Christmas beer is here!

Every first Friday in November the country goes crazy for the release of Tuborg's Jul øl, otherwise known as Christmas beer and J-Day.

I heard about this tradition on one of my business trips to Denmark in 2007 and had a taste of the first brew on the night it was released last year while visiting my inlaws in Møn, but I have never experienced the event itself, while out and about in the city of Copenhagen.

All I can say is, now I understand the hype. First of all, beer trucks decorated with snow drive around the city with the brew, playing the Tuborg Christmas song, while friendly elves deliver beer and cheer at the neighborhood bodega. At some bodegas the beer is free for one hour and at others you might even get a little peep show. Yes, you read that correct.

Before the friendly elves arrived at our local watering hole, a topless Tuborg delivery girl made some little boys very happy with their first Christmas present of the year! God Jul!

Thank you for today

One of the fun things about getting your Masters in English in a land where English isn't the first language, is the fact that cultural traditions and local sayings end up getting mixed in with the daily dialog.

One of those quaint little traditions is how the Danes say "Tak for i dag" after they have spent an entire day with you, or even a few hours which is the case when you take classes at Copen- hagen Business School. "Tak for i dag" (pronounced "tahk for ee day") is literally translated to "Thank you for today" and at the end of each class my professors close their session with those four words and it makes me smile every time.

Another fun experience is doing project work (a common method used in Danish university systems) with native Danes and finding yourself stuck mid conversation on a word that just doesn't translate. Luckily for us, humor always translates so we often find ourselves laughing over words that just sound funny when put in an English context. Words like "width wind" which is tail wind, or wind that is going your way while on a bike or in a plane, etc.

Another part of the experience that goes with taking classes in English when you live in another country is getting used to words being pronounced wrong. Sometimes it takes a few seconds to figure out what they are trying to say, but you catch on quickly. The only thing that you can do is hope that the bad pronunciation doesn't rub off on you or your fellow classmates.

Chances are high it won't as most of these people have been speaking English since they were in the 3rd grade, and have little to no accent. Something that may take a lifetime for me to accomplish with the Danish language.

Totally 80's

Halloween isn't a holiday I celebrated regularly when I was in the USA. Dressing up as someone or something else wasn't really a thing I was excited about doing after the age of 10, but this year is different.

We found another couple that are into pop culture just as much as we are, so we have had a couple of themed parties. The first was Mad Men where we dressed up as the Draper's and the Sterling's and gave a nod to the classy, yet alcoholic time of the 60's and our latest themed party was a salute to the 80's and the time of Wallstreet. Gordon Gekko and Madonna never looked so good together!

Suspenders, leg warmers, crimped hair, and bad cocktails were all the rave. But the couple that topped the cake were our guests who had on authentic sweatshirts from the 80's. That beats the heck out of shopping at H&M, even if "what is old is new again" is the latest thing.

Harvesting the Grapes

Ever since I began drinking wine I have wanted to learn more about the process of making it. After visiting Napa Valley in 2005 I wanted to go back and visit a vineyard when they harvested the grapes. That opportunity came my way five years later on the island of Møn, at a vineyard owned by my husband's family, in the country of Denmark. It was a fantastic experience, and one that I hope to repeat one day.

We began in a very traditional Danish way, by having coffee, spandauer (otherwise known as danishes) and schnapps. We began picking the grapes at the location of the first vines, on a pig farm. You read that right. The first vines were on a pig farm. The Danes love their pork!

The second set of vines were on family land, where Tobias and I had our wedding reception. By the time we made it there it was lunchtime, so we had a very traditional Danish lunch of smørrebrød (rye bread with vegetable and meat toppings), pølser (hot dogs or sausages) and beer.

After the second set of grapes were picked, it was time to stomp the grapes. The only grapes they stomp are the tiny little port wine grapes so I was able to partake in this time honored tradition made popular by Lucille Ball (and Pretty Woman) and happily check one of the things off my 'to do' list!

What up with Dutch?

There is a common misconception between Denmark and Holland (otherwise known as the Netherlands) in America. I'm not sure why, but for some reason Danish is confused with Dutch.

If you were to tell anyone from those two respecting countries that they were mistaken for one another they would get a confused look and then they would strongly state that the languages sound nothing alike. According to Danes, Dutch is more guttural.

If you were to ask an American, they probably wouldn't be able to hear the difference and that's not to say they should. It's all about what you are used to. I wouldn't be able to hear a difference either had I not lived in Denmark and had gotten used to the language.

However, this isn't necessarily about the language. I think it is more about word play than anything else. People from Holland are Dutch, and people from Denmark are Danish. A "danish" is a type of pastry in the US, not necessarily a culture or language.

The countries aren't anywhere near each other on a map. Denmark (a little more north and further east) is a relatively small country somewhere in Scandinavia, whereas Amsterdam, is capital of the Netherlands and a popular destination for many in the US (between Germany and Belgium).

The Dutch are known for wooden shoes, van Gogh, tulips, windmills, canals and bikes. The Danish are known for LEGO, the little mermaid, daisies, windmills, canals and bikes. In fact, one of the canal neighborhoods in Copenhagen (Christianshavn) was built by a Dutch architect and inspired by Amsterdam, so if you were to break it down that way, you could easily see the similarities.

Either way, I hope this little blog entry clears the whole thing up and inspires you to politely correct the next person you hear call someone from Denmark, Dutch. I'm sure the Danes will thank me for that one later.

Mad About Mad Men

My new favorite show on American television is Mad Men, brought to my attention early this summer by my good friend Beth.

It's a show about the advertising men of Madison Avenue in the 1960's and fantastically delivers all the old school glamour and intoxication of that time.

On top of being an entertaining show with witty one liners, I've always had a 'thing' for the 50's and 60's. There's just something about the history and style of that time that is so intriguing.

So after three seasons of the show, we decided to have a 1960's style dinner party to celebrate the final episode of season three.

Turns out, we're not the only ones. After a little searching, this sleepy little AMC series which premiered in the States in July 2007, has gotten quite the fan following, not to mention Emmy and Golden Globe acclaim.

Where have I been? Oh yeah...living in a foreign country.

However, it was fantastic. From the food, to the costumes, to the themed cocktails of that time, we had a fabulous time and did Roger & Jane and Don & Betty proud!

The Tribe

I went to a very interesting seminar titled "The Danes...(are weird)." The turnout was fairly large which obviously meant the title of the event struck a cord for those of us expats living in Denmark. However, the most impressive part was the fact that the speaker was an anthropologist looking at the culture from a sociological perspective.

He used humor and humility to describe situations and experiences expats often have a hard time understanding from a historical and scientific point of view. He described the Danes as a tribe of people with a special language of their own that is very difficult to imitate and learn as an outsider.

The "weird" part about the people was that they trust one another more than any other culture. In fact, they almost treat each other like family. So when you're all one big family, you don't always use manners in the public sense of the word, which most of us outsiders have a hard time understanding.

However, since I have made an effort to learn their secret language, and think of them as all one giant tribe now, it has definitely helped me in situations where I would have been upset in the past. His final words were perhaps the most powerful: "You don't have to understand it or even like it, but you have to respect it."