Christmas Eve

What English Lacks

One of the best things I've collected this year is words. With so many friends from all over the world, speaking some pretty interesting languages, you begin to realise that despite the superfluous lexemes existing in our lexicon, we sometimes have to use many words where some countries have figured out just one.

One of my favourites so far is hygge. One of the fundamental aspects of Danish culture, hygge doesn’t have an equivalent word in English. Some translate it as ‘coziness’ or ‘tranquility’, but it’s more than that. It describes a state of mind, an atmosphere, a little space full of the good things in life. Hygge is a complete absence of anything annoying, irritating, or emotionally overwhelming. When you’re on the couch with someone special and the fire is roaring and you’ve got hot chocolate, that can be hygge. When you’re lying under a tree in park on a summer day, the sun warming your face, listening to the wind through the leaves, that’s hygge.

With Denmark’s long, cold winters, you can understand why Danes would want to cheer themselves up a little with some candles and a good chat with family or friends. Hygge and Christmas are closely related in Denmark – Danish does not have a word for Christmas, and use Jul to describe the season. It has pagan origins, a winter feast, and food is often a good part of hygge. Jul provides lots of opportunities for hygge - Gingerbread cookies or a hot cup of glögg are almost instant hygge, provided the setting is right.

Swedes have a similar thing, but they don’t call it hygge. Swedish and Danish are quite close, they share many traits and words, but not even Sweden has hygge. Sweden has fika.

Swedes drink coffee. On average, 4.5 cups per day, the highest in the world. Fika isn’t about drinking coffee, just like hygge isn’t about any one thing either. Fika is like a mini-hygge, a chance to take a break in a busy day and enjoy some good conversation over a drink. You can’t eat too much, otherwise it’s called lunch, or dinner, but you can enjoy a cinnamon bun with your coffee. It can be short, like a work break, or much longer, stretching over hours as you catch up with an old friend.

If you’ve ever been to Ikea, you might have noticed they sell a lot of candles. Scandanavian people love candles, and candles are one of fika and hygge’s best friends. Many houses don’t even have overhead lighting, it’s just too harsh. At Christmas, you just light the Adventsljusstake, the Advent candles that sit in everyone’s windows. Of course, having candles in the window all night can be a little risky, so you can buy electric ones. And that’s what I plan to do today, find an adventsljusstake, on REA (sale). And cram it into my suitcase so I can enjoy Christmas in July later this year.

And maybe a little hygge. I love that word.

Another Year Over

I started this blog on the 1st of January this year with this graphical interpretation of my expectations for the year:

Life would be rosy, I'd have a pink scooter and my hair would always be perfect. I'd jet about Paris in designer couture and share some love as I went. In actual fact, I was both wrong and right all at the same time.

The skies have often been rosy - sunsets in Santorini and Seville are indeed impressive. But it's not always pink or purple or orange. Grey skies made their way in plenty of times, and some of those times were tough. It was dark and cold in UK, and the heavens showed no mercy in Malta. Just as life is not all sunshine and rainbows, neither was the year. But I took them all as they came, and some of those rainy days in Caen where I was shut up in my room with a cup of tea and a good book were equally impressive on my memories.

I never did get a pink scooter but I had a cool bike called Matilda who took me into town a few times, to the laundromat when the washing machine broke, to my friend's houses and to the supermarket. Dad fixed her tyres when she was feeling flat and she's still at Euro Res now, taking somebody else around town. I think I've covered every possible mode of transport, including countless flights, trains, and metro rides, taxis, buses, ferries and even a horse-drawn carriage. I drove on the wrong side of the highway in the wrong side of the car with a gear stick on the wrong side through the snow the other day - and I didn't die.

As for perfect hair, even that featured a couple of times. Fixed with lilies for the Prom, it grew to my shoulders until July. Then I got sick of it as I always do, and had it cut for free by a student in Edinburgh. In Champagne, after a couple of tasting at the cellars, I literally walked right into a salon and got my fringe back. Since then, I've been looking after it myself with a pair of hair scissors from Carrefour. I even earned a block of chocolate and two hugs for cutting other people's hair at home. Considering the price of haircuts in Europe, I could have charged more, but I'm just looking forward to a decent style again when I get home, for a decent price.

I learned that some days its ok for your hair to be awful anyway. When it's 40 degrees and all you have to keep cool is a spray bottle, you change your priorities. When it's -12 outside and you've got a furry hat and a scarf wrapped around your head, it doesn't matter how your hair looks when you finally make it to the supermarket.

That leads me to the designer couture. Despite visiting Paris 19 times this year, I did not stock up on Louis Vuitton or Hermes. If someone offered me a fancy leather handbag or a year abroad (they cost the same), I know what I'd choose. But that's not to say that I didn't buy anything - a pretty recent journal entry is testimony to that. By the way, of course I didn't manage to fit it all in my case, even with 4 Space Bags. 2.5 boxes were sent home, half of it was rummaged through by those that were staying, and currently 15kg of it sits in London awaiting my return. I've learned that most 'stuff' is just that - if you don't have one thing, you'll have something else, and sooner or later you're sick of it anyway, you throw it away, you lose it, it gets stolen, or just sits there collecting dust. The most important things I have now are already back at home - some are packed in one little box that's already arrived safely, and the others sit waiting for me to return.

As for romance, I had my share of dramas. Those who were involved know who they are and I'm not going to repeat it all now, but life doesn't always go according to plan. Sometimes things are great, sometimes they don't work out, you make mistakes and life keeps going. I have something very special now and I wouldn't give that up for anything. I've learned that those who love you will stick by you no matter what, and maybe even stop in to say Hi.

Having my parents visit and climbing the Eiffel Tower together will be something I will always remember. Going to Italy together to meet new family was so special for all of us, and meeting the families of those who are my new loves is something yet again. The friends I have made this year, those I have lived with, spent every day with, studied with - I'd leave everything I had at a charity store if I could just take these people home with me. Fortunately some of them will be at home when I get there, but others will stay on this side of the world. I've been welcomed into homes, fed, sheltered, and cared for like a sister or daughter by so many lovely people this year, and each of them have made my life brighter. Especially at Christmas, when I am usually surrounded by my family, my fears of homesickness were almost abolished - I was absolutely not alone and still felt as much love as when I am at home. The only thing I wanted was for everyone to come and join me in the snow!

As I said very early in the year, before I left, "being given the chance to study in another country is something that has an effect on you. You end up learning more about yourself than anything else." I stand by that now - but reflect with a strange sense of knowing, that none of my lessons were learned in a classroom.

Knowledge comes from doing, and I certainly did a lot this year.

And so tonight, on this last day of one hell of a year, I see the clock strike 12 with some of the closest friends I have made, not just this year but in my life. They have shared so much with me and I am beyond happy to be able to share this night with them. I miss everyone at home, but in just 2 weeks I'll be back where I started and will have thousands of photos to pour over, hundreds of Facebook statuses to keep up with, and a few regular phone calls to make.

Happy New Year to everyone, and may the next one be as good as this has been. I'd like to see it try.

White Wine in the Sun

by Tim Minchin

And if my baby girl
When you're twenty one or thirty one
And Christmas comes around
And you find yourself 9000 miles from home

You’ll know whatever comes
Your brothers and sisters and me and your mum
Will be waiting for you in the sun

Girl when Christmas comes
Your brothers and sisters
Your aunts and your uncles
Your grandparents, cousins
And me and your mum.
Will be drinking white wine in the sun
Waiting for you in the sun
Drinking white wine in the sun
Waiting for you

I really like Christmas
It’s sentimental I know

Baby, It's Cold Outside

It was ZERO degrees when I went for a walk this morning. That's quite chilly where I'm from. I was thinking about all the Christmasy things that don't make sense at home - snowmen, hot pudding, fireplaces... but now they DO! It's cold and frosty and all I want is a roaring fire and some cocoa and snow! Lots of snow! I've instructed my Swedish friends, whom I'll be spending Christmas with, to make sure there is plenty for my arrival next week.

Recipe and image from A Field Journal

Tonight I'm making Mulled Apple Cider, in celebration of my LAST DAY OF UNIVERSITY. Yes, after 7 years, it's about time I had something to say for myself. I haven't officially graduated, but I had my last class, and have just two papers to hand up and I'm done!

So here we are, Kate and Katie, on our last day of school, in front of our French University. It's exactly 2 weeks till 25 December and it's beginning to look a lot like... Christmas!

Lilium auratum

I thought Australia was only 9 or 10 hours ahead of me, but for some reason they think it's Christmas already, and now all of mine have come at once. I only wanted one thing, and I got it yesterday!

So now I can do this:

Thank you Mum and Dad. Thank you Grant. I am going to have my first Christmas away from home, my first (fingers crossed) white Christmas, my first Russian Orthodox Christmas, and now my Baltic festivities can be captured in every little detail. You have made one little girl's Christmas pretty awesome already!

xx

Dear Santa

Dear Santa,

Mum said I have to ask you for the expensive stuff, so if you have a Canon EF 85mm f/1.2L USM II lens in your bag, please give it to me.

I've been really good this year.

Really, really nice photos by Siebe