making comparsions.

I can only compare something new to something I know, something familiar to use as a point of reference, so I compared every new bit of Copenhagen to my home, my adopted home, and my friends, and to everything else I know well. I see my neighborhood as the Danish equivalent to the Upper East Side. Many wealthier families live here and raise their children here. It is quieter than the rest of the city and has many up scale shops and up scale apartments. The transit system reminds me of New York and Washington, D.C. combined...there are many different lines to choose from, it's efficient, and most everyone uses it, like NY, but it is very expensive, only runs until 1230am and goes in a bit of a circle, similar to D.C. The people in my program and locals are hard to categorize...so I wont even try, everyone is unique and out there. My classes are very different from Fordham. More students than I'm used to participate, the professors are flexible about their syllabus and are willing to go with the flow, and even want to be called by their first name. I'm not trying to say Fordham doesn't have those things...its just a different atmosphere, more personalized. Also, everything I read for class has to do with current events, not formulas and historic theories. I have been able to apply just about everything I've read and learned so far to everything going on around me and back home. It's amazing to me how much more motivation I have to do the reading assignments just because they have to do with what is in the news...its fascinating. And how a simple shift in location can totally shift my perspective on the world and everything I know. It feels great to be able to explore this beautiful city and wander through streets that hold so much history and then go to class and hear the stories the city tries to tell. For my danish class we had to ask a Dane about what historical or cultural event they thought was most influential in defining Danish self-perception. The man I asked mentioned a day long ago when the Danish flag fell during a Battle and their luck changed as a country. Others said joining the EU (yet still keeping their own currency and own juristiction, i.e. keeping Denmark for the Danes), and one person even said the recent gold medal for winning the European Handball competition earlier this week...there were other events but I can't remember what else people said. But the point is that this small country has so many events citizens are able to connect their pride for their country to local politics, sports, and history. Personally, I cannot think off the top of my head of any specific event that makes me proud to be an American or easily connect history to a general reason for patriotism. Obviously, there is a huge size difference between Denmark and the States...so it is hard and kinda unfair to compare the two countries on any level...but I'm not sure how else to figure out this small country without looking at it next to the U.S. Denmark has it's faults, too, concerning high taxes, strange immigration policies, and other things. But I'd rather not dwell on them at the momment...

Anyways, the night life here is very similar to the U.S., very crowded on the weekends at bars and cafes, but just about every night the inner city is actually always cluttered with some sort of live music event or people in the streets or in cafes hanging out. The cafes and some bars have a special atmosphere the Danes call 'hygge'...I'm still not sure how to pronounce it because a lot of words have random silent letters. But the atmosphere is all candlelit, small tables and close quarters. It's just a very relaxing environment especially because of the live music or american tunes playing in the background. I find it very comforting but of course everything is expensive here, so I've only been to one of these places twice so far.

bye for now,
emily

btw---i'm looking forward to watching the superbowl at about 3am on monday...Go Giants! (People are really into it here...) Love and miss you all :)