Not A Lot Going On

Well I have not posted lately for two reasons. First, cause I think they pace was near unsustainable before...I am entirely too boring of a person to give daily accounts of my exploits (plus I have been writing for other ends lately and writing exhausts me...I can write well once, then I need to recover). Secondly, because I have been ill and tired the last few days, and telling people about that would become a two day pity-party. This morning I feel 100% better and I may be over that nasty little cold.

Yesterday I had a rather interesting occurrence, but I think it was of pure personal interest so I won't go into depth about it. I had my first ever snow-run. I set out to run in what I had hoped would be a break in the rain and about 5 minutes out it started snowing, hard. I consider it a break since rain in that cold, windy night air would have certainly cut the run off at its point (I think it may have been walking around in a freezing rain that originally caused my illness). The amazing thing is that I ran great. I went for probably about 40 min. at a very hard pace, and to be honest with you I think all of my runs here have been good so far. I think the cold pushes me to a harder pace generally. We should get a few days sans rain here so I hope to get a few runs in this weekend. The bad weather has kept me sidelined, and that, coupled with the illness, has led to a particularly bad temperament. I feel quite down when I am inactive and the weather is bad, no doubt a by-product of having lived in San Diego.

I have also settled into a cafe for the time being. Its not perfect, but it has a comfortable lounge and their green tea is fit for consumption, which I cannot say about Starbucks. I think this is more of a coffee drinking culture cause the cafes here seem quite tea deficient. I am used to having 20-30 teas to choose from, and I am partial to mint teas (spearmint, peppermint, Moroccan mint, euco-mint, etc...). I think I am going to start bringing my own tea for them to infuse...that ought to seal my reputation as a quirky enigma, which is preferable to the quiet American with bad Danish!

There are several downsides to the cafe. First, like everything else here in Copenhagen it is entirely too smokey. I have found that if I stuff my jacket in my backpack I can at least ameliorate the stench that attaches to it. As for my clothes, hair and skin, well that's a different matter. I will never get used to that and its going to result in a fortune in laundry costs. The second problem is bad lighting. This is a problem I often run into at home too. I think coffee drinkers prefer to sit in darkness or something cause it is certainly not us tea drinkers...Barbarians! Anyway, as the sun goes down, which is of course like noon here (an exaggeration), my work must start to wrap up or else I will be working in near dark. That's fine though cause the chatty crowd starts to move in around that time.

I am not averse to "chat," in fact I have a blossoming theory on small talk as a tactile activity that helps us to feel out the linguistic landscape. The linguistic landscape is the human, or social landscape. Without small talk we move like clumsy apes, blind-folded, and with our hands tied behind our back through a china store. That's neither here nor there though. I am against the late chatty crowd cause the noise distracts me from my work. Its odd that I prefer to work in public...in the passive company of other people. I have always called in "being-among" people as opposed to "being-with" them, which I don't do well. This is why I suffer the smoke and would rather bring the tea I like to the cafe than drink it at home.

I would like to try if I can to explain Danish cuisine, which as far as I can tell is non-existent. Many people have asked me, "have you tried any Danish food?" The truth is that I don't know. It seems to me that Danish food is substantially the same as ours but just tastes different and there is not as much to choose from. There is a lot of consuming of fresh baked goods and pastries, which is not really my bag. The beer is so heavy here that I suppose you could call that food too and they seem to eat a lot of beer. There is a lot of sandwich eating: ostesandwich (cheese sandwich), kyllingesandwich (chicken sandwich), etc...but the Danes have clearly not cornered the market on the sandwich. They do have an odd kind of bread here, rugbrod (again, its not supposed to be an "o," but an "o" with a slash through it). Rugbrod is a very course rye bread, it is very very heavy and it is cut into smaller square slices than your standard American bread. At first it is a bit gross cause its so different, but I am getting used to eating it and it is a quite hearty bread. The national dish here, as it has been told to me, is herring (which I won't try since that is like eating baitfish to me) and rugbrod with butter on it (smor is butter and its called Smorbrod or something). So that should really tell you everything you need to know about "Danish Cuisine." Saying that buttered bread is your national dish is a little like America claiming chicken is its national dish...I am near certain that every culture eats buttered bread. Generally, I think Danish food is similar to ours with less selection, a different taste, and much more fat. The health craze does not seem to have gained an inch on the spirit of the Danes considering the level of smoking, alcohol and candy consumption here. I will say thogh that I eat a peanut butter and jelly sandwich daily here and the jelly is the best I have ever had in my life. Odd cause at home we have very fresh jelly from the local strawberries.

Beyond that there is nothing happening. These weekend I plan to read enough Nietzsche to kill a large mammal. I will not travel unless the weather is decidedly better and if I do then I may take a trip to the Kronberg Castle, which is about 50 miles north of Copenhagen (maybe less). It is also situated on the Oresund, like the Louisiana Museum, and it is the castle used as the setting for Shakespeare's Hamlet. The goal was to get there bright and early and read Hamlet cover to cover while I was there. I could not bring my Shakespeare works with me though cause it was too bulky so I may just buy a copy of Hamlet or forget my nerdy literary trip to Kronberg. To be honest with you I am not sure my spirit has recovered enough to be reading Hamlet...never read it with a light stomach! Other proposed trips are much bigger like the Danish mainland on the west coast to scout out the potential surf spots and the possibility of meeting up with a local willing to loan a suit and stick...preferably a shortboard, only a shortboard I guess. Last two possible trips, Germany or Sweden. The international trips would be semi-feral, meaning I will go with a book and a change of clothes and count on the winds of fate to resolve the niceties like food and accommodation, maybe instead of the "winds of fate" I should used Bob Dylan's "idiot wind." It is more likely that my half-planned lifestyle is carried along on the idiot wind!

Ha! I forgot to tell a funny little anecdotal story. I was walking with a friend from New Zealand and we walked past an ad for a housekeeper. She suggested that maybe I should become a housekeeper if my money doesn't come. I said that may not be a bad idea but it does not seem to pay very well. She replied, "You never know, I bet a European would pay extra to have an American clean their toilets." I thought that was funny.

Now to listen to the Cure for a while and then go read. "'Show me, show me, show me how you do that trick! The one that makes me scream,' she said. 'The one that makes me laugh,' she said. Threw her arms around my neck...."