Full in the Stomach and the Spirit

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 The word literally translates to "butter bread," which is a little outdated, because butter isn't exactly the main attraction of it.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.