14 kg of potatoes, hand turkeys, and a bottle of Cuba Passions Vodka...

"Without struggle there is no success."

- Frederick Douglas

As all the Americans reading this know, last week was Thanksgiving.  I am sorry mom, I know that Thanksgiving at home is stressful and that you put a lot of work into it, but Thanksgiving at home has nothing on trying to make Thanksgiving in Denmark.  To start with I would say that about three-fourths of American products are not even allowed in Denmark.  Denmark does not allow any food products that are vitamin or mineral enhanced, which is basically everything made in the U.S.  So we did not have canned cranberries, stove-top stuffing, or pumpkin puree.  Amazingly we did find turkeys.  Another issue we had was figuring how much of everything we needed.  Not only were we cooking for 20 people, we also need to convert all the measurements from Metric.  So we bought 14 kilograms of potatoes and did not realize that that was way more than we would ever need, until we got home and realized that 14 kilograms equals 31 pounds.  Yup, we had issues.  But in the end I have to say that for our first time cooking Thanksgiving without our mothers' help, cooking in a foreign country, and the help of strong alcohol, we succeeded.    

We had two 10 pound turkeys.

 Kate was the master chef in this whole operation.  Thankfully she took over the cooking, I was stressed enough and I only took care of the organizational things and runs to the grocery store.

Diana made all the desserts.  We had two pumpkin pies (we managed to find pumpkin puree at a candy store), a cheesecake, and an apple pie!

 See we only went slightly overboard on the potatoes.

Our morning started at 9:00.  Kate had a timeline and everything on when things needed to be done.  

 You can't have Thanksgiving without hand turkeys.  Niklas and Lucy were so proud to learn what they were and to make them.

 Here is Lucy making our cranberry sauce.

Kate's favorite part was stuffing the turkey as you can see.

Niklas also made everyone a name card for on the table. 

We were able to rent out the common room in my apartment building.  And we were even able to find napkins with leaves on them!

In the end we had 4 Australians, 3 Germans, 1 Estonian, 1 Brazilian, 1 New Zealander, and 5 Americans.  

 We originally had said dinner would be at 7:00.  However by the time everything was ready and warm it was actually 8:00.  We even went around and said what we were thankful for.

 Here is the cooking/organizing crew and I would say 4 of my closest friends here.  From left to right: Alex, Lucy, Kate, and Diana.

And then we had dessert!!!!!

 We taught Lucy well, she would make such a good American.

The whole thing was extremely stressful, but definitely worth it.  All of the non-Americans told us that their friends at home are so jealous that they got to have Thanksgiving.  As Americans we kind of take this holiday for granted and we shouldn't.  Even without the actual meaning of Thanksgiving, having a day eating good food with your family is still a good holiday.  

But Denmark has moved on to Christmas, actually Denmark moved on to Christmas about a month ago.  

Now the main streets in the city have lights and there are Christmas trees.

I love all the Christmas decorations and I love that Christmas is less than five weeks away.  But Christmas is kind of bittersweet this year.  Christmas here means that the people who are only here for a semester are starting to leave.  Starting next week people will start going home.  I have made such amazing friends here and I came to the realization a couple days ago that I will probably never see these people again and that is a super sad thought.  

But until they are actually gone we are still going to live it up in Copenhagen.  On Wednesday night we decided to get dressed up and go out.

 We also went shopping on Tuesday to get outfits for us to go out in.  Alex and I ended up buying the same exact dress except mine is cream and hers is black.  Also side note this dress is like the Sisterhood of the Traveling Dress (if you don't know this reference there is a series of books called the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants about 4 friends who buy a pair of pants that somehow fit all of them perfectly).  Alex is in much better shape than me yet somehow we bought the same size dress and it looks good on both of us.  Now we are trying to coordinate shipping the dresses back and forth from the U.S. to Australia.

 Another side note, Niklas went and got his hair cut on Wednesday morning and now he has a "Danish Haircut".  Most of the Danish guys have long hair on top and buzzed hair on the sides.  We are all slowly becoming more Danish.  Just wait I am going to come home 6 foot tall, size 0 and with platinum blond hair.

Random Denmark Facts:
- Danish families celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve.
- Danish families dance around their Christmas tree, I am not kidding, they hold hands and dance around the tree.
- In Denmark cookies and milk are not left out for Santa, however goodies are left out for the elves.
- In Danish Santa Claus is julemanden meaning the Yule Man.

Exceeding Expectations...

"Life is largely a matter of expectations."

- Horace

Remember how I started the last blog by talking about how Rome did not really live up to expectations?  Well Finland exceeded expectations! I will admit that staying in a cabin in the middle of nowhere, with temperatures in the single digits, and only having light for 4 hours a day gave me pretty low expectations.  Boy was I wrong!  Our plan landed in a winter wonderland!

Our cabin was about 40 minutes from the airport.  

All of a sudden we saw something running along the road, when we got closer we finally saw what they were...reindeer!!!!!! We were squealing like small children, we were so excited.

and the excitement just continued when we arrived at our cabin.

 What is a cabin without a stuffed reindeer head?

There was a loft upstairs with all the beds.

 Here is my peaceful corner under the eaves.  You do not know how often I hit my head here.

 The whole thing was just perfect!

I went with a group of eight international students; two Australians, two Germans, two other Americans, and a British/Canadian/American guy.  All of us knew each other except for Peter, the British/Canadian/American guy.  The first thing we basically told him was that this scenario was the perfect set-up for just about every horror movie ever made, a stranger with a bunch of people in a cabin in the middle of the woods.  Needless to say he felt really really welcomed.

And here was our serial killer shed, complete with ax and shovels.

 One of the coolest things at the cabin were the kick-sleds.  Which actually the Finnish people use as a form of transportation.  I also was the only one who really figured out how to steer the sled so that added to my enjoyment of it.

 Also it was hilarious how quickly we went from "serious" university students to squealing children.  Especially the boys, not the squealing part but the acting like children part.  They spent an entire day working on building a sled ramp and track.

 This photo was taken shortly after I almost severed my pinky off.  I went down the sledding ramp.  It was going great until I fell off the sled and had my pinky pinched underneath the edge.  Thankfully the only damage is a large bruise on my fingertip.  

 The two cars that we rented were both stick shift, so unfortunately we only had 3 people who could drive.  So Chris and I decided to learn.  After 1/2 an hour I can now say that if I was ever forced to drive manual I could do it! Now I only have slight issues when I need to turn around, so as long as I don't need to go in reverse I am good to go.

 The whole point of this trip was to try and see the Northern Lights.  On the second night we finally had clear skies.

 This photo perfectly captures our original screeching and overall excitement when we thought we saw the Northern Lights.  I love Keven's "mind blown" reaction.  We saw greenish wavy lines but nothing more than that.

 On the second day at the cabin we woke up at about 6:00 AM and drove 4 hours to Ranua Animal Park.

 It was funny how excited people were about seeing these animals, but later I realized that for the Australians and Californians it is probably too hot even in zoos to have these animals.

 You know it's cold when the signs at the zoo have ice scrapers.

 Adorable arctic fox

I don't really think this sign is necessary, do you?

 Jess and Keven, the Australians, almost started crying they were so excited to see the polar bears.  Again I was really confused why they were so excited to see a polar bear, but apparently there are not any polar bears in Australia so this was big deal for them.

 I will admit that even thought I have seen polar bears multiple times they are still absolutely adorable.

 Keven had problems with ice, and instead of helping him up or asking if he was ok Jess took a photo.

 After the zoo we went to Santa Claus Village, because apparently Santa lives in Rovaniemi Finland. Which is on the Arctic Circle, not in the North Pole.  Weird, I know.  Of course Santa has a Post Office so we again of course sent post cards.

 Crossing the Arctic Circle!

 We even met Santa Claus!  I love this photo! We look so cute and we almost look like a family.

 Peter and I got bored with photo taking and shopping so we had a snowball fight, which of course I won.

This doll was left in our cabin.  It was super creepy.  It also somehow managed to end up in Niklas' and Chris' beds some nights.  Unfortunately neither one of them had a really good reaction when they found it.

On Saturday we went to a Husky Park! The park had 60 huskies, a couple of arctic foxes, and wolves! If you have ever seen a husky or arctic fox in a movie or TV show it probably came from this park.

 This husky was the cutest I have ever seen it had one blue eye and one brown eye.

 I had been pretty brave this entire time pretending that the cold didn't bother me, but on the 6 degree day even I admitted to frozen feet, thankfully there was a fire to heat my frozen toes.

 Then we got to go for a ride!

Jess and I went the together on the sled.  

The strange noises you can hear in the video are Jess and I almost dying of excitement and happiness.

We were told this reindeer gives kisses.  You put a cookie between your lips and then the reindeer eats it.  

Niklas' photo was the best of all.  He looks so into kissing the reindeer.

This is a wolf that the owners of the park took in.  Now the wolf is just part of the pack. 

Our cabin also had a sauna which is apparently a very Finnish thing.  We went into the sauna twice and both times I wondered why people did it.  It is not fun, it is slightly painful, you just sweat A Lot, then you need to drink a gallon of water, and then after that you need to get up every 5 minutes during the night to use the bathroom.  But there was one fun adventure to be had, apparently you are supposed to be in the sauna for 10-15 minutes and then you are supposed to take a cold shower or as we did jump in the snow.  

 It actually wasn't as horrible as you would think.  The only thing that actually got really cold was your feet.

Our cabin also had a sauna in it.  

 I loved the adventures we went on but the best part of the trip was just hanging out in the cabin and playing games with one another.  One of the best games was celebrities, where you had the name of a celebrity on your head and you had to guess who you were.

Many intense conversations were had around this gigantic dinner table and many delicious meals.

Pancakes for breakfast!

Krys was the cook for the week.  We had pizza, pasta, potato soup, reindeer stew, and tacos.

We also made s'mores in the fireplace.  It was an interesting experience since only 3 of us had ever made them before.  Also Europe does not have graham crackers so we had to use digestive biscuits, which are not as disgusting as they sound, but still not as good as graham crackers.

It was a night of firsts, Niklas and Keven also tried peanut butter and jelly for the first time.

As you can tell he wasn't exactly thrilled

Here is our reindeer stew.  It is awesome that you can just go to the grocery store and buy reindeer meat.

And then of course a bunch of 20-24 year olds need to end their evenings with popcorn and Disney movies.

This was my last photo that I took on our way to the airport.  I seriously do not think there can be anything more beautiful than that.

This whole trip was phenomenal and I don't really think anything will top it.  The funny thing is that at the beginning my fear was sitting in the cabin with nowhere to go.  In the end that became the best part of the trip.  It is going to sound cliche but I guess this trip really showed me that it is not about running all over and sight-seeing but really about the people that you are with.