Almost Christmas

The lead up to the break was really busy, Leanne’s sister was here with her daughter for a week, and I started teaching another class. I didn’t write anything for a while; I couldn’t seem to find the time and so I think it makes some sense to write about the things that have kept me from writing.

The visit was a treat for all of us, nice to have a little family time near the holidays. It was especially nice to watch Jesse and Gus enjoy time with their cousin, and having someone with whom to share some of what they have experienced I think helps them to see that they have experienced/are experiencing a great deal. It felt neat to go from tourist to guide, not exactly expert guides but it was nice to realize that we now know some stuff about Denmark.

We knew we had to take them to Tivoli, the amusement park and gardens where the boys went on their first rides. Gus and Maria went on everything they were tall enough to ride, including one that would need a near 4-figure amount for me to even consider it.

The park is not open all winter but they open it around Christmas time and it was nice to walk around and see the Christmas displays, the lights, and to have a drink of warm mulled wine known as Glogg (again my North American keyboard fails me, the ‘o’ should have a diagonal line through it). After Tivoli we walked to Nyhavn and enjoyed the lights and Christmas displays in Copenhagen’s shopping district. So nice to walk the busy shopping streets but not feel the pressing need to shop. Our Christmas presents this year are the places we will see and the things we will do and this feels so much better than focusing on buying stuff. I take great pleasure in knowing that everything we buy has to come home on the airplane, it limits the purchasing.

Another highlight during our visit was our traditional Danish Julefrokost lunch. Most Danish breweries have a special Christmas brew and a glass of Carlsberg’s Jule brew complemented the meal nicely. We started with pickled herring on Danish rye bread, followed by smoked salmon, a baked whitefish, some pork served cold in an aspic like jelly, some duck served with prunes and red cabbage, and finally the traditional Danish Christmas dessert Ris a l’ amande (yes the name is French) which is rice pudding with whipped cream topped with warm cherry sauce. Not too surprisingly dinner was light later that evening.

The other time consumer before the holiday was the additional class that I have taken over for a colleague on a medical leave. While it will place more demands on my time I think I am accustomed enough to the school and system to handle it. It was strange to feel the first day of school jitters in the second week of December but also quite fun to start again with a new class who haven’t had the chance to grow tired of me. It is also a great opportunity for me to have a look at what I have been doing with my classes this year and apply what I have learned from my other Danish English classes to a new one. I know that I haven’t done a bad job with any of my classes but the first time teaching anything is never the best and I’m getting a chance to do for the second time what I thought I would only get to do once.

I don’t know how long I will be teaching this class, it could be the rest of the year, it could be much shorter, but the bonus that may come from this additional class is a trip to Ireland in March. Each second year class goes on a study trip and this particular class is bound for Dublin, a field trip for which I would be sure to get my permission slip signed.