On Wednesday, Alex, Carolyn &I went shopping, and I found an adorable scarf, that I know B's going to want to steal from me. Then on Saturday, Alex and I went shopping again &I found adorable boots as well as a dress!! I figured it was a birthday present, so why not?
My birthday this year was on a Thursday, which meant that I spent it at practicum, which was really cool. I've started getting used to only being able to communicate through non-verbal communication. The older kids however, are able to speak some English, and since I'm now working with them, I can communicate with them more easily. I had my first experience with a special needs child on Thursday, which was a great experience. Plus, I spent a lot of time with a little girl who spoke very good English, and whose father lives in New Jersey. The Danes are very different when it comes to classifying "special needs" children. 10% of their children are in special needs schools, which is an insanely high amount. Children are separated and put into "special" schools if they have ADHD, or even just if the child has potential risk factors at home, such as divorced parents. The Danes don't believe in medicating their children for ADHD the way that Americans do, so many of the schools have children with supposed behavioral problems. I also find it interesting that having divorced parents is considered a "risk factor" and that these children need to be sent to different schools.
After practicum, I went to Carolyn, Laura &Brittany's place, and they made the cutest meal ever. So we had penne with meatballs, drank ciders, and then they had bought me some pastries, that I can never remember the name of, but is something along the lines of flødeboller. Quite delicious! Then I went home to find my desk covered with cards &cute gifts from the roommates/hallmates!! They are so sweet, and I got some useful things out of it!! The girls that live next door gave me a wine glass as well as a wine bottle opener, which is awesome, because now I can buy wine. Not to mention that Netto [our supermarket here] sells $6 [or 30dkk] bottles of wine which are actually quite good.
the little flødeboller that carolyn, laura &brittany bought me for my birthday!
Friday night my group of friends from Skindergade took me out to dinner, which was really sweet. Then we went to this club called Køler Bar. It was a lot of fun, but not like the typical Danish bar or night club that you would expect. The rest of the weekend we jsut relaxed and tried to catch up on sleep, because those 8:30 AM classes are catching up with all of us. This weekend was also fun because my next-door neighbors [Maggie &Jenny] had Gynter, a Dane from Jylland [Jutland, the main part of Denmark] visiting, which was a great experience. He tried to teach us tons of Danish, and we all enjoyed making fun of how poorly Americans speak Danish. As we were all walking to the Køler Bar however, we passed a group of 3 or 4 older adults walking around in neon yellow jackets. Gynter had a whole conversation with them, and managed to get us all free candy. To Americans, that sounds really sketchy, but here in Denmark, it's not. [I didn't eat it anyway, it was lakrids (ie, licorice) which the Danes love, but I can't stand.] Later, on our way home from the bar, we passed a few more groups of people wearing these neon yellow jackets. It wasn't until I was talking to Gynter the next day when he told me that those people pass out free candy and condoms on the streets of Copenhagen during the weekend. This caught me completely off guard, but I think that it's a really smart idea.
Sunday night started Yom Kippur, and Alex, Rachel and I all fasted. Sunday afternoon Alex and I made spaghetti and meatballs [for both carbs and protein] and went to services Sunday evening. The services were very different than I expected but still very interesting. There is only one official synagogue in the city of Copenhagen, and though it is very close to me location wise, it is an Orthodox temple. Naturally Alex and I decided that this would not be a smart idea, so we found a "progressive" temple that was a sect of the Orthodox temple, about a 10 minute bus ride away from our apartment. Because it is a sect of the Orthodox temple, they didn't have their own schul or anything, but instead rented out the basement of a place. They didn't have their own rabbi, and flew in a rabbi from either the UK, the US or Israel every time they had services; which is Shabbat services once a month or large, important holidays. Their makeshift cantor was actually an American who went to Carleton College, who happened to meet and marry a Danish man. Her name was Elizabeth and she was very sweet. The whole congregation was incredibly sweet and welcoming to the 3 study abroad students that were tehre and invited us back for services any time we wanted to go. They even gave Julia [the 3rd girl with us] an ark opening, because she looked so uncomfortable! Progressive services were interesting...it was pretty much a cross between reform and conservative services. It was mostly in Hebrew, and the read &responses were in English, which surprised me. The Torah never came out of the ark, and the service itself was quite different from what I'm used to. I am used to hearing different tunes for different prayers, but no matter how many bar/bat mitzvah's I've been to, never in my life had I heard of a different tune for the sh'ma until I had gone to this service. The congregation and board announcements were in Danish, and it was a weird sensation: when the language that I could understand was the Hebrew, and not the Danish. There weren't very many people there for Kol Nidre services, but apparently many more people were showing up for Yom Kippur. Unfortunately, Alex and I had classes so we were unable to go, though we did fast.
where yom kippur services were held
Otherwise, this week hasn't been very eventful, except that Denmark is hosting the International Olympic Committee [IOC] this week, which is when the location for the Olympics 2016 will be decided. So because of that, both President Obama and Michelle Obama are here, Nastia Liukin, Nadia Comaneci, Brandi Chastain, Oprah and Micheal Jordan are here rooting for Chicago 2016, plus Pele is here rooting for Brazil. There are so many amazing people here, it's overwhelming! On Friday they're having all sorts of festivities, so we'll see what we can manage to get to!
On Sunday, I leave for Estonia and Stockholm, which will be AMAZING!! I absolutely cannot wait for that. It will be such an amazing experience. We get to take practically a cruise overnight from Estonia to Stockholm, and once in Sweden they're taking us all to an opera, The Barber of Seville! It sounds stellar, I will be sure to update and post pictures as soon as I can from that trip. If you need me from October 4-9th, please just email me, &don't call my phone!
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