Meeting the Danes

"Either Kelsey is a really feminine boy, or she's a girl."

So I met up with my visiting family today (Sunday), which is a quasi-homestay family. It is a Danish family who I will meet up with several times a month to have dinner with, go to the movies, walk around Copenhagen, etc. It's a really cool opportunity to spend time with a Danish family! I've been in e-mail contact with the mother, Ninna, for a week or so and we arranged for me and the family to spend the day together today. There is a 23 year old daughter named Anne, a 20 year old son named Joakim (pronounced Yo-Kim), the mother, Ninna, and father, John, and 2 cats named Tim (which means skinny) and Bon (which means fat). I found the cat's names really entertaining.

The mother told me that Anne would be picking me up sometime this afternoon and that she'd call me to give me a more specific time. So Anne calls me and hears my voice, and (as they told me later, laughing around the dinner table) she hangs up and calls her mom and says, "Mom, either Kelsey is a really feminine boy, or she's a girl." Apparently, the mom wasn't familiar with the name Kelsey, so she looked the name up online to figure out if it was a guys or girls name in America. She found Kelsey Grammer (the actor from Fraiser), so she assumed I was a boy. I thought it was pretty funny. Then the mom said, "Well, it doesn't matter to us! I'm just happy that we're able to tell you're a girl by looking at you. It would be really awkward if even after we met you, we still weren't sure if you were a boy or girl."

The family was so nice and friendly, and the day and dinner wasn't awkward at all. Anne and I drove to their house, where I met Joakim and the dad. The four of us had coffee and cookies (that I had made as a home-warming gift... they seemed to like them very much), then Anne, Joakim, and I took a walk in this really pretty woods behind their house, then we came back and had homemade rolls and juice. Once both the parents were home, they made dinner while Joakim, Anne, and I watched Shutter Island (Leo DeCaprio movie). Dinner was DELICIOUS. They made Danish meatballs, fried potatoes, an awesome salad, homemade taziki sauce, and corn. The dad served me this really heavy, dark beer that was apparently "just the best," although, I didn't actually like it at all but drank anyway. Unfortunately, I'm still not much of a beer connoisseur (sorry, Matt).

They have raspberry champagne?? This is awesome!

This Friday night was my school's welcome party for us, that was held in a really popular, fun bar in Copenhagen, but even better, was that they rented the club exclusively to us from 8-11pm with an open bar, then it opened to the public after that. I thought at an open bar, they would just have beer, and while I don't particularly like beer, it would be free! so I was happy enough. THEN, we get there to find out that there is crappy beer OR delicious raspberry champagne (which was also probably crappy to those who know champagne, but I am not such a person). Needless to say, my friend Barathi (an American) and I made several trips to the bar to fill our cups with champagne, and we were always excited about it. The night was so much fun! There was a huge dance floor, and we all danced our little hearts out and had a great time.

King's Cup is always a crowd-pleaser... in bed.

My roommate, Blaire, and I are becoming better friends with the Danes on our hall, which has been really great. There are about 12 other people on our hall (all Danes), and we've gotten to know a group of 4 guys who are all a lot of fun and good friends with each other. They invited Blaire and I to have dinner with them in the hall kitchen on Saturday night. Free and delicious food? Yes, please. So the four of them: Jonas, Sunnlief (pronounced Sun-life), Magnus, Árni (pronounced... um... nothing like it's spelled so I just avoid saying his name), Blaire, and I all ate a chicken/tomato/pasta dish that was really good and had this cinnamon-sugar danish pastry for dessert. Delicious.

I was feeling really tired from the late night before, so I didn't want to go out again. Instead I stayed in the communal kitchen/TV room and hung out with the guys while Blaire left to go into the city. My other friend Barathi (an American) came and joined me and the guys. We ended up playing a drinking game called pyramid that the Danes thought us, then Barathi and I taught them how to play King's Cup, which was HILARIOUS.

(For those unfamiliar with college drinking games, in King's Cup, there's a deck of cards, and each card signifies a different action/game that you have to do. If you draw a king, you make a "rule" that everyone has to follow for the rest of the game).

Pretty soon into the game, a rule was established that you had to end every sentence with "in bed." For instance, "I need another beer.. in bed" or "It's your turn.. in bed." Anyway, the Danes thought this was the funniest thing they'd ever heard of and repetitively yelled out, "That's what she said!" while making "in bed" puns all night long. The rule literally never got old. Plus, Barathi and I got even more of a kick out of it cause they all have Danish accents (similar to Swedish accents), so it just made everything they said that much funnier. The night was a great success.

Random-ness

You mean you don't ride your bike in your prom dress??

So I've been in Copenhagen for 5 days now, and I LOVE it. The people in Denmark are supposedly some of the happiest people in world, and I definitely see why. Everyone is so nice, friendly, and respectful. They lead a slower-paced life, so people rarely work more than 40 hours a week, because they believe that to be a "complete" person, you must balance work with hobbies, family, and leisure. Also, medical care and education are completely free. All the danes in my kollegium (apartment/dorm) GET PAID to go to school. WHAT?? Yes. Not only is college/grad school/med school/law school completely free, but students get stipends of money each month for food/rent. Crazy. Granted, they pay 50% or more of their salary in taxes, but it seems to be working out real well. It's obvious here that the tax money is being well spent. All public places are just so well-kept.

The city is amazingly clean, even in the busiest sections, simply because it's the social norm not to litter and there are few cars. EVERYONE here rides a bike. I've never seen so many bikes in my life. You honestly have to be more careful not to get hit by a bike than a car (every street has a bike lane, and if you accidently walk in it, you may very well get run over). What's so funny is that Danes are extremely fashionable, and they dont let their bikes or the weather deter them. Each morning you see men in full suits biking away to work with their suitcase sitting in the front basket, girls in heals and dresses jump on bikes without thinking twice, mothers and fathers with 1 or even sometimes 2 children sitting in baby-seats on the bike. And what happens when it rains?? They all just throw on their raincoats, pop up their umbrellas, and ride along one-handed. It's the craziest/coolest thing I've ever seen.

A typical Copenhagen city square. There are even bike-only parking lots. I have yet to see a single car parking garage, simply because there's not enough cars to need one.

People riding along on their way to work. Notice the guy in the suit? It don't bother him none.

"The Situation" with Language

Anyway, today was my first day of classes! This semester I'm taking Medical Practice and Policy (taught in a hospital in Copenhagen), Biology of Marine Mammals, Holocaust and Genocide, Danish Language and Culture, and Photojournalism, then a 1-credit class called Renaissance and Rome, that I'm taking because there's a week-long trip in Rome as part of the class :)

I went to Danish class today, and the language is SO HARD. I already knew it would be just looking a the spelling of everything in the city (its not like French or Spanish where you can somewhat guess what words mean. NOTHING remotely resembles english with the exception of a handful of words). It took me all class to attempt to say: "my name is Kelsey," which is spelled like this: "Jeh hadder Kelsey," but is pronouced like this: "Ya hilt-ya Kelsey." to pronounce things correctly you have to sound like you're ganging and make crazy vibrating sounds from the depths of your throat. I fail at it. Royally fail at it. I'm excited to take the class though. It'll be challenging, but I'm glad I'll be able to quasi-speak the language.

Luckily, all the Danes speak perfect English, and are even up-to-date on all American pop-culture (at least all young and middle-aged Danes). I've never seen anything like it. I was talking to a guy in my hall named Magnus today and he spoke using American slang-words, idiomatic expressions, and was even making jokes about the Situation on Jersey Shore!! (For the elders, Jersey Shore is a trashy MTV reality show about guitoes from NJ and "The Situation" is a character who named his abs/calls himself the Situation).

It's a little depressing that I can't even pronounce "thank you" in Danish and I only just found out the queen's name (Margrethe), but they know everything about America/English.

Beer is served at school functions now?

On Tuesday night, me and 4 friends went out to a bar called "The Happy Pig" (in Danish: "Den Glade Gris"). It's a really cheap/fun young person bar. Pretty fun for our first attempt to navigate the city at night. On weekend nights, there's apparently a really fun dance floor on the upper level. We'll have to go back.

I'm really excited for tomorrow night though!! My school rented out a club from 8-11pm, and it's free admission plus and open bar. After 11, the bar opens up to the public, and it just-so-happens to be the bar's 50th anniversary, so it's supposed to be a pretty great party. I can't wait. Pretty funny that my school offers beer at just about every function/gathering here. Danes are extremely social/casual with drinking. You can drink alcohol freely in any public place (like on the metro) and it's served with almost every meal in households.

Real food? I've forgotten what that is.

So I've found the best way to diet is to have to buy your own food in an expensive foreign country. Food here is not outrageously expensive, but for a cheap college student like myself, buying food at delis/restaurants is not fun. For the first 2 days, I hadn't gotten a chance to go food shopping/didn't know how to get to a grocery store, so I lived purely on rolls and bagels from bakeries (they're cheap and DELICIOUS). They cost from $2 to $4 each. To buy a deli sandwich, be prepared to spend about $10 American. Plus a drink and chips? $20. Painful. Finally, I made it to the grocery store where I bought a bag of frozen rolls, chicken, cereal, noodles, brie cheese, peaches/apples, and frozen veggies. So my meals everyday have been exactly the same: breakfast: cereal and milk; lunch: a roll with brie or jam + peach; dinner: chicken, noodles, veggies. I wonder how long I can keep this up before I can't eat another roll and jam without dying a little inside. However, I tell myself, "I ate PB&Js everyday for 37 days, and I still get excited to eat them," thus, I am convinced that I can continue my repetitive but cheap eating pattern for quite some time.

Contrary to logic, exercising for 6+ hours a day on a bike for 37 days = no weight loss. No exercise (but having to buy all my own food) = down about 3 pounds I'd guess (I don't actually own a scale).

Hello from Kobenhavn!!

Bike Trip

So I'm back from my bike trip! It was an amazing experience and I'm so happy I went. In total, Matt, Kristin, Ned, and I biked some 1,800 miles. My legs are JACKED. Lets hope I can keep that up over in Copenhagen!

A few people have asked me, "So did you meet your husband on the trip?" (since this, for those who don't know, is how my parents met). And I say, "No. Not at all. Everyone on the trip, aside from my brother and 2 neighbors, was between the ages of 49-67. Some were truly old farts upon first impression, but everyone ended up being really nice and fun people.

Here's the motley crew: (I hope you can get a grasp of the age of everyone from this tiny picture. The 4 young'ns were pretty surprised on the first day meeting everyone)

Copenhagen

After returning home from Oregon, I had exactly 2.5 days to pack before I was off to the airport again to leave for Europe! Although I had only a small window of time to pack, instead of buckling down right away, in true Kelsey style, I casually organized/cleaned for the majority of the time and come 1am the night before I left, I started actually packing. I packed from 1-4am and when I got to the airport at 2pm, my 2 checked bags that needed to be 50lbs or lighter weighed 50.0 lbs and 50.5 lbs (they let me slide with that)-- not too shabby.

And now I'm here!! I am living in a kollegium, which is an apartment complex in the city where only students are allowed to live. I am living with 1 roommate named Blair, who goes to Franklin and Marshall College. She's so sweet and we've been getting along great-- we helped each other move in and walked around the city together today.

Here's her picture (stolen from facebook):

We each have our own room and share a bathroom. Then there is a communal hall kitchen/living area which is great because its huge and we get to easily meet all the Danes on our floor. I've met 5 of the Danes on my hall so far and a number of kids who are going to DIS (my school) with me. Danish people are so friendly! I can't wait to become more familiar with the city.

The hardest part of being here so far is attempting to pronounce Danish words! Although nearly everyone speaks English, when I need to explain something to someone or ask for directions to a store, it sounds like they're speaking gibberish to me.

For example:

(bus driver from the airport): So where am I taking you?

(me): ummm.. the kollegium that starts with an O? It's like... Or...den...suh...

(driver): Oh Øresundskollegit? That's off of Dalslandsgade?

(me): right....

Here's some pictures of my room! It's really cute and comfortable. The bathroom, however, is interesting...

this is my book/clothes shelf and desk (my closest is in the hallway of the suite).

the decorations are not complete yet! i have lots more pictures to hang (as always) but I'm waiting to put them up so I can show them to the Danish family that I'll be visiting once a week.

here's my bed--with the very cute comforter and sheets that DIS provides us. the funny part is that all the boys have this same comforter too. it's a hawaiian floral print with pink stripes.

when i'm done, the wall on the left will be much more covered with pictures :)

here's another view of my desk that shows the awesome windows that look out on the street.

the view of my room from the hallway.

then, THE BATHROOM!!

while the rooms are adorable, the bathroom is quite interesting. see that hose-looking thing hanging to the left of the sink? That's the shower. It's connected directly to the sink. Turn on the sink, turn on the spigot, and voila!! Shower.

See the round thing on the floor beneath the sink? That's the drain. There is no separation of toilet/ shower/ sink. What does this mean? Every time you walk into the bathroom, the floor is wet and usually there is a significantly sized puddle just sitting on the floor.

It's a set up that I've never seen, but when I mentioned the strange bathroom to the Danes here, they looked at me like I was crazy. "That's how almost all the bathrooms are," they told me. "Most families even have this type of bathroom." Interesting.