Greetings from the land of the open-minded, bicycle-riding, tax-paying, blonde-haired, herring-eating Danes!
After some slight travel difficulties (delayed flight, missed connection, spending the night in the airport hotel, missing the first day of orientation, sleeping 6 hours in three days, lost luggage, an so on), I am here at last. And boy am I glad I finally made it. I'm still getting adjusted to the way of life around here, but from what I can tell so far, Denmark is absolutely spectacular in just about every conceivable way.
I'm staying with a host family - the Rasmussens - and they have been extremely helpful in getting me settled. The mother (Regitze) is a nurse, so is naturally really warm, kind, and well, motherly. She cooks great meals, does my laundry, packs me a sack lunch, and has really kept an eye out for me - basically, an all around good person. Jan, the father (pronounced "yen," as in the Japanese currency), is a plump, jolly little man with a round, rosy face and a mustache. His English is not perfect, but he plays drums for a band, is a fireman/ambulance driver (around here, the same person does both), and loves food, so we get along great. My host brother is Steven, a 15-year-old going to the local school and working at the grocery store across the street. He's relatively shy, but is helping me get acquainted with everything from public transportation to the Euro-trash fashion scene. Score. The family has two other children, Søren and Stefan, but they only come home occasionally, mostly on weekends.
I live in Osted, a town of barely 2,000 people about an hour and a half outside Copenhagen. Basically, the town consists of a bank, a supermarket, a post office, and a bunch of Snow-White-esque homes with thatched roofs and livestock in the backyard - quite surreal. To get to class, I have to walk to a bus station, take the bus to the next largest town (Roskilde, pronounced ross-kill-ah), then train into Copenhagen. It's a bit of a trek - especially considering many of my friends are walking distance from class - but more than worth it to experience such cultural immersion and a warm family atmosphere.
Speaking of cultural immersion, I've begun to pick up on some notable differences between American and Danish culture. For example:
- All toilets have a half- and full-flush option.
- Phone numbers have 8 digits (mine is 30.97.40.41).
- Traffic lights go from red, to red+yellow, to green.
- Prisons are "open facilities" where inmates may leave to go home on weekends, holidays, and so on.
- "Yogurt" is kefir.
- I have an electronic bed.
- Grocery bags cost money.
- Light switches are on plastic rockers: down for on, up for off.
- Paper is longer than in the U.S., so there are four-ringed binders (not three).
- Pastries, pies, cakes, cookies, tortes, sweets and candies abound! (Why aren't the Danish any fatter?)
- "Danishes" are translated as wienerbrød ("bread from Vienna"). No word yet on what the Viennese call them.
- Kindergartners are allowed to start fires, swing axes, climb trees, and use genuine cutlery to prepare their own food, so long as they ask first.
- The water has chalk in it.
- My host mom can out-drink you.
- Bathroom "stalls" are actually little rooms with real doors that close and dead-bolt shut, and many have individual sinks and mirrors inside. If you need privacy to poo, come to Denmark.
- Income tax varies depending on your income bracket, but can go as high as 70% (my family pays about 50% of their income to the parliament).
Then again, there are some similarities as well. Burger King, McDonald's, KFC, and 7-11 are well represented in all the tourist areas. In fact, I'd venture to guess that the number of 7-11's in Denmark outnumber the number of Starbucks in the States. There is literally one on every street corner, and there are often two or three visible from any one street location. But 7-11's are different here; they serve pastries, sandwiches, salads, and innumerable variations on the hot dog. Danish favorites include "a dead indian in a canoe" (you're basic hot dog) "with vomit/blood" (with mustard/ketchup), a grilled wiener wrapped in bacon, or "a bald man in a sleeping bag" (just a wiener rolled up in a bready, bun-like holder). Oh, the temptation.
Now, to explain why I am actually here: school. I am currently enrolled in the Psychology of Child Development program at DIS (Danish Institute for Study Abroad) focusing on children with special needs. I have a core class on Mondays which consists of your run of the mill lecture, then a practicum on Thursdays where I visit a "local" Danish kindergarten (the loose Danish interpretation of the term "local" apparently includes two-hour bus journeys with three separate transfers). I just received my placement, and am delighted to say that I'm going to be going to a specialized school for children who are deaf and hard of hearing. There are two programs within the facility, one for those with cochlear implants, and one for those without. Not only is this pretty ideal in terms of suiting my personal interests, but unlike my friends placed at other schools, I won't have the Danish-English language barrier to worry about (instead, it will be the DSL-English sign-barrier, great!). As for electives, I'm taking Danish Design, Developmental Disorders, and Danish Language and Culture.
I haven't had any language classes so far, so even basic word pronunciation is exceedingly difficult for me (like English, Danish lacks a direct sound-to-letter correspondence). But I think I've just about got it figured out: simply apply a French-German-Czech accent, slur everything together as quickly as possible, drop a few consonants here and there, and stop speaking midway through each word (*optional: end every word with a schwa).
Food is also pretty interesting. To sum it up, it's meat, cheese, and bread bread bread. Fortunately, my host family errs on the "healthy" side, so we always have a fresh supply of fruits and vegetables. My host mom also makes the most delicious, hearty, grainy, nut-and-seed-y bread you can imagine at least once a week. New edible adventures have included pickled herring on rugbrød (dark, dense, rye bread... think: cardboard with more flavor), beet salad with peanuts (slimy yet satisfying), chili-oil-marinated garlic cloves, creamed cabbage, frikadeller (a sort of pork meatball in gravy; I heard it translates to "fried lovehandles" - how fitting), walnuts soaked in port, and more condiments, toppings, and additions than you can shake a stick at. Overall, everything has been delicious, albeit a bit rich and heavy. I have thus far refrained from comparing everything I see and taste to what I am used to back home, but today I couldn't help myself and told my host family that in the U.S. we often dip apples in peanut butter as a snack. I got looks of surprise, shock, and pity.
Tomorrow marks one week since I've been here, so that means there will surely be more news to come. Please do write me if you wish - I'd love to hear from you. The internet doesn't always work out here, so it may take a bit for me to respond. Oh, and feel free to forward this to anyone I may have forgotten about.
Hilsen (Regards) -
Dashiell
