My apologies for my tardiness in getting around to this second post! This is now my eleventh day in Copenhagen, so there's no way that I can fit everything that's happened in this post in detail, but I do want to catch up with today. I think from now on, I'll give a fun fact, then write about something cultural or one of my observations in some detail, and then give a more practical update on what I've been doing. This will probably be a pretty long one too, but they should get more manageable after this.
Fact: There are 7-11's practically everywhere in the city of Copenhagen, and they are the only things that are open 24/7. Most places are closed on Sundays with the exception of bakeries and 7-11's (yes, even most grocery stores, though maybe not all). Usually stuff is pretty expensive in there.
I realized that I neglected to talk about an important topic that most everyone enjoys: food! I was warned by some people that I "better really like fish," because they apparently eat a lot of it here. Makes sense, since Copenhagen literally means "Merchant's Harbor." But I've actually only had fish twice...once it was salmon, and another time I don't know what it was. Some fish patty type stuff that we microwaved, haha. Didn't look too appetizing but it was alright. Apart from that, for dinner I've had lamb, plenty of different kinds of salad (this is definitely a staple of my host parents' meals), some boiled sausage, mashed potatoes, scalloped potatoes, beef stroganoff, cauliflower, pizza with pineapple on top, and plenty of other things that I can't think of right now. You really don't know what to expect from the Danes, but you can expect that it will taste good!
For lunch, the traditional Danish thing is called "smørrebrød," which is otherwise known as an open-faced sandwich. The word literally translates to "butter bread," which is a little outdated, because butter isn't exactly the main attraction of it. However, it is pretty much always on rye bread. Danes really love rye bread, and while I had certainly heard of it before, I guess I had never really tried it - now, I can eat it all day. Beyond the rye bread, pretty much anything goes. Typically, it will be egg, fish, liver patte, or some type of meat, and then you can put tomatoes, lettuce, cheese, really whatever, haha. There's also some type of sauce usually, like remoulade. Here's a picture I found:
http://adry1.files.wordpress.com/2006/10/smorrebrod2.jpg
All that said, I still haven't had much too "smørrebrød," because my host family doesn't really traditionally eat that for lunch. Instead, my host mom just made me a basic ham/cheese/lettuce sandwich on the first day with some type of bun-bread, and after that I've just made it either on that bread, rye bread, or a bread similar to pita bread. Pretty simple...I just make 2, maybe bring a fruit if we have some and call it lunch.
The other traditional Danish lunch item is the "pølser," which is like a boiled hot dog sausage. It's longer than your normal hot dog, and is usually colored red for whatever reason. They have these pølser stands everywhere, much like New York hot dog stands. There are plenty of ways to order it, but I've tried two: the first time, I got it like a hot dog...it came with onions and pickles, and I chose ketchup and remoulade for my sauces (you can get mustard too of course). The second time, I (somewhat unknowingly) ordered a cheaper, simpler version...she just gave me a pølser sausage with a closed hot dog bun on a plastic plate and put ketchup and remoulade on the side. The idea isn't to "build your own," but to just dip the sausage and hot dog bun separately into the sauces as you please. Not incredibly sophisticated - I like it :-P
And for breakfast I just eat cereal. Corn flakes, Frosted flakes, some Oat Cheerios, etc. They're not big on mega sweet stuff for breakfast, but it makes frosted flakes taste that much better if I have them.
Hope you're hungry now.
So, in other news, I went to church on Sunday with Samuel and Nadya, as mentioned in my last post. Maria was actually there, too, which I wasn't expecting, but I guess she had stayed with some friends in Copenhagen over the past couple nights (she lives out in Jutland, which is the main part of Denmark - Copenhagen's just on an island). It was a pretty standard contemporary service like you would see at many churches in the U.S. They were a pretty small church. The band was a little more low-key than many, but that is much more appealing to me rather than the pseudo-concerts during many services in the U.S. It was totally a Danish-speaking congregation. I actually got there before Samuel did and talked to a couple of people, which wasn't hard because they all still speak moderately good English, of course. At the entrance there was a table with books, CDs, and DVDs. I learned that from a couple of people that the idea was for people to bring things that they wanted to share with the congregation to this table, and everyone was invited to take as they pleased. They said it was a demonstration of "sharing everything with each other," as seen in the book of Acts. They had CDs like Hillsong, Matt Redman, Chris Tomlin...and also some 80's Danish rap/hard rock. Good mix, eh?
Eventually Samuel got there and helped me meet a few people, and then we sat down. Maria and Nadya came a little later, and the service started. All the songs but one were sung in Danish, and the English song was by Chris Tomlin, though I forget the title. I actually knew some of the songs that were sung in Danish, such as "Open the Eyes of my Heart," "Forever (God is Faithful)," and "Be Thou My Vision." Just like the Spanish services at my church for Project Transformation, it was really awesome to sing these songs in a different language and know that these things cut across language boundaries.
The sermon was about grace - Samuel translated for me. Afterward, the four of us went to Samuel's place in Copenhagen for lunch. It was cramped but good. I really enjoyed the time I spent with them. So far, I haven't made that many friends from DIS, so it was really good to have that time with people near my own age. Later, their mom came - she was going to help Nadya pick up a used cabinet/closet that she was getting for her new place, and so I came along to help. We ended up having to take it all apart to get it down the four flights of stairs, and then we put it all back together when we got to Nadya's place. Even though it was a tedious job and sometimes frustrating when we were trying to put it back together, it all got put together well, and I really enjoyed that time spent with them too. I think I had somewhat taken for granted my amazing blessings of friends at home, and so it's really made me treasure quality time spent with people here. I think the Danes are good at this. I will probably write on that next time.
Thanks for reading! Miss you all.
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Saturday, January 23, 2010
Welcome to Wonderful Copenhagen!
Those were the words that greeted me on a poster upon my arrival at the Copenhagen airport. I think we need to get one of those for the Wesley house, or for my house in Plano. Except maybe not Copenhagen. Wesley House. Or "The Danners." I'm not picky though.
Indeed, about a week ago I arrived in Copenhagen for my spring semester study abroad after a ~7 hour plane ride from Newark, NJ. I enjoyed a nice 6+ hour layover in the Newark airport before the plane. Most of the time was rather uneventful, fortunately (ie nothing stolen, no plane troubles), but I did get a call from the Wesley leadership team at their beginning of the semester retreat, and it was great to hear from them before I left; I really appreciated the call! Also, I watched the recent movie "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" on the plane, and I would recommend it to anyone, for sure. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to sleep a whole lot in the airport or on the plane...maybe an hour tops, and I hadn't slept the night before my flight out of Dallas. That wasn't incredibly fun, but I guess I survived.
When I landed in Copenhagen, I found a couple of DIS representatives who told me to get my bags and then go outside to a certain point and do registration. After getting my bags and using some unique little cart thing to make it easier to move them around, I stood in a really long line for a while, but then they decided to move us out to the buses and just have others complete the registration process later. We took the buses to a rather large central location where we participated in various orientation activities, and eventually my host family came to pick me and my roommate, Peter (who is also in the DIS program, from Washington D.C.) up from the building. I met all three of them at the same time, and I was a little taken aback at first by how reserved they seemed to be; while I had seen multiple other host families excitedly and warmly greet their students, it all seemed a bit uncomfortable You can never really know how stuff like that is going to turn out, but I didn't let it bother me too much. I am very pleased to say that I have already become a lot more comfortable with my family over this past week, and I have discovered that they have incredibly good senses of humor, somewhat extracted when their kids visit home. Their kids, who are 19, 21, and 24, visited a couple of times this past week to have dinner, mainly to celebrate their dad's birthday, which was on Monday. Their names are Sam, Nadya, and Maria, respective to the previously stated ages. I do wish that at least one of them lived with us, because they are all incredibly friendly and easy to get to know, and they have been such a joy to have around when they've been here. Sam and Nadya live in the city of Copenhagen, and I will be going to their church tomorrow. I'm pretty sure it's all in Danish, but I think Sam is going to be helping me with the translation somehow.
I'll spare you the rest of the orientation particulars over the next few days, but I had a couple of "Survival Danish" classes where we were taught some of the basics of Danish that would be useful for getting around and saying some basic things about myself. "Hej" is "hi," and it actually sounds almost exactly like "hi," so people don't really know if you're speaking Danish or English immediately, though they soon figure it out and are able to speak in English too. Indeed, I don't think I've met anyone that just can't speak English at all yet, though there have been a couple of people who are less profiicient than others, of course. Apparently, all Danes have to take some required English language classes in high school, so that explains a lot. However, almost all signs/posters/grocery tags/newspapers are in Danish, and I generally don't hear a lot of English being spoken around me, or if it is, I can quickly tell from the accent whether they're Danish or American. Still, it has been quite a blessing to be able to take for granted that I should hardly ever have any complete communication roadblocks.
However, I had a sort of communication roadblock that I put up for myself on my first full day in Denmark (Monday the 18th). I was unsure of how to get back on the bus that I needed to get on to go back home (well, generally I know HOW to get on a bus, just step up through the door when the bus comes by and stops). Well, first, to be clear, I completely rely on the reliable public transportation system to get around, specifically to and from Copenhagen, and so I have to catch a bus at a bus stop about 5 mins away from my house that comes every 30 mins and takes 10-15 minutes to get to the train station. The proper train to get to where I need to go runs every 10 minutes, and it takes about 30 minutes to get from that station to the station in Copenhagen where I get off. So, all in all, it takes about an hour to get from my house to my school if I account for walking and such. Anyway, I was unaware that a particular bus stop serviced two different buses, so I blindly got on the first bus that I saw. I was worried that I would not know which stop to get out at, so I asked the driver if he knew the stop by the grocery store. He just looked at me strangely, so I just said I'd ask someone back in the bus if they knew where I was trying to get to go. Instead when I got back there, I hesitated to ask two older women talking because I didn't want to interrupt their conversation and was still unsure of "communication rules" in Denmark. As it turns out, I was just on the wrong bus altogether, as one of the ladies told me (I mustered up the courage to ask her once her friend got off, hah). I got off at a different station, Måløv station, which was in a different town than where I needed to be and definitely not where I wanted to be at all. There, too, I hesitated to ask some people at first where I was exactly and what I needed to do to get where I wanted to be. I showed some people the home address I was trying to get to, and they didn't really know, but they just saw my town and pretty much told me to get on a certain other bus. They were right, but the bus only comes every hour in the later evening, so it was gonna be a while. I still wasn't really sure what I was doing though, and I didn't completely trust their advice, so I kind of just sat for a while and prayed to God for a bit.
Being lost in Denmark on your first real day there without any kind of communication (I didn't have my Danish phone yet) and a questionable method to get back home was certainly a rough thing to wrestle with. Eventually, a couple walking their dog came by. I didn't know what good asking them would do, but I thought maybe they could help. As they were about to pass by me, I am thankful that I did indeed ask for their help. They, too, didn't have any idea where my exact address was, just the general town I lived in. However, I asked to use their cell phone, because I had my host parents' numbers in my iPhone, so I was able to call them and tell them the situation. More than anything, I was worried that I would be missing the family dinner, since I knew that two of their kids (Sam and Nadya) were coming in that night. However, I got a hold of the dad (Holger) and he said that Sam could come pick me up in his car. I was incredibly thankful for this and got a little emotional, I guess just given all the circumstances, haha. Definitely a memorable experience, and I think God was definitely teaching me some things through that, though I can't claim to know exactly what it is. For sure, though, I've decided to ask people directly if I need help with something, not that I haven't learned that countless times before :-P
Right now, it's almost 11pm in Copenhagen, and my sleep schedule is still settling in (ie, I have been going to bed at 8 or 9pm and waking up at 5, if not less normal). I am quite sleepy though, so perhaps I will just end this and put part 2 to this up tomorrow. This is a minor novel, though, so I figure it'll do for now anyway. Thanks for reading my first blog post! Like my photography skills, I am just a beginner, so bear with me through my learning. I also didn't spent any time editing this, so eh. My guess is that this is probably more than most people want to read, but if you made it this far, then either I underestimate people's interest, or you are just simply better than most people. You can just choose to believe the latter, in any case. I don't mind.
Indeed, about a week ago I arrived in Copenhagen for my spring semester study abroad after a ~7 hour plane ride from Newark, NJ. I enjoyed a nice 6+ hour layover in the Newark airport before the plane. Most of the time was rather uneventful, fortunately (ie nothing stolen, no plane troubles), but I did get a call from the Wesley leadership team at their beginning of the semester retreat, and it was great to hear from them before I left; I really appreciated the call! Also, I watched the recent movie "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" on the plane, and I would recommend it to anyone, for sure. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to sleep a whole lot in the airport or on the plane...maybe an hour tops, and I hadn't slept the night before my flight out of Dallas. That wasn't incredibly fun, but I guess I survived.
When I landed in Copenhagen, I found a couple of DIS representatives who told me to get my bags and then go outside to a certain point and do registration. After getting my bags and using some unique little cart thing to make it easier to move them around, I stood in a really long line for a while, but then they decided to move us out to the buses and just have others complete the registration process later. We took the buses to a rather large central location where we participated in various orientation activities, and eventually my host family came to pick me and my roommate, Peter (who is also in the DIS program, from Washington D.C.) up from the building. I met all three of them at the same time, and I was a little taken aback at first by how reserved they seemed to be; while I had seen multiple other host families excitedly and warmly greet their students, it all seemed a bit uncomfortable You can never really know how stuff like that is going to turn out, but I didn't let it bother me too much. I am very pleased to say that I have already become a lot more comfortable with my family over this past week, and I have discovered that they have incredibly good senses of humor, somewhat extracted when their kids visit home. Their kids, who are 19, 21, and 24, visited a couple of times this past week to have dinner, mainly to celebrate their dad's birthday, which was on Monday. Their names are Sam, Nadya, and Maria, respective to the previously stated ages. I do wish that at least one of them lived with us, because they are all incredibly friendly and easy to get to know, and they have been such a joy to have around when they've been here. Sam and Nadya live in the city of Copenhagen, and I will be going to their church tomorrow. I'm pretty sure it's all in Danish, but I think Sam is going to be helping me with the translation somehow.
I'll spare you the rest of the orientation particulars over the next few days, but I had a couple of "Survival Danish" classes where we were taught some of the basics of Danish that would be useful for getting around and saying some basic things about myself. "Hej" is "hi," and it actually sounds almost exactly like "hi," so people don't really know if you're speaking Danish or English immediately, though they soon figure it out and are able to speak in English too. Indeed, I don't think I've met anyone that just can't speak English at all yet, though there have been a couple of people who are less profiicient than others, of course. Apparently, all Danes have to take some required English language classes in high school, so that explains a lot. However, almost all signs/posters/grocery tags/newspapers are in Danish, and I generally don't hear a lot of English being spoken around me, or if it is, I can quickly tell from the accent whether they're Danish or American. Still, it has been quite a blessing to be able to take for granted that I should hardly ever have any complete communication roadblocks.
However, I had a sort of communication roadblock that I put up for myself on my first full day in Denmark (Monday the 18th). I was unsure of how to get back on the bus that I needed to get on to go back home (well, generally I know HOW to get on a bus, just step up through the door when the bus comes by and stops). Well, first, to be clear, I completely rely on the reliable public transportation system to get around, specifically to and from Copenhagen, and so I have to catch a bus at a bus stop about 5 mins away from my house that comes every 30 mins and takes 10-15 minutes to get to the train station. The proper train to get to where I need to go runs every 10 minutes, and it takes about 30 minutes to get from that station to the station in Copenhagen where I get off. So, all in all, it takes about an hour to get from my house to my school if I account for walking and such. Anyway, I was unaware that a particular bus stop serviced two different buses, so I blindly got on the first bus that I saw. I was worried that I would not know which stop to get out at, so I asked the driver if he knew the stop by the grocery store. He just looked at me strangely, so I just said I'd ask someone back in the bus if they knew where I was trying to get to go. Instead when I got back there, I hesitated to ask two older women talking because I didn't want to interrupt their conversation and was still unsure of "communication rules" in Denmark. As it turns out, I was just on the wrong bus altogether, as one of the ladies told me (I mustered up the courage to ask her once her friend got off, hah). I got off at a different station, Måløv station, which was in a different town than where I needed to be and definitely not where I wanted to be at all. There, too, I hesitated to ask some people at first where I was exactly and what I needed to do to get where I wanted to be. I showed some people the home address I was trying to get to, and they didn't really know, but they just saw my town and pretty much told me to get on a certain other bus. They were right, but the bus only comes every hour in the later evening, so it was gonna be a while. I still wasn't really sure what I was doing though, and I didn't completely trust their advice, so I kind of just sat for a while and prayed to God for a bit.
Being lost in Denmark on your first real day there without any kind of communication (I didn't have my Danish phone yet) and a questionable method to get back home was certainly a rough thing to wrestle with. Eventually, a couple walking their dog came by. I didn't know what good asking them would do, but I thought maybe they could help. As they were about to pass by me, I am thankful that I did indeed ask for their help. They, too, didn't have any idea where my exact address was, just the general town I lived in. However, I asked to use their cell phone, because I had my host parents' numbers in my iPhone, so I was able to call them and tell them the situation. More than anything, I was worried that I would be missing the family dinner, since I knew that two of their kids (Sam and Nadya) were coming in that night. However, I got a hold of the dad (Holger) and he said that Sam could come pick me up in his car. I was incredibly thankful for this and got a little emotional, I guess just given all the circumstances, haha. Definitely a memorable experience, and I think God was definitely teaching me some things through that, though I can't claim to know exactly what it is. For sure, though, I've decided to ask people directly if I need help with something, not that I haven't learned that countless times before :-P
Right now, it's almost 11pm in Copenhagen, and my sleep schedule is still settling in (ie, I have been going to bed at 8 or 9pm and waking up at 5, if not less normal). I am quite sleepy though, so perhaps I will just end this and put part 2 to this up tomorrow. This is a minor novel, though, so I figure it'll do for now anyway. Thanks for reading my first blog post! Like my photography skills, I am just a beginner, so bear with me through my learning. I also didn't spent any time editing this, so eh. My guess is that this is probably more than most people want to read, but if you made it this far, then either I underestimate people's interest, or you are just simply better than most people. You can just choose to believe the latter, in any case. I don't mind.
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