domestications and destinations

Now that I actually have some pictures on my family and house, I suppose I'll introduce them to you.
This is the living room and dining room of the house, as seen from the kitchen. Besides this, there are three small bedrooms and a bathroom. It's small, even by Danish standards, but very hygge.

This is me with Eva, my host mother, and Siv, my host sister. I don't have any pictures yet of Mikkel, my older brother, because he lives on his own and only comes around occasionally.


Everyone in Denmark has a summer house (practically—and it would have been harder to save the Jews if they didn't), so on Friday night Eva and I took to Askø, a little island north of Lolland, which is south of Sjaelland. If possible, the islands of southern Denmark are even flatter than the rest of the state. There are dykes and tall trees along the coast of Askø so that everything doesn't wash away when the water is high. It's quiet and peaceful, but unless you're one of the handful of farmers who lives there year round, there really is nothing to do. There are lots of orchards on the island, both on the farms and in the summerhouse yards. Mostly apples and pears, but we found some plum trees and wild blackberries grow everywhere. There's no beach, just a platform jutting out into the water where you can swim or fish or sunbathe. The water is incredibly calm and clear. It made me realize that there aren't enough seas in America. There are rivers and there are bays and there are harbors. And there are plenty of inland lakes and such. But anywhere there's ocean water it's usually deep and cold and moving. Out here, all the salt water is calm and shallow and warm, at least everywhere I've been. Even at Skagen on a windy day, the waves were pretty insignificant.

Being that there's not much to do on Askø and the adjoining island Lilleø (ø is Danish for island), we left early Saturday afternoon. Saturday night I met up with my friend Dan, intending to go to the International Party at Studenterhuset. The party turned out to be pretty lame, so we decided to wander around and barhop. We ended up going to the Happy Pig, where I lightly bumped into someone on my way to the bar. He started saying something to me in Danish, so I told him I only spoke English. Turns out he's South African, though has been living in Denmark for 9 years. Dan and I started talking to this guy, who later introduced us to his Danish friend and his Norweigan friend. We talked a lot of politics with them; they were very happy to hear that we weren't Republicans. I also learned a very sad fact, that New Jersey's bad rep isn't limited to the states. In fact, the state's image might be even worse in Europe, because people are less likely to have the firsthand knowledge that it's not all the trash it's talked up to be. Despite the fact that I'm from New Jersey, these three guys were very nice and friendly, and when they left the Happy Pig they invited Dan and I to come with them to Cafe Sommersko. The event at Cafe Sommersko was a birthday party, and although we felt awkward because we knew no one at this private party, there was plenty of free wine and cake to enjoy. Eventually all the partigoers started leaving, so Dan and I did too, and walked around the city for a while, heading home around 3 am. Copenhagen is actually more awake at 3 am than it is at 11 pm. It's a crazy city.

Today was also adventure filled, as I went with DIS to a football game. FCK v. Brøndby, the two biggest Copenhagen teams. It was pretty crazy. Louder than I expected, but also more in order than I expected. There were no fights between fans, as far as I saw, though some Brøndby fans, upset by their defeat, did tear apart their stadium chairs and throw pieces at the field. The players themselves were pretty agressive as well. We had the lyrics to the FCK song and had been taught them by our Danish teachers, but when they played it there was too much overall loudness to understand anything. Because there were so many DIS students, I think we kind of missed out on some of the cultural experience because we weren't sitting next to regular rabid fans. However, on the train to DIS hours before the game and on the walk to the train station after the game we certainly got a sense of it. Everyone was screaming, whether their team won or lost. There was definitely some tension between the fans, but what I saw never seemed on the point of eruption. The stadium is in a really nice upscale neighborhood, quite the contrast from most major American sports stadiums, I think. It was an interesting juxtaposition of the loud, drunk fans and the ritzy restaurants and apartments. This is a country of interesting juxtapositions.