Denmark Trip - Day 4 - Tved, DK to Odder, DK

Summer House, Tved -- Weather sunny. Woke up around 6 AM and had coffee, toasted bread and cheese. I texted our friend Mohamed to let him know we might arrive a little later than 5 PM because Lotte had to go to the graduation ceremony at her school.
Jakob, who we met at the midsummer celebration on the previous night, mentioned he composed and played the trumpet on a piece titled Buchanan Requiem. He said I could find it on YouTube and Spotify. So, I Googled it and found it on YouTube. I’d never heard trumpet played in such a mesmerizing way. It’s an amazing piece of music.

So far on our trip, I’ve added a few new critters to my life list including European Hare, European Goldfinch, Eurasian Blackbird, and Common Wood Pidgeon. I’ve also been able to identify a Common Cuckoo, Yellowhammer, Eurasian Blackcap, Greater Whitethroat, European Skylark, European Green Finch and Common Linnet , with the aid of the Merlin Bird ID app. 

At about 10:30 AM, Carol and I walked to Lotte’s house (.68 miles). The weather was beautiful blue skies with a light breeze, 70-74 deg F. The weather app on my phone predicted a 50% chance of rain for Sunday and 90% chance for Monday. The gravel road to Lotte's house had beautiful golden barley fields on one side of the road and blue-green wheat fields on the other side. Our missing luggage was delivered to Lotte’s house yesterday after noon. We sorted through and organized gifts and food we brought to give to Lotte, Marie, and Erik. Some of the canned food was dented. So, it looked like the luggage had a rough trip.

Around five years ago, Lotte asked if I would be interested in helping one of her students learn English. Her student, Mohamed, had asked her if she knew anyone who he could practice speaking English with. I agreed and contacted Mohamed and we arranged to talk over Skype once a week. At the time, I thought it would only be for a little while. However, as time went on, it became more of a mutual friendship and sharing of ideas and culture as well as helping Mohamed learn to speak English. One of my goals on our Denmark trip was to meet in person. So, Mohamed and I set up a time to meet at his house in Odder at around 5 PM today. It looked like we'd be a little late. So, I texted Mohamed to let him know Lotte, Carol and would be a little late. Lotte left her graduation ceremony early. So, we were able to arrive at Mohamed’s around 5:30 PM. 

Mohamed greeted us at his door and introduced us to his family including father, mother, brother, his brother’s wife and two children. Mohamed’s mother and sister-in-law prepared an amazing meal of stuffed squash, dolma (grape leaves stuffed with ground beef), ayran (yogurt drink), cake with coconut and almonds, tea and fruit.

Mohamed’s family spoke Arabic (Kurdish?) and his mother, brother and sister-in-law could also speak some Danish but little English. Mohamed could speak Arabic (Kurdish), Danish and English and Lotte could speak Danish and English. Of course, Carol and I only spoke English. So, communication ended up being an interesting mix of Danish, Arabic and English.

A nice outcome of our visit was Lotte arranged to help Mohamed’s mother learn to speak Danish better by doing Skype calls every week like what Mohamed and I have been doing with English for the last five years. I knew from my talks with Mohamed that he enjoyed technology and cars, So, I brought him an Amazon Echo and two car Consumer Report magazines. In return, he gave Carol and me watches, perfume for Carol and two books. We left Mohamed’s and since there was less traffic, we drove back through Aarhus rather than the way we came. We then walked to the summer house with Gismo and Lotte. The evening was incredibly beautiful with blue skies and open fields of wheat and barley.

TILT (Things I Learned Today) –

• Lotte’s neighbor, Jakob Buchanan composed and played trumpet on Buchanan Requiem
• I added eleven new critters to my life list
• Dolma are grape leaves stuffed with ground beef
• Ayran is a yogurt drink that tastes like butter milk