Living with a host means all sorts of interesting cultural exchanges. The picture above is one of them; mainly that Denmark is a meaty place. After coming back from some fun travels I came home to my Host Dad in full-on Easter mode: waking up early, joking around, and inviting friends over to the house. It was nice to meet some of his friends and see that Danes can actually be social creatures despite their extremely true stereotype of them as cold and seclusive beings. My host asked me what I thought that he should make to eat and I told him that of course he should make pizza because that is such an American tradition (actually scratch that) it's a universal tradition that pizza makes time with friends 10000 times much better. So he did, he made pizza.... or more like a kilogram of meat and a side of bread. So infamous is this that the friends he had invited actually called it the "Jens's special," which is the name of my host dad.
They sat around drinking beers, playing FIFA on the play station and sharing laughs. It was nice to be a part of that. Mostly because this was, in some ways, the epitome of Danish culture. For one, they can't live without meat and that Nordic cuisine involves a general combo of meat-potato or meat-remolade or meat-meat. Also, they tend to be social in their inner circles, which is refreshing because their humor can be amusing and their interactions open and progressive. For last, they love the beer, alcohol is celebrated. I like that about them, that while sometimes unapproachable, they are down for more intimate exchanges and quality time.
They sat around drinking beers, playing FIFA on the play station and sharing laughs. It was nice to be a part of that. Mostly because this was, in some ways, the epitome of Danish culture. For one, they can't live without meat and that Nordic cuisine involves a general combo of meat-potato or meat-remolade or meat-meat. Also, they tend to be social in their inner circles, which is refreshing because their humor can be amusing and their interactions open and progressive. For last, they love the beer, alcohol is celebrated. I like that about them, that while sometimes unapproachable, they are down for more intimate exchanges and quality time.