I really should be studying but...

Instead of studying for my Human Health and Disease final tomorrow, I’m writing a blog about the things I will miss in Denmark.

1. Host family- this goes without saying. My host family has been the bulk of my experience here. Without them, I wouldn’t have such a great insight to daily Danish life. They have been so wonderful and accommodating, and I can’t believe they were nice enough to let a stranger like my live with them for the past 4 months. Real cool, Denmark.

2. DAIM!! OH MY GOODNESS. I love daim, I just… love daim. It’s my favorite candy in the world, ranking above both Butterfingers and Snickers in my book. Its crunchy butter almond covered in milk chocolate! It’s like eating a piece of sunshine and happiness in every bite. I eat these babies like there is not tomorrow… which reminds me that I need to stock up before I leave.

3. Hyldeblosmt or Elderflower! They have elderflower flavored goodies here, and I really REALLY wish I could have some of this in the US. It tastes like flowers, and before you go thinking that that is really gross… think again. Flower taste is delicious. It’s like drinking all that is good in the world! I will really miss the “soft water” hyldeblomst drink that I have here!

4. (Some) Danish food- although we had that pork fiasco a few posts ago, I will miss some of the things Denmark has shown me in the cooking department. For instance, my host mom makes a banging lasagna, which now that I think of it isn’t Danish, but its freaking delicious. I will also really miss frikadeller, and the other dishes that I really like. I just don’t know how to spell them so I avoid details. Sorryyyy.

5. Danish as a language- Even though I am not even close to fluent in this language, I like it. Listening to and reading it is actually fun for me, but speaking it is the hardest. Danish is such a cool little language… its secret. Only 5 million people speak it. I am sincerely going to miss learning Danish through the immersion technique.

6. Making my own fires in the wood burning fireplace! I struggle sometimes to create a fire, but there is nothing better to me than sitting in front of a warm fire. I almost hate the idea of going back and using a switch to turn on a fire. I just like the whole wood burning thing. It seems more hyggligt to me.

7. Castles- Denmark has some pretty nice castles, the prettiest one, in my opinion, is the one that I live next too. Frederkisborg Slot. Look it up. It’s magical. It was even magical enough to become a stop for the Amazing Race this season. The only thing I regret is not going to see it more often, but I usually am able to stare at it in awe as I pass by it on the bus every day. It makes me sad to think I will not be going near anything like this castle when I get back to the US.

8. The public transport- Denmark has their public transport DOWN! The S-tog, regional, metro, and bus are all able to get you where you need to go. Although my bus schedule is not that great, it still enables me to travel every day to wherever I want to go. It’s pretty amazing to see how many people use this type of transport with me, and I’ll miss the announcements I don’t understand when there is a problem with the train.

9. Bike culture. You think you are safe on the sidewalk, think again. The bikes are an integral part of Denmark’s infrastructure, and sometimes rush hour for bikes is scarier and worse than rush hour for cars here. Denmark has separate bike lanes, and you can bet they are almost always crowded, or at least being used. You always look both ways here to see if both bikes and cars are coming. Perhaps when it is nice out in Denver I’ll bike to school…. If I’m not lazy.

10. The sights- walking 10 minutes around Copenhagen can actually lead you to more old historical places than you even want. I can’t believe I walk by some of the most amazing landmarks on my way to school. It is something that I can’t get over. Thanks for the cool places Denmark!

Of course there are a LOT of other things I am going to miss here , but I really should get back to the studyinggggg. BLEH!

BUDAAAA PEST!!

OK so, this is probably a mediocre bloggity. However, you shall read.

Budapest, and beyond!

Budapest is an incredible place to visit. It was a nice financial break also. When Meghan and I finally arrived (after missing our first bus) we were desperate to find some food because we literally had not eaten or 12 hours. Despite being in a kind of sketchy part of town, we were in a really nice hotel, complete with almost see-through glass shower that was open to the rest of the room. Weird much?

We ended up eating at a Chinese place, I got an entire meal and drink for a grand total of 4 dollars. 1 usd =216 Forint! The next few days were a whirl of fun; we did all of the touristy things, like going to fisherman’s bastion, the church, a chairlift ride. All of these things were completely magical. I never thought I could see something so beautiful.

Budapest is also known for its medicinal waters, and Meghan and I couldn’t say no to the spas! First we went to one of the oldest and largest spas in Budapest, the Szechenyi baths. Meghan and I were not quite prepared for the baths, as we did not have towels, or sandals to wear around. The baths were pretty fun, despite the plethora of hairy people around us. Each bath had a different type of medicinal value, and all of them typically smelled different. I remember one bath in particular that smelled like mint. After we were done with the baths Meghan and I proceeded to dry ourselves off with the complimentary wall hair dryers, and then we passed out!

Our luxurious stay in Budapest was continued the next day on Nov. 6. (day before my birthday!) where Meghan and I went to a beautiful spa that was incredibly far from Budapest! We had quite the fiasco getting there! Frist, we got massages. In Hungary, massage therapists expect you to get naked in front of them. My masseuse was a 20-something boy. There was NO way that was happening so we hand signaled until he got out!! Soooo awkward. But the massage was good. After the massage fiasco, Meghan and I both received baths with special chocolate stuff in it, and then we got our facials. After the facial both Meghan and I got a haircut! How much for all of this you ask? 100 dollars. Insane!! The staff was absolutely wonderful and accommodating and if you ever go to Budapest go to the Oriental spa at the Ramada!

After being pampered for the day Meghan and I went to Fraust Wine Cellar for a wine tasting. It was excellent. All of the wines were from Hungary and our sommelier lead us through all of the wines. I tasted the best red wine I had ever had there. Needless to say, I didn’t want to leave!! Meghan and I left slightly loaded. Can you say perfect day? How lucky can I possibly be?

These are just some of the Prague photos, to see the rest go to my facebook page! Enjoy!

Czech Trek!

Going on a lil’ adventure

I haven’t blogged for two weeks, and that is for good reason. I was traveling!! Here is just a few things I did on this lil’ adventure of mine. This first post is about the Czech Republic!

Week #1 Czech Republic

I spent the first week of break on one of the DIS adventure trips, which are pretty badass and fun. For my trip, we went to literally the middle of freaking nowhere in Czech to stay in a CASTLE and do lots of adventury things! This place was called Hruba Skala, and the castle was situated on a high cliff with a gorge on one side and a drop down forever cliff on the other. It was prettttyyyy sweet/scary. The castle itself was, you know, an old castle so there wasn’t much technology or modern things there, which I think made the trip all the more better.

We were greeted by our guides that would lead us through our adventure trips for the next several days. The first day we went repelling down one of the sides of the gorge, which is pretty high. The wall literally turned into a sheer cliff, and then you could do that “WOOO look I’m bouncing on and off a cliff!” thing. I said “woooo” a lot. Once down in the gorge, you had to climb back up this little mountain trail to the gate. There are two goats and one sheep that live in the gorge and you MUST close the gate behind you. Problem is that the goats/sheep are smart, and they follow you when they see human. They try to get out of the gate, and you say “NO GOAT GO EAT YOUR CABBAGE AND BREAD!” They don’t listen. Everyone had to familiarize themselves with removing barnyard animals from the vicinity of the gate on this trip. This was easy for me because I have dealt with goats before (that’s another story) so I just pet the goats and ran past them so they couldn’t leave. One person once forgot to close the gate. The goat had to be coaxed back by promises of bread and fresh cabbage.

We also got to zip line and high rope bridge that day, which scared the crap out of me and I’m not even afraid of heights. Something about walking on one rope that moves as you walk is concerning. Good thing we had harnesses. This activity was followed with archery, which I originally thought I would be much better at. I could shoot the target, I just have to get more accurate… we had a competition, I lost.

On the second day we had ice breakers (which we had constantly joked that we had already broken the ice) and a hike. I chose the hike first and let me say that this was one of the most beautiful hikes I had ever been on in my life. I swear I thought elves and fairies were just going to pop out at any moment. The Hruba Skala forest is surrounded by these thin and wispy trees, and huge blocks of sandstone. It was insanely pretty and unique. The hike lasted three hours, and it went by so fast. The forest we were in was known for its magical mineral waters that heal (go figure), and I was excited to try some of the spring water. The first one we went to helps metabolism, and others helped with aging and healing and all that other stuff that mineral spring water does. I drank them all.

Next, the ice breakers were actually really fun, and my group worked together, but struggled a lot. It wasn’t that we didn’t communicate; we just had a tendency to fail the game the first time until we figured it out. I even did my first TRUST FALL for the first time. It reminded me of Mean Girls, I could not take the trust fall seriously. Did I also mention that in order to do the trust fall we had to go on the wall that separated us from the cliff? Yeah, so that means once you climbed up the wall you could either trust fall backwards or just fall off the cliff, your choice. Everyone picked trust fall.

The third day was cold and a little dreary, but that did not stop us from going canoeing down the Jizera River! I didn’t bring my camera in fear of falling out of my canoe, however, I regretthat decision even thought my legs did get wet and slightly hypothermic! However, my legs could not have possibly been as cold as Stuart and Scarlett, who fell and sunk their canoe twice. One flip was down this freaking ridiculous slide that I was would also flip Meghan and I, and the other was out of nowhere. It was tragic. However, the water was not that deep so if you fell in you literally could stand and it would be mid-calf height. I was canoeing with Meghan, and we decided to take in the scenery, and relax a little on the river. Paddling was not our strongest attribute, and we just couldn’t catch up to the others.

Once we were all freezing, a little wet (or soaked in Stuart and Scarlett’s case) we had real rock climbing next! The hike to the sandstone rock was not long, but the rise in elevation was enough to make a marathon runner get out of breath. I was very toasty warm when I got to the wall. There were four courses, a level 2, 3, 5, and 6. There was also a repelling wall. The highest degree is 10 so people who went to the 6 course are crazy. I went on three and it was slightly challenging, however, I was doing this in Uggs because my feet were soaked in the canoe. I feel like Uggs are not appropriate rock climbing wear, and the concerned faces of my fellow climbers let me know this. However, I am totally badass and did it anyways. It was difficult, but I did it. After climbing to the top of the rock, I went to repel down the new wall. It was a lot more fun than the gorge one because after about 15 feet the wall literally went inward and you just hung in midair. I was really excited about this and continually shouted “WEEEEE!” all the way down. Best. Repelling. EVER! Oh yeah, one other thing. Turns out rock can be really cold. Cold to the point where your fingers start to burn and then stop feeling at all while rock climbing. But afterwards my fingers became super-humanly warm and I used this power to warm up Scarlett and Stuart, whose were both still freezing cold (and wearing flip flops because they shoes were soaked!). Once the sun went down at about 4:30pm we went back to the castle for dinner and more fun.

Side note about Czech Food… I don’t really like it. I was a registered veggie for the trip because I feel like that is the safer food option. Here it wasn’t. The first night they gave us a block with we originally thought was maybe fish, it wasn’t. It was fried cheese, with mashed potatoes. Fatness, here I come! This meal was continually replicated in some other form. One night we literally got Potato cakes with mashed potatoes. That was dinner… potatoes with more potatoes. Our meals were continually dowsed in cheese and carbs. No veggies. It was… interesting.

Continuing about the trip. The last night we were there we had a little scavenger hunt though the castle. It was pitch black, and all we had were candles. The first team to collect all the clues (there were about 20 of them) ad figure out the answer would get prizes. Justin, Karen, and I all went together to the cliff (keep in mind we only have CANDLES!) to find the notes, and then we proceeded to go down into the gorge (KEEP IN MIND THE GOATS!). After getting down the stairs, which is quite hard in the pitch black, the goats proceeded to scare the crap outta me. Not only this, but many of the teams went into the woods, and all over the grounds to find clues. The staff was wearing pitch black outfits to blend in a scare you while you were looking for clues. It was really fun. Our team did not win, and I was very sad.

That night the entire group stayed up to party in the castle bar, where they only served one beer on tap (which was actually good) and white wine of tap (which was really weird) and some mixed drinks. One thing we really enjoyed was the pumpkin flavored alcohol that mixed really well with hot chocolate. It was like fall in a cup. Delicious. One of the best night’s I’ve had.

The next day we took the bus to Prague, where Meghan and I checked into our hotel, got ourselves together, and went on the walking tour with the rest of the group. The tour was absolutely incredible and Prague is simply amazing. I would write more, but A. I’m tired of writing and B. Pictures are sometimes better than words. I'll post the Prague photos in the next post and they are also on my facebook page.

The Confusing and Odd tastes of Denmark

I’m all for trying the new food in different cultures, but a lot of times that food isn’t something you particularly like. While I love the food here in Denmark mostly, there is still a band of foods that I could certainly live without.

1. First things first. Licorice is literally the defining flavor of Denmark. Dane’s just love their freakin’ licorice. I’m not talking about twizzlers here, I’m talking about that black crappy tasting stuff. There are two ways to have licorice here, 1. Bitter and salty or 2. Sweetened. You can buy all types of licorice, gum, sweets, cough drops. They even stick it into stuff the SHOULDN’T have licorice in it… like chocolate covered licorice, or the clear elder flower candy I had the other day. Sneaky Danes. They love it so much that they simply have to hide it in all of the other decently tasting things. Here they have a shot called Fisk (which means fish in Danish)… it tasts like licorice and mouthwash. In fact, the American’s here started calling it “the mouthwash shot” because we didn’t know what it was for a while. While I still hate licorice, the shot has grown on me, and nothing can beat the minty freshness of your breath after you take it, Not even brushing your teeth!

2. Pork, oh how I loathe you. Except for bacon, you can rarely catching me eat pork or ham or pig or whatever EVER. Demark is a country of 5 million people, and 13 million pigs. Each person typically consumes 60kg or 132 pounds of pork a year. The runner-up is beef, where they only consume 30kg, or 66 pounds a year. Simply, Danes love their pig. I tried to be understanding and ate pig when my host family served it (which is usually around 3-4 nights a week if you don’t count the bacon in our meals almost every night). However, I just couldn’t keep the poker face anymore after about 2 months of pig, pig, and more pig. It’s not that the dishes aren’t tasty, it’s just that pork/ham is not my thing. Thankfully they try to make me salads and soup now… and of course bacon is always ready to be dropped into it if it needs a little hamin-up.

3. Thankfully, most of my stay I have not had to run into Leverpostej again. Leverpostej is liver paste. YUM… not. I did try this and I have to admit it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. I wouldn’t choose it again, but it was nice to try. Every time I see I automatically avoid it, but if I wasn’t such a picky eater I think that most people would actually like it.

4. Along with pork, Danes love boiled potatoes. Yes, just boiled. The typical sauce they put on the potatoes is what we American’s call the “dark brown sauce stuff”. It’s closest to gravy, but is not exactly gravy. I always wait to see if it will get tastier, but it is frequently somewhat flavorful, not as much so as gravy. That is ok considering that one douses their potatoes in a pool of it, so you get a nice mix of both potatoes and sauce. Though one of the things I like here in Denmark, it is still somewhat of a confusing and interesting taste.

Stay tuned for what I can’t live without! I’m actually going to Czech tomorrow so don’t expect oo many posts about Denmark. Instead, let’s hope I am responsible enough to keep you updated about my upcoming 2 week break!

Apology Blog.... Sort of.

Hmmm.

What have I been doing in the past weeks? Well not writing blogs I can tell you that! So, what has happened to me in the last few weeks? A lot.

Let’s start out by remembering the night that I went out with my host family and friends to see a U2 Cover band. Going out with you parent you ask? Yes. They happen to be pretty DAMN cool so it’s fun going out with the host parents. Zack and his host family came with us too! So yeah, anyways, we get to Frederiksberg and meet one of Claus’s friends, who is simultaneously riding a bike and drinking a Carlsberg. How I love the Danes and their ability to operate bikes and drink alcohol at the same time. We went to a lovely Italian Resturant, and during the table conversation both Zack and I secretly agreed to try and get out host dad’s drunk that evening. Don’t worry, they were trying to get us drunk too, so it was war.

After a few drinks at dinner, Zack and I started our mission with a bang—a shot of whiskey. Jack Daniels. Too bad they retaliated with licorice shots (EW—Licorice is SUCH a Danish thing) and more beer. By this time the band was playing, and they were actually really good. Bo (Zack’s host dad) was really good friends with this band and guess what happened next… If you were to tell me that I would be singing U2 on stage in Denmark while trying to get my Danish host dad drunk… I would have never believed you. But it happened. I was there. I remember it.

One of the best nights ever? Check! (BTW Zack was really funny in the car ride home wanting Mcdonalds so bad)

Since that night there have been a lot of other great things going on, things that I should have documented but haven’t. I am going to try to be better I promise.

Along with going to Soccer games, hanging out with the lil’ sis, and going to school, I’ve been pretty busy! Oh yeah, I did go to Germany and Poland for a week with school but that is a completely different and long post in itself!

One of the other nights I would love to talk about is Kulturnatten, or Culture Night. It happens once a year in Copenhagen, and for 90 Kr. (roughly 18 dollars) you can go around the entire city to see historical places or the gardens or different venues with live music. Probably one of the best nights I’ve had here in a long time. First, I went with Leigh Anna in her buddy group (Danes and Americans that hang out together through DIS) to østerbro, where we ate dinner and had a little hyggeligt time. Afterwards, Leigh Anna and I kept with the group, but two of our other friends joined the pack. Seeing as daylight is ridiculously short here, it was pitch black at like 7pm. Crazy.

We ended up going to Rosenborg, a castle that is in the city of Copenhagen, and it houses some of the royal jewels. Copenhangen on Culture night is, I want to say actually, playful, open, and interactive! Rosenborg was also open for flashlight tag… yes, you could play flashlight tag in the castle. Sweet huh? Outside of the castle the military set up a really awesome demonstrative area, where we got to try army food, and they gave us warm drinks. There were also tanks and what not that you could actually climb into (and they were actually real!) You could also hold REAL military guns, and dress exactly like them. My favorite part of the night was all the really good looking Danish guys in uniform. Leigh Anna and I reduced to being like giggling 12 year old school girls. We ended up getting the nerve to get one shot with one of the hottest ones we could find. We scampered away from him like giggling. Not my finest moment.

While we walked the streets of Copenhagen we also were part of a big mob of families or drunk people. The mix was almost comical. When we dropped into Gammeltorv, there was a troop of at least 20 people on horses playing music. It was pretty amazing. They finally decided to take these 20 or so horses down Strøget, which is a huge walking mall. Considering it was packed I just hoped that kids and drunk people alike wouldn’t get trampled. But Dane’s are pretty good at the whole push through the crowd thing…

After, we went to the round tower to see if we could climb it, but due to the amount of people it was a 45 minute wait, so we went into the connected art place, which had at least 25 little mats (that were squishy and nice!) where people could rest. Yes, blankets were provided. Leigh Anna and I left Rick and Ishan to lay down, and it actually took them quite a while to find us, even though it was a small room! Even so, they caved in and decided to relax a little too to discuss what our next move would be.

We ended up deciding to go to a little bar before we made the trek home (and a long trek it is!) We went to one of our favorite coffee/ drinking places, where they had a live quartet for Kulturnatten. It was seriously great! Rick, Ishan, and I all decided to buy a bottle of wine together, it was soooo hyggeligt! Since the train only comes every hour in the middle of the night, we caught the 2 o’clock train, getting me home by 3am. What a great night!

When I am thinking about what else I could possibly tell you about Copenhagen, I wish I could be more specific about all of my experiences. I need to write more, but if you want to know the gist of things know this: Copenhagen is largely a place that needs to be experienced to be understood. It isn’t just one night at some of the big landmarks that has made my stay here life-changing. It’s a cup of hot chocolate at Le Glace, or bustle of Strøget. It’s the chocolate scones at St. Peters Bakery and the uneven cobblestone steps. It’s the inside of Nørreport station and the view of the wind turbines from Nordhavn. These types of memories are the ones that make Copenhagen well, Copenhagen. It’s not just history and old buildings, Copenhagen is a living and breathing city, one that I have come to love more than I ever thought I would.

I am currently writing this to you in a restaurant called Chili Mili’s. There is a bowl of ‘potato soup’ to my right and a regular coke in a bottle that cost me 5 dollars. Oh and another thing, I’m sick. I think I have one of the worst colds I’ve ever gotten here. I got the regular coke because it reminds me of home when my mom used to give me coke to make me feel better. I have potato soup because I need something warm. Too bad my mouth is raw from sucking on cough drops, because I can’t taste anything well and warm soup feels like a million degrees to me right now.

I’m positive I got sick from being at one of the hostels on our study tour. Which was great, one of the best trips ever, but I still brought back crap. Oh well, at least I think it’s just a cold. Nasty cold.

I won’t lie when I say that it was a CHALLENGE for me to get into Copenhagen today. I skipped my first class but had to come in for a test and a presentation. WORST SICKNESS TIMING EVER. I constantly feel like I’m gonna pass out… and you know that really annoying person coughing all the time and disrupting everything? Yeah. That’s me. Hey everyone. I think my professors would have been nice ad understanding here, but I am too damn stubborn to stay at home all day and skip a test and presentation. Good thing one of my classes is at the hospital, at least if I die I’m covered on the bringing me back to life part. SO, if I can just make it for a few more hours I’ll be ok and hopefully Claus can pick up my body at the Hillerød train station.

Speaking of sick, Amelia is too. Yesterday we had a dandy time at home. Tried to go into town on the bus, failed at that. We ended up watching Mean Girls instead. Which was pretty great. Claus is also injured, I think he has a piece of metal or something in his eye (he works on cars). So last night he couldn’t take it anymore and went to the hospital. 3 out of 6 in the fam fam, BROKEN.

Despite my inability to hear anything, class didn’t go too bad today. My Renewable Energy Systems teacher looked saddened by my coughing… he’s a nice guy. He also gave us apples today because we had a test. And the soup tastes like butter, which actually is pretty good. I think it might taste a little more like potatoes, but my taste buds are currently messed upppp.

I want to try and find a pharmacy today to get cough medicine so both my family and I can get some rest. I’m sure my hacking is heard throughout the house. Nyquil has been working at night, really well. But I can’t take that in the daytime so I’ve been suffering through it.

However, I won’t let this cold defeat me! Tomorrow Helle, Claus, Bo, Zack and I are going to a concert and EATING OUT (FOR REALLLL!!!). I WILL HAVE A GOOD TIME AND ENJOY IT. Tonight I’ll just pass out and hopefully wake up feeling a lot better.

Yeah this was a fun rambling blog. Hope you enjoyed my bitching. Let’s call the WAHHHHmbulence.

I’ll be fine I promise, now, to the pharmacy!!

The Danish Diet

To be honest, when I chose Denmark for study abroad, I didn’t choose it for the food. In fact, I had little to no idea what they ate expect for the obvious ‘Danishes’ and ‘Danish Bleu cheese’. I have had neither of those while here. Instead, my host mother has made a series of very interesting and tasty meals that I would have never even thought was a normal Danish meal. I’ve also tried some other typical Danish food here and there. Here are some of my favorite things I have tried in Denmark!

1. Smørrbrød- The literal translation for this is butter and bread. This is a Danish staple food that is often served for lunch. Basically, it is an open face sandwich with rye (which is much different and better here) bread that is buttered. Now, the toppings can get a little crazy, but they put a lot of different things on it! It can range from potatoes to ham to lox. They also put things like onions, some greens, and other sauces on top. Simply delicious! These tasty treats are usually pretty inexpensive to buy (if you know where to go), are great for lunch time.

2. Frikadeller- Now, I would tell you that these are meatballs, but apparently my host family says they are not meatballs, they are Frikadeller. So, Frikadeller are somewhat of the meatball quality, and are very tasty. They have cooked onions in them with ground meat, sautéed until crispy and then finished in the oven. These little scrumptious delights were served with potatoes and gravy at dinner with the family. I’d say that I ate at least 10 of them. My host family was surprised at how much I liked them. But hey, they were pretty tasty!

3. Nuddler in Kødsauce- This is somewhat an Italian-esk meal. I am not really sure how my host mom prepared it, as that was the day I was lost in the woods and came late for dinner. However, it’s basically a tomato meat sauce served with noodles. Both my host brother (Oscar) and I ate about three plates of this stuff. It seemed pretty simple but the spices were fantastic. I will definitely have to get the recipe to make it at home.

4. Turnip/potato/carrot mash stuff with bacon and little hotdogs- As my name for it illustrates, one night I came home to find what my host mom called “soup”. However, the plate was a mound of what looked like to be mashed potatoes with bacon and little hotdog things on top. The mashed stuff turned out to be a mix of potatoes, turnips, carrots, and other spices, which was delicious in itself. Mix in the little hot dogs and the bacon, and there was a party in my mouth. I ate the whole plate and was about as full as I normally would be on Thanksgiving. That’s the “Oh my goodness I ate way tooo much and now I’m going to hibernate for three days” kind of full I’m talking about.

5. Bread and chocolate- Now this isn’t really a typical Danish meal, but my family seems to love it, especially the kids. The name of the game is to take a piece of bread, butter it (as always) and put a little piece of thin chocolate on the inside. It’s a nice little snack that isn’t too good for you, but oh it tastes soooo good.

Now I’m pretty sure I left out a lot of the tasty things that I have been eating here, but all of the dishes above were what I would say is distinctly Danish. They are nothing anything like I’ve ever tasted. After eating many nights at the table with my host family, I have come to realize that Danish food is actually pretty dang good. So. If you come to Denmark, give the food a try!

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.