Oh, My…

Eden's Height, October 2009

 

 

Kulturnatten 2009

Every year, in what is a fantastic idea, Copenhagen hosts Kulturnatten, literally ‘The Culture Night’, or better translated Night of Culture. (Follow the link for more details.) All around Copenhagen, artists, community groups, and museums put on dozens of cultural presentations: concerts, meditative worship services, tours of the Royal Exchange, jewelry making, Greenlandic crafts, plays, art shows, a science fair, film shorts, dance, and explorations of life in the Danish WW2 resistance. In other words, a massive celebration of all things Denmark. All of this costs about the price of two beers or three Cokes, transportation included. While something like Seattle’s Bumbershoot, Folklife Festival, or SeaFair might compare, a critical difference is that Kulturnatten involves most of the city’s cultural institutions, is wildly diverse, and largely grassroots.

Cate singing in The Junior Gospel Choir

Rachelle and the girls recently joined a gospel choir, which participated in Kulturnatten. I do find it a little surreal that in this wildly secular country, there’s 100 people who not only are excited to sing gospel music, but who are also willing to pay quarterly fees to do so. On the other hand, Danes do like to join things (clubs of all sorts abound here), and Danes love to sing. Christmas, for example, features both numerous Saint Lucia festivals of white-robed singing girls, and also families holding hands, circling the Christmas tree, and singing their hearts out.

Last night at their Kulturnatten performance, the sanctuary of of the neo-classically columned Gospelkirken was filled, steaming warm and literally to the rafters with about 200 people not once, but three times over, to hear the music. The girls had fun, and the choir was rocking. We’ve uploaded some video to YouTube for you to check out.

 

Poor, Poor Sammy :(

Last week Sammy went to the groomer for the first time since June. Maybe it was coincidence, maybe not, but over the weekend his, um, glands got abscessed. Sunday, he had to spend all day in his cage so that he wouldn’t bleed all over the furniture. Monday Rachelle took him to the vet, who inserted a drain, cleaned his teeth and pulled a baby tooth. Since then he’s had to wear the cone of shame and, for the first couple of days, diapers.

Ah, the indignity. 

He’s been spending all day in the bathroom to help calm him down, and so that he doesn’t scoot around on his tush and rip open his glandular area. Rachelle takes him back to the vet on Friday to get the drain removed. He’ll be thrilled to be allowed back on the couch. We may even let him sleep on the bed.

Can we humiliate him any more?

Field Trips You Don’t Take with Seattle Public Schools

In Eden’s words:

Eden's Skoleskydningen Pin. Literally "School shooting". It's got cute kids on it!

“Today we went on a field trip to a shooting range. It was inside a building. When we got there, a man told us about how to use the gun. A woman called up a couple of people and gave them targets, while the rest of us watched. When it was my turn, I went to the shooting box. On the left side there was a red button. On the shelf in the shooting box was a prop that you laid your gun on. On the right side was a can to put in the empty cartridges. Above me, at about my forehead, there was a clip that you put your target onto. Then you pressed the red button, and it took the target down to the wall, which was 15.2 meters away. After you sent the target down, you propped up your gun, and the man gave you five cartridges. You load the gun, and put your elbows on the table. You hold the gun with one hand on the barrel and the other hand gripping the piece of wood sticking down behind the trigger. I looked through the sight, which was a little ring above the trigger with another little ring a couple of inches from the end of the barrel. That ring had another little ring inside it. I made the little ring inside the ring at the end of the barrel go around the black ring on the target. Then I shot the gun by pulling the trigger. After I shot three times, I pulled the target back. The man looked at the target card and adjusted the sight so it was right for my eyes. And then I shot the target card two more times. After than I took a different target, shot it five times, flipped it over, and used the target on the other side. And I did that again; twenty-five shots in all. After I was finished, I put a rubber band around the cards, and took them to a woman who counted up my score, depending upon where I shot the target. My score was 169 out of 200. Two of my teachers came with us, a man and a woman. The woman teacher dropped her gun on the floor! Everyone thought it was really funny that the teacher dropped her gun, until we realized that if there was a bullet in the gun, it could have shot the girl next to her in the foot. :O The whole thing was really fun!”

Eden's Shooting Targets. Her score was 169/200. All shots were 8 or better.

Eden’s Eleventh Eleventh Birthday Party

Despite already having something like ten birthday parties this summer while in the U.S., Eden wanted to have a birthday party with her classmates when she came back to CPH. A nice tradition here in Denmark is that when a child has a birthday party, the entire class is invited. I think it helps prevent kids from feeling excluded, and builds community in the class. This all is good, because these kids are together in the same class, with the same teacher, from Grade 0 through Grade 9.

So, sixteen 11-year-olds came over for the afternoon on September 19, and we discovered that yes, tweens can sing karaoke for three hours straight.

16 Tweens singing with Lips on XBox

Wheel of Copenhagen

Over the summer a scaled down version of the Eye of London appeared in Copenhagen in the square in front of the Palads Theatre near Tivoli. We took Cate’s friend Johanna with us to a movie and then rode the Wheel of Copenhagen. It gives a fantastic view of the city, and we discovered a number of buildings we had never seen before. This is a photo of it at night.

The Wheel of Copenhagen

Cate Made This!

Cate was banging away for an hour or so downstairs at Pura Vida trying to build something. When she came up defeated, Bompa found she was trying to build a house with a scrap of wood and HUGE nails. They made this together instead. She got to use the nail gun!

Cate Made This House!

She also made this from a kit. I thought it looked great with the lace and the mirror. Very nautical/Victorian.

Cate Made This Boat!

Cate got glasses…

…and she’s super-cute!

Cate in Her New Glasses

Bristol & Banksy

With the gals away for the summer, and Copenhagen a dreary mess of rain and cold punctuated with wind, I thought I’d get away to sunny England for a long weekend to see our friends Paul & Sharon Roberts.

Paul Roberts drinking an ale

While it rained like crazy in Bristol (did you know that it is a little scary to hit your bike brakes hard in the rain?), I had a blast. Paul showed me the town, and a few good pubs, on a private walking tour in search of Banksys. We went to a grocery store, and I had a bit of culture shock: it was neatly and fully stocked with multiple options in each categoy, and the prices were not usurious. After a short drive through the English countryside (which is nearly unparalled in its beauty), we wandered with Sharon through the charming town of Wells, which has a stunning cathedral.  And I experience a real Anglican church service (until recently Paul was a vicar of two churches in Bristol, and a canon at the Bristol Cathedral).

Wells Cathedral

And we hung out with their great kids: Jonathan who is studying History & Philosophy at Sheffield and full of vim & vigor, and Caroline who is going off to Manchester (she hopes) to study medical biology, but first is going to trek across southern England this week as part of the Duke of Edinburgh Award.

We also toured the Banksy exhibit at the Bristol Museum. Banksy (more info here and here) is a famous graffiti artist who has perfected a stencil method that allows him to create complex, multi-colored graffiti paintings within minutes.

Banksy Astronaut

Because the British police would like to arrest him, the art show at the Bristol Museum was kept a secret until the installation was complete, and when Banksy put it up, he was accompanied by dozens of identically dressed men so no one would be able to determine who was Banksy. His art is clever, well accomplished, and branches out beyond graffiti wall painting.

Banksy Lion Tamer

There’s more photos of Bristol (including a house where John Wesley lived) here. And more photos of Banksy’s work here.

Nine is Fine! A stateside celbration of all things Catie.

Cate’s year of adventures, starting with the amusement park Tivoli in Copenhagen.

 

Dear Catie,

 

This morning when I woke up I was chewing, chewing, chewing away about what to write to you for this your Number Nine Birthday.

 

I’ve been thinking a lot about how Mama and Grandpa like to tease you about getting so grown up. I always say, “Catie! Who told you you could grow up so fast!” And Grandpa says you have to stay 8 another year because he missed your Number 8 year while you were in Denmark. (At least he’s “letting” you turn 9 when we celebrate all the cousins’ birthdays next week!)

 

But you know what Cate? I don’t think it’s very nice of us to tease you so. You are great at every age!

 

© We loved you when you were one second old and crying softly in the operating room.

© We loved you when you were Baby Cate and your tiny little tushy never touched the ground because no one ever wanted to put you down.

© We loved you when you were a toddler and said such funny things like “I am getting fwusterated” and “I got distwacked” and “That’s ig-GUSTING!” and “I NOT yelling. I cweaming. You know, CWEAMING!!!!”

© We loved you when you started school and uncovered your Superpower of being the Worlds Friendliest Child.

© And we love you now when you are still just the right fit for a cuddle, but getting so big and independent as well.

 

Every age and stage of life is full and good things and challenges. And just because we love your little self so, we shouldn’t make you think there’s not fantastic stuff ahead in your bigger and bigger girl self. Because baby, there is some good stuff waiting for you this year. Nine is just fine!

 

This year you did so many big kid things! You learned Danish, a language so hard even Mama can’t learn it – yet you speak it like a pro. Danish grownups always say how perfect your accent is! And you’ve made friends from all over the world: Danish pals like Sara and Sidse, Mia from China, and dear, sweet Johanna from Estonia. You get to do a lot more independent things now, like taking the dog out by yourself or riding your bike to the library with Eden. You even get to walk to the train station to meet Daddy for dinner at McDonalds! Woah! I don’t think I got to do any of that stuff until I was at least 10 – and that was in the old days when kids got to do that stuff younger. You are really doing great on the responsibility thing Cate!

 

I hope you will always remember your wonderful year of adventures: riding the double-decker bus in London; drawing the David in your sketch book in Italy: learning about old fashioned skole in Sweden; and picking up pebbles from the Berlin Wall in Germany. And don’t forget the Towers and Dome Tour of Europe with Eden and Daddy! I wonder how many steps you three have climbed to get to the top of the world?

 

I know this birthday summer here on the island with Giggy, Bompa and the cousins is going so fantastic for you. I’m so glad you get to start Year Nine off in such a beautiful place. I hope the peacefulness of this place – the still morning waters, the long glowing sunsets, and the hush of the rustling trees—sinks down deep inside you and fills you up for when times are not-so-easy. And I know you will be filled up to the top with joy as you run around with your sister and cousins: going out in the double kayak with Preston, building forts and hunting for treasure with Noah and Luke, and showing Jilly and Ammelia all the best places to find crabs. Not to mention all the fun that is waiting for us still with the big Chapman cousins in Chicago. (Oh, Mommy cannot stand to look when y’all have Danger Adventures with the big boys! “Do you know you are very brave?”)

 

I love you Cate Shalom, and I’m so proud of my growing-up “Baby Cate.”

 

Lots of Love,

 

Mama

 

Cate loves collage, drawing, cooking, giggling and screaming. She celebrated her birthday with mocktails, sushi, and a Costco cake that could feed approximately 3,000. She is having 5 birthday parites this year in 2 countries, 2 cities, and 4 houses. You can celebrate her for hours here and here.