A few lists from my new world

Once again, it has been a long time since I’ve written, and (of course) so much has happened.

So, today…I am going to write a lot of lists to try to sum up everything.

I never mentioned all of the weird Danish quirks:

1) Danes eat with a fork in the left hand and knife in the right hand. They don’t switch or put their utensils down in the middle of the meal. They also cut and eat, and don’t cut everything at once.
2) Special meals with friends last hours.
3) Scentless candles are very commonly lit during most meals (even the casual ones).
4) At the end of the meal, you look at the cook and say “Tak for mad.” (Thanks for the food.)
5) Danes are ALWAYS on time, and don’t tolerate being late.
6) In my family, people often take small portion for their plates, and then eat, and then take another small portion, and eat, and keep going….
7) Danes don’t really care about the rain. (I guess they don’t have too much of a choice.) But everyone acts exactly the same whether it's raining or not.
8) If something socially unacceptable happens, many Danes ignore it.
9) There's a lot of PDA.
10) Many people think of serious dating as “marriage.”
11) Wedding rings may be worn on either the left or right hand for many couples.

Fashion here is different for me, too. Mostly, though, I think it’s just because of the weather. I’m really not used to wearing layers or jackets and scarves (especially in September). But everyone seems to be very fashionable here.

1) black tights that go to your ankles, short skirts, flats, and a long jacket
2) neutral colors and red and yellow
3) skinny jeans with knee high boots that go over the jeans
4) BIG purses (like back-sized)
5) A lot of the styles are 60s-esque (think go-go girl jackets and dresses)
6) Punk = hoodies

Food here, I thought, was very easy to adjust to. I’m not a picky eater, so maybe that helps a lot, but everything I’ve tried so far is good.

Breakfast:

Option 1 (on weekdays): natural (no flavor or sugar-sometimes flavored) yogurt with
muselee or rye grain mixed with sugar
Option 2 (on weekends): slice of bread with topping (butter and choose 1: jam, cheese, meat, thin piece of chocolate) and fruit
Option 3 (on special occasions): everything above plus eggs, bacon, BBQ beans, and
wienerbrod (Danishes)

Lunch:

Option 1: Regular sandwich (inside might have bell peppers, cucumber, lettuce, butter, deli meat, liver pate, mayonnaise with horse radish)
Option 2: smorrebrod which is rye bread with choose 2: frikadeller (meatballs), pickled beets, liver pate, salmon, butter, pickles
Option 3: Cold board which is a combo buffet style of everything mentioned and more

Dinner

Of course it varies but typically:

Carb: potatoes typically
Meat: red meat
Veggie: we’ve had a lot of different things

Oh, and I had my second test today….which was (like my first test – in my cancer class,) very general over view topics and principles, but this time however, timing was a huge issue (for the whole class). There was too much to write, and not enough time to write it. L But at least everyone is in the same boat.

And by the way- I joined an orchestra called KUSO (the translation is Copenhagen’s Youth Symphony Orchestra) and it’s been a lot of fun. We meet once a week, but it makes my Tuesdays very long (7:30AM-11:30 PM). Today, though, I made and brought some sour cream pecan coffee cake and small pecan pies for the orchestra to eat as a snack during break (this duty gets passed around each week). Supposedly, a lot of Danes have never seen pecans, so it was nice to be able to let them try it!

Alrighty, I’m tired. Off to bed. I’ll have to write more later. (Tomorrow I’m meeting with Merianne- my friend from several of my classes- to make plans for the two weeks break and this weekend, I’m going to Sweden for a biking and canoeing trip! I can’t wait!)