Drinking debate

Lots of new stories floating about right now in regards to a group that wants to lower the drinking age in the US, and, of course, about those who think it's a horrible idea to do so. Here is one of the many, many articles, this one from the Washington Post:

Bid to Reconsider Drinking Age
Taps Unlikely Supporters

The entire concept of not being able to drink legally prior to the age of 21 is very strange to the majority of Europeans. It makes me wonder what some of the students from Europe and elsewhere, who attend colleges and universities in the US, think about it all.

To me, it all comes down the forbidden fruit concept. The moment something is forbidden it suddenly becomes more desired. Speaking from experience, the moment I arrived on my college campus, the idea of going out to a big party and drinking and NOT getting in trouble for it was the most exciting thing ever. I remember that first weekend on campus - we drank, we stayed up all night, and we generally felt like - "cool, this is what it feels like to be an adult". A rather naive point of view, of course, but when you spend the first 17-18 years of your life under the rules of others, you must test your limits as soon as you are able. Trust me, I was always more fearful of my parents than I was of 'the law'!

My personal opinion on this debate is, that while it may be a step in the right direction, I don't think lowering the drinking age to 18 solves everything. I grew up under the '21' rule. However, by the time I was actually 21, and could drink legally, I was over it. Drinking had lost it's appeal. It's not that I stopped drinking alcohol, it's just that it wasn't quite so exciting. Been there, done that. Perhaps if the drinking age had been 18 at the time, I would've bought a six-pack and decided it wasn't such a thrill - but it's hard to know what I 'would have' done looking back on it now.

I do believe that the European culture does raise more responsible attitudes towards alcohol. That period of testing your limits, which I think is an inevitable part of growing up, regardless of the drinking age, seems to happen a bit earlier here. Is earlier better? That I can't say, but I can say that I would rather have teenagers testing their limits under their parents supervision, than on college campuses where they are on their own for the first time in their lives. That first weekend for me, I was out running around in the streets at 4 AM and no one was wondering where I was. Had I been 16 and drunk, and still living at home, my parents would've found me long before 4 AM. A safer scenario, in my mind.

I doubt the college presidents in favor of lowering the drinking age will get their way. The puritan ideals of the US, and the influence of those who react based on emotion, rather than logic, will insure that the drinking age remains at 21. It is refreshing, however, to see that there actually are some willing to stand up and put the idea out there.

Merry Christmas to us!

Opened my inbox over the weekend to find a very very nice surprise! My parents have decided to buy our plane tickets so that we can spend Christmas in the states - woohoo!

We spent some time making all kinds of fun arrangements and I am very excited to say that Ole and I will be spending 2 days in NYC and then 5 days with friends and family in upstate New York. Time to load up those extra empty suitcases so we can fill them up for the return trip !!

Chimneys - part II

For those who may have missed it, I refer back to the original post, Chimneys.

I am pleased to say that my belt-buckle yielding friend returned to my home again to inspect my chimney and make sure we are ready for yet another year of keeping the home fires burning.

I am even more pleased to say that, for the most part, I managed to speak Danish with him this time around! Poor guy had two pups jumping all over him this time, but he didn't seem to mind. I missed a few sentences here and there, hopefully not anything of vital importance, but I managed to communicate with him, and that, my friends, was pretty exciting.

Can't they at least TRY??

At the end of last week I had to send a payment off to the IRS, in the IRS' own envelope. I dutifully put the payment voucher and the payment into the envelope, wrote my return address in the upper left hand corner on the 3 little lines the IRS' envelope provided for that purpose, put some Danish stamps on it and sent it off.

Saturday we opened our mailbox only to find that same envelope had arrived here. How nice of the Danish postal service!

Many complain about the US postal service but honestly, I believe, the USPS does it's job. The mail gets where it's supposed to go - they figure it out. The same cannot be said for the danish equivalent. The envelope was, or course, a little window envelope. If you've ever used them, and I'm sure you have, the little papers inside the envelope can tend to shift around and maybe the address isn't fully readable instantly. You do the shake down to the inside pieces of paper and the address magically reveals itself, etc. Apparently this is too difficult for the danish postal service.

Postal employee A.. "I cannot see the address"
Postal employee B.. "There's an address, there, in the upper left hand corner - send it there"
Postal employee A.. "Ahh yes, perfect!"

Morons - the upper left hand corner is called a "return address" - you don't just send the mail there thinking that's where it's supposed to go! Had they done that with something written on the original such as "Unable to deliver, return to sender" then I would have been slightly less annoyed. At least then I would KNOW why it showed up in my mailbox. But there was nothing - they sent it to the return address apparently because it's an address they found, and that somehow equaled where it was supposed to go.

I was going to take a picture of the envelope for this post, but Ole has now taken the envelope off with him this morning to resend the whole thing in a proper Danish envelope, or something.

p.s. It can't be easy to be married to me. I, of course, in my ranting, took out my frustration for the Danish postal service on my dear hubby - as a Dane, he inevitably gets the blame for any frustration I feel at anything that goes wrong in HIS country. Ooops.

My head hurts

This evening was the first day 'back to school' for me and after 2.5 hours of danish class, my head hurts.

I have school every Tuesday and Thursday evening for what feels like now to eternity. While I do get encourages every now and then and feel like maybe I'm actually getting somewhere with all of this, I still, for the life of me, cannot understand my own husband when he speaks Danish. One of my teachers says that it's probably Ole's accent that is the issue - I don't know, but I know I can't understand him :(

School isn't horrible, but it definitely takes a strain on my brain! It's the constant concentration that gets me. If I let my mind wander for even a moment, I have missed something that my teacher said and at that point, my brain sort of switches over to that 'huh???' setting.

I'm sure going to miss my free evenings!

Help Me!

I'm being overwhelmed by incredible cuteness!

 

 

 

 

Don't Get Up

Ahh the life of luxury...

 

Don't overwhelm yourself and waste energy standing up to eat!