Thursday, February 11, 2010

"Yes, is it poltergeists or is it just modern architects..."

I know I know...just jumping right in there. This quote is pretty much the only thing I've written down from class so far...and it was from the creepiest noise I've ever heard as these giant shades were being drawn up electrically during my 'Danish Culture' course. Pretty easy class.

So! I've been in LOVELY Copenhagen (which I will call CPH from now on) for I don't know actually...since the 28th? Of January...and didn't think I'd actually do the blog thing because I thought 'who has time for that', but then I wrote down that quote and thought, if I have time for that I think I have time to write what I'm up to, maybe family or something will be bored and want to know what I'm up to maybe? :) Anyways its cold (not as cold as Purdue amazingly, what is up with Indiana!), and snow everywhere, amazing public transportation, amazing danishes and rolls (how unsurprising), and I feel TOTALLY WORTHLESS BECAUSE I AM NOT BILINGUAL. Seriously, everyone here can speak two languages at least, its sooo skillful, I desperately want to be bilingual someday. If Spanish doesn't work out...haha...we'll see how my Danish courses go that start next week.

Maybe I should put what I'm up to...you meet lots of international students here, BUT I have actually managed to make Danish friends now, which is apparently something to be proud of :) So thats good, and everyone is SOO nice. I try to pretend I'm Danish. Most recent example - As I was taking the laundry down the elevator in my big basket the other girl probably said something to the effect of 'I'll open the door for you', and thankfully I had my key in my mouth so I wouldn't have to respond and could get away with a 'mmm' and a nod, then she did open the door, and I said Tak (thanks). Does she think I'm Danish? I hope so, its an awesome game. Often I take it too far and am going along smiling and pretending I know how much I'm supposed to be paying and then BAM a question that I have no idea what its about so I have to go what in English and the person looks shocked and then speaks to me in English, sometimes they laugh. *sigh*

Everything is IN Danish and everyone speaks it unless you are talking to them in English of course. The grocery store is a confusing place...awesome, but confusing. I live AMAZINGLY close to Bilka's and go there quite often as I am slowly stocking up on food so I don't feel like I'm spending as much money, also because you have to purchase the plastic bags therefore you save them and take them yourself, so can't get a whole lot. Anyways, I cannot read a single thing there. i think fadt or something like that is fat, sometimes you see a 1.5% fadt, but other than that I just use pictures. However, with things like, bread, ok I can see its white. or brown. or really dark. And that's as far as I can go, SO, I play the game of 'get what someone else is getting', where I sort of wait around and pretend to read things and when someone else buys something I just get that. I'm getting quite good at it. The other game (this one is only two days old) is my 'pronouncing Danish' game, and the rule is 'say it as weirdly as possible and sometimes opposite as you normally would'. Sadly this doesn't always work, sometimes the letters might make the same sound but often the don't seem to. It's really a toss up, you can pretty much do what you wish. I'm getting better at it I think, sometimes I'm quite close to the word. As I am overly in love with food, there will be much more talk of this in the future. On to more important things...like...

DANISH TELEVISION.

=

WTF.

The shows we see should be on at 3 am if that, and it'll be on at 6 pm. It's hilarious though and I love it. You do have to flip quite often to find something in English. Actually I have so much more to say on this subject I should just cover this later too haha. This is already getting quite scarily long.

Time to go put laundry in the dryer and make some dinner :) I'll update my CPH life later :) There is lots to tell and its so tedious to write emails to everyone (hence I haven't written an email to anyone actually :(...pathetic of me), so this blog is actually a grand idea.

Come visit me!,
Laura :)

3 comments:

  1. EXCELLENT first blog post. :)

    Sadly, my blog has withered and died, as I have neither the time nor interesting things to write in it.

    Also, I have discovered that I LOVE BLOGS! They seem to be gaining popularity and blogging is an integral part of my English class (in which I am sitting right now - NOT learning about 'white papers' lol

    I am very intrigued by what you've written about the Danish scene. I would have assumed that English would be much more prevalent...

    I very much look forward to hearing more about your grand adventure - particularly about Danish food and the characters there (are they like the Green Butchers? haha).

    BTW, do the Danish celebrate Valentine's Day? I am rather curious - I guess I have V Day on my mind since I helped with the Cans of Love fundraiser for Food Science Club today. And attempted some scarily difficult engineering problems in Food Processing. Engineering principles are SO BAD. They make me feel like a complete bumbling idiot. *sigh*

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  2. Oh Katrina, I have such crazy things to soon tell you about the Danish valentines day....haha...oh I don't want to take that class!! I'm so happy you'll enjoy the Danish food stuff I will soon be talking about too...I've already taken so many food pictures haha it's ridiculous :) So are you blogging in your English class then? what English class could that be!

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  3. that would be my "Professional Writing class" in which we prepare various professional documents (memos, resumes - I got some GREAT tips on how to improve mine, whitepapers, etc.)

    It's one of my only classes I actually semi-enjoy.

    And yeah, I was blogging during class. I felt a little bit bad because my teacher was talking and meanwhile most of the class was typing away (on Facebook no doubt).

    And in other news, I'm headed to Frito-Lay on Friday for interviews and a tour...It's pretty exciting. :)

    Just thought of something to add to my (as yet non-existent bucket list) - go to a store in which I can sip champagne while shopping. FANCY.

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