Ice Skating and Vejleå Kirke

Hej! My week was pretty uneventful with classes and class socials, but I've had an enjoyable weekend! Last night I watched handball with some friends and saw Denmark beat Croatia! I'm still not entirely sure of the rules, but it's really fun to watch. 

Cecilie's birthday was last week, so Maibritt threw her a little party on Saturday. The Danes like to have their flag present when celebrating birthdays (as you can see on the table below). I was on the train last weekend when a group of girls paraded through doing a Conga line and holding Danish flags for one of the girls' birthdays. Pretty neat tradition!

After a delicious cake with fruit and whipped cream, we headed out to the ice rink. Apparently, Danes don't really have large feet because I got the biggest size they had (size 44), and they were a little snug. For those who know me well, I have absolutely horrible balance, ice skates and me isn't the best combination! I somehow managed not to fall the whole time, but I know I looked pretty ridiculous wobbling around the ice rink. It was a lot of fun though! Cecilie and her friend were doing really well and could probably have skated circles around me! 

After we finished skating, we came back and played Twister in Danish! That was a pretty fun experience. I kept mixing up my lefts and rights (venstre og højre), so I got more twisted than I should have. Each round would end with one of us getting so twisted that we would fall to the ground laughing. It was an awesome leg work out!

This morning I went to Vejleå Kirke in Ishøj, which I think was Lutheran. I got lost on my way there and ended up on the wrong side of the train tracks, I couldn't find my way to the other side, and when I finally did, I ended up in a mall somehow. I think it's safe to say that I have absolutely no sense of direction! I didn't get to take any pictures of the kirke, but it was beautiful in the simplistic Danish way. The walls were white with large, circular  chandeliers hanging to add a soft glow to the sunlit sanctuary. The floors and pews were made of a light, tan wood (and I actually had sufficient leg room, Mom!). The service was entirely in Danish, but it was still beautiful to see! There was a lot of singing, and I tried to follow along in the song book. I did recognize a couple of words! The only work I could understand in the sermon was fødselssdag, which means birthday. The priest said it a couple of times, so I'm assuming it had something to do with Christmas or Epiphany? By the way, the priests wear the old fashioned garb (see below), which is pretty awesome to see, especially since the priest today was a woman! I got communion during the service, which was pretty cool. 

I got communion during the service, which was pretty cool. Everyone went to the front kneelers, and they had fancy little cups for the priest to pour the wine into. I didn't realize they were upside down until I saw other people turn theirs over, but at least I didn't complete that faux pas! 

Sled Dogs and Frozen Toes!

This morning, I got to see Siberian Husky sled dogs in action!!! It was a beautiful sunny day (for once!), but absolutely freezing! I was bundled up like Randy from A Christmas Story, and I was so cold that I couldn't feel my toes! Here's a visual for you guys:

Maibritt and I later found out that it was -15 degrees C (5 degrees F). Pretty cold! The place that we went to is a training area for sled dogs that race. There are usually a ton of dogs out there, but most of them were at a race today. When we first got there, the dogs were already out on a run, so Maibritt and I climbed up a little hill to see if we could spot them. Here's the beautiful view!

After a bit, we saw the dogs running in! There were 10 Siberian Huskies pulling a "sled." Since the snow doesn't get very deep here, they use something that looks like a 4-wheeler instead because the ground would mess up the runners on the sleds. Following the sled was a man on a bike being pulled by 2 dogs.

The dogs were put on a chain and fed and watered, which they were pretty excited about! All of the dogs were so sweet and friendly! If you started petting one, the dog next to them wanted to be petted, too. And as soon as you would stop petting them, they would jump up on you to be petted more! I got lots of licks, and one even got some slobber on my camera lens! Here are some pictures of them!

After they were fed and watered (and thoroughly petted!), a couple were switched out with other dogs they had for another run. You should have seen how excited they were when they found out they were going out again! One of the lead dogs was going positively crazy with excitement! (Family: picture Olivia's excitement about her leash times 20!). They got all hooked up and were off!

They almost ran over a group of runners on the same trail! After they had left, Maibritt and I made hot chocolate from a thermos we had brought in an attempt to warm up. It tasted delicious, but my toes still hurt like the dickens! We left to go tour a bit of Roskilde, which was gorgeous! It looks like a smaller and quainter version of Copenhagen. Here are some pictures from Roskilde Domkirke (Roskilde Cathedral).

This is the museum attached to the church. It was closed for renovations, so we couldn't go inside.

We went inside Domkirke, but I couldn't take many pictures inside because a baptism had just ended and the family was still taking pictures. Maibritt and I did venture inside the tomb for the Danish kings, so we took a couple of pictures there. I'm actually in a picture this time!

After we toured the church, I got a couple of pictures of the town. I'm not sure what most of the buildings are, but I thought they were beautiful!

This is my favourite house that I've seen so far! 

We started heading home and got a bit lost, but I did manage to take a picture of Roskilde from across the fjord when we were on the wrong street at one point!

After we got home, I took a nice HOT shower to try to get the feelings back in my toes! The sun has been shining all day, so I've been enjoying it while it lasts doing homework in the living room. It's been a lovely, relaxing afternoon! :)

First Classes!

American blunder #2: I poured yogurt into my hot chocolate instead of yogurt last night... Quite an interesting taste! See if you can tell the difference between the yogurt and milk here! :) They come in the same container!

Classes started yesterday, and all of mine seem to be awesome so far! My first class yesterday was Cross-Cultural Communication (CCC) at 8:30. With the 45 minute commute, I had to get up at 6:45... I missed my first train, so I had to run to my school and got there at 8:31. I think my professor might be an angel because she's going to push our class back to 8:45, AND the last 5 classes in April are canceled! We mainly talked about our study tour to Ireland and different assignments during the semester. My next class was Danish, which I'm pretty excited about. We learned the alphabet (the vowel sounds are similar to French) and how some letters sound (sometimes d has a th sound). It seems hard right now, but I'm excited to learn Danish!
I had a 3 1/2 hour break (so nice to relax!) before my International Reporting class. We'll have the opportunity to write articles for newspapers here (in English, thankfully!), so I'm really excited for that! 
Today my first class didn't start until 11:40 (thank goodness!). I had photojournalism first, which sounds like it's going to be an exciting class! I had Nordic Mythology next, and my professor looks like a Viking! Well, a very friendly Viking. He's really funny, and the class sounds like it's going to be fascinating! At the end of the semester, we actually get to sail on a Viking ship! I was telling a friend about it later, and I was fan-girling. Such a nerd! :)  
I came home after class and went grocery shopping with Maibritt. We went to Rema, which looked really similar to Aldi (which they also have here!). 

We got some food, and Maibritt made a Danish dish for dinner, pork and potatoes. The pork was kind of like a cross between bacon and pork chops, and it was delicious! Here's a picture: 

After dinner we went to Blika, which is like a Wal-Mart, where we got our lovely dessert! If you can't see it well, there's a raspberry whipped cream in the middle. :)

Now we're having a relaxing evening watching TV! I'm making homemade American pancakes (one of Maibritt's favourites!) for breakfast tomorrow! :)

Tour of Copenhagen

Sorry this is a day late, but here's what happened yesterday!

Wednesday:

Highlight of the day: I was mistaken for a Dane!!! Walking on the path to the train station in the morning, a man passed me and said "hej *insert unknown Danish word here*" Look out, Denmark, I'm starting to blend! 
After my commute, I had my last day of orientation. We did an activity to learn the city more, and we were given a (very unhelpful) map of Copenhagen and some locations to visit. My group went the wrong way off the metro, but we finally found our first stop. Here are some pictures of the buildings I saw along the way. I don't know what they are, but I thought they were too gorgeous not to take photographs of!

This is nicknamed a witch tree because Hans Christian Andersen always used this trees for the place where witches lived in his books. They're all over Copenhagen!

 Our first stop was the Parliament building (^that one right above). It has a proper name, but I can't remember it now. It was built in 1903 and was the castle for a while until the royal family moved to Rosenberg Castle at a nicer location. 

Our guide told us that this building's tower (right above) has three dragons with their tails intertwined that represent Denmark, Sweden, and Norway.

After this stop, my group took the bus to the next place, the library. It was the right bus, but the opposite direction that we needed to be. We got kicked off the bus at the last stop, the opera house (see below). We thought it might be the library, so we tried to go in but it was deserted and locked. I bet the bus driver got a laugh that day seeing five Americans on the wrong bus and trying to break into the opera house because we thought it was the library! 

We finally got on the right bus (half an hour later) and found our way to the library. It's called The Black Diamond and was built in 1999. It looks out of place with all of the old fashioned buildings on Copenhagen, but the inside is pretty nice.

This is a mural inside the library.

Here are some pictures on our walk to our next location:

Our next stop (and last since we were running really late) was the Church of our Savior, which was gorgeous! It was built during the reign of Christian IV, and a lot of elements inside the church were to remind everyone that he was the absolute monarch. A symbol that the monarchs like to use are elephants since they're grand, strong, reliable, etc. At the center of the church (it was in the shape of the Greek cross since it's perfectly symmetrical and they believed that all things geometric were a sign of perfection) a chandelier hangs, and a little elephant hangs at the bottom to remind people that the monarch is the center of everything. Two elephants are "holding up" the massive organ pipes, as well. Here are some pictures:

Beautiful front of the church!

Prettiest organ pipes I've ever seen!

The fanciest pulpit I've ever seen!

The front of the church was under construction, but I got a picture of the spire. And yes, you can climb up to the top! It's only open during warmer temperatures, but I will definitely be climbing to the top!

My group finally made our way back about 20 minutes late, but at least we didn't get lost! Afterwards, I met up with Liz and James, and I introduced them to St. Peter's Bakery. Here's the delicious pastries we got! (the names are in Danish, so I have no clue what they're called)

We hung out for a while in a lounge until we had the activities fair. There are a ton of clubs and sports that we can do with college aged Danes, which sounds really awesome! I signed up for ultimate frisbee (I checked, and thankfully they play indoor until April!) and University Post, the University of Copenhagen's newspaper. I got lost finding my way to the metro afterwards (getting lost is second nature to me, apparently), but I finally found my way there. Classes start today, so I'll be posting another blog about them later!