Class is in session

Hej!

Sorry I've been neglecting my blog this past week, but it's been hectic. I spend most of the beginning of the week studying for my Danish exams (which were Wednesday and Thursday respectively). My friend Heather (who will be studying in Aarhus came Tuesday and is staying here for now as well). Anyways, I did pretty well on my exams and as a result I'm going to teach you some Danish in this blog! Be warned, its tough for me to explain how to pronounce the words but I will try my best.

***Note: a lot of my explanations are in French, I apologize in advance, it just seems the easiest way to visualize the sounds for me

Basics:

Numbers:

1 - En

2 - To (French tau)

3 - Tre

4 - Fire (fia)

5 - Fem

6 - Seks (sex)

7 - Syv (Suv)

8 - Otte

9 - Ni

10 - Ti

The alphabet is said almost the same but I'll put it here, including the changes:

A (like the French et) - B - C - D - E - F - G (pronounced gay) - H (hoe) - I - J (Jol) - K (ko) - L - M - N - O - P - Q (like French cou) - R - S - T - U - V (Ve) - W (doubled ve) - X - Y - Z

Vowels (Seriously complicated, all of the A/E sounds are too difficult to differentiate unless you have a professional on hand, but you can hear them on google translate and try and notice the differences):

A (see above) - E - I - æ - å - ø (like the French eu) - U (ooo or French ou sound)

Basics:

Yes: Ja (Kind of sounds like ya, the Danes don't put a lot of emphasizes on J's)

He: Han

She: Hun

No: Nej (don't pronounce the J - Nie)

Me: Jeg

You: Du (doooo)

Thank you: Tak

Simple sentences:

What is your name:

Hvad hedder du? - Va hitha (like hither ending in an A) du (doo)

Where do you come from?

Hvor kommer du fra? - Vo (low O sound, like the French "au") komma du (doo) fra?

How many languages can you speak?

Hvor mange sprog kan du tale? - Vo (see above) maaaang (long A sound and a nasal NG sound - like saying ing at the back of your throat) spro kan du tale?

Hope you enjoyed this lesson! Sorry if it was too intense, I just thought I would give you a taste of my 3 weeks of classes :)

I will be doing an update of my weekend within the next couple days and I start classes Tuesday, should be exciting.

Elsker (prononuced elska),

Meghan

"Nerd-ing out" (a longer post)

It's funny sometimes what shocks or surprises us. Today I experienced a surprise that was surreal, one in which you realize the world is bigger than you.

I spend a lot of my young adult life enjoying historical literature and spend years pouring over books about WWII (because it was my first interest and I felt connected somehow, though to be fair I don't have any Jewish or German relatives). I adored reading the personal stories of peoples journeys through the labyrinth of disaster and hope. I had not felt that same sort of surreality in a long time...until today.

Margaret and I made our way down to Roskilde to see the Vikingeskibs Museet (Viking Ship Museum). The train ride was about 25 minutes and it was extremely relaxing (note: if you ever travel within Denmark, take the train, it's such a lovely experience). I had a basic and limited knowledge of what we would encounter once we got to the museum, but Margaret is an Archeology student so I knew I was in good hands. We entered the museum which looked fairly small, paid our tickets and threw our things in a locker. Once we walked over to where the boats were placed and I was in, well, shock. There were 5 large viking ships (some more complete than others) laying before our eyes.

The ships themselves have a rich history; during the 11th century the Vikings needed to protect their land against naval attacks and sunk 5 of their ship by filling them with rocks. The ships formed a kind of makeshift barrage and were discovered about 20 km north of Roskilde. The details are fuzzy as to what and who the Vikings were trying to keep out, but the ships shed new light on the ways in which the Vikings constructed their boats. Standing beside one of the larger ships, like the war ship for instance, brought butterflies to my stomach. Could you imagine living on one of those ships? No protection from the weather and certainly a lot of men crammed together to make everything work the way it was supposed to.

In 2007/2008, experimental research Archeologists sailed a replica of ships to Dublin. The project was a culmination of 25 years of research. They built the ship with the same type of materials, raw (wo)man power and determination as the Vikings did. The crew was comprised of 65 people, mostly volunteers. Looking at the footage and seeing how they lived during their time on that ship made me realize the vast and incredible things that mankind is capable of. Working as a team to create, sail and tolerate one and other for over 500 hours at sea.

(Margaret and I dressed like Vikings)

I felt like I was "nerd-ing out" a lot today, but it also brought new discovery to my love for history that I had lost or forgotten about. The Vikings were an incredible people that worked together, not apart, to achieve greatness. Plus they had some pretty badass poetry:

"Better gear

than good-sense

A traveller cannot carry,

A more tedious burden

than too much drink

A traveller cannot carry."

Elsker,

Meghan

Blue skies!...sort of (lots of pictures)

Today was one of the first days that the weather was semi-sunny. Took a tour of the Black Diamond, also known as the Royal Library of Copenhagen. It was stunning, the juxtaposition between new and old was staggering and put a smile on my face. There is something beautiful to me about the melding the past and future together to create something that still retains its history, yet inspires attention. I adore libraries so it was a great afternoon. The best part was standing in the library and finally seeing a little blue sky peaking through the clouds for the first time since being here :)

Photos!

The Black Diamond

The Danish Literature Room (Old Books) - it smelled amazing

Old Catalogues they used before everything was online

Books! - No I did not steal any, though I did want to...

View from inside the new building - Just let me live here

A picture from the exhibition that was being held in the basement

And just for Patriko, a few bike pictures

Elsker,

Meghan

Bars, Castles and Danish Food

This weekend was really enjoyable, with the exception of Saturday during the day because it was foggy and no one really did anything.

Friday night a group of friends and I decided to go to this bar I had found online (Charlie's Bar), it has 16 taps and carries 4-6 microbrews...unfortunately by the time we got there it was PACKED so we had to forgo Charlie's Bar for another night. We ended up at a place called Kant, which was a little more razzle dazzle then we were expecting but we got a deal on drinks so we gave it a try.

It was fun and nice to try, though most of us agreed we probably wouldn't go again. Here is a picture from inside (Monica, myself, Divya and Margaret).

Fast forward to Saturday after a day of laundry and sitting on my butt doing nothing. Monica, Stephanie and myself decided to make mini pizzas for dinner which turned out amazingly delicious. We also went up to Divya's apt for a party which was really fun, but was super packed in that small place.

Finally, Sunday was here and a couple of us (Audrey, Monica and Rachel) wanted to head to the Rosenborg Castle. It was built in the 15th century, but since about the 18th it hasn't been used to much of anything except storing the artifacts of old royalty. It was really interesting to see all the different rooms and trinkets they had made for themselves. My particular favourite things included the elaborately beautiful clocks (now we might call them Steampunk style), and the guns...typical Canadian girl. Unfortunately it cost money to take pictures so we let Rachel do that because she has a nice Canon SLR so I'll have those once she uploads them. The castle was quite chilly so afterward we went to a near by studying/bookstore/cafe/restaurant kind of deal that many of the students go to. We tried some traditional pickled herring (not my personal favourite, but good to try at least once) and chatted. I also tried a white beer they had on tap, it was a Danish brew but the name escapes me now, it was good, but I think I would have preferred something with a more prominent taste. On our way to the S-train we stopped at one of the famous bakeries in town (called Lagkagehuset), upon my request, and got some treats.

Having fun reading this? I'll be updating as much as possible!

Elsker,

Meghan

First post! And a few things

Hello family and friends!

A few people have expressed a want for me to write a blog while I'm here in Denmark so I've decided to do that :). That way everyone can keep up with me and I won't feel like a butt head for not answering all your questions about what it is like here, what I've seen etc etc.

I wanted to wait until I got settled to start this but now that I have I'm going to try and post at least once a week (more likely 2 if I have time). I have made some observations and was writing in my school journal today so I thought I'd put them out here. Please enjoy and feel free to send comments or questions :)

Things I've noticed since I've been living in Copenhagen:

1) People love their bikes. I know this sounds obvious, but you cannot possibly understand how much unless you spend some time here. They have them decked out, painted and some even have carriages that hold 2 children.

2) I have noticed the trend of fur here. A lot of people wear it and a lot of places sell it. You name it coats, hats, scarves, carpets etc. I even saw a pelt store the other day. Most of the women sporting the coats and scarves are middle-older aged women who I presume have money in their lives.

3) There seems to be no such thing as child services OR kidnapping. I was walking with some friends the other day and we saw a baby carriage out in front of a shop. We were taking a picture because their carriages are amazingly large. Then the mother comes out of the shop and sure enough (we didn't notice) but the child was still inside the carriage! While her mother was shopping inside!

4) A lot, and I mean A LOT of people smoke here. Someone off handedly mentioned that it was something like 1 in 3 Danes smoke (and that was down from last year). You cant smoke in buildings, however it seems as though smoking right outside of doors is permitted.

5) Danes are freakily tall people. I know it is a stereotype but it is absolutely correct! So tall and sooo lanky.

6) Bathrooms are all one room, no separation between the sink, toilet and shower (except a shower curtain you pull over when you shower).

And finally!

7) You can never, I repeat, NEVER trust the weather. It doesn't matter how many weather sites you check or how much you look outside before you leave (one of my walls is basically an entire window so...), it will never be what you think it is. Its crazy because even though it might look warm you could definitely freeze and vise versa.

That is all for now, I will update soon.

Thanks for reading, love you all!

Meghan