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Denmark Europe Study Abroad

Copenhagen: Walt Disney’s Inspiration

On Saturday, Sarah and I spent the afternoon/evening in Tivoli!  It was a perfect day for it, because it was likely one of the last warm and sunny days we’ll have in Copenhagen.

This time, we bought the fancy tickets so that we could ride all the rides, which was completely worth it.  We went on the roller coasters, the spinning rides, and a ride that told us a selection of Hans Christian Andersen tales.  Some of the rides seemed very similar to the rides still seen at Disneyland, although obviously with different themes… The one I remember as being Dumbo is an octopus here.

We had dinner at an Italian place, where we got mac and cheese (the first I’ve seen here, actually), and then we went to go see Alvin Ailey.  They were, as expected, awesome.  I always love going to see dance performances, and Alvin Ailey has great musicality and power in all of their movements.  The theater was in an aquarium, so at least it was interesting waiting for the doors to open.

Afterwards we went back and tried out some more rides.  This was my first experience in Tivoli at night, and it’s cool to see how they light it up.  All the pictures from the evening are from Sarah’s camera, because the ones on mine were all really blurry.  My camera doesn’t do well in the dark, apparently.

Overall, it was a lovely day!  Tivoli is possibly my favorite place in Copenhagen.  Just walking around, every area of the park is absolutely gorgeous, and it’s designed for everyone to be able to come and enjoy it.  I can’t wait to see how they decorate it for Halloween and Christmas!

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Denmark Europe Study Abroad

Copenhagen: I See My First Swan

Yesterday I went with a couple friends to Copenhagen’s lakes, and we rented a paddle boat for an hour.  If you’re in Copenhagen when it’s warm, I would highly recommend doing this.  It was a great relaxing afternoon, and the views from the water were beautiful.  We saw Danes bringing wine and food on the boat as well and are considering doing that if there’s another nice day and we go again.

Most lakes or canals or general water around water here seems to have swans in it, which is strange to me since I don’t think I’ve ever seen a live swan in the states.  I never realized what large birds they are!  I definitely do not want to anger one.  Also, fun fact, the swan is Denmark’s national bird.  Which is also why they’ve shown up in several of the Hans Christian Andersen tales we’ve read for class (see: The Wild Swans, where one unfortunate person ends the story with a swan wing for one arm, and the better known Ugly Duckling).

Danish word: chokolade (shock-o-lell).  Chocolate is an important word to know in any language.

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Denmark Europe Study Abroad

Copenhagen: Classes, Churches, and Christiania

It’s almost the end of my third week here, and classes are starting to get busier!  Next week we have Core Course Week, where we just focus on one class and travel to Western Denmark.  My core course is A Sense of Place in European Literature, and we go to the island of Fanø.  We got the itinerary today, and it should be an interesting experience (although a little rural for my tastes I think).

On Tuesday, we had a movie night for criminology, where we watched the movie R.  It was fairly depressing, as it focused primarily on two characters in Danish prison who got caught up in gangs and the prison drug trade, with some unfortunate endings for them.  Afterwards, our professor brought in the screenplay consultant and one of the main actors.  The screenplay consultant had been to prison ten times, evidently for low level assault, so his stories and opinions on the criminal justice system were fascinating.  He advocated for creating working education programs in the prison to help prevent some of the impressionable youths from ending up in a life of crime.  I also learned far more about the prison drug smuggling techniques than I ever wanted to know….

 I had another class activity Wednesday morning.  My Hans Christian Andersen class went on a walking tour of Copenhagen.  Unfortunately, we didn’t go to the really relevant spots like the Little Mermaid and his grave, but we walked around the city center and our teacher pointed out some spots where the buildings were the same as they had been during the early 1800s.  At the end, we saw the oldest building in Copenhagen and went in a beautiful church that was somehow affiliated with Copenhagen University, I think.  It was a good day for a walking tour, since the sun was actually out!

After the tour, I went to lunch at a café and then met up with some other friends.  We headed to the Church of Our Savior, which you might remember I climbed about two weeks ago.  They climbed the spire while I checked out the lower part of the church.  Again, lovely sculptures, as you can see above.

We headed over to Christiania next.  This is Copenhagen’s hippie commune, where basically it’s fenced off and relatively separate from the city.  They have their own laws, and people basically construct their own houses and live where they want.  One street, called Pusher Street, is where people who live there can sell marijuana and hash.  As I’m sure you could guess, they’re not really big on pictures, so I don’t have any to show.  Main takeaways: it was a lot bigger than I would expect for a hippie commune, I’m impressed when people are that good at using spray paint to create art, and it’s somewhat surprising that the Danish government doesn’t really interfere with the sales of drugs there.  I’m going back with my Danish class later in the semester for a guided tour, and I might try to buy a pair of the earrings one guy was selling there because they were really cool.

The picture of the view from that pretty glass building is at the Black Diamond Library, which is a decently long walk from class but is also gorgeous.  I’m not usually the type to study in libraries but I’m pretty sure I would make an exception to go to this one.

I tried to post this last night, but our internet in the kollegium died.  I’m very glad they fixed it, because the lack of ability to do homework, search things when I wanted, and communicate with anyone was fairly frustrating.  Hopefully this isn’t a regular issue…

Danish word: smørrebrød (pronounced smur brull) is an open faced sandwich that usually has herring of many varieties or other fish.  Apparently smoked eel is a delicacy on this.  Not my kind of food but we discussed it at length in Danish class today.

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Denmark Europe Study Abroad

Copenhagen: When in Lyngby

Yesterday I spent some time in the Copenhagen suburbs with my friend Sarah!  We met up in Lyngby.  They were having a festival, so some of the streets were closed and there was live music as well.  We went out to brunch at a Danish place, where they gave us a menu in Danish and we did our best to translate.  We ended up splitting the vegetarian brunch.  Main takeaway from that: when the Danes say “American pancakes” it’s definitely not the same.  The pancake was quite good though.  Afterwards, we walked around the world’s most confusing mall, because apparently in Denmark they design malls to look like labyrinths.  We stopped by Paradis to get ice cream (it’s funny because “is” in Danish means ice cream) and then headed to Sarah’s host family’s house.

They have a lovely house.  It’s a lot smaller than a typical American family home, only on one story.  There are a lot of windows in the main living areas so it looks light and airy, and most of their furniture appears to be straight out of an IKEA catalogue.  Her family wasn’t there for long, as they were going out to dinner with one of their friends, so Sarah and I just hung out at their house for a while and made dinner together, which was nice.

I’ve also successfully done laundry, gone to a club in Copenhagen, and turned in my first writing assignment for class.  This week, classes will actually start to get busier, because our field studies are starting up.  On Wednesday, I’ll be doing a Hans Christian Andersen-themed walking tour with one of my classes!

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Denmark Europe Study Abroad

Odense: Hans Christian Andersen and Missing My Train

The other day, in a moment of (almost unprecedented) spontaneity, I booked a train ticket to Odense since I didn’t have class today.  This is the third largest city in Denmark (read: not actually a large city), and its claim to fame is that it’s the birthplace of Hans Christian Andersen.  (side note: I find it amusing that they’re capitalizing on this fact when HCA left there some time in his early teens and almost starved on the streets of Copenhagen to avoid going back)

My journey did not start exactly the way I had hoped, because I accidentally set my alarm for 6:50 p.m. instead of a.m.  Oops.  Luckily, with Danish train tickets, you only have to buy a new seat assignment instead of a full new ticket, so it was only $5-6.  And the trains here are incredibly nice.

Odense was more or less what I imagined when I thought of Europe.  It seems exactly like the kind of place that would produce one of the best known authors of fairy tales in the world.  Of course, at the time it did produce HCA, the town was fairly poor and was probably not this pretty.  Now, it’s idyllic and old fashioned.  I started out following the Hans Christian Andersen walking tour, and hit all the spots on that, including the museum and the childhood home.  It’s so strange to me that they have the belongings from him and his parents just sitting there.  I could have picked up the china if I wanted to.

Since I’m learning about HCA in class, it was pretty cool to see the places I read about in his autobiography.  Odense also has a lot of statues relatedto his tales, like the paper boat that’s mentioned in The Steadfast Tin Soldier (which, incidentally, was the inspiration for Toy Story).  I spent quite a bit of time in the park pictured above as well.  The rest of my time I spent walking around the city center.  Like Copenhagen’s Strøget, they had a pedestrian street running down the middle with many of the shops.  I ended up stopping for Danish ice cream, which was very rich but delicious.  Although, the whipped cream was a little too heavy/sweet for my tastes.

As Odense is not as catered to the international community as Copenhagen is, it was much more difficult for me, a non-Danish speaker.  English proficiency was still excellent, but whereas Copenhagen has many of the signs in English, Odense was entirely in Danish.  People seemed significantly more surprised when they spoke to me in Danish and I answered with a blank stare or an English response.  Sometimes, if I think I know what they’re asking, I just nod.  Looking forward to learning at least enough in my Danish class to avoid the total “deer-in-the-headlights” look.

Danish word for you: jordbær (pronounced your-bear).  Meaning strawberry.  This is a very important word for me, because strawberry flavor is usually safe for things like yogurt.  Also, strawberry whipped cream was also an option at the ice cream shop but I didn’t try it.

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Denmark Europe Study Abroad

Copenhagen: Grocery Shopping Is Confusing

Let’s talk about food.

Today marked my… fifth time at the grocery store, I think.  I initially was going to this pretty awful one, but now I’ve switched to the Føtex, which is much better, because at least in this case the foods are found in logical, non arbitrary locations.  Exception, of course, being the third picture where alcohol is apparently considered “Chips and Snacks.”  The first several times I went were pretty rough, as I mostly wandered around the store, overwhelmed and disoriented, hoping that I might find something that looks like food to me.  At one point, I accidentally bought tortellini that had ham in it, which I gave to my roommate.

Today, however, was the most successful experience I’ve had at the grocery store yet.  After asking an employee (who had to go check with someone else), I learned that “havre” means oats, which meant that I found normal Cheerios!  And, better yet, I actually managed to pay for my groceries without the cashier realizing I was an American.  I now have most of the important staples, like bread, butter, apples, pasta, frozen pizza, and cereal.  What I really need to do is start getting up earlier and actually making time for breakfast, because getting through class without that is a huge struggle.  Overall, though, I’m managing.  Just finding frozen pizza was probably the best thing that’s happened to me with regards to food.

New Danish word of the day: fødselsdag (pronounced few-suls-day).  It means birthday, and is super fun to say.  In one of the sentences we practiced in Danish today: Jeg har fødselsdag i september.

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Denmark Europe Study Abroad

Copenhagen: One Week Observations

It’s hard to believe I’ve been here a week already!  I actually know my way around the city, have managed to not reveal my American status to people on the bus, and, most importantly, have not yet starved to death.

Today we did a scavenger hunt in our suburb of Brønshøj.  It’s not the nicest area in Copenhagen, but the houses are nice, and there are several pretty lakes around here as well.  I need to wander around a little more when I have free time, because until today I’d barely spent any time outside of our main road!  I also tried a chocolate cupcake from our local bakery.  America could learn a few things from their bakeries over here, because it was awesome.

A few thoughts on culture, now that I’ve been here enough to observe some of it:

1. Bikers are scary.  I worry more about them than cars.  Getting on and off the bus puts you right in the bike lane, which can be scary.  The whole infrastructure is designed so well, with the bike lanes kept separate from the street so they don’t have to worry about cars.  And, there is the added side effect that pretty much everyone in this country seems to be in awesome shape.  Just do everything possible to stay out of their way.

2.  Strangers don’t talk to you on the street.  After a summer of random people trying to engage me in conversation in Denver, it’s incredibly refreshing that in a week of walking around here, I have not been asked for money once, and my only interactions on the street have been to ask for (or give!) directions.  Actually, one person did come up to my group of friends on Strøget, from UNICEF.  But, he simply told us about their mission and told us to have a good day instead of trying to pressure us to give money to their organization.  Pretty much the entire time he was talking I was waiting for him to tell us we should donate, but it never happened.  Thank you, Danish UNICEF, for not being obnoxious to everyone and simply talking about the good work you do.

3. There are a lot of flower shops here.  I guess people must buy a lot more flowers here than they do in the US.

That’s all I have for now.  Tomorrow begins the first full week of classes.  Although “full week” might be a stretch…Not having work or any of my normal extracurriculars means I have SO MUCH free time that I’m not used to.  It’ll be nice to have more chances to explore.

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Denmark Europe Study Abroad

Copenhagen: The Little Mermaid, Drinking Games, and Lots of Plants

Last night, in honor of the first weekend being here, I went to a Danish bar with a few friends from my kollegium to actually interact with the locals.  The ones we met taught us a (really confusing) drinking game with cups and dice and lying, told us that ordering a beer and not finishing is “the equivalent to burning a cross in America,” and played “never have I ever” with us, although apparently in Denmark you can say things you have done, which…. seems to defeat the purpose of the game.  It was nice to actually talk to people who live here, since in the kollegium and in classes I’m interacting primarily with Americans.  The less fun part is their habit of smoking, which meant that the clothes I wore last night reeked of cigarettes.

Today started with going to Danish immigration, where I got fingerprinted, photographed, and gave them a copy of my passport.  Soon, I should have an official Danish Residence Card!  Afterwards, I wandered around Copenhagen with a few friends.  We ended up at the Botanical Gardens, and then after quite a long walk we found the Little Mermaid.  I hadn’t been in that area before, so it was cool to explore some new parts of the city.

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Denmark Europe Study Abroad

Copenhagen: Starting Classes and Climbing Churches

I’ve finished my first two days of classes!  They seem like they’re going to be amazing.  Quick recap of what I’m taking:

Core course- A Sense of Place in European Literature- AKA the class that goes to Russia.  And also a small Danish island called Fanø (pronounced fan-new, if you’re saying it out loud).  This one we started discussing our reading in the first class.  We’ll be reading a lot of contemporary Russian and Danish literature, meeting with authors, and writing about places.  On Monday, we’re actually walking around Copenhagen and doing our first writing exercise, which should be pretty cool!

Danish Language and Culture-  Our professor went through Danish pronunciation, which is literally nothing like how it’s spelled.  The field trips in that class are going to include a tour of Christiania and a ballet, so I’m pretty excited about those.  The language will be tough but I think it’ll be good.  It will be nice to not feel completely baffled every time someone speaks to me in Danish (which is at least 3x per day).

Hans Christian Andersen- The vast majority of our homework for this class is reading fairy tales.  We’re going to talk about Copenhagen during the 1800s, and analyze his fairy tales and other works.  It seems like it will be a bit reading heavy, but I’m definitely still looking forward to it!

Scandinavian Crime Fiction- We’re reading four crime novels, from Norway, Denmark, Iceland, and Sweden.  Yesterday’s class was just a recap of the genre, which I am an avid fan of, so it looks like it’s going to be right up my alley.  Our first book we’re reading is Jo Nesbø’s “The Snowman” (update: turns out I’ve been pronouncing his name completely wrong.  oops.)

Criminology- This was the only class I had today.  I cannot even begin to describe how excited I am for this class.  My professor grew up on the grounds of a Danish open prison, and we’re visiting one during the semester and getting a guided tour!  Even though I thinkmy personal views on criminology are pretty different from Scandinavia’s, I’m really excited to hear about their perspective on everything.

Last night I also went on my first “field study” (the DIS version of field trips), which was a dinner with my Danish class.  Although I didn’t eat the chicken, it was cool to see what a nicer restaurant looks like here.  I also got to the harbor extra early and got to wander around for while while the sun was setting.  It was gorgeous, and I even managed to give someone directions!  (am I a local yet?)

Today after class I decided to go cross something else off my list, and so I went to the Vor Frelsers Kirke (Church of Our Saviour) and climbed the stairs all the way to the top of the tower.  I highly recommend that, the views were incredible!  I could see pretty much all of Copenhagen.  All the pictures of the cityscape in this post are from the top.  I even got to use my French skills because I was behind a couple that spoke French the whole way up and I asked them to take a photo of me.  Now that I’m no longer concerned about getting lost, I absolutely love exploring the city on my own, and I can’t wait to explore more places over the coming weeks!

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Denmark Europe Study Abroad

Copenhagen: Nyhavn, Tivoli, Sidewalk Trampolines, and Getting Lost

This morning began with my first experience of getting incredibly lost here.  I was going to go to a bakery before class, but my friend and I got the bus stop wrong and ended up getting off 12 stops after we were supposed to.  We took the bus back, but then I still couldn’t find the building where I was supposed to go and wandered around the area peering into shops.  Eventually, I realized that I needed breakfast more than I needed to go to the last 20 minutes of orientation, so I found that bakery we had been looking for and had an amazing cinnamon roll.  They definitely know how to make pastries here.

After another orientation session, I met up with my friend Sarah, from Northwestern, to go see Tivoli for the first time.  I totally understand why Walt Disney felt inspired there.  It’s absolutely gorgeous!  We wandered around the park for a while and even tried a few rides, which were cool.  It’s interesting to see what aspects were brought to theme parks in America, like the themed sections of the park.  I’m definitely planning to go back and try some more of the rides!

After that, we headed up to Nyhavn.  On the way, we found the sidewalk trampolines, which are super cool.  Nyhavn, which appears to be the most photographed place in all of Copenhagen and will come up in approximately 85% of the search results when you google the city, was very picturesque.  I’m glad I’ve seen (and photographed) it, but there doesn’t seem like there’s a lot to do there.

Overall, even after the rough start, it was a good day (albeit an exhausting one).  Seeing as I start classes tomorrow, though, I should probably make sure my reading is done so I can go to sleep on the earlier side.  It’s so weird to think that I’m starting school already, but I think my classes are going to be pretty awesome.