Two Fødselsdags, Ikea, and Snow??

After completing my first full week of classes, it was so nice to spend the weekend with friends and experience typical Danish culture. Friday was my friend Claire's birthday (Fødselsdag), and I was invited over to her host family's house to celebrate with a birthday dinner. Her host parents live south of Copenhagen right outside of Roskilde, which is about a 90 minute commute to Copenhagen.  They live in a quaint farmhouse, which is a huge contrast to my host family's modern, one-story house; it was really neat to compare their lifestyles and I'm hoping that I'll be able to visit more of my friend's host family's homes over the course of the semester. Claire's host dad takes a lot of pride in cooking, and although the main course was quite american--hamburgers--he spiced up the traditional by adding onions and capers to the hamburger patties. The dessert, however, was definitely a show stopper! After singing (or rather attempting to sing) the Danish birthday song, we had a traditional vanilla layer cake along with rich hot chocolate. So even though it took me a little over two hours until I got home, it was definitely worth celebrating with Claire and her host family! 

On Saturday morning, my host sister and I biked to the sporting facility in Horsholm and played tennis. While I have been playing tennis since I was six years old, with college classes and activities, I hadn't played in a really long time. It felt really great to get back on the court, and Camilla and I couldn't believe how compatible we were playing together.  We had so much fun that we are scheduled to play again on Tuesday evening. After lunch, my host mom and I went to run some errands at the local shopping area. I was most surprised at how conveniently located everything was-- from buying a few groceries, to an orchid plant (the Danes absolutely love their orchids), to tennis shoes for my host brother, to moisturizing cream, to dinner plates, to bakery treats for the afternoon, everything was located within a two-floor indoor shopping mall. On Saturday evening, we went over to my host-grandmother's house to celebrate her 71st birthday with the rest of her family. There was a total of 17 people invited to the dinner, including my host sibling's aunt and their three younger cousins. By far, this was one of the best birthday dinners I have ever experienced-- it was partially catered and it started with smoked salmon pinwheels served with fresh bread, followed by venison accompanied with a potatoes and an apple-chestnut salad. And just like the previous night, the dessert course was AMAZING; there were so many options: Danish dream cake, yogurt parfait, grilled pineapple, sauteed pears, wine-soaked apricots, vanilla ice cream, and a fruit sorbet. While I may not have understood the full conversation at the dinner table, I was able to pick up on some things and the guests enjoyed talking with me about American culture and our birthday traditions.  
I woke up Sunday morning to about two inches of snow on the ground... Going to school in upstate NY, I was really hoping that this winter I wouldn't see snow, but I must admit that it was quite beautiful and picturesque. As part of one of the DIS excursion trips, I went to Ikea on Sunday afternoon. Living with a host family, I didn't really need anything in particular, but I've only been to Ikea once when I was younger so I thought it was the perfect opportunity to experience the Sweedish designed store... and Sweedish meatballs, of course. I arrived home to my host brother cooking Danish pancakes, which we ate with our afternoon tea and coffee-- could anything be better than this??? 


Vi ses snart