Karneval for All

Howdy again, folks. Since I last wrote, things have been moving along steadily in the 'City of Smiles.' That there is Aarhus's nickname - I don't think I ever mentioned that the last time around though I'm considering a class-action lawsuit because I'm pretty sure I saw one person frown the other day. Perhaps it was because after a month of April which saw more sunlight hours than any other month in the history of the universe (an exaggeration, but I think I saw that it was a record), Denmark is up to its old tricks again. Though still not like the epic rains of last year, the month of May was decidedly more overcast and rainy than we've been accustomed to as of late. Looking ahead to June, I'm really hoping that these trends in precipitation don't continue; I don't want to be forced to seek litigation against any other scowling Danes.

As you might imagine, Memorial Day is in full effect over this way and when I say that, I mean I'm looking out my window at a cloudy sky, jonesing for a good cookout. Completely unrelated to a special day of American patriotism and remembrance, there was a celebration that did take place this weekend about an hour and change north of Aarhus in the city of Aalborg (all-bohr). Aalborg is the fourth-largest city in the country and on the last weekend of May for the past twenty-eight years, has been home to the Aalborg Karneval.

Dating back to 1983, the Carnival (I'm going to Anglicize from here on out) was founded to celebrate springtime and fill the void of not having a carnival on the last weekend of May. It was meant to be an event for the whole family, though the Danish equivalent of a carnival is not as we are familiar with back stateside. Rather than commandeering a fairground with rickety rides, fried dough and of course, carnies to run the show, the Carnival here is more akin to a 30,000-person Halloween parade. There are various events throughout the weekend, including parades for kids and their parents, a costumed battle of the bands and the Grand Parade, where people of all ages take to the main street, donned in their finest, cheesiest costumes. Groups of people often dress in themes and these run the imaginative gamut from extremely clever to woefully regrettable - I'll leave it to you to guess which was more prevalent.

Although only learning of the Carnival a week or so beforehand, a decision of whether to go or not was reached in no time. And so my roommate, whom a number of you know and will be formally introduced very shortly, accompanied me to this grand event. Arriving with makeshift Viking costumes (complete with shields made from seats off stools in our apartment), we were hosted by two fellow Americans - John and Anthony - whom we actually played the week before. We were lucky to have made this contact, as they and their friends were most hospitable indeed. In addition to being kind and generous, our hosts were a hit at Saturday's parade. People couldn't seem to get enough of their outfits, throwbacks to everybody's favorite British anthropomorphic television gremlins, The Teletubbies. They were lauded for their anatomically correct costumes, as opposed to another similarly-dressed bunch, all of whom paled in comparison due to near skintight outfits. Pictured below is John on the left as Tinky-Winky and Anthony on the right as Laa-Laa. This was taken shortly after they liberated a pirate ship float from a group of rather lame buccaneers.


As advertised, the parade was a raucous good time. It ended in a park where the rest of the Carnival festivities took place (perhaps that's where the carnies were hiding) and our party declined to enter, as none of us had pockets fit for storing money to cover the entrance fee. As a Viking, the thought crossed my mind to pillage the necessary funds from an unsuspecting nearby villager, though I ultimately reasoned that this might draw the ire of the local constable. We left the parade, returned our outfits to John and Anthony's apartment and did what any other self-respecting Carnival-goer would do: had dinner at a Chinese buffet. It was delicious. After an egg roll-induced nap, we hit the town for more adventure. Though we did so sans-costumes, quite a few still adorned theirs for the night and did so proudly.

Not bad for a Memorial Day Weekend, eh? Many thanks to our gracious hosts, our paths will most certainly meet again soon. Amidst all the excitement, I didn't even manage to snap a picture of our costumes. If one should emerge from someone else's camera, I will be sure to amend this post to include it. Should it not, I leave you to your imagination. For now though, the clouds have just lifted here and I'm off enjoy some of this sunshine. To all those back home, I hope you do the same and enjoy your day off. Be back soon.

Drum Roll, please...

Ever seen the Ridley Scott classic 'Alien?' The protagonists in that flick get a distress signal from some meteor or planet or something in the Middle of Nowhere, Space. Once they land on it to investigate what's going on, they find it to be a very scary and threatening place (surprise, surprise). Before they actually get there though, the crew on the ship, an intergalactic towing vessel if I'm not mistaken, debates whether they should indeed risk their lives and check things out. Ultimately they receive orders from their employers that they have to venture into the unknown, but that does little to shake their apprehensions.

What, you might ask, does this have to do with this particular blog? The answer: very little. Except for the fact that for me, the author of said blog, this publication has been a weird, scary, deserted meteor ever since I stopped writing almost seven months ago. It has been in the back of my mind since the last post and I have many times been tempted to sit down and share with you all, just like the good old days. But, every time I get such an urge, I'm quite certain that an extraterrestrial will spring forth from the internet, affix itself to my face and lay eggs down my throat. Since I'm not sure that's covered by our family's insurance plan, I've maintained my distance.

Until now.

It's time. The outpouring of support from no fewer than seven or eight people has rekindled a fire that once burned strong in my soul. I have stories to share, some dating back to last year's adventures. I have new tales to tell, with new and exciting characters. I've witnessed things that even Charlie Sheen would marvel at. But before those are discussed, I feel I should catch you, the reader, up to speed with what exactly has been going on since I last posted.

- October 15, 2010: I returned to the United States following seven months abroad. My contract with the Aarhus Tigers American Football Club was up and I was unsure of my future at that point.

- October 16, 2010 - February 15, 2011: I was in the United States, taking advantage of reasonably-priced goods and services, enjoying the company of my friends and family and most importantly, using a toaster oven to evenly brown various baked goods. I think some other stuff happened, too, but I could be wrong.

- February 15, 2011: I had dinner with my folks at Santarpio's in East Boston. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention in the last section that I had worked out another contract with the Tigers, only this time they were letting me bring a friend along. After dining in what was once voted the twenty-third best pizzeria in the world, I departed Logan Airport to begin another stint in the Kingdom of Denmark.

- February 15, 2011 - Present: I've been in Denmark.

Any questions?

I'm sure there might be one or two out there and I promise to ... okay, I'm going to nip this in the bud right now. Last time around, I think I got caught up in 'promising' too much and when I didn't end up fulfilling everything I wanted, I caused myself lots of undue stress. Not only that, but anyone reading this thing might have picked up on the fact that I wasn't always the most consistent writer.

So from here on out, I'm going to try not to hold myself to posts that may or may not get done. I will be writing and I'd like to believe I'll be doing so fairly often. But things do come up and if I don't get to an entry, I won't sweat it. The less pressure I put on myself to do this unpaid, leisurely, deadline-free chronicle for a small group of my friends and family, the better.

I think that's a decent first post. Before leaving you for now, I'd just like to wish all the mothers reading this, especially my own, a happy Mother's Day. I hope that you all experienced weather like we had here today (it was beautiful out - see picture below) and that you got spend some nice time doing mom stuff with those who hopefully appreciate you and the mom stuff you do. Also, I want to send along special birthday wishes to my dear old Dad, Steven Michael Dembow (notice I was kind enough not to put emphasis on the word 'old'). Many of you probably know him in some way and today is his special day. I hope he didn't run into problems with it also falling on Mother's Day, but I guess that would be a matter for the courts to decide.

In closing, it's nice to be back. I have indeed missed sharing my thoughts with many of you fine folks out there in your respective domiciles. I'm looking forward to catching everyone up. All in due time, of course.