My time in Denmark has seemed to develop an eb and flow (hence the title). Sometimes it seems wild and full of events, other times it's more calm and regular. The past week has been mellow in comparison to others. I'm recovering from a nasty cold and cough, so I haven't been as active lately. The week went by fairly quickly and nothing particularly unusual happened. On Thursday I had lunch on the canal with a friend. I'm trying to soak up as much warm weather and sun as possible. I can tell that the cold is coming; the afternoons and nights have a bite to them already.Then that night I had a friend over to my host family's for dinner. It was a good night. Carsten and Irene prepared a great meal for us. I don't know what it's called but we had a type of roast pork for the main dish (they explained that it's a common meal around the holidays), caramalized potatoes (which were delicious), and boiled potatoes (they eat a lot of potatoes in Scandinavia), and pickled red cabbage. The meal was delicious. With dinner we drank Somersby. I've become very fond of the Somersby Apple Cider drink here. It's a very popular drink that's an alternate to beer. It's a hard sparkling cider, but not high in percentage alcohol wise. They also have other flavors such as cranberry, pear, and elder-flower. I've tried the apple, cranberry, and elder-flower. The elder-flower is the most different and unique. It's actually made from flower nectar and is very sweet. For dessert Irene made æbleskiver, which is another traditional Christmas dessert. Æbleskiver are round pancake/donut like pastries that you dip in powder sugar and marmalade. We then had tea and coffee. It was a fun evening and I was happy to show off my host family. It's funny though because when my friend was over it really proved to me how well my host family and I click. We were joking and laughing as well as mocking each other in the way a family would. I feel lucky that I live where I do.
On Friday it was Kultur Natte (culture night) in Copenhagen. Kulture Natte is a night where over 200 museums, galleries, political buildings, exhibition halls, and other venues open to the public for the night. Of course you have buy a ticket to culture night (but it's only about $16). With the ticket you are allowed into any of those buildings/events as well as an all night train pass. It's a very sweet deal. Of course I bought a ticket and spent the night "immersing" myself in the Danish culture by visiting galleries and tourist attractions. The city was packed. In comparison to other cities, Copenhagen is pretty tame. The streets get somewhat crowded but for the most part it's never too crazy. On Kulture Natte it was jam packed every where. But it was a good thing and I enjoyed seeing the city in such a lively manner. That night I had shwarma for the first time (shaved beef inside pita with lettuce, tomato, and some kind of mayo-like-condiment). I didn't actually enjoy it, but I figured I had to try it while I was here. The rest of the night I explored with a few friends. We saw the Parliament building and climbed up the round tower in the center of the city. One of the activities I went to was hosted by DIS. It was a very unscary (but entertaining) ha
unted house. There was also pumpkin carving. Halloween isn't as popular in Denmark as it is in America. Some kids dress up but not nearly as much as home. There's also no adults that dress up. And they don't really carve pumpkins that much. Some Danes have carved them before, but it's not something they do every year like we do. At the DIS culture event they also had a pumpkin carving station. It was pretty funny watching some of the Danes maneuver carving the pumpkins. At least they were attempting. Then we strolled around the canal and I was glad I bundled up because it was a very cold night. After bathing in all the culture I possibly could, I headed back home to my nice warm bed.The next day I visited one of the biggest shopping centers in Denmark with my family (a mall called City 2). There we window shopped and walked around. I had McDonalds and surprisingly, it's not much different than American. A few of the burgers are different and they have a pomme-frites (fries) sauce that we don't use (it tastes a lot like mayo). Markus and I had kid's meals and instead of a toy, the McDonalds gave us books. That's definitely different than America.
Today I went to the "magic forest" with Carsten, Irene, and Nana (the dog). It's not really a magic forest, it's just called that for some reason. It was a relaxing walk. Later when we returned home I made chocolate chip cookies for everyone. They weren't as good as Mom's, but they were all right. It was difficult to make them because I didn't have a measuring cup or teaspoon on hand. But they turned out pretty well I think. Also, the chocolate chips here are a little different. It seems that everything is nearly the same, but not quite. Everything is just different enough that it's noticeable. I mean this about all Danish culture, not just the cookies. But it always makes things more interesting.
