fastelavn festivities

The Danes have a ridiculous amount of holidays. Example: they celebrate both Halloween and Fastelavn, which is basically Halloween in February, except you also get to eat candy and pastries.. my kind of holiday. Kids go door to door, just like on Halloween, but they ask for money instead of candy. It's celebrated by the Danes on the Sunday before Ash Wednesday. For whatever reason, DIS throws us a party a week afterwards instead. My entire host family dressed up and even provided me with a lovely cat costume.

One important tradition of Fastelavn is the "cat in a barrel" game. Back in the old days, like waaayyy old days when black cats were considered super sinister, Danes put a black cat in a barrel and beat it until the cat inside died. For obvious reasons, Danes have given up on this tradition. Instead they put a cute picture of a cat on the outside of a cardboard "barrel" and hit and hit it until someone knocks all the candy out of it, much like a piñata.

Fastelavn is also famous for its... you guessed it... pastries! By far, my favorite game of the day was what I will refer to as the pastry game. Basically, someone holds a stick with three pastries dangling from three strings on the stick. Three people who still haven't burst from all the other delicious pastries have to eat those pastries without using their hands. Whoever eats it the fastest is the winner.

With my pastry-a-day (or every four or five days..) project, I felt like I owed to myself to volunteer for such an event (and by "volunteer," I mean coerce the person in charge into doing one more round. Originally there was only a round for kids 12 and under, but my host sister and I managed to help them see things a little differently..). 

guess who won.

I (intentionally) don't have any pictures of me accomplishing this extraordinary feat, so (un)fortunately, I don't have any pictures to share. bummer...

At my practicum on Thursday, I tried stilts for the first time! I don't know if I've ever talked about my practicum before, but I think it merits an entire post for itself.

vi ses, y'all!

christiania and beyond

At DIS, we awesomely don't have classes on Wednesday. Instead, these days are devoted to learning about a particular aspect of our classes. For example, my HC Andersen class looked at different representations of his life and works through film. Later in the semester, we're going on a walking tour around Copenhagen to see where he lived and worked and to a performance of Thumbelina at Tivoli (the amusement park in the middle of the city).

This Wednesday, I happened to have two field studies on the same day.. and both in Christiania. For anyone who has never heard of Christiania, it was undoubtedly one of the most fascinating places I've ever been. 

a little history..

In 1971, several people (inspired by the hippie movement in the US) took over an abandoned military area and proclaimed it a free land, where they would, according to the mission statement, "create a self-governing society whereby each and every individual holds themselves responsible over the wellbeing of the entire community." Every resident pays 1900 kroner a month to live there and they don't pay taxes to the Danish government. This is one of the reasons Christiania is so controversial among the Danes; they don't pay taxes, yet they use the healthcare and education system. 

Another reason Christiania is so controversial...

welcome to the green light district, or "pusher street."

If you can't read the sign, it says: "Dear friends, there are three rules in the Green Light District. Have fun. Don't run-it causes panic. No photos- buying and selling hash is still illegal."

The fact of its illegality hasn't stopped vendors from openly selling marijuana and hash on the streets. There are frequent police raids in this area (hence the no running rule.. running implies that you're running away from the police). 

the other rules that govern the free state of Chrsitiania:

no weapons, no hard drugs, no violence, no private cars (Christiania is also famous for its custom-made bicycles), no bikers colours, no bulletproof clothing (to my understanding, these 2 rules came about after the expulsion of a gang that attempted to seek refuge in Chrsitiania), no sale of fireworks, no use of thunderflashes (dynamite?), no stolen goods.

Christiania is also a very artistic community. this was one of my favorites from an art exhibit we went to.

Everyone builds and repairs their own houses. 

a playground! 

from an oven museum.. apparently these two ovens were used in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1?! I'll have to watch for these ovens a little more closely next time.

Here's an awesome (somewhat biased) documentary about Christiania:

It's a little long, but I hugely recommend watching this.

Some exciting news: I finally figured out exactly what I'm doing for the two week travel break! 

For the first week, I'll be in the Czech Republic, just north of Prague and staying in a castle on the side of a cliff (no big deal, though). It's an adventure trip through DIS and a wonderful opportunity that I wouldn't have gotten on my own. We head into Prague for a day and then I fly out to Athens, where I'll spend about a day or two. Then I'll wander around the islands for a bit.. 4 or 5 days, maybe. From Athens, we'll fly into Venice for a whole day, and then back to Copenhagen. SO excited! 

hej hej!

snowy beaches

This weekend, my awesome host family invited me on journey down to the island of Falster to spend the weekend at their summer home. I'm using the word "summer"quite loosely in this context; while it has actually been warming up in Copenhagen (yeaahh for above freezing temperatures! This is the greenest I've ever seen Denmark. No more snow in Copenhagen!), there was a surprisingly huge amount of snow and ice on the island south of the city. In fact, Betina (my host sister) and I took a walk down to the beach the evening we arrived, only to find a 4-foot wall of snow in the place of where I'm used to seeing sand dunes. I don't know why I found this surprising.. maybe my host family's constant use of the word "summer" in describing this home led me to believe that traveling just an hour and a half south of Copenhagen would translate to actual beach weather. Maybe this is also why I neglected to bring gloves, a hat, and snow boots. oops.

I unfortunately didn't take any pictures of the beach or actual house.. except for this cuckoo clock that I admittedly became a little obsessed with:

I'll have to search for one while I'm here. How I'll actually fit all these weird contraptions that I've been accumulating in my suitcase for the flight home is a mystery.


On Saturday night, we played the Danish version of Pictionary. I was reminded of how.. unusually I tend to portray wildlife. 

clearly, it's a chameleon. I don't understand why my team couldn't see it. 


more stock photos via instagram (excecpt for the last one.. I didn't actually take this picture. take it as a representation of how I felt all weekend at the "summer" house.)

vi ses!

i am a child: playgrounds and mermaids.

I got to have my first sledding experience (sans actual sled) on the DIS short study tour to western Denmark! I admit I don't particularly look like I'm enjoying myself, but you're actually mistaken. It was my own fault really; I didn't dress properly for the occasion and ended up with snow under my jacket, on my back (hence the pain-stricken face). 

As I briefly mentioned earlier, my class (Childhood in a Multicultural Context) travelled to the Danish countryside last weekend to explore some schools outside of Copenhagen.

Our first stop was Odense, which coincidentally is where Hans Christian Andersen grew up. 

the house HC Andersen grew up in! 

whadda boss

Our first stop in Odense was the HC Andersen Skole, located in an area that Danes consider the "ghetto," although I didn't realize this until after we left. Apparently this school isn't representative of other schools in similar underprivileged areas. In fact, this school in particular receives additional funding for various integration projects and for providing for children with "social special needs" (children with language problems related to immigration, children with alcoholic parents, etc.) The school had a 75% bilingual population and some of the teenagers we talked to could speak four or five languages. 

We were taken to a classroom where several 15-year-olds were working on independent projects. The three boys I ended up talking with were investigating topics like homosexuality and street gang violence in Denmark, which seemed like fairly heavy topics for the equivalent of high school freshmen. The students I spoke with had absolutely incredible self-expression, even though they weren't speaking their native language. They were unbelievably mature for their age and it was pretty fun getting to ask them any and every question we could think of. 

another ((somewhat) unrelated) note: the only people here who aren't bilingual are over the age of 70. English class is compulsory everyday starting in 3rd or 4th grade and then in 7th grade they choose another language to begin studying, usually either French or German. So basically, most people here are bilingual and could probably pass for trilingual. I wish schools in the US were actually serious about students learning a second language. We could learn a lot from Denmark.

After the visit to the school, we got to explore the city a little more. The town is so gorgeous. I'm totally going back. 

There were tons of Ugly Duckling themed signs, which HCA claimed he wrote as his own autobiography. adorbs. 

After traversing through town, we went to the Fyrtøjet (translation: The Tinderbox, another HCA story), a sort of interactive museum where you essentially get to immerse yourself in the world of a fairy tale. This year, the theme just so happened to be The Little Mermaid! :) 

Have you ever read the actual story of The Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Andersen? If you haven't, here's your chance..

http://www.andersen.sdu.dk/vaerk/hersholt/TheLittleMermaid_e.html

wouldn't you think I'm the girl.. the girl who has everything?

(sorry, couldn't resist the Disney shoutout)

we got to dress up! :) 

and draw. and paint. 

This is the only picture I took of the actual set. These pictures don't even begin to do this place justice. I guess I was just too busy being a little mermaid to remember silly things like taking pictures. 

locked in the brig. a tragic fate. 


The next day, we visited a playground! The name literally translated into "child city," which is totally accurate..

A petting zoo?! These guys weren't exactly the friendliest.. I got to hold some bunnies later though, which more than made up for these guys disliking me so much. 

 

a sitting zipline thing.. not totally sure what it was? but it was super fun, and it went surprisingly fast.

mini bikes

vi ses! :)

"not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves"

- Henry David Thoreau

Well, then I guess it's a good thing I get lost everyday.

Really though, how could you not get lost when perpendicular streets have the same name? If the directions simply say "turn onto skagensgade," where are you supposed to go?? Clearly Denmark was not designed for directionally challenged individuals like myself.

Anyways. 

miscellaneous photo time..

don't know if you can tell from the picture, but this is a lego recreation of one of the most famous streets in Copenhagen. the lego store here is incredible.

my $11 sandwich, courtesy of joe & the juice. I'm trying to convince myself it was the best sandwich I've ever had to justify spending that much on it. 

While traversing the city, I always try to look up rather than down so to appreciate the fine architecture and such. You never know what you're going to see, whether it's random statues of Hermes on the top of an H&M or some people making out on the balcony above some stores. It's also easier to soak in the city when you're always looking up. 

Sometimes, however, this whole "don't look where I'm walking" thing has backfired. I'm unfortunately prone to tripping.. and the occasional faceplant is not out of the question. today was such a day. 

While rising from the sidewalk, my dignity only somewhat in tact, I glance over and see a sign for an underground (literally) used bookstore. I walk in and end up spending the next two hours in there. true fact. You may not have known this about me, but I actually have a thing for super old books (particularly children's books!) 

I'm planning on having a room that looks like this in my house one day (future spouse, hope you're cool with this).

(photo courtesy of pinterest)

Clearly, I'm going to need some vintage books to fill this room up. 

This bookstore had an absolutely incredible selection. They had a TON of Hans Christian Andersen collections (in Danish, of course). The newest one I found dated back to 1927. I also found a 26 volume collection of Charles Dickens novels published in the 1860s! These books are totally going in my Room of Books. 

I'll be making several return trips. 

This ended up being my only purchase of the day.. 50 kroner well spent. It was published about 60 years ago. (in case you were wondering, the inside of the front flap concludes: But for Proper Elucidation Requires the Combined Efforts of Several Academicians of Varying Critical Persuasions).

this place was actually on the path in between DIS and the Student House. I can't believe I hadn't noticed it until today.

Needless to say, I don't think I've ever been happier to fall on my face in my life.

vi ses :)

token pastry shot:

quote of the day

“The quality of your life is in direct proportion to the amount of uncertainty you can comfortably deal with.”

- Tony Robbins

no such thing as too cold

This morning, I woke up to find this outside my window:

Naturally, my host family thought this was perfect weather to go for a run in!

Hanne, Jonnie (host mom and dad), Betina and her boyfriend Ditlev, Sandra and her boyfriend Casper, and I (7th-wheeling it like a champ) in preparation mode.

During the 4 mile run through this...

...I was listening to this..

..and it made me miss home... or at least warm weather. 

Yesterday was the coldest it's been since I arrived (-14 celsius.. 6 degrees in F?). A couple Danes told me even they were shocked by how absurdly cold it is. 

what I've looked like for the last few days. no joke