My Twenty-first birthday: Danish style

Tuesday morning, I officially woke up as a twenty-one year old, and my host family made sure I was aware of this! At 8:15 in the morning, Sigrun and Tonje knocked on my door and came in, singing the classic Danish birthday song- definitely an interesting wake up call! (If you want to experience it yourself watch this link just the song in the beginning --- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5v3zRKxldI&feature=related).  Then we had a breakfast of rolls with butter and some chocolate flakes ontop, and some wienerbrod for dessert.

My birthday celebration was at Ander's and Lone's house, which was so much fun!  I loved being able to see Soren, Gitte, Claus, and Kitte again, and didn't realize how much I missed them.  I decided pretty quickly that I am a lover of Danish birthday parties because you start off with everyone having varm chocolade (hot chocolate) with homemade whipped cream ontop, to have with the rolls with raisins inside.  After that, you have the actual cake, which is pretty different from your typical American birthday cake.  The Danish birthday song is the longest thing ever (With 5 verses) and there are two versions, one normal and one for children- they sang both!

The weirdest thing for me was that they had me open my presents before we even sat down to eat- I felt so awkward because I was used to doing it after the cake.   Lone and Anders got me a really cool book of Copenhagen with flip out maps (they obviously knew I'm not the best navigator).  Soren and Gitte got me a pretty necklace, and Claus and Kitte got me a "hoptimist" kind of like a Danish Bobblehead doll painted as a Danish flag, except much more awesome in my humble opinion (Google it and you'll agree)!  My host family got me a cute little troll from Bornholm.

After dinner, I went back to my house and then went into Copenhagen and met some of my friends where I got my first "legal" (American) drink- Strawberry margarita.  We also told the bartender it was my birthday and she treated the table to a free round and gave me a Danish flag- they absolutely love having the Danish flag out for special occasions!  Last but not least she insisted I have the traditional Danish celebratory shot- something I hope I will never again have to experience.  It was a shot that tasted like salted licorice, a big deal in Denmark but something I will never grow to love.

Actual face after the "salted licorice Traditional Danish" shot

Today was a nice day, I got up and met my friends in Copenhagen and we booked all of our traveling to Munich, Barcelona, Madrid, Sevilla, and Tangier (aka MOROCCO)!  After that I had a field study for my one class and we went to the US embassy and talked to the ambassador.  I then met with my study group for some time and came back and did some work.  Tomorrow I have my first Danish quiz!

Til imorgen!