I'm sorry it has taken me so long to post again. I have been very busy lately. A lot has happened since the last time I posted: Short Study Tours, a week of classes and Fastelavn. During the short study tours my public health class went on a trip to Jutland (the western part of Denmark). We stopped at many different places throughout Jutland. Our first stop was Odense which is on the island of Funen. That is the birthplace of Hans Christian Andersen. We went on a walking tour of the city and we were able to see where he grew up and the church where he was confirmed. We also visited an organization in Odense called Sex og Sundhed (sex and health). This organization is committed to promoting safe sex for middle school students. We then went to an art museum in Odense. We spent that night in a town called Vejle. We met the DIS international business program and the other public health class at the hostel in Vejle. The next morning we got up and went to Region Syddanmark. They are in charge of the health care system in southern Denmark. After that we went bowling. That was a lot of fun but I learned I am terrible at bowling. That afternoon we saw the Jelling (pronounced yelling) stones which is one of the most famous landmarks in Denmark. It dates back to the time of the Vikings. After the Jelling Stones we visited a general practitioner and we learned how general practice works in Denmark. That evening we went to dinner at a cafe and the food was delicious!
The following day, Saturday, we woke up and had a delicious breakfast, and then went to an art museum called ARoS in the city of Århus. That museum was incredible. There is a panorama window on top where you can basically look out at the city through a rainbow.
The following day I made french toast and we ate the sticky buns mom sent me. We then went sledding because they got about 3 or 4 inches of snow. They said we were going sledding in the forest. I had imagined that we were going to walk through the forest and then come to a clearing where there would be a hill where we could go sledding, but I thought wrong. We actually went sledding down the hill in the forest. I only had the guts to try it once. I was terrified as I went down. I was thinking "I'm going to hit the tree!!" I survived though. That afternoon I introduced my host family to hot chocolate with marshmallow fluff!! I think I got them hooked. I said we couldn't eat all of it though because I wanted to make (or at least attempt to make) mom's delicious whoopie pies.
The following week went by really quickly but I managed some time for interesting stuff too. Monday night was quiz night at the student house. The top prize was 1000 krones or about (250 dollars). My team was actually terrible because the questions were just very random.
Wednesday we went to the Danish Resistance museum for my Holocaust class. That was really interesting. One thing that I found most interesting is that most of the Danish Jews were able to escape to Sweden where they were able to be free. Thursday was my host mom's birthday. Birthdays are a very big deal in Denmark. At least in my host family's house it is tradition that they eat breakfast together. I said that was fine with me but I had to be on the 7:20 bus. I think my name was mud after that, because no one was too thrilled that I had to leave so early because everyone was on vacation. That afternoon we went to a cafe in Copenhagen for lunch named Jensens Bøfhus. It was really good. I had steak and fried potatoes (not very Danish). The best part of the meal was that because it was my host mom's birthday everyone got free soft serve ice cream. My host mom's parents were there too and it made lunch more exciting because they don't speak English and the extent of my Danish is "Hej, jeg hedder Katie. Jeg kommer fra Vermont".
I had a lot of fun this past weekend too. On Saturday we went to the Viking Museum in Roskilde, and the church that was there too. Roskilde used to be the capital of Denmark at the time of the Vikings.
Sunday was fastelavn which is essentially Danish Halloween. It is the big feast before the fasting of lent. We went to church for fastelavn which was definitely experience because it was all in Danish. All of the kids were dressed up, the church was packed and then the service was really short. We talked about doves and the holy ghost at church. At the end of the service we sang a song named "Tak Gud" and I at least understood that that meant thank you God. After church everyone went outside and they have barrels for the little kids to hit. The barrels are filled with candy and the object is to break them like a piñata. This came from the time when the barrels had a black cat in them, and you were supposed to break the barrels to get rid of the bad luck. After church we went back to the house and ate fastelavn bolles which are kind of like donuts, they are sweet rolls that are baked with cream in the middle and frosting on top. I have added a picture of the fastelavn bolles.
This weekend I decided I would give up buying pastries in greater Copenhagen for lent, so yesterday I went and bought a cinnamon roll with chocolate frosting. It was delicious! It is sad that I won't be having more pastries because they are all delicious, but come Easter-time all bets are off.
Yesterday I also biked to and from the train station. That was okay but now I can feel muscles I didn't even know I had! I don't think I've ever biked 11km in 1 day!
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