Recapping the past few days...

I went to the American Store! I had no idea it even existed, but another DIS student showed it to me. And funny enough, it sits right next to the British Store. Anyways, it is probably the saddest excuse for a store I've ever seen. It's about the size of an average bedroom with shelving that holds the most random of American goods. They do have peanut butter! The price of shipping definitely reflects in the prices though. A jar that would be about $5 back home runs for $20 here...I'll just wait for my care package (thanks mom!). Along with peanut butter, their shelves had a variety of cake mix, graham crackers, and refried beans. A large bottle of syrup was $30, a packet of kool-aid was $2, and a pack of Reese's was $3. It was fun to see but for the most part Danish versions of food work just fine for me!

The Superbowl! I was actually able to watch it! From midnight to 4:30am it played on the TVs here and I did pretty well (only fell asleep for the 3rd quarter). It was a bit difficult to get into it since their camera angles weren't the greatest, they played the same three commercials, and all the commentary was in Danish. There were three Danish commentators at the game...their box was about even with the ceiling beams at the stadium, so waaaaaaay up there. None the less, it was fun to watch.

And another update on Danish culture:

1. They drive FAST here. It surprises me that even in busy pedestrian areas cars will speed down the road at 60 mph just to slam on their breaks at the next stoplight. This isn't everyone but I have had cars speed by a good number of times.

2. They have very formal dinner traditions; I have not experienced this yet but we talked about it in my Danish class. First off, they're VERY punctual...it's seen as rude to show up early or late. My teacher said that basically you better be at their door as the clock strikes the time you're supposed to be there. Their dinners can take up to 5 or 6 hours with talking, socializing, and etc. Danes aren't the most social people in the world so most dinner hosts will assign seats to force them to meet new people. This is kinda hard for me to comprehend since most Americans are comfortable striking up a conversation with new people, at least for small talk! Name cards are placed at each seat stating who will be dinner partners and if a couple is invited to the same party they can expect to be split up. The partners are always set up to be male/female and hosts can spend hours on their seating arrangements and you're expected to spend the most time with your dinner partner throughout the night. My teacher was telling us of a few times she'd been placed with someone she wasn't too fond of and said it felt like the longest 6 hours of her life. You're supposed to bring a gift the first time you're invited to someone's house, should clean your plate (otherwise its seen as rude to the chef), and elbows on the dinner table is seen as masculine so its impolite for females to have their elbows on the table. Also, it's proper to thank them for the evening and then call a few days later to thank them again. Quite different from our dinner parties!

3. Also, another clarification I've learned....They don't lock their bikes up to racks, I found out that they lock their back tire somehow on the bike. I never would have noticed had I not been told. So, people couldn't ride a bike off, but they could carry it if they really wanted to steal it.