These past two weeks since I have returned from my travel week have been a lovely mix between school and the holidays (the holiday part being much lovelier than the school part). Since it’s been a while, this post will just be a summary of the highlights:
One of the first days I came back I spent the afternoon in Ishøj (a town south of Copenhagen) at a gymnasium (term for a high school in Danish). I went with the DIS Ambassador’s (the community outreach type club) to go and talk to a group of students about American culture. We were supposed to discuss topics they have been learning about lately, but as our topic was the Declaration of Independence, it was pretty much a question and answer session on whatever they were curious about. We talked about everything from religion, to the education systems in the two countries, to binge drinking, which was their favorite to discuss, of course. After the discussions we had a tour of their school which is much different from the one I went to. The students were allowed to roam the hallways, leave the campus, play foosball in between classes and lounge on couches throughout the school, whereas at my high school, if you were caught in the hallways without a pass, you received a one way ticket to detention. Overall it was a pretty cool experience to hear from them on these topics, especially I have learned about them in class but 17-19 year olds have very different opinions than my professors.
In the past two weeks, Christmas has gotten into full swing here in Denmark! As soon as I came back there were Christmas decorations up – in fact, there was a Christmas tree in the middle of the runway at the airport greeting us when we landed. Christmas time in Denmark means lots of Christmas markets, ornaments and decorations hanging in all the shop windows, lights suspended across the streets, Christmas trees everywhere, and some traditional food and drink such as æbleskiver and gløgg. There are a few Christmas markets right around my school, so whenever I have a free moment I tend to head over there and see what they are selling and just enjoy the fake snow (no real snow yet but plenty of frost) and cheery music. The Christmas smells are also very pleasant at all the markets, particularly the gløgg which is a hot, spiced wine you can smell everywhere. The best Christmas market, though, is the one at Tivoli. I have said before how Tivoli knows how to celebrate, and just like at Halloween, they pulled out all the stops! There is snow everywhere, every shop now sells Danish Christmas goodies, the restaurants have the delicious snacks including æbleskiver (which are little doughnuts made of pancake batter that you dip in jam and confectioner’s sugar – aka perfection) and there are reindeer! Basically, Tivoli is the most magical place on earth – even including Disney.
The most important part of these past few weeks, though has been the holidays! I have celebrated Thanksgiving three times, and Christmas once. And it’s only December 2nd. My first Thanksgiving was celebrated November 23rd with my host family, my friend Madhuri’s host family, and a few other DIS students. Madhuri was hosting, so I arrived at her house around 11 am and we baked all day long listening to plenty of Christmas music. We made stuffing, gravy, pumpkin pie, mashed potatoes, and turkey while the others brought salad, sweet potatoes, an apple cake, and of course some pickled herring and schnapps for appetizers (when in Denmark!). After stuffing ourselves we watched Love Actually and enjoyed the holiday season properly. Per usual, there was a ton of food and leftovers that lasted the week, right up until my second Thanksgiving.
On the holiday itself, I went to classes before spending the afternoon in the freezing cold wind teaching Danes about the holiday. The Ambassadors program decided it would be a good idea to set up shop in the square next to our school, so we decorated a table complete with plate settings, flowers and candles for the holiday – it would have been much easier if the wind had decided not to blow everything over every few minutes, though. We invited everyone walking by to have some free coffee and cookies as we tried to teach them a bit about the holiday. We had quite a few people interested, so it was a lot of fun trying to explain everything. After a few hours, I headed home and spent the rest of the afternoon watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade with my host sister. We were able to watch most of it so it was fun to have her see a bit of our traditions. Around dinner time my host grandparents came over and we had an “American” dinner (no turkey, I had had plenty by this point though from the leftovers) and a very good time. Not a traditional Thanksgiving day for me, but definitely a special one.
My last Thanksgiving was this past Saturday, the 30th. During the day I headed to Helsingør with my host parents to see Kronborg Slot (Hamlet’s castle). It is one of the last castles in this area I had yet to see, so I wanted to make the journey North to it at some point. It is right on the water facing Sweden (my phone actually sent me a text saying welcome to Sweden) and is a baroque style which is different from most of the other castles in Denmark. It was definitely not as extravagant on the interior, but it is difficult to know for sure what it looked like when it was built because most of the castle was burned in a fire a few hundred years ago. After roaming the rooms and chapel, we headed to the town of Helsingør to visit the Christmas market. The problem, though, was that we went around four in the afternoon – aka closing time for everything in Denmark during the winter. Instead we went to a café for some gløgg and æbleskiver before my host parents dropped me off at my friend Eleanor’s for a Thanksgiving dinner.
Eleanor and two other friends had been cooking all day and were finishing up when I arrived with more food to cook. We had green beans, mashed potatoes, sweet potato latkes, cranberry sauce, cranberry relish, stuffing, and probably more that I am forgetting. We of course ate way too much (it wouldn’t be a proper Thanksgiving otherwise), so decided to take a walk before continuing with dessert. Eleanor lives right near a large lake and the Queen’s Palace, Fredensborg Slot. We walked for about an hour around the two (this was the first time I had seen this castle) before heading back for some cake, apple crisp and ice cream. Overall, a wonderful night filled with lots of food and fun.
Moving on to the next holiday, yesterday we celebrated Christmas in Denmark! I went with my host family to my host grandmother’s house for Julefrokost, or Christmas lunch. The julefrokost is very important in Demark, it is a day where the entire family gets together and sits around the dinner table eating and laughing for about 8 hours. No lie. We arrived at 12, began eating around 1, took a break for a walk around 3:30, resumed eating around 5:30, and finished by 7:30-8. The food was all traditional Danish food so lots of varieties of fish, pork and bread (if you want a more detailed description just ask, it would take way too long to explain everything here). Dessert consisted of lots of Christmas cookies and cake, and I don’t think I have ever been fuller in my life. The hour and a half long walk definitely helped, and was beautiful in its own right. We headed to my third castle of the weekend, this time Fredericksborg Slot. I have been to this one a few times (and have described it in a previous post), but never at this time of day. We were walking through the gardens at sunset so had a perfect view of the castle surrounded by the water with a beautiful sky in the background. Overall, despite the slight sickness resulting from the excessive and strange food, Julefrokost was a great way to spend the day getting to know some more of the family and enjoy living in Denmark.
So outside of all these holidays, there has not been too much going on. I am finishing up all of my classes (I am done with three so far, two to go) and now just working on preparing for my finals. Still to go, I have an economics exam, a 6 page policy strategy paper, a six page reflection paper on my semester, and a 15 page law research paper. I am hoping to finish most of it this week, so I can have next week to finish my sightseeing and Christmas shopping. I don’t know where this semester has gone, but it is quickly coming to a close!
A Danish Adventure 