Who cooks rice in bags??

I cook rice in bags! Even Uncle Ben has conformed to this crazy norm of cooking rice in bags over here in the land of danishes. At least Uncle Ben had the courtesy to put in pictorial directions. So last night I had Spolumbo type sausages and rice for dinner and while I was cooking, it occurred to me what I totally should’ve brought from home but never thought of: chopsticks. It just isn’t the same cooking without them! A fork and spatula can never fulfill the function that chopsticks can! That’s from the Asian hardware part of me. (Take that Marv! I’m more fob than you!)

I should probably tell you that this particular Sunday morning started off in a very blurry and hungover state for me. I was out late with J Fern the night before and mixed way too much wine, vodka and Tuborg beer. We had dinner on a patio at Nyhavn, the famous colored houses street overlooking the water canal. The food wasn’t that great but the ambience was. The place was pretty packed and there were wandering musicians playing their hearts out while we chatted on about AIDS in Africa and the roommate from hell. (Not mine!)

The evening continued with a bottle of wine at J Fern’s place and then we went to some place called Duke on Gothersgade street where old people party. (I should mention that we engaged in a 2-person riding of my bike on our way to Duke. J Fern pedaled and I hung onto her screaming. Video to be uploaded later =) The sign said (or at least I think it said) 25+ only and so I thought it was the perfect place for us but as it turns out there were some much older patrons in that bar. Nonetheless, after paying 60 DKK for cover and 20 DKK more for coat check, the Asian part of me wouldn’t let me leave. So, we spent the rest of the evening sitting at the bar chatting up a very cute 22-yr old bartender named Oliver. After some greasy Arab people tried to pick us up we decided it was time to leave and had some pizza on the street before my bike ride home.

The next morning a very grumpy and tired Jen was pleasantly surprised when her lovely roommate made her pancakes for lunch! My roomie is so awesome! Below are some photos of the flat so far. With the exception of the double mattress that’s randomly sitting in my room, it’s quite spacious and very IKEA looking.

After I cleaned myself up a bit we headed to the Farmers’ Market at the city centre. There were so many fantastic things for sale! Good thing I was still in my exhausted-after-too-much-alcohol state otherwise I would’ve spent way too much on food there. We even found a kiosk on Asian foods!

Bread

That says we will make cakes in almost all formations

Fudge

Cheese!

Me and the roomie with Asian Foods



After the market we took a bit of a walk in the park to meet some other students. It's a popular park called King's Park right in the centre. I decided I was too tired to do any more exploring that day and so hit up Super Best before going home to make dinner. This is like the best shopping market ever...it's almost like Superstore at home!

The one thing that has been on my mind is the question of what is proper biking etiquette? I've never really been much of a cyclist. Back home my mountain bike from the 90's has been sitting untouched and collecting dust for the better part of a decade and then some. But even if you were a cyclist in North America, is there really a set of unspoken rules that exist between the fellow cyclist? And do these rules transcend international borders? Needless to say, even if these rules existed I have no idea what they are and have been cutting people off left right and centre. While I realized quite quickly that just as there are passing lanes on the left when driving, this is also true of cycling. There are no lines in the bicycle lane but people will still pass you on the left and with no warning either.

And what of hand signals? I've been doing some lame raising of the hand when I turn but only sometimes when I remember and when I'm frantically trying not to get run over by a truck while turning. I think the trick is to stay positive and know that at the end of these 4 months I'm going to be a fantastic bike rider. And I'm going to be really good at dealing with rain too.