A few days before travel break, Kristie and I went to see the Little Mermaid statue by Østerport, or Den Lille Havfruen as she's known in Danish. We walked across the entire city, got lost on the way, but eventually found it. We'd heard that she was tiny, difficult to find, and not really worth seeing. While she wasn't easily accessible, she wasn't as small as everyone had made her seem. That being said, we came, we saw, we left.
Last Friday, the Queen of Denmark, Margrethe II, celebrated her 70th birthday. My Danish class went to Amalienborg to see the Queen wave before heading off to her birthday lunch. We left an hour early in order to get decent places. When we got there, the courtyard of the palace was PACKED. We were behind the building where the Queen would come out, so Suzanne, my Danish teacher, decided we needed to move to a new position in the courtyard. And the best way to do that would be to run. All out sprint from one side of the palace to the other. It was crazy. A group of American college students chasing after a small Danish woman, all carrying Danish flags. We wish there was a video of that ridiculousness, because that's exactly what it was. It was worth it though because we ended up with amazing views of the Queen. There were so many Danish flags everywhere and it was nice seeing the Danes get excited about something. She came out with her entire family (husband, sons, daughters-in-law, grandchildren) and waved a few times, the Danes sang happy birthday, then we watched her drive away in her carriage.
the Danes singing Happy Birthday to the Queen - you can see my poor ripped flag waving
Last Wednesday my Danish class did some more bonding during a field study. We had presentations on different aspects of life in Denmark, then had a class dinner. Suzanne ordered us typical Danish smørrebrød, only in varieties we would actually eat. Aka not liver paste or herring or other weird things Danes eat. It was a lot of fun, I really really like that class. One of the boys in the class made a toast to the only class where he actually likes everyone, and that accurately sums it up. It was a really good decision to take that class and I got really lucky with the people in it. And Suzanne is amazing.
Finally, yesterday Kristie and I went to Tivoli Gardens. It was a lot of fun. Very expensive because everything in Denmark is expensive, but I think we got our money's worth. We rode a lot of rides. They weren't the most exciting rides I've ever been on, but after going to Cedar Point and Six Flags Great Adventure in New Jersey, it's hard to compare. We rode the same rides over and over and had a great time. Kristie was a little apprehensive about going on some of the rides, but I managed to convince her to go on all of them. Once by not telling her what the ride did and once by going on it first to show it wasn't bad, then leaving out some details again. The whole upside down thing wasn't her style. One particular ride consists of two airplanes who fly in circles and hit turbo speeds. Generally when you go on the ride, there's the option for autopilot. However, the controls on the left plane broke and autopilot didn't work. Kristie and I boarded a plane with a girl from Canada and I was in control of the joystick. I'm bad at video games. Bad. We got on, did a couple flips, then went into turbo. We couldn't figure out how to get OUT of turbo. We went so fast for so long, we screamed. Not the happy screams that I usually have on rides, but endless screams of terror. Another moment where I wish there was a video taken. Not to worry, we went on the ride again afterwards to reassure ourselves that it was okay. It was, we survived, but we're probably going to try to put that experience in the "emotionally scarring" category. Terrifying, but so much fun at the same time.
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