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Feed the world; Let them know it's Christmas time again

Sitting in my bowl when I work up yesterday were two little marshmallow Christmas trees in pink and red, another gift from the elusive elves. I managed to make us run late yet again, as I took a long time brushing my teeth, effectively slowing down Freddy, who is currently the only other person that uses the downstairs bathroom. Once again arriving to school in the dark, Freddy and I first did physics. However, after the break, a teacher didn’t turn up for nearly 20 minutes. When she did, she said that she was too busy to teach later, and we would get the last 2 classes off, meaning we could leave 2 hours early.

After hanging out for an hour doing nothing, Freddy and I set off in search of Danish Danishes, something I had been wanting to try since my arrival. Freddy was determined that I would not try the subpar ones available from the school cafeteria, instead deciding to catch a bus and then a train to a bakery in town. One of his friends joined us, and we navigated our way on public transport to the “Best Bakery”, that Freddy deemed the best place to get Danishes from Denmark. While we travelled I realised that while it was still a tad nippy, it was actually 8°C and fairly tolerable. Not that my phone agreed with me, shutting down several times as I attempted to take photos of the beautiful scenery.

The trip suddenly became worth it as I tasted the cinnamon sugar encrusted pastry, which was freshly made and completely delicious.

Those of you that are aware of my Invisalign know what was required next. In order to brush my teeth, we had to make a detour to a local supermarket where I used the (kind of sketchy) employees room. That was where we parted ways with Freddy’s friend, and we began making our way to the bus stop, so we could catch the bus back home. However, as it turns out the detour to brush my teeth meant we had missed the bus by 2 minutes. Damn it. Freddy told me that the next bus would come in half an hour, so I began trying to entertain myself. I tried to take some photos of the scenery, and managed to get a few before my phone shut down several times and I gave up.

I had noticed some Op-shops on the walk to the bus stop, and so decided to go check them out to kill time. They were heaps of fun to explore, and Freddy told me about all the things he could make out of the electrical gear for sale. A lot, apparently. Having successfully filled half an hour, I happily made my way back to the bus stop, only to find out that Freddy had said the wrong thing, and the bus was actually came an hour after the previous (He said your line Dad, “hear what I mean, not what I say”) So I ended up huddled on the floor of the bus stop, trying desperately to keep my phone warm enough that I could read the books I had saved on it (seriously, how dumb is that? Who designed iPhone to have such a massive flaw?!).

When the bus finally came, I had a momentary panic as I couldn’t find the bus card until I remembered I had put it in my phone case (disaster avoided), and then we rode the bus until it dropped it at the bus stop only 5 metres from the Frank-Jessen’s letterbox- talk about convenient. I knew that I had to be ready to go to Mathilde’s quartet before 5, and when we arrived back a little after 3 I knew it was my chance to have a quick nap.

And what a nap it was, I lay gloriously warm and snuggled up under the duck down doona. When I awoke an hour later, I joined the rest of the family in having a bikkie and the daily tea before I gathered my things for quartet and then Scouts straight after, before jumping in the car. Only on the way to quartet I discovered that I would actually be playing once again, however when I actually got there I found it quite enjoyable.

We were playing two simple Christmas carols which I had played before, and on top of that we were only playing rhythm. I managed hold my own, and afterwards the conductor told me that he wanted me to play in the concert next week. To be honest, it felt like I had come in and stolen Mathilde’s thunder, but she assured me it was fine and should play. I guess I need to practice. From there, we went straight to scouts where Uve dropped us off.

We waited in the carpark for 10 minutes until Nina and Freddy turned up and opened the Den. Nina had told me that that night was the last scouts meeting for the year, so they were having a Christmas dinner. Once everyone had arrived and we had sung the starting song, I made friends with the cubs present by giving out some of my clip-on koalas. Great Success. We were then divvied up jobs to as a group create one component of the five-course meal. I was told my group was making bacon and apples. I imagined bacon, and then apples. What I got was tiny pieces of bacon mixed through a pan of stewed apples. It was quite strange. I was put to work peeling the apples (even the apples are different here, they have a weirdly thicker skin and are a softer texture) and then helping to stir the pan of the crazy mixture.

The table was set, and let me tell you, it was heaps fancier than anything my den could have ever produced. From the silverware to the classy wine goblets, the whole thing screamed posh.

Throughout the entire evening, traditional Danish songs were sung, which left me feeling like a fish out of water that had landed next to a choir.

To start off with, we had rye bread (they’re nuts for this stuff) and then a tray was passed around, with boiled eggs and the smallest pawns I have ever seen- Micro-prawns, if you will. Next came some white cabbage stuff (like mashed potato but made of some obscure variety of cabbage) and some of the left-over sausages from the weekend which was delicious. Next came the apple and bacon combo, which tasted just as weird as I had expected. It reminded me of the apple sauce we have with pork, after all they are both pig. Still strange though. The next course took the cake though, with strips of bacon and Liver patté. That was pretty horrendous, however they love it here and put it on their bread for a casual lunch. I had to suppress the gags, and failed to finish my plate. Next came the “risalamande” which roughly translates to rice pudding. It is pretty similar to rice cream (if you’ve ever tried that), made of rice and thickened cream and then topped with a cherry sauce. This is a traditional Christmas dessert here and we will be having it again on the 24th, so it was good I got to try it out early. My stomach can’t usually handle thick cream, so I only took a small amount (which turned out to be a good idea as we did some running around later). The finish off the meal we had something similar to poffertjes (little tiny pancakes).

Next it was time for a game, similar to some versions of secret santa. 6 wrapped and numbered gifts were placed around the table and a timer was started, then a single die in a yahtzee cup was quickly passed around the table. Each person rolled the die and then had to run to run to locate the gift with the corresponding number on it. It is essentially a mad panic as everyone scrambles to get their number before someone else gets it and takes it off them. When the timer went off, the people in possession of the gifts were allowed to unwrap them and claim their prize. At one point during the game I even ended up with two, and when the game ended I actually had one. Inside was a little jar of handmade hard boiled lollies that were pineapple flavoured (and delicious) that I intend to eat every last one of.

After an eventful pack up, we headed home, and started watching a game of "handball" on the tv. Ladies and Gentleman, if like me, you immediately thought of the schoolyard battle engaged in by only the most hardcore and students, fear not, I shall explain all. After minimal research I have concluded that this game (apparently known in Australia as "European Handball") is a bizarre fusion of netball, soccer and dodgeball, which causes more hard falls than a rugby league game. Last nights game was Denmark vs Tunisia, with Denmark coming out victorious. The latter country, I am ashamed to say, I had literally never heard of, like ever. I had to ask whether it even was one. Thinking it must be a tiny, insignificant european country, I googled it, only to find that I was completely wrong.

This is Tunisia-

As you can see, it actually belongs to Africa, and is sandwiched between Libya and Algeria. (both of which I was familiar with) As for insignificant, it has a population of 11 and a half million, literally double that of Denmark. I am not sure how many of you have heard of this country, it is entirely possible that I am just not as knowledgeable as I had thought and it is a commonly known country, however, apart from what I have researched, the only thing I know about Tunisia is that their women's Handball goalie could use some work.

It may please some of you (those that can be bothered to care) that I slept almost the entire night last night, waking only briefly at midnight (not really sure why). Here's hoping for a full one tonight.

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