Monday, February 27, 2012

Fastelavn... Nordic Halloween

Yes, I know two posts within the last 24 hours but what can I say this was a great weekend! On Sunday, DIS sponsored a Fastelavn Festival for students and their host families. Fastelvan is a traditional Danish holiday held on the Sunday before Ash Wednesday and involves many events including sla katten af tonden ("hit the cat out of the barrel")-- an activity in which individuals hit a wooden barrel containing a  "black cat," symbolizing evil, is opened.  This pinata-like game has of course evolved and now candy is filled in the barrel instead of a cat (thank goodness!).


Children and adults dress up in costumes and traditional Danish cream filled pastries called Fastelavnsboller are eaten. I dressed up as Pippi Longstocking and Camilla was a pirate, which ironically also happens to be the profession of Pippi's Father. Although neither of us were crowned the Queen or King of the Barrel, we had fun during the bun-eating contest  in which Danish pastries were placed on a string and we raced against four other competitors to see who could eat one the fastest ... Camilla got second place and I got a lot of jelly on my shoe :)   






Vi Ses Snart   

Sunday, February 26, 2012

Camilla's Fødselsdag!

Friday was my host sister Camilla's 15th birthday! To ring in the festivities, we woke her up that morning singing "Happy Birthday" and waving Danish flags. Her Dad wheeled her big birthday present-- a black Mustang bike with a leather seat and handlebars. In the bike's basket were tickets for "Singin' in the Rain" the musical that night - I was probably just as excited as she was to receive these tickets as I love musicals.

After classes on Friday, I came home early in the afternoon with tulips for Camilla and to give her my present-- a Pandora heart charm. When I purchased the charm earlier in the week from a Pandora store on Strøget, the saleswoman told me that Pandora was actually a Danish brand. Who knew that something so popular in the USA came from such a small country?? We then celebrated together by singing the Danish birthday song and with traditional Danish birthday layered cake filled with bananas and raspberries... delicious!
Singing to Camilla

Danish Birthday Cake!

Before the performance, my host family and I went to an excellent Italian restaurant in the Fredericksburg area of Copenhagen.  It was fun for me to translate the menu since it was in Italian and Danish; I found myself reading the Italian and then looking to the Danish description to see if I could understand it with the little that I have learned so far. We ordered two antipasto platters complete with an assortment of grilled vegetables, thinly shaved meats, cheeses and bread.  For my main meal, I had a spinach and ricotto stuffed homemade cannelloni. To say that this food was excellent would be an understatement :) "Singin' in the Rain" was terrific as well, and since I've seen the American film before, I was able to follow along pretty easily. My favorite part was hearing the English songs in Danish and watching the leading actor perform with buckets full of water coming during the memorable, iconic song.

And it gets even better! Saturday was a chance for the extended family to celebrate Camilla's birthday. Her grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins met at a bowling center and we bowled for an hour before coming back to our house for presents and a feast (I'm not going to say how I did at bowling, but let's just say that the Danes definitely bowl better than me!!).

There was a total of 17 people at our house, and we had to divide the tables into the "Adults" and "Children." Camilla had decided on the menu-- beef stroganoff with mushrooms, mashed potatoes, cabbage and apple slaw--and my host mom had been preparing the meal all morning so we could all definitely taste the love. Sitting at the "Adult" table, it was really interesting to hear/follow the conversation and I think they all enjoyed having me chime in whenever I understood something. And of course, a birthday dinner would be incomplete without the dessert! Not one dessert though, TWO! Camilla and I first assembled dishes of vanilla ice cream with mangoes, blueberries, and raspberries and a Holland caramel wafer cookie they had recently purchased in Amsterdam. Later, we sang to Camilla and had chocolate muffins with vanilla icing and sprinkles. We all questioned the difference between muffins and cupcakes and it was finally decided that Camilla had "broken the rules" and put icing on muffins; they were all pretty shocked when I said that in the USA, muffins are traditionally eaten for breakfast because that would be too sweet for their palates in the morning.

Danish birthdays are all about gathering with the family, eating great food, and honoring the special person... so who's birthday is next??

Vi Ses Snart

Thursday, February 23, 2012

The Most "Royal" Excursions

Over the past week, my Royalty in the Land of Equality class has gone on three field trips! Our professor is an Assistant Curator at the Danish royal Collection at Rosenborg and Christian VII's Palace at Amalienborg, so he really knows his royal history. Although learning about ancient monarchs by reading texts and history analyses can be boring, being able to see firsthand the places where Christian IV and his predecessors lived has been both interesting and helpful in regards to learning the information.

During one of our class periods last week we took a city walk through Copenhagen, visiting some of the city's major architectural  Many of these magnificent buildings were created by King Christian IV during the early 1600s as a means of demonstrating his royal power. It is pretty easy to spot out his architectural feats as they are labeled with a prominent mark of C4, including the stock exchange.

Stock Exchange 

We also visited Rosenborg Castle, a summerhouse located in the center of Copenhagen designed by Christian IV himself.  Today, the castle is a museum and holds the royal crown jewels.  I had previously assumed that the crown jewels were just merely for display, and I was surprised to learn that the Queen still wears some of the most lavish jewels to events held in Denmark today.

Crown Jewels

Yesterday, we visited Frederiksborg Palace during our field study tour-- the largest Renaissance palace in Scandinavia.  Unsurprisingly, Christian IV is also responsible for the majority of the castle's construction and his ornate style is evident throughout all the rooms. The palace normally closes at 3pm, but our class had special access until 4pm so we literally had the whole place to ourselves.

Frederiksborg Palace 

Although it didn't really relate to our class, our professor also showed us the table setting that is used by the Queen today for her formal dinner parties. What a dinner that would be - I'm still waiting for my invitation in the mail to her next dinner party :)




Vi Ses Snart

Thursday, February 16, 2012

Fun Fact: Biking in Denmark

Although Danes are the first to complain about the cold/bitter/windy/wintry weather, unlike Americans, who typically store their bikes in the winter, Danes do not. Instead, they continue to bike throughout the winter months, which oftentimes means biking in the snow and rain. How they do it with a smile on their face is still a mystery to me. But I'm happy to report that I haven't fallen off my bike yet...

Vi Ses Snart

Monday, February 13, 2012

Short Study Tour- Western Denmark & Germany!

So I got back from my European Politics short study tour Saturday night and all I can say is WOW... We met at Frue Plads early Thursday morning, and after some minor delays (yes, some people were late) we were on the road in our charter bus by 8:30a.m. Our first stop was the Storebaelt Bridge, the third largest bridge in the world which connects Zealand with Funen-- the two largest islands of Denmark. I discovered that it is not only a bridge, but really a bridge-tunnel link as the first section is is 6,790 meters long which connects Zealand with a small, semi-manmade island called Sprogo and the second section is a 8,000 meter tunnel which connects Sprogo and Funen. After crossing the first section, we stopped at Sprogo island where we were able to go inside the bridge and witness the temperature-controlled space. We then had a presentation of the Storebaelt Bridge along with information about Oresund Bridge and the Femert Belt Bridge Project, which is to connect Denmark with Germany.  My European Union professor, Jacob Buksti was the Minister of Transport, so one could say that we were treated especially well, as was evident with the delectable, catered lunch on the island of Sprogo which featured a variety of meats, cheeses, fresh salmon, breads, fruits, and salads! 
Storebaelt Bridge



Our next stop was at the Dybbol Battlefield located in the Schleswig-Holstein, one of the 16 federal states of Germany. The Battle of Dybbol was the key battle of the Second War of Schleswig in 1864. Denmark suffered a defeat against the Prussians during this battle, which our Danish (and biased, of course) tour guide assured us was due to extremely harsh weather conditions. After our tour, we made our way back north to Haderslev, checked into our hostel and had a group dinner at a "Bar BQ"-- we are still unsure if the deliberate pun was intended...


Windmill of Dybbol Bank-- The Symbol of Denmark 

The next morning we left for Kiel, Germany and after a gourmet group lunch, met with head of department of Schleswig-Holstein government Markus Stiegler. This presentation/discussion was extremely interesting as we learned about Germany's significant role of the EU and the importance of lobbying in Brussels.  This presentation was followed by a lecture from Dr. Wilhelm Knelangen at the Christian-Albrechts University on "Germany in the EU and the Development in German EU Policies." Both of these presentations directly correlated to our class discussions, and it was interesting to hear their first-hand opinions on the EU and its enlargement strategy.

We then made our way to Lubeck, Germany which was by far my favorite stop on the tour.  Unlike Kiel, Lubeck is a medieval-looking town that resembles the "typical" European city.  A lot of the old structures are still there because it was only bombed once during World War II. A few of us were able to take in the charm of the old city while ice skating in the town square on Friday night.  The next day, we had a walking/bus tour of the city with a exuberant tour guide, properly nicknamed "Mr. Mustache."

Me with "Mr. Mustache" as he tries to demonstrate the constricting pipes of the city 
(I think thats what he was trying to get across at least...) 

 My favorite stop was at the Niederegger Marzipan Shop-- a Lubeck nstitution founded in 1806 filled with aisles upon aisles of packaged marzipan! After a group lunch, we departed for Copenhagen, which meant taking a ride on the ferry between Germany and Denmark. So while it is nice to be back in the familiar Copenhagen, it was definitely great to get away for a few days and explore some other European towns.

Vi ses snart

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Two Fødselsdags, Ikea, and Snow??

After completing my first full week of classes, it was so nice to spend the weekend with friends and experience typical Danish culture. Friday was my friend Claire's birthday (Fødselsdag), and I was invited over to her host family's house to celebrate with a birthday dinner. Her host parents live south of Copenhagen right outside of Roskilde, which is about a 90 minute commute to Copenhagen.  They live in a quaint farmhouse, which is a huge contrast to my host family's modern, one-story house; it was really neat to compare their lifestyles and I'm hoping that I'll be able to visit more of my friend's host family's homes over the course of the semester. Claire's host dad takes a lot of pride in cooking, and although the main course was quite american--hamburgers--he spiced up the traditional by adding onions and capers to the hamburger patties. The dessert, however, was definitely a show stopper! After singing (or rather attempting to sing) the Danish birthday song, we had a traditional vanilla layer cake along with rich hot chocolate. So even though it took me a little over two hours until I got home, it was definitely worth celebrating with Claire and her host family! 



On Saturday morning, my host sister and I biked to the sporting facility in Horsholm and played tennis. While I have been playing tennis since I was six years old, with college classes and activities, I hadn't played in a really long time. It felt really great to get back on the court, and Camilla and I couldn't believe how compatible we were playing together.  We had so much fun that we are scheduled to play again on Tuesday evening. After lunch, my host mom and I went to run some errands at the local shopping area. I was most surprised at how conveniently located everything was-- from buying a few groceries, to an orchid plant (the Danes absolutely love their orchids), to tennis shoes for my host brother, to moisturizing cream, to dinner plates, to bakery treats for the afternoon, everything was located within a two-floor indoor shopping mall. On Saturday evening, we went over to my host-grandmother's house to celebrate her 71st birthday with the rest of her family. There was a total of 17 people invited to the dinner, including my host sibling's aunt and their three younger cousins. By far, this was one of the best birthday dinners I have ever experienced-- it was partially catered and it started with smoked salmon pinwheels served with fresh bread, followed by venison accompanied with a potatoes and an apple-chestnut salad. And just like the previous night, the dessert course was AMAZING; there were so many options: Danish dream cake, yogurt parfait, grilled pineapple, sauteed pears, wine-soaked apricots, vanilla ice cream, and a fruit sorbet. While I may not have understood the full conversation at the dinner table, I was able to pick up on some things and the guests enjoyed talking with me about American culture and our birthday traditions.  
I woke up Sunday morning to about two inches of snow on the ground... Going to school in upstate NY, I was really hoping that this winter I wouldn't see snow, but I must admit that it was quite beautiful and picturesque. As part of one of the DIS excursion trips, I went to Ikea on Sunday afternoon. Living with a host family, I didn't really need anything in particular, but I've only been to Ikea once when I was younger so I thought it was the perfect opportunity to experience the Sweedish designed store... and Sweedish meatballs, of course. I arrived home to my host brother cooking Danish pancakes, which we ate with our afternoon tea and coffee-- could anything be better than this??? 


Vi ses snart