my nordic semester

I realise that I start many blogs with apologies for a lack of commitment to writing. This one is no exception. So first of all I am going to apologise for my disloyalty to the blogosphere. Second of all, I am going to apologise for continually opening my blogs with apologies. Thus, I am sorry.

Anyway to get onto what I logged on to do: To tell you about Julefrokost! After Caroline left at the end of October, I had a busy two weeks. For the first week, I was pretty much locked in my room trying to do research for my big fat essays (five thousand words anyone? Yikes…). Not much else happened, except for a few little things here and there: One morning we all woke up early to celebrate Søren’s birthday (one of my housemates) and have a big birthday breakfast for him, another evening I was dressed as a cheerleader for a Halloween party (I have no explanation). The second week, however, was quite exciting. As well as continuing with my essay research, my friends on my floor of our kollegiet (student apartment building) and I were preparing for upcoming Julefrokost party that Friday evening.

Julefrokost is the traditional Danish Christmas feast and party that Danes hold multiple times up until Christmas Eve, when they have the main feast with their families. Throughout late November and all of December, Danes hold Julefrokost parties with work colleagues, classmates at school or university, friends, families, or whatever other relations. Anyway on Friday, November 13^th, we held ours.

Candles for the Table.

It was super fun! We spent the afternoon and early evening making decorations and putting them all over the common room. We hung red, silver, green and gold baubles from the lights, and stars and love hearts from the ceiling. Our long table was decked in red and silver, with many candles and decorations running along it.

Making Decorations.

Our Dinner, as is Danish tradition, consisted of roasted pork, cookies, herring, roasted sweetened potatoes, ris almond, and some other stuff that I probably couldn’t name. It was a different Christmas dinner to what I was used to –with turkey, lots of vegetables and stuff. In Denmark, the vegetable component to the Christmas feast is mainly just potatoes and rødkøl, which is a Danish pickled red cabbage served with the pork.

Of course we had ample amounts of schnapps which tasted like petrol but could not be refused: at random intervals during the meal, my Danish friends would break into the “haps, haps, haps, we should have some schnapps” (direct translation), and at such times my very large shot glass would be topped up with more of the deadly stuff, after which I almost always gagged. We also indulged in quite a bit of Danish gløgg, mulled red wine served hot with raisins and almonds. The schnapps were death, but the gløgg was soooo good. I love that stuff, and I intend to learn to make it for when I get home.

Christmas Dinner.

After dinner was finished and the leftover food was all shoved onto the bench, the night turned into a partyyyyy. By this time we’d certainly had enough gløgg and schnapps and thus were sufficiently inebriated to dance crazily in the room, whilst throwing rolls of paper towel across the room. We mummified each other in it, danced on it and threw it down the stairs. We sang Danish songs, which you apparently sing at Christmas time whilst running around the house (?). We skipped down the stairs hand in hand, kicking all the doors on the third floor at 3am (because they are our enemies) and making a lot of noise. We danced until around 4am or so until we fell asleep on the couches, the music still pumping, paper towel wrapped around our heads (or mine anyway).

Party!

My first Julefrokost experience was certainly a memorable one. Until this night, the best night of my whole trip had been one memorable one I shared with some friends in Barcelona. However, Julefrokost drew. It’s pretty tight and I can’t decide now, but I can certainly say that Julefrokost was at least as good. So now, the two best nights of trip are one had at Port Olympica in Barcelona, and, Julefrokost, on the fourth floor of Falkoner Kollegiut, Copenhagen .

Julefrokost 09.