Interesting things about Denmark

So here’s a few interesting things I’ve learned about Denmark thus far.

1) KNOW THE LANGUAGE! Despite the fact that pretty much everyone here does speak English it’s really frustrating to not have ANY idea what is going on. On top of this I feel like and American idiot because I only know one language and these people know 3! (Danish, German and English) Hello, what is wrong with us in America that we can’t get it together and know more languages? There’s a whole world out there and I feel lost right now! So to help me learn Danish I asked for a Danish language book for Christmas. Today I completed lesson one and learned such important things like how to say welcome to Denmark “Velkommen til Denmark” and how to say the 29 letters that exist in the Danish alphabet which by the way some of those letters are NOTHING like English. For example a J is actually pronounced like a Y and a U is sorta like an O so it’s really messing me up! But I will continue to make efforts. I find its much easier to read the language than to actually speak it. I can recognize a lot of words but when people are talking I don’t know what’s going on. I told Joe we should go to the library and get out little kid books like the ABC books we have in English maybe that will help To make matters worse the French that I actually do remember (which seems to be way more than I thought) keeps wanting to creep into my Danish skills (or lack of!) so I find myself wanting to put le and la in front of everything and that doesn’t work here. So this language thing is certainly a challenge.

2) Food. Ok so I pretty much like everything so I’m not having to much of a hard time adjusting to the food here. The other day Joe and I found these little juice pop things so I made him buy some. I picked out orange and he picked out lime. I’ve tried the orange flavor and it’s pretty good. I like the little character too!

Breakfast is also a little different here. Musli is very popular which is good because I like it! You mix it with a little bit of yogurt and you have instant breakfast. It’s actually really good!.

Today my tasks were to go to the post office for Joe so he can mail something back to the States and decide what to eat for dinner. The post office was really interesting and SO well organized. You walk in, take a number and then the numbers pop up at the counter and you get what you need. I paid for my stamp and was on my way to Fotex (the grocery store) in search of dinner and stain stick (This morning I dropped the top of my make-up bottle onto the floor and it got all over my jeans). I quickly found the prepared meals which Joe and I decided would be a good choice since he has Danish class tonight. So I picked out what appeared to be some type of steak and potato dish that I will put in the oven and cook before Joe gets home. Well I didn’t really know what this stuff was so when I got home I decided to look it up. It’s called “Mørbrad på kartoffelbund” Kartoffelbund are potatoes and so I figured it was some kind of red meat. Well I put in Mørbrad into google translate and it tells me it means lion! So I kind of freaked out for a second, like did I really just pick Lion for us to eat for dinner? And who eats lions anyway!? After some more research on google translate I soon discovered that no we were not about to eat some exotic meat tonight but were in fact going to enjoy Tenderloin and potatoes! (Sign of relief!) I’m up for meat adventures but LION? I don’t know about that.

3) Daylight. So interesting thing about the geography of Denmark. Due to the fact that we’re much closer to the north pole the sun sticks around for a LONG time during the day. Typically the sun rises around 4am and sets just before 11pm. It’s really kind of awesome but makes you not sleepy around 9 or 10 like you should be because it still feels like sun you would have around 7 or 8pm. (Speaking of time, things are done in military time here so I’m try to get used to that as well). So 2300 rolls around and it’s finally dark out, but in just a few short hours it will be light out again! Have no fear! During the Summer Solstice the sun is actually up for 17 hours 29 minutes and 38 seconds in Kolding. That’s a lot of sunlight. :) But it’s pretty cool!

So I guess that’s about all for now. We’re thinking of taking a day trip somewhere this weekend and we have some leads on a bike for me so HOPEFULLY someone will e-mail us back. Denmark has version of e-bay and craigslist kind of rolled into one so we e-mailed some people with bikes for sale in Fredericia (1 stop up on the train) for good prices so we shall see. It will be nice to have a bike so I can actually get places without the bus.

Alright, Happy Memorial Day to everyone back home, I hope you are all enjoying BBQs and fun times with your families and friends! We miss you all.
Love from Amanda