Happy Friday! After some gloomy weather here yesterday (and this morning), the sun is shining again this afternoon. Session 3 is now underway! Just to reintroduce myself, I’m Hannah, and I will be a senior at Indiana University this fall. I’m a Mathematics and International Studies major; I’m also minoring in Economics. In Session 2, I took Terrorism and Counterterrorism from a European Perspective here in Copenhagen.
In Session 3, I’m taking Nordic Culinary Culture, also in Copenhagen. I decided to study with DIS in Copenhagen for Sessions 2 and 3 because it was important to me to have a long enough study abroad experience to really learn a lot about Danish and Scandinavian culture. Basically, I just wanted to make the most of this summer in terms of learning and cultural experiences! (Of course, the fact I’m required to study abroad for at least six weeks for my International Studies degree played a role as well, but it wasn’t the primary reason why I wanted to stay for a longer time in Denmark.)
My Nordic Culinary Culture course will be traveling to the Faroe Islands for our Study Tour in about a week and a half. From what I hear, it will be a very unique trip, and I’m really excited about that. A big reason why I decided to take Nordic Culinary Culture is that I have never taken a university-level course in Food Studies and I wanted to challenge myself to learn about something new. I’m really passionate about food and cooking and trying different foods in my personal life, so I thought it would be cool to approach the subject from an academic, sociological standpoint by taking this class.
Having just finished a course in Terrorism and Counterterrorism, it’s quite a different feeling to be in a course about food culture! I’m enjoying having a lighter subject matter, though, since I’ve also taken a lot of very serious, heavy courses about international politics back at IU. I’m loving the fact that we are using food as a “vehicle” to learn about Danish/Nordic culture.
Every day in class, our instructor, Jonatan, has been teaching us some new Danish words – some food-related, some not. Today, for example, he told us about a tradition in Denmark called Fredagsslik, which means “Friday candy.” On Fridays, parents will take their kids to the candy store and allow them to fill up a bag of candy for them to eat that evening, often while watching a Disney TV show – it’s called Disney Sjov in Danish – which airs Fridays at 19:00 (7:00pm). He said there’s a similar tradition in Sweden, but it’s on Saturdays there!
