A DIS Festen

Tonight was my hygge dinner with my Danish class.

At 6 p.m., we were supposed to gather in Vestergade 10A - 35 for dinner. I got there really early because I had a field study for Gender, Body and Sexuality at 1 p.m., so it didn't make much sense to go to Hillerød and back. It was funny, because I saw Mogens, my teacher, and we got up there and he looked at the classroom and said, "No, this won't do. It's not hygge enough."

So we went all the way to the bottom of Vestergade 7 to the basement, where we normally have class and Mogens said "This will do much better." So we went back to go get all the food that was up there and leave a sign on the door.

The hygge dinner, other than that warm, comfortable feeling, also included a dinner of smørrebrød, the traditional Danish open-faced sandwich and Festen, a Danish "dogma" film.

The sandwiches consisted of several combinations of fish, eggs, meat and cheeses on rye bread. I didn't like the bread, and it also happens to be Passover, so I just ate the top part, but I liked that. I don't eat meat, except for fish, so I was very excited also to be able to eat something because a lot of Danish food involves meat. We also had this dessert, which Danes love to try and get Americans, or other foreigners, to try to say. It's called røde grød med fløde, which translates as red fruit dessert with cream. We specifically had strawberries, or jordbær. It was delicious. I'm excited that I chose to take Danish. The University of Maryland didn't force me to, but I thought it would be a good idea and I'm very glad that I did.

The movie was also really powerful. It's a Dogma movie, which in and of itself is an interesting concept. Everything is meant to be as real as possible. The camera work is all done by hand without and the clothing that the actors are wearing is their own. I've also heard that the sex is real. Based on Festen, I suppose it's possible that that's the case. It took place mainly at the 60th birthday of Helge Klingenfelt. All of his friends and family are there. He asks his oldest son to give a speech, which turns out to be "the speech of truth," as Helge realizes that his son is going to reveal some damaging family secrets. I highly recommend it if you are ever in the mood for something serious. It's certainly worth your while.

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.