Scottish Pub

Once upon a time, Sister Swede studied with a Dane at Watertown High School. The Dane loved Watertown so much, he returned for many summers to visit with his fellow Goslings. One summer the Dane stopped coming to Watertown... The people of Watertown were sad, and so Sister Swede met up with the Dane in Copehnagen.

(left to right: Dane, Awesome Pub Performer, Sister Swede)

Kobenhavn, Wonderful, Wonderful... Kobenhavn For Me!

Guest Writer: Sister Swede Reports...

I've had a great time in Denmark so far! Ben met me at the airport (he was early, I was late) and we headed out for our European adventure. After spending three days in Copenhagen, we made the trip to Sonderborg this afternoon. It is a beautiful city!

It's getting late (and Ben has an exam early tomorrow morning), so I'm going to keep this short. Here are the highlights from our first three days.

Day 1:

Tivoli, the main city square, the walking street, dinner in Nyhavn and back to Tivoli.

Day 2:

Lots of sightseeing! Highlights include royal gardens, the Little Mermaid, Nyhavn (again) and eating a Fransk hot dog!

Day 3:

The Carlsberg Brewery, getting a birds eye view of the city, Christiana and more Nyhavn!

Enjoy! More tomorrow...

The Hand Holding is Over

Scandinavian cooperation takes a pause today, as Sverige takes on Danmark tonight in qualifying for the 2008 Euro Cup. Tickets are going for 500 Euro ($675 USD), so I'm going to sit this one out to join my Dansk rivals here in Sonderborg for a night of drinking and watching good 'ole fashioned Scandinavian football. I'm predicting a 2-1 Sverige victory.

This was the scene at the 2004 UEFA Euro Cup when Swedes and Danes swapped jerseys after a 2-2 draw ensured they both would move on... to the demise of Italy, who needed anything but a draw... there's nothing like Scandinavians working together!

International Food, (drink) Day

Have you ever had an Afghani nut? How about a Romanian dessert? Either had I, until Friday's "Intercultural Snack-evening."

Now, you have all been here in Sønderborg for 6 months or longer, but have you had a taste of Denmark, yet?

And what is the taste of your country???

Make a traditional snack and drink from your place of the world, and bring it to our Intercultural Snack -evening for your fellow exchange students to taste -and have a taste of their country, too.

The first thing I thought of was to make Swedish Pancakes with Lingon, but upon authorization from the international director she asked that I bring something "American," since I am the only American representative. First of all... it is nearly impossible to find corn and turkey, the only two real "American" foods I could think of. So what did I end up making? Hot Dogs, Peanuts, COOOOLD BEER! The traditional pastime of a day at the ballpark, nothing is more American than that.

I did however do something that I am not proud of... I bought a case of... gulp... Budweiser. It was the only American import beer available in the distant land of Denmark. That isn't an acceptable excuse, and in retrospect I should have forgone the idea of having an American beer rather than serving that sad excuse for a beer. I hope I didn't anger the beer gods back home, and rest assured the first thing I will do upon my return home will be to crack open a Milwaukee brewed Miller product.

I will also take this moment to propose a new Man-Law:
"A man must always carry a six pack of Miller Lite when traveling overseas in the event that there are no Miller products available" - Man Law

Swedes (not) in America

From June 2 - 10, there will be one less Swede in America. None other than The Swede in America's Sister will be joining her Swedish brother for a week of Scandinavian adventure. The trip will inevitably include a second (first for some) pilgrimage to Sweden.

Ben's Swedes
(left to right: Sister Swede (Rachel), Swede in America (Ben), Mother Swede (Vicki), not picutured: O'Father (irish)

Kollegiet Olympics

Yesterday marked the annual Kollegiet Olympics here in Sonderborg. Each of the student halls in Sonderborg (Sønderskov-kollegiet, Ungdoms-kollegiet, Handels-kollegiet, Park-kollegiet, Borgmester Andersen-kollegiet, Damgade-kollegiet, Humlehøj-kollegiet) are invited to form teams and participate in Football (Soccer), Volleyball, and Brännboll.

However, it isn't a athletic competition so much as it is an excuse for Danes to drink (we do that a lot here). Eight o' clock in the morning a Danish breakfast is served and washed down with a cold beer (to be followed throughout the day with warm ones). This signifies the start of the games...

Our international team quickly became familiar with the rules... when someone is playing too well, they are given a "green card" by the referee. This player is ordered to the sidelines and handed a warm bottle of beer. They must finish the beer before they are allowed to re-enter the game. Not only does this encourage competitive play, it gives a player an excuse to take a breather and a brew.

It was a long day of fun in the sun, and in the end, our international experience in both sports and drinking were not to be matched. We won the two sports we entered (none of us knew how to play Brannboll) and took the trophy (there was no trophy). Needless to say, block 4 HK goes down in the books as the champions.

The best was yet to come though, and through all the Danish chatter over the loudspeaker: "Det er bestyrelsen, som indgår udviklingskontrakt med WET T-SHIRT CONTEST!!!"

I remembered to snap a picture during the first "heat," the later rounds proved too captivating to snap pics of...

Great day, or greatest day...? It's hard to tell.

Euro-Tailgate 2007

Yesterday was the first of many days to come in which we grilled the meat of our choice on the courtyard grill in our backyard. I chose a prime cut of Danish deliciousness. The festivities were to celebrate "The Last Tutten" rather than a Brewers game, but had the tailgate feel nonetheless. Funny how grilling a piece of meat over a few beers is celebrated everywhere in the world. I guess the American tradition of man, fire, and meat isn't all that exclusive.

Fernando (Spanish with mullet) manned the grill as German, Danish, French critique.

The grill has the seemingly magical ability to attract all men within a five mile radius around its smoldering coals. Men from all walks of life forget their differences while under the grills spell, as they stand around a fire gossiping about the exotic salts and spices they have used on their prized cut of meat. Men compliment each others meats, and express their pleasure about how great it is at least once every bite. Men act on their primal instinct to watch over and guard their precious prime rib. They bribe and argue about who's steak gets to be in the coveted sweet spot right over, but not too close to the hottest coals. Every man reverts to thousands of years of evolutionary favorable behavior: i am man. man kill bear. man cook meat.

When a man volunteers to have a BBQ, the following chain of events are put into motion:

1. The women buys the food
2. The women make the salad, prepare the vegetables, and make dessert
3. The women prepare the meat for cooking, place it on a tray along with the necessary cooking utensils and sauces, and take it to the man who is lounging beside the grill - beer in hand

Here comes the important part:

4. THE MAN PLACES THE MEAT ON THE GRILL

More routine:

5. The women go inside to organize the plates and cutlery
6. A woman comes out to tell the men that the meat is burning. He thanks her and asks if she will bring another beer while he deals with the situation

Important again:

7. THE MAN TAKES THE MEAT OFF THE GRILL AND HANDS IT TO THE WOMAN

More routine:

8. The women prepare the plates, salad, bread, utensils, napkins, sauces and bring them to the table
9. After eating, the women clear the table and do the dishes
10. Everyone PRAISES THE MAN and THANKS HIM for his cooking efforts
11. A man asks a woman how she enjoyed "her night off" and, upon seeing her annoyed reaction, concludes that there's just no pleasing some women!

I have a theory on understanding where you stand in a relationship. Number one on the list signifies: you are joined at the hip; all the way down to six: you potentially are in a relationship.

1) buying a grill together
2) buying a car together
3) having a pet together
4) getting a joint checking account
5) buying a house together
6) exchanging/merging playdoh

Weekend Update...

Internet usage be damned, I'm back! Each week we are alloted 8GB of traffic on the internet, and apparently I went over that allowance shortly after my previous post. Streaming all those recorded Daily Shows and Colbert Reports back from the states must chew up a bunch of bandwidth... I'll be sure to be a little more conservative in that respect.

This weekend we stuck around town, and headed over to UK (the other dorm on campus). There certainly are more Danes and Swedes over in those parts, as here at HK, we consist of almost entirely international students. This weekend also marked the Chinese New Year, and Chinatown HK had enough sake and moon cakes to go around! The year of the pig promises to be a good one, I have been assured by Hai Chuan Li, AKA Joe (funny thing about Chinese people... they love to have English names to be called by, and Joe is no exception)

Well... school starts tomorrow 8:00, you know what that means! Until next time...

Nightlife

Last night was the annual winter welcome back party. Imagine a grade school sock-hop with a DJ in the school gym, only add beer and gorgeous women. Again, I forgot my camera, so I don't have any pictures, but it was much more fun than I remember a sock-hop to be. It was fun to talk to some of the full time Danish students, but it is hard enough to try and talk with someone when the music is loud, let alone their thick accents.
At about 2:00, the school kicked us out, so the party continued into downtown Sonderborg. When we walked into the "Buddy Holly" pub, everyone was up on tables dancing to Greece Lightning (did I mention they love that music over here?) After that excitment, we walked across the street to "Penny Lane," another pub, and they were all dancing to the Packer Hey song... they love the strangest music here.

First Day of Classes

Thursday marked the first day of classes. My International Economics professor decided to be in Sweden Skiing instead of teaching, so my first class was canceled. He failed to tell anyone, and a student called his cell phone and he was on a lift to the top of a Mountain. My Finance and Investment professor speaks with a Danish fake British English accent, and is hilarious. This course sounds exactly like my Finance course from last semester, so it should be easy. First impressions of the schooling process are that it is very informal, and the professors prefer to be called by their first name. This varies greatly from some of the pompous professors in the US that get all in a huff if you don't call them Dr. whatever.
Thursday also marked the grand reopening of Tutten, the residence hall pub in the basement of our dorm. Try to imagine if McCormick Hall invited all of its residents to the basement and served beer... thats what it is like (only with hot Danes and Germans instead of drunk Wisconsin girls.)
It seems rains nearly every day here, on and off, kinda like Seattle. From what I hear from home it's cooooooold, so 50 degrees and rain is okay with me.
Well... off to the intro party, more to come.

Hygge is in the air

Hygge is an important element of the Danish mentality. The term is difficult to translate, but it is often, inadequately, translated as cosiness. Yet, it is much more than that.

Uncomplicated, unexaggerated and informal are some of the incredients in hygge. It is closely associated with having a good time together with friends or family and with eating and drinking. It may include a long dinner at home with a group of friends who know each another well. It may be a good time at the “fredagsbar”. In can be going out with some few friends for a cup of coffee on a Sunday afternoon. In may be listening to music, playing board games or just watching a TV-program together.

The term hygge is widely used and connected with different situations. For instance you can have a hygge-evening and a hygge-weekend. You can have a hygge-chat and you can even sit in a hygge-corner.

Hyggelig is the adjective for hygge and is used about many things. A person can be described as hyggelig, a café and a town – especially if it is a small town – can be hyggelig. Furniture for instance a sofa can be hyggelig and candlelight are definitely hyggelige.

Hygge is all about feeling comfortable in a friendly atmosphere. It is impossible to stay in Denmark for long without experiencing hygge.