Do you smell that?

I am going to get my hair cut and colored today.  Shavon, my stylist back home suggested I find a salon that uses Wella products because that's what she uses to color my hair.  She wrote down the formula and products to use to cover my grey, and I did a search on the Wella site to find a stylist.  Lucky for me, there is a Wella stylist right by my house!

So, I contacted the salon through Facebook and asked if I could get an appointment to have my hair colored.  The reply?  Sorry.  No new clients for color only.  But I can do a haircut.  Okay, well then, can I have an appointment for a cut and color?  Yes!  

I should mention that before I could actually get an appointment, the stylist wanted to meet (or smell) me in person.  

Apparently, the salon is a fragrance free environment.  Clients aren't allowed to have perfume or fragrance in their clothing (detergent), on their skin (lotion, perfume) or hair (shampoo.). It's because the stylist has a severe allergy to fragrance, which must be very challenging for him in his business.  "Luckily" I have a sensitivity to artificial fragrance, so I already buy fragrance free detergent, hand soap, lotion and bath gel.  BUT, shampooing my hair with fragrance free shampoo is just sad.  So that's where I usually "cheat" and buy what smells nice.

Fragrance Free

Which is why, one hour before my hair appointment, I went out in search of fragrance free shampoo, so I could wash my hair before my hair appointment.  Who does that?  Me.

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Okay, I'm back from the salon.  It was great!  I went in totally fragrance neutral, and actually got a compliment for that.  While I was having my hair done, one of the long time clients of the business came in, smelling a little too good.  She actually had to leave, she had too much fragrance on.  

My hair feels great.  My hair looks great.  My color looks great.  I'm satisfied and happy that everyone came up smelling like roses in the end!  Except for that lady, who already smelled good anyway.

New 'do

På gensyn!

Fastelavn

Yesterday in Denmark, we celebrated Fastelavn, the Danish version of Carnivale.  Fastelavn takes place just before Lent.  For Fastelavn, the little kids get all dressed up in costume, just like for Halloween.  Historically, one of the games they play on this holiday is to whack a barrel with a bat until a cat comes running out of it.  Nowadays, kids play a piñata type game, where they whack a barrel and candy comes out (instead of a live cat).  The first person to break the barrel so candy falls out becomes the "Queen of Cats."  The person who knocks down the last piece of the barrel becomes the "King of Cats."

Queen of Cats

A Cat Barrel Piñata

An important part of celebrating Fastelavn is the BUNS!  The fancy buns I tried were puff pastry disguised as a cream puff, filled with yummy cream.  The little kids go around singing this song, asking for Fastelavnsbolle, the Fastelavn buns.

Original Danish

Fastelavn er mit navn,

boller vil jeg have.

Hvis jeg ingen boller får,

så laver jeg ballade.

Boller op, boller ned

boller i min mave.

Hvis jeg ingen boller får,

så laver jeg ballade.

English translation:

Shrovetide is my name,

buns I want.

If I get no buns,

I will make trouble.

Buns up, buns down

buns in my tummy.

If I get no buns,

I will make trouble.

These buns are amazing! They were giving out free buns (not the fancy ones) at the Metro Station on Friday when Gaius was on his way to school.  Score!

Here are the fancy Fastelavnsbolle that we bought at our neighborhood bakery.

Blueberry, Lime, Plain & Strawberry

Here's a little note on pronunciation.  Anything ending in "avn" is actually pronounced "oun," like in the word "hound."

Fastelavn is "fasteloun."

Christianshavn (where I live) is "Christians-houn."

Nyhavn (the famous picturesque port) is actually pronounced "New-houn" because "Ny" is pronounced "New" and "havn" is pronounced "houn."

Nyhavn (new-houn)

This is just the basic stuff that I am only now figuring out.  I've been here a month, so I think that's kind of late for me to be learning all of this.

My absolute favorite one is this...

Amager is pronounced "Ama."  That's it.  The "ger" is silent.

Vestamager is pronounced "Vestama."  Silent "ger."

Our friend Jared actually told me, "I live in Ama.  It's spelled "A-M-A-G-E-R."

When our friend Roger comes to visit, I am going to just call him "Ro."

På gensyn!