I'm not a particularly superstitious person, or at least, I like to believe I'm not. But since Liselott, Sanna and I walked past the University two weeks ago and saw a whole batch of rusty paperclips on the sidewalk, the universe might be giving me signals that it's time for another entry.

Here's some evidence:
1)
I've been on Skype with Leoni in Madrid and she told me she had found a paperclip on the street and wanted to take a picture to make me write about it. She didn't, for lack of camera, but she made me get out those mustache-shaped paperclips Sanna gave me a while ago and realize how awesome they really are. And Leo. And Sanna.

2) 
I just procrastinated from reading an article with stumbleupon, and I stumbled upon a short article about the design of a paperclip. Which is simply beautiful. 

3)
This afternoon, I got a message on Facebook from an old friend of mine. Laura and I graduated from high school together and unfortunately sort of lost touch. But being a student herself, she's no stranger to procrastination, and hers led her to my blog! I think that's wonderful!

4)
Because the weather was beautiful today and we had an astonishing 11°C up here in Aarhus, I decided to spend as much time as possible outside and walked to the library instead of biking. The walk got a bit hasty when my phone rang but my head was entangled in my head phone cord, my bag fell of my shoulder AND I found a paperclip at the same time. But Sanna called me with exciting news so all this was worth it. 

Now. Finally this was a post about paperclips again and less about food. Maybe this broke the spell. 

I just came back to Aarhus from the semester break. The Danish and all our different cultures and mentalities once more plunging back into one big pot of six-hour-lectures and welcome-back parties. 
These lectures and parties gave me a hard time cooking anything that was "too much of an effort". It turned out to be okay: Inspired by a Portugese potato-cabbage soup I made this grand delicious winter soup: 

fry 1 onion and 1 clove garlic
add 1 chopped potato and
1 chopped carrot; add 3 cups water.

When the potato is almost cooked, boil 1 egg in a separate pan. Add sliced cabbage (however much you want really), salt, pepper and a little bit of sugar to the soup. 
Once the egg is boiled, cut it up and mix it with the soup. Serve with fresh parmesan cheese. 

So you see. I haven't come to terms yet with my cooking style this year, but the mix did very well for me. And the soup went perfect with the cold and the snow that is finally beginning to fall. 

So it's 2012, and I've spend the last few weeks with my family: We had gigantic christmas dinners, lunches and breakfasts, and then another gigantic New Year's Eve dinner, and in between, we ate cookies, drank hot chocolate and decorated/re-decorated the living room at my sister's house. 

A few days ago, one of my nephews found a paperclip in the house, and asked what they're used for. That reminds me, I still have to show him. My sister was puzzling where it came from, because she remembered not having any. 


The paperclip sneaked its way down here from Denmark. Not that I'm nerdy and take clips on journeys. 
It was our last day in Aarhus before the holidays, and we were all getting sentimental and joyful (it was the end of the term, too) at the same time and had so decided to have another house dinner. Kieran and Søren were leaving for good, and thus there were bottles and wine boxes to empty. I took care of dinner and made one of my favorite dishes: Spaghetti Bolognese. While cooking, the remaining housemates swirled in and out of the kitchen, bringing left over foods, setting the table, going to the store, bringing music, talking, laughing, and so on. Sanna walked in and attached a paperclip to my sweater "for you"!
Thus we ate and we drank and we danced and we watched Kieran clean the bathroom one last time and then all went out. The next day I was packing and decided it was smart to take all my dirty laundry.

When I unpacked my bag again, I noticed that I had never taken off the paperclip from the sweater. So there I was, being torn between the people who became something like your family over the past months and those who are your family but it takes time to get used to.

By now, I've arrived. I'm home. We even eat like home. We had those Spaghetti I spoke of, and my sister made a whole array of the dishes our mother used to make for us and those that she introduced to her own family. Drumsticks in tomato sauce, lasagna, a sweet grit casserole, pasta casseroles and chicken soup. 

So tomorrow, I'll show my nephew how to use a paperclip. 

It’s exam period (still) and we’re approaching the Christmas holidays (also, still). That means, in essence, that I refuse to do my groceries in an attempt to empty my fridge one meal at a time. By now, I’ve certainly arrived at the point where my fridge is shockingly empty and my meals are largely rice with whatever I can dig up (“Reismitscheiß” seems to become a Mundus-wide specialty).

A few days back I decided I needed to eat nachos. Desperately. There comes the point in my writing essays that I am convinced I can’t think without chewing. Because nachos are not exactly a staple in our kitchen, I had to improvise. Maybe, possibly, this Knäckebrot/Knækbrød version is healthier than actual corn nachos but who knows, really. In any case, those who tried them approved and those who didn’t were jealous/curious/amused, which I find enough reason to make you guys try it yourselves!

Nordic Nachos (for two)

- 4 pieces of Knäckebrot/Knækbrød/Crisp bread
- Tomato pesto or something of the like
- Sliced olives
-Chopped pickled jalapenos
-Cheddar cheese
-Parmesan cheese
-Salt
-Pepper

The rest is simple: you cut or break the bread into smaller chunks (I tried triangles for nacho-feeling) and pile them in an oven-safe dish. Spread the pesto on some, half, or all the pieces. Sprinkle olives and jalapenos, salt and pepper, then add the cheese to cover up the pile with however much of everything you want.

Once it’s in the oven, it will take about 20 minutes to melt and brown the cheese. Afterwards, I assume the nachos will taste best if you eat them immediately. But we didn’t leave them the time to cool off anyways because they smelled, looked and tasted fantastic.

It is exam period here in Aarhus, which for us Mundusians means back to back essay writing. It also means the countdown is running. In four hours and one week, I'll be sitting on a train. Tick tock. 

Anyways, since it's exam period and one cannot study ALL the time, I also picked up excessive cooking once again. But then forgot to take pictures. It was so good I'll share anyways.

I found a recipe for shrimp-avocado tacos somewhere online and began craving. I substituted chicken because it's cheaper and they were still fantastic. 
Chicken-Tacos with Avocado-Salsa
cube the chicken and marinate in a mix of garlic, pickled jalapenos, a fresh chili pepper, vinegar, salt, pepper and lots of honey for a few hours. 

for the Salsa, cube tomatoes, garlic, another chili pepper (maybe it would be smarter to skip that if spicy isn't your thing), salt, pepper, fresh lemon juice, parsley and whatever other spices you fancy. Add the cubed avocado only briefly before serving. 

stir fry the chicken, adding all the marinating liquid until the chicken is done and the liquid cooked away. 

Serve with corn taco shells.

_____

The next day, I had so much left over parsley (you can only buy it in huge amounts here in Denmark) and I was wondering what to do with it. Turns out that parsley pesto with almonds is fantastic. 
In a blender, mix loads of parsley (two cups, without the stems), two cloves of garlic, olive oil, salt and roasted almonds (I had leftovers from the cookies I made for our Christmas dinner) and grated parmesan cheese until everything turns into a very bright green, funky looking paste. While waiting for your pasta to cook, cool the paste. Drain pasta, add pesto, smile.

Ah, exam period. I should get back to that essay.

All of a sudden, it became December. The weather finally tuned into our November mood and it is becoming rainier, windier and colder. In the course of the last month, I finally settled in. Partly that was also due to the fact that I had ranted in public; but either way I realized that after that rant, I was done complaining (obviously more in a metaphorical than actual way). Long story short: It's December now and who would've guessed, the holidays are approaching. 

Tomorrow in exactly two weeks, I'll sit in a train home to my sister's house. I get the feeling that these two weeks will pass in a blink. Thanks to generous donations of friends and family (thanks for the calendar, Claudia! At least for one month now I'll know which day it is) my room is filling up and feeling much more like the holidays. And believe it or not, this is actually a post about paperclips. 

Because although it's not Sinterclaas-day yet, I opened a suspicious package my sister sent me. It already smelled so good when I ripped open the envelop! Pepernoten, a chocolate letter, drawings and collages from my nephews and nieces AND a bag of funky shaped paperclips came out of it! I had to laugh, because just that morning, I was puzzling what I could possibly write about. Thank you Tanja! You absolutely know how to get a smile on my face every time!

So in two weeks, the first semester of my MA program will be over. In two weeks, I'll go down south (where, oddly enough, it seems to be colder than here). In two weeks, the real deal Christmas is going to set in (almost). I hope I won't get a pack of paperclips as a present...

Today, I received a huge Christmas package from my parents. It was stuffed with treats and goodies and warm socks for the cold winter days. The timing could not be better: Tonight is our house Christmas dinner. Partly because I didn't feel like it the last few days, I kept myself out of the planning of the night, but the more I learn to more I'm amazed. Tonight could challenge the real Christmas in scope, meal diversity and with Danish Julebryg. Many of my housemates are preparing a part of their families' traditional dishes, so I decided to make Plätzchen. The only English translation for the word is cookie, but I guess German Christmas cookies is as close as I can bring you. I loved helping my mum make these pre-Christmas every year. She loved making them too, I guess, which is why we had Plätzchen until February. I down-sized my Christmas bakery a little and sticked to one sheet of Angel Eye Cookies and two sheets of coconut macaroons. 

I'm getting really excited about tonight, in fact. It's been a while since we all came together and I haven't spoken to some of my housemates in a long time. They are creating Christmas music playlists on facebook while I'm writing this.

Is it weird that today feels like Christmas? One month in advance, and there's no snow? But then again, how often is there snow on Christmas? And how often does Christmas feel like Christmas (last year it didn't...)? So I'll enjoy the Christmas anticipation for tonight as if it was the real thing. 

The last couple of days, the word unmotivated understated my mood. A whole range of things played a role in that, but one significant one must be the desk in my room. The heating doesn't reach all the way into my 'office corner', the walls have moldy stains and the internet connection is at its lowest. And any attempt to work in bed is bound to fail. 

The Statsbiblioteket Aarhus would be a great place to work in the weekends - but it's closed. The Danes are very strict with their opening hours. But I recently got the key card to one of the University buildings. So I went to the wonderful and pretty new Information and Media Science building. To my surprise, I wasn't all alone. Two other groups worked on presentations, one was prepared and brought a six pack of beer. The building is great: it's spacey and has comfortable furniture AND there's a pool table and hammocks in the basement. The only thing missing, as far as I noticed so far, is a coffee machine. In either case, it was quiet, I couldn't distract myself with too many other things, and I actually got much of the stuff done that I kept pushing away for over a week now. 

And here's the thing: It's Sunday. Over the last half year, I became aware that my weekly rhythm individualized itself from the working world. The strict opening hour policies of Danish shops and public buildings confuses me. In Maastricht I even enjoyed the time I spent in the library with my housemates after Sunday dinner. And here, my rhythm is all messed up. All but this: Whatever my new Sunday is, it's not Sundays.

Last Thursday, my housemate Anja searched the entire place for paperclips. And found none. Again I was thinking of my mum who had (has?) the habit of picking up all those clips she found and making a necklace out of them. Since I was packing my bag for a weekend in Hamburg, and since there was a stop and the post office planned either way, I promised to buy paperclips. So apart from attending the Human(i)ties Perspectives Conference I had an actual purpose of going to Germany 

In Hamburg, our little big group (with 11 people, we were about 1/3 of the entire conference) listened to a lot of presentations on all sorts of issues ranging from publishing scientific books to becoming a correspondent to comparing tweets and feeds. 

What I deemed far more interesting was that Hamburg is amazing! Since I will move to Hamburg next summer, yet have never been there, I was instantly relieved. And stunned. Of course we were lucky: the sun shone as brightly as we could hardly remember it could and everything (e.g. getting to the conference and back and forth and whatnot) went smoothly. It was a lot colder than in Aarhus, but we tried to keep warm with a few shots of Mexicanas in the evening, which for whatever dubious reasons are a real hype in Hamburg. Yet, during Friday and Saturday we mainly sat in presentations, and have shifted the sightseeing to the nighttime. We did the Reeperbahn and Schanzenviertel, the Fishmarket (conveniently connecting the sightseeing to a useful post-party snack) and danced in an old bunker that hosts a club called Übel und Gefährlich. Sprayed with confetti and a mild hangover, we decided to use the Sunday to walk around by daylight. 

I didn’t tell anybody, but next to the Binnenalster, in front of the city hall, I found a paperclip. There were pigeons and seagulls and swans and a pianist played Phil Collins’ Another Day in Paradise. I decided to see this as a good start for Hamburg and me. 

A little while later, the day was less than paradisical, because even daylight didn’t stop us from loosing Mia on the bridge to Harbour City. After about an hour of searching, guilt trips and worries (who said mobile phones are overrated??) we found her in the hotel lounge, with a cup of tea and a muffin. Everything turned out fine in the end; we had a car full of supermarket bags and luckily not checked at the border, and noticed that Hamburg is not even very far away from Aarhus. Perhaps there will be a next time soon.