Monday, January 28, 2013

Things I Learned Today

1. With a little effort I can successfully give someone directions on how to get somewhere in Copenhagen.
I met two students who were studying in Denmark and spending the day in Copenhagen because they study way out of the way from the city somewhere. They came up to me asking for directions, either because I'm clearly an American or they just took a shot in the dark and got lucky. Their maps were confusing and I struggled a bit but I think I sent them in the right direction. Hopefully they found their bus stop.

2. Buying a Polo shirt in Copenhagen is an investment.
During my free time today I wandered around a mall in the city and inside was a Polo Ralph Lauren store. A solid color polo shirt was 999dk or roughly 180USD. I guess this means that when I wear my green Polo shirt I got for 20 bucks at the outlet store I look like a high roller.

3. A Danish language professor will embarrass you in front of everyone.
Fortunately, that person was not me. Today in class we were learning about when in a sentence a word like not or also appears. Every time ikke (not) or også (also) is used, it comes third in the order of the sentence after the subject and verb. When a girl continued to mess up the order our professor asked her point blank if she could count to three; not as a joke. She won't be volunteering an answer again any time soon. I have been assured that this is not typical of Danes and not reflective of the population.

4. It's nice to get a taste from home at your home away from home.
I've been trying all kinds of foods since I arrived in Denmark that Americans don't traditionally eat. One thing that I haven't had in the two weeks since I got here, though, is peanut butter. That is, until I came home to this tonight:
 



Saturday, January 26, 2013

A Night in Helsingor

Last night was my first experience going out in Helsingor, Denmark, which is a short train ride from my host home. I went with another DIS student, Geena, that lives in my town here. (See Geena, I did mention you.) We learned a lot throughout the night about how the Danes approach night life and the trends. The main thing that we learned was that nothing happens early on in the night; something we need to adjust to considering how early we wake up in the morning.

The first bar we went into was a culture shock in itself. Geena and I, plus another DIS student we met up with, were by far the youngest people in the bar by about 30 years. Not wanting to abruptly turn around and leave because we were out of our element, we ordered a beer, Svaneke Mørk Guldands all around, and picked out a booth to sit in while we watched the first half of the IHF Handball semifinal between Denmark and Croatia. Despite the bewildered looks we were attracting from the locals, it was an enjoyable experience as we tried to figure out what we would be doing with the rest of our night.

A little after 9 we headed to what seemed to be our best bet at meeting people our own age: a bar called Retro. Because Helsingor is pretty far from Copenhagen there was little chance of meeting anyone else from America so we had a good chance to meet new Danes. Unfortunately, we didn't get the memo that nothing gets going in Danish bars until past 1am. By midnight, though, more people started to file into the bar and we finally got our first real taste of interacting with locals our age. We struck up conversation with a Dane wearing an American flag sweater, a sure fire way of getting an American to talk to you.

As the night progressed, I learned a few things about being an American away from home while talking to a group of guys from Sweden. If you start talking about American music, they will order a round of drinks and offer you one. If you talk about American sports, they will order a round of drinks and offer you one. If you attempt to speak the native language and your pronunciation is intelligible, they will order a round of drinks and offer you one. Geena had some other theories like that they thought I was Jason Segel or something, but who knows? Whatever it was, I discovered that ASAP Rocky and Kendrick Lamar are popular even in Denmark.

When we decided to call it quits past two (after all we had been up since 6am to get to class that morning) we found the night bus to take us home to Fredensborg. Riding the night bus was quite entertaining in itself, with Danish teenagers singing American songs they only knew the words to, but not the meanings of the words they were saying.

As I'm writing I have the difficult task of deciding which soccer game to watch, as there are six live games on television right now. There's an FA Cup match, two Bundesliga matches, a La Liga match, a Serie A match, and an African championship group stage match. And then there's the IHF Handball Bronze Medal game. This would be unheard of back home. I went with the Man U-Fulham game.

Thursday, January 24, 2013

Urban Artwork

On Wednesday I headed into Copenhagen to be a tourist. I was successful in some aspects, as I explored the National Museum and wandered around some new streets around the city. But because of the cloudy weather, I failed to take any touristy pictures. The best ones I could muster were of some cool graffiti I found near the Copenhagen main train station. Check it out:













Tuesday, January 22, 2013

It's been that long already?!

It's now Tuesday and I've been here in Denmark for ten days tomorrow. I am already pretty adjusted to my daily life here and have settled into a nice routine. I've been working on my Danish, both in class and with my host family. What I've struggled with pronouncing most are consonants followed by 'r' sounds such as in Frederik, Christian, Frue, kronet, tre, etc. It's so tempting to pronounce a hard 'r' in all those words when it's really more of a throat clearing sound.

Life here is much different than my daily routine in Vermont. I wake up very early like most Danes and take the train into the city for class. On Tuesdays and Fridays this means leaving the house around 6:55 to catch the 7:10 train to Hillerød and then I hop on the E line of the S-Tog to Vesterport Station. My class at 8:30 is a short walk from that train station. This is much different than last semester where on Mondays and Wednesdays I could sleep as long as I wanted before my 3:15 class, my only class of the day. Unlike at school where I tend to waste time between and after classes, the commute has been a great tool to get work done so that I can relax and do fun things when I get home. It's taken some getting used to but having someone to ride the train with most days makes the ride go by fast if I don't have any work to do. 

Tomorrow is my first Wednesday off to do as I please. Classes don't meet on Wednesdays here so I plan to take advantage of this time tomorrow to be a true tourist. I'll post some pictures of my sight seeing soon.

Sunday, January 20, 2013

Lazy Sunday

Today I had two firsts: my first wienerbrod with the family for breakfast (it's what you'd call a Danish). Also, this afternoon I took my first trip to Fredensborg Slot with Claus. Yes, there's a castle less than a mile walk from my house. The only people living there now are there to maintain it, but in April the royal family, including the queen of Denmark will come to live there for the spring and summer. We'll be there to welcome her with fakler, which poorly translates to torches. (With the translation differences, at first I thought we would be angrily gathering around the palace with torches, but instead it is a welcoming celebration with torches; something we don't have in the states.) Here's some pictures of the days festivities.
Not a bad way to start off the morning
This way to the slot
Main street of Fredensborg



Where the guard goes when it rains

Fredensborg Slot


Saturday, January 19, 2013

Skum Bananer

First of all: happy birthday to my dad back in America.

The past two days have been relatively uneventful with classes starting and everything. I continue to have delicious Danish meals, including my first taste of a pork dish that you leave the skin on. It gets super crunchy and is tasty to bite into. For dessert the other night I tried my first Skum Bananer, which is like a banana flavored marshmallow Peep dipped in chocolate. Needless to say it was awesome.

On another note, I discovered the MTV UK version of the Jersey Shore over here: the Geordie Shore. As disgraceful a show as Jersey Shore is, Geordie Shore is arguably twice as obnoxious and the banter even less understandable.

One last thing: I'm starting to learn the full extent of Danish humor here. When I asked my host dad when the queen would be coming to town in April, he responded with, "I'm not sure. As a child I was vaccinated against common knowledge."  Just one of the many funny things that come out of Danes' mouths.

Thursday, January 17, 2013

Jeg kommer fra USA

Today was my first day of classes here in Copenhagen. It started it off with my Danish language course so I was able to learn some more phrases to practice with my host family right off the bat. Last night we had the activities immersion fair. I was disappointed to find out that handball wasn't available and the water polo club wasn't there. I did, however, get to eat my first Danish hot dog which was arguably better than any you'd find at the ballpark back home. I've really got a handle on the transportation system by now and having an 'all zoner' pass is already coming in handy, as I was able to visit Hannah from St. Mike's at her DIS residential housing without having to worry about whether my pass was valid for that area.

Last night I also had my first frikadeller, or Danish meatballs. They were delicious and I got to have a few of the leftover ones in my lunch today. With the meatballs I had red cabbage, which I didn't expect to enjoy but was pleasantly surprised by its added fresh citrus flavors. After dinner I relaxed with my host dad Claus and host brother Jonas and showed each other some Youtube videos we liked, including some of the rollercoasters we like to ride back home.

The night before I was able to get a crash course in Danish history from Claus. I learned about Hamlet's castle in Helsingør, which isn't too far from my house and also Holger the Danske, who will rise from the dead if Denmark is ever under the threat of attack. There's many other things to write about but only so little time before I have another new experience. One last little fun fact: I found How I Met Your Mother on the TV last night between watching the Denmark vs. Iceland handball match and Barca vs. Malaga. Unfortunately it was on the German channel and had no English subtitles.

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Don't Knock It Before You Try It

A lot of administrative stuff today during orientation, but some important information. We learned what kind of restaurants offer good deals to students around the city and sent out to check them out. I've never seen so many coffee shops in one square mile of land in my life. The other DIS students I met today were impressed with how many of the Danish foods I have tried, most notably Leverpostej, or liver paste, or as my host dad Claus described it: smashed pig. At dinner tonight I also tried something I had never had before: cured mackerel. I had it on an open-faced sandwich of rugbrød, scrambled egg, mackerel and a little red onion. It was actually quite tasty and though it may not sound so enticing, as the title says, don't knock it before you try it.

A few more caps for my future coffee tabletop

My Danish room complete with two fishtanks and cacti

Monday, January 14, 2013

A List aka I Can't Think of a Title

My first cliche Nyhavn picture

Bikes everywhere

How sad.
Much has happened in the past 48 hours. It's hard to believe that I've really only been here that long. Here's a quick list of notable things that have happened most recently.
 -I had my first Danish beer: Tuborg Julebryg, a special Christmas beer with a hint of caramel.
 - I took the train for the first time here. It was a smooth procedure, not much unlike the DC Metro, except they don't always check that you have your pass. I guess Danes are more trustworthy.
 -The only difficulty I had with the trains was finding the station in town at the end of the day but the first person I asked led me in the right direction.
 -Apparently nobody believes me when I say that my fleece North Face jacket is plenty warm enough in freezing temperatures. I'll be sure to bring gloves and a hat tomorrow, though. 3 hours in the cold can take a toll on your ears.
 -Today we did a DIS version of DIS. We walked around the city much of the day and learned about some famous landmarks. Not many people were walking around the city, they were all on bikes.
 -Finally, my host family's cat is very unique. He is trained like a dog. If you put a chair at the dinner table for him he will sit there politely, calmly watching everyone enjoy their meal. He doesn't try to take food from the table or even beg for some. Also, when he wants to go outside he taps the doorframe with his paw and when he wants to come back in he stands in the window and taps on it. He's more dog than cat, really.

Sunday, January 13, 2013

The Universal Language of Justin Bieber

Today (yesterday?) was the beginning of my semester abroad in Denmark. My flight departed Philadelphia on time at 5:35 on its way to Frankfurt, Germany. On the flight I sat next to a perfectly nice young German woman. I don't know what her name was but she liked reggae music and didn't like sports. Unfortunately she also apologetically coughed and sniffled the entire flight so minus 1 point to Germany. Thank God for Bose headphones. In Frankfurt I ran into a bunch of students studying at DIS this semester. My DIS carry-on tags actually did help people identify me just like they said they would-- go figure.

I slept pretty much the entire flight to Copenhagen but every time I did wake up the girl passed out next to me seemed to always be inches closer to lying her head on my face. Aside from a few leg cramps, it was a pretty painless travel day.

Despite a lack of sleep upon arriving in Copenhagen at 11:15 local time, 5:15 my body's time zone, today turned out to be a very informative and great experience. I met my host family for the first time and hit it off immediately. They toured me through some basic places I'll need to know how to get to for class and showed me some of the popular landmarks of the city. When I arrived at my home for the next 5 months I couldn't be happier. My room is bigger than my one at St. Mike's and I even got two bonus fish tanks to keep me company.

My host family is great. One thing that stood out today was my interaction with my two twin 10-year old temporary sisters. They haven't learned much English in school yet so I'm pretty sure they were terrified at first by the gibberish coming from my mouth. But two words they knew immediately were Justin and Bieber and within minutes they were excitedly showing off their collection of Justin Bieber memorabilia. Best Bieber collection I've seen to date.

Other than that I met with a few other DIS students living in the same town as me and enjoyed my first home cooked meal in Denmark; much better than the food at Alliot. I got a lesson in handball 101 as the Danish national team took on Russia. I also learned that the word pronounced slut in Danish means "castle" so I plan on seeing plenty of "sluts" here. Tomorrow begins orientation and my first attempt at navigating public transportation to Copenhagen.


Saturday, January 12, 2013

Pre-Departure


Today marks the day I time travel 6 hours into the future to a mystical land called Denmark. Months of preparation have led up to this very moment. Goodbyes have been shared, good lucks have been sent my way and ultimately I am ready to leave America and experience something completely new in Europe. If anything, I can't wait to get out of here so I can stop explaining where I'm going, what I'm studying, why I'm going, how long I'm going and all the other generic questions you can ask someone that I've had to answer to everyone my parents have told. No wonder Andy Reid answered every question with "I need to do better" after every game of his 14 year tenure with the Eagles; answering the same question over and over is hard work. Anyway, my flight leaves at 5:45 today from Philly and gets in to Copenhagen after a connect in Frankfurt, Germany at 11:15 Dk time. Needless to say today is going to be hell on my brain's schedule. Here we go (Bud Light is not an official sponsor of my blog).