1.) Bikes- People ride bikes in skirts, heels, with a huge pregnant belly, suits for work or in the pouring rain. Couples hold hands while riding bikes and parents hold their children's shoulders or bikes. If you have a kid in Denmark, you also have some sort of cart on the front or seat on the back of your bike for one or two kids. I've seen adults bike with another adult in the seat. And everyone goes SUPER fast on bikes. It's almost more dangerous to go in front of bike, rather than a car. And bikes follow the stop lights even more than cars do in the U.S. And there is no right turns on red!
2.) Danish language- really hard to speak but even harder to understand and just as difficult to read. They have three extra vowels compared to English. "Gade" at the end of a word street, yet is pronounced "gull". Everyone always said that "Danes swallow their words", which I didn't understand until yesterday, when our SRAs were giving us examples... a word that looks like it should be 5 syllables is shortened down to 3. Up until my Danish class today, I could say three things... Hi (Obvious), Skoal (Cheers), and that's what she said (pronounced de say un oseagul).
3.) Danish (and European in general) fashion- In the U.S., a baggy t-shirt and leggings looks sloppy, but when the Danes put the outfit together, it looks like effortless style. 99% of clothes are black, white, gray and sometimes brown. Most of the time, it's all black.
4.) English- Almost all Danes speak fluent English. And are awesome with giving directions. My professor was saying that by the time they get to college, they have to read English text books, since translating it to Danish would be too expensive. Plus, they all watch American tv and movies and know all the words to American music.
5.) A lot of their accents when speaking English sound like British English and it's awesome.
6.) Alcohol- Danes have a totally different view of it than the U.S. does. I've seen Danes drinking a beer as they walk to the train in the morning. And they'll sit in the park with a bottle of wine. And have beer or wine with most meals. And drinking is just more widely accepted and a part of the culture. They know how to have a good time!
7.) Danes and other DIS students keep thinking I'm a Dane... I was shopping at Tiger (Kinda like a smaller Target) and two students came up to me and asked if I spoke English and could translate this shirt with Danish on it. I just let them think I was Danish :)
8.) Babies- They are everywhere! And always in strollers. They bring these honking two kid wide strollers on the bus too. And kids travel by themselves way more frequently than the U.S. 9.) Candles- Danes always use candles for light. Gonna buy some soon for my room :)
10.) Safety- Even though Copes is a city, it is and feels incredibly safe. People keep to themselves mostly while walking around. It's clean, especially for a city.
Other events in the past couple of days...
-On the bus to DIS Wednesday morning, all this hullaballoo started going on, but I couldn't see what was going on. People started yelling in Danish... but with my knowledge of three words, I was clueless. Turns out they were asking if anyone was a doctor, because this teen guy on the bus started having a seizure. The bus had to wait for an ambulance. Quite a start to the morning.
-I'm becoming more familiar with the streets around DIS, so spent some time wandering around and shopping. I've wandered down random streets and managed to find my way back... quite a feat for my lack of directional skills! Stroget, the pedestrian street with all the shops, is awesome! So tempting to spend way to much money there.
-I got hot chocolate with Becca and Mallory last night at a coffee shop. First, to make hot chocolate, they steam the milk and then just put a huge hunk of chocolate on a stick and you swirl it around to melt it. Second, it's really cold here, especially at night. After sitting outside there for a bit, I had to wait a while for the 14 bus. After a while, I realized I definitely missed my stop. I had to get on the other side of the street and wait for a half hour on this empty road by a bus stop. It was so freezing out I wasn't just shivering, but literally shaking. I thought I was going to be stuck out there... but luckily the bus didn't leave me stranded out there.
-Made our first REAL dinner on Wednesday. Making the food isn't nearly as hard as buying it. I bought the grossest yogurt the other day. It makes it tricky when you can't anything! Most things are obvious or have pictures, but when you have to decide on different yogurts or milk or meat.
-This afternoon, I was wandering around the square by DIS eating my mid afternoon/pre-lunch croissant and there were all these Danish students singing and dancing and cheering with cat face paint on. I still have no idea what they were doing but it was pretty entertaining.
-In the square yesterday, there was Native American-ish music being played by who I'm assuming were Native Americans. Weird, but totally legit.
-Jimber and I figured out the bus system a little bit yesterday! We took the buses 6A and 4A to get from her Kollegium to my apartment. We got a little lost and asked for directions, where I was told I have an awful pronunciation (haha) but managed to successfully travel!
-All my professors so far are awesome! And entertaining! Looking forward to more classes!
