Are You Drunk? No, I Have A Cold...

This past Friday night in Denmark, we went to the summer party for my wife's office. A good time was had by all!

We have learned a few new party activities to bring back home with us. A new favorite is a seemingly dangerous game to combine with drinking. It involved a large, solid tree stump, giant 8 inch nails, and multiple hammers. Depending on the number of people playing in the current match -- and depending on how many hammers you have on hand -- it's either a game of precision where you take turns round-robin hitting your nail, trying to knock it in flush with as few hits as possible OR it's a throw-safety-to-the-wind ordeal where each person with a hammer in hand swings as fast and wildly as possible at their nail in a race to the finish.

Maybe a little harder to bring home with us was the 'hole-in-one' machine that was a mini-golf style contraption that rewarded a well-placed shot by automatically filling a shot glass full of whatever bottle of liquor is strapped in to the machine -- and here that meant shots of Ga-Jol Blå (means 'blue' -- pronounced 'blaw'), a vodka infused with salty licorice and menthol. It tasted very much like cough syrup and when I asked a Dane about it, she said that they have medicine here that tastes the same, too. I always did like cough syrup, though.

Dinner was served at the party: a whole roast pig! Creamy potato salad (more dairy and less egg, I think), a coleslaw with apples and raisin (again, more cream less mayo), and pasta salad. Nothing too different than a good American BBQ. Great food -- but more than they could deal with. We ended up with two giant bags of roast pig to take home when we finally wandered out of the party in the wee hours. Boo comes running every time we open the fridge now.

We found that most of the liquor for the event was

bought in Germany -- even though we were drinking Danish brands. You can buy Danish beer across the border in Germany for less than half of what you would pay in Denmark. The rule is tha

t the beverages are supposed to be for personal consumption and a few folks at the party told stories they had heard about Danish authorities following them home from the German border and making them pay duties and fines on their purchases. A flip-side to that story is one I read about the European Union (EU) cracking down on Denmark for their policies that attempted to control the free movement of goods from other EU countries. As a member of the EU, Denmark is supposed to be bound by its cornerstone Four Freedoms, one of which is the free movement of goods. Denmark lost the battle in EU court and I think the limits on the quantities of products you can import from the EU have been adjusted to match the EU guidelines which aren't very limiting (110 liters of beer?) as long as it is for personal use.

By the end of the night, I had been lucky enough to have long conversations with many folks about our experiences so far and ahead of us in Denmark. Many showed a true interest in our situation and offered help and advice as we try to navigate things like buying a house. We also found many that spoke highly of the USA, including one huge fan of Nike Town in Chicago. I had to appreciate that in many cases, an entire group would switch from Danish to English when I was joining in the conversation.

Best yet, there was ample opportunities to say 'cheers!' in Danish: Skål! (pronouned 'skowl')

"Licorice is the liver of candy."
— Michael O'Donoghue