The next day Kaitlyn and I pulled ourselves out of bed to catch the 10:20am bus. We had some delicious danishes on the way – which were dedicated to you, mom. We headed off to Sweden for a day trip. We went from Helsingør, Denmark to Helsingborg, Sweden. The names really confused me. We decided to have a relaxed afternoon and just wandered around – finding a soccer field, tower, and then later a café. It felt wonderful to just be with Kaitlyn, being absolutely ridiculous per usual. These photos capture pure happiness. So so so so fun.
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| ferry to Sweden |
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| so much free time |
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| too much free time |
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| hidden entrance |
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| Sweden - NBD |
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| so much love |
This whole trip I was taken aback by the Danish and Swedish language. It literally sounds like the gibberish I made up as a child. It is so funny to listen to! Here’s a hilarious video that captures it’s essence to my ears. Kaitlyn and I chatted about how incredible it is that other people in the world think, talk, and dream in a whole other language.
After getting back from Sweden, we headed off to Thanksgiving #2 at Ava’s house. We hung out, chatted, ate, and joked around for hours. The warm, welcoming atmosphere really captured the essence of Thanksgiving. The Danish families were so welcoming and it felt so good to have discussions about Danish culture. I was a little sad because I feel like the language barrier has prevented me from learning as much I would’ve liked from France. It’s been difficult lately for me to get past the embarrassment of asking questions and my difficulties in comprehension. I am still not at a high enough level to have a long, intense intellectual conversation L It’s a little bit frustrating.
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| Thanksgiving #2 - thanks again for the photos Lauren! |
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| Kevin's host dad, Kevin, and I |
Throughout the weekend I was continually impressed by Kaitlyn’s thorough understanding of Denmark, its traditions, and the generalities of its people. She whipped out super interesting facts the whole weekend. Two that I found exceptionally interesting are that marriage is not super common and bikes are parallel to vacuum cleaners. Everyone has a bike and uses it. It is just an everyday item. Everywhere we went in the city there were throngs of people biking around – in any outfit (biking heels and skirts is common) and in any weather. It isn’t necessary to have super nice bike and people don’t really pay attention to what they look like or the brands. I saw a bunch of rusty old ones. The only thing that matters is that the bikes work – hence the similarity to a vacuum cleaner. It was so neat to see biking used as such an important form of transportation. In the US, the culture around biking is much more intimidating and not so common, everyday. As for marriage, a lot of couples have families together but never get married. It’s really interesting!
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