Beef Fajitas- marinated in a tequila lime and spice mixture
Guacamole
Salsa- made from scratch... I boiled tomatoes and peppers and hand chopped everything, delicious
Flour Tortillas- from scratch too- reminded me of making pasta, it was a challenge to roll them out flat and round
Cheese, sour creme, and margaritas
Here is a picture of Anna with her margarita working on the tortillas
And here is a picture of us all sitting down to eat (Rasmus took the picture)
On Saturday I had quite an adventure. First, Rasmus took me with him to his hometown. He had plans to visit his mother and stop by the outlets to buy a big crock pot for making stew. He is going to make me hogs-tail soup soon... I am not very sure what to think about it but he promises it will be amazing. I am going to make the garlic mashed potatoes (my specialty). We biked, yes I got a bike, I am not sure if I mentioned this, to his brother's house about 20 minutes up hill away.
(My bike has a personality of its own. I rode it for about a week before I took it into the shop to get lights on it and the chain tightened. The chain was so loose it fell off when I was riding and made a dreadful rattling noise. Now that it is fixed it is much easier to ride. I am also glad that Rasmus lowered my seat for me and raised my handle bars. I have been getting a lot better riding on the streets but a post about riding bikes in Copenhagen deserves an entire segment with pictures, I will get to this later.)
Anyways, we biked to his brother's house to borrow his brother's car. His brother is married and just had a baby girl. She is so cute. When we got there I asked Rasmus' sister in law where the baby was and she said that she was sleeping and then led me outside... ok so I know I have read about this but I was seriously shocked. While the parents were inside the nice warm apartment the baby was in its stroller on the back balcony all wrapped up and sleeping. there was still snow on the ground... it was a rather weird thing to think but I believe that these parents here know what is best for their kids and I guess this is normal... even if I do not think I could ever do it personally. After catching a glimpse of the baby we headed off in the car to Rasmus' hometown, Haslev. (Note gas here is about 12 kroners/liter... or $2.40/liter... not sure how much a gallon) It was about an hour south of Copenhagen and we took the highway all of the way there. Haslev is so cute and very quaint. It has a population of about 11,000 people. We arrived to Rasmus' and picked up his mother and went on a drive. We stopped by the factory outlets to grab Rasmus' pot (I bought a new scarf because the ones that I have were not warm enough) and then a church. I do not know much about the church but is was really gorgeous and the scenery made for a great picture.
This is a picture looking across the way at an ice skating rink (not at the church yet)
Here is an up-close picture and a picture of the gorgeous door at the entrance.
This is a distant picture showing the rink and the church.
It was a nice little walk around even it if was very cold. We went back to the house and his mom went to a luncheon while Rasmus took me on a driving tour around the city. I was able to see all of the schools he went to, hear stories from his youth, walk around the largest flea market in the country,
visit our mutual friend Filip's house
And then on the way home we stopped by a bakery to get some of Denmark's famous Danish. Danish is actually called wienerbrød or Vienna Bread. There are several different types- as this title only really describes pastries in general. I will have to get the real names of them from Rasmus later but here is a plate. (note a lot of them come in chocolate but I did not try those ones)
Let's see what I can remember off the top of my head... the sprinkly ones are called student cake. They are the cheapest in the bakery and made of the previous day's pastries mixed together. Kids really like this, especially because it is about half the price of anything else. Although Rasmus promised it was not chocolate I think it has a bit of a chocolatey taste to it. It is very rich and not cake-like at all. It is more gooey than anything else. The ones on the right are the most traditional. It has a yellow-creame like filling and very rich too. My favorite was the ones on the left. This is a type of "snail." There are several different types of snails with different flavors. This one tasted like a cinnamon roll! I have never been a huge fan of sweets, but Mom, I know you will love these!
After tea, some weinerbrod, and sometime with Rasmus' mom we were just about to hit the road when his mom went and grabbed a bag from the back room. As she knew I had been struggling adapting to the weather and could see in my needing to buy a scarf that I needed some better clothing, she brought out a bag of very nice scarves and said that I could pick one to take with me. What a treat! I picked the purple one (I doubt that surprises many of you) and wrapped it around my neck right away. It was wool and angora and sooo warm. She was very kind for giving me such a wonderful present. After this we got back into the car and headed home. I grabbed a couple of rough pictures on the car ride of a beautiful sunset in the countryside.
When we got back to his brother's house it was even colder and now completely dark. We went inside and played with his niece for a while before heading to our bikes. We had a huge crock-pot to carry home and I was the only one with a basket. So with my limited skills, in 4 inch high boots and sore legs I attempted to master the ice and ride home with the pot in my basket... it worked amazingly, I did not die, or run into anyone... haha. What an adventure!
I only had about 10 minutes at home before I had to head out to meet up with some of my fellow law students. I had posted on the wall for the facebook group that I had arrived in town about a week before and said that I would be willing to catch a beer or something with anyone who was interested. From there group discussion took off and a whole event was planned. I did not help plan anymore but I was glad to have the opportunity to participate. This was my first time going by myself into the inner-city and I guess I could have been a little more prepared. I found the general vicinity of the bar but my phone was not working properly and would not load the map of where the bar was that I was supposed to go. To make things worse I was looking for the English translation of the title of the bar so when I asked where it was no one had heard of it. After about 45 minutes I found it and was quite relieved. Everyone was very friendly and there was quite a turn-out. I would say maybe 20 or so law students were there. This was the first time I had really hung out with just law students and it was really nice. Everyone was very friendly and eager to exchange numbers. At the end of the evening I took off to ride my bike home. I found my way without much of a problem and was happy for Rasmus' great directions.
Sunday I slept in and then started thinking about classes starting the following day. I did not have much time, though, because at 4 Rasmus and I left to go watch the World Cup Championship of Handball. We had been following the tournament and Denmark made it to the very last game. We were playing France and everyone was extremely excited. Rasmus and I went on a 40 minute bike ride south to his friend's house where a bunch of Danes had gathered to watch the game. The game is sort of like water polo, basketball and hockey all mixed together. It was fun to watch and easy to pick-up on the basic rules. The game was aired commercial free... here is a clip
We made into overtime with a huge score in the last second of regulation time but overtime did not treat us very kindly. All the same it was great to watch with Danes, jumping up screaming, the only words I understood were nej!! (no) and other words of frustration that I will not repeat. We watched Step Brothers (in English with Danish subtitles, yay!!) after the game, ate pizza, and then called it an early night. It was fun to have an evening with Danes even though most of the night I just sat there not knowing what was going on. Sometimes not knowing the language can be a bit boring but I am getting better at just keeping myself entertained...
The bike ride home went by faster than before and I climbed into bed wondering what classes were going to be like the next day... I will have to talk about school later this weekend as I need to get ready for my final class of the week today!
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