James Bond and Barrack Obama are all over the Danish television at the moment but mind you, we’re writing poems and some of us are even writing NaNoWriMo as well. No time for a lot of blog reading in November for sure.
Only we launched a notice board here on InOurBooks last week and we’re so glad that Amanda from Brisbane, Australia, used it to promote her blog. Amanda is a member of the Scandinavian club there and she also reads a lot of books and so do so many other members of this extraordinary club. I’m not sure whether they read that much poetry but here I’ll let Amanda correct me if I’m wrong. Still, there is this club where people can meet and have new friends, having delicious meals and having so much fun with their children.
I’m a teacher at the local island school – today was “a theme day” and the theme was English.I asked Marilyn Braendeholm or MiskMask for a good recipe for a “four o’clock tea” last week and she sent me two recipes of how to create the best sandwiches the English like. I also studied websites about how to tie a tie.
So today it was. The students appeared wearing ties and were pretty excited. An English day? In the first lesson we studied the recipes in English but we also learned how to use Google Translate and in the second lesson we studied how to tie a double Windsor knot and this work went on, off and on. And that was great because I was to fetch 3 packets of black Tiger prawns and other ingredients which were scheduled to come by the ferry at around 9.00 and yes, everything was there.
And the sandwiches? Marilyn, here I was among people who love “fuldskaver” which is a Sejer Island specialty I can’t explain, but something completely different compared with these sophisticated English sandwiches.
They loved them, Marilyn, and they also loved the tea, and we did heat the milk. We were supposed to speak English, only English, for almost four hours and we did the first two of them but when we created that delicious “four o’clock tea” experiment, the words switched to Danish all the time. Now here I sit and smile thinking about all these good things that come out of poetry.
And poetry! Poetic Asides! I have so much trouble posting at Poetic Asides. It says I’m posting too quickly and I don’t understand. I went through lots of trial and errors but whatever I do it says that I’m posting too quickly. Too quickly? I live on one of the slowest internet connection places in the entire Denmark.
So I began posting my poems on our notice board and what a wonderful surprise!
Claudette responded. Linda Hofke responded. Janet Martin responded. Ina. And there I sat. “Thank you” written all over my face. And here I am to say thank you. You make me so glad.
The worst part is that I’m not sure I know how to reply directly on our notice board yet – I only figured out how to paste so far but I will find out, hopefully. And now Vivienne Blake. Thank you and especially for your expression: “He would flip his lid.”
Now, let’s enjoy our Monday coffee, only mind you, I might suggest some real English tea some day with heated milk – shaken, not stirred.
in our books 
I have the same problem. I can not post a comment on Poetic Asides for days and the first time I try it says I am posting too fast. I’ve just given up. You’re comment about having one of the slowest internet connections made me laugh 🙂 and thanks for mentioning me.
So sorry to hear that. Linda, hopefully you write the poems – and you are so welcome to post them on our notice board here. I would be thrilled.
Det er rigtigt godt skrevet Andrea. Jeg synes også at sandwichene smagte rigtigt godt 🙂
Mange, mange tak, Sidse. Det ser ud til, at vi nu også får mulighed for at nyde Australsk morgen te – forhåbentlig har de lige så gode sandwiches.
Ja, det må vi håbe 🙂
just a guess…but did she say this is good writing and those sandwiches tasted ‘right good’?
Yes, she does.
Yes, this is right 😉
I’m very glad that you enjoyed preparing and eating your lovely English sandwiches. Well done to all the students!!
Marilyn, did you see the Australian comment? Now we’re heading for Australian morning tea – can’t wait to cover the entire day. Again, thank you!
How delightful a post! I enjoyed this school theme you had and especially that everything was fine and children liked it. I know, as well as you, Andrea know, how terrible things might go when children decide not to like something in which a teacher has invested efforts and love.
With regard to the Notice Board, I am not sure how do anything on it, honestly speaking. I must admit that I didn’t spend enough time there, perhaps. Of course, you know November is a pretty busy month. I remember T.S. Eliot’s “April is the cruelest month” 🙂 I could say November is even crueler, after all in April we only have a NaPoWriMo 🙂
Enjoy your coffee on Tuesday, as well!
Yes, November is busy but I see that so far you are managing fine. So up here from Denmark I shout out: Go, go, go Mariya – you’re doing just fine!
Thanks for your comment.
Pingback: Sandwiches for Sejer Island « Misk Cooks
Hej Andrea, vi synes det er en super god blog. Med gode billeder fra gode gamle Sejerø. Vi er så stolte af dig og din præstation på denne blog 🙂
hilsen dine yndlings elever;)
Altså, jeg vil aldrig glemme de to grinebidende drenge, der forlangte, at jeg først læste deres kommentar, når jeg kom hjem. Der var vist nogle kommafejl, sagde I, men kære yndlingselever – at I virkelig skrev det her, ja, det er sådan mine yndlingselever skriver. Mange, mange tak!
……
How fun! I wish I could participate in English Day with kids who don’t usually speak it. I read about the sandwiches on Misky’s page, but I’ll admit I’ve never had either one. (Well, a version of the egg sandwich, but not quite that way.) What is “fuldskaver?”
J9, I asked people from Sejer Island how you spell “fuldskaver” to get sort of near a recipe and one of my students acted as if I was about to steal their crown jewels. Only the fact is that there is a recipe available on the internet and “fuldskager” and “fuldskaver” are the same. There is an internet comment attached to one of the recipes and it says that some Russian sailors shared this recipe with the people on the island. That’s very likely because this place is the only one in Denmark where you can have “fuldskaver.” I will return with the recipe for you somehow. Maybe Misky will help me because it’s difficult to translate.
Thank you for your comment!
Such a beautiful event! In Canada, still many ties to Great Britain through ancestry and customs. Coffee in the morning but tea is drink of choice for many in the afternoon–tea with milk, that is!
Yes, Patricia, tea with milk and yes, it was a great day. Are there any special recipes up in your place?
Thank you for your comment!
This had me giggling: “Too quickly? I live on one of the slowest internet connection places in the entire Denmark.”
And now you’ve got me craving the cucumber finger sandwiches my grandma used to make. Yum!
Cucumber finger sandwiches? They weren’t called that but there was cucumber in them.
Linda, I enjoy your poetry and your pictures so much – thanks for stopping by.
You suspected correctly, Andrea, in that the bookclub, which is at the moment, inactive, has members which do not in the main, read poetry. But that is not to say that they don’t like poetry. Your English afternoon tea sounds like a lot of fun, and I wonder if you might have an Australian morning tea, one day. Quite different, but you could still practise speaking in English, with a few slangs words thrown in, for good measure! Thanks for the post.
Amanda, you have me longing to see my Australian friends again. Yes, English with a few slangs words thrown in here and there. Only I hope that you can help me because I only remember “howdy.”
And yes, an Australian morning tea – we would love to try it.
Thank you so much!
I have a list of slang that I sent to a penpal, some years ago. I will try to find it and send it to you. We have rhyming slang, like Steak n Kidney for Sydney, which tends to be used by males and the people in the country, and city slang which is more akin to American terms with a few Australian idioms thrown in such as “See ya” for goodbye, thongs ( open beach shoes, not underwear), “good on ya”, for something done well,”I’ll run you over to the milk bar”when you offer to drive someone to the corner store, etc. Something my NZealand cousin found was that we often say, “Yeh Nah”, together to start a casual response to a conversation. It is a way to agree with what the other person is saying. I have caught myself.saying that. We are a bit crazy down under!!!
Vi ville elske at lave Australian te 😉
Vi vil også gerne lære “slang” ord XD
Tak for det Sidse. Jeg kan laere “slang” ord fra Australien. You can try them out on your classmates. First you need to learn how to say G’day properly. sort of like the croc hunter, Steve Irwin!!!! 🙂
Ja tak, det ville være dejligt, især hvis vi kunne bruge en skoledag på det:)
Og det kunne være sjovt at lære nogen slang ord.
G’day Oliver. How ya goin? fra Australien
Nice;)
Andrea, this post simply made me smile from ear to ear.(and it made me hungry) I am humbled and honored to be mentioned. Thank-you!so much. You are such a gifted writer and your kids must LOVE you as a teacher! Such a great age…we do not have what we call ‘middle school’ in Canada but is it Gr. 6,7,8?
Please give your students a big hello from Canada. When you find it on the map look for the province of Ontario. That is where I live about two hours north of Toronto. Ontario is home to the worlds largest fresh water lakes and my family LOVES to go to the beach. I have many dutch neighbors from Holland, but no Danish neighbors as far as I know.
Andrea, I hope to write something and link back to this blog as well. Technology allows the whole world to be neighbors, doesn’t it?
In Canada we are six hours behind your time so when you are going home from school our school day is just beginning. If ever you have any questions about Canada I will do my best to answer them.
Andrea, thank-you for being a great poet and friend. I’m going to grab a coffee and do a little more reading before I get back to my house-work. (I’d like to try and translate a bit of Danish as well:) I’m quite computer illiterate and am constantly asking my kids how to do things. I just recently learned how to link.
Reblogged this on Something to Ponder About and commented:
Spreading International culture through food. A great lesson for kids, and lots of fun eating too…
God idea 🙂
Good*
Hi Sidse, I hear that you are an excellent shot with a rifle. My favourite sporting firearm is the pistol, but I have used rifle and shotgun, and even an old Black powder musket. That was so much fun.
@Amanda, I have only tried the rifle but I hope I can try a pistol in the future.
Where do you shoot? In a school?
G’day Amanda, we cant find the recipe on your blog about Astralien morning tea, so can you send a recipe?
Hope you are fine down there:)
Hi Oliver, Ja jeg har det fint! The Sun is shining and it is quite humid and hot. Today it was about 27 degrees. We might even get a storm later tonight. Okay, an Austalian morning tea would consist of lamingtons, and Anzac or Tim Tam biscuits and maybe some date scones. I will have to send some Tim tams to your teacher, so she can share them with you all. I will send a recipe to your teacher as soon as I can. YOu should be able to find a recipe for Anzac biscuits and lamingtons on the net.
Hello to Sidse and Oliver – How much I love that you read our blog all the way from Denmark, a place where I have not been since I was four years old (I am much older now!). I wish I could write to you in Danish, but I tried the translation from Google and it looks very odd (it puts in strange numbers in place of oomlauts), so I hope you can bear with my English 🙂
Thank you for coming to visit the blog and I hope you will write more to us – perhaps share some of your writing with us sometime?
Ina (Andrea’s blogging partner in the U.S. and Devony’s friend)
Hej Sidse! For some reason there is no “reply” button, under your name, so I will write here. I shoot occasionally at a sporting shooters club. It is a hobby that not so many people do here in Australia, unless you live in the country ( bush ) areas. They have a website if you want to read a bit about it. http://ssaabris.org.au/
You can try out a pistol at the club on special open days, but if you want to pursue it as a hobby, you must first do a course, and get a special license which has some further special rules. For rifle, there are also rules, but not so many.