The title of this post could not be more true. Today is the first day of March which supposedly means the dreariest four weeks of the year have passed. However, it is a combination of raining-snowing outside with wind. It’s not actually that cold, but it’s gross.

Yesterday was beyond beautiful. It was almost hot under the blue sky and sun that shone on the last day of February. To make it even better, Copenhagen fashion has made the leap into spring too. This means that the black and grey scarves and sweaters that overwhelmed the Amerian shopper have been replaced with blue, pink, and mint green scarves and sweaters.

I packed all black and grey, except for one navy blue shirt, for my trip to Brussels. Happy Sunday, and happy March!

The sun is actually shining. As I write, there are warm rays of sunlight coming through the window — so much so that I’m sitting in a t-shirt. That rarely happens here. The sun rises around 7:10am now, and sets closer to 5:30pm. It’s like we suddenly moved south.

Yesterday I had a field study visit to Gadevang Skole (School), about an hour north of Copenhagen proper in a town of the same name. It is a “forest kindergarten” serving children ages 2-20. More than a school, it reminds me of a kibbutz-style community center with aspects of education. Children are treated as participants of society and learn to be independent actors (for the littlest ones this means dressing/undress oneself, asking for help after trying things on your own). This is keeping in line with the Danish/Nordic value of en god barndom (a good childhood life).

The two most memorable things I observed/learned at Gadevang:
1. Children can play outside unsupervised. They are trusted to be responsible and return to the school house when asked. Part of the uniqueness of a forest school is that it is situated in a forest. There are no fences or walls enclosing the property, and children may run and play where ever their heart’s desire. When asked how far into the forest the kids can go, the “Mother” (Principal) responded, “They can disappear into the forest.”
2. Playtime is extremely important to a child and her development. Especially when very young (2-4 yrs old), your friends are constantly changing. In order to not disrupt children’s social relationships and keep playtime consistent, any parent may take any child home from school. For example, if I am playing with Emily when my mom comes to pick me up at the end of the day, she can decide to take Emily home with us. Then, Emily’s mom comes to pick up Emily, but Emily is not at school because she is at home with me. Emily’s mom checks the sign-out book, sees that Sophie’s mom took Emily, and calmly goes to get Emily at Sophie’s house. A strikingly different situation than that in the U.S., no?

After this field study, I went to my Danish class to listen to three “cultural ambassadors” talk about their search for identity in Denmark and within Danish culture. Hannah grew up in the Schleswig-Holstein region (Danish/Germany border region in Southern Jutland) in Northern Germany, attended a Danish minority school, spent some time in Canada and self-identifies as both German and Danish. Sara moved from Baghdad, Iraq to Denmark when she was 13 years old with her family. Now she speaks Danish fluently and says she is from Arhus, Denmark where she goes to university. She has a Danish boyfriend. Jamo’s parents are from Somalia but moved to Denmark before 1990. He was born in Copenhagen, and says he is from Somalia. He would be called a second generation immigrant by “purist” Danes. Who is he? He is Jamo. Period. The biggest take away from this lecture was that identity is personal, and you can be whomever, whatever you’d like. Your experiences make you you, and no one can say otherwise. It is important to know who you are and hold onto what is important to you, be that language, culture or traditions, clothing, stories, whatever. Therefore, pulling from a comment made by Chris, another Bowdoin student, our venturing to Starbucks this morning for better coffee is our way of holding onto our American identities. But I will continue to embrace the Danish trends in fashion and add another black sweater to my pile of clothing as well as mini-mid-ankle height black booties.

The end of this week marks the beginning of our first travel week. I will be jetting off to Brussels to visit various European Union Institutions and NATO, a chocolate factory, and taste some of the 800 varieties of beer. “Don’t try them all,” was the advice we got from our professor. Following Brussels, we will cross into The Netherlands, stay at the Hague and have a day in Amsterdam. I’m staying the weekend in order to see more of the Dutch capital city.

 

Despite my coming home yesterday afternoon to find a package of eight new toilet paper rolls hanging from my door (not sure where they came from…), I’d like to respectfully ask my readers to please stop sending me envelopes with regional toilet paper enclosed (Mom, please). As much as I appreciate the consideration and commitment to expanding my observations abroad, I’d rather not receive toilet paper in the mail. Thank you in advance for all future restraint.

For those who are curious though, I’ll share the notes I’ve made/received regarding TP:
Institut Curie, France — one ply, not scratchy but not soft
TGV Train Basel, Switzerland to Paris — a sort of dusty purple, feels like a paper bag
Grand Hotel Les Trois Rois — soft, white, adorned with perforated flowers
Zurich Airport — your average single ply airplane tp
Swiss airplane, Zurich to Delhi — more flowers
Delhi Airport — no perforations, soft, single ply
The Manor Hotel, Delhi — parchment paper
Berlin CityStay Hostel — super thin tissue sized napkins, requires use of at least 10 at a time

If you would like to send me anything or feel like writing, my address is below:

Sophie Sawyers
c/o DIS, Danish Institute for Study Abroad
Vestergade 7
DK- 1456 Copenhagen K
Denmark

More tomorrow-ish. I’ve got to study for my very first Danish Language quiz! Hej hej. Vi ses!

I’m skipping over most of last week. Sorry. Here’s the short story. Since last Monday, I went to my first wine tasting club class. I have my next one tomorrow — we get to taste six wines a class, organized by vineyard region. On Wednesday night I went to the Royal Danish Theater to see a ballet, which though I was hungry during the three hours, I enjoyed very much. I had my first exam at DIS on Thursday morning. I think it went well enough. Then on Friday, this post begins.

It’s a 50 minute nonstop flight to Berlin TXL from CPH, just on the outskirts of the central part of Berlin. I traveled with Abby, a new friend at DIS from Massachusetts.

We walked A LOT on Saturday, seeing the East Berlin Wall Gallery with iconic murals created post the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall, Brandenburg Tor, the big gate entering the central and hipster part of the city known as Mitte, and the Holocaust Memorial — officially known as the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. The Memorial is a full city block covered with 2,711 concrete slabs of varying heights arranged in a sloping grid. As you walk through the cement blocks, you are supposed to feel confused and uneasy. We walked across Museum Island, visiting the Pergamonmuseum (Greek and Roman ruins and art), Alte Nationalgalerie (classical and impressionist artists like Monet, Manet, Renoir, and more) and the Neues Museum (home to the bust of Nefertiti), and admired the impressive Parliamentary Building called Reichstag. Checkpoint Charlie felt like something we had to see — it was pretty similar to the underwhelming experience of the Little Mermaid in Copenhagen. On Sunday we decided to give our feet a serious rest and try out public transportation. We started at the top of the Fernsehturm TV Tower for a 360° panorama view of the city — you can take the elevator (lift) 207 meters in just 40 seconds. Got on the S-bahn train to visit Charlottenburg Palace, a summer home for Sophie Charlotte, the first Queen of Prussia, took the train back to Tiergarten (like their Central Park) to confirm that the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church is a truly horrendous attempt at a restoration project. The top of the bell tower was destroyed during World War II and in 1959 and 1963, the new buildings and tower were built. We spent a few hours at the largest zoo in Germany — marveled at the polar bear and disappointed to find out that their panda, Bao Bao, died three years ago — bused to the Jewish Museum, an experience I have mixed feelings about as I continue my strugglesome exploration of what it means to be Jewish/why we commemorate something that affected/affects more than just Jews (genocides continue to happen across the globe today — what makes Jews so special?). The museum, designed by architect Daniel Libeskind, has symbolic and historic modern architectural elements, especially in the underground axis system that connects the old building to the new building and the voids, empty spaces running through the building. As is the case with many Jewish Museums and Holocaust Memorials (see above), the crisscrossing of hallways, winding yet sharp turns and corners and empty spaces are intended to make visitors feel nauseous and uncomfortable. Again, I brood over my internal dialogues about Jewish-ness, societies and perceptions.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I heard at least six languages spoken while walking around Berlin — German, obviously, English, French, Spanish, Korean, Chinese and a Middle-Eastern sounding language that wasn’t Arabic but I’m naively not sure what it was. Both coffee shops we went to for breakfast had birds flying around inside, trapped and trying to get out. This came full circle when a bird almost flew into my face while I waited at the gate to board our flight back to CPH. While walking to the East Berlin Wall Gallery, a woman stopped us on the sidewalk outside a gas station asking for help in German. She needed us to hold the air pump at the appropriate pressure so she could refill her tires. One of the stranger things I’ve been asked to do by a stranger in a foreign country that speaks a different language. There are these blue, pink and purple pipes that snake around the city above ground, about 10 feet from the sidewalk. Turns out the blue ones bring in clean water while the pink/purple ones bring out dirty water. Apparently you can see the colored pipes from space. Berlin needs these because the ground water level is just two meters below the sidewalks, so all building foundations are in puddles, this according to a blog I found during a random Google search.

Also, there was construction pretty much everywhere which made our views of the city a little less spectacular. At one point, I could stand in one place and see at least 16 cranes.

As with Danish, German has it’s own alphabet. Street signs include a funky looking letter that to this American appears to be a lower-case f with a 3 attached to it. The ezsett, ß, as it is called, is pronounced like an s. So a street named Invalidenstraße (which I walked on to find dinner on Saturday night. We went to Tommi’s Burger Joint, reminiscent of The Burger Joint in NYC — rumor is the Burger Joint in København is the original) is pronounced in-val-id-en-stra-sss-eh, I think…According to wikipedia, only rarely, is a capital ẞ used. In the past, a long s (ſ) was used as well. We saw both on street signs, but more of those long s’s with the 3-like thing attached.

A non-visual highlight of this trip: We were asked for directions twice! We were unable to offer help though as we were tourists too, and the people asking us approached speaking a language other than English, but the fact that we were even asked suggests that we have mastered the European look. That is an accomplishment I am proud of.

For more pictures from my travels, check out See What I’m Seeing. This week you’ll find my favorites of the East Berlin Wall Gallery, among others.

Playing catch-up. Prepare for a long post.

A weird thing I’m noticing as I travel: the toilet paper changes. I guess that is true in the United States as well. But honestly, the quality varies, the pictures on the paper changes, the softness is always a gamble. Germany had pretty thin toilet paper with green leaves printed on it. The toilet paper I have in my room in Nørrebro is borderline rough and definitely one-ply. St Andrews had the softest and thickest so far.

I think I mentioned in my last post that I’m hearing references to vicki-pedia. Today I heard wice-president and I’ve been hearing wodka. So here’s my potentially ignorant American question: If Danes can pronounce the v and w sounds, why do they switch the sounds and the letters?

Ok, so since last week, I’ve been to Scotland, Western Denmark, Northern Germany and back to København. This means I’ve had to have British Pounds, Danish Kroner, and Euros in my wallet. Talk about getting confused with coins.

Beginning with Friday in Copenhagen, I had the privilege of visiting Rosenborg Castle before it opened to the public. My teacher for Royalty in the Land of Equality works at the museum that was formerly King Christian IV’s summer palace. Only four generations of royals used the castle as a residence because it is smaller, in the center of the city, and freezing due to some of the architectural decisions. The Crown Jewels are kept in the Treasury of the Castle. This is a picture of Christian IV’s crown:  All the jewels, metals, stones, everything is real. Below is a picture of his son, Frederik III’s crown (the bigger one; the smaller one is his wife’s). You’ll notice the style of crowns changed from one king to the next. When Frederik III became king, the trend was a closed crown. That massive blue stone you see would sit above his forehead — there is another one on the other side — and is indeed a giant sapphire. Two huge garnets framed his ears. And they are garnets because it’s nearly impossible to find rubies that large. Oh, and there are over 2500 diamonds on the crown. 

I also learned that kings and queens wore black velvet robes because black represented luxury and wealth. Apparently, this is because black is not a color that can be made from natural fibers and pigments as is the case with colors like blue or red. You often see royal jewels made with pearls as well as images of the royal family wearing pearls because pearls were and are the most common precious stones.

After class, I went to the airport. Hannah picked me up in Edinburgh (pronounced Ed-in-brr-uh, for those who’ve wondered) on Friday evening in her rental white mini cooper. Her blue one was in the shop after someone crashed into the door. We drove an hour and half to St. Andrews, where she goes to school, and I met her friend Emily at a delicious dinner at Forgans, a restaurant that sponsors the University of St Andrews Polo Club. On Saturday morning, Hannah took me to the beach to watch polo chukkas, or short 7.5 minute matches. In the afternoon we drove down the coast to visit Anstruther, one of the old fishing towns, for a lunch of fish and chips. On Sunday, we took the train into Edinburgh to see Edinburgh Castle. While impressive, I am drawn to the Danish castles and palaces more. Edinburgh Castle highlights Scotland’s bloody history and felt dark to me — in an overpowering, not so royal sort of way. Beach polo was definitely the highlight of the trip. And seeing Hannah, of course. My trip was timed nicely with what we are learning in European Politics. We’ve talked about the state of the United Kingdom in the European Union. It is a member state but it’s future activity/involvement is in a state of unpredictability. The next UK elections are in May. Flying into the UK on an American passport but from another European country, I experienced major differences in immigration control, despite the EU’s freedom of movement (of people). The officer in Scotland drilled me with questions and made me nervous. The Danish officers, both times I’ve flown into Denmark, smile and stamp my passport, no questions asked.

I returned to Copenhagen late Sunday night. Quickly unpacked and repacked for my 7:45am departure to Western Denmark for my European Politics Short Study Tour. We visited with The 2nd Brigade of the Danish Army and saw Dybbøl Banke, the battle site of a key battle of the Second War of Schleswig. The Danes suffered a crushing defeat on April 18, 1864 that resulted in the loss of the Schleswig-Holstein region to the Germans. We spent the night in Sønderborg after a fun dinner and beer tasting at Brøggeriet. On Tuesday, our class got back on the bus and went to the University of Southern Denmark to hear a lecture on the Danish-German border region followed by a visit to the A.P. Møller Skolen of the Danish Minority Schools. The general gist of this school is that it is a Danish school in Germany and is a naturally-lit open building. The 8th grade students described the school as having “a happy air.” After ice skating and dinner in Lübeck, Germany, we went to bed. Wednesday consisted of a bus/walking tour of the Hanseatic City of Lübeck, the second largest city in Schleswig-Holstein, known because it was only bombed once during World War 2. It is the only German town that still has its medieval foundations. The rest of the day was on the bus for five hours back to Copenhagen.  And five hours of feeling semi-nauseous after eating marzipan from the Niederegger Marzipan Salon in Lübeck, another highlighted feature of the city. The Salon has figures of famous people made of 500 lbs (pronounced libs by our very German tour guide, Mr. Mustache) of marzipan.

I should mention that this week is Core Course Week meaning that everything we do is related to our core courses, mine being European Politics. The Short Tour was fun for the social element. I definitely got to know some of my classmates and branch out beyond the Bowdoin bubble in Copenhagen. As for the academic portion, it was pretty lame. I’m looking forward to our Long Study Tour to Brussels and The Hague in two weeks though.

Today I visited the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, again with my EP class. During our two hour break before class this afternoon, I went shopping and found the navy blue booties I’ve been in search of for, oh, five years now? So that was a success. I’m looking more European every day.

I did laundry today. And will probably have pasta for dinner again.

Tomorrow I’m scheduled to have a lecture on the Euro Crisis and the State of the European Economy. Coming full circle regarding my exposure to three currencies in three days? Then we will watch “The President,” a documentary about how the EU got its first “president” after the Big Bang Enlargement in 2004/2007 when the number of member states went from 15 to 27, and now 28 since Croatia joined in 2013.

Two in one day. Talk about overwhelming. But actually, I’m posting twice because I am feeling overwhelmed and wanted to share my emotions with you. I am writing these next paragraphs from the Copenhagen Airport. If you clicked on the link, the website is nothing compared to the actual experience.

First you have to get to the airport. I took the train which was easy, in reality. But planning for the train was one of the more confusing endeavors I’ve undertaken thus far. Copenhagen public transportation works on a zone system. Central Copenhagen is in zone 1. I live in zone 2. DIS gave us transportation passes for the entire semester that work when traveling within two zones. The airport is in zone 4. So, it’s actually really easy. The internet just complicated things. Because I already have two zones, I needed to buy another ticket for two zones. Combine them, and I’m able to travel across four zones for the entire day of Friday, February 6, 2015.

Now at the airport,  in order to go through security, you scan your boarding pass and walk through an automatic gate. Think high-tech subway turn-styles. So far, I have not shown anyone my passport. Then security itself is pretty much the same, except that it is A LOT faster and you don’t have to take your shoes off. I am flying out of Terminal 2 to visit Hannah in Scotland. In the terminal, before passport check (because no one knows I’m Sophie yet), there is an H&M, Tiger of Sweden, Victoria’s Secret next to Wunderwear (they sell the same things), at least two Joe & The Juices,  Illum (fancy department store), a Starbucks, multiple restaurants, and of course a Scandinavia souvenir shop.

I still don’t know what gate I’ll be boarding from. Travelers have to check tv screens hanging from the ceiling throughout the airport to find their gate. Imagine departure/arrival screens in American airports combined with train schedule boards. People gather around the biggest screens waiting for their flight to pop up. So far I’ve seen five other DIS students venturing away from Denmark for the weekend. I knew one of the girls.

My flight just popped up so I am going to walk the 12 minutes it supposedly takes to gate F4.

When I land at Edingburgh, Hannah will be waiting for me in her Mini Cooper.

I am taking a class called Stolen Childhoods: Migrant and Refugee Children in Europe.

Fun fact: bekvemmelighedsflygtning means “refugee of convenience” in Danish. Try saying that. Google translate can help with the pronunciation.

What does “refugee of convenience” mean? The Danish word is a somewhat derogatory, not-so-nice term referring to those seeking asylum in developed host countries.

In addition to that word, so far in class, we have read and talked about issues faced by unaccompanied migrant children and the traditional Nordic value of en god barndom, meaning a good childhood life.

Yesterday was H.R.H Crown Princess Mary’s 43th birthday. Today is H.R.H Princess Marie’s 39th. Danish flags are flying on buildings and buses. And their cakes will be decorated with as many flags as they are old. Also, when a Danish flag is cut at the end to look like a snake’s tongue, it marks a sign of royalty. Otherwise, their flags are the traditional rectangle.

It’s almost noon on Friday here. I’m off to discover getting to Copenhagen Airport by train or metro. Until next time..

The sun is shining today. Actually shining. It’s blinding.

For most of the DIS buildings, you have to press buttons to open doors. To the left of most door knobs, or just above, there is a little square button with a key image printed on it. Sometimes they are easy to miss and people stand in front of the door, confused as to why it is locked. The second struggle with doors is determining which way they swing open. It is incredibly entertaining to watch people struggle with the push/pull. Especially when they haven’t pressed the unlock button. I’ve come to realize that it’s usually push.

Monday marks the start of Core Course Week. These are designed for academic enrichment in our core courses (mine is The European Game of Politics: Crisis and Survival) as well as social integration and experience. We begin the week with short study tours. I’m going to Western Denmark (Sønderborg) and Northern Germany (Lübeck). We will stay in hostels, visit battle fields, meet with military officers and tour guides, learn about the Danish-German border region, and drink beer with our classmates and professors. We were told to dress appropriately, or according to my professor, to “Please do not look as though you slept in the park. That’s for the boys. The girls, well, you just look pretty.” Sexism? Danish blunt humor? Either way, I’ll be wearing black jeans, black sweaters, and converse.

Then, because of the social aspect, we’ve been told that the adult chaperones will keep an eye out for those they need to keep an eye out for. “It’s not a requirement to get drunk.” This comment got laughs from the class, especially in light of our academic discussion on the European Union’s enlargement plans. We’ve been talking about absorption capacity, when an institution such as the EU has reached a point where it can no longer accept more members and sustain decision-making efficiency. Or, when an individual has swallowed too much beer and can no longer intake anymore. One possible result of reaching absorption capacity is the disintegration of a network, or throwing up. Danes like to drink.

We will be back in Copenhagen on Wednesday night. Thursday and Friday’s schedules are filled with guest speakers and long classes about the future of the EU.

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I get my lunch every day from Sandwich Pigen. Its a tiny place, best described as an upscale Subway. They are pretty good sandwiches, and the menu offers many options. But don’t go in at 12pm.

It’s been almost three weeks and I have yet to do laundry. The machines are on the ground floor of Bispebjerg, and the instructions are in Danish. I do know that you cannot use your own detergent because the machines are already filled. One day soon I’ll venture downstairs and wash my clothes.

Yesterday, I had my first field study for my class on Equality in Scandinavia. We spent the morning at Folketinget, also known as Danish Parliament in Christiansborg. We met with an advisor to the Social Democrats as well as three members of Parliament: one from The Red-Green Alliance (furthest left-wing),one from the Liberal Alliance (self-described as the American concept of libertarians) and one representing the Social Democrats (headed by Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt).

They all talked about the Danish welfare state. And of course they all had different ideas for the future of the welfare state. Biggest take-away: as global inequality shrinks, inequality within countries is growing. The question then, and I will leave you to think about this on your own, is so what? What is or will be the future of welfare in Denmark?

Lastly, for now at least, my European Politics professor announced that it is ok with him if we use “vicky-pedia” for our impending research paper as long as we list it in our references. Meanwhile, my Equality professor cautioned us to take what he was about to say with a grain of salt as he could only find a particular statistic on “vicky-pedia.” I tell you this to point out the contrast in standards, among professors here as well as to those at Bowdoin. Second, I don’t mean to make fun exactly, but it makes me smile to hear w as v in Danish English.

It got dark at 16:30 (4:30). Even while the sun was out today, it was still cold.

They tell you Sweden is close, that you can see it from Denmark just by looking across the Baltic Sea. They aren’t kidding. We got on a train at Central Station in Copenhagen, yawned to unpop our ears as we went underwater, and got off 30 minutes later in Malmö, Sweden.

With this as our guide, we visited Malmöhus Castle to see the art museum and walk through the old castle structures. We looked out to see the Turning Torso tower, a combo residential and office building designed by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava. Though not bustling as it might be in warmer weather, we walked across the square known as  Lilla Torg. We ate Greek food for lunch and got lost trying to find the skatepark (Stapelbäddsparken). Our last stop in Malmö was Sankt Petri Church, Malmö’s oldest building. After a break from the rain/hail and a coffee/hot chocolate at Malmö Central Station, we got on a train to Helsingbørg.

Our first experience with Air bnb, we successfully piled into a cozy apartment just outside of central Helsingbørg. Dinner was a cheeseburger (yes, I broke my vegetarianism) and sweet Belgium beer. The most striking thing we saw was the night-scene at the train station. At 10pm (22:00) the three bars and McDonalds were packed full with people 25+. When we left at 1am (01:00), these bars were closing and I don’t know if the night continued for the locals. We headed back to the apartment for a long night’s sleep.

On Sunday, we went back to Helsingbørg Central Station in order to catch a ferry that runs every 15 minutes, transporting people between southern Sweden and Helsingør (Elsingør), Denmark. The ferry trip is 20 minutes long. There are bars, restaurants, duty-free shopping, and a smoking room on the ferry. It might as well be a floating mall.

Like the good little adventurers we are, having done no research before taking off for the weekend, we were happily surprised to learn that Helsingør (Remember this is in Denmark, not to be confused with where we had come from in Sweden. That was Helsingbørg.) is the home of Kronborg, popularly known as Hamlet’s Castle. For those who don’t know, Shakespeare’s character of Hamlet is the Prince of Denmark. Theater groups often use Kronborg for on-sight performances of the play.

The highlight of the trip, we got lost walking through the Royal Apartments (King Frederik II and Queen Sofie’s bedchambers), the massive ballroom with black and white tiled floors, a room of tapestries and history of the monarchy, and my favorite, small round corner rooms illuminated by sunlight (can you believe it!?) that overlook the water and fortress walls lined with cannons.

My favorite part of the castle was the Casemates, a dark creepy walk underneath the main castle and through the fortress walls where soldiers would stay during longer sieges and attacks. A huge statue of Holger the Dane can be found in these caves. Legend has it Holger the Dane will rise to defend his country when it is threatened by a foreign enemy.

Continuing this trip’s theme of royalty and castles,  I bought these postcards at Hamlet’s giftshop:

Lasting observations:
– Danes do not jay-walk. They wait for the lights to change at crosswalks, even when there are no cars in sight. It’s a New Yorker’s nightmare and takes some getting used to. Swedes do jay-walk. Sometimes cutting it a little close and just missing being hit by a car or bike.
– It is a lot harder to buy alcohol in Sweden than it is in Denmark. The boys were disappointed to find that we had gone from a country without open-container laws (you can walk around with your open beer anywhere in Copenhagen, except for when on the bus) to one where when we tried to buy wine in a bottle labeled “Merlot,” it was alkoholfritt. (Guess what that means in Swedish?)
– As a student in Copenhagen, if given the option of living in southern Sweden or Helsingør, Denmark, pick Sweden. It is a shorter commute.
– I did not eat or even see Swedish fish (the candy) while in Sweden for less than 48 hours. I did look online to confirm that Swedish fish are indeed Swedish. They were originally developed by Swedish confectioner Malaco.