It's starting to feel like the holidays. Although festive lights have been up on the streets of Aalborg for a few weeks already, I guess I haven't really taken the time to enjoy them. I went shopping with one of my flatmates last night and I truly realized that the holidays are here.
The time has flown since my last update, over a month! As it turned out, project work really takes over your life. Nevertheless, it was an interesting experience and ending well (so far). I worked with three European ladies: Jagoda (Polish), Cristina, and Mihaela (both Romanian). We spent countless hours over the last nine weeks discussing, reading and writing about globalization together as a group, not to mention the hours on our own and the times when we weren't so productive. The result was an 89 page paper titled "The Complextities of Fair Trade in the Mainstream" that we managed to turn in almost a week early (we were oh-so-proud of ourselves). There was a lot of stress but I lucked out with my group... no serious problems and everybody's still friends. As it turns out, we not only study hard together but party hard as well! Friday night we partied more than hard enough. We still have to finish the semester by taking an "exam" at the end of January, but I think we're golden. The exam is a 20 minute oral debacle consisting of a 2-3 minute presentation by the student, followed by 15 or so minutes of questions about the project and your work. It used to be done as a group, but this semester is the first time since the government changed the rules and we'll each do the exam alone. Honestly, the way you're expected to write the group project feels like a waste of effort if they exam isn't done as a group, but they're trying to figure out the kinks.
November and December so far were nice months. We finished up the last of the lectures and started getting serious about the project (which meant we saw less and less of our fellow students, a shame really) and took our lives back. There were plenty of get-togethers and such for a while, until the project took over. An internet friend (who's Brazilian-American, living in Copenhagen) came up to Aalborg and we met, the Christmas beers were released, I successfully completed the Danish course, I managed to meet and snag a fantastic guy who's studying his PhD here, had gløgg and æbleskiver at Nerius' a few times, threw a couple parties and went to many more, celebrated Thanksgiving, watched Santa (Julemand) arrive by boat from Greenland, enjoyed Aalborg's Christmas market, saw an indie flick (man I miss them!), went on a tour of Aalborg Akvavit (the snaps distillery), hung out with the PhD kids, celebrated New Year's Eve early in the Spanish way (think Chubby Bunny but with grapes at midnight), went to a Julefrokost (Christmas dinner) with the CCG kids, had a Julefrokost with my flatmates, and started to say goodbye to some of the exchange students.
I've been having an excellent time. I have to give a lot of the credit to the lovely people I know here, for they've really made it a time to enjoy. Just last night I had a quiet, homecooked dinner with Jagoda, Francesco, and Olivier. We all recognized how lucky we are to have met the right people here in Aalborg, for it truly would be a dismal experience otherwise. Speaking of fantastic people... this is my first Christmas with a significant other and I won't be with him. However, I do have the pleasure of spending my holidays with a Polish family! In just four hours I will board a bus for a 1000+ kilometer ride to Poland with dear Jagoda. Sometime tomorrow we will arrive in Poznan (about 300km from Berlin) where we will be met by her older sister Marta and her fiance. From there we will drive out to Inowroclaw to be with the rest of her family. It should be a highly-enjoyable time... on Christmas eve we eat a lot of fish, and then on Christmas we eat real meat, and then the 26th we eat anything and everything. I am really excited for this trip. We'll also go to Warzawa (Warsaw) and perhaps to the mountains. Speaking of which, I need to pack!
Wherever you are and whomever you are with as 2007 draws to an end, I wish you a festive holiday season and bright new year.
Cheers,
Jessica
