The Host Family

Well, when Giulia left me at the airport, I instantly missed her a LOT already. However, I gained a family just a few hours later. My host mom and kids (Amalie, William, and Oscar) all picked me up at DIS once I got there! On the ride home, I could say it was a little awkward at first just because the kids were shy to talk to me and Helle is not always 100% clear to me. HA! It’s ok though, because they started making a great effort when we arrived home, where they showed me I will be staying.

The room that they gave me was well put together, rectangular, and just big enough for all my stuff. It is wonderful because there are candles everywhere in my room, which I enjoy lighting on a nightly basis. My family lights candles every night, and only waits to turn on lights until it is very dark out. I don’t mind at all. I actually really enjoy it.

However, it was a whirlwind when I arrived to the house for the first day. They soon started emptying their fridge and started making sandwiches that are very basic. Most the time they just butter very dark brown bread (with LOTS of grains) in it, with some meat or cheese. The other thing that my host sister taught me was a little other sandwich they make, where you butter bread and add chocolate. I don’t mean nutella; I mean actual chocolate that is pressed thinly. I can’t believe I have never thought of this before… It’s delicious! There are carrots, and they make a pot of tea… and I asked… “We are bringing hot tea on the picnic?” Well you can pretty much do whatever you please in Denmark when it comes to picnics because there are baskets on the front of a lot of bikes. Amalie and I both have baskets on our bikes, one of which I was borrowing and was way too high for me so I teetered on the edge of falling over every time we stopped. Yeah, I looked pretty dumb.

So they take me on this crazy bike ride to the royal gardens outside Fredriksborg castle, it’s about a 10 minute ride. We sit outside looking at the castle and one of the lakes, it’s pretty amazing. One thing that I think I’ll always remember is when Oscar (who is 10) was talking to me, and taught me my first Danish sentence. I can’t spell it but he taught me how to say, “My name is Kali” is Danish. It was so freakin’ cute.

After our nice little picnic they continued to show me the way to the train station, where I was supposed to ride the bike to everyday. Yeah. That didn’t last because on my first day coming back I got lost in the woods. So since then I have been taking the bus and learning my way around. Then I will try again.

Once the bike ride was over I thought that I would be done for the day and we would eat dinner and such. Nope. My host dad, Claus, came home and they whirled me around to the tennis courts where we preceded to play tennis or a few hours. It was very nice of then to take me to play because I think I mentioned that I play tennis ONCE to them. My host family is VERY perceptive and good at listening. Claus and I ended up playing one of his friends and another American student. Claus and I won. AHHH yeah family bonding. It’s great isn’t it?

Since writing the upper part of this blog, it has been over a week. I was so busy that I never was able to finish. But I have been able to figure out a lot more about the Danes since then.

I didn't know there were elephants in Copenhagen...?

From being here a few days I’ve been through some things that I have definitely noticed and taken note of. This blog is for the purpose of realizing and writing all the things I think are interesting/fun/ frustrating down.

1. 1. 1. My host family is awesome. I met them today for the first time and they were so bubbly and nice. My host mom, Helle, and host dad, Claus welcome me with open arms. We met in the town, Hillerød, where they proceeded to take me to the castle, which is surrounded by lakes and huge gardens. My host dad, Claus, tells me that if I want to ride a bike to the train-stop that I will have to ride through the gardens of Frederiksborg slot (the castle) every day. I am not complaining at all. Even though the weather is crappy outside we go up to the gardens where there is a little fair going on. It was pretty cool considering the future Queen of Denmark just happened to be there. Oh you know, the princess is just chillin at the fair. We unfortunately did not get to see her because she was up in another area, taking photos and such, and Claus only had a limited time because he sadly had to go back to work. : ( One of the things that I have really noticed here in Denmark is that there is a big… transparency almost, with their government/royal family. I mean, in Copenhagen you can just walk right into the parliament area, or stop to say hello to one of the parliament when they go into work. It’s crazy. Also, the palace where the royal family lives during the summer is not surrounded by a gate, or anything really. You can just walk right on through taking pictures and stuff. You can go INTO the palace or anything, it’s just interesting to see that you can just about go anywhere you like. It’s like taking the gate around the white house and tearing it down. Then it makes me think, could we ever do that in the US? And today at the castle, the King’s car was just chillin’ in the parking lot, and the princess was just hangin’ at the fair. Although she did have some guards, it’s like everything here is just so SECURE.

2. 2. 2. #1 leads me to the subject of #2, WHY IS EVERYONE HERE SO FREAKIN HAPPY?! In Denmark, there is some serious, serious happiness going on. Although the weather can be crappy sometimes, it’s like everyone took happy drugs and can never be sad again. It could be Armageddon and the Danes would still be smiling. Today on the train, Giulia and I watched a mom interact with her kid, who was laughing and trying to talk to her, it was so freakin cute I almost died. Almost. Another time today, I was standing in the middle of the road (for some reason I don’t remember) and a car was waiting for me to move. It took me a while to figure this out, and when I finally moved the driver waved to me a smiled at me like we were old friends. Try doing that in New York. Not only that, but you will find that there is a lot of romance, where couples are very romantic without getting into the too much PDA mode. Here and there you will see couples steeling a moment for themselves, and it’s very cute, not overdone. In the end, all the Danes I’ve met are good natured and nice, and it brings my spirits up a lot, because I know when I miss home at some point I’ll need their happy faces.

3. 3. 3. People here have little concept of space. Even with their happiness there is definitely a lot of bumping into people going on here. Maybe it’s because I’m clumsy, but I’d bet it’s just because there are a lot of people in the walking lane... Always. Oh? You want to venture walking on the bike lane? Prepare to be killed. Bike lane= bike stampede of death. Don’t be stupid, don’t walk in the bike lane.

4. 4. 4. Everything here is EX-PEN-SIVE. Giulia and I were talking about it last night with another Italian staying at our inn. He says he wasn’t expecting it either. SO. At least Giulia and I aren’t crazy. It’s funny that the least expensive drink I can get here is at 7-11, and even that is always around 4 dollars… yes, even if it is water. BUT. Today Giulia and I went to a store called TIGER, which is like a dollar store, but the two dollar version. We found water for 2 for 10 kroner, which is unheard of. That’s about a dollar per water. Needless to say we bought a lot of water and hoarded it back to the inn.

5. 5. 5. Ah, the elephants of Copenhagen. Well, all these 103 elephants and billions of hearts around the city is no coincidence. The other day I looked at a post card with the royal family on it… look closely and they are all wearing necklaces with elephants on them. Not only that, but look at the elephant statues in Coppy, they all have hearts lining their left front leg. Hearts are ALL over their money coins. Giulia and I both thought this was a little clue so we looked into it. The Danish Royal family is part of the Order of the Elephant, which was created a long time ago in Denmark. Only very important people can be in this order, like kings and high ranking parliament members. The hearts are part of the Danish coat of arms, there are nine of them. Why elephants? I have no idea. Why nine hearts? I don’t know. But I think it’s cool, I like both elephants and hearts.

6. 6. 6. Living in a fashion designers house is deadly. Giulia and I went through the clothes again today. We started playing dress up with Signe. Now I want to buy everything, but if she wasn’t so good at designing then I wouldn’t want anything. Signe is a really lively person, telling us the stories to her clothes. She fits us into the clothes and tailors them to what they should look like. It’s pretty cool, and I want this sweet looking jacket. Signe’s designs are all very classy, well made and interesting to look at. Signe is a very good designer, she makes clothes for movie stars are parliament members. It makes me wish I could sew.

These are only a few things that I have really thought a long time about in Denmark. But there will be a lot more when I get the time to write about all the weird stuff that is happening, like not really knowing what you’re eating. Here are a few pictures of Hillerød so you can be jealous.

The fam fam is above. Well only host mom and dad. Thats the castle behind me.

BIKE APOCALYPSE!!!!!!!111

Well, I guess you could say that the first thing I felt pretty scared when I started my adventure to Denmark . I seriously sat in the terminal and thought, ‘holy cow, I’m going to go LIVE in another country.’ I was freaking out. But, I told myself to suck it up and enjoy the adventure.

I started my journey in Denver, with my mom and dad, who had helped me pack 4 months’ worth of clothes the night before. I think I did pretty well by only packing one HUGE suitcase and a duffle bag, I mean, a lot of the room went to shoes alone! The huge bag weighed 60 pounds… but we had a cool guy behind the counter who didn’t charge for the extra weight. Saweeetttt. Other than that, all I did for the next two flights is sleep. When I woke up, I was magically in COPENHAGEN!

I guess you could say my first few hours in Denmark were a physical strugglefest for me. I mean, I had a lot of STUFF I had to carry alone. Huge bag, duffle, backpack, and purse. It must have weighed 120 pounds. I was bringing my huge bag to DIS, but you just can’t leave your bags in the airport… if you do they think it’s a bomb or something. SO. I struggle my way down to the train station. In Denmark it’s weird. There is the metro, and then there is the S train. The metro will take you to some of the places the S does, but sometimes it won’t. Tricky Danes didn’t fool me, so I bought my ticket to Nørreport station. I almost don’t get off at my stop for two reasons. A) It sounds like they muffle and mubble everything when you first hear Danish, and B) Nørreport is underground, so I was dumb and thought the train was just stopped for a moment. The struggletrain continued when I get out and find the elevator isn’t working. I mean, it’s a CLIMB (about 2-3 stories) so this other girl (with a huge baby cart) and I look helplessly around for another elevator… there isn’t one. So I gear myself up for the long climb and think “at least it’ll be my workout today” and stand at the end of the stairs looking dumb. The awesome part about this is that a Danish girl comes up to me and asks if I need help, which we lug my crap up to the second story where another Danish girl decides to join our little parade and helps us. First note: Danish people both nice and strong.

When I finally reach the top, the first thing I see is BIKES. BIKES EVERYWHERE. Seriously its crazy how many bikes there are in Copenhagen. I find a taxi and ask how far DIS is, which is only a 5 dollar ride so I hop in and finally get to DIS and drop off my bags. After that I walked around back to the station to go pick up Giulia from the airport.

Giulia! The little Italian, came barreling towards me with her small suitcase and we look like a bunch of giddy little girls when laugh and hug. Giulia and I proceed to confuse ourselves with the train system again, but finally make it to Svanmøllen, where we find our bed and breakfast between a sushi restaurant and a acupuncture shop. Our host is a Danish designer, Signe Bøgelund-Jensen, who welcomes us and shows us around. Her studio is literally behind our room. She let us go through all of her clothes, and told us about her new line, which has a lot to do with earthy colors and natural movements. I’m not gonna lie, I felt really cool.

Giulia and I preceded to walk down our local street for a while trying to find a restaurant…. But surprise! Everything is REALLY expensive in Copenhagen! Oh, and if you want to eat out…. Surprise! EVERYTHING is in Danish! No English at all. If you want to sit in a proper restaurant it’s going to be at least 20 dollars a plate, and that’s fun if you have no idea what to order. So we find the cheapest place to eat, which is a decent pizza shop, and proceed to buy individual pizzas for around 9 dollars each. We had to ask the guy in the shop (all Danes speak English amazingly) about EVERY single item listed. I know that skinke means ham now. I remember it because the word reminds me of skunk. Anyways, the pizza was actually really good. Giulia the Italian approved so it made the shop owner really happy. Then Giulia and I finally went to bed after a VERY long day.

Here are some coolio pictures of the place we are staying.