Oh Christmas Tree! Oh Christmas Tree!

Trudging around looking for something out in the cold with snow higher than your boots is not how most people imagine spending their Sundays. But this is exactly what Ole, Birgitte, and I did this Sunday, in search of the perfect Christmas tree.

As we pulled up to the Christmas tree farm I was already pretty excited, but the excitement tripled when, instead of selecting a ready to go Christmas tree we headed off into the fields of trees to go find Our Tree. And that is how I found myself trudging through snow past the tops of my boots and enjoying it. One tree was too short, another too big, one too wide, another too thin. It was quite a challenge to find the perfect tree.

Finally we found Our Tree. A tall one that was not too tall, and full but not overly so. After the tree passed the test to be declared The One, Ole took his saw and cut down Our Christmas Tree.

After bringing it back to the farmhouse, and netting the tree, we brought it back home.

Figuring that ornaments and water do not go together, we waited for the snow to melt off the tree before setting it up. We then decorated The Tree in red and gold, candle lights, and Danish flags. I must say, Our Tree is a very beautiful one! Don't you agree?

God Jul Alle! Merry Christmas Everybody!

Crazy Christmas Cabaret at Tivoli, land of Nisser

Welcome to Tivoli at Christmas time, a glorious Christmas inspired Danish theme park filled with wonder at every turn. Complete with mounds of snow, a house of nisser, and endless amounts of Christmas Cheer. If you are ever in Copenhagen at Christmas time, go to Tivoli to absorb this essense of Christmas that is spread throughout the park. It is truly magical! Ole, Birgitte and I went to Tivoli Monday the 29th, the day after getting back from London in order to see Crazy Christmas Cabaret. But along the way we absorbed a good amount of Christmas cheer!

A house full of Nisser! Living in Denmark around Christmastime there is no way that one can avoid an encounter with Nisser. These friendly pranksters are extremely prominent during the Danish Christmas season. In order to keep them well behaved, or for children to receive a present from Nisser, a bowl of the Christmas pudding, similar to our rice pudding, must be left out for the Nisser. These little guys are one of my favorite things about the Christmas season in Denmark! It is a guarantee that I will be bringing some Nisser back to my family for Christmas!

A special treasure of Tivoli at Christmastime is the annual Crazy Christmas Cabaret, a comedy show put on for over 25 years in english at the heart of Tivoli. I think I was almost constantly laughing throughout the whole show. I am so glad that my host parents ensured that I would not miss out on this Christmas time tradition!

Vi Ses!

To London we will go!

“When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life” Stepping off of the plane in London, only a small amount of time passed before I heard this quote from Samuel Johnson. Despite this being repeated throughout the trip, it wasn’t until arriving back in Copenhagen and I was thinking over things I had done, as well as things I still wanted to do in London, that the meaning really hit me. It is true that if one wanted to get to know London inside and out you would have to remain for a lifetime, and even then I don’t think you would know about all the treats that London has in store for those within its bounds.


My host parents and I left for London on Thanksgiving day and stayed until Sunday evening. With only three full days in London it is incredible how much we saw and got to do. We spent Friday morning at St. Paul’s Cathedral and not only did we see the Cathedral in all its splendor, but we braved the stairs to the top, where there is a spectacular view of the city.

St. Pauls Cathedral as seen from a building across the street.

After an afternoon of strolling through the shops on Oxford Street our day was still not done. Andrew Lloyd Webber, the composer of Phantom of the Opera, has long been working on a sequel to Phantom. It was just our luck that Phantom’s sequel Love Never Dies has been making its debut in London. Needless to say, by 7:30 Friday evening we were in our ideally situated seats watching this wonderful performance. Not only was the performance absolutely superb, and the music just as catchy as Phantom, but the audience was in for a surprise when it was discovered that Andrew Lloyd Webber himself was attending that particular performance!

Saturday we saw Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, parts of the Royal Stables, and Royal Art Gallery. Needless to say, Saturday was jam packed with experiencing history, which as one who has always had a love for history I thoroughly enjoyed!

Here are two quite similar guards... though one can not stop laughing at the thought that she is on guard duty!

Here is another picture of the temporary royal guard. Yet in the below picture the attempt to look angry is abandoned. Apparently I was not meant to be a guard.

Sunday we went to the Tower of London. Though remembered mainly for its very dismal history as a prison, the Tower of London is something that should not be missed. From the royal jewels, to the stories of past occupants and the armour exhibit, one could easily spend the day exploring the Tower of London, and then still have to go back the next day.

In the picture to my left (your right) is the "Bloody Tower"! Spooky!

After spending the majority of our last day at the Tower of London, we got a tasty meal of fish and chips, and walked along the waterfront before heading to the Airport.

A picture of tower bridge as we walk along the waterfront.

I really can not thank my host parents enough for including me in this trip! Not only was the trip itself amazing but it was fantastic being able to spend the long weekend together!

Our family picture of this trip

Thanksgiving, Danish Style!

In my mind Thanksgiving is supposed to be a large scale event in all regards. A large number of attendees,  a large quantity of homecooked food, and a large amount of friendly banter. When myself, and two other host students started planning our large multi family feast we had this idea in mind. This was a great way to share the essence of Thanksgiving (along with the traditional foods) with our host families.

It probably does not surprise anyone that I was in charge of the desserts, while the other two students were in charge of the turkey and sides. So I made a total of four pies, two apple and two pear-cranberry.

Above is an uncooked apple pie.

Our big Thanksgiving feast was on Wednesday the 24th of November starting at 7pm and lasting until late at night. With our two turkeys, cranberry sauce, green beans, mashed potatoes, assorted vegetables, and pies it was a great feast. The people there were all amazing and since there was such a great group we all had a blast!

Family members starting to take their places at the table. To the left is my friend Melissa and her host family and to the right is my host family.

Here Peter is carving up the first Turkey while the second waits. Peter's host family allowed us to hold Thanksgiving at their house. (my pies are in the picture!!)

As Thanksgiving was approaching I was really worried that I would get homesick, since it would be the first year I could not fly home for Thanksgiving. Fortunately, due to friends, and my host parents, I did not feel like I had been cheated out of a Thanksgiving feast with family.

My host parents and I in the middle of the feast. (And no we did not purposefully match...haha)

Thanks to everyone involved for a wonderful Thanksgiving celebration!

Nu er julen startet !

Now Christmas has started! It may still be before Thanksgiving back in the United States but here in Denmark, all our thoughts are already on wish lists, nisser, and Christmas celebrations. For me the Christmas season started this past weekend with my Danish family, some Christmas shopping and the scent of Danish treats.

Since I had come back from Greenland it has been darker and colder in Denmark, so thoughts of Christmas definitely adds cheer even on a cloudy day. It is wonderful to walk around Copenhagen and observe the Christmas decorations that are going up everyday. (That is as long as it isn't rainy or snowing)

This past Saturday, in the true Christmas spirit I spent the day with my Danish family getting gifts for those back home, and baking cookies with my host Mom. In total we made over 300 cookies! This seems like a large amount when you consider how big American cookies are, but Danish cookies are considerable smaller. These cookies are a perfect sized mouthfuls of holiday spirit, without the guilty conscience of gobbling up a gigantic American Christmas cookie.

Pictured above are some Pebernødder cookies.

After baking the three different types of cookies, Pebernødder, Jødekager, and Finskbrød, they were loaded into multiple Christmas tins. We tested out the cookies with tea, coffee and a movie, creating a wonderful end to the Saturday.

Though that was the end of our Saturday it sure was not the end to the Christmas baking for the weekend. On Sunday my host Mom made Æbleskiver, a traditionally Danish Christmas dessert. These round puffs are typically eaten with jelly or powdered sugar, which we promptly did soon after they were made. Below is a picture of the delicious dish of Æbleskiver, next to the special pan required to cook them. Such is not an easy task, particularly when they must be turned several times to create the round shape. Thus it was probably a good thing someone with more talent than me in the kitchen was making them.

Thus was the wonderful start to the Christmas season!

After a weekend of Danish Christmas treats, we will spend Wednesday evening with two other host families and my friend Sandra as we celebrate Thanksgiving!

Vi Ses!

View from a snow covered Mountain

On Thursday we had some time to go exploring on our own. Even though it had been snowing on and off for the past two days, there were eight of us that decided to climb a snow covered mountain. So off we went and here are some pictures from the way up the mountain.

 In total it took us around three hours to climb up and get down (getting down was the hardest) from the mountain. The view was so breathtaking on the mountain, if it was not so cold I would have stayed until it was dark.

I made it to the top of the mountain!

Here is the view from the top, I was not lying when I said it was breathtaking.

My trip to Greenland was absolutely AMAZING and I enjoyed every minute, despite it being so cold. I hope that someday I come back to Greenland. It has now inspired me to go to Alaska at some point to see the marvels there. Greenland is such a beautiful place and the people are so fantastic, it is truly one of the hidden treasures of the world.

Vi Ses!!

Ice Crawl Tasha Style

When talking about what we were supposed to be doing on our trip to Greenland I always made a point of saying how we were going to walk on the ice sheet. Well... that is not exactly true, since one can not simply walk on a smooth non snowy ice surface, instead we were crawling or scooting along until we would get to sections of the ice that had a little bit of grip due to snow that had fallen that morning. It is a good thing the ice sheet is uninhabited because we must have looked crazy making our way around the ice sheet. And then all semblance of cultured college students slid away as we realized that though it is hard to walk, it is easy to slide. The ice sheet, which can be described as rolling ice is perfect for sledding - without the sled.

Here I am, about to slide down an ice hill. I have to admit, having grown up with few chances to sled, the whole experience was AMAZING despite the cold.

In the picture to the right you can see what I mean when I talk about the rolling ice. Also if you see the patches of snow those are the areas in which you can walk, the parts that are blue have no snow. It is these areas that you can imagine me crawling around in for fear of falling! =D

After a couple hours, we had to leave the ice sheet so that we could get back to camp while there was still light. I was reluctant to leave and was one of the last people to come off of the ice sheet.
The experience on the ice sheet was, like most of my trip to Greenland, quite hard to describe through words or pictures. Where we were, one is surrounded on all four sides by ice as far as the eye can see. The only color visible is the blue of the ice and sky. It looks so picturesque that it seems fake until you touch it for yourself, validating that the ice is very real and not just a dream. It is magical when you are standing on this ice sheet, which is one of only two in the world. Truly another Greenlandic marvel!

Nature's form of night time entertainment!

Looking up into the night sky one typically sees stars, if one is far enough away from the lights of a big city. In Florida if you are close enough to one of the theme parks you can typically see a light show put on by humans. Kangerlussuaq is one of the few places were, solar storms and clouds permitting, you are able to see a light show put on by nature, the Aurora Borealis. 

The Aurora occurs when charged particles of the solar wind hit the world. This occurs typically due to a solar storm at the sun approximately 2 days (time the particles take to travel to the earth) before you see the aurora. Additionally there may be an aurora but if it is too cloudy, you will not see it. Much of the time we were in Greenland it was too cloudy to see the Aurora, but the Tuesday night that we were there it appeared shortly after our dinner. We all bundled up (I think I was wearing about 6 layers or so), took cups of hot tea and found comfortable spots outside to watch the twirling lights dance across the sky. The price of being cold was, to me, worth it to see this marvel of nature before my eyes.

With such marvels of nature in the far north, it is no wonder to me why Santa Claus is based on the top of the world instead of the tropics.

The girl who was scared of dogs!

The first thing you hear about sled dogs is that, descended from wolves, these dogs are not to be confused with pet dogs! Walking up to a sled dog pen, where sled dogs are chained and chewing on chunks of raw musk ox, one can definitely understand this statement.

 

However, these dogs, while more aggressive and powerful (almost pure muscle) than regular domestic dogs, they are still extremely affectionate. When approached in the right manner sled dogs wag their tails and compete for your affection. Since they are competing with the other animals for the affection of the humans, it is primarily with other sled dogs that you see the most amount of aggression displayed. For instance the above picture is a sled dog growling at another sled dog to keep the other at bay so this one can have the humans' attention. (By humans I mean myself and a boy in our DIS group.)

If you knew me growing up or have heard some family stories, you may know that I was not only afraid of dogs, but of most animals. However, I was terrified of dogs. Yet somehow when we went into the sled dog pens, I was playing with them. Don't ask me what caused the transition from being deathly afraid to walking up to pat one of the more "aggressive" breeds of "dog".

Whenever you pet a sled dog be aware that they want to be at eye level to make sure that you see them.

Another point to note is that sled dogs are almost pure muscle  and are thus extremely strong. When three sled dogs are all scrambling towards you at once and jump up on you for attention - you will fall!! (trust me, this is personal insight)








I really loved getting to pet the dogs, and not many people can say that the sled dog they were petting, brought them a fresh piece of musk ox meat that was hunted just that week.

Most people stuck with the more subdued sled dogs, which were, of course the puppies. These were adorable little guys, who liked to crawl up into people's laps, sit on your feet, and lick cameras. So having a puppy in her arms and a puppy on her feet, the girl who was scared of dogs, survived her encounter with the sled dogs of legend!

The top of the world: the time of your life, whilst freezing!

There are some experiences in life that are so difficult to put into words that no matter how many pictures you take, it is still nearly impossible to describe your experience. But nevertheless one can only try.

This past week I was in Kangerlussuaq, Greenland a place of ice, snow, friendly people, sled dogs, aurora borealis, mountains, musk ox, reindeer and caribou.

There were so many different adventures here, that it is impossible to summarize into one post, so I will split it into several -by theme. Hopefully you will enjoy the different aspects of my trip!

(I am the figure to the far left)

Hruba Skala, Praha, and the Czech Experience

If someone asked you to walk off a cliff would you do it?

Choosing to go on the DIS trip called Czech Trek I knew that many of the activities would be nerve racking,  but nothing quite prepares you for that moment of standing at the edge of the drop off, praying that your line works, and stepping off. Whether climbing through caves, ziplining over a drop off, tightrope walking across a rope bridge between two cliffs, or climbing up a rock face, the Czech Trek was an amazing experience!

I filled my memory card taking as many pictures as a could but I still feel that no picture can truly portray the beauty of where we were. I felt like I had been plucked out of real life, and place into a fairytale, Bohemian castle included. When you get to wake up each day in Bohemian castle on a sandstone cliff face, and get to experience the landscape that is called Bohemian Paradise, it is hard to put into words precisely what you experienced. Quite simply I felt like an adventurer in this fairytale world.

One of the only activities which didn't involve sandstone rocks, ropes, and harnesses was Archery, which we did the first day at the castle. Besides being great fun I am glad that we didn't immediately start tight rope walking between cliffs after our overnight bus ride from Copenhagen to Hruba Skala.

Anyone feel like leaning back off the edge of a cliff? Here I am rapelling down the cliff, which consists of you leaning backwards enough that the ropes catch, so that you can almost "walk" down the cliff face. Easier said than done though, that is for sure!



In the picture below I am zip lining between the two cliffs. This is very eerie! You are in a full body harness, with a line attached to your back that is connected to the zipline, so when you walk off the cliff it does not feel as if you are attached to anything, until the line catches and you are wisked across the drop off. Of course I am not extremely adventurous so I held onto my harness until I reached the other side.

Whatever you do, if you do not have good balance do not cross between two cliffs on a rope bridge which consists of one rope for your feet, and one for each hand. Though you are attached to a safety wire above you, you are warned that if you fall off the bridge you may be hanging between the cliffs, over 90 meters from the ground until they can get another line out to that area. Talk about pressure! Luckly I was able to tight rope across despite the swaying of the bridge, without falling off.

In this picture I am just getting to the end of the rope bridge, which is the only reason why I posed for the picture with a smile on my face. Any pictures mid bridge, where there was the most amount of swaying would have been pictures of me hanging on for dear life, and swearing to myself about why I decided this would be a good idea in the first place... thankfully there are no such pictures!

Trekking around the Bohemian Paradise area you would come across these absolutely gorgeous views of the mountains, valleys, and cliffs. This one shows how the castle where we stayed seems to rise above other cliffs, yet somehow fits into the picturesque quality of this area.

The last day of our trip before heading back to Copenhagen we went to Prague for the day. Prague, or Praha, was absolutely gorgeous and I wish I had more time to explore the city. I was able to meet up with my friend Vojtech, who had studied at University of Richmond during my freshman year. It was great to see him again!! Here we are in front of the Old Town Square Astronomical clock.

That about wraps up my trip to Czech Republic! On Monday I will be heading off to Greenland on another adventure. Stay tuned for that post.
Vi Ses!