Last Sunday we went to London Mela an annual festival celebrating Asian culture with food, music and performances. It was a nice day to spend in a park with delicious food and happy people.
Lucie in London has some great pictures of some of the performers.
Yesterday I biked in to see Ann’s new lab and after that we went to Scandinavian Kitchen for lunch. We both had a couple of smørrebrød – a “topless” sandwich on rye bread with layers of goodness.
Almost three months ago Ann and I made a trip to Malta. We went to catch up with her family and friends and to attend her cousins wedding. It was going to be my first wedding in Malta.
The events started at the village church in Å»urrieq where most of Ann’s family lives.
The church is a typical Maltese church sitting in the center of the village and as the front door faces West it is always lit by the most golden light when the sun is starting to set. The ceremony started at 18.30 so as we walked up the roadwe got to see the church in all it’s grandeur.
We went inside and the ceremony started. It was in Maltese so I’m not really sure all that went on. My liturgical knowledge is not really up to scratch but there were some different talks by the priest. Some of the aunts of the bride and groom went to the podium and read some bible verses. And in between there was music being played. Initially I thought it was just recorded music as I could not see the musicians but it turned out there were a singer and a keyboard player behind one of the columns. The songs were more modern that what we are used to hear played by organs in Danish churches.
Running around during the service was a cameraman with a huge light, a photographer and two light assistants with long booms. The photographer looked like a secret service agent in his black suit and an ear peice directing the cameraman and two assistants around. With the church ceremony lasting about an hour and a half I had plenty of time to look at all these guys running around trying to get the perfect shots.
Afterwards we went outside to greet the newlywed as they exited the church and we threw confetti at them while they made their way to the veteran car that would take them to the venue. Here’s the sweet couple.
And then we headed to the venue of the reception. In church most of the family had been present but at the reception more friends and family showed up so we were in the neighbourhood of 300 people there I think.
The reception was held at Ir-Razzett L-Abjad which is an old farm house beautifully converted into a venue hall with a big outdoor garden. It was a huge place with people flocking around either the indoor or outdoor bar.
I had already met a most of Ann’s uncles and aunts on this side of the family on previous trips but here I got to meet all the cousins as well as we came across them at the party.
Unlike Danish parties they don’t go around shaking hands or giving hugs. Instead you find a place to stand or sit while the waiters make the rounds with hors d’oeuvres and other foods. I didn’t take picture of the food and forgot all the different options but there was a lot (maybe it was something like this). A band was playing some background music but there wasn’t really anybody dancing and the food kept coming.
I was quite hungry when the food started to arrive and didn’t realize that it would keep coming all through the night so I indulged a lot in the first couple of items and was struggling as we were halfway through the list. Anyways there was a lot(!) of food and as always in Malta it was really tasty.
The evening ended with the cutting of the cake (more food!) and coffee. An open bar and good food in a steady stream is the perfect combination to keep a Maltese happy so I think everyone had a good night.
Check flickr for the rest of my pictures from the evening.
For me the wedding season continues later this summer with two weddings in Germany. I’m looking forward to seeing friends and joining more happy celebrations.
Last post was about Halloween, this post is about Thanksgiving and I should have made a post a week ago about the people of USA electing Barack Obama – what a historical moment! A lot of America going on I guess 
Kathleen’s parents from Long Island, New York were travelling Europe and stopped in Prague for a weeks time. Kathleen and her parents decided to throw us an early Thanksgiving Dinner (although it should have been the last thursday of November). We were very thankful anyways and had a great evening with amazing food. So as the tradition goes the dinner is a true palette of flavours. There were turkey, mash potatoes, stuffing, cranberry sauce, beans, sweet potatoes, cauliflower with cheese and apple something. (Click the image below to see what is what)Â
After eating too much of the very well prepared meal the Renehan’s dished out with pumpkin pie and apple crust pie – more yummy stuff.
I think I counted 18 people in the small flat with people sitting on cusions all over the flat. The limited space just made it that much cozier and I think everyone had a great night.
Many thanks to Kathleen, Dan and Ann for their friendliness, delicious cooking and sharing this great American tradition with us.
See the rest of the photos from Renehan’s Thanksgiving in Prague.
Â
Lat time I had Thanksgiving was three years ago when Femi, Chris and I went on the road from Michigan to North Carolina. Back then I was blogging in Danish but google does a decent job at translating it to English:
Nina was doing an internship in Prague over the summer and came back for a visit this weekend. First we went to Sapa a Vietnamese market in the southern part of Prague.
We went there for lunch and to do some food shopping for the nights dinner. I was about the only one you didn t know any Asian. At the table here is from the left; Rie from Japan, Petra a Czech who is on her way to do a PhD in Japanese/Korean collaboration in Tokyo, Dominic a British journalist who has lived in Vietnam, Nina from Germany who is taking Japanese lessons, Christoph a German/American who has lived in Japan and speaks Japanese and finally Sue from Korea.
Sapa is a fascinating place. It started out in some old abandoned warehouses and has grown into a community with kindergarten, hairdressers, travel agencies, insurance companies and of course shops that sells (copies of) clothes, toys and crap.
Saturday ended with a nice Japanese dinner by Rie and Sue and some beautiful flower tea.
My extended weekend to Malta was fantastic! It was great to see Ann again and it was very interesting to see were she was from – in so many ways we are from the opposite ends of Europe and discovering more about our various background is an interesting journey.
3 months ago my knowledge on Malta was very limited – all I really knew was that it was in the Mediterranean, that they had English as a semi-official language, that there was something about the Maltese cross and knights and that they usually did pretty good in Eurovision Song Contests – “Malta 10 points†– but that was about all.
Since then Ann has told me a lot about the country and I’ve been reading up on the country on the internet. Malta is a couple of rocky islands about half the size of Bornholm or twice the size of Washington DC. With a population of 400,000 it’s one of the most densely populated countries in the world. Knowing this fact I was actually surprised that the place didn’t feel cramped and that they seemed not to have many high rising buildings – but instead a lot of 2-4 floored limestone buildings.
It depends a bit on the family but mostly people I came across speak Maltese but everyone knows and uses English as well. The language reflects the fact that the country has had a number of rulers over time and is a mix of Arabic, Sicilian, Italian and English. To me it just sound Arabic and I can’t make heads and tails of any of it. Have a listen here.
I went with Ann to catholic mass (in English) for the second time in my life but the acoustics made it very difficult to hear what the priest was saying. The catholic religion still plays a big rule in Malta and there are churches and chapels everywhere as well as niches with religious figures. This impact is also reflected in the society were abortion and gay marriage are illegal and you can’t get a divorce. As a Dane I take those liberties for granted so it’s surprising to see a society were they are not.
I wasn’t there during season but every village or every church (or band club?) has a huge celebration when it’s the day of their respective saints during the summer.
Here’s a niche from Mdina.
The first thing I realized when moving around Malta was that there is literally layers upon layers of history. As a sucker for history I had more than enough sites and museums to check out. So yet another reason to come back another time Here are the places we checked out this time around:
Not very far from Ann’s house are the ancient temples of Mnajdra and Hagar Qim unfortunately both of them were closed for the winter for renovation so we couldn’t get close.
Mnajdra (above) was started in the 4th millennium B.C. which makes it the oldest freestanding building in the world – more than a millennium older than Stonehenge. While we didn’t make it into those site we made it into the Hypogeum which is an equally fascinating structure.
The Hypogeum is the only known, underground temple in the world and was a very interesting experience. The place is carved out of the underground over hundreds of years. In order to preserve the wall paintings only 10 people are allowed to visit per hour. We were not allowed to take pictures but this site has a lot of background info and good pictures.
Moving up in time the St. Paul Catacombs in Rabat are from the Roman era in the 3rd century.
The catacombs are next to the old capital of Mdina that was settled by the Romans, conquered by the Arabs, conquered again later by Normans and rebuild to it’s present state after an earthquake in 1697. Here is a view through a street of Mdina as the sun rises and before the hordes of tourists arrive. We had both early mornings and late nights in Mdina and then it’s a very quaint and quite place.
When the Knights of St. John arrived to Malta they moved the capital to it’s current place of Valletta. After The Great Siege of 1565 were the knights managed to fight off the invading Ottoman forces they founded Valletta as an easily defensible city in the center of Grand Harbour. Here’s a painter overlooking the view of Grand Harbour from Upper Barracca.
The St. John’s Co-Cathedral in Valletta is quite remarkable. It doesn’t seem like anything special from the outside (no reason to entice the Turkish attackers) but inside it is lavishing with ornaments, sculptures, paintings and gold.
Malta has always had a strategical importance for the dominance of the Mediterranean which was also the case in WWII as well during the Battle of Malta. First it withheld massive assaults from Italian and German air forces with more than 3000 air raids over two years. And later it was the outset for the invasion of Sicily and subsequently Italy. The planning of the defence and attack took place in Lascaris War Rooms a cave under Valletta carved by the knights centuries earlier.
Phew! That was a lots of history – and there is plenty more to see. But we did a lot of other things as well.
The food is a chapter in itself. It’s inspired by Italian but with a twist of it’s own. I didn’t get pictures of much of it but I covered about 10 of the things on this list and all of it was good I did manage get a picture of a Pastizzi before it disappeared. A delicious snack bought at a pretty obscure local spot.
I was really surprised to discover that the family had orange trees in their backyard. Apparently not a big thing for the Maltese but for a Scandinavian it was fantastic to have fresh picked and squeezed orange juice for breakfast.
Before I took off we got the a big meal – yet again really good food They rarely use the big dinning room table so getting visit from Denmark is good for something.
I was lucky with the weather which can vary a bit in November but Saturday we had 23 degrees and clear sky One of my top things to do in Malta – since I started planning the trip – was to go for a swim in the Mediterranean. Under much objection Ann finally agreed to take me to a beach so I could get my swim.
With above 20 temperatures people in Denmark would flock to the beach but apart from a handful of other pale, pale tourists we were the only ones at the beach. The water was probably around 20 degrees so it was quite refreshing but not too bad. Here we are at Golden Bay after the swim.
What a long blog post – but I had a lot to tell about this island.
Malta is called The Jewel of the Mediterranean and I totally agree – and I got a special gem there.
The flight was on schedule, the cab driver didnt cheat us, we found our apartment, internet is working, weather is great, beers are good – life is great!
Pollas asked Danish bloggers to send in a video for a Vlog Christmas Calendar in the good spirit of Christmas. I sent in a video and it is hiding behind number 11th. Click here to see the Calendar. In the video Julia and my roommate Femi try some Danish Christmas food.
The video was made when Julia came to visit last week. Her traineeship in Frankfurt was over and she was on a last stint through Europe before going back to US.
It is always great to have visitors and we covered a fair amount of the touristy Copenhagen with Julia.
Looking for material for my video contribution I went through my unedited videos and came across some clips I made last year when I drove to Wisconsin for Christmas. So here is a newly cut video. My camera died on the way over so this video has a somewhat abrupt ending halfway through Chicago:
And finally there is the Christmas video I made in Danish from Ann Arbor last year. I will try and make something similar this year from Copenhagen.
Merry Christmas!
Så er der nyt fra midtvesten igen. (Navnet midtvest dækker staterne omkring de store søer, men er egentlig misvisende. Navnet er tilbage fra det 19. århundrede hvor USA stoppede en smule vest for Mississippi. Kort og en bedre forklaring.)
Sidste weekend var forlænget da mandag var Labor Day. Jeg fandt aldrig ud af hvad anledningen var, men går udfra det er noget tilsvarende vores 1. maj – bare uden røde faner, taler og fadøl.
Anyways, forrige søndag gik med en tur i The Arboretum (The Arb) en stor botanisk have/park, hvor en teatergruppe fra universitetet opførte Shakespeares En Skærsommernats Drøm. Billedet øverst i indlægget er fra dette skuespil. De forskellige akter i skuespillet fandt sted forskellige steder i parken, så imellem hver akt gik nogle musikanter i forvejen og viste os hvor næste scene skulle være. Det var et meget velopført stykke og de naturlige omgivelser gav en ekstra dimension til historien om drømmen og elvernes verden.
Aftenen endte med spareribs hos Na Jin og en række fester, der startede med en privat salsafest hos nogle ret underlige typer.
Tirsdag havde vi vores første husmøde på taget. Huset jeg bor i har et noget blakket ry og det har været en af grundene til at det har været vanskeligt at få lejet alle værelser ud. Men her kort efter semesterstart er alle værelse fyldt, så vi nu er ca. 30 personer. Husmødet på taget var vældig hyggeligt og blev afholdt med en ramme øl og rigeligt med snacks. Det er en hyggelig flok mennesker, der kommer fra mange forskellige steder såsom Brazillien, østrig, Frankrig, Tyskland, Mexico og selvfølgelig en masse fra Michigan, der er 6 piger og resten drenge. I modsætningen til sommerferien er der ikke så mange udflippede hippier og pothoveder, så vi kan måske holde huset i en rimelig stand. Vi har alle fået opgaver, som vi skal passe så det hele kommer til at køre. Fremover vil der være fyldte køleskabe og morgenmad og aftensmad inkluderet i huslejen.
Onsdag var i Big D (Detroit) og se Tigers spille baseball mod Cleveland Indians. Baseball bliver aldrig min favoritsport, men det var interessant at se hvordan Americas favorite pastime, baseball foregår. Femi og jeg var med formanden fra vores hus og en af hans venner inde og se kampen.
Se alle billeder fra baseball kampen her.
Lørdag middag inden dagens football kamp på TV var vi ude at prøve rigtig Dim Sum på en kinesisk restaurent med en flok mennesker fra AIESEC.
– Babyblæksprutte, marinerede kyllingefødder og andet udefineret snask er ikke just min favoritmåde at bekæmpe tømmermænd på, har jeg erfaret.
Søndag derimod var kuren mod tømmermænd en tur på græsset og det gik noget bedre. Min første ultimate frisbee kamp nogensinde, og vi vandt 15-11 over det røde hold. Det var ikke min indsats, der gjorde udslaget for jeg løb mere i vejen end jeg bidrog, men jeg skal nok få det lært.
I dag kom der pakkepost hjemmefra – tusind tak for det 
Så i dag ser mit skrivebord således ud (Klik for forklaring):
Jeg har stadig ingen bil – Cougaren jeg kiggede på var fed, men var gammel og havde mærkelige motorlyde. Så istedet har jeg kig på en 97 Lincoln Town Car – mere om det senere.