As the ‘about page’ goes, Jacob met Julie in a chatroom, fell in love and moved from Denmark to live with her in the USA. I’ve come across several sites telling very similar stories and as cheesy as they may sound, they are pretty interesting, firstly because they give original insights into a county’s cultures, and secondly because the people often seem as normal as they come, and how many non-crazy people have you met in chatrooms recently?
Jacob’s about page is pretty comprehensive, which I found useful as it was only in October that he started blogging in English. As I don’t speak Danish I felt like I was missing a lot, and I like to see how a weblog began. Luckily the about page filled in most of the gaps.
So why am mentioning the about page so early on in the review? To me it was of the most interest. Jacob says of the page, “You don’t have to read it if you don’t want to but it will make the content in my web log make a little more sense.” It certainly did. Most of the entries to the site are about day to day life. Nothing dramatic, just mainly work, films/movies and eating out. I think you can get much more out of it once you know where Jacob’s coming from.
The layout of A Dane Abroad is nicely done in blues. It’s not too adventurous but this is not meant to be an adventurous site so it works well, giving space to the writing. There is also a well laid out gallery with lots of pictures ranging from cooked turkeys to kittens [fortunately not cooked].
The only problem I had with the writing was that for a personal weblog it didn’t get personal enough. The writing always seems a little detached from the author, and details such as the latest videos watched or the weather are given much more often than feelings or opinions. Of course this is just a personal preference of mine, my own inquisitiveness. I like personal weblogs to divulge everything, and some authors don’t want to do that, which is fine and doesn’t mean for one minute that the site is any less readable. Jacob still gives us a fascinating insight into his life and it’s well worth a look.
weblog from a Dane abroad