Time goes by....so quickly

Unlike in my newest favorite Madonna song, time is going by so fast here. Do I really have just two more weekends here? Jeg savner hjem mejet men jeg tror jeg vil savner Danmark når jeg er hjem. Jeg tror min sidst dag i Danmark vil være ulykkelig. Jeg vil savner mine nu venner. But, I'll get over missing Denmark soon enough, although it will be really hard to adjust to being "underage" again. It's funny, some bars in Copenhagen have arbitrary age limits - for some, it's 18, some it's 20, a few are 21 and a couple are even 23! And I'll really miss being able to buy a bottle of wine at the grocery store because I feel like it or picking up a 6-pack of Tuborg for the weekend. I'm going to try and bring home a Julebryg or two so y'all can say you've tried it. And Fisherman's...I won't necessarily miss Fisherman's, but I'll miss it's ubiquity.

Of course, I'll miss much more than drinking! I'm going to miss all the great museums here, being able to take trains and buses and walk everywhere, jeg er ikke glædelig mig til the Bible Belt, I'll miss hyggelig and the neverending pursuit of it, I'll miss our great parks, I'll miss the Danish sense of humor, I'll probably miss trying to learn Danish (I might even keep up trying to learn it with CDs or something...how weird is that?), I'll miss people named Søren and Mette and Rikke and Lune and I'll miss extra vowels... æ å and ø...you've been so much fun! I'll miss being so close to the ocean and I'll miss being able to travel any time I want, all over Europe. Not that I took full advantage of traveling (not enough $$$), but while I did, I had a hell of a time. It will be weird to be back in the land of only cars and new buildings and churches built for max capacity instead of great beauty. Oddly enough, I've noticed I've gotten in the habit of saying "you guys." I can't remember a time in my life when I didn't automatically say y'all! I need some more Southernness in my life! I'm looking forward to a more diverse population as well...while I've seen more Turks and Iraqis and Middle Easterners here than I have in the States, the vast majority of people are white. I think I've seen less than 30 black people the entire time I've been in Denmark. Of course, going back to South Carolina will also mean dealing with daily racism again. Although...Danes are, to generalize, pretty racist toward immigrants. The immigrant "problem" here is a real one, not because they are here, but because they can't assimilate in to the culture and the culture isn't happy about the thought of having to change to reflect the country's new inhabitants. The isolation immigrants can go through is showing itself to be a real problem, as terrorist cells are springing up in the country that everyone thinks is such a fairy tale land.

Really, though, Denmark can be a fairy tale land a lot of the time. I say this often, but I don't think I've felt unsafe once in Denmark other than at my kollegium. Life just seems to be less troublesome here. As globalization's influence creeps up, things are starting to change, but old Denmark is charming and warm and wonderful.

I'm rambling a bit, so I think I should wrap things up with a shoutout to the Parental Unit:

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!!!