Hot Right Now

Bored at work, so...

Blogs:
* Ill Seen, Ill said
* frolic!
* Park Avenue Princess
* Cupcake Bakeshop by Chockylit

Music:
* Action Biker
* Ben Kweller, specifically the song Hear Me Out
* The Kaiser Chiefs, Everyday I Love You Less and Less
* Rasmus Nøhr

Fashion:
* The J.Crew Scotland Campaign (FA07)
* The J.Crew Phoebe Dress
* Toggle coats
* Turtleneck sweaters
* Hunter Wellies
* Ruffles
* Tulle
* Hunter green
* Cardigans
* Knit scarves... and hats... and mittens
* Legwarmers, for warmth during winter bike commutes in skirts
* Newsboy caps
* headbands
* duck boots
* layering

Possible Winter Vacation Destinations:
* Switzerland, for some skiing
* Ireland (Cork, Gallway), for some craic
* Spain
* Brussels/Bruge, for some chocolate

Drinks:
* Mojitos (that take no less than 5 minutes to make)
* Irish Coffees, with Jameson
* Hot Chocolate and Bailey's, made with warmed Matilde Chocolate Milk
* Arizona Blueberry Green Tea

Kom tilbage til mig, Amerikansk stil...

Post title translates to: "Come back to me, American style..," which is what I found myself thinking tonight.

It is now 2:37am, Denmark time (CET). I just biked the 20 minutes home from old city Copenhagen. I can't wait 'til my bike-home-time is halved on December 1st when I move. Anyway, I had an experience biking home that made me realize/believe I am becoming more Danish with each passing day. I had intended to go out to Globe or Dubliner tonight for some good ol' Guinness and Irish craic, but after dinner Libby and I decided we were tired so we lame-d out, went to 7-11 and purchased a bottled of Bailey's Irish Cream (Hey, that'd be ninety craic, except that it cost 130 kroner, which rapidly deducts from craic scores) and a carton of Matilde chocolate milk. We heat the chocolate milk, added a substantial amount of Bailey's, and settled onto the couch to watch Nynne, subtitled.

Apparently it was too much for us. We fell asleep and awoke 2 hours later. My hot chocolate + Bailey's had long grown cold. I pulled on my white knit scarf and hat set (really cute), thanked Libby for a "hyggelig aften," grabbed my bike from the courtyard, and headed home. Biking home in -1 degree Celcius temperatures, sleepyfaced, and perhaps a little whacked from the bit of Bailey's I actually drank, I had an experience that is now prompting me to think that nationalities are like liquids in beakers that you can transfer back and forth, making up people. I will probably read this in the morning and wonder what the fuck I was thinking when I was typing it...

I was biking down H.C. Andersen's Boulevard, near the lakes. There is a lake front restaurant there. I've never been, but it looks pretty nice. Problem is, there isn't much sidewalk, so people leaving the restaurant/bar late tend to congregate in the bike lane. I have seen this dozens of times biking home. This is not okay. This is especially not okay when two drunk retards cross my [clearly straight and unwavering] path, causing me to swerve and cut off a fellow cyclist. Now, getting to the title of this post. Back in the days when I affiliated 100% with being American, a finger probably would have been raised (and, no, not my pointer finger in a "No, No, No, naughty, naughty" manner...), and I probably would would have yelled something from the adjective-noun or adjective-pronoun families. Examples include "fucking retards!" or "Goddamn idiot!" But, tonight, I didn't yell anything of the sort. Surprisingly, no fingers were flipped, and I yelled "Pas på!," which is fairly polite and translates directly to "Watch out!" in Danish. I didn't even think about it. I just yelled in Danish without thinking. Very strange indeed. My Danish has greatly improved since I've been here, but I usually don't reflexively think and speak/yell in Danish inadvertently and simultaneously.

I contemplated this the whole way home. In my tired, stupified state I had regressed to an extraordinarily civil, Danish behavior. How was this!? Somewhere between Rosensomething Alle and Godthaabsvej, I came up with my beakers of national affiliation idea. I was inspired enough to write a post. Where have my American ways gone? Will I ever get them back? Perhaps I will return to the US and be a more civilized person. Perhaps I will continue asking very Danish questions, such as "Is that right?" in English, and using words like "rather" as adjectives. Strange.

One thing is for certain... I will probably look back on this post in the morning/in a few days/weeks time and wonder what the fuck I was talking about. And I'm glad I'm ending the post in a very American way, using terms like WTF. Good.

I'd like a Ralph Lauren Seersucker Oxford (!), please

... Like I saw this guy wearing last night. But I wouldn't wear it in Denmark during the month of November... Let's keep it in the warm, summer weather, folks. Don't be gauche.

In other news, this bartender lit a firework/flamethrower thing for me on the bar last night while I was at a party I had planned/ was hosting. Like, sparks and flames and stuff everywhere. I've never seen anything like it. It was wild. America would never stand for fire hazards like that. Denmark is a strange country.

Burgernomics, The Big Mac Index of Purchasing Power Parity

So, I've been traveling a lot. In the past three weeks I've "been" (been, in this case, meaning at least stopped in a country for food or something else involving a monetary transaction on the way to another destination) in at least eight countries and made transactions in five currencies (Euros, HUF, Slovakian, Czech, and Danish crowns...). Both my recent travels and October have ended and my credit statements have arrived, allowing me to survey the damage in comparison to the USD and DKr. In some cases I was delighted, in some, horrified (blast you, exchange rates and transaction fees!). In the case of my corporate credit card (score!), I didn't really care. Anyways, I was bored and reading about world currency exchange rates (Yeah, I just admitted that), and I found this interesting perspective from The Economist... The Big Mac index on purchasing-power parity, regarding the equalization of price of goods and services around the world, over or under value, and trends. It's been awhile since I've blogged, so I thought I'd post it.

Dumbledore is gay

Dumbledore is gay, 'Harry Potter' author reveals. - CNN.com

Hmmm, who knew?! Thanks, Lia.

Signage

It's very interesting, living in Europe. Compared to the United States, countries are so close together that it's easy to cross through them, similarly to how I would regularly cross between Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia, often in the same day. Imagine if people in MD, VA, and DC all spoke different languages like people in different European countries do... This would presumably pose a problem for signage, because one would have to post directions and important warnings in multiple languages so that people could read them. The thing I don't get (and the reason for this post) is why, on such signs, signmakers have found the need to designate the languages, either with a flag or a country symbol (ex. GB, FR, CZ, etc.) prior to the text. You would think that someone reading a sign would recognize their own language and not have to look at a sign thinking "Hmm, I wonder which of these is written in English? Gee, it sure is nice that they put a little Union Jack next to the English language portion of the sign. I could have spent ages trying to read this warning in Russian... Whew!!" No. People presumably don't do that, leading me to conclude that language designation is just a waste of time, space, and sign ink. Stupid.

Smokeless bars & the matchbook industry

Today as I was lighting candles in my room I was struck by a thought I entertained long enough to decide to write a post about. Where I live, smoking in bars and restaurants just became illegal on August 15th. Where I used to live, and many other places in the States, it's already been illegal for awhile. To light my candles today, I used a lighter (pink, from 7-11, nothing fancy, like a Zippo). While lighting my nine tealights, I found myself thinking that I really prefer to light candles with matches because I kind of like that sulfur-y match smell. Then, I realized that I don't think I've ever actually bought a book or box of matches. I always "steal" them from bars or restaurants, which technically isn't stealing at all because they usually promote the establishment or some associated product. So, by taking it and displaying (ie. on the table, by the candles) a "stolen" book or box of matches somewhere in my home, or whipping it out to light a cig (something I don't, but many people do), is promoting the establishment or a particular product. If you're super-interested, you can actually find a brief history of the matchbook and matchbook advertising here.

So, my final thought is... I wonder how smokeless bars and restaurants have impacted the advertising and promotional practices within the hospitality industry? I'm making a mental note to look next time I'm at a bar, but do bars still give out matchbooks if they are non-smoking establishments? I guess, technically, you could smoke outside and that it wouldn't really much matter to have matchbooks inside the bar anyway because people that would see them are already there... People would still pick them up and take them away and they would serve the same promotional purposes... Hmmm...