First of All

Here are some of my firsts in Denmark:

First purchase in Denmark: 
 Toilet paper and one of the Dane's famous beers, a poor choice though as I was left carrying the toilet paper the rest of the night (since they don’t give you plastic grocery bags for free)

First dinner in Denmark: 
(sketchy) “China” food...a bit of a let down for the first meal

 

First actual Danish food experience: 
a DANISH!! Except they’re not actually called that here, and they'll probably laugh at you if you call it that. Of course they'll also laugh at me trying to call it it's danish name, so I'll stick to pointing.  But it was seriously to die for, chocolate and cinnamon, and it was free, thank you DIS!

First (and only) Herring:  
the famous Smoked Herring on Bornholm island. It wasn't as horrible as I thought it would be, its very fishy tasting, but they serve you the whole fish with head and eyes and everything! You have to rip off the head and tail and pull out the spine, and you end up eating a ton of the hair-like bones...but at least I can say I had herring

First of many culture shocks:

20 dollars for a cup of tea?!?

           --> roughly 5 DKK = 1 dollar

But then of course there is the “My peanut butter cost 50 dollars?? Oh no wait that’s just 10...Wait WTF? 10 dollars for a half size jar of creamy skippy?!?”

(Apparently many of the Danes find PB a tad repulsive. PB&J is so not a thing over here)

            Lesson Learned = everything costs about 3 times as much over here.

But at least I am finally getting very good at dividing by 5, thanks for prepping me on the math skills Vassar.

Culture Shock #2: 
 Sadly this doesn’t concern Danish culture. It comes from the DIS Bros. Muscles? Football and frats? Fist-pumping? What?? Where is the flannel and the skin-tight jeans! Where are the hipster glasses and the talk of esoteric indie bands?! How do I communicate with guys I can’t obsess over the latest fleet foxes CD with? (seriously though it's amazing).  It's really funny how many kids are actually overwhelmed by the bro culture though, if you meet anyone from a school like Oberlin, Skidmore or Wesleyan, the first thing you start talking about is your hipster withdrawl.

But now about the Danes:

I was worried there wasn't going to be a really definable 'culture' here, but the Danes are really amazing, and both very similar and different from us. They are a much more private people, so they won't usually approach you and start up a conversation, but once you get to know them they can be really friendly. They are also all blond, blue eyed skinny and gorgeous. I don't understand how they stay so skinny with all those pastries (their diet is literally mostly carbs) but I guess all that biking pays off. And the biking is intense, the Danes bike everywhere, there are bike lanes on every street (which I always forget about when I step off the curb, as I've nearly gotten hit a few times) and they bring them on the metros and trains.

Also yogurt comes in a milk carton.

And of course they are very socialist. 

And they don't jay walk. ever. They don't even anticipate the light! 

Oh and they don't have a word for "I'm sorry," as in I'm sorry I just whacked you in the face, they just keep walking.

Oh god and the vowel sounds. They have about 13 identical sounding vowels that no one but the Danes can seem to pronounce; my mouth just literally can't move that way. Basically a good rule when attempting to read any word is to ignore every single one of the constants, speak fast and mumble.

okay a real post about what I'm actually up to next time!