On Friday, I made it to my visiting family's house with no mistakes, and 4 minutes to spare! Go me! I'm really starting to get the hang of the public transportation system, and Rejseplanen is a God-send. Friday night at their house is pizza night, which was absolutely fine by me.
After dinner we sat down to watch some tv. First up: the Daily Show, in English with Danish subtitles. I really tried to read along and try to pick up on a few words, but I doubt it improved my knowledge of Danish at all. However... after it was over my family turned on "Venner," my new favorite show ever. Just kidding- not so new. "Venner" is just Danish for FRIENDS. For the first time since I've been here, I felt right at home.
Next up was the Danish "X-factor," which was very similar to the US version except all Danes speaking Danish. The weirdest part was that I didn't understand anything being said until the contestants would open their mouths to sing; all the songs were American and sung in English.
Finally the the main event: Handball World Cup Semifinals! Handball is a really big deal here in Denmark, and the World Cup is treated like the Superbowl in the US. People throw parties and watch the game, screaming and booing at the television when goals are scored. The great thing about it is that everyone is rooting for Denmark and Denmark only, so everyone is unified. The only time I have ever watched handball before was in last summer's Olympics. I would describe it as lacrosse without the sticks, or soccer with your hands. Friday's game was against favored Croatia (they had just beaten Olympic champion France in their previous game). The game was super exciting, and I got surprisingly into it. Sports are great for fun and bonding because they transcend language barriers. Denmark ended up finishing really strong with a final score of 30-24.
Friday night we went to two bars: The Drunken Flamingo and The Happy Pig. I'm not really sure why there are so many bars with animals in the title, but I don't hate it...
Saturday Maggie, B, and I decided to "go shopping". I put this in quotes because none of us actually bought anything- Copenhagen is SO expensive. We spent the whole day on Stroget (which when pronounced sounds more like "Strolel"), the main shopping street in Denmark. The second best find of the day was a department store called Illium, which resembled Macy's in NYC. However, the best stop by far was our last stop, Torvehallerne, or the Glass Market. It's made up of two clear greenhouse-like structures that contain an open-air market. The first building contained breads and oils and cheese and desserts. There were so many samples of bread that I thought I died and went to heaven. The second building contained butchers with fresh meat and fish. We decided that we wanted to buy and make steak that night, so we picked out 3 steaks. The guy selling them said (in broken English) that they were not the most tender so he would fix them for us if we wanted. We said yes, and then he minced them. We were so confused (and a little disappointed) as to why our steaks were now basically ground beef. Turning lemons into lemonade, or rather ground steak into meatballs, we ended up having a very nice pasta dinner.
Saturday night we went out again, this time to a few different places like The Mermaid Bar and Retro and Miami. I was finally able to talk to Danes! One guy with whom I spoke (and to whom I expressed my annoyance with how closed-off they are) said that Danish guys don't really talk to girls until post 2am because otherwise they have nothing to talk about. This kind of disturbed me. I also still don't understand why appropriate Danish "going out" hours are between midnight and 4-5am. I've always seen myself as a night person, but that's extreme even for me.
Sunday was reserved for homework and the Handball World Cup. Denmark was taking on Spain, and it was taking place in Barcelona. I don't really want to say anything about the game other than that it went very poorly for Denmark. I watched with my visiting family, and we had to change the channel because it was so painful to watch.
By popular request: PICTURES! I set up a Shutterfly account so that I could easily share pictures with all who wish to see them. Here is the link - enjoy! http://wanderlustcopenhagen.shutterfly.com/
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