Graduation week

Last week was graduation for final year secondary school kids here in Denmark.

One of the celebratory traditions is to hire a truck, all pile on and visit each students house where parents provide a drink. Bear in mind, this can involve a journey from one end of the island to the other in some instances. They look great in their sailor-style graduation hats. Then they head to the city and circle around in the truck, singing, drinking and generally having a wow of the time.

Who can blame them? I kept wanting to yell out to them and tell them to make the best of it because life’s pretty much a downward spiral after that! Still, they were all having such a good time I didn’t have the heart to ruin the party.

On and on, round and round and on and on and on they drove, even circling around all night here in Frederiksberg, yelling, woo-hooing and every twenty minutes circling past our windows. Talk about energy. Talk about drinking stamina! This went on all day Saturday as well. I was very impressed by their youthful constitutions but by Saturday night, they had exhausted me, if not themselves. I felt like Chevy Chase stuck on that roundabout.

And yesterday? Peace. And I dare say, lots of sore heads.

Merry Christmas from Copenhagen

That last post was a bit of a whinge, and just ‘in cases’ I don’t get the Internet on before Christmas… (What are the chances, do you reckon? Shall we place bets?) I’ll start the festivities on a more positive note from Denmark.

What can I say about my new home and it’s countrymen and women?

For a start, they’re a very friendly bunch.

I’ve already made some good mates at work, especially in the office I share with three others. Danish humour is very similar to Australian humour – surprisingly so and we all need at least one laugh a day, especially at work.

We had our Christmas party, ‘Julefrokost’ last Friday night. I’d had a very busy week – so much for the workindenmark site saying Danes mainly work 9-5pm. Should I sue? ☺

I almost cancelled out at the last minute due to exhaustion and the fact I had a gazillion things to do on the weekend to get the flat organised for NQDII and the dog this weekend. But, I thought I better go, at least for a while. So, off I went. I told myself I would not have a late night, and anyway, being one of the newbies I probably would feel a bit of an outsider anyway.

I’m a tad ashamed to publish this globally but the fact is I arrived home at 0830 the next day, very, very, very drunk – at least by my standards. It was a very fun night but I hadn’t realised just how much Danes liked to drink. Not only drink but also mix those drinks (read, ‘Try everything’).

Consequently, I spent the entire day in bed with some seven trips out of bed to satisfy a newfound, sudden desire to look very carefully into the toilet bowl.

I have never been so sick in my life.

It took me until midday, Monday to feel human again.

How do they do it? It must be some genetic ‘thing’.

It will be a much quieter Christmas for me.