Ghosts of Christmases Past

As I spend my second Christmas in Norway with my good friend Siri and her family, I have realized how few traditions my family has anymore. It could be due to the fact that now that my grandparents are gone, it’s just my immediate family in the Tri-Cities and we’re all grown up, so the most wonderful parts of the holiday—like the excitement of Santa—aren’t nearly as joyful.

I think back on the many Christmas eves we spent at my mother’s parents house, setting up the fake silver tinsel tree (see right) in the formal living room that we were never allowed in otherwise, receiving the mandatory giant chocolate bar (and hoping to get the Caramello) and savings bond…and as we got older, checks so we could go shopping for more gifts at the post-Christmas sales. The nights were generally complete with food, playing games, eating cashews and birthday cake for Paul before returning home and hoping to see Santa on the drive back. Soon after we arrived at our own house, my parents often banished us to our rooms after agreeing on the time we were allowed to wake up (we always wanted as early as possible, but my parents usually convinced us to wait until at least 8am) as they had waited til the last minute to buy and wrap most of the presents and, of course, Santa wouldn’t come if we weren’t asleep. My brothers and I would often have a sleepover in one of the rooms, where we’d stay up later than my parents probably hoped for and try to talk each other into spilling the beans about what we got each other. We would generally wake up hours before the agreed upon time, and try to sneak out to see what Santa had left us. Santa’s gifts were never wrapped, partly I assume, because they were usually big and difficult to wrap, like bicycles, but they were also the best gifts, so I assume the sheer excitement of us tearing into the family room and seeing the new Nintendo/bike/etc. immediately was also pretty fun. My mother once told me that she loved the Santa gifts when we were young because, in her opinion, they were the most selfless part of the holiday as Santa was given the credit for the best gift we received each year.

Of course as we got older, it wasn’t such a mystery who Santa was, but still as far as I remember, Santa still gives us the best presents. The rest of the 25th was spent eating candy from our stockings for breakfast, playing with our new toys, and waiting for Christmas dinner which was followed by more candy and playing. These days, as my brothers and I are all grown, usually have to agree to wake up before noon if we want to do Christmas morning gifts and the only toys we get are usually in the form of video games or new electronics, which most likely we already know that we’re getting. Nevertheless, I do enjoy having a day or two where my family can all get together and have a nice day.

Though I am sad to spend the holidays from my family, seeing the many traditions of the Haugen’s (Siri’s family) has made me appreciate the efforts my parents and grandparents went through when we were young. It also makes me look forward to the future generations of my family and bringing back some of the older traditions of my youth for the new kiddos to enjoy.

Finally, I have had a wonderful time in Norway thus far and expect the fun to continue. I just wanted a chance to fondly remember my American Christmas traditions and reflect on the experience I have had. I will provide more details at a later date, including some pictures. Happy holidays to all. :)

Worst Blogger EVER!

Wow, I suck at this blogging thing. I am impressed with people update theirs regularly, some people even do it every day! Anyhow, maybe I'll try again this New Year to write on a regular basis, if nothing else to provide some distraction from the whole thesis writing process. :)

Anyhow, this semester has been quite good! I enjoyed both of my courses and successfully finished my internship with very positive feedback. It has been very different with most of my class (and some of my best friends!) all over the world on their own internships, but it has allowed me to meet some new people and truly enjoy those who have stayed behind.

I have two 15 page papers due mid-January, so I have been slowly trying to work on those, however, my original plan was to have rough drafts due by the end of the week and I am not close to that on either. Hmmm.

I leave on Monday for a short holiday vacation in a small town in Norway called Ørsta with my friend Siri and her family. I will ring in 2010 with my friend Jintana, also in Norway, but in Kristiansand before heading back to Århus to hopefully finish my papers in time to enjoy the last few weeks before the thesis semester starts.

I have some thesis ideas, but I am in the middle of working out some details, so those are to come.

On a final note, I have been trying to make a better effort at learning Danish. It’s still not going very well, but at least I am making that effort. I hopefully have my first exam shortly after I return from the holiday vacation. This is, if for no other reason, to keep employment options open when I finish this program. I have no definite plans for my life post-graduation, but they more or less include getting a great job somewhere and maybe staying in the same place for a while. J

School's out for summer!

The past couple of months have been busy, yet relatively normal. After a wonderful Easter holiday in Norway visiting distant relatives, I spent the following weeks working on a paper for one of my courses only to finish and start working on two more. April was fantastic, May was busy and academic and finally June has been a lovely start to a hopefully even more lovely summer vacation.

April began with a long weekend in Copenhagen catching up with my two Danish friends (Jon and René, for those of you who have heard stories) whom I met when I was on exchange before adding Salena and two of her friends to the group to be tourists and enjoy weeknight nightlife. I had forgotten how much fun spending time with a bunch of guys can be—we spent one night playing Danish trivial pursuit, which was horrible for me because half the questions were about Danish things and then attempting to translate the questions into English only added to the fun. I’m pretty sure my team won! I also had the privilege of being cooked for by René every evening, who is a master in the kitchen and one of the few people here who loves kitchen talk as much as I do. Once Salena arrived, we wandered around town in what was probably the best weather we’d had to date. After saying my goodbyes and leaving René to make the biggest lasagna ever, I took the train back to Aarhus only to repack my bags and head to Norway.

After the longest boat ride ever, I arrived in Stavanger to be greeted by Reidan (my mom’s second or third cousin?!) and her husband Knut who gave me a quick driving tour through the town before catching our ferry back to the island of Karmøy. After a long night’s rest in a proper bed, I joined the family for breakfast before a driving tour of the area they live in. The following days I met various relatives, all who accepted me as if they’d known me forever, and were very excited to show me around and teach me about my Norwegian side of the family. It was nice to have the feeling of family without a ten hour plane trip in between. I will be visiting them again in July for just over a week. It was that wonderful!


April 15-May 28 was spent studying and writing papers. For those of you who don’t know, the Danish university system typically has one paper or test at the end of the term which makes up 100% of your grade. Its really dumb, but whatever. We also typically don’t have classes during the exam period, so we have a month off to write a couple 10 page papers. So, I managed to fit a few fun field trips into the exam period…First going to Legoland (see Mt. Rushmore to the left...all Lego!) with my friend Tina, her boyfriend, Thomas, and my roommate, Katie, then going to a day music festival in Horsens, a small town about 30 minutes south of Aarhus who had some of the most popular Danish bands performing, including AQUA—yes, they are back in action and in the picture is the guy in Aqua and my roommate—and Nik & Jay, my favorite Danish rappers.

As of the 29th, I have been on summer vacation with some very very part-time work for my internship, which is doing some marketing and communication work with a huge annual local arts festival (www.aarhusfestuge.dk, if you wanna check it out) and have managed to fit a day of canoeing in the Danish “mountains”…aka rolling hills and a long weekend in Florence and Pisa, Italy.

Italy…what a wonderful place, I could probably live there forever. Katie and I spent four days enjoying Florence, followed by a day in Pisa. Our days were generally filled with sunshine, pasta, and beautiful historical sights. We made some Italian friends during our nights out who taught us some basic Italian and provided some great stories—including this guy who could barely speak English, but knew how to say, “can I touch your tits,” and a the waitstaff of a restaurant loving us so much they gave us free wine all night. There was so much to see and everything was gorgeous. I can’t wait to get to Italy again. Pisa, known for its leaning tower, was a small city with much less to see, but was full of very cute small backstreets and had the best gelato I had all week. And yes, I had at least one ice cream a day. That is the life.

And now, I’m home for a couple weeks. I just moved into a new apartment with an American girl I met during my Danish class. It’s in a great area, just a few blocks from the University and several blocks closer to the city than my last place. Plus, I’m only sharing with one other person which makes cooking much less hectic and my room is probably twice the size of my old one. I’m happy.

In the next seven weeks, I will only be in Denmark for two. I will spend a weekend in Skagen (the northernmost city in Denmark) with some friends celebrating the Midsummer holiday. I don’t know much about it, but I think it takes place on the longest day of the year and involved dancing around a maypole and having a bonfire. Then, I take off for five weeks of travel in Ireland, Oslo, Karmøy, and Paris visiting friends and family. If you want postcards, send me your mailing address (donituck@gmail.com)!!!

Hopefully that was a decent enough update. I will post pictures on my Google picture page asap: http://picasaweb.google.com/DoniTuck . Check it out. Miss you and hope all is well. Feel free to email me and give me a proper update! I promise to write back!

Meet Me in St. Louis!

Today was the first official day of spring for us in Denmark as we changed our clocks ahead an hour. My friend Elin and I celebrated by eating ice cream bars while sitting outside at 19.30 while it was still light out! We caught up on the last two weeks, one while I was in the US and the other while she was in the Netherlands, enjoying the last hour of sunlight.

Though last week was spent cleaning house and trying to get back on Danish time, the week prior was worth it. A brief trip to Washington to remind me how wonderful my family is was completed with a night of hanging out with Emily and sitting at the airport for hours before setting off to St. Louis for my mini reunion/wedding. Dressed in green for Paddy’s day, I waited for Molly and Melissa to pick me up, who were even more decked out than I was. We caught the end of the street madness in the Irish part of town and spent the rest of the evening at a local bar with other green clad people and forcing Molly to wear the Kiss Me I'm Irish veil I made her for our version of her bachelorette party.

The next few days were spent seeing the sights, including the Arch, old courthouse, Anheiser Busch brewery and new cathedral. All of this was even more enjoyable as there was 70+ degree weather (aka the complete opposite of Denmark). We also helped Molly with wedding preparations as her bridesmaids (her sisters) didn’t seem to think they were required to do such things. Not that we minded, but we just thought it was funny. It allowed us to catch up and reminisce on all the good times from DK 2005!

Thursday, the night of the rehearsal dinner, was the night we finally got to meet the man that swept Molly off her feet and he was wonderful. To top it off, all their friends welcomed Mel and I as if we were a normal of their group.

After last minute wedding preparations on Friday, we went to bed early in order to wake up on Saturday morning and get to the church on time! The Catholic wedding, though super long, went off without a hitch, Molly looked lovely and we managed to not laugh too hard as we let one of our single girls go. :)

The rest of the day was spent on a “party bus” driving the bridal party around to beautiful sights for pictures and eating, drinking and dancing at the reception. We had a blast and ended the night at a local bar with the rest of the bridal party. It was fantastic.

The lovely week was finished off with a delicious brunch and gift opening (which included the world’s heaviest garden gnome, a flamingo yard decoration and other random things). It was wonderful to see my two old friends…it was hard to believe that it had been over three years since I’d last seen Mel and nearly two since I’d met up with Molly. We all at some point commented about how it didn’t seem like any time had passed and how much we’d missed the friendship we perfected in little Aarhus back in 2005. Even as I have returned to the location where it all began, without those girls (and of course, Salena and Nancy who were sorely missed at the wedding festivities), it’s just not the same.

Nevertheless, as I enter into the increasingly light and warm times in Aarhus, I will do my best to create memories and relationships as wonderful as I had with them.

I will leave you with a short video from the party bus which only proves how much fun the bridal party was! Enjoy!

Just back from the Emerald Isle...

I’m nearly half way through my second semester now and it seems like it has gone by so fast. I am not sure if it’s because the courses are a little more interesting and more sporadically scheduled so the weeks just fly by or if all the excitement of Ireland and going home and random holidays has just made it easier. Nevertheless, it’s hard to believe that it’s March. The best part is that it is not only getting warmer, but also stays light later. No more pitch black at 430!

I have a few exciting adventures ahead of me to look forward to and help pass the time. I will be in Kennewick for a few days as of the of March 13th, then Seattle for a day on the 16th and then take off to St. Louis on the 17th to have a mini-reunion for Molly’s wedding. For those of you who don’t know, I met Molly when I spent my first semester in Denmark back in 2005. She was my American partner in crime in my little group of English speaking girls who made Aarhus absolutely wonderful. I will also be reunited with Mel, our group’s eldest member who has managed to probably live the “youngest” life of all of us. Girl, you are my idol! Shout out to Nancy and Salena who are unable to make it. Can’t wait for the big five year!

Following that will be a weekend in Copenhagen harassing; I mean visiting, my lovely Danish friends Jon and René, whom I also met in 2005. If we’re lucky, Salena and a few other Irish folk will be joining us for some big city madness. Denmark being such a Christian nation has given us many days off during the Easter period allowing me for a brief trip to Karmøy, Norway to visit family on my mother’s side. Due to my personal financial crisis, I will be spending way too long on a boat in order to save some money! Oh, how I will get so much studying done!!!

Finally, I just completed a brief adventure in Ireland visiting Salena for her 25th birthday. It has been a long time since I have felt so at home; I think I have found my place in the world. There’s something about Ireland that combines the best of the US and Europe for me and to top it off, they’re a fun bunch of people. It’s still a little grey and wet for my taste, but I suppose I can get over that if everything else is right! I had a blast and can’t wait to get back again... Perhaps as a reward for passing my exams in May. Hmmmm.

I’ve had a couple internship opportunities and now I’m trying to figure out which one is the best for me. One is with the University of Copenhagen as a research assistant and the other is with an annual festival in Aarhus (Aarhus Festuge for anyone interested) helping to make it more international friendly through both the acts/shows it offers, as well as, guides and other marketing strategies. I’m leaning toward the second one, but we’re still working out the details…so we’ll see.

Just a quick update...

Starting tomorrow begins five weeks of hell. For some reason, we’re crunching a class that’s normally a few months into like six weeks. On top of that, I have previously scheduled two separate vacations to Ireland and the US for Molly’s wedding during these six weeks which means I am going to have to stay on top of my reading and work even more. Yikes.

Oh yes, that’s right, I’ll be home again in March for a few days in Seattle and the other few days in St. Louis. Mark your calendars Seattleites…March 13-17, probably.

I’ve started looking for a new apartment and slowly gathering cheap and/or free furniture since my next place will most likely be unfurnished. I’m also hoping that my bike will miraculously fix itself as I have no idea how much these things cost here. I am officially, for the first time since I arrived, a poor poor student! Woe is me. :)

Not much else is going on… Just a lot of reading and enjoying my bits of free time.

Roll On, 2009...

Grades are in, I passed all my classes and now I wait to begin a new semester. With the beginning of a new year, I’ve decided to make a few changes… One of which is actually keeping people updated with this blog! So, here I go…

One week from now, my six week vacation will be over and I will have to get back to the daily grind with many great memories from around Europe and Washington State. My vacation began with a huge dinner party with most of my classmates; a night that secured my belief that my fellow classmates are amazing and has so many great stories that I can’t even remember them all.

Shortly after, most of the international students left for home and I took off for Copenhagen to meet Emily. We were both nervous that the crazy weather in the Pacific Northwest would cancel our long planned vacation, but fortunately, it just delayed it a couple hours. We checked into our hotel, rested a little and then took off to Strøget, the main pedestrian street, and wandered around until we were starving. After dinner, we stopped at my favorite store (I can never remember the name, but it has the cutest house stuff and paper supplies). The next day, we packed up and deposited our bags in the left luggage room at the hotel before heading out to see all the sights. We saw all the major sights, except The Little Mermaid, which we had planned to visit before catching our boat to Norway as they were very close. So, we wandered back to the hotel only to find out that it had closed for the holidays…yes, with our stuff inside. And yes, apparently hotels close for the holidays…only in Denmark… We panicked for a second only to realize that there was really nothing we could do and headed to a drugstore to pick up the essentials and then headed out to catch our ferry.

Here we were, on our way to Kristiansand to stay with my friend Jintana and her mom for Christmas without a piece of luggage. But, at least we could brush our teeth and had the boat’s duty free shop for a bit of makeup. I must say, we did a great job keeping our spirits up during these 4-5 days.

In Kristiansand, Jintana and her mom showed us a traditional Norwegian Christmas. We opened gifts on the 24^th and a delicious dinner of sausage and pork meatballs, as well as, sheep’s ribs (I think) and vegetables, followed by amazing dessert of almond cookies, berries with cream and cookies. On the 25^th, we watched movies and then spent the evening with Jintana’s childhood friends for their annual party. We attempted to teach them the game Never Have I Ever, but it was just too complicated for them. On our last day, Jintana took us into the city and showed us all the important sights—which was like two statues. Our last night was completed with a Thai meal (Jintana and her mom are originally from Thailand) and more Norwegian dessert.

Emily and I spent a couple days in Aarhus visiting friends, taking a daytrip to Copenhagen to pick up our bags and seeing the important sights here, including Ikea.

Our last few days were spent in London ringing in the New Year on the river Thames watching fireworks with thousands of other people. In London, we took a double-decker bus tour which explained all the sights and more and wandered the streets. I took advantage of the always available fish and chips, and made sure Emily got to try a traditional English breakfast. It was a good finale, though, I think we were both ready to go home at this time. Finally, we flew away to Washington on the 3^rd of January where Emily returned to work and I spent time visiting friends and family and spending far too much money on basic toiletries and spices that are either four times more expensive in Denmark or not available at all.

Now, I am back in Aarhus, seeing friends and getting ready to start my second semester. I will do my best to keep this updated a little more regularly and on time!! Best of luck in 2009.