Weekends continue to be a haven of various experiences from different aspects of Danish cultures. My Saturday was the most normal day, per say. It started with some cleaning (ok, I vacuumed my room, after they literally vacuumed the entire house at about 8 in the morning), and then I went with my family to watch my host brother's (Jonas) handball game. Handball is a sport that is more commonly played in Denmark than anywhere else, and it's like a cross between football (soccer) and basketball, with physical contact/defense added in. Afterward, my family was hosting a dinner party. We had been warned that Danish dinners (even on normal days) can last for several hours, and this was no exception (though it wasn't that different from a dinner party back home). The length is aided by the long space of talking (or watching tv--like Denmark vs. Portugal world cup qualifying match) between courses: salad, meal, desert. The drinks changed with the courses, too! We went from beer, to wine, and then to coffee and tea with desert (after which the men went back to beer).
This little party was less of a lesson in traditional Danish meals and more of just an experience of Danish life through the conversations. This included a much-anticipated (albeit small) discussion about the American health care debate. All that really happened was a consensus between the four adults and I that a change was needed in American health care to provide it for those who can't afford it. They noted that wait times can be long for care in Denmark, but they didn't complain. I also learned that most businesses provide employees with a basic insurance for normal, minor doctor's visits. They only rely on the government care for the bigger issues, like heart surgery.
The only shock I had was when one guest--14-year-old Thomas--was offered some food in Danish, and he responded, "Fuck yeah!" I could only laugh, because while "fuck" is a common word among American youth--we usually don't dare use it at the dinner table. In the subsequent discussion, I learned that it's common here because it's on the American movies on the television so often (the subtitles are censored; the audio track is not), and because it's an English cuss-word, it's generally considered ok. What was even more surprising to me was when I went to the "children's" section of the Statens Museum for Kunst (the National Gallery) this afternoon and I saw a painting entitled, "OH MY GOD! That plant is a fucking vacuum!" It should be noted that said painting was not the only questionable item in the kid's gallery. I'm getting the sense that anything goes when it comes to art in this country.
All this being said, the greater part of my weekend took place not at home, but at the Technical University of Copenhagen (DTU) in Lyngby for CO2PENHAGEN--the world's first carbon-neutral music festival. It was a pretty uneventful Friday night--when I took an 8 pm to 4 am volunteer shift so that I could get a free pass to the festival. This involved me essentially bouncing for the lounge area for bands, which is normally a student bar. I met more Danes than I have on any other occasion! Unfortunately, they were drunk and the conversations usually didn't go very far beyond the set of 5 questions I was consistently asked. At least they were friendly (no, really--they could be a lot of fun). It was also unfortunate that I didn't get to spend much time with the other volunteers because my supervisor kept me at my post most of the time. They were an interesting bunch of people, though--mostly international students (only one was Danish--all but 5 others I met were American). I think that speaks a lot about the universal appeal this type of event has.
One thing that was great about the festival was that they didn't buy any carbon offsets, which are kind of a cheap way to reach "carbon neutrality." However, that doesn't mean that they used completely carbon-free energy supplies. In fact, while all their sources are renewable, the majority of them are biofuel and do emit CO2. The organizers argue that since this involves re-planting, this can be considered carbon-neutral. I'm not sure if I agree, but I admire the festival's purpose just the same. Either way--it's still a step towards being conscious consumers in all aspects of our lives: even the exorbitant entertainment sector.
And I mean, really--any place that can get teams to bike to power a DJ and LED lights is cool. Because of this, I can actually officially say I biked with an Italian cycling team, since "Bella Italia" needed help generating more power than "Denmark + French guy" and I was bored and wanted to get on a bike again--even if I was wearing a dress, leggings and snow boots! Besides, those stationaries that they had were pretty cool. This also inspired me to finally get on my host-bike this morning and explore the countryside and the network of pedestrian/bike paths around my municipality, but that's another story entirely, and it's time to sign off from this long post.
Enjoy and please tell me your thoughts! If you're interested, more photos of the festival are on Picasa and fb.
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