Last Saturday, I had the great privilege of welcoming my mother and little sister to England. They’re here on a 7-day tour of the country, bringing with them 70 Danish high schoolers aged 17-19. My mother is a high school teacher and a veteran of many class excursions to various European countries, and she has often used her status as troop leader to bring along some of her offspring. I’ve been to Berlin, Prague and London with her in my time, my younger brother Hans has been to London, and now Anne finally has gotten the chance to go to Manchester and London.
Not that they stayed in Manchester for very long, mind you. They arrived by coach from Stanstead Airport at 5 pm on saturday and left the following morning for a cottonmill museum and then London. So I couldn’t do much more than just show them a bit of central Manchester and take the expectant high school teachers to the Curry Mile for some award-winning lamb handi at the Spicy Hut.
It’s fun showing people around, as you suddenly realise that you actually do know something about this strange place where you’ve spent almost two months now. Not that there’s that much to see in Manchester at 6.30 saturday evening (I mean, museum or architecture-wise – that sort of “culturally enlightening stuff” that you’d expect high school teachers to like), so naturally, we had to go for a pint instead.
What was especially good about a visit from Denmark was the supplies: I got lots of Leverpostej, Danish licorice, and rye bread – all of which is stuff that you for some reason cannot find in England. Some of us international students are having a proper “International Food Night” on Friday, so with my new supplies I can create at least a little taste of home. I plan to cook this to go with the ryebread, leverpostej (w/ mushrooms and bacon) and pickled beets.
Yum.
Actually, I’ve been hyping Danish cabbages to all the southern europeans for some time now (all the colours: Green, White, Red.. and Brown) – it’ll be fun to see what they’ll think of it.
Cabbage Hype would actually be a good name for a band, I think. Along with Chorus Of Approval or even The Complex Concepts. I can just imagine the Cabbages playing partypunk-funk ala !!! and having a crazy hit with a song called “Too Loud, Too Dark, Too Drunk”.
