Today, I received a huge Christmas package from my parents. It was stuffed with treats and goodies and warm socks for the cold winter days. The timing could not be better: Tonight is our house Christmas dinner. Partly because I didn't feel like it the last few days, I kept myself out of the planning of the night, but the more I learn to more I'm amazed. Tonight could challenge the real Christmas in scope, meal diversity and with Danish Julebryg. Many of my housemates are preparing a part of their families' traditional dishes, so I decided to make Plätzchen. The only English translation for the word is cookie, but I guess German Christmas cookies is as close as I can bring you. I loved helping my mum make these pre-Christmas every year. She loved making them too, I guess, which is why we had Plätzchen until February. I down-sized my Christmas bakery a little and sticked to one sheet of Angel Eye Cookies and two sheets of coconut macaroons. 

I'm getting really excited about tonight, in fact. It's been a while since we all came together and I haven't spoken to some of my housemates in a long time. They are creating Christmas music playlists on facebook while I'm writing this.

Is it weird that today feels like Christmas? One month in advance, and there's no snow? But then again, how often is there snow on Christmas? And how often does Christmas feel like Christmas (last year it didn't...)? So I'll enjoy the Christmas anticipation for tonight as if it was the real thing. 

The last couple of days, the word unmotivated understated my mood. A whole range of things played a role in that, but one significant one must be the desk in my room. The heating doesn't reach all the way into my 'office corner', the walls have moldy stains and the internet connection is at its lowest. And any attempt to work in bed is bound to fail. 

The Statsbiblioteket Aarhus would be a great place to work in the weekends - but it's closed. The Danes are very strict with their opening hours. But I recently got the key card to one of the University buildings. So I went to the wonderful and pretty new Information and Media Science building. To my surprise, I wasn't all alone. Two other groups worked on presentations, one was prepared and brought a six pack of beer. The building is great: it's spacey and has comfortable furniture AND there's a pool table and hammocks in the basement. The only thing missing, as far as I noticed so far, is a coffee machine. In either case, it was quiet, I couldn't distract myself with too many other things, and I actually got much of the stuff done that I kept pushing away for over a week now. 

And here's the thing: It's Sunday. Over the last half year, I became aware that my weekly rhythm individualized itself from the working world. The strict opening hour policies of Danish shops and public buildings confuses me. In Maastricht I even enjoyed the time I spent in the library with my housemates after Sunday dinner. And here, my rhythm is all messed up. All but this: Whatever my new Sunday is, it's not Sundays.

Last Friday was J-Day. Julebryg-Day. Christmasbeer-Day. Every first Friday in November, Tuborg releases its Christmas brew. Trucks drive around town and deliver crates of “Royal X-Mas” to bars, where Santa’s helpers hand out the bottles. Needless to say, it’s a big deal. Although Denmark has – in Skandinavian comparison – relatively low alcohol prices, who would say no to a free beer? So more people than usually were abouts in Aarhus even at 8:30pm. One must be in time, because Royal X-Mas strikes at 8:59 sharp. As adaptive as we international students are, we decided to join the frenzy. 

Girls in Sexy-Santa dresses indeed gave us free beer after we had waited for an hour (we were misinformed and thought the brew would start flowing at 8pm), Jingle Bells and Last Christmas were blasted and the few other guests who were already at the bar were singing, dancing, falling all over. Only one of us managed to drink his stout fast enough to catch a free second round, but it turned out that the Christmas brew is cheaper than others. 

Except for the free beer and seeing drunken Danes, J-Day means that here, Christmas is officially starting. Yesterday I considered buying an advent calendar in the supermarket, because it didn’t occur to me that there is an entire months to go before December even starts. The holiday season will be a long one this year. At least, there will be Julebryg throughout.