Danish people think that America is rather progressive. Well, parts of America. They are also amazed at how spread out things are here in the states and in awe of the size of our dwellings and buildings. Everything, to them, is huge. Everything, to them, is cheap here. My not-so-distant cousin bought a new Fender guitar here at less than half the price it would have cost him in Denmark. He was also disappointed in the quality of rental car he received at Chicago's O'Hare Airport. Apparently Advantage Rental Cars doesn't vacuum their vehicles, top off any fluids or check the air pressure in the tires.
On a more positive note, my dad's cousin who competed in the Chicago Marathon on October 12th finished in the top third of all competitors. Not bad considering that over 45,000 runners competed in the marathon and that temperatures that day were warmer and muggier than anything normally experienced in Denmark which is, as I found out, a mere 320 miles in length at its longest point.
I was astounded at how fluent their English was and how informed they were with happenings here in the states. They said that the housing situation (collapse) is the same in Denmark as it is here with prices tumbling, zero loan availability and the very same shoddy mortgages that sunk our markets. It was obvious that America still does have plenty of wordly influence, just not good influence.
Even at my somewhat youngish age, that family history is interesting to delve in to. It was the second time that these relatives had visited America to see my extended family and participate in a marathon. I could tell that they liked visiting America but were eager to get back home.
Yes, I'm Danish in heritage but what does that mean to you? What's your heritage and do you have contact with distant relatives from faraway lands?
While MinnPics doesn't have any cool photos from Denmark, it does have some of the greatest photos from and pertaining to Minnesota!
5 comments:
You could learn alot about Denmark from talking to my husband. :-)
I am 1/4 Italian and I would love to learn more about my family in Italy. We have distant relatives there, but never met them.
I am German, Indian, and Swiss. Lots of German. I am actually related to one of the famous mean people in history's mistress. Funny cause I just wrote a post about not getting to pick your family. :D
--snow
Even though my name is German, I'm a little of everything. A mish-mosh of backgrounds that some haven't even heard of including Tyrolean, Slovock, German, Irish, Italian, Polish, etc.
I grew up in an area that was proud of its ethnic heritage, much more so than I see here in Minnesota and while I knew plenty of people in those circles I never had any relations with family members from across the ocean.
My wife has been doing a lot of research via Ancestry.com and has a plethora of great information about my family's history but nothing surprising -- yet.
This particular relative that visited had gone as far as compiling an honest to goodness hardcover, bound book about the various 'clans' within the family. It was about 1,000 pages and quite impressive to see.
Half Italian, half Russian. I don't know anyone in those distant lands but my grandparents still speak/spoke in their motherly tongues.
Still fascinating to me is the concept of understanding someone's heritage by their facial features. I had a genetics prof who could tell exactly what my background was, and even which parts were Italian vs. Russian. She could do this for everyone in the class.
My hubby has some Russian relatives that were surprised when they came here in the 80s to see dogfood (They originally thought there were dogs IN the bags!) -- the concept of food just for animals was unheard of.
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