More exploring, more snow

Today I went into the city for another day of getting lost/exploring with my friend and these are the things I learned:

1. I can take the train that I take every morning to class to Hamburg or Lubeck, Germany for $50

2. My boots are not waterproof

3. There is approximately 3 feet of snow on the ground in Copenhagen at the moment - and still too few plow trucks

4. When you order a pizza at Vesuvio de Copenhagen, it is NOT a personal pizza, it is a full blown big ole' pizza, but still delicious!

5. If you wander in 1 direction long enough, you will somehow end up back where you started (which suggests that Copenhagen is in a circle, which is strange...)

6. eating 3/4 of a whole pizza is a very bad idea...

7. Denmark takes Hot Chocolate VERY seriously, and if you tell a restaurant owner that his is the best he will damn near kiss you

8. Italians in Denmark are exactly the same as Italians in Chicago

Food Log:

Breakfast: homemade rolls with butter and jam (NOT musseli and yogurt, just for you mom)

Lunch: Lots of gourmet pizza with pesto, sundried tomatoes, and mushrooms, hot chocolate

Dinner: soup with mushy dough balls and meatballs

Friday and Saturday!

Friday was just a regular day of classes except 2 million times better because a) my 8:30am class got cancelled so I got to sleep in until 8am!!!!!!! and b) my friend switched into my Hans Christian Andersen class which is faboo b/c I love her!

After class I went home, chilled for like an hour, then it was back to the city for an evening of fun! My friends and I all met up then went to the grocery store and got lots of wine, bread, cheese (2 types, though we didn't eat 1 because it was REALLY smelly), chocolate, grapes, crackers, and these little desserts that we don't have in the US but it is like a graham cracker type thing with a bunch of meringue on top then all covered in chocolate. That description probably doesn't sound very good but they are AWESOME! Then we went back to my friend's Kolligium (dorm with Danes) and relaxed and ate. We were going to go to the bars after but we decided to just go home afterwards, we got about a foot of snow last night!

Today I went to Kronborg Castle and the surrounding town of Elsinore. The town is super cute with lots of little shops so I bought a new purse and a scarf. Then I had lunch but I have no idea what it was...it was good though! Then we had a guided tour of the castle which was really nice and beautiful (though the dungeons were creepy as hell!)

Tonight some friends of the Wennevolds came for dinner. They were super nice and were very impressed that I was from Cornell ;-) The Danes are all about this concept called "hygge" (pronounced hug-a, kinda) which is just like spending time together/bonding etc. so a dinner party lasts quite a while!

Food log:

Breakfast: musseli and yogurt (to address mom's issue, they don't eat eggs and bagels and stuff for breakfast here)

Lunch: It was like a hamburger patty kind of but it was seasoned and served on top of the french fries with sautéed onions on top. On the side there was salad and 2 types of sauces, neither of which I could recognize/explain plus a coke in a GLASS bottle!

Dinner: leg of lamb, cooked sliced potatoes, chocolate banana cake with ice cream, and tea

Shopping in Denmark = bad plan

Today I only had 1 class in the morning (8:30 in the morning that is!) but of course I, along with most DIS students, was late to class because with the snow the trains were running very infrequently and they were PACKED!! (*note "infrequently" here means every 20 min rather than every 5-10 min, yes, we are spoiled) Finally I made it to class, it was fun times, German history, blah blah blah. After class I began my errand bonanza which included unsuccessfully trying to get the rest of my textbooks that still haven't come in, traveling to the outer suburb of Farum to apply for my CPR card, and getting a refund on a trip to the Viking Ship museum that I signed up for before realizing I was going there with my Danish class.

After all of my errands I met up with 2 of my friends and we had an action-packed afternoon of pretending to shop. Problem: the SALE prices in Denmark are absolutely ridiculous (very very expensive). Meaning: normal prices = not a chance. Though I did not come to Denmark with grand plans of buying a whole new wardrobe, they do have pretty nice clothes so I wanted to get a few things, but everything is sooooooooo expensive! Second meaning: don't expect lots of expensive souvenirs!!!

After our shopping trip (I realize that last paragraph was a little negative, we did have a lot of fun and we each bought a shirt and we all split a bag of sugar-coated almonds which were worth the price of admission alone!) I made it back to the train ready to get home and relax a little when I realized that I wasn't wearing my scarf! I remembered taking it off in a dressing room and I thought I had shoved it into my backpack but I looked and I couldn't find it! I was very upset because I loved that scarf (xmas gift from maggie, just putting it out there) and I knew that if I had left it in a dressing room it would be gone by tomorrow. So, I got off the train, boarded the same train line going in the opposite direction back to Copenhagen so I could go find my scarf. But then, I was like "I really thought that I had put it in my bag" so I looked again and BAM there it was, magically in some hidden compartment I didn't even know about! So THEN I had to get off that train and board yet another train going back towards the direction of my house! Needless to say, it was a crazy train ride home, but now you all know the lengths I will go through to retrieve a scarf!

When I got home I got my relaxation time in and then I talked and helped Anne with dinner. I told her all about Death by Chocolate and she is very excited (though I think a little nervous) about it!

Tomorrow is class in the afternoon and then for dinner my friends and I are buying bread, cheese, fruit, chocolate, and lots of boxed wine (this wine is not Cakebread or anything but a lot of wine comes in boxes here so it doesn't have quite the connotation as in the US) and then going to 1 girl's dorm for dinner and then after we will hit the bars!

Food log:

Breakfast: I won't say what I had b/c mom seemed very upset about breakfast in the last post

Lunch: Ham with cheese spread, though I think it is butter, I don't know, it is very hard to tell...

Snack: sugar coated almonds, yum yum!!

Dinner: sunny side up eggs, fried potatoes mixed with pork, and an assortment of appetizers Anne brought home from a work party today. American representation amongst the appetizers: mini hot dogs wrapped in bacon, so good but soooo bad!

Odense and LOTS of snow!!!

DIS doesn't schedule class on Wednesdays so we can either have the day off or go on field trips with our classes (every class must have at least 1 field trip, most have 2 or 3). So, today, while most DIS kids were sleeping in after a difficult first half of the week, I got up early (though I got 20 extra minutes of sleep than usual) and headed to DIS for a field trip to the town of Odense, birthplace of HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN!!!

We got a gigantic double-decker bus for the 2 hour trip to the island of Fyn ( I think pronounced fEEna) to see the H.C. Andersen Hus (house/museum) and explore the cute little town that HCA once lived in (*note: Odense is DK's 3rd largest town, do NOT call it a cute little town in front of Danes!!!). Our first stop was the museum, very small, but pretty nice. HCA was a very troubled but gifted guy. Born into poverty, no one liked him, BAM fame and fortune. After that we had lunch then explored the town. My friend and I walked around for a little bit, and then we found a candy shop so we OBVIOUSLY had to stop (I firmly believe that you can tell the character of a place by its candy). Apparently (well, probably a lot of people know this but it was news to me) Haribo gummy candies are either Danish or some other type of Scandinavian because it is EVERYWHERE!! So we got some sweet Haribo treats and headed back to the bus for the trek home!

HOWEVER, it had been steadily snowing the whole day and as soon as we hit the road KABAM snowstorm! It took us and extra hour/hour and a half to get home and the roads were terrible! There was only a couple of inches on the ground but it is very important for me to stress that the Danes are beside themselves right now because this is the worst/wettest winter they've had in 30 years. They have very VERY few plow trucks, they don't use salt, they don't plow sidewalks, and many city streets are cobblestone which makes things more difficult. On top of that, Danes don't know how to drive in the snow! The radio kept saying that a commute from the city that usually took 15 minutes was taking upward of 2 hours! We had to take a bunch of detours to avoid accidents, and we passed several! In a nutshell, today was not the day to be out toolin' around in a doubledecker!

But, we finally made it back to Copenhagen and I got home safe and sound! Tomorrow I am off to Farum to get my CPR card then I'm going shopping with friends because right now is the big sale time in Copenhagen (and apparently this is the only time things are on sale!)

Food log

Breakfast: musseli and yogurt

Lunch: delicious ham sandwich with cheese, lettuce, and this butter/cheese/Danish spread thing. My host mom got it b/c she said all of the American students like it!

Snack: an assortment of chocolate and gummy candies from the candy store in Odense

Dinner: Mashed potatoes and a kind of beef stew thing, but instead of chunks of meat it was in slices, like a roast, it was REALLY good!

Eating my way through Copenhagen

Last night I was getting ready to go to bed when Peter and Henrik called me into the family room to watch a movie. They were watching Ransom and were absolutely appalled that I hadn't seen it before (It's Mel Gibson!!). So we watched Ransom and with 5 minutes left in the movie, right as we got to the final showdown between Mel Gibson and Gary Sinise, POP, all of the power went out in the family room and kitchen! Luckily Henrik and I were able to see the last scene on another TV but Peter was pretty freaked because half of the house was out of power (including the fridge and freezer!) Needless to say, it was pretty hectic this morning and we weren't allowed to get anything out of the fridge so I couldn't make a sandwich for lunch (but then I remembered they had peanut butter so I had that for lunch. :-( Luckily, last night Peter moved some yogurt into the fridge that was working so we could have breakfast this morning! By the time I got home this evening, the power was fixed and peace was restored to the Wennevold household!

Not much happened today, I had classes all morning/afternoon then a meeting in the evening "preparing me for my class at København University." DIS keeps harping on the fact that taking a class at a Danish University is different than taking a class at an American University (duh!) so everyone taking an outside class had to attend this useless info session.

In between my class and my info session, my friend and I walked around and ate pastries (cinnamon roll with chocolate on it) and shopped (I didn't buy anything, she bought gloves because hers fell apart and it is @!&$ing cold here! The pastries were DELICIOUS and luckily (or unluckily depending on your view) the bakery is pretty darn close to DIS!

There was a very attractive Dane on the train home, I fell in love with him, he looked like an Abercrombie model, strong and silent type definitely!

Tonight I am just hanging out with the fam, hopefully doing some laundry (the situation is getting quite desperate, I waaaayyyy underpacked certain essential items of my wardrobe...

Food Log:

Breakfast: Musseli and yogurt

Lunch: Peanut Butter Sandwich, apple, pastry

Dinner: Some sort of stew, it was brown with chunks of meat, mini onions (about the size of marbles) on rice, very very good, especially because it was so cold today!

Kickin' it in Værløse

So the last 2 days have been very relaxing and uneventful! Sunday I just kicked back in the house, did homework, ate/cooked lots o food, the usual! For lunch yesterday we made these cod egg things, and it was so gross, it looked like something out of fear factor! When they pulled them out of the fridge and told me to slice it up then brown it I was like, um, omg, it is someone's testicles, it was gross! The good news was it didn't really taste like anything so I could eat it without gagging (apparently it is a delicacy around here, ick!)

Today I didn't have class so I was able to sleep in, get ready at a leisurely pace, and then I went exploring the town I live in (Værløse). I am supposed to register with the "Kommune" which I guess is like the city hall so I had to bring a form signed by my host family and my passport and prove that I was living there and then I would be leaving. In return, I get my "CPR" card which acts as like a Social Security Card, a Library Card, and a card so I can get health insurance all in one! However, I went to the office DIS told me to go to and they are like "oh no, you need to go to this other place" which is frustrating because now I have to schlep to another town and take the train, then a bus, then walk to this other office where HOPEFULLY they can help me!

But, it wasn't all bad because after I went to the Kommune I explored my town and found a big outdoor shopping center, 2 pubs within a 15 minute walk to my house, lots of little restaurants/cafes, a library, a movie theater, and I bought a pack of Danish chewing gum to see what it tasted like (not as good as the American stuff, VERY strong flavor!).

This evening I had to go into Copenhagen for a "kaffe night" with my Danish class and professor. It was actually really nice because we sat and had dinner with my professor, plus all of my friends are in that class so it was a good ole' time. Best part: DIS picked up the check! Second best part: Danish marshmallows are delicious and taste like vanilla!

Tomorrow is lots of classes but then I'm going to a cafe with my friend Lauren and we are going to talk travel plans (yay!!!)

Food Log:

Breakfast: musseli and yogurt

Lunch: Fish balls (it is kind of like tuna, canned fish mixed with some seasoning, onions, etc. but then formed into balls and cooked on the stove. Eaten on an open-faced sandwich with this sauce that is kind of like honey mustard and dill mixed together. )

Dinner: THE best chicken sandwich of my life! I don't know what was on it, but it was clearly made by Jesus, I'm not even kidding! We also had varm chokolade (hot choc.) with marshmallows, sooooooooooooo good!!!!

Sunny Morning!?!?

Today is the first day I have been here in Denmark where I woke up and the sun was actually out! Usually, the sun does not rise until about 8-8:30, and by then I am already up, dressed, and in Copenhagen going to class! It felt really nice to sleep in and just take it easy today! I woke up, got dressed, and then helped my host family clean the house. Usually they have a cleaning lady (who is apparently very talkative so I'm excited to meet her!) but she is on vacation in...wait for it...Vietnam (wowza!) So the whole family got together and put away groceries (Peter went shopping that morning), cleaned the floors, scrubbed the kitchen, bathrooms, etc. It was pretty fun because we were all together and were making jokes and all that fun stuff!

For the rest of the day, I sat by the fire and read, me, Anne, Peter, and Malou went for a walk around the lake, and we did lots of eating! We also watched the championship game for handball as the Danish tried to defend their title of reigning European Handball Champions from those slobs from Iceland! I actually don't know who won because I left the game with like 10 minutes left and then my mom called, but it was very exciting to watch. Every time the Danes scored a goal they played "Sweet Caroline" which I laughed pretty hard at!

Food log:

Breakfast: apple

Lunch: "smorrebrod" is the typical lunch for a Dane, it is simply an open-faced sandwhich with Danish bread. So, today we made smorrebrods with scrambled eggs or smoked salmon (I know salmon is the thing to eat here but I had eggs b/c I'm not a huge fan of salmon to begin with and unless uncooked fish is hidden inside rice and seaweed, I get a little squeamish...). We also had leftover homemade tomato soup with pasta in it, which was absolutely fantastic!

Dinner: pork tenderloin wrapped in Danish bacon (not like American bacon, maybe a cross between our bacon and Canadian bacon, but different...) on top of pasta with a mushroom, cheese, cream sauce and steamed broccoli. Then, for dessert we had crepes (which they just call pancakes) with Danish ice cream or "soft ice" which is kind of like frozen cool whip, sugar, and jam.

If any of my lovely readers have any suggestions for different foods I can make for my host family, I would greatly appreciate it. They keep telling me that if I ever want to take the reigns and become head chef for the night they would buy all the ingredients and we could all cook but I don't really know what to cook them (as many of you may know, my specialty is Kraft mac and cheese, which 1. they don't sell here and 2. my health conscious/ vitamin-loving family probably wouldn't enjoy that). I've been trying to think of what I eat when I'm home but my host mom can't eat dairy (though she has a milk substitute) but literally everything we eat has butter and/or cheese...lol

These classes are starting to interfere with my fun time!

Yesterday (Friday) I had 4 classes (for most of the semester I will only have classes on Tuesday and Friday. As a result, those days are pretty jam-packed!). It was all pretty much just introduction and stuff, here is the syllabus, don't skip class to travel or party, same old same old! All of the classes look pretty good. I'm not sure about my environmental history class (the professor seemed a little...I don't know, he was kind of all over the place with not every thought connecting to the last...) but hopefully it will turn out okay. The biggest portion of our grade is a paper on the topic of our choice, so that will be really easy for me!

After classes finished, my friends and I walked to the Little Mermaid statue and took TONS of pics. It was very cool, I'm glad I got to see it before they ship it off to China! We didn't stay very long because it was absolutely FREEZING near the water, so we spent most of the time walking to and from! On the way there we got a little lost and ended up walking through a military fortress which was cool. I haven't seen many military fortresses in my life, but I'd say that is one of the better ones, it looked very quaint!

Friday night we had our first taste of Copenhagen night life. First we went to dinner at Jensen's Bofhus (it is kind of like a steakhouse). Finding a place to eat certainly showed us firsthand what everyone means when they say Danes like to take their time in restaurants. The first place we went to there was a 1 hour wait, but only 1 reservation in front of us, people just eat slowly. So then we went to the other restaurant, got seated after about 40 minutes of waiting for 1 table to leave (when we got there, the bill had been paid, dessert eaten!) But finally we were seated, and spent 2.5 hours there, because the waiter left us (b/c as stated earlier, Danes take their time so the waiter gives you 2 hours to finish your food). That would have been fine, and we did have a good time, but then we were pretty late to our welcome party!

The welcome party was at a club that DIS rented out for us. It was pretty nice, the club was very cool, and DIS kids got free beer! At 11 they started letting in the general public and it got SOOOOO crowded we left (you literally couldn't move, definitely a fire hazard, someone spilled beer down my back). Then we just decided to go home because all of us live in host families so we have long commutes and were kind of unsure of the night schedule for our respective modes of transport (which was just us being paranoid Americans, the trains still run a lot, and surprisingly, there were still tons of people on the trains!). We figured we had plenty of opportunity to go out, and Copenhagen really is a very safe place so going out will definitely not be a problem!

Not much is planned for the weekend, tonight we may go out, but I'm not sure. Tomorrow I was going to go on a castle tour organized by DIS, but it filled up before I could sign up :-(

Food log:

Breakfast: musseli and yogurt

Lunch: ham and cheese sandwich, apple

Dinner: Danish hamburger (different than American, MUCH better), fried potatoes (not french fries), and we split a "Queens Delight" - waffle with ice cream, chocolate, hazelnut, and strawberry jam, sooooo good!!!!

Pictures very soon!

These Shoes were made for walking, and I certainly did plenty of that today!

Today was the first day of classes, however I only had 1 class from 8:30am to 10am. Getting up for 8:30 classes is NOT going to be easy, but I guess that is the sacrifice I have to make! I had a meeting at 6pm today so I actually just stayed in Copenhagen and got myself nice and lost in the city (several times) so I could learn my way around better. Here is what I stumbled upon during my aimless wanderings:

1. Osterbro - Copenhagen's more "eccentric" neighborhood. It was nice, but I don't see myself dying my hair blue or getting a full body tattoo any time soon so it wasn't really my favorite place. Although I did come across a fruit stand open even in the winter, but the apples cost 15 kroner (about 3 bucks)!!!!!

2. The Round Tower Church - really nice, very decorative church with a big tower that you can climb. I went all the way to the top and took TONS of pics of the view. You could literally see for miles!

3. Tivoli Gardens - Famous amusement park, it looked pretty cool, lots of old-fashioned roller coasters!

4. Copenhagen ride - big ferris wheel in the middle of Copenhagen.

5. Palas - BIG old movie theatre, I mean BIG!! (It was also painted bright pink, teal, yellow, and blue).

6. City Hall Square - The main square in Copenhagen. I think this is probably similar to like Dailey Plaza or something.

7. King's Gardens - Denmark's BEAUTIFUL version of Central Park or Millennium Park. Lots of dogs, statues, etc. and it led to Rosenborg Castle, where the crown jewels are kept. I didn't get to go inside the castle because it was late, but I'll definitely be back there (especially once the weather gets really nice!)

8. Sankt Peder's (St. Peter's) Bakery - apparently a super famous, very delicious bakery that has daily specials so it is cheap too! I didn't get anything this time because I was on the move and I did not want to look uncool, but I'll DEFINITELY be going back there!

I walked around the city LITERALLY all day so I'm really exhausted! It is only 9:40 here but I think I'm going to bed now! lol Tomorrow I have 4 classes, and then I think my friends and I are going up to see the Little Mermaid before the big DIS party at Discotek IN at night! Word on the street is that they are taking the Little Mermaid to China for the Worlds Fair or something so we have to visit soon!

Food log:

Breakfast: musseli and yogurt

Lunch: ham and cheese on Danish bread

Dinner: Bagel sandwich, the Danes like their bagels!

More gallivanting around the city!

Today I had another survival Danish class then had the orientation for my academic program (European History and Culture). We had a lot of extra time in between sessions so a couple friends and I did some hard core exploring. Our most exciting find was Tiger, the Target of Denmark (except way cooler/more trendy). We also went to another grocery store (Netto) and got Danish chocolate (sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo good!!!!!!!). Apparently in Europe/Switzerland, Lindt chocolate (which is like a godsend in the US) is really crappy/cheap/no one eats it. So far I'd have to agree, though I love Lindt, this Danish chocolate is pretty fantastic!

Other things I learned today:

1. All Danish children wear big, puffy snowsuits.

2. On the subject of children, it is apparently normal for parents with babies in strollers to leave both the stroller, and the baby inside the stroller, outside in the street while they pop into a store to shop. This is a very upsetting revelation, however I cannot ignore the facts, I have seen it with my own eyes, twice. We were walking down the street and I saw 2 different strollers with babies in them just outside, unattended, in the snow. One of them even had a purse hooked onto the stroller as well!!!

3. It is . very uncool and you will have no friends if you are seen in public eating a Danish (the pastry, not the human). Apparently, Danishes are only for old people and no self-respecting hipster would be caught dead eating such a "monstrosity." I would like to note that I had my first Danish pastry today, and it was un-friggin believable! It was so good, and if eating them makes me uncool, so be it!

4. Danishes in Denmark are actually called wienerbrod (o has a line through it), as in from Vienna. Apparently every nation blames some other nation for Danishes (or wienerbrod, depending).

5. Hardcover books cost about $100, soft cover are around $20, Also, haircuts on average are also $100 (and yes, that is USD, not DKK!!!).

6. slushy ice + cobblestones = NOT a winning combination (however I managed to stay vertical ALL day!).

Tomorrow is my first day of class which is very exciting!

Food log:

Breakfast: musseli with yogurt

Snack: Danish with custard and chocolate

Lunch: sandwich with skinke (ham) and ost (cheese) on this weird, uber-healthy Danish bread.

Another snack: Danish cracker (absolutely disgusting, it is worse than cardboard and sucks all the moisture out of your mouth) and Danish chocolate (much better).

Dinner: A traditional Danish meal, boiled potatoes, green beans, peas, and meat patties with gravy. It was pretty decent, the gravy was really good, the potatoes and meat were kind of bland but I think some Danish meals are pretty bland in nature. I liked that I got to try something very traditional, they said they don't eat much traditional Danish food (I don't think it is very healthy).

Wait, there is more to Copenhagen than the DIS building!?!?

Today was by far the best day in Copenhagen so far! It started off a little rocky during my 3-hour crash course in Danish...learning Danish is DEFINITELY not for the weak of heart! It is the hardest language I've ever had to deal with (although it is not like I have much experience with language) and most Danes claim that non-Danes (particularly those stupid Americans) are physically incapable of speaking Danish because it is so complicated and hard. :-/

We pretended to learn stuff like "My name is...", "I am from the USA", "I live in..." etc., and then we went to a grocery store (which by the way is completely different from American grocery stores) and had to find the Danish words for certain English words (apple, chicken, lettuce, etc.) and then they gave us a list of Danish words and we had to find what they were (MUCH harder than it sounds; although the Danish has 29 letters, they only use about 6 of them and every single word is at least 13 letters long!). But, finally that was over, then we had a lunch break and then our Scavenger Hunt!

The Scavenger Hunt was a blast, this is where we went:

Amalienborg Royal Palace - gorgeous place, not actually a castle because the old castle kept burning down so finally they moved to their new place which is a square surrounded by really beautiful buildings. The queen was even home which was very exciting too (we knew this b/c the Danish flag was raised on the building she actually lives in. Oh, and for all those Anglophiles out there, the Danish also have palace guards in funny hats!

The Parliament building (official name is Christianborg Slotsplads or Christiansborg Castle Square) - where all government-type things happen. In addition, when one monarch dies, the Prime Minister names the new ruler by going out onto the balcony of the Parliament building and saying that the older ruler kicked the bucket and ta da, here is the new ruler! This last happened when King Frederick IX died in 1972 and Queen Margrethe II took over. However, Margrethe could only become Queen after the Danish govt. changed their constitution to say that in the absence of a male heir, a female could take over the position as ruler! The old castle used to be near/where the Parliament is today, but like I said, the Danes get along with fire about as well as Kenyon does! Actually, there is one section of the Parliament building that survived the fire, and you can see that the column nearest to the rest of the building is darker than the other columns because it was blackened with smoke!

Grabrodre Torv - the most charming square in Copenhagen (which is impressive considering there are about 2334593573498325698532540 squares in the city!)

Magsin - the largest department store in Copenhagen. Though we were told by our savvy Danish friends not to shop there because everything is waaaayyyyyy overpriced.

The Royal Library - Also called the Black Diamond because it is modern and funny looking so it stands out in Copenhagen. I think they finished it in like 1991 or something and it is SUPER nice with lots of great views of the city. It also has one of those people-movers that you see in the airports but it goes up/down to the next level. It was actually quite challenging to walk on, I wouldn't really recommend it... This is the main library for Kobenhavn University.

Vor Frue Kirke - Copenhagen's National Cathedral. Because Copenhagen is a Protestant nation and thus does not buy into all of the fancy-schmancy decorations that the Catholics like so much, it seemed kind of bare, but it was really nice anyway! This church is maybe 2 minutes from DIS which is cool because it is still an operating church where all of the royals get married.

I took tons of pictures on the Scavenger hunt but I'll post them this weekend (after I go to Frederiksborg Castle and take more pics). I don't know how it is loading pics onto this site but if it is a pain I'll put them on like photobucket or something and post the link.

Food Log:

Breakfast: musseli and yogi (yogurt)

Lunch: peanut butter sandwich on white bread (both purchases made in my American honor, although even the white bread here tastes a lot more healthy...)

Dinner: Pasta with some kind of sauce with shrimp, coconut milk, lemon grass, and other stuff

Welcome to the Old World!

Today was my first day of DIS orientation so obviously the day was full of learning fun facts. Because everyone loves a good fun fact to pull out over dinner or during awkward silences, I have listed my favorites:

1. There are 5x more pigs in DK than people

2. Danes often like to refer to historical events and then boast about how America hadn't even been discovered for the second time (b/c it was discovered long before Columbus by none other than the Vikings).

3. When people say everyone in Denmark speaks English, they are kind of lying (most people can get by with small talk, etc., but Katie and the Danes are having some major language issues)

5. Danes love bagels and hot dogs (not together).

6. Danes are surprisingly unconcerned about global climate change...they could do with some warmer weather and none of their cities will flood

This morning we had a opening ceremony which was pretty nice, just a bunch of people telling us to make the most of our semester here, yada yada yada. Then I went for lunch with 2 people that I had met. We went to a little bagel shop and had bagel sandwiches which were absolutely delicious! After lunch we had a long info session about living in Europe. Just reminders about being safe, you can't miss all of your classes to travel, stuff like that!

Tomorrow I have a crash course in Danish for 3 hours, and then a scavenger hunt throughout the city. After the scavenger hunt we have an "Immersion Fair" where a bunch of Danish clubs set up tables and you can sign up for stuff.

Finally, the epic food log:

Breakfast: Musseli, which is like oats with dried fruit and nuts mixed with yogurt (it took me a while to find the yogurt in the fridge since a. the package was in Danish and b. it comes in almost a milk carton type thing. But it was really good!

Lunch: Bagel sandwich which chorizo (the only word on the menu I recognized) greens, some sort of cream cheese, pesto, cucumbers, and pickles. It sounds very bizarre and I was kind of nervous to eat it but it was amazing! So good, the cream cheese here is BLISS!

Dinner: Peter's chicken (whole chicken plus broth and seasonings of some sort, celery, parsley, etc. with a brown sauce, rice, and steamed broccoli - another great Danish meal!

Danish Birthday Parties and Hamlet's Castle

Day 2 here in Denmark! I blew off registration this morning because my host family said it was useless and I could get all of the info tomorrow. So, instead I went to a Danish birthday party!

Last night I went to bed at like 10:30 because I literally couldn't keep my eyes open, and then woke up around 2am and was wide awake (that is like 7pm Chi time). So, I read until about 5am and then fell back asleep. Both of my alarms failed me this morning, so I woke up at 11:30am when Henrik knocked on my door and said we were leaving for the party in 30min (oops!)

Anyway, as soon as we got to the party, we ate lunch and just talked. The conversation was in English about half the time and the other half Danish - just because everyone in DK may have the ability to speak English, they don't necessarily choose to speak it (though they try for my benefit!). The guest list included my whole host family, Peter's (the dad) brother, sister-in-law, and one of their two sons, and Peter's sister-in-law who hosted the party and 2 of her 3 children (one of them being the birthday boy). It also included Malou, a cocker spaniel owned by brother #1 and one VERY weird looking dog that I have never seen before (it was so ugly that it was really cute) owned by the sister-in-law. After lunch we drove to Hamlet's castle and saw that, then walked along the beach at the castle and saw Sweden across the Sound (about 3km away). After that they took me on a little driving tour of the city we were in (Helsingborg...I think). It is one of the oldest towns in DK and has all of the original buildings because in the 70's when DK was rebuilding everything the town was very poor so couldn't remodel (thank goodness!)

When we got back from our walk we had rolls with either chocolate, Danish butter, or jam on them, and then cake, and then finished watching Inglorious Basterds with Danish subtitles!

Tonight we are just taking it easy, everyone is going back to school and work tomorrow morning so we are all just hanging out. We watched a British TV show called "Super Skinny and Super Fat" (or something like that) where they make anorexic girls eat and fat people diet, it was pretty entertaining!

Food log:

Breakfast: apple (b/c I slept through breakfast)

Lunch: rice with a type of stew on top. The stew was unbelievably delicious. It was brown with meat, carrots, chick peas, some sort of fruit, and some other stuff. We also had salad, also really good with other stuff I didn't recognize, and nan bread with like olive oil, salt, parsley, and other seasonings.

Cake time: homemade rolls/biscuits with milk chocolate on top (the choc was a very thin "bark" type deal) and then bday cake with like raspberry filling (kind of like a pudding, light pink in color) with whipped cream frosting and sprinkles.

Dinner: curry flavored soup with bread and fresh squeezed oj (orange juice is apparently not a breakfast item, but rather something you drink whenever simply for the vitamins).

Day number 1

So, I have landed in beautiful (yet overcast in a way that would make Ithaca proud) Copenhagen! My flight was fine, the food was awesome! I watched parts of Post Grad and Miss Congeniality, the guy sitting next to me said I had a nice smile and told me how his son had such an overbite that he had to wear braces and headgear for like 5 years but then he was really hot and was turning away "foxy ladies" (yes, that is a direct quote).

My host dad picked me up from the airport and we went to see downtown Copenhagen then home for lunch and tea. My family is really nice, mom, dad, 17 year old son and 14 year old son. The 17 year old (Kristian) is pretty introverted and the 14 year old (Henrik) is the complete opposite, he has a VERY strong affinity for American slang/curse words! They also have a black lab named Malou (Ma-loo) that is super cute with a big block head!

As promised, I will now relate the bizzare things I have eaten so far:

Lunch: brown bread that had the consistency of banana bread kinda, but it is supposedly super healthy with some sort of fried fish ball thing and some condiment that is not known in the US (kind of like a mix between tartar sauce, mayo, mustard, and other weird stuff, it was pretty good with the fish)

Tea time: banana chocolate cake and really good tea

Dinner: Tacos (b/c nothing is more American than tacos) but instead of having shells they have "taco tubs" which are kind of like bowls...very good though, I cut the veggies!

I have finally unpacked and the lack of sleep is starting to hit me so I think I might turn in. For all of those out there in blog land that do not think this is an adequate description of my day (i.e. mom) I promise that this was not the most exciting day and I don't have that much to report; future posts will consist of more than just my food log!

And I'm off!

Hellllooooo All!

So, in case you are confused as to why you are reading this sentence on this website, you are madly in love with me and are thus stalking my every move while I am in Copenhagen, Denmark for my semester abroad!

Hopefully this blog will not be too boring, I may not be going to the most exotic place on earth, but I hear that the Danes eat some pretty wild fish-type foods so if nothing else, hopefully this blog will serve to remind you how lucky you are that you live in America and can eat pizza, hamburgers, and french fries.

As of right now, I am sitting in my room in IL, as packed as I'll ever be, getting pre-airport jitters. My next post will obviously be when I have landed in Denmark, so hopefully I will have something more intelligent and Danish to say!

Farvel for now!