Americans!" (haha)
Jeff's never been here before, so we saw the changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace and walked through Hyde Park. It was nice to see the changing of the guards again because it reminded me how much more formal people are here (plus, there's a lot more people walking around in suits). Also, after the guards changed, the newly posted guard's feet flew out from under him! He fell right on his butt and the remaining crowd gasped... it was hilarious! I can't believe Jeff missed the picture! (Maybe if they weren't so darn deliberate with their steps, they could just focus on staying on their feet!)
Yesterday, we decided to take a day off and go to a big open market and then find a pub to watch the England-Algeria game... it was so fun to see everyone get so into football! People seriously weren't even talking to each other, just watching the game and cheering--conversing would just distract people from the game! We talked to two young Brits before the game about drinking ages, American sports, and beer... they were just as interested in us as we were in them.
It didn't work out for us to couch surf here, but we'll try to set up some plans for Spain while resting in Denmark.
No funny stories... YET. I think we're going out tonight, so I'm sure we'll cause some raucous. I usually only like to blog when I have something funny to say, but youlll have to bear with me this first round.
I will probably update this once a week or so; just check back when you feel like it. (Although I ended up only updating once a month when I was in Denmark.) I'll probably update our current location in the tagline underneath my Facebook picture.
Cheerio!
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