Thursday, February 18, 2010

Funny things Danes say and do, Part II

1-They stretch after lunch. They have a series of 6-7 different stretches and they have print outs of how to do each of them. They have different stretches for different days of the week and they are all kept in a binder. After lunch they lay out the papers and go through the motions while snacking on liquorice.

2-They love carrots. Everyday there is a basket of carrots at lunch. Not baby carrots, but the big long sticks. Everyone eats carrots. I was leaving a friend's house tonight to walk home through the freezing snow and my friend was telling me how she felt so bad that I had to walk all the way home. She told me to pretend there was a carrot waiting for me at home.

3-They have a Chief Happiness Officer at work. From the way they described it, it sounds like some sort of motivational speaker. He tells people to think of 3 happy things every time they leave a building and to always try to surprise you co-workers with nice gestures.

4-They have this holiday that sort of sounds like Halloween (I forget what they call it here). It happened last weekend. From what I understand, the holiday originally started as the end of some sort of fasting period. When people were done fasting, the kids would run around to the neighbors and sing songs about "please give me some bread." And the neighbors would give them bread. These days, I'm not sure if they still fast anymore, but the kids still run around singing songs about bread, except now they dress up in costumes. And instead of getting bread, people will give out money or candy. They also have this wooden barrel thing that's full of candy and the outside is decorated (sort of like a pinata). The kids then whack it with sticks. The first kid to knock out all the candy is named "The Cat Queen." They keep beating this barrel with sticks and the person to knock down the last piece of the barrel is named "The Cat King." The names Cat King & Queen originated in the olden days before they had candy....they would fill the barrel with kittens instead.

5-They think I sound Chinese when I try to speak Danish.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

How about some basic danish words? Hello, goodbye, thank you, carrot, mother, etc.? And what are some nice gestures to give co-workers?
Liquorice while stretching? Yuck!!
Mom

Julie Erickson said...

Hello == Hej (sounds like hey)
Thank you = Tak
Carrot and mother I have no idea

Unknown said...

You should leave kittens in all of your co-worker's desks. Because surprise! Free kitten!

Courtney said...

I wonder how a Dane would describe Halloween.
"Kids dress up in costumes and visit their neighbors threatening them with "tricks". In return the neighbors tell them they're cute and give them treats. At colleges girls use the holiday as an excuse to dress up as various types of prostitutes and proceed to get incredibly drunk."

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