Dinner with the PhD Students

Dinner with the PhD Students

Last Tuesday I ate dinner with two PhD students, who are part of my lab, downtown. Ironically it was American night. There were huge blue, white and red balloons and American flags hanging in the mall. There was even a small Statue of Liberty when you walked outside. People were dressed up in “iconic” American film/tv characters such as Darth Vader, the Ninja Turtles, and Tom and Jerry. There was a hodgepodge of Danish stereotypes of the U.S, including a small wedding chapel (which I guess was supposed to represent all of Las Vegas?) and a tepee (but most of it was a representation of New York City). Girls were even dressed as cheerleaders. 

To get to the restaurant we walked through a big mall that surrounds the Aarhus Central Train Station and had to wind our way through the crowd of people going to the shops that lined the streets across from the mall. During this themed night the shops stayed open till 12:00 at night instead of closing at 6pm (as they usually do) so all of Aarhus was out shopping.

                       We went to a cafe for dinner. I was looking forward to sampling some Danish cuisine, but the café only served similar foods to what you can get in the U.S. (I found out later that there aren’t restaurants that serve what is considered “Danish cuisine” as Danish cuisine is just potatoes and meat”). I ordered a burger and curly fries in the spirit of the festivities; it was the fanciest burger I have ever eaten. The cafe cut the beef into chunks instead of just making it into a patty (which oddly enough would have cost me extra).The only Danish food I was able to try was a drink called Elderflower lemonade. It was sweet but not too overpowering, I really enjoyed it. They use elderflowers in a lot of drinks in northern Europe. It is a small white flower and it is steeped in a concentrated sugar solution.

                 On the drive home I was given a quick tour of the area. I was shown where the city hall was and what is called The Old Town which is an open air museum where they took some of the original Danish renaissance buildings and moved them to a concentrated area so that people could see what life was like during that time period. They even have re-enactors to help bring it all the life. I was also shown the one place I should stay away from in Aarhus, a small park where apparently drugs are sold, but beside that the rest of Aarhus is pretty safe.

The Dorm

All 14 people on my floor share a single kitchen where each person has their own cabinet. One of the girls on my floor likes to bead, the kind of beads where you make a pattern on a board and then iron the beads so they melt together, and she had made everyone a name plate for their cabinet. On Wednesday night she finished mine and stuck it up which I really appreciated, I truly felt part of the dorm.

My cabinet

My beaded name plate

The kitchen

The Weekend

Last weekend I didn't do much. Friday night I watched the notebook with my roommates and beaded, Saturday I caught up on GRE studying as I was falling behind and Sunday I tried to figure out how to book a laundry machine and went on a run through a forest I live next too. The forest is large and leads right to the harbor. Deep into the forest are outdoor workout equipment scattered throughout. As I got closer to the harbor there was a beautiful view of the ocean and what is called an Iceberg building. These building are supposed to show the modern innovation of Danish architecture. They look really cool from the outside but I was told by one of the PhD students that the inside isn't as nice as the outside and you are basically paying for the exterior when you live there.

Iceberg building (it's the white building in the background)