The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.
- Saint Augustine

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Jeg spiser aldrig smagt leverpostej

It's been a while.

Although I have to privilege of being here a month before my school actually begins- the Danish Language course has slowly, but surely been killing me. Tomorrow is my final written exam and then Thursday is the oral portion. Goodie. I've been "lightweight" studying (to use a bay area term) and now taking a break to update. Here's what I have in Danish so far.

Jeg hedder Casey. Jeg 20 ar gammel. Jeg kommer fra en ille by i staten California i USA. Det hedder Pleasanton. Jeg bor pa Tietgen Kolliguim pa Amager Jeg studerer. Jeg gar pa universitetet. Hjemme i USA, studerer jeg litteratur, men her, i Danmark, studerer jeg engelsk. Jeg skal vaere her i et semester. Jeg elsker chokolade. Jeg kan ikke fordrage lakrids. Jeg spiser aldrig smagt leverpostej.

Aha! See, I am ready for the real Danish world- I can tell them I love chocolate, detest licorice, and have never tried lever postej.

The Glyptotek Museum:
Going back a bit- last Wednesday I went to the Glyptotek Museum. Founded by Carlsberg himself. Below is "The Winter Garden". Ah yes, how quaint.

Don't tell me you don't know Carlsberg!!! Not knowing him is almost as bad as not knowing who Hans Christian Anderson is here. Carlsberg had a monopoly on the brewing industry and made Copenhagen a profitable city. Just to show you how much the Danes love him, Tietgen Kolliguim was funded by his fortune and we have a fridge filled with Carlsberg beer in every hall.
I'm not joking.


The museum was originally opened to house his private collection but then built to hold masterpieces and statues on tour. It was awesome.

The best part (although I may be slightly biased) was the Ancient Egyptian Exhibit. I showed off my knowledge of hieroglyphics shamelessly and was actually able to decipher some of the tombs.
This one is a cartouche (a name plate) for Seth (or Sth- pronouced "Se-teck") God of chaos. The inscription reads from top to bottom, right to left: nn b3 R' Sth or Under the Sun of Ra, Seth.

The mummies were pretty boss as well.


and later than night...

The Metro Party:
Oh yes. That's correct. There was a party. On the metro. They set up speakers, and a DJ table on a commandeered train. People rode the train back and forth the length of the track (about 30 minutes from one end to the other) and the DJ switched at each length.

Pretty Radical. Except for the fact that there was no ventilation, an amount of people that far exceeded the safety limit and vaguely intoxicated gentlemen and ladies who had to lurch forward and backward at every stop. Good idea in theory though.

The Boots:
I decided to splurge and order Hunter rain boots (as Cosmo advised me) and they arrived last week for the rainy season in Denmark (try to guess when that is- whatever you guess, you'll always be right)
Unfortunately, when ordering, I got a little too excited that they had shoes in large sizes and purchased them nearly two sizes too big.
Sent them back for a different size but they are in aubergine (purple for those of you who are not snobs) but here's a picture of them on!

(Appreciate for a moment: #1 How far I am away from the computer when this picture was taken. # 2 How I am standing on a chair. #3 How I managed to get into this position in less than 3 seconds. #4 How I still managed to pop my knee. Not bad eh?)

The Roommates:
Are wonderful. They have been making me feel so at home. Including me in family dinners, going to amusement parks and helping me with small things around the city.

Side note- perhaps the funniest thing in the world is when people attempt to express themselves in a foreign language when under stress. Yesterday at Tivoli, an AWESOME amusement park in the heart of the city (no camera that day) Ben- in the lower right- hates roller coasters, but Tone and Astrid (lovingly) bullied him into going. Right as we were approaching the first dip- he turned to me and says "I sink... I sink... I am terrified, Casey" and then proceeded to yell the entire ride in incoherent american swear words. I have never laughed so hard in my life.

They, quite preciously, cannot understand the meaning of gluten, but are wholeheartedly trying.

Last Thursday, we all made the indian dish "butter chicken" with turkey because I couldn't ready the label in the supermarket.
Below is Tone, Astrid and Ben (Mariam is out of the photo) sitting down to eat.
The next night, Asger, another roommate, prepared a huge dinner for the nine of us consisting of steak, caramelized potatoes, beets and yams, strawberry vinaigrette salad and homemade maple and walnut ice cream for dessert to welcome me to the hall. 
Incase I haven't mentioned before- the Danes love their cooking. 
Every night they are in the kitchen making 3 to 4 course meals for themselves, taking their time and enjoying the recipes. 
Below is Asger slicing the meat

The Gays:
 Copenhagen, although once progressive in their gay rights activism, is actually a little behind the times. Although there is a prominent gay district and civil unions are legal, gay marriage is not yet legalized. 
They still know how to put on a good parade, especially on a sunny day.
"Don't be a drag, just be a queen"
A few Liza Minnelli's are dancing below. 

The Trip:
I am leaving on Saturday for my first "Euro-trip" A-WOOHOO!
I will be flying out of Copenhagen to Vienna, where I will stay for three nights. Then bus to Salzburg for two nights (Sound of Music tour anyone?) flying to Berlin on Thursday morning, staying there for three nights and then bussing back on Sunday before our classes start that week.

My partner is crime: a Miss Brittany Beesson.  Watch out Vienna, here we come!

3 comments:

  1. Hi Casey!
    I'm from California and studying in Denmark too. I'm a full degree MA student at Aarhus University but I am getting ready to take a couple courses this coming semester at KU under the English department (which means my Danish is still dismal after a year of living here).

    If you have any pointers for how to get around KU (since it's kinda bigger than Aarhus, ahem) I sure wouldn't mind them! :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Absolutely! I'm enrolled in two masters classes myself- Modern American Literature and Multicultural Memoirs, so we might even see each other around.

    In my experience, Copenhagen is surprisingly easy to get around on a bike when the weather is nice and on the metro or trains any other time.
    Most of the city is really centralized but a good map is very necessary (streets here tend to change names at their own will!) However, if you do end up getting turned around, everyone is more than happy to help out, and in English!

    Thanks for following, and look forward to hearing from you soon.

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