So much to do, so little time

It’s starting to get really cold over here. It’s already sleeted/snowed twice...and I probably scared my host family by running outside screaming, yelling, and catching snowflakes on my tongue…that was fun. The end of the semester is really quickly approaching and I’m realizing there’s so many things that I have yet to do. I still haven’t made it to Malmo, Sweden, which is just a half an hour across the pool, and there are a ton of places in Europe that I would love to see since I’m here. It would only cost $50 to go to Oslo, Norway, and it’s really tempting…and my friend just came back from Barcelona, and he says it’s perfect weather right now. Then there’s always Brussels, Amsterdam, Budapest, Stockholm, Helsinki, I could keep going on.

But classes are also picking up and this week is a little hectic: three tests, a quiz, a paper, and a presentation. Yikes! And there’s also tons to do here in Copenhagen, too that I need to also do. This Wednesday (I guess that’s tomorrow already- gosh, time flies!) my host family is having another monthly dinner with their good friends, Suzanna and Alan. This Saturday is a DIS julefrokost (Danish Christmas feast) with a ton of people, friends, and host families. Also, this Sunday is one of Denmark’s biggest soccer games, FC Kobenhavn v. Brondby IF, and I’m going with my Danish class. It’s going to be delicious.

Hygge Hygge

I have lots of good memories from last week: My friends and I had another Asian dinner, Thanksgiving, and Tivoli at Christmas! Asian dinner was a success, as usual. It consisted of munduguk, fried mundu, tofu and bean sprout panchan (by me), adobo (Merianne), spring rolls (Ben), pajun (Paul), lychees from a can (my host family had never seen lychees before), and a delicious desert made from macaroons, alcohol, oranges, and homemade whipped cream (Jette). This time it was at my host family’s house, so I was really excited to show off my home and family to everyone.

For Thanksgiving, my host mom, Jette, was nice enough to cook a lot of food, and my family even got a turkey. I felt so lucky! Turkey is really rare here so you have to pre-order it. The menu was: spinach/artichoke dip, baked brie, green bean casserole, homemade cranberry sauce (me), savory sweet potatoe pie, stuffing, gravy, turkey, homemade pumpkin pie and whipped cream (from real pumpkins), and a store-bought chocolate pie (Paul). Yum! Paul and Ben were able to come and join in and it was a really fun and good time.

DIS subsidized tickets to Tivoli’s comedy show, Crazy Christmas Cabaret, and it was hilarious. The show makes fun of all types of people (especially nationalities), and there were crazy accents and outrageous costumes, and audience participation. It was great. But what I like even better was just being inside Tivoli. It really looked magical. There were so many Christmas trees and all the little shops were decorated with festive accessories. They were selling all of the traditional Danish Christmas snacks like glogg (apparently warm red wine with spices) and aebleskiver (spherical Danish pancakes). And I was skipping around singing holiday tunes. The whole atmosphere was just hyggeligt, and it really felt like Christmas had started.

Orchestra concert

Today was the second of two orchestra performances, and thus concludes my time with KUSO. It's been so much fun, and I really love everyone there. I love, Lise, my chair stand partner; we've had a lot of good times, and she's helped me through so many scrapes! But really everyone I met was so fun and nice; I hate to leave! I don't know if I mentioned earlier, but we played a premier work called Lego, Carl Nielsen's Flute concerto, Marche Slave by Tchaikovsky, and then this wedding dance written by the conductor, Kresten. It was so much fun, and it just really shows, I love playing and miss it so much. I'll hopefully will stop by to bring some cake and drink tea during break at least one more time before I go.

Equality vs. Competition

In Danish class not only do we learn, obviously, Danish, but we also take time to learn about the Danish culture. So far we’ve talked a lot about the differences in Danish habits and manners, but recently, we’ve talked about the Danish mentality of equality versus American competition. I think this is a very debatable and interesting topic, and I can really see both pros and cons of each side. On one side I see that the Danes strive for an environment of equal access to all citizens whether it’s health care or education or whatever. As a result, idealistically, most have access to the same equal opportunities as everyone else. Again idealistically, this leads to low crime rates and a “happy," fair society. On the other hand, in a classroom, this means that no one emphasizes special treatment for gifted or slower students. There’s no praise for being the best or shame at being the worst. The class is only as good as its worst student. In America, from as early as when a kid goes to school, they can be placed in an accelerated class and the gap between students begins. As the kids grow up, this gap just increases until there is a large disparity between those less advantaged and the privileged. However, this competition to be the best pushes kids to strive to be better, to try harder, and as a result, these accelerated groups allow the kids to reach their full potential and push past unfathomable limits, idealistically. So very broadly speaking, there is this choice between a solid medium group or a wide spectrum of different people from disadvantaged to very priviliged. Of course, these are very, very large generalizations, but, these concepts were just interesting to talk about.

Healthy Danes

Now that I’ve been in Europe for three months, my perspective looking back at the US has really changed, especially in terms of food. Danes are so health conscious and make time for working out and taking care of themselves. At first, it was really frustrating to take a 30 minutes train to class everyday, but I’ve learned to use it as time for me to read or just space out and think. I have never made time for this in the states. I think this alone gives me sanity. But also besides cycling to work or walking everywhere, Danes also work out on top of everything. This isn’t to say that American’s don’t do the same – especially coming from Austin, but it just seems that everyone here does everything: cycles, walks, works out, takes time off to relax, and eats right. And on the topic of eating right, I think that it’s also just natural in Denmark that everyone eats less. Food, here, is expensive. That’s enough to stop me from eating right there. It also comes in small quantities. Everything is tiny like the pieces of fruit, bread rolls, vegetables, packages of meat, and the shrimp. And the meal sizes, if you’re wealthy enough to go to a restaurant, are moderate. There’s no supersizing here, and no transfats! Yay! But even though I still eat more than my host family, it just goes to show, Americans just eat way too much. There’s no reason for us to be eating as much as we do to try to be “getting our money’s worth.” And it’s not just food intake alone, but the whole package that makes the European lifestyle so healthy. Now, if we can only work on smoking issues…..

Playing Piano

Last week I started playing piano for a local hospice in Frederiksberg. I’ve been there only twice so far but I already feel very welcomed and at home. The sunset around 4:30PM here, so by the time I arrived, it was dark, but the nurses lit the rooms with candles and it felt very warm and cozy. It feels good to play the piano again. I haven’t really played since I left for Denmark, and the piano is really nice there. One of the residences came to listen to me play, and he was a really patient and sweet audience member. The others heard from their rooms. I felt bad that I didn’t have too much repertoire prepared, but everyone seemed understanding. I think I’m going to really look forward to going there from now on.

Travel Break

Traveling for the last three weeks was crazy and fun. I really had some amazing experiences and I feel so privileged to have been able to go. I got to see Europe and I felt like I learned so much. I traveled with my friend, Merianne, and traveling wouldn’t have been the same without her. This was our itinerary:

Poznan, Poland
Berlin, Germany
Prague, Czech Republic
Vienna, Austria,
Athens, Greece
Venice, Italy
Rome, Italy
Florence, Italy
Milan, Italy
Paris, France
Lyon, France

There are so many stories of the people we met, things we saw, and mistakes we made, but even though I would at the time, looking back, I don’t think I would change anything. Everything shaped our experience into what it became. And with Rick Steve’s as our reference, I think we spent about $1000 for everything.

I think some of the best moments were:

Watching where the sun should have risen in Athens on St. Paul’s hill (without knowing
it was St. Paul’s hill) eating Philipino fruit cake, but not being able to see it because there was a larger hill in the way - lol
Watching the sunrise successfully in Athens Lycomethia Hill
Sleeping in an airport
Sleeping in a train station with hobos
Eating the bread basket in Prague and having to pay
Trying to break the language barrier with my distant Greek relatives that I’ve never met
before using made up sign language
Bearing the wind on the lookout tower in Austria
Going to a “Blind” restaurant
Eating dolce de la casa in a Venice cafe
Being packed literally like sardines in a train in Rome
Drinking holy water
Watching the Eiffel tower sparkle

After all of that I came back home to a presentation, a paper, and two tests. And by the weekend, I crashed, sleeping until a record 4PM on Saturday. It has been a good three weeks well spent.