Hygge dinner - be cozy or else

Tonight was my "hygge dinner."

Hygge is probably one of the words I have heard the most since I've been here. It's this Danish concept that sort of translates at cozy, but there's a lot more to it then that and there just aren't words for them. But it's essentially what happens when you're spending time with people you're truly comfortable with.

DIS planned a hygge dinner for each student. We were split up into small groups within our programs. My friend Ruth and I were assigned to the same dinner at Cafe Stella tonight. We went, but of the 10 students that were supposed to be there, only Ruth, this girl named Melanie and I showed up. It was us and the three staff people waiting in the DIS building. I don't know why people wouldn't show up for a free meal, but we had reserved the restaurant and had to reserve our dinner as well. One of the staff people sent us an e-mail giving us a link to the menu (which was supposed to be posted in English as well as Danish, but wasn't) and letting us know that if we didn't respond, we were getting a chicken sandwich.

Kim and Morten were the two guy staff people who were with us and they were contact people for one of DIS's shared housing areas, which just happens to me about a two minute walk from DIS. We stopped there along the way and they went banging on doors to see who was around. They eventually found some boys from the business program who were more than happy to accept a free beer and chicken sandwich. Margaret, the intern with us, called Staci, another intern, who was about to head to her Danish class, but met up with us instead.

It just amused me that it was a mandatory hygge dinner. They obviously didn't enforce it, I guess they couldn't have easily, but I felt like they were basically saying, "You WILL come and you'll be cozy and like it!" I'm not criticizing DIS and I had really enjoyed the dinner I went to, but it's kind of a shame that so many people skipped theirs. It's sad to say it and it isn't how I feel, because I always like to meet new people, but maybe it would've worked better if DIS had people sign up with their friends. That's probably who most people had dinner with on their nights anyway.