En Kräftskiva, tack!

Even if i lived in Sweden, for a very strange reason, i never experienced a real Swedish Kräftskiva. (Yeah, i know... looooser!)

Kräftskiva (Crayfish Party) is a traditional summertime eating and drinking celebration. The party is usually held outdoors (unless the nordic winds decide to go nuts and screw up your pavillion) anytime in August, and to your surprise, its all about stuffing yourself with Crayfish, Snaps, and other accompaniments, like knäckebröd, cheese, beers, wine, vodka, etc.

But the thing is not as simple as it sounds.. the 'stuffing yourself' part comes only once you have managed to peel these animals, not 1 or 2, but MANY, cause all things being equal, the amount of meat you get from each one is inversely proportional to your hunger.

While you are fighting the beasts, you sing songs, drink Snaps/Vodka shots, and before you know it, wine tastes like water and the peeling is trickier than before... but at this point, who cares about eating anyways?

It took a Dane/Swede and a Mexican in Copenhagen to have our own Crayfish Party. But of course, we had a Swede flying over for the weekend just to supervise that we would really comply with the ancient and authentic swedish traditions...

Proof that the Kräftskiva was a big fat success:

The Wedding Bug

The last 2 weekends I have attended the weddings of two of Jonas' cousins: Ulf in Sweden (Hög) and Maria in Denmark (Bøjden).

I think its a lot related to the weather (as almost everything in these latitudes), but couples usually get married during summer here.

It was definitely interesting to experience the swedish/danish traditions and really fun to meet the family.

Why bother learning Danish?

It is very true that you can get around in Denmark without speaking ANY danish. All things being equal, english will be kindly spoken to you anytime, anywhere. Even if you manage to pick up a couple of words in danish, and you are daring enough to try them with a dane, s/he will appreciate your effort by replying in english. So why bother?

This country has around 5 million people, so with a lot of precision we can say that the % of people that speaks danish in the world is VEEEEERY small. They say Scandinavians understand each other, but ive been whitnessing something different. Danish wouldnt really be all that useful in Stockholm or Oslo (unless its for reading purposes), cause not even swedes or norwegians can decode what the danes are trying to say. So why bother learning a very strange language that can be spoken only in tiny Denmark?

I think the decision lies on the span of time you are intending to stay in Denmark. If you are here for holidays, a six-months internship, a one-year assignment.. then probably you can just skip it and survive with the basics, you know: hej, ja, nej, skål, få din flaske på, osv.

But if you are trying to stay here for a longer time, you want to fully integrate in this country, you want to learn and understand more about the culture, you want to meet people and make friends on a deeper level, you want to experience a real life in this country, you want to have more job opportunities, you would like to understand what they are saying on TV, the radio, the newspapers, you are in love with a dane, or you simply dont want to sit at parties and gatherings only trying to put your best face forward, cause you are not understanding anything of what is being discussed or laughed at... then yes, you better 'bother' learning danish.

I have finally taken on the challenge. I am learning Danish and August became the official kickstart.

Im taking a special course for spanish speakers, which kinda means the class is small: 3 students (one from Guinea and two from Mexico). Our teacher is 50% Danish, 50% Spanish, and she is married to a Mexican guy, so her spanish is flavoured with a sweet mexican accent and slang.

My impeccable swedish is being a very good help, although sometimes it plays tricks on me cause i end up mixing the two languages, without managing even one sentence correct. To make it sweeter, my pronunciation sucks big time, god bless danish and its infinite sounds!

But well.. all in good time, all in good time.

AIESEC Returns

Or well, not really, but it sounds fashionable eh? It probably should be something like: My triumphal 48hrs return to AIESEC.

Anyways.. one of the things that make me the most nostalgic about my good old glory days in the organization is without a doubt: International Conferences.

I have actually been longing for an international conference for a veeeery long time. I cant believe they are over, that i will spend the rest of my employee-life without having at least one more international conference! Ahhh how to forget Benebrits 99 in Ireland, IC 01 in Switzerland, Expro 02 in Slovakia, IC 02 in Canada and Expro 03 in Tunisia?

Nevermind the sessions and all the yada yada that we probably talked about. But the people, the diversity, the beers, the parties, the roll calls, the global villages, the boat races, the official dinners, the bullshit corner, the never ending drinking games in after parties...

It turns out that by a very sweet coincidence, ScaLDS 2006 was to be held in Denmark.

(A note from the author for all you non-AIESEC mortals out there: ScaLDS is nothing more and nothing less than Scandinavian Leadership Development Seminar)

It sounded like the perfect opportunity to get back. The desired role was quite clear from the beginning: Organising Committee Member. And yeah, I was lucky enough to pass the casting audition.

The selected team included 12 people from 6 different countries: Bolivia, Denmark, Germany, Netherlands, Sweden and of course, Mexico.

Unfortunately, I joined the conference only for a couple of days (i was there in time for Global Village and Official Dinner though... yay!) but i had a lot of fun with the OC team, even cleaning an industrial size kitchen almost 24/7.

The side effect of all this cleaning, together with little sleep and too many hours chopping vegetables, was that our humour got a bit odd, so we ended up having sooo much fun with legendary memorabilia (read Bang Bang Bang), which our friends and significant others could not fully understand back at home.

Something that made my return truly triumphal is the indisputable victory that the OC team got at the Boat Race Competition. The leading characters for such accomplishment: Karin (SE), Peter M (DK), Dennis (DK) and Myself (MX). One more victory for my personal record of fast drinking! Respect people!

Well well, after a little more than 48 hrs, im sincerely glad i joined the OC for ScaLDS.. i got my international conference, and i re-confirmed one thing: what i miss the most about AIESEC is the people. I think in general, AIESECers are a different kind, and i wish i could work with that kind of people more often.

Thanks Jose, Sannah, Karin, Kristian, Olaf, Onne, Dennis, Niels, Maja, Morten and Peter M for a BANGING time!

Im your Tourist Guide!

I may have been in Copenhagen only for a couple of weeks, I may not speak the local language, I may not know my way around in town, but ladies and gentlemen...

Welcome to Denmark, I am your Tourist Guide!

Hey, at least i speak the customers' language (which happen to be Spanish), AND im only a sustitute guide who transfers spanish tourist groups from the airport to their hotels and viceversa. I pick them up, put them in one of our buses, sit right next to the driver during the trip, give them key information on a mic, assist them with the check in process in both ends, and violá!

In Mexico, you are always told that you have to learn English cause thats the language of fortune and opportunity. This time opportunity, and not to mention fortune, is brought to me thanks to my fluent Spanish.

Thanks for your visit and have a nice trip!