It's snowing in Innsbruck. In Copenhagen it gets dark at 4 pm.

I am back from my weekend adventure to the north. It was really fun. The train ride was actually 15 hours from Munich to Copenhagen, but the three of us (roommates Lionel, Sandra and I) had the six-person cabin to ourselves so we basically had three beds (the two benches, and the floor). I drank most of a bottle of wine by myself on the way there, so that made it really easy for me to sleep on the floor.

We got to Copenhagen and hopped on the train across the water to Sweden, where we met and stayed with one of Sandra's friends. We paid 50 euro for the round trip tickets to Copenhagen. For the 40-minute ride from there to Malmö (Sweden), we paid like 15e each way. Ha! Copenhagen was really cool. It's really clean and trendy like Stockholm (the only other part of Scandinavia I'd seen), but seemed a little more relaxed and alternative- a lot like Portland. We went to this one place called "Christiana," which is a "free city" within the city founded by hippies. Until recently was a safe haven for people to do their basic shopping, hanging out in pubs, and drug purchasing! Now you can only buy pot, which I smelled on a continual basis.

Another highlight was the Carlsberg brewery. At the end of the tour (post-gift shop; pre-beer-sampling, which I think was backwards planning on their part), I attempted to create and send a video e-card. It came to my address, but it was just a picture with their logo. There was supposed to be a video with me pantomiming opening a beer, chugging it, then being wasted. It was classic. And yet it is lost. Lost footage to be rediscovered one day and shown on Entertainment Tonight.

Teaching continues to provide good stories. I was teaching about holiday traditions in America and the teacher of the class (they're always in the room with me and usually just observing, but one old man has comments about EVERYTHING I say) wanted to know if we have "Infant Jesus Markets" in the US. Here they have these really nice "Christkindlmarkts" set up in town squares where they sell glühwein, sauerkraut, pretzels, gifts, kitschy trinkets, etc. The literal translation is "Christ child market," or as this teacher translated, "infant Jesus." This is one case where, since we don't have anything equivalent, I think we should just use the German word - or just "Christmas market". But he insisted.

I'm teaching a lot of lessons on Dr. Seuss and The Grinch this week, and showing the cartoon at the end of the class. First, though, we read about the author, why he's famous, a summary of the story, and then a sample from the book. One girl was having trouble reading today and accidentally read/said "How the Grinch Stole Americans." Maybe this is a Freudian slip? A sign of things to come?

Also, have you ever noticed that Cindy Lou Who has a New York accent? She says, "Santy Claus, why are you stealing our Christmas tree? Whoiy?" Maybe Whoville is actually one of the boroughs?