A very merry Christmas... ~ Lachend Wakker Worden

In the past weeks, I moved back to Denmark to start a PhD. I met many nice new people and I got back together with people that were still around. Below, I share some of the pictures taken in those weeks. Since being an astronomer in my office didn't make for very good pictures, it's not covered. That doesn't mean I haven't spent time on it!

I've been on a very nice weekend in Copenhagen with the Danish Youth Goodwill Ambassador (YGWA) network. They were so kind to invite me and some other people from last year who 'got stuck' in Denmark, to watch presentations made by the new participants in the program. We also got a private screening of En kongelig affære, a Danish movie nominated for a Golden Globe award. We also had a great party at Copenhagen's LA Tequila Bar, as is becoming a YGWA tradition.

Youth Goodwill Ambassador weekend in Copenhagen

Sandra joined a roller derby team in Aarhus. It's a slightly obscure sport only practiced by girls, in which two teams try to score points by sneaking past the other on roller blades, while the other team is using their bodies to prevent that from happening. Yes, it's hard to explain.

Game of roller derby

Having returned to Aarhus, of course a visit to our great Aros museum was called for. Catalina, who lived in Aalborg before and had never been to the museum, provided me with the perfect excuse to revisit the building with its rainbow panorama on the roof and its modern art inside. On top of that, there was an exposition of work by Edvard Munch.

Aros Museum

I rejoined Studenterhus Aarhus as a teamleader on the events. Apart from some nice shifts, I also went along on a teambuilding event at the astronomical observatory in Aarhus, the Ole Rømer observatory. We received an introduction to the birth, evolution and death of stars in the universe. I didn't hear much that was new to me, but it was great to see some of my friends so interested in astronomy. It was a cloudy night so we didn't get to observe any stars, but we did see the telescope.

A visit to the Ole Rømer observatory in Aarhus

The weather has been what can be expected from Aarhus if you arrive when it's almost November... it's been dark. There's been the usual rainy, windy days, and we had a week or two when it got snowy and cold (think: minus ten), which did include some freezing cold days with lovely sunshine.

Snowy weather

The Danes are crazy about Christmas. From weeks in advance, it's hard to escape and the closer you get, the more you run into the traditions. Julefrokost is one of them, the traditional Danish Christmas lunch that they have with virtually every social group they're part of. I had one with my Danish class (yes, I've also taken up learning the Danish language again, og det går fint!), one in the Physics building and one with our research group of Astronomy. Oh, and tradition dictates you start with eating fish and drinking snaps, and you end (at least for the food-related part of the evening) with risalamande, a rice and almonds desert. And, for our Astronomy lunch, there is a tradition of holding a race throughout the corridor on office chairs - a matter taken very seriously.

Christmas with our Danish class

Christmas at our physics department

Famous Ole Rømer race at our Astro Christmas dinner

The 23th of December, the time had come to make it home for Christmas in Belgium with my family. I include a few pictures showing the apocalyptic weather conditions at Copenhagen Airport. For quite a while, I was worried I'd never make it to Belgium that day. I was delayed by about 90 minutes, but had this happened in Belgium, I'm sure everyone would still be stuck in the airport. Merry Christmas!