Jeg kan tale danske nu!

I am finally finished with my Danish courses and have passed the module 1 written and oral examination! Now I begin module 2, sometime next year. It has been fun, and I really feel like I made good progress, even though I missed half of the classes because of work. The times speaking Danish at lunch with my colleagues really helped! And of course, Carla has been there all along helping me mispronounce a variety of things. :)

Bob lærer danske nu.

I (Bob) have finally started my Danish courses, which take up about 12 hours a week, including nearly two full days. This really puts a dent into my time to do work, but in the short time I have been learning, I really feel like I have come a long ways. In my second week, we all got the books we are using. It is a new book, written by a Danish teacher in Copenhagen. And in fact, she was Carla's first teacher! And in fact in fact, when I opened the book and turned to page 11, I see Carla!

Word soon got around to the entire class, in part because I yelled, "Det er min kone!" (That is my wife!) The teacher couldn't believe it because, "I always thought these were fake people" he said. Now Carla is like a movie star in my class. People said, "Oh, she is so cute!" One woman from Chile said, "You better treat her nice!" Plus, word is getting around that Carla is a fantastic baker and chef. During class I always pull out 3 or 4 tupperwares of food to eat (my classmates exclaim that I am always eating). The other day I had one of Carla's cinnamon pumpkin rolls with frosting, and people were asking, "What is that? Your wife made that!?" Then a woman from Brooklyn asked, "Is your wife a baker or a cook?" I said, "Both! Det er min kone. :) Good with the savory and good with the sweet."

Danish Politics (be prepared to be confused)

This coming Thursday, 80-90% of Denmark will vote for a new parliament. Can you believe how high the voter turnout is?! The streets are covered with posters featuring a photo of the political hopefuls, their name, and the name of the party under which they are running. I've noticed a large number of political parties represented, so I asked a few of our Danish friends about the different parties and where they stand on the political landscape.

Here is a little cheat-sheet I created to help me remember where all the parties lie. This list doesn't cover every party, but only the major parties. As you can see, the most liberal of the parties is called Enhedslisten, which means the unity party. The most conservative of the parties is called the Dansk Folkeparti, or the Danish People's Party (think Danish tea party, yet not quite that conservative). However, unlike American politics, there are a lot of political parties that fall between these two extremes, and it's actually these 'middle of the road' parties that hold the majority of power. Let's start from the left (which, confusingly enough, is represented by the color red in Denmark, while the conservative parties are represented by the color blue). Next to the Enhedslisten is the Socialistisk Folkeparti, or the Socialist People's Party. Next comes the Socialdemokraterne, or the Social Democrats. Of the liberal parties, the Social Democrats have the most power, followed by the Socialists.
Now here is where things start to get funny... there is a party called Radikale, or the Radicals. When I first heard of this group, I assumed they were either very liberal or very conservative, hence 'radical'. However, this party isn't in a fixed location on the political map. Their allegiance is flexible. Strange, huh?
And yet most confusing fun: the least conservative of the conservative parties is called (wait for it...) Venstre, or the Left (they are also known as The Liberals... hahaha!)! Yep, a conservative party called Left. That's pretty funny if you ask me. This is the party that is currently in power; the current prime minister (who isn't voted for, but is rather chosen by the party with the most seats in Parliament) is in the Left party. One of my friends explained the name: the Left used to sit on the left side of Parliament, hence the name. Next comes the Konservative Folkeparti, or the Conservatives. As mentioned above, the most conservative of the political parties is the Dansk Folkeparti, or the Danish People's Party.
Bobby and I won't have the opportunity to vote for at least 7 more years (it takes a minimum of 9 years to gain Danish citizenship), but we've enjoyed learning about the political process in our new home country. We are pleasantly surprised by the relative liberalism of almost all of the parties; no one is trying to get rid of same-sex civil unions (which were legalized in 1989, making Denmark the first country to legalize same-sex civil unions) or abortion rights. Of course, there are the familiar arguments of lowering taxes, reducing unemployment benefits, tightening immigration, and other bs things... I guess no where is perfect. Happy voting!

Visit from Mom, Cooking, and Apartment Hunting

Since returning from our awesome trip to Hawai'i and Pennsylvania, Bobby and I have tried to get back into our daily routines, but it's been tough. The weather has been mostly crappy (cool, rainy, and windy... Denmark in a nutshell); in fact, this has been the wettest summer since the 1840s! It's been hard waking up early to get to work, though it has been nice biking around. It's especially hard not coming home to my Dad's good cooking and great wine! But last week we had a treat, which helped us feel like we were back on vacation mode: a visit from Mom!

And no visit from Mom is complete without a suitcase full of gifts! Mom brought us about 10 bottles of hot sauce (we just can't get Cholula here), 4 amazing bottles of red wine, a Bodum French press for coffee (because Mom was dreading the idea of our instant coffee), and many other goodies. Thanks, Mom! Our food is much spicier and tastier now :)

We tricked Mom into a 22 mile tandem bike ride! We took a tandem picnic to Dyrehaven (the beautiful park we visited in May) and we initially told Mom is was only a 6 mile ride. Well, it was 6 miles one way. Except it was actually 11 miles one way! But Mom was a trooper and survived the ride. I think she even enjoyed parts of the tandem ride!

In addition to sneaky tandem rides, we did a lot of fun things with Mom. We took a trip to Malmö, Sweden, where we walked about a city-wide international festival. During the week, Mom cooked dinner for us, which was a real treat. Once night, Mom and I went to Tivoli, where we heard a nice brass band. We took Mom to the University one day so she could see where we work and meet our colleagues. We had a really great time with Mom and already miss her. It sucks not having a personal chef at home anymore!

Part of the process of getting back into our daily routines includes, of course, cooking experiments for me. When Mom visited, I showed her how to make mayonnaise and macarons (not to be consumed together, though). On my own, I tried to make ricotta cheese. Yes, I made cheese. It was ok, though having proper cheese cloth would have made it better. It was a fun experiment. I'm currently making a nice large batch of chili to hold us over for the weekend (you can see my recipe here).

The thing that has taken up the majority of our time since returning from the States is the hunt for an apartment or row house. We are in the market to buy our very first place! The photo shows how we spend most of our nights now: wine and real estate listings. We've looked at hundreds of places online, have seen at least 10 places in person, and came pretty darn close to buying a place. Thank the gods we have a good lawyer who got us out of a bad deal! But that's another story. In the meantime, we continue looking at places and comparing bank loans. Wish us luck!

Food pickler of the week!

Carla has just been announced the Food Pickler of the week for her helpful answers to many people searching the internet for advice on cooking and all things related!

Tilykke Carla!

July in Pennsylvania and Hawaii

Our vacation began in the eastern US, where Dale lives half the year in North East, Pennsylvania. His beautiful home is a historical landmark in this small community, and was built in 1850 --- along with several others in the community --- by a wealthy family whose business was gas and electricity. Behind this house is the carriage house, which Dale has transformed into a nice wood workshop. He has made several lovely pieces for the home, including a 10 foot solid dining room table with a shiny finish. We took some time to visit the wine country there, with several wine tastings, and treks into the picturesque amish country. We even had an amish home-cooked meal, which may or may not have been completely cooked at home. But for sure, the salad dressing did use sugar, and lots of it!

Soon enough, we were all in Waikiki, enjoying some surfing in the warm Pacific waters. Carla and I went out every morning around 7 to find ourselves with the locals, one of whom looked a little like Iz. He was looking out for Carla on her boogie board among all the surfers. He would call out to the others that the next wave was hers, so no one on it!

We spent five lovely days at Waikiki, filled with good food, surfing, finishing a research article (for Bob), and fun all around. Here we all are wearing our commemorative t-shirts celebrating Dale in Hawaii. (He got one too.) It is because of Dale that we all went to Hawaii. Those are nephews, and sisters in laws and brothers, and dads and girlfriends, all under the banyan tree at the Royal Hawaiian.


After Waikiki, we all headed to Kona on the big island of Hawaii for four days. I (Bob) was shocked by the difference in the landscape with Oahu. It was my first time, and often I felt as if I was at some paradise on the moon. The lava rock is so thick and rugged and sharp. There are no beaches here like in Honolulu. At the same time, it was a beautiful contrast with the water. We looked in several tide pools in the mornings, and once I saw a Moray eel poking its head out. There were lots of black crabs too, and when they saw me move they scampered, some jumping down from rocks while spinning in the air, like crazy gymnasts with eight legs.

Here is Black Sands beach between Kona and Kilauea. The black sand is created when hot lava explodes in the ocean. Some boogie boarders are out there, but in general it is not a good surfing spot. This is also a place where big sea turtles come to lay eggs, and lay out. We saw two of them.

We made it to Kilauea, which is one of the most active and visited volcanoes in the world. It is said that using all the stuff ejected from it, we could pave road around the world three times. I have no idea how thick the road would be, but I am guessing it would be extremely hard on the tires. In 2008 the forestry service moved the observation point back from the rim of the caldera because the other one was swamped with toxic fumes and incinerated. We couldn't get much closer than this because of poisonous gases. Since April 2011, Kilauea has been moody. It is clear that this island is quite new, and that property prices should be very cheap, especially near the caldera.

As a group, when we all jumped into the water for some snorkeling, the ocean rose about 1 mm. Not more than five minutes after the photo was taken, I was swimming out when the lifeguard ordered everyone out because a 12 foot tiger shark had been spotted. All beaches were closed until the shark was found. So we all packed up and went to the pool, where I practiced my wounded seal dive.


The next day, we went back to the snorkeling spot and got into the water, sharks be damned. Actually, the beach was re-opened as the shark had not been seen for 24 hours. Here Carla (right) and I (left) take our nephew Brooks (center, and who is eight!) on his first snorkeling adventure. We saw so many fish and yellow corals that by the time we saw our 20th parrot fish, and humuhumunukunukuāpuaa, we were like, cool, keep breathing, keep breathing, no sharks.

On our last night in Hawaii we had a barbeque around the pool and watched the sun set. But this was not the end of our vacation.

Once back in Pennsylvania, Carla and I were brought to Niagara Falls by Dale and Gloria. This provided a spectacular show, from both the Canadian and American sides.

The best way to see the falls is from down below. We all took the "Maid of the Mist" boat ride to quite near the center of the horseshoe falls. Since it was so hot out, I did not put on my rain jacket until it was too late. Then with the wind and wetness, I could only pop my head out of a sleeve instead of the cap. Never the less, we were all soaked at the end of it; but were dry an hour later. We ate lunch on top of the falls, just to the right above Carla's head.

Back in Pennsylvania, we took a nice picnic and day trip to Presque Isle, which is an isthmus into Lake Erie. We rented this surry to ride about 5 miles round trip in very hot and humid weather. Though we are smiling above, at the beginning of the trip, by the end of it we were worn and happy to be rid of it! It is definitely not built like the two seat bikes of which Carla and I are used to riding!

Upon returning to Copenhagen, Carla and I feel completely recharged. A week later, our skin is turning back to milky white; but our great memories haven't faded one bit. Thank you so much Dale for making it all possible!

July Tune of the Month!