Days 103 and 105 - April 13 and 15

April 13

Remember Shreddies, the English cereal that is amazing? Welcome to delicious (and my morning routine):


Monday's photo:


It was another beautiful day on Tuesday. In the afternoon, Dori came home and decided we should sit out on our porch, so we took out our chairs and sat outside in the shining sun listening to music and chatting.

I also made the chicken noodle soup again, and it makes so many servings. It’s definitely a keeper for a college student – make once and have leftovers for two weeks! It became a food sharing night – Dori had some, and when Tamar came home, I let her have some, as she was amazed that I made soup (“Where did you buy that?” “I made it.” “You made it?”). Then, she saw my pear on the counter and commented that it was all alone, so somehow that led to the discussion of what fruits we all had, and we realized we could make smoothies. Best idea ever.



Need ice? It just so happens we have a broken freezer!



Yum


April 15

Finally, Dori, Ditka, and I were all home at the same time and we undertook the epic freezer de-icing. It has been documented in photographs.

What a freezer should not look like:


Objective? Rid our freezer completely of ice. Tools? A butter knife, a steak knife, a hair dryer, and a towel. Result? Success!

Step 1 – Bottom shelf. Remove, then proceed to clean out ice.







Step 2 – Place boiling water in the shelf to quicken the melting of ice.
Note: Do not put boiling water in glass. If you do, this will happen:


(oops...)

Step 3 – Middle shelf


Step 4 – Top shelf, a.k.a. Iceberg of Massive Doom


a. Blow dry for about 20 minutes


b. Chop the ice incessantly until your arm is sore, and get the shelf halfway out.


c. Manage to wiggle the shelf out at long last



Step 5 – Complete the job, and dry off


What a freezer should look like:


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I had a horrible dream that night. I was extremely excited about the next day – getting to see the royal family when I’ve been in love with royals since as long as I can remember. I was also having a hard time sleeping – even though I had no caffeine, it felt like the effects of caffeine. After tossing and turning for over an hour at least, I finally fell asleep. In my dream, it was tomorrow. I was meeting Angela to head off to Amalienborg, when I discovered that they were handing out VIP tickets for the queen’s birthday – it meant we got a car ride to Amalienborg and we got to be within the “inner circle” of crowds. So I picked one up, then found Angela, and we were almost didn’t make it before the car (limo, actually) left. We just barely made it, and the car drove to Amalienborg, and dropped us off. I found myself a perfect position, almost front and center (and in this scenario, the queen came out of a door on ground level, not from a balcony). There were already a few stray royal family members coming and going, waving at random intervals. But then they all disappeared, and I pulled out my camera. It was noon – time for the queen. Only the queen didn’t come out, but Crown Prince Frederick and a state official. The official brokenly told us that the queen had just passed away, that day, on her 70th birthday. The entire crowd was in shock, and I thought it was some kind of terrible joke at first, but seeing CP Frederick’s face, I knew it wasn’t. The reaction of the people was immense, and I even felt tears welling up. In order to ensure succession, Frederick was crowned right there, and then we all went off, feeling rather disoriented. We met the Polish guys, who we were supposed to be going to Tivoli with. Very upset, we asked them if they had heard the news, and also that Tivoli – and everything – would not be open that day, in mourning. There, I woke up. It took me a while to figure out what had happened, and a huge wave of relief washed over me, when I realized it was 5:30 AM on Friday morning and that none of it had actually happened. It was an extremely upsetting dream, because my mind put so much emotion into it – I have no doubt that it would be a sad event for the queen to die, but the level of attachment I created between the Danish people and their queen is not nearly so intense. However, in dreams, whatever is true is true, and I could literally feel the weight of the shock and horror from the surrounding crowds. It was really hard to shake off the feeling.