Monday, January 28, 2013

10 Things the Danes Are Born With...?

Ten Things I'm Convinced The Danes are Born With...

1. An amazing immune system

Naturally, being true to myself, I've come down with a cold. The gross kind where I'm constantly sniffling, sneezing, and struggling to breath through my nose. First of all, I see no boxes of tissues... anywhere. Luckily for me, I had this same congestion when I left the US and so I had a spare pack of travel tissues. A life saver for me today. But whenever I blew my nose around other Danes, like on the train or while walking on the sidewalk, they all stared at me like I had the grossest disease ever. I was perfectly clean about it, sneezing into my elbow and all that stuff. It's like they've never had a cold before! My last piece of evidence to support this probably wrong assumption is that when I went to the 'apotek' (pharmacy) for some tissues, decongestant, DayQuil, NyQuil, etc. I found none of the above. Except for the tissues, I did find a pack of travel packs (my classmates will be thankful probably, less sniffling) and a single box of tissues. No super packs of eight or anything like you find at home. And most disappointingly.. no Puffs Plus :( If you know me well, you know how attached I am to my Puffs Plus in times like these. Sadly, all I could find in terms of decongestant was a nasal spray... gross. But I'll try anything at this point. And it is for these reasons that I have materialistically concluded that the Danes simply just don't get sick, which is ironic because they have free health care.

2. An innate sense of cleanliness

Things are just clean... everywhere. The streets of the major city are clean, even after I saw them a night or two ago filled with cigarette butts and broken glass. There's far less gum stuck everywhere, and they don't even have big trash cans. They have trash cans about the size of the one in my apartment at Villanova, and there are green footsteps leading up to each of them, as if they needed to remind the already-clean Danes to not litter. My host family's house is super clean, so I'm trying to adjust my sometimes normally usually always messy philosophy. A home cooked meal which definitely took a lot of pots pans and things looks like it was never made, and a dinner is cleaned up within seconds. I simply don't understand!

3. Avoidance of lung cancer?

This is probably very wrong and perhaps offensive to any Danes with lung cancer (which I don't intend it to be) but I'm still shocked at the number of people who smoke in Denmark. And according to my host mom, its mostly younger people who smoke! They definitely grew up with at least some of the anti smoking culture that came to power as we got older. They are smokers everywhere, which is even more shocking in such an otherwise health centered society. I just assume that if lung cancer was as prevalent here as it is in America, less people would smoke, or especially take up smoking knowing that fact.

4. Extra hours in the day

From what I've heard from others in host families, and from my own, freshly made bread is often a staple. As is a home cooked dinner every night. As are both parents working full time jobs. Therefore, the Danes must have like, 27 hours in the day to get all of this done. Clean houses + children + fresh food + full time jobs + sometimes working pretty late = impossible.

5. Trusting nature

Only in Denmark could you leave your dog tied up to your baby stroller (tied to nothing with no lock) outside a store in the middle of winter with no fear of the baby being stolen (or freezing, but more on that later). While it has happened sometimes in the past, it doesn't happen nearly as often as it does in the United States; There, babies are stolen from much less convenient places, aka requiring more effort to intentionally steal a child. It's also illegal in Denmark to carry a handgun, knife, pepper spray, or really any kind of weapon (as far as I know). There's a much lower crime rate here than at home. Not saying this to comment on any gun control arguments; simple to state that in a safer place it's not necessary to carry such safety measures that are a staple for many US residents. Babies can run around in a city and manage to not get hit by bikes, cars or pedestrians. They pay high taxes to take care of themselves as well as the less fortunate in the country, and trust that people won't abuse the system. Not that their system doesn't have its flaws, they just seem to be a trusting people.

6. Blonde hair and long legs

Everywhere.

Good thing I'm not that insecure about my appearance or anything..

7. Excellence in biking

Children who struggle to ride a tricycle in America are successfully mastering a real bike in suburban and city areas in Copenhagen. Somehow pedestrians know how to navigate cycle-crowded streets, whereas I look like a deer caught in the headlights whenever I see a bike approaching me. I have a deep fear of continuing to get in the way of it and somehow seriously injuring a Dane.. not the way I'd like to be welcomed into the country. I don't know how they learn so much bike etiquette and excellence at such a young age and so my only explanation is that they're born with it.

8. Naturally skinny

I don't think I've seen anyone overweight here in my 15 days, despite the availability of delicious danish varieties around every corner.  I'll chalk it up to the otherwise healthy diet, smoking, biking everywhere, high cost of food and alcohol, high tax on cars and gas, obsession with football and handball, and the blond leggy genes.. definitely makes sense now.

9. Patience

If I lived in a country with a national language that everyone spoke, and still encountered Americans and other foreigners asking me questions in my not-native language everyday (or butchering phrases in Danish, which isn't hard to do), I'd get a little pissed. But so far everyone I have ordered from, asked for help, or talked to hasn't seemed at all upset with my lack of Danish. I'm sure they get used to it, but still it must take a certain amount of patience. I think that those who promote the 'live in America, speak English' (even though America has no official language) argument should pop over to Europe for a day where almost every sign is doubled in English... even though they have an official language.

10. Timeliness

Somehow, the Danes are always, I repeat, always, on time. It's been talked about in every into and orientation to Danish culture we've had here- the Danes don't accept tardiness. Last week, we had about ten guests over for dinner. They were invited at 5:30. Pretty sure the doorbell rang at 5:30 sharp and they were all there, despite having come from different places. Same scenario this past weekend. A family with two small children were invited over at 3pm, and (I checked this time) arrived at 3:03. So sharp! I don't know how they do it, especially when so many people travel by public transportation which has a reputation for becoming delayed due to the smallest weather convenience. My host mother told me she and her colleagues were to interview what was looking like a pretty sure thing candidate this morning, but she arrived 20 minutes late with no excuse or concern for her tardiness. Needless to say, she is no longer so certain of a candidate. Even my art history professor today arrived five minutes before the start of class, and was apologizing about his lateness. He blamed the S-tog, and informed us that he's usually there before anyone else. I don't know how the Danes do it but somehow they get everywhere right on time.

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Classes and Culture

Hello! So I think currently it's actually colder at home/Villanova than it is in Denmark... HAHA welcome to my life! Except for you guys it'll probably last a week and for me at least another month. Anyway I'm not going to give a recap of everything I've done this past week because no one wants to read another book. So I figured I'd just tell you about some of the cultural differences I've noticed so far that are pretty cool!

1. There are babies running around everywhere in adorable little snow suits. Their attitude towards children seems pretty different from what I can tell so far from that in America. First of all, I'm pretty sure both moms and dads get maternity/paternity leave when they have a kid, which is a lot more accommodating than policies at home. And they trust the people around them a lot! Moms and dads and couples are walking around Copenhagen all day with their babies just running down the streets. You can also leave your baby in a stroller outside a store while you're shopping inside, and very rarely will any harm come to your kid. Definitely not something anyone would ever do in America. I think actually I heard a story that a Danish woman tried the same thing while visiting American and got arrested for child endangerment or something. They also ride with their kids on the back of their bikes, or in like carriages attached to their bikes. It all looks pretty foreign and dangerous to me, but everyone does it and everyone seems very happy. Also the snow suits are just beyond adorable, these are the most bundled up kids I've ever seen and when I have kids I will most certainly be buying all of their clothing here. Plus, I think a lot of children are allowed to sleep outside or are put outside when they're crying (from what I've heard). That's probably why they have lungs of steel and are able to play sports outside for hours when its like in the teens.

2. They have so many political parties! At least five but definitely more. However, they realize they need to compromise between them all, and they seem to function far better than the political system in America. My friend and I were curious as to how opposing they are, since Denmark operates under a constitutional monarchy and social welfare state idea. As far as we could tell, none of the parties really oppose those ideas, although I think there is some small party that wants to abolish the social welfare state. But otherwise, they just differ on ideas of how prominent it should be. I'm not sure about the other policies, but it's pretty refreshing to be in a different country instead of the consistent liberal conservative arguments at home.

3. Biking! Everywhere all day every day. I don't know how their faces don't freeze off but they don't. Other than my first biking experience the day I arrived, I'm waiting to get back into it until it's maybe above 30 degrees and not slushy from the snow. But the public transportation is super accommodating to bikes and so are the streets! Naturally I seem to get in the way of bikers because I don't know how to navigate through them like the Danes do but everyone seems so safe and natural about it. Most stair ways going down to the train have a ramp on the side for bikes, and there are bike racks everywhere. There's also one or two bike cars on the train. Definitely can't wait for it to get warmer so I can try and be truly Danish and bike everywhere.

4. Public transportation here is the coolest thing ever. They have the train (S-tog), regional trains, the metro, and buses. Its all so easy to use!! I take the train into the city every day and its awesome. Its comfy and fast and generally reliable. Most Danes actually find them really unreliable as I guess sometimes they get delayed due to weather, but compared to public transportation at home I think it's awesome. The insides of the trains are really nice and everyone stays generally quiet. Plus, they have free wi-fi, which is just awesome. Of course, whenever I plan to catch a certain train, I miss it; now I just leave and catch the next one.

5. Danes in general seem really informed about world news, even about American news and politics. They also aren't afraid to talk about politics with you, or so I've heard. Most of my teachers say that Danes don't really do small talk, and so it's not abnormal for them to bring up issues like abortion or gun control. But the GREAT thing about them is that they generally don't judge you for your ideas, as long as you can support them. Which is my general stance on all politics and so it's awesome that most people here are similar. Very refreshing from the close minded ideas of 'I'm right and you're wrong' that you usually get.

6. Danes LOVE throwbacks!! I've been in a cafe when they played Destiny's Child 'Soldier' and Usher's 'My Boo'. And when we went out Saturday night there was one bar that basically only played American throwbacks. Love it.

There were some other things I wanted to mention that naturally I forgot but I'll write about them when I remember! Also meant to tell you a bit about my classes..

At 8:30 on Mondays and Thursdays I have cross-cultural communication, which is my core course. Basically it means that's my main area of study here and we go on a short tour to northern Denmark, and Kullen and Malmo in Sweden. Then we go to Belfast for a week. So far it seems pretty cool. The instructor is the head of the communication department here and she seems nice. We've watched a bunch of videos of different cultures communicating, through ads and comedy which I like a lot.

Then I go to Danish.. As hard as I thought French was, Danish is even harder. And for once, I think it'll be the vocab, not the grammer, that is hard for me. It's like nothing is pronounced at ALL the way it's spelled, and it's really hard for me to remember words if I can't picture the spelling in my head. It's completely different from English French or Spanish and I am struggling already. But, our Danish class did go to a cute cafe last night for a (free) dinner and wine which was nice; we all bonded over how hard the language already is. Luckily I have 5 people already fluent who can help me! :)

And then my last class on Monday/Thursday is International Advertising, which also seems pretty interesting. It's a lot more marketing than it is like designing ads, which is new for me. We have our main professor who likes to think of himself as our 'coach' instead of our teacher, and who was the head of a lot of companies involved in international advertising which is cool. We also have another part time teacher who currently works in the field.

On Tuesdays/Fridays I start at 8:30 with Journalism vs. Public Relations which definitely wins the prize for coolest teachers. It's taught by two professors, one for PR and one for journalism. The PR teacher is a guy who's super funny, and works as the head of press for an organization here called DIGNITY, which is the Danish Institute Against Torture. And the journalism professor is a woman who used to be a broadcaster for one of Denmark's biggest TV news stations... and she was on dancing with the stars... and she ran for parliament. She said she wasn't a fan of/didn't know there would be so much tabloid publicity with dancing with the stars, and her politician career was fairly fleeting. However, she quit broadcasting for a specific reason that she hasn't revealed to us yet. I think now she runs her own journalism company of some kind and might still commentate on TV news? Either way she's pretty cool, and the two of them together are hilarious.

Anddd lastly I have History of European Ballet, which I only had for the first time today. It seems kinda boring but interesting nonetheless because it's about ballet. The teacher is an older guy who teaches theater stuff I believe, and is kinda grumpy but really passionate about ballet. Also we're going to see 4, maybe 5, Royal Danish Ballet performances so I'm not complaining. Plus it looks like we're going to spend a lot of class time watching ballet variations so still happy.

I've been here for over a week now and only slightly adjusted to the cold! But I will continue trying to update this and take as many pictures as possible! :)

Love
Colleen

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

First Few Days

So the first few days have been super busy and so I probably won't be able to write about everything or in great detail but I'll try to give a run down of what's been going on since I arrived! The airplane ride was pretty interesting, there were lots of other DIS students on my plane and I ended up sitting next to one! The plane was awesome (minus the tiny seats) because each seat had a tv on the back with free movies, games, and music. And the movies were like new movies not out on DVD yet! Airplane dinner wasn't as gross as I've heard, it was actually pretty good. I watched the Dark Knight Rises, and then unsuccessfully tried to sleep. Once it become clear sleep would never happen, I watched Dark Shadows. Then, we landed in Amsterdam at 5:15am our time. It was pretty confusing to get to our next gate as we had to go through passport control and security, but we met up with lots of other confused DIS students and made it through. The second plane ride had a great view of the Scandinavian sunrise (which happens at like, 8:30 am)... which I mostly slept through. After waiting for baggage, we met DIS helpers at baggage claim and made our way to the adjoining Hilton Hotel to meet our host families! Before they arrived I got my shitty Piccell phone to be able to text other Danish numbers, and had a short orientation meeting. Then Tove and Bjarne Eriksen were there to take me to my new home for the next four months!

On our way home they pointed out important places. Their home is only a short maybe 20 minutes from inner city Copenhagen. Once I got unpacked a bit, we had some sandwiches for lunch and then went to see Cecilie in her handball game! They won, and it was my first introduction to the very popular sport in Denmark. It's sort of similar to basketball, only without a net and instead with a soccer type net, and much faster and more physical. We biked there, which is how most Danes get to school, work, the train, or around their community, and naturally I fell off my bike for the first time in years. Lesson learned- don't try to go over curbs that are clearly too high. I'm blaming the jetlag. We did some grocery shopping on the way home and then I finished unpacking, took a shower (in an awesome bathroom with heated floors!) and had dinner with the whole family. Afterwards, we watched Denmark vs. Russia in handball in what I think is a world cup? It's a super popular sport. Sadly I could barely keep my eyes open the whole time because I'd been up for 30 some hours at that point but by not sleeping that whole day I avoided probably the worst of the jetlag.

So Monday was our first day of orientation. It also required that I take the train (S-tog) all by myself into Copenhagen. And by all by myself, I mean with the other 900 DIS students that I saw somewhere on the train or in the metro. You can easily spot us due to our confused looks and desperate searching for maps. We had an opening ceremony which consisted of talks from people working at DIS and the director, as well as two performances by the DIS strings. It was actually pretty cool and way less boring than I expected. The only bad part about it was that we had to check our coats before we went in- and checking 900 coats took foreverrr. Then, we made our way to a DIS classroom and were split up by housing types and areas. My group was all other students in host families who live in the surrounding train stops on my line. We were split into smaller groups and then given an 'amazing race' assignment; we had 5 specific places to visit, hear a DIS professor tell us about the landmark, and get a stamp. The activity was really cool, except it meant spending at least three hours walking around in 20 degree weather with wind making it feel like the low teens. We visited the Danish Parliament, the Black Diamond library, a church in Christiantown, the Kings New Square (right by the canal with the multi-colored houses that is on like every postcard of Copenhagen) and the royal palace. They were all really cool places, and we learned a lot about how politics is built into the architecture. It was really interesting; the built the church in the shape of a Greek cross which is more equal than a traditional Latin cross, and everything on the inside was symbolic of the monarchy. In my pictures, you can see the ceiling which has the crown on it. There's a massive organ about the door leading into the sanctuary area, which seems to be supported by two carved elephants on either side of the door. Those stood for reliance, intelligence, longevity, and other things associated with elephants that the King also wanted associated with the monarchy. The royal palace architecture was also really cool. Several of the old castles burnt down, and eventually the royalty bought out 4 mansions which face each other in a square. The mansions surround a statue of a past King whose name I can't remember. Anyway the palace is very open to the public in that they can stand in the square and around the statue, whereas most palaces are gated off. The DIS professor talked a lot about how Denmark's monarchy works with their constitution- while the Queen technically has the power to veto things, she never does because she knows the people would 'fire' her as Queen if she did. The royalty are still very important for like head of state activities but are more often celebrity figures, leaving the politicians somewhat out of the spotlight unlike in America. However, my host father Bjarne said politicians are still very often gossiped about. Anyway the whole tour was really neat because we learned a lot about Danish history, the social welfare state, the constitutional monarchy, and pros and cons to all of the above. Also it was very very cold.

Today, we started the day with a housing session led by two DIS employees with lots of people also in host families. We talked a lot about how to work the transportation (S-tog, metro, and regional trains). In general, it's super easy. To get into Copenhagen and to DIS all I do is walk down my street for about 10 minutes, cross the road and go to the train station. The trains run very often so I don't have to worry about catching a particular time, and they are so clean and organized! Danes can take their bikes on specific parts of the train, and its very quiet and doesn't smell horrible like trains in new york or philadelphia. We also talked about how to live and shop on a budget considering how expensive Copenhagen is. Most Danes pack a lunch because it's just impossible to buy one in the city many days during the week. And of course we talked about how to adjust to living with a Danish family and how it would differ from our American home. Then I went to get books (for free!) for my classes. And lastly I went to a quick orientation for the communication program which looks really cool. Tonight we watched another handball game, Denmark vs Chile. And now I'm super tired after writing this novel which probably no one will read haha. I'm really liking my time here and am actually excited for classes to start because they seem so cool.. definitely a new feeling. Its been lightly snowing since I've been here and it's so pretty! See Facebook for pictures. My host family is awesome! And so nice. They've made me a delicious dinner every night and gave me my own room and bathroom! They've also made figuring out aspects of living in Denmark much easier, like transportation and communication. It's also really cool to learn about the differences of Denmark, with their super high taxes but really well functioning and happy society, and then how things operate in America. 

But really I am exhausted haha, so check out Facebook for some pics!

Love
Colleen

p.s. I didn't read over and edit this sooo sorry

Saturday, January 12, 2013

Airport!

So I'm going to attempt to keep a blog while I'm abroad since that seems like something most people do, although I don't have very much faith in myself that I'll keep up with it, but I'll try! 

Anyway I'm currently at JFK airport waiting for my first flight to Amsterdam and then connecting to Copenhagen. The airport wasn't too bad, but carrying all three of my suitcases was definitely a challenge and I'm not looking forward to getting them at baggage claim in Copenhagen. Packing was a nightmare as usual, but it always is for me. By some miracle my bags weren't overweight! Security wasn't bad either, although I was surround by two groups of Russians which was mildly intimidating. The international terminal is pretty cool though. So now I have an hour and a half until I leave! I'm definitely very nervous, a little scared, super tired, but also really excited. I can't wait to meet my host family and get settled in, and start seeing the city! But I think for now I'm going to watch some It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia and relax before my 7 1/2 hour flight! If I haven't already told you, I can talk via whatsapp or facebook or skype while I'm there so hit me up on one of those :)

Talk to you next from Denmark!

Love Colleen