Guess what? I'm in DENMARK. FUCKING DENMARK. (First thing I learned here: danes say fuck all the time. It's completely appropriate. Talk about a different culture!)
AHHHHH.
I actually got here a day late, but now I'm here. I got here after maybe 22 hours of no sleep, a day without food, and very little patience with travel....but everything worked out in the end, because it's WONDERFUL!! This country is beautiful.
All of us YFU students staying here in Denmark for a semester or year are at a week long orientation right now in a city called Ry in Jutland. It's a small city, and we're in the middle of the forest near a lake with lots of wonderful smells, foods, and people. Everyday we have culture lessons about Danish life, and lessons on the danish language. At meals we eat very traditional Danish food, and whenever possible we have to speak Danish. It's sort of like a crash couse in what it's like to be a dane, or, as close as they can get in a week anyway.
Because at the orientation everyone from all around the world living in denmark is here, it's a really unique and cool experience. People from Turkey, France, everywhere....so cool! Anyway. Things' that I have experienced here in Denmark so far:
LICORICE. Super salty, bitter. strong, potent licorice. And I LOVE IT.
Liverpastej. This ground-up liver-paste stuff you put on bread. I love this stuff too.
Danish sense of humor. As an American, I don't really understand it...but I'm working on it. It's EXTREMELY sarcastic, and extremely dark. Dead baby jokes are really popular.
Sex, naked people, swearing....everything. Everything is very, very open. You want to talk about it? Go for it. So far, from what I've found, very little is off limits as long as you're respectful and aren't mean to other people.
Safety. Things are generally very safe, and clean. This is definitely a change, and something pretty nice.
OKAY. So those are the generals. Specifically, though, today was not a usual 'class day' here at the orientation camp. Today, we went to the highest point in denmark, called 'sky mountain'. It's actually only 147 meters, so really small compared to mountains in the states, but it was really beautiful. We also took a boat into a city Silkeborg, which was amazing! I've never been to city like it. and I thought it was really beautiful. Small streets with little shops, and no cars. I bought my first danish thing! I bought an icecream cone with licorice sprinkles....IN DANISH! I was a bit proud of myself. (I shouldn't have been though, I sounded shit! Ha.)
Okay, enough with my ramblings. To end this post, I'll include some pictures from the day that my friends took:
Write soon! Vi sees!
-Rowen:)
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