A Typical (If possible) Week in Denmark

This week was pretty normal, with nothing much happening.  I went  to class, went to practicum, ate dinner with my host family and watched TV/movies, etc.

It was a very nice, fun week.  The most noteworthy occurrences began on Wednesday when our class was taken on a field study, a grown-up word for a field trip.  I had two that day, one in the morning to the DIA Skole, a Muslim private school in Norrebro, an area of Copenhagen.  I was extremely interested in this trip.  The school teaches classical Arabic, Danish, and English to all of its students, and they were all more than willing to show off and ask us questions or, in the case of the younger students, sing us a familiar song about 5 Little Monkeys.  After that, we found a nice cafe and got treated to drinks by our school.  I spent the rest of my morning with 3 girls from my class, talking, shopping and eating DELICIOUS food. 

One of the girls, Bailey, showed us a bakery close to campus with good prices and fabulous food.  I got a huge fresh baked bun with Brie cheese, mixed greens, and a pepper, which I removed, all for 30kr which is about 5 bucks.  It was so much better than any $5 footlong sub I have ever had at Subway.

My second field study was to an allotment garden area in Gladsaxe, a suburb of Copenhagen.  An allotment garden is a peculiar thing.  It is run like a little government, with a union of gardeners and a volunteer to be the chairman.  Families or individuals can rent land for about $400 a quarter, and on that land they are responsible for having a house (usually summer homes for those living in the city) and a well-kept garden.  Here we were given weinerbrod, or Danishes, told of the history of the gardens in Europe (they are everywhere but they started in Denmark as early as the 1600s, but mostly popping up in the late 1800s), then taken on a tour.  After this, we were treated to another Danish tradition (like weinerbrod), lagekager or layer cake.  It was magical, but apparently better cakes exist, and I will find one.

Thursday I went to practicum at the preschool, and had lots of fun and few language problems, though they did happen.  My paedagog whom I work with took me and the other student, Marissa, on a tour of all of the other sites, which was cool.  The paedagog, Henriette, is so helpful and I know she will be an excellent resource as the semester goes on.

Friday I went to the mall, Fisketorvet with my friend Katie and her friend Leah.  I finally found rainboots, but I bought them the next day, which I will get to.  I learned not to go to Baresso again, no matter how good the chai is, because no chai is worth 6 bucks.  I stocked up on winter things at H&M, my new favorite place.  I bought gloves and thick tights.

Saturday I helped my friend Justin move out of his old folkehojskole in Helsingor to an apartment with a roommate in Ordrup, closer to school.  Afterwards, we went back to Fisketorvet where I bought my rainboots, which I definitely needed yesterday.

Now, Sunday was the main event!  It was the FCKobenhavn vs Brondby football match!  I made sure to wear blue to support FCK.  The game was NUTS.  This is a huge rivalry match, and they charge extra just because they knew the Brondby fans would be insane, and they were.  My mom and Danish professor say this was the worst they had ever heard/seen it. At the beginning of the game when FCK scored their first goal, Brondby lit flares and threw them onto the field and held them in the stands.  They had to pause the game for a few minutes to let them burn out.  Then, toward the end, when Brondby knew they were going to lose, they began setting seats on fire.  Yes, you read that right.  The grand totals = 487 seats burned, 44 arrests, and 2 police men injured in riots before the match, on the way to the stadium.  The total damage equaled 600,000kr, which is roughly 100,000 USD.    They charge more, about 50kr each ticket to cover these damages, so they have 1,500,000kr to spend to replace the seats, as long as my numbers are right.

It was a great week.  This week I am planning my travels to Greece, Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, and hoping to get tickets to the 25th anniversary show of Les Mis in London.  That would be amazing.

Also, stay tuned for my blog about my trip to Ribe, the oldest city in Denmark, which just celebrated its 1300th birthday!