Today we worked on the cross cultural exchange the other way by sharing our Christmas traditions including the full brunch of homemade coffee cake, fruit, sausage and eggs and mamosas, a scavenger hunt for gifts which this year was David’s attempts at drawing items in the house to eliminate any language obstacles and then lots of trying out the new games. We interspersed it with more food and drinks and Josiah shared his special Icelandic schnapps/aquavit.
By the end of the day, we had played over four different types of card games, tried out some more traditional Danish food with fried and curried herring on rye bread, liver casserole, and Henrik’s mother’s homemade head cheese, along with three different flavors of schnapps/aquavit with a hearty “Skol!” toast by all with clinking of glasses including their youngest Hugo who really expected it, a few naps for those looking for a break, and then the final good-byes to our amazing host family these past few days.
It has been real special to visit with Josiah’s host family and integrate into their lives for a few short days. As Siri said, they all warmed us to us by the end, including their younger ones. The kids played hide and seek in the house, Olivia meowed to us in her bright red ladybug dress and Siri got to read one of our favorite baby books, “Mama do you love me?” to Hugo as the night ended.
We once again thanked Maria and Henrik. Maria said it has been a good learning experience for them too since they also get to see their own culture reflected back to them through Josiah. “He makes for a good mirror and helps you reflect on why you do things a certain way,” Maria stated. Bob added in his reflections that there really is so much more that connects us across cultures. Josiah has already signed on to stay with them for the next semester instead of living in a dorm, which will continue to ground him in the actual daily life of a very busy and happy Danish family. It was fun to hear Josiah be knowledgeable about and discuss Danish politics with our tour guide earlier and with his family later. We have all benefited from our time together.
Tomorrow we have a day trip planned to Kronborg Castle – made famous by the site of Hamlet – with a stop into one of the world’s largest modest art museum, the Louisiana, nearby. Then we pack again and have an early morning flight to Paris where we hope not to be too adversely impacted by the public strikes.
Denmark continues to be a pleasantly surprising place with great natural beauty, very friendly people, and flat terrain. That last point just might make it a good tandem biking expedition in the future and makes it another reason to come on back – preferably when it is a bit warmer.
Siri and David Adventures 