It's been a week since my danish teacher decided to work on something to improve our vocabulary and get closer to the language: to read real newspaper articles or stories and to discuss them in class. So every day, one or two students chooses a story to share with the others. Until before yesterday, these 30 minutes of class had been a bore. People have only brought that typical suburbian crap you can easily find in different newspapers you can get for free every day in the train stations: "My son almost O.D.", "Paying taxes to watch TV", "Driving while talking on your mobile is dangerous"... So I decided to change it and chose a story that despite being a little old (it dates from august 2007), was quite interesting: the way 20 young foreigners from different countries who hadn't ever been in Denmark before would see the country after two weeks around it. The result was very homogeneous, as most of them concluded that the most remarkable about Denmark is how quiet it is.
And I couldn't agree more. Just look at those pictures up there, pictures I took in Odense last spring during Easter holidays. Downtown and uptown and no sign of people, despite the sunny day. It wasn't actually that sunny before, but as soon as the weather turned a little friendly, a few rabbits left their home to sit right in front of the City Hall (photo 8) although there were not that many. In Randers, where I lived during my first 11 months in Denmark, it's not very different. It's actually worse, because besides being quiet for the fact there's almost no one in the center at some point, there's not a lot to do. The few museums in the town can be visited in one single day, there's only one movie theater, and neither There Will be Blood nor Juno are out there yet (Thank God for CPH).
The only good thing about Randers was the fact it wasn't very far from Århus, the second biggest city in Denmark. Such an impressive number, right? Wrong. Århus can be as provincial as anywhere else outside Copenhagen. On sundays Århus downtown looks like a western film set. Of course you can find people inside cafes, restaurants and movie theaters, but if the weather is particularly bad that day, don't expect to meet that many danes. John and I once saw a film there in its opening weekend, a film which viewers were just him and I. If it's raining and winding, people would rather stay at home and watch TV for the afternoon/evening than doing the "sacrifice" of going out. The film in question was A Mighty Heart, by the way. Sometimes I wonder if the fact almost all films reviewed by danish newspapers get usually a positive grade has any association with the lack of people in the theaters, like if there was a sort of "collaboration" between cultural pages publishers and movie distributors. Ok, maybe the fact the ticket prices are outrageous manage to scare people anyway, but I don't think so. Booze and cigarettes are more expensive and people don't stop getting drunk or filling their lungs with evil smoke.
But coming back to that newspaper story, a 26-year old woman from England was surprised to observe how little people are out from their home's walls: "Here's very quiet. Sometimes there is no one in the streets and you think: where's everyone? When we tryed to get a ride (they travelled around DK by doing this), we wondered sometimes why there wasn't anyone driving." Well, unfortunately the majority of the 7 students in my class haven't ever been outside Copenhagen, and considering some of them have lived here for three years, I think that's quite a pity. It's impossible to develop a true opinion about a foreign country before visiting its different regions, which is not that hard to do here, considering Denmark's geography. Therefore, the discussion was quite poor, as almost everyone disagreed about those young foreigners' perceptions. As a matter of fact, most of them disagreed on most of my perceptions regarding this subject.
Me: All danish stores close very early, some even around 4:30pm. In Brazil malls close around 10pm, and certain stores, like supermarkets and drugstores are opened 24 hours sometimes...
Someone: But people just don't use to shop that late, it gets dark very early in the winter..
Me: What about summer, when it gets dark around 11pm..?
Someone: ... (No arguments here)
Me: What about weekends when there's no one downtown?
Someone: During weekends people like to be at home with their family.
Me: .... :-S
Someone: Oh, there's a weekend in the month people actually go out, because they just got their salaries.
Me: .... :-S
Someone: Oh, and it's cold too, people prefer to be at home.
Me: .... :-S
Well, I guess some discussions are just not worth it, not when people you discuss with are a bunch of narrow-minded europeans who behave like if they have lived in a small village during great part of their lives.
Just for the record: I have nothing against people who grew up in villages.
14 comments:
NADA AINDA DE SANGUE NEGRO?
I love the last conversation because it reminds me of conversations I have with a girl in one of my classes.
The pictures are so beautiful, and exactly what I'd expect a Danish town to look like.
There's one mainstream movie theatre (which only really plays kids movies) and one arthouse theatre in my university town but both suck, so I have to make trips to Manchester when I really want to see particular films - I feel your pain!
(I don't read as much as I should because I find I don't have enough hours in the day, 24 hours just aren't enough!)
ooo very quaint, but a bit too serene haha. i totally understand what you're talking about when you discuss narrow-minded europeans, except in my case its narrow-minded minnesotans haha. people in minnesota like their ice fishing, their meat and patatoes, ther lakes, basically their traditions. they don't think there's any better place to work, educate, and raise a family other than minnesota. they look down upon other near-by stares like wisconsin, north dakota, and iowa- even though MN really isn't that much better than the others anyway. if they do travel out, its to other cleshe places- like las vegas or orlando, FL. its the main reason why MN has no good restaurants (esp not ethnic food) and no good shopping, minnesotans aren't willing to pay the money or try new things.
Romeika, é muito difícil mudar a mentalidade das pessoas e, especialmente, modificar certos costumes que já fazem parte daquela cultura.
Bom final de semana!
PS: "Sangue Negro", finalmente, estreou por aqui!
Las fotos estàn bonitas. Toda mi vida he vivido en una ciudad muy poblada, asì que no creo que pueda vivir en un lugar tan callaado.
yes! very quiet looking indeed - pretty photos!
cadê todo mundo ? ;)
beijos e saudades de vc!
vc está nos meus links do dia :)
mil beijos e bom fim de semana!
Here in Peru stores are open until very late at night (dark or not, although here usually, whether it's winter or summer, the sky gets dark at 7pm).
McDonald opens the 24 hours, it's pretty cool :), you can go there in pj's, and starbucks until 1am. Drugstores usually until 10pm and most of them, are open the 24hours.
South america is great, isn't it?
♥
Cassiano: Sim, estreou aqui na sexta antes do Oscar.
Meg, the movie thing was just when I lived in Randers, now in CPH it's all right. And Odense is a beautiful town, indeed!
Jayne, how awful! Well, at least here in CPH, due to the presence of foreigners, the city is sort of "multicultural" in a way, so I thank God for that.
Kamila, pois eh, cultura eh coisa braba mesmo.. Vou ver se assisto o filme amanha. Bom fds tb!
Olimpia, yo tampoco! Por eso me pone contenta vivir en CPH, donde hay gente.
Modern Marie, thanks!
Kira: Os coelhos estao na toca kkkkkkkk beijos!
Aisha, the worst of all when it comes to commercial establishments are drugstores. That's usually just a single one opened 24h and it ain't close to where I live, and they don't do home deliveries! But before you go to the drugstore, you need a doctor, and that's another thing hard to get..
Definitely much easier in Brazil.
I looked at the photos, and thought to myself "how beautiful" it is there. I didn't even notice there were no people out. That's strange!
In towns, do even the young people stay indoors? It's very odd. There are no street festivals, no farmer's markets, no flea markets, no outdoor cafes?
It's like living in a ghost town.
Seraphine, when I came to Denmark last year, I came to live in Randers and I felt like I was in a ghost town several times... Then it comes summer and it gets a little better.. I'd still say the only real "alive" city in DK is CPH.
nice pictures!
It's kind of funny for me reading this, because first of all. Im danish. and 2nd of all because I totaly agree on it. I've lived in Copenhagen one year, while attening a boardingschool.
And YES Danmark is so danm quiet! and boring! Even Copenhagen can be boring on sundays! I really don't understand it!
Travling to London 2 times with in a year, really made me realise the differens. In london stores closed at 8 (20:00)-ish. Which is 2 about two hours later than here + the stores arew open on sundays! I guess it could our tradion, here in Danmark. Yeas back people went to churc on sundays, spend time with family and that sort of things... Not saying that ex. England doesn't have traditions like ours, but maybe (unfortunatly) we Danes are just to stuck in them!
Stupidcupcake: It's very interesting to hear what you have to say about this post, as you're a dane yourself. And it's funny you mention England overrall, as in the article I mentioned here, the young foreigners said that Denmark could learn something from England (more regarding cultural issues though).
But like you said yourself, I also have this impression danes are too stucked in their traditions, which makes it hard for small things like that to change. Even CPH lacks life on sunday afternoons..
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