new family and fastelavn.

hello america,



This past Sunday, I made my first trip to visit with my 'visiting family.' It's basically a Danish family who signed up to have a DIS student (me) come visit with them a couple of times a week or month. They feed me delicious traditional meals and take me on cultural drives and even tell me the really cool (secret) places to go in Denmark and nearby countries. And in return, I tell them how delicious their food is and how different everything here is compared to home. You get the idea... So this sunday I went to their house to have lunch and hang out. It was me, Annette, Pan, and their son Dennis. We all ate open-faced sandwiches on 'black' bread, which is only made in Denmark. Typically they do not eat fish for lunch, as they did with me, but instead they eat a lot of different kinds of meats. Since I am a vegetarian but i am willing to compromise while I am in Denmark, I had the fish options. There is a specific way to assemble each little sandwich and each sandwich is about 1/6 of a bread slice. I took a half of the black bread, which they say is very fibrouous, and spread butter on it. Then, I cut it into three pieces so that I could try different kinds of fish. The first fish I tried was herring, a very common Danish fish. Annette had prepared the herring three different ways and each typerequired a different topping to add on it. 'The point is to make each bite look pretty," they told me. I added onions to one, a special sauce to another, and egg to the last. Each one was not only pretty to eat, but great tasting. As a picky eater, I tend to avoid things I do not know, especially weird looking fish and toppings...but I'm glad I tried these. After the herring, it is tradition to take a shot of snaps. (it helps smooth over the potent taste of the fish). Following the herring, I had smoked salmon, some sort of smoked trout or grey fish, a white fish, tunamousse (just like regular tuna with mayo), and a herring paste-like thing, all with their specific toppings. Two toppings that the son, Dennis, seemed to put on everything was a small bunch of mini clover looking greens which he cut and bunched into a 'tiny forest' (as he called it) and put ontop of the sandwich. Also, Dennis put a dark burgandy jello like thing, which they call clouds because its made by scrapping off the crust of boiled something..., on just about every type of fish and meat he ate. Also, it is almost forbidden, or just rude, to use your fingers to pick up any food or touch any food at the table. I had a great time talking to Annette and Pan about their past students and they told me different trips and activities the past students enjoyed.

After lunch, we discussed possible trips for the upcoming weekends and we had a traditional danish dessert. We had Fastelavn buns, which are only made one time each year. The Fastelavn festival was from Friday until Sunday. It is basically like Halloween where kids dress up and walk around to houses and sing at each door to ask for candy (or money). It springs from an old tradition where kids and parents would have a big celebration right before lent to 'let the cat out of the barrel' and ward evil spirits away before the harvest. It all concludes with parties on Sunday where kids hit a barrel full of candy (not a pinata, a wooden barrel) and the first kid to break a piece of the barrel is 'catqueen' and the kid to finish the barrel by hitting the last piece of wood becomes the 'cat king'. Many years ago, there used to be a real, live black cat in the barrel, hence 'letting the cat out of the barrel', but over time they came to their senses and realized beating a cat to death was probably not as fun as a beating a barrel full of candy.

After coffee and dessert, two kids, superman and a princess, came to our door and sang their song. Annette told me that they had changed the word 'candy' that is usually in the song to 'money', so Annette and Pan filled up their little pouch with more coins. To finish off the visit, Pan and Annette drove me through their neighborhood to see some really unique architecture and visit some spots I probably would never go to on my own. I saw a church with a tappered steeple and a surrounding area that complimented every detail of the church because the houses and surrounding landscape were all designed by the same architect. We saw a new apartment building called 'the snake' becuase of its roof that is made of copper and is shaped like a snakes body in motion. We also went through a apartment complex where a lot of Muslim immigrants live. And we saw the block where the youth house for youth used to be, Ungdomshuset ('the youth house'). The youth house was a building that I believe the government owned but was being used as head-quarters for left-wing activists. The government promised to let progressive (socialist-minded) youth meet up there and have meetings and concerts, etc. Unforunately, in 2000, the government sold the property to a smal christian sect who basically told the youth who occupied the house to leave. Since march 1st 2007, when the house was raided by the police, there have been riots and such every year to show support for the youth house and to gather youth to show the government that they need another location for their group. Every Thursday evening the group meets up and marches to different areas of Copenhagen. I believe there are peaceful talks about building a new youth house soon.

That's all for now, I'll update you all on the watching the superbowl here, going to church, and some other things later. Feel free to leave comments/questions.

Farvel, (Farewell,)
Em