Met the Little Mermaid! (January 23, 2011)

I just got back from having a very Danish day with my very Danish host parents! The morning began with breakfast with my parents and their oldest son and his youngest daughter- an adorable little blonde girl. We had rolls for breakfast to kick off the Danish day. Then, we hopped in the the car and headed out! Our first stop was seeing a bunch of windmills and energy factories because our breakfast discussion revolve around Denmark's leaps and bounds over America when it comes to resources.

Our next stop was this ADORABLE little town, of course, I have no idea what the name is and could not pronounce it anyway, but it is very old with very small houses on the water. I've decided that I want to live there and sooo I need to acquire the 3 or 4 million dollars it will take to purchase one of the houses.



Many of the houses in the village had these pairs white china dogs in the windows looking out into the street. Lisbeth informed me that back in the day, prostitutes sold the dogs along with their other "goods" and when men left the home to go on trips they would return with the dogs as gifts for their wives. Odd. However, the wives began to use the dogs to inform others if the husband was home or not so that they could also have some fun of their own instead of being lonely. So, if the dogs were facing the street looking out- it meant that the husband was NOT home because they dogs would not want to see what was going on inside. And if the dogs were facing inside of the home, the husband was there. I really, really want a pair of these dogs.

After this, we headed into the city and had a lunch of hot dogs! This was my first time having a Danish hot dog and we all got the ristet hot dogs (roasted) with everything. DELICIOUS. Then we headed along a path and saw this statue:



The statue is of a witch who was told that however much land she could cover in one night, would be hers. So, she turned her sons into the bulls you see here.

We kept walking and the next thing I know we are coming upon the Little Mermaid! So I got to meet her which was nice!



On the way home, we stopped in a bakery and bought a ton of pastries to bring home. I literally just ate my weight in Danish pastries and I'm pretty sure I will never have to eat again, but damn were they good.

And so concludes a very wonderful Sunday! Now I am going to spend the evening studying Danish, reading, and awaiting my host brother, Mathias', return home from a weekend of skiing because I miss him dearly.