I was walking home from the store yesterday (mid-November) and noticed that it was a little after 4pm and already getting dark. Sure, living in Finland or Iceland would be even worse (or just darker) this time of the year, but this still seems fairly early in the day to feel like you should start settling in for the night.
5pm feels like 8 right now and by 8pm I feel like it’s 10:30 and do I even know where my children are?! I’m not sure what happens at 10:30, because I’m usually asleep by then.
But oddly enough, I’ve been enjoying this season in Denmark. October was pleasant – cool and crisp – and November has also been different than all the Seattle Novembers that I remember. It doesn’t rain all that often. Usually, it’s just cold and walking to class in the morning feels refreshing and very pleasant. So far, I am not complaining about the cold, mostly because it’s a “dry cold.” But the darkness…
The darkness has me lighting candles (the dark side of hygge is the very real danger of starting a house fire) and drinking red wine. I got some glögg at the store the other night, so all I need to do is warm it up (in Denmark the holiday season does not wait until December).
Back in the middle of the summer, when we were suffering through the coolest summer in nearly 40 years I was worried about the fall and winter. But now, in the middle of the fall, I am enjoying myself immensely. I decided I’ll be fine as long as it doesn’t rain.
[Update: as soon as I finished typing this, it started to rain.]
Post-Amerikan 