The great amber-hunt

We have Ane’s mum Inge visiting at the moment. Tristan and I went to pick her up at the airport last Thursday, and I took a few shots while we were waiting. Here are two of them.

Gomorra

It is amazing what a difference the presence of a grandmother can suddenly make in one’s life. I can make dinner or wash up without a 20-pound child hanging around my neck, the laundry gets hanged up in the basement before it dries inside the washing machine and it is even possibly to steal away for half an hour to check emails or write a blog entry. Inge even offered to do a bit of baby sitting so that Ane and I could get to the cinema - only the second time since Tristan was born. We saw Gomorra, the Italian Mafia / Camorra movie everyone's talking about and which harvested all the major prizes at the European Film Awards a few weeks ago. The film was great; really harsh and completely lacking the cheesy gangster romantics and glamor that Hollywood normally throws over the subject. It really shows you the vast devastation across the whole society that this type of criminality can cause. I particularly liked the cinematography: hand-held cameras, lots of focus-shifts, really dark scenes among the desolate semi-ruins of the Naples housing estate, which is really made to look like the worst place to live on earth (which it probably is).

Winter, at last

Yesterday we had the first (and possibly last) real winter day of the season. When we woke up, the town was covered in an inch of snow, and later it turn out to be the most beautiful day with sunshine, only temporarily disrupted by liberal scattering of picturesque clouds. Inge and I took the opportunity to drive to Lyngså on the east coast to look for amber on the beach.

Amber

Finding amber is not easy. It requires patience, luck, and, according to a common Danish belief, a special sense that one acquires only by starting out as a child. Some would even claim that being a great amber-hunter runs in the family – but I’d rather not get into that. Since the likelihood of finding amber on the housing estate in Hungary where I grew up was extremely slim, I will probably never make it in the amber-hunting trade. My record so far is nothing to brag about: over the years I think I’ve found about five pieces in all – although two of them were rather large, earning me 10 minutes fame and admiration in the family.

To be honest, finding amber is not something that gets me going. I just don’t see the fun in strolling along the beach at a snail’s pace, bent forward, steering at the sand and poking it from time to time with a stick (see below). For me the point of being by the sea is actually watching the waves, the sky, the dunes, the birds, and, possibly, the female sunbathers (who were regrettably very scarce this February morning).

Apart from luck, patience, that special sense and possibly the genetic component, it also helps if there is actually amber on the beach. This is most likely after a proper storm, when the waves throw up pieces of various sizes onto the beach. As the weather had been rather dull earlier, we didn’t find anything apart from a relatively small piece. A rather meager harvest after a day’s work, you might say – but the sun, the sea, the silence and the total luck of people made it absolutely worthwhile – in spite of the lacking topless sunbathers.

More pictures here.

Quiet days

A few quiet, uneventful days, at last. Our holiday in the States is now a distant (but very nice) memory, as we have long readjusted to our daily life in Denmark. The weather here is also back to its usual dullness that is characteristic of this time of year. We haven’t experienced any of those winter storms that from time to time hit the west coast with ferocious force, flooding low-lying areas and causing general havoc. So far this winter has just been wet, gray and windy. How we sometimes long for the deep snow of Wisconsin! At least the days are getting perceivably longer.

The greatest recent news is that Tristan has learned to walk! He took his first real steps in Madison. For some reason in the beginning he felt most sure walking barefoot, holding something in his hand But these restrictions don’t apply any more, and now he can even change direction and turn around without falling – most of the time.



Having mastered this advanced form of locomotion, he is now clearly getting ready to speak. In his babbling I can distinguish the distinct intonation patterns of his two languages. We really wonder what his first word will be. An interesting question in this respect is whether what we normally consider first words are really words or perhaps something else? Many linguists would say that these are in reality not words but mini-sentences or “holistic utterances”. This is because they seem to have a wide range of partially related meanings, only some of which are covered by the same word in the adult word. Thus the “word” apple may mean anything from ‘give me the apple’ to ‘I want to give the apple to daddy’ to ‘it looks like an apple’. (In the last sense, of course it can be applied to oranges, tennis balls and a myriad other things.) The other reason why we can’t really talk about words is that these utterances typically have the intonation patterns of short sentences. For example, apple, when applied in the sense ‘where is the apple?’, would have the rising-falling prosody of English questions.

Anyway, Tristan is not quite at this stage yet, although in some sense he already has a single “word”: mamama. It meets two of the three criteria typically applied to first words: it has a fairly clear and stable meaning: ‘give it to me NOW; 'I want it bad and I can’t wait' ('it' being mostly, but not exclusively food) and a very stable pronunciation. Only the third criterion is lacking: it doesn’t sound like anything with a similar meaning in Danish or Hungarian. But I’m sure he will soon be more explicit than that.


Anyway, what else is new since my last post? Tristan had his second haircut yesterday and it did not go quite as smoothly as the first time. I think the procedure of being installed in a high chair and having a comparative stranger fiddle around his ear reminded him too much of his recent traumatic visits to the ear specialist. But after some crying the result was excellent, and he looks quite cheeky with his new, trimmed looks.

White Christmas

Back to Madison, Wisconsin. It feels as if it was only a few weeks ago that we were here last, but the total changeover of the landscape reminds us that this is not the case. We get another chance to enjoy the legendary extreme climate of the American midwest. On earlier occasion we experienced an extreme heat wave in October, last time we tried tornadoes, spectacular summer storms and flash floods, and this time we are wading through real deep snow - when it is not too cold to venture outside.

Madison is on track to match last year's record 101.4-inch snow accumulation. So far there have been 31 inches this season, and 10.3 of that fell on Friday 19 December, the day we arrived. Luckily, the authorities were well prepared, so there were no major hick ups, although schools had to be closed because of the arctic cold.


The low temperatures only allowed us once to take the kids sledging. It was a moderate success. Tristan did not seem to mind it too much, and may even have enjoyed it - in any case, he had the same laconic expression as last time in the zoo. His twin cousins, however, were much less impressed. But they will get a chance to get used to it, as there is new snow on the way.

One

Isn’t it unbelievable that it was already a year ago that Ane and I sat there in the hospital and looked at this little creature for the first time? He was totally helpless as he was dragged through the initial health checks - and now, as I write this, he’s crawling around in the sitting room at an astonishing pace, playing with the new toys he got at yesterday’s birthday party.

It is truly amazing how far has come in a year. He can’t quite walk yet, but took his first few independent steps during the party yesterday. Unfortunately I just happened to be out of the room. He can’t speak yet, either (it usually takes a bit longer when one has to master two languages) but his communication skills are excellent. He can express just about everything he wants to by pointing, hitting, biting and uttering various vocal calls. He has also started to attach words to their referents (he can point at a number of objects when we call out their names) but somehow he got the meaning of ‘no’ totally wrong. In other words, he is developing a very definite mind of his own.

In the middle of October he began in day care, which has been a mixed blessing so far. Socially it is definitely a success: Tristan adjusted quickly to the new setting and is happy to be there, apart from a 30-second ritual protest every morning when he gets dropped off. But unfortunately his attendance has been quite erratic, due to a series of various illnesses from the flu to ear infection. Hope his immune system will benefit from these in the long run.

Apart from looking at dogs and feeding birds, Tristan’s main interest is being together with other kids, especially his twin cousins Cecilie and Isabell who are only three weeks younger than him. He is also quite keen on books, although that interest is mostly gastronomical.

With his two extended trips abroad Tristan is already a very experienced traveller. Right now he’s getting ready for his third long journey; in a couple of day’s time we’re off to Wisconsin to celebrate Christmas with Ane’s “American” family. So this blog will go dark for a short while – but before that here are a few pictures from Tristan’s very first birthday party:

There were no fewer than three different types of birthday cakes: the official one by Ane (first picture), a super brunsviger kagemand ('cakeman') by Kristine (second picture), and the famous Hungarian Dobos torta by Orsi.

Of course Tristan took a very active part in the preparations and tasted everything, raw, half-baked and ready.

All in all we were 15 people, so we couldn't fit at one table. Here is the larger of the two tables.


Unfortunately only one of Tristan's three grandma's, Ing-Britt could be present, but she made a good job of trying to substitute for the others. Nevertheless, we were missing Inge and Ilona a lot, not to mention all other friends and family members abroad.


It looks good - but let me TASTE IT!

Orsi and Tristan - and, most important of all, Orsi's camera.

Checking out the presents.

Not only the kids had fun - Meile and Orsi in party mode.

Getting tired of opening all those boxes.

Finally, on behalf of the three of us, thank you to all for the many presents, cards and e-mails. They really made it a very special day.

In the Zoo

Last Sunday we took Tristan to the local Zoo for the first time. It was an interesting experience for us from the point of view of child development. He got very quiet and contemplative, not showing any overt sign of interest or excitement, though he clearly soaked every impression in.

The thing with small kids is that one can never be sure what catches their attention. This time all the animals were in top form. Anna, the huge orangutan (picture) was doing her bits about a yard from us, the baby chimps were playing like crazy, the penguins were feeding noisily, but the only thing that got Tristan really agitated was a plain domestic cat walking by.

Another example of the same thing is from Saturday, when we went to a toy shop to get some new toys for Tristan. After what to me felt like several hours of careful searching we selected three pieces of the best and most educational pieces ever produced. On the way out, as kind of an afterthought, Ane threw a cheap plastic toy mobile phone into our cart. Well, try and guess which one of the four toys has enjoyed Tristan's undivided attention ever since we got home?

Back to the zoo: we also visited the petting zoo, where Tristan very nearly managed to tear off a baby goat's ear. He does the same to me from time to time (although, strangely, never to Ane) and it is really not much fun for the victim. At least the poor goat didn't wear glasses.

We finished the trip in the cafeteria. Much good can be said about Aalborg Zoo. It was the world's first ecological zoo, the animals have reasonably decent living conditions, their educational displays are first class - but the food is simply appalling. The worst kind of junk, without a trace of anything green and healthy. This did not trouble Tristan, though who really enjoyed eating Ane's French fries with a BIG fork.

Tristan at 11 months

I’ve been keeping a low profile for a while, due to illness, travel and general autumn inactivity. In the meantime our life has become rather more hectic, as Ane returned to work and Tristan began his career in day care over a month ago. We were lucky to find a suitable place for him relatively close by. It’s a smallish one of its kind: apart from Tristan there are only two other kids (both older than him). Jette, his child-minder is employed by Aalborg municipality, which gives a bit of extra security compared to private care. For example, when she’s off sick, the authorities arrange for an alternative placement.

Tristan had a relatively smooth start, but then launched into the usual succession of flu-like illnesses. Therefore he stayed home for several days, during which he got sufficiently unused to the whole idea of not being home with mum or dad all the time. Apart from the slight disappointment it caused, he’s doing very well. His latest favourite pastimes are pointing at various objects, studying photographs of family members and feeding birds in the nearby park. Since the latter interest he shares with several other kids in the neighbourhood, an average duck in our park must have a calorie intake significantly higher than that of a smaller African village.

Tristan is also getting better and better at understanding words (still relying heavily on context) and his vocalization is ever more expressive and varied. He is very happy to be with other kids, especially his twin cousins. Eating is another favourite activity. After a short spell of being rather fussy, his appetite is back to normal. He eats just about everything, and is very interested in new tastes. Ane and I simply can’t understand where he got that from. As for his physical development, he is now very steady on his feet but does not seem to be particularly keen on standing without support or walking. It looks as if for the time being he were satisfied with the means of locomotion he already masters. They certainly get him to most places he wants to (and to some we think he shouldn’t get to).

Århus University - the first 80 years

Århus University, where I work, celebrates its 80th birthday this months. Back in the 1920s several Danish towns in Jutland were competing for the right to host the country's second university. Århus triumphed, and in September 1928 the first 64 students began their studies under the guidance of 5 permanent lecturers.

The first year conditions were somewhat rough. The university had no buildings yet, so teaching took place in rented rooms, and the budget was a very modest 33000 DKK, provided by the town council. Later the city of Århus and the Danish government agreed that the state would be financing the administration of the university, while the municipality was responsible for raising funds for building expenses.

The building of the university campus began in the 1930's, and to a large extent was financed by private donations. The uniform yellow brick buildings, designed by the local architects Kay Fisker, C.F. Møller and Povl Stegmann, are gathered in and around the picturesque University Park. The hills, ponds and old trees of the park provide a very atmospheric backdrop to academic work. (Click on the pictures for larger size.)

Currently the university has 35 000 students and 8500 staff, and its annual budget is 4,5 milliard DKK. Among its students were Queen Margrethe II, who studied political science and archaeology, and her son, crown prince Frederik, who got his MA here in political science.

I work at the Linguistics department in one of the old buildings at the northern edge of the park:

Our department in the evening:

My office, which I share with a young Polish linguist. My desk is the one in the foreground:

My 'roommate' Kamila:

The university's central building, with the Main Hall. Our building is right behind, on the right:

The Main Hall:

The view from my window, overlooking the University Park:

In the first picture: the University's logo. For further details on the history of Århus University see here.