Reflection

During my whole trip, it always amazed me how much I really talked with my kitchen and the friends I made. The environment and nature of the experience, (and weather in Denmark) welcomed conversation whether you were procrastinating from studying, chatting while making lunch, discussing your next trip, enjoying a common dinner, wandering the foreign streets or gathering just for the sole purpose of being able to talk and learn about these extremely interesting, unique, and incredibly kind people who became my friends. While I rave about Hong Kong and openly admit how much I enjoyed my time in Denmark, I continue to realize what an impact they had on me and how much I really appreciated being in both of these extremely different environments. I truly connected with the traditions, ways of life, shopping, food, experiences, weather (surprisingly both hot and cold) and friendships.

Both of my experiences abroad, and especially the people I’ve met, have changed my outlook on life, my views of what is important, and increased my love, of love. I believe that people make an experience. I’m so grateful to have met some of the best friends I have from these two trips and was ecstatic every time we were able to come together in one of these amazing and obscure locations. If you asked me before grad school if I thought the money, time, hard work and stress was worth it, I probably would have said yes. Now I would say, I honestly will never regret any of it and could not imagine a more perfect year and a half of my life. Not that it was all teddy bears and rainbows, but every person I met, food I tried, place I went, knowledge I gained, music I heard, skills I mastered, and languages I learned, have shaped me. They’ve encouraged me to be open minded, curious, loving, honest, questioning, grateful, driven, and just happy. Thank you to everyone who enriched my life during this amazing time, both from home and my two homes away from home.

Parting Ways

It was very important to Debbie (and Andrew and I) that the Trio have some time together before we left. To just reflect on our unbelievable experience and make sure we cherished that last bit of time together and didn’t get caught up in the craziness of leaving. It was a great idea and we planned an evening at our regular spot, NoseWise. Pham hooked us up with a fabulous dinner and delicious coffee. We literally just sat for several hours, reminiscing about everything, asking each other questions, and attempting to plan the future.

The set up

Within the last few days before leaving the cold country of Denmark, it actually snowed! Unfortunately I convinced Debbie to bike with me to Nørrebro in the rain/snow, which wasn’t my best idea. We made it to Lyst (awesome café) and just had to do a bit of drying off before enjoying our brunch with Andrew and Maria. I was excited to actually see the snow before leaving though.

SNOW

We also spent the last few days saying see you to everyone. We made a trip to Porcelænshaven dormitory to say adios to Arnaud and had a heck of time parting with my kitchen. I was pretty much packed up so I took a break to have a sit down and some tea with the kitchen. Marie and I both ended up crying, which turned to laughing, and I basically just stayed with everyone until the last seconds before they wandered off to bed. For some reason, I truly believe and hope I’ll see most of them again.  The next morning Andrew and I left the Vestamager metro station at 5am and set off for the lufthaven. We started our journey home. 

Last trip to Porcelaenshaven

America

Back to the real world

Winding Down

So you might wonder (as my brother often did) if I actually went to class. It’s true, I did. The semester was winding down and it was time to start studying for exams and writing our final papers. One of my favorites was writing my Corporate Communications paper on issue management within Apple, Inc. following the death of Steve Jobs. The trio and I all worked on two big projects for our NCSU credit courses and actually ended up “graduating” before our last exams.

In Denmark, it’s common to have oral exams in most of your classes or a 4 hour written exam that hardly anyone actually has time to finish. Deb and I had NO idea how to prepare for an oral exam as they don’t exist at COT, but we did pretty well. You go into a room with your professor and a moderator, have 3-5 minutes to present on a previous case study you submitted and then answer random questions from your professor on the syllabus of the entire semester. It was insanely nerve-racking as you watch classmates coming out who are excited about a 4 (on a 12 point scale). Overall Deb and I both did well and got “A” equivalents in both Social Networks and Strategic Brand Management. We also had one written exam for Consumer Behavior that took us both 4 hours to write only 3.5 pages. Ouch!

Coffee Queen coffee - worth all $15 

Amidst our studying and submissions, we still wanted to be sure to get the most out of our time left in Cph. We got a final coffee at Coffee Queen, checked out a local Christmas market, and finally went to renowned Ruby (exquisite cocktail bar off Stroget).

Ruby cocktails

During this time we also had some of our British friends come into town. Rasmus and Daniel were the main tour guides, but we all had to chance to go to Charlie’s, an awesome hole-in-the-wall pub, and dinner at a great Italian restaurant. The guys also planned a typical Danish Christmas dinner so the girls could get the full experience. Another great round of pork roast, herring and this time, liver pate. It was nice seeing the girls and I think they definitely had a great time in the city.

At Charlie's bar

Dinner at Rasmus'

So you may think the Christmas dinners were over, but no. We wanted one last hoorah with the HK crew before everyone split up for the holidays. Sara had us over to her cute Scandinavian apartment for a wonderful evening! We were welcomed by Glögg and all the typical Danish dishes. It’s always a great time when this group gets together so it was a nice way to say “See You” until next time. 

Lovely Christmas dinner at Sara's

Dressed up for the occasion 

Jul

I feel like my Christmas writing is never going to end. This is a really long season in Denmark! The kitchen had been planning on going to see the Royal Danish Ballet and we thought, what better show to see than The Nutcracker. The day finally came and it was a busy one. The night before had been a pretty extreme night out (probably back to the dorm around 5am?) and we had an early wake up call to make the show in time. We slowly gathered ourselves and finally headed out for our Royal adventure, dressed for the part.

All dressed up

After a quick hot dog snack we made our way into the quite old, extravagantly decorated Royal Theater. A little background, the theater was built in 1874 and was originally a theater for the king. It later became the country’s theater and although a new, spiffy and modern theater was recently built nearby, it still houses the Danish ballet, orchestra, and other cultural events.

The show was beautiful. Although the story differed slightly from the American version, Clara still receives a toy nutcracker for Christmas that comes alive in her dreams, saves her from the evil army of mice and leads her to the sugar plum fairy. The costumes were especially colorful and helped bring the story to life. We were even able to see one of the ballerinas up close during intermission where she was taking pictures and signing autographs. Everyone kept commenting on how tiny she was!

All the amazing costumes

After the show, we continued our cultured day by walking to the new Royal Playhouse to enjoy a cup of coffee before heading back. We discussed our favorite scenes, dance moves and costumes and pretended to be ballet snobs. Then it was back to business. Our kitchen Christmas dinner was that night so we had to run to the store and start cooking! In fact, we were late anyway and got in a bit of trouble. Oops! 

Trio all glam in the Playhouse

Walking back through the decorated Nyhavn

It’s not always common to have vegetables in the traditional Danish Christmas dinner (unless you count potatoes), but we wanted to make it a bit healthier. Pernille and I were in charge of two different cabbage salads. Unique, but delicious. And that was only the beginning. Everyone was in charge of a different part of the meal so we ended up with awesome potatoes with peppers and feta, pork roast, homemade rugbrod and white bread, baked fish, laks, curry herring, frikadellers and Danish snaps.

All the meat and bread

The fish and "vegetables"

Snaps, which is very different from the peach schnapps I think of in the US, is a Danish alcohol (arguably the best is made in nearby Aalborg) that is typically served during Danish holidays. It is very strong and definitely not tasty so Pernille made a honey version for the ladies. One of my favorite parts of the night was that at random times, someone would just scream “snaps time!” and the whole table would take a thimble size shot of snaps.  Then the song followed – haps, haps, haps, nu skal vi have snaps, creatively translated to snaps, snaps, snaps, now we have the snaps. As you can see, this usually makes all holiday get togethers quite interesting.

Love this picture! Notice all the Christmas beer and snaps

Now that everyone was fat and happy, they announce it’s time for dessert, ris ala mande. It’s warm rice porridge with chopped almonds and cherry sauce. In the entire pot of porridge is one whole almond. Whoever gets the almond in their bowl has to hide it in their mouth until everyone has finished their helping and then receives a prize! A fun little traditional that has everyone trying to keep a straight face.

Pernille digging into the porridge

After the extensive meal, we cleared the kitchen and opened up the floor for some dancing. Nicholas and I practiced swing, Pernille played her favorite 50’s playlist on Spotify and everyone continued the merriment throughout the eve. I also forgot to mention this really awesome game we played where everyone has a different fruit name and you're not allowed to show your teeth, whether smiling or talking. Go ahead, try it. It's harder than you think.

Epic game