Learning

Hey fam! Lots to catch up on–

NEW NORDIC CULINARY CULTURE:

SSTinCPH Award: Most likely to inspire possible career paths!

Our teacher is originally Canadian; he studied Humanities (and maybe English?) at Yale, and then he got into sustainable farming and teaching. And now he’s lived in Denmark for three years, and he works at the Nordic Food Lab (which is a non-profit started by the founder/chef of Noma!)

BEHAVIORAL ECONOMICS:
SSTinCPH Award: Most potential to win money, haha.

On Tuesday we played a game. All 32 students wrote down a number between 0 and 100. We were told that the average of the numbers would be taken, and whoever guessed closest to 2/3 of the average would win 30 kroner. And I won! Ha. I spent it on churros on the way home 🙂

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First weekend here-

We stayed in the city ~ met new people ~ hung out

Also, I met my visiting host family! Lene is a single mom, but she and her ex-husband Lars are very close (literally–he’s in the next house over; they live about a twenty minute train ride from my station, which is so convenient!). Their three boys are Anton (6’4″, 19 years old, taking a gap year to study (to study in his gap year!) at a small school on the main island of Jutland), Thore (6’1″, 16 years old, in high school), and Bjørn (“still growing”, 13 years old, just started seventh grade at a private school). They are all really nice and speak English so well! Lene made homemade pita bread and meatballs and falafel, and it was delicious!

Here are some photos from the weekend/beginning of the week:

we stayed out so late on Friday!

beautiful evening walk on Tuesday night bc no Wednesday classes

more bikes

My favorite piece at the National Gallery of Denmark. It’s “To kier på en åben mark” (Two Cows in an Open Field by Johan Thomas Lundbye. He painted this in 1846 (he was twenty seven) but he died two years later!

I had dinner with my visiting family on Monday!

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Today we didn’t have any field studies scheduled, so we went to visit Hamlet’s castle, about an hour north of the city! The train ride was so European, and I totally loved it. We sat facing backwards, there were old farm towns, we passed forests and fields, and eventually we could see the ocean!

Kronborg castle is situated right across the water from Sweden, where Sweden has a another fortress (you can see Sweden from Denmark!). When Denmark and Sweden were really friendly with each other/when fortresses were a thing, the two castles worked together to police the super narrow strait. How cool!

The view of the castle (from the train station)

It has a moat!

My friend Ruben is really great at portrait photography! ❤

That’s Sweden over there! If you look reaallly hard you can see it.

Also, I took a ferry over (IT WAS SO EASY!) and hung out there for a few hours.

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OKAY ONE FINAL THING:

In addition to regular school learning, here are some everyday/street things you gotta learn:

1. Danes don’t jaywalk. Basically ever. (But Swedes totally do) Also, stay out of the bike lane or you’ll get yelled at or hit (probably just yelled at, but they really go for it through the yellow lights, so the potential for injury is high, I think).
2. Grocery stores are not supermarkets, they’re quite small markets. Also, pine nuts are less expensive than pretty much all the other nuts! It’s nuts!
3. BYOB–bring your own bag to the market, or plan on buying one for 2 kroner.
4. Most doors are “push” to enter, not pull, and there’s only one letter difference between the two words (I forgot what “pull” is, but I think “push” is “tryk”)
5. Fireworks are for whenever you feel like it!
6. Vitamin D supplements are crucial for surviving the winter.
7. Microwave ovens are actually lil’ convection ovens, not microwaves!
8. Zip-lock bags aren’t a thing, but there are large, plastic bags with sticky stuff (like clingfilm-ish stuff?) at the top that work just fine.
9. There are NO liquor stores! Alcohol is sold everywhere (markets, on the ferry, 7/11, all the kiosks) and there aren’t any open container laws.
10. 7/11s are ubiquitous, sell organic superfood salad, and if you time it right, they also sell warm cinnamon rolls.

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Xoxo,

Soph

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PS – today, I was walking up from the train station, and someone asked me for directions! Which means I made it! I’m practically a local now! 🙂