A SUPER MANGE TAK TO
SVEND FROM GREENLAND!
Crédito: Brenda E. Guarisma
In recent days I have been chatting with Svend. He is a man from Denmark, but he moved to Greenland many years ago. I like much to chat with Svend, because for me he is a kind man with super interesting stories and tales.
I think that the life of Svend in Greenland is sooo many different to my life in Caracas / Venezuela. In the real world, I still do not know the snow. So I was so happy when Svend sent to me an e-mail with 2 photos of his Greenlandic snow!!! A super Mange Tak to you Svend for that! Today I know the snow!!! (((Smile)))
Our chats are funny, because I write with my Venezuelan English and he writes with his Danish English… It is a little complicated and super nice at the same time!
According to what I understand, Svend is 45 years old. And he is the waiter boss in the “Restaurant Nasaasaaq” and the “Bar Aaveq”. The restaurant and the bar are opened in the “Hotel Sisimiut”.
Here I will display several quotes of Svend, when we chat. I do overly questions to him, and he is ready for answer them all (((Smile))). Those quotes have seemed to me very interesting and funny!!!
OF OUR FIRST CHAT…
1.- “My name is Svend, my country is Greenland, my city is Sisimiut… I live near to Santa Claus, only about 2000 km south of him. He comes by every Christmas. Greenland is cold and a lot of snow in the wintertime. In the summertime it is like a postcard blue sky.”
2.- “The snow are the white things that drop from heaven in all the Christmas movies. It is cold if you get it under your clothes or in your shoes. But it is beautiful to look at.”
3.- “My language is Danish. I am Danish. But I have lived in Greenland for 25 years. In Denmark, I was finishing the school and I was bored and I had a friend that got a job up here, I asked if I could to come to Greenland. We worked together for 10 years. Then I went to home and I found out that I should to have a child. So I stayed here.”
4.- “Right now, I think I love most to Greenland. I believe it is the Greenlandic way of the life here what I like. If it is nice the weather, they go hunting and the work can wait until that is bad weather. It is a more free way of to live than what we have in Europe. And we all know each other. We live in so small cities. The biggest city up has 16.000 populations”
5.- “Yes, I have eaten seal. It doesn’t taste good in my opinion. I have tried seal, whale, bear, whale rose, and reindeer.”
6.- “My favorite activities in the life are my family and my work. And in the summertime to go sailing. When we went to Denmark last year, we were flying to the south of Greenland, and we went with a boat to home in Denmark. 50 hours on a boat is to long time!”
ANOTHER DAY…
1.- “Hi Dance Queen! I am fine but I am freezing. The temperature here is -40 ºC outside. It is very rare we have it so cold. It is only the 2 times I have tried it in 26 years up here, but somehow life much go on. Right now, I am at my office in the restaurant. Here are 24:00 hours. It is midnight!”
2.- “Today the most popular food here in the restaurant was a fish soup with shellfish, and then tournedos and pancakes.”
3.- “In the restaurant we close at 2:30 a.m., and then I have to make the total of the day and of the beer we have sold.”
4.- “In Denmark when your are out eating many guests are looking at the time to hurry up their meal up. Here they say it comes when it comes!”
5.- “I think that the beverages most popular here… When you are eating it is Greenlandic Coffee. If you just come to the bar, I think it is Nanok”.
6.- “Nanok means Iceberg… It is vodka and blue balls and Sprite.”
7.- “The Greenlandic Coffee is an Irish Coffee Flambé. You take 1 part of whisky, 1 part of Kahlua, set them on fire, and then you add coffee and cream. And now comes the hard part, you take a spoon and lifted up with Grand Marnier, and set it in fire, in blue flame.”
Svend taught me how I can to say 2 sentences in Danish:
1.- Jeg er glad nar Jeg er sammen med Dig!!! (I am happy when I am with you!!!)
2.- Jeg onsker det bedste I dag og fremover!!! (I wish you All the Best today and ever!!!)
Hey Svend, Mange Tak Skal Du Have!
Brenda Guarisma 