In the morning I went to my børnehave and played with the kids. We went on a field trip to the bibliotek for Mumitrold's 65th Føselsdag. Mumitrold is a Finnish book character who has since been turned into a television series, all the kids are in love with him. The kids had fun and we got cookies, but it was very stressful. At one point I was in charge of keeping them from escaping up the stairs and to sit there quietly, which is still quite a task without the language and when they see me now as a fun silent girl who likes to play and have fun. We went back to the class and had a delicious quiche for lunch, and then it was outside play time! Outside play time may seen normal, but it had been snowing straight for 3 days at this point and I was/am super in love with the snow. It was the best day I have had with the kids. Here are a few pictures, none with face of course so a lot of the really good ones I can show you in person when I get home. This is where I go every Thursday all day and one of my favorite things ever:
After practicum I met up with my friend Ashlee at Nørrebro Station (in my head I wrote that stay-shee-on like it is pronounced in Danish, it surprised me) and we went to her host family who live outside of Hellerup in one of the richest neighborhoods in Denmark. Think going from my practicum to this house like going from the Bronx to Manhattan, except neither that extreme because it IS a welfare state after all. Anyways, the house was beautiful. The walk from the train to the house was like out of a Halmark card. When we got home we started making food. We didn't eat until around 8:45 pm, but we had: turkey, stuffing, bacon, brussel sprouts with sauteed onions, homemade cranberry sauce, green beans, homemade rolls, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes with marshmellows, and sweet potato pie. It was all family recipes of Ashlee's and it was delicious. We told her family all about Thanksgiving and I realized what an American holiday it is. Here I am in a country that values cooking and eating together as a daily thing trying to explain why on one day a year we have to make an effort. Yes, our Thanksgiving is a grand gesture towards being thankful for what we have and spending time with family and loved ones, but it seems to be overcompensating for a culture that does not take time normally to do these things. I do not think that any Americans who think about pilgrims and native Americans after elementary school (unless they are going to a Thanksgiving-themed part the weekend after), so do not try to tell me that Thanksgiving is not about family and food. Leftovers was also a big discussion at our table. Danes do not typically do leftovers. Their fridges are too little and they do not typically like to waste. They make enough for what they want. They kept saying over and over how much food we had made, when really it seemed normal for Thanksgiving and maybe a little less than my family would have at home with one less person. We tried to explain turkey sandwiches and soup and leftovers for the coming weeks but it still sounded absolutely gluttonous. Other things we tried to explain were turduckens and tofurkey. All in all I love Thanksgiving and missed being home, but I had a day and night that I was truly thankful for the had all the elements I would want in Thanksgiving.
Bad parts of the day: I fell HARD on some snow in front of a bus of people and it was embarrassing and now my entire body is bruised. I saw some bad racial profiling by the train conductors on my way home, but it did distract from the fact that I had just realized that my ticket was no longer valid because I read it wrong and saved me $120. I just hope that the Middle Eastern man they escorted off the train had all of his paper work and gets an apology.
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