Pictures from the first thanksgiving

Big thanks to Anna Vogelpohl for taking and sharing these pictures with me.

Will tests the turkey...

Evan the breadwinner

Suzanne pops in some delicious brussles sprouts (all eaten before Friday)

Jess enjoys Will's homemade slush.

Jess and Suzanne make the gravy.

Will Carves / massacres the turkey

Mike is thankful for having two fists with which to double fist.

Some of the women, saying Skol!

 Anna gesticulating wildly to Will and Jess' amusement.

The whole crew (minus our photographer Anna) is having a blast and cramming into the smallest possible space in our apartment.

Time to spread out and resume drinking. What is that face Carol??

 Jon and Mike were the first to get food, and the longest to wait. Look at the drool!

 People hurriedly scribbling away at "Fax machine"

Copenhagen, the windy city?

The law of averages would suggest that at some point, I should start going on a worse run than the last, but I keep seeing better and better sites. Friday, I ran to the West coast of Amager island to a bike / running path that goes along the coast for miles. Along the channel and could see like 10 giant wind turbines gracefully churning in the distance.I thought, "how amazing these things can churn under such a light breeze!" Then I made it out of the channel to the sea. Holy crap it was windy out there. I could only run 100 or so yards before turning back. What a difference a little land makes.

Jess and I also had our second thanksgiving with the ScanDesign folks, and I learned how to party European style, i.e. staying up WAAAY past my bed time. Jess is lucky to know and work with such great folks. It was a total blast, but I think next time, I need to turn myself in early. :P

The first thanksgiving

Jess and I hosted our first thanksgiving. Here are some key lessons:

• convert cups, oz, Farenheit and pounds to their respective metric units before cooking in Europe.
• Pick up EVERYTHING you need before thursday (otherwise you run around like a crazy person).
• If you get started making stuffing and brining the turkey at 7 am, you have the right to start drinking at 11 am.
• Cooking Turkey is literally down to a science. If you brine it, put it in a bag, and bake it for the amount of time calculated by butterball, it will work.
• Most importantly, great friends make a great party. We had great food / booze contributions from everyone, and most importantly a super fun holiday atmosphere. Thanks to everyone who came, shared something they were thankful for, and played party games with us even through the midst of a food coma.

Hopefully some pics to follow.

Will

Prepping for thanksgiving - day one

Going to IKEA in Southcenter or in Schaumberg can be a lot of fun. It's cool to read all the interesting swedish names for gadgets, gizmos, and furniture. Going to IKEA in Copenhagen is crazy b/c all the items are listed in swedish and all the maps and directions are in danish. It definitely helped me recognized how confusing and frustrating it can be to try to successfully shop as an immigrant. Then again, I got a coffee press for 100 kroner - 67% cheaper than anything I could find nearby.

Went on an amazing run today through Amagerfaeld. This park reminded me a lot of wilderness preserves in chicagoland area (maybe like something off 294 on the way to Schaumberg). It was a lot of tall brown grasses and leafless trees. It was very flat. Despite the vastness of the park, you could still see skyscrapers all around the perimeter. One super-cool looking skyscraper was the bella sky hotel. Jess says there's a bar on the bridge connecting these two leaning buildings. We'll have to go for drinks one day.

Finally, jess and I prepped the rolo cookies, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin tort for thanksgiving. It's a huge relief to have those tasks done. Getting ready for hosting our first thanksgiving. What a challenge considering I can't tell various dairy products apart for making our various sides / deserts, and Can't seem to find frozen lemonade and orange juice anywhere to make brandy slush. Nonetheless, having some desserts ready puts me at ease.

Take a morning run

The biggest surprise for me today was the zoo. I found it on a walk of Fredricksburg park near Jess' business school (I needed to get outside on this first sunny day, while Jess studied). I decided to go to the zoo b/c it had a really tall tower to look at copenhagen. I got some great views, and learned that basically all of old copenhagen is to the east of the zoo and Copenhagen business school (based entirely on the precipitous drop in towers and spires to the west). See the east view from the tower with Fredricksburg palace in the foreground, and various spires and towers to the east heading to the ocean.

The same people that go to zoos in the US go to zoos in copenhagen. Namely, parents and small kids. So, I looked pretty out of place. However, to get my money's worth, I decided to check out the animals. It was totally worth it. There were tons of cool animals. You could walk right up to the flamingoes and other birds, and the primates had good enough habitats that they were actually active and playing. I even saw a baby and mamma monkey. Pretty fun stuff. will have to take jess some time.

 

Also, today, Jess had to get up for an eight o'clock class, so I managed to get out on a 7 mile run along the Copenhagen coast. It was the first clear day I've had in Copenhagen, and it was beautiful. Because of the extremely northern latitude of the city, and the time of year, dawn took about 45 minutes, and the sky and the sea were both an amazing salmon color that made me wish I could afford to eat salmon more often in seattle.

Afterwards, I met Jess at the Copenhagen Business School. It was a super-cool glass / steel building, with a fountain running down the whole middle hall of the building. The fountain was off, presumably because it was at foot-level and people would just walk through it and track water everywhere.

I got to meet two of Jess' good friends Marta and Joanna. They were super-interesting and laughed a lot, which was great. Jess really likes her new friends out here, and it was great to see she makes great friends all over the world.

Denmark, the Iowa of Europe?

This morning, Jess and I took the subway to the Kastellet and for a ~8 km run. On our way back, Jess and I came to a startling realization. Is Denmark the Iowa of Europe? Here's some evidence:

• Copenhagen is one of the top pork producers of Europe.
• It's flat.
• There's tons of windmills.

Then again, Iowa doesn't have the Kestellet.

Or this thing we went to yesterday - the round tower. This thing is pretty cool. It's an observatory (the oldest one still operating in Europe). Instead of having stairs on the inside, it has a slowly curving brick ramp. Presumably this was for horses to pull up the telescope and other heavy parts of the observatory. You can see Jess on a window of the ramp pictured below.

In the late nineteenth century, there used to be a bike race to the top of the tower. I thought that was pretty cool, especially because you could win a medal with an impression of a penny-farthing (pictured below). Apparently, it took about three minutes to make it to the top on one of those old-timey bikes. I think I could do that with the advantage of modern technology! Also, Jess and I saw some little kids sledding down the ramp on a skate-board. Definitely a fun idea.

Also, had my first pastry today from the bakery around the corner from Jess' apartment. I wish I could remember what it was called, but I am having a heck of a time remembering / recognizing Danish words because of my utter lack of familiarity with the language. It was delicious. Phyllo-dough like concoction with cream filling and layer of chocolate frosting. Jess got a danish. They call them something else here. I can't remember what, but they deserve a different name as they're 10x more delicious. 

Day two - up and at them

Up at 7 am. Jess and I went on a run to Amager beach park. It was beautiful to run along the water. Still getting used to the ocean on the East, though. It was cloudy and about 50 degrees and when running through parks it smelled like leaves, and while running along the ocean, it smelled like ocean. Pretty great.

Jess made me a delicious breakfast of eggs with onion, feta cheese, polish sausage and arugula. Pretty delicious after a cold run.

None of the coffee shops in the neighborhood open before 10:30. It really makes you feel like you're accomplishing something when you're up and getting things done before the coffee shops are even open.

In related news, I brought Jess' roomate Vasila some excellent Seattle coffee beans (from lighthouse roasters), but learned she doesn't have a grinder or coffee maker. I forgot how popular instant is out here. Nonetheless, I found the supermarket nearby will grind the beans for free, and all I need to do now is find a french press to have an actually functional gift. Maybe someday! Below is a photo I ripped from google streetview of amager park. Although, europe doesn't have streetview, it just has an amalgam of publically available photos that have been geotagged nearby to streets. This picture is pretty representative of what it was like, although much darker b/c the sun didn't really come up before around 8:30.

Ready on day one - to party

I (Will Conrad) arrived in Copenhagen at noon (3 am Seattle time), having slept about three of the twelve hours of flying time. I was too excited to sleep. So, I mostly watched glee reruns, or sat with my new sleep mask on not sleeping, or watching my giant plane fly over the map.

I picked up my giant backpack at the arrivals and walked through the nothing to declare part of customs. That's where most other people were walking, and I figure, why wait in a line if I don't have to, so I just walked on through. To my pleasant surprise, Jess was there watching me walk through the entrance. I didn't immediately recognize her b/c she had her phone in front of her face (presumably to take pictures) and I was mostly dazed. The first thing I saw were her yellow gloves and pink scarf and then through the fog came recognition and happiness!

After that, we immediately started adventuring. It was Jess' mission to keep me awake until ~8 or so to help get my sleep schedule on track. Here's a brief list of the things we did in my sleep-induced haze on my first day:

• Ate some delicious Smorgasbord (pronounced Smorsbard according to Jess. UPDATE - apparently it's Smorrebrod, not Smorgasbord. Turns out these are different things. Still learning, even though I'm technically on vacation) on Amagerabrogade. The egg one was the best, very deicate. Not as big a fan of the ground beef or the roast beef. Jess says the herring is good. We'll have to see about that.
• Took the canal tour severely under-dressed. Favorite fun fact, the little mermaid statue has lost her head three times. Or possibly, the first canal was dug by prisoners in the mid-1600s.
• Checked out the amber museum primarily to warm up. Decided that green amber, while cool and surprising, looks gross.
• Walked up and down the strogade (the longest pedestrian blvd in Europe). Successfully bought a scarf after giving up looking for a scarf.
• Ate some delicious pastries and drank Latte #4 at Lacagahus.

Eventually, we reached 8 pm, and I could sleep. Hooray!