Observations

PEOPLE
Texas is so nice. I want to start by saying that. Polite people are all over that wide open space. This is not to say that the Danes are rude, because they are not. They do, however, come from a completely different culture. Coming from a socialist society makes them believe that introducing another person is like you are presenting them as inferior to yourself. In the Danish culture, you do not introduce others or yourself. Most of the time they don't even consider it proper to introduce yourself at a social event where you don't know anybody. This has posed several problems. I am unbelievably shy when it comes to meeting new people, much unlike my outgoing little sister. I have mostly overcome this fear and have forced myself upon several occasions to shake hands with a complete stranger and ask for their name. In doing this, I have met 5 Danish people (4 live on my floor in the Kollegium), a Chinese girl (also on my floor), and several Americans (most of whom are also in DIS). Once I introduced myself to the Danes, they opened up a bit more. They are more friendly once you jump off that first cliff. Some of you may feel like a cliff analogy is a bit exaggerated for introductions, but I know Papa sympathizes with me on that one.

SPORTS
I got very excited when I was told that our Danish class will be attending a football game. Little did I know that I would be attending futbol, meaning soccer instead of the beloved Friday night ball game. I am still very interested in going to see the game here in Denmark. Soccer is also played in courts all over the city, instead of the basketball courts I am accustomed to. Besides that, I have seen some people playing a sort of ping pong game, except it was outdoors and had no table (No, I don't mean tennis). These men simply had paddles and were hitting a small ball back and forth. Handball is also popular, but I haven't noticed anything else.

RELIGION
There are several churches here in town. There is a German church, Protestant church, Muslim church, Baptist church, Roman Catholic church, and many others. They are tall beautiful buildings of marble and copper, and there are so many of them. The funny thing is though, Danes don't really attend church. Many of them do believe in one religion or another, but very few of them regularly attend service. While on a walking tour, I was told that services were on Thursday, Friday, and sometimes Saturday, which I also found strange.


So there's a few things about Denmark. I'm sure the longer I am here the more I will learn, but in response Eddie...They can't teach this Texan anything I NEED to know. Besides, if it's not in Texas, you probably don't need it right?....and yes the ham is delicious, but I think we could season it better.

Topic Suggested By: Crystal Cee