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. 

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. 

Last Friday was J-Day. Julebryg-Day. Christmasbeer-Day. Every first Friday in November, Tuborg releases its Christmas brew. Trucks drive around town and deliver crates of “Royal X-Mas” to bars, where Santa’s helpers hand out the bottles. Needless to say, it’s a big deal. Although Denmark has – in Skandinavian comparison – relatively low alcohol prices, who would say no to a free beer? So more people than usually were abouts in Aarhus even at 8:30pm. One must be in time, because Royal X-Mas strikes at 8:59 sharp. As adaptive as we international students are, we decided to join the frenzy. 

Girls in Sexy-Santa dresses indeed gave us free beer after we had waited for an hour (we were misinformed and thought the brew would start flowing at 8pm), Jingle Bells and Last Christmas were blasted and the few other guests who were already at the bar were singing, dancing, falling all over. Only one of us managed to drink his stout fast enough to catch a free second round, but it turned out that the Christmas brew is cheaper than others. 

Except for the free beer and seeing drunken Danes, J-Day means that here, Christmas is officially starting. Yesterday I considered buying an advent calendar in the supermarket, because it didn’t occur to me that there is an entire months to go before December even starts. The holiday season will be a long one this year. At least, there will be Julebryg throughout.