Strictly speaking, I didn’t “travel” in Copenhagen. I studied and played there. So it may not be right to say that these articles are travelling journals – but the definition of which’s not so important from the first beginning. So that’s it.
The food there. I actually can’t remember anything which is really delicious and unforgettable. Later in Germany, Italy and Austria, I’ll say there’s at least one highly flavoured dish in my mind for each country. But Denmark, I feel sorry to say that, not even one. It’s a pity for me. Not that I didn’t spend money on restaurants. Once I did go to a restaurant near city centre to eat open-sandwich. Nice atmosphere, nice decorations. But when I walked out of there, to say the truth, I missed the beer more than the sandwich. Now I think maybe I should visit families, instead of restaurants, to try the real Danish food. In a country that it’s so expensive to eat out, family-dish must be more various and typical. Even the home-made open sandwich will probably be more delicious than the one in the restaurant, I guess.
But I’ll write something for open-sandwich. After all, it’s quite famous there.
Simply speaking, as I saw in that restaurant, open sandwich is a tiny slice of bread with different kind of spreads, cheese, meat, fish…… ( whatever you like to put on, but usually they’re not warm) The bread’s so small that I felt I ordered the wrong dish when my sandwich was served – I couldn’t see the bread… was covered totally by the stuff on it, which was a piece of fried fish, with something interesting on it (looks like caviar and mustard sauce). Plus a bit of lettuce that you can barely notice. Generally it tasted good, but was…just a bit, not warm enough. In my opinion. For someone (like Taiwanese) who is used to warm-served food, facing this not-so-cold and no-so-warm fried fish……what more I can say? It’s just like the temperature of something which was just micro-waved for 30 seconds. Maybe Danish think it’s just the right temperature for food to put in the mouth, but a bit too cold for me. The slice of bread’s too small that I couldn’t eat the sandwich in a normal way – take a bite with the stuff on it. If I do so, then the bread will be all gone after the first bite. Then the dish can not be called sandwich anymore (though it doesn’t look like from the first). So I separated the bread to tiny pieces, eating with fried fish. Don’t know what I was insisting for.
After eating the whole sandwich, I didn’t feel full. Although it’s something I already expected, after spending so much money, it still made me a little annoyed. The feeling of not-so-full. Yet what’s comforting is the beer – delicious and huge and cold. That’s nice. When I went out the restaurant, I saw many Danish sitting outdoors in daytime, just enjoying beers (nothing else) I couldn’t help but thought that, the quality of beer is really something that the Danish will never neglect…
嚴格說起來，我在那裡並不是在旅行的。是在念書與玩樂。因此這幾篇事實上若說是旅行文學，大概不太合適。不過總之，文章的定義本來就不是什麼重要的東西，所以就這樣吧。
那裡的食物，真要說起來，覺得好吃到難以忘懷的還真是一樣也沒有。之後在德國以及義大利，奧地利，至少都有一兩樣讓我感動的美食。但是哥本哈根，很抱歉，一樣也沒有。並不是我不願意花錢去吃餐廳; 在氣氛極佳的木屋裡吃道地的開口三明治，我的確是這樣做過的喲。還點了ㄧ大杯Tuborg啤酒。但走出餐廳的那一刻，老實講，比起開口三明治，那杯啤酒還讓我更懷念。現在想起來，假如要吃到真正的丹麥美食，或許要到各個家庭去品嘗吧。在外食如此昂貴的國家，想必家庭料理是親切的多。即使是家裡頭自製的開口三明治，也比餐廳的好吃吧。
還是稍微提一下我對開口三明治的感想。畢竟是丹麥有名的特產。
簡單來說，就是各式各樣不太熱的主食(你能想到的各種口味都有)，堆在ㄧ片極小的黑麥麵包上。小到餐點送上來時，讓人懷疑自己是不是點錯了 -- 因為根本看不見麵包。已經完全被菜遮住了嘛。我的主食是一塊炸魚排，上面有貌似魚子醬以及芥末醬的東西。還有幾乎讓你忘了他的存在的一點點蔬菜。味道整體來說很不錯，但就是不夠熱。已經習慣食物熱騰騰上桌的台灣人，面對這不冷不溫的炸魚排，真是不知道該說甚麼才好。似乎是微波爐設定三十秒後送出的魚排。不冷不熱。也許丹麥人覺得放進嘴巴這溫度剛剛好，但對我來講就是太冷了。麵包因為太小塊，無法像一般正常的三明治一樣把料與麵包一起吃。這樣做的話，也許第一口下去就沒有麵包了。這麼一來就不叫三明治了(雖然本來就長的不像)，所以我把麵包分成小塊，好好的與料一起用刀叉配著吃。也不曉得在堅持什麼，總之我得告訴自己吃的是丹麥的開口三明治。
整個三明治下肚，不怎麼飽。雖然這也是預期中的事，但灑下這麼多錢後，這種飽足感甚至讓人感覺有點惱怒。令人欣慰的是啤酒既美味又大杯。冰涼的程度正好，真是不錯。讓我感覺丹麥人即使怠慢食物，也絕對不怠慢啤酒。許多丹麥人在夏天的餐廳露天座位上，大白天點了啤酒喝。看見這個事實，讓我不由的這麼想。
Feb 10, 2010
Copenhagen
Why Copenhagen?
I was asked by this question for many times in Denmark. But not for one time I have told the real answer. Practicing English…experiencing European culture…I answered these because they’re convincing. Easy to explain. If I said, “well, I just wanna to go to a faraway country to think about the meaning of my life.” Then probably that’s not an appropriate answer.
But that’s my answer. A faraway country? There’re plenty of countries which are faraway. Maybe I’ll be questioned by this. Egypt. Mexico. Aren’t they much more faraway?
No, not those hot places. For this exchange, I must go to a place that the weather of which is completely different from Taiwan.
That must be a place in which I can totally forget Taiwan.
Copenhagen had no association with my life before. Music, movie, books, and culture. Almost nothing. Copenhagen’s a perfect choice.
If I didn’t come to exchange, then for the future I’ll probably choose the road that my parents advice me, that they gave their every effort to let me do so. Study master here, pass those exams for financial certificates, have steady job, get married, raise children, and then get retired. Go travelling with the money which was saved during my life. What a smooth one; but that’s not what I want. Having almost all my life in this island, isn’t that a bit boring? Not that I mean Taiwan’s not good enough. It’s just that sometimes we need some adventures to enrich our lives. Especially the time when we’re still young.
Even though that’s what I believe, my thinking’s still pathetically poor and uncreative before going abroad. Anyhow, go out first. To see what kind of lives they’re living out, what kind of things they’re thinking about - those people in different part of the world.
Then I started my journey.
為什麼會決定來哥本哈根呢。
其實這個問題我在丹麥被問了很多次。老實講ㄧ次也沒說實話。甚麼想練英文啦，想來歐洲體驗文化啦，這些實直上具有功能，可以說服別人相信的理由，只是因為方便才說的。假如回答，"嗯，其實我只是想找個遙遠的地方想想我的人生意義在哪"，恐怕不太妥當吧。
但其實這是我的答案。遙遠的地方，那很多國家都可以嘛。或許有人會這樣反駁。埃及或墨西哥什麼的，不是感覺上更遙遠嗎。不，那麼熱的地方可不行。這次出來，非得換個和台灣氣候完全不一樣的地方才行。
必須是ㄧ個讓我完全想不起台灣的地方。
在這之前的人生，我和哥本哈根可說是完全性的沒有瓜葛。音樂，電影，書本，文化，幾乎所有一切。像是兩條水平線平行前進著。因此哥本哈根可以說是個完美的選擇。於是就這麼飛到了丹麥。
假如沒有這次的交換，恐怕我也會走上我爸媽及力勸導我走的道路吧。也就是在台灣念研究所，考證照，穩定的工作，結婚，養小孩(假如有的話)，退休。退休之後用存的錢去旅行。這真是一帆風順的人生哪，但我很確定這不是我想要的。一輩子都在這島上度過，不是太可惜了嗎。並不是說台灣不好唷。只是人生有時總是要冒險去闖蕩一下的。尤其是在年輕的時候。
雖然這麼想，但在出國前我的思考還是貧乏的可憐，沒創意的讓我自己覺得可悲。總之先出國再說吧，看看世界上的其他人是怎麼過人生的，是怎麼思考事情的。
於是我就出發了。
I was asked by this question for many times in Denmark. But not for one time I have told the real answer. Practicing English…experiencing European culture…I answered these because they’re convincing. Easy to explain. If I said, “well, I just wanna to go to a faraway country to think about the meaning of my life.” Then probably that’s not an appropriate answer.
But that’s my answer. A faraway country? There’re plenty of countries which are faraway. Maybe I’ll be questioned by this. Egypt. Mexico. Aren’t they much more faraway?
No, not those hot places. For this exchange, I must go to a place that the weather of which is completely different from Taiwan.
That must be a place in which I can totally forget Taiwan.
Copenhagen had no association with my life before. Music, movie, books, and culture. Almost nothing. Copenhagen’s a perfect choice.
If I didn’t come to exchange, then for the future I’ll probably choose the road that my parents advice me, that they gave their every effort to let me do so. Study master here, pass those exams for financial certificates, have steady job, get married, raise children, and then get retired. Go travelling with the money which was saved during my life. What a smooth one; but that’s not what I want. Having almost all my life in this island, isn’t that a bit boring? Not that I mean Taiwan’s not good enough. It’s just that sometimes we need some adventures to enrich our lives. Especially the time when we’re still young.
Even though that’s what I believe, my thinking’s still pathetically poor and uncreative before going abroad. Anyhow, go out first. To see what kind of lives they’re living out, what kind of things they’re thinking about - those people in different part of the world.
Then I started my journey.
為什麼會決定來哥本哈根呢。
其實這個問題我在丹麥被問了很多次。老實講ㄧ次也沒說實話。甚麼想練英文啦，想來歐洲體驗文化啦，這些實直上具有功能，可以說服別人相信的理由，只是因為方便才說的。假如回答，"嗯，其實我只是想找個遙遠的地方想想我的人生意義在哪"，恐怕不太妥當吧。
但其實這是我的答案。遙遠的地方，那很多國家都可以嘛。或許有人會這樣反駁。埃及或墨西哥什麼的，不是感覺上更遙遠嗎。不，那麼熱的地方可不行。這次出來，非得換個和台灣氣候完全不一樣的地方才行。
必須是ㄧ個讓我完全想不起台灣的地方。
在這之前的人生，我和哥本哈根可說是完全性的沒有瓜葛。音樂，電影，書本，文化，幾乎所有一切。像是兩條水平線平行前進著。因此哥本哈根可以說是個完美的選擇。於是就這麼飛到了丹麥。
假如沒有這次的交換，恐怕我也會走上我爸媽及力勸導我走的道路吧。也就是在台灣念研究所，考證照，穩定的工作，結婚，養小孩(假如有的話)，退休。退休之後用存的錢去旅行。這真是一帆風順的人生哪，但我很確定這不是我想要的。一輩子都在這島上度過，不是太可惜了嗎。並不是說台灣不好唷。只是人生有時總是要冒險去闖蕩一下的。尤其是在年輕的時候。
雖然這麼想，但在出國前我的思考還是貧乏的可憐，沒創意的讓我自己覺得可悲。總之先出國再說吧，看看世界上的其他人是怎麼過人生的，是怎麼思考事情的。
於是我就出發了。
Dec 1, 2009
when it's time to say goodbye
December 1, 2009 -
The feeling for the first two weeks in CPH.
I always thought that it’s hard to understand foreign people. It’s their absolutely different characters that make me a bit afraid to understand their insides. Just like a kind of premonition. The more I try to know them, the more the differences between us expose – things may be like that. It’s impossible to understand them, I always thought so. I didn’t have fluent language as the champion of the fragile self inside me; anyone could easily read in my face, and discover the timidity on it. I’m not used to this kind of myself. I knew how to cover up my fear and hesitancy before, when I faced difficulties. But now……I felt so insecure without my familiar language with me.
I knew how to introduce myself. The ‘meet-them-well’ trained me well. In this endless self-introduce, all the things that flashed across my brain were stereotypes, one by one…Italians are passionate and love pasta…Germans are conscientious and love sausage…Koreans are patriotic and love pickles…how frustrating the self-introduce was. I couldn’t remember their names, and all things remained in my head are just their countries and my countless pathetic stereotypes. Thanks to self-introduce, the distance between their inner worlds and mine ‘shortened by approximately one centimeter’.
It’s easy to convince myself to stay in my room, cuz I knew I’d transformed to “the timid girl who comes from a far-away country” again once I went out, and I hated that. However…I love to conquer challenges, especially to find out the secret behind the “unknown”—the secret may be a surprise, or a bomb—the curiosity gave me the courage.
Staying in the room like a coward…it’s not like me.
So I went out.
Those days here.
After going out, the huge world swallowed me. The impact was no other than the one caused by an atom bomb once I decided to open my mind to the exotic culture. BOMB, and what left in my head were just fragments of my old values and the world I’ve known before. What is this place, am I still on earth? Unbelievable. But yes I’m still on earth; it’s just that I spent too much time hiding in an island before.
After being conscious from the shock, I felt the European atmosphere, which is so fragrant and ancient, permeating my body, my every single cell. The impression that Asian world left in my mind was diluted by the real life here. Everything I touched was real: the spacious streets, the fresh air, the colorful houses, and the faded statues. Light-Blond hair and sky-blue eyes. Danish, English and French floated in the air…
The most real thing is emotion. Friendship, love, these deep affections that I didn’t expect before, have nurtured inside me even before I noticed. After going out, I have friends whom I want to cherish. Even though I struggled in the swamp of language for quite a time, I found out that nothing will stop you from expressing your feelings or emotions if you really want to. There’re many ways that people could communicate with each other; The Tower of Babel didn’t block everything…
Are foreign people hard to be understood? No. Culture asides, people around the world are the same from the intrinsic view. The shared kitchen in my dorm is just like the common room of our FM department – big boys crossed their legs and watched football games…desks covered by books and laptops during the period of exam...Gradually cordial feeling replaced the alienation; all of these seems so different yet so alike.
The food we’re used to is different; the backgrounds we grew up are different; the languages we’re familiar with are different – however, there’s one thing that we shared: we all long for freedom, friendship and love. And this compensates for everything.
When it’s going to be over soon..
If you really like one person, you’ll do your best to understand what he/she likes, and try to think from his/her perspective.
I found out the secret behind “the unknown”. The exchange life’s almost over, the unknown is no longer unknown, and the secret was already told by time—
I won’t tell the secret. But it is the secret that makes me hard to let go of the life here, in Copenhagen.
The feeling for the first two weeks in CPH.
I always thought that it’s hard to understand foreign people. It’s their absolutely different characters that make me a bit afraid to understand their insides. Just like a kind of premonition. The more I try to know them, the more the differences between us expose – things may be like that. It’s impossible to understand them, I always thought so. I didn’t have fluent language as the champion of the fragile self inside me; anyone could easily read in my face, and discover the timidity on it. I’m not used to this kind of myself. I knew how to cover up my fear and hesitancy before, when I faced difficulties. But now……I felt so insecure without my familiar language with me.
I knew how to introduce myself. The ‘meet-them-well’ trained me well. In this endless self-introduce, all the things that flashed across my brain were stereotypes, one by one…Italians are passionate and love pasta…Germans are conscientious and love sausage…Koreans are patriotic and love pickles…how frustrating the self-introduce was. I couldn’t remember their names, and all things remained in my head are just their countries and my countless pathetic stereotypes. Thanks to self-introduce, the distance between their inner worlds and mine ‘shortened by approximately one centimeter’.
It’s easy to convince myself to stay in my room, cuz I knew I’d transformed to “the timid girl who comes from a far-away country” again once I went out, and I hated that. However…I love to conquer challenges, especially to find out the secret behind the “unknown”—the secret may be a surprise, or a bomb—the curiosity gave me the courage.
Staying in the room like a coward…it’s not like me.
So I went out.
Those days here.
After going out, the huge world swallowed me. The impact was no other than the one caused by an atom bomb once I decided to open my mind to the exotic culture. BOMB, and what left in my head were just fragments of my old values and the world I’ve known before. What is this place, am I still on earth? Unbelievable. But yes I’m still on earth; it’s just that I spent too much time hiding in an island before.
After being conscious from the shock, I felt the European atmosphere, which is so fragrant and ancient, permeating my body, my every single cell. The impression that Asian world left in my mind was diluted by the real life here. Everything I touched was real: the spacious streets, the fresh air, the colorful houses, and the faded statues. Light-Blond hair and sky-blue eyes. Danish, English and French floated in the air…
The most real thing is emotion. Friendship, love, these deep affections that I didn’t expect before, have nurtured inside me even before I noticed. After going out, I have friends whom I want to cherish. Even though I struggled in the swamp of language for quite a time, I found out that nothing will stop you from expressing your feelings or emotions if you really want to. There’re many ways that people could communicate with each other; The Tower of Babel didn’t block everything…
Are foreign people hard to be understood? No. Culture asides, people around the world are the same from the intrinsic view. The shared kitchen in my dorm is just like the common room of our FM department – big boys crossed their legs and watched football games…desks covered by books and laptops during the period of exam...Gradually cordial feeling replaced the alienation; all of these seems so different yet so alike.
The food we’re used to is different; the backgrounds we grew up are different; the languages we’re familiar with are different – however, there’s one thing that we shared: we all long for freedom, friendship and love. And this compensates for everything.
When it’s going to be over soon..
If you really like one person, you’ll do your best to understand what he/she likes, and try to think from his/her perspective.
I found out the secret behind “the unknown”. The exchange life’s almost over, the unknown is no longer unknown, and the secret was already told by time—
I won’t tell the secret. But it is the secret that makes me hard to let go of the life here, in Copenhagen.
Nov 12, 2009
Laziness
November 12, 2009
After coming to Denmark, I found out that human has unlimited possibility.
And also unlimited laziness.
Laziness is the malignant gene inside human body, which stops one’s potential from realizing. Can’t be totally rooted out from one individual I think. It has already, firmly stuck to the poisonous nature of human being. No matter how thoroughly we try to eliminate it, still, residue exists. But it doesn’t mean that we can just let laziness dominates ourselves……laziness would not led you to a miserable life, I would say, but a featureless life. So featureless that sometimes even is considered sad. The gifted one wouldn’t become successful writer if he didn’t write down thoughts when inspiration comes; talented one wouldn’t become real artist if he lacked of practice. Featureless life wouldn’t be so miserable, but not so good, either…… a little bit like souls mentioned in Divine Comedy—those who suspended on Limbo—“this blind life of theirs is so debased; they envious are every other fate.”
Don’t want my life being like this. Thus I should do my best to restrain laziness inside me. I wouldn’t like to say this, but Copenhagen is just like a paradise designed for escaping from reality, at least for exchange student like me. In this kind of environment, it’s hard to force myself to face the future of business students, which is so competitive. Not just hard; it’s VERY HARD. I can find any kind of excuse for my escape. Like blue mood caused by miserable weather or endless dark night, which could be dispelled by beers or parties. Everything lures me to escape. However, once submit myself to laziness, everything’s over. The opportunities for realizing ability will disappear; po po po, like bubbles burst.
But I won’t make this happen. I will catch opportunities. Beers and parties are for celebrating and dissolving stress, not escaping reality. Should recognize the difference carefully.
After coming to Denmark, I found out that human has unlimited possibility.
And also unlimited laziness.
Laziness is the malignant gene inside human body, which stops one’s potential from realizing. Can’t be totally rooted out from one individual I think. It has already, firmly stuck to the poisonous nature of human being. No matter how thoroughly we try to eliminate it, still, residue exists. But it doesn’t mean that we can just let laziness dominates ourselves……laziness would not led you to a miserable life, I would say, but a featureless life. So featureless that sometimes even is considered sad. The gifted one wouldn’t become successful writer if he didn’t write down thoughts when inspiration comes; talented one wouldn’t become real artist if he lacked of practice. Featureless life wouldn’t be so miserable, but not so good, either…… a little bit like souls mentioned in Divine Comedy—those who suspended on Limbo—“this blind life of theirs is so debased; they envious are every other fate.”
Don’t want my life being like this. Thus I should do my best to restrain laziness inside me. I wouldn’t like to say this, but Copenhagen is just like a paradise designed for escaping from reality, at least for exchange student like me. In this kind of environment, it’s hard to force myself to face the future of business students, which is so competitive. Not just hard; it’s VERY HARD. I can find any kind of excuse for my escape. Like blue mood caused by miserable weather or endless dark night, which could be dispelled by beers or parties. Everything lures me to escape. However, once submit myself to laziness, everything’s over. The opportunities for realizing ability will disappear; po po po, like bubbles burst.
But I won’t make this happen. I will catch opportunities. Beers and parties are for celebrating and dissolving stress, not escaping reality. Should recognize the difference carefully.
Nov 8, 2009
Languages and Signs
Reading foreign languages is just like decoding a series of signs. In other words, we are reading signs, not language. One by one, each sign enters our brains and transfers to different meanings, and the speed of which depends on how frequently we practiced before.
This is the point of view brought up by Murakami Haruki, during his talk with Murakami Ryu. He said that, if you write articles with “signs”, instead of your native language, then the feeling of disbelief while writing will disappear automatically. Thus, his first novel Hear the Wind Sing was first written in English, and then being translated to Japanese.
“In this way, that’ll no longer be language anymore.”
This is the point of view brought up by Murakami Haruki, during his talk with Murakami Ryu. He said that, if you write articles with “signs”, instead of your native language, then the feeling of disbelief while writing will disappear automatically. Thus, his first novel Hear the Wind Sing was first written in English, and then being translated to Japanese.
“In this way, that’ll no longer be language anymore.”
Oct 10, 2009
Crazy Factors
Oct. 10th, 2009 at 12:26 PM
It’s so easy for me to be affected by others’ opinions…others’ thoughts…isn’t it?
My thoughts are hidden behind lots of things like self-esteem, common sense, or conventions, etc. Is it a good thing or not, hiding my real thoughts like this? I’m sure I’ll have to sacrifice many things to exchange the life that I can live out my own thoughts. And I know I’m not brave enough to sacrifice such much.
Everyone has his own crazy dream in his mind, like climbing up to the highest mountain and flying down in a glider. Or leave everything behind and go abroad to part work, part study, experiencing life full of difficulties. The crazy dream of mine may be the latter. I also think of quitting what I’m learning now and start to study English literature or arts; that can be another crazy dream of mine.
If I could put all these things into practice, how cool it would be!
It’s so easy for me to be affected by others’ opinions…others’ thoughts…isn’t it?
My thoughts are hidden behind lots of things like self-esteem, common sense, or conventions, etc. Is it a good thing or not, hiding my real thoughts like this? I’m sure I’ll have to sacrifice many things to exchange the life that I can live out my own thoughts. And I know I’m not brave enough to sacrifice such much.
Everyone has his own crazy dream in his mind, like climbing up to the highest mountain and flying down in a glider. Or leave everything behind and go abroad to part work, part study, experiencing life full of difficulties. The crazy dream of mine may be the latter. I also think of quitting what I’m learning now and start to study English literature or arts; that can be another crazy dream of mine.
If I could put all these things into practice, how cool it would be!
Oct 5, 2009
Oct. 5th, 2009
Oct. 5th, 2009
Maybe the thing I miss the most is my native language as well……but how I wish I could speak English as good as you. So enjoy the time being with you guys. If I can express myself more efficiently, then the time will be even better. And you’ll know who I really am. So many opinions I swallowed back just because of language.
And that’s why I tried my best to improve my speaking skill. As time goes by, I can feel the barrier is dissolving gradually…but not fast enough. I always have a feeling that the day that the language barrier finally disappears, will also be the day we have to say goodbye…
Maybe that’s the way life goes. Challenges after challenges, train us to be stronger and equipped with more abilities to survive. In the progress you should endure some pain. Endure the twinge of regret. Endure the mood of melancholy, sometimes…
If only we could read minds. But that’s a passive way of thinking. I believe I can speak English very fluently someday in the future, and I won’t let language stop me from getting what I want again.
Maybe the thing I miss the most is my native language as well……but how I wish I could speak English as good as you. So enjoy the time being with you guys. If I can express myself more efficiently, then the time will be even better. And you’ll know who I really am. So many opinions I swallowed back just because of language.
And that’s why I tried my best to improve my speaking skill. As time goes by, I can feel the barrier is dissolving gradually…but not fast enough. I always have a feeling that the day that the language barrier finally disappears, will also be the day we have to say goodbye…
Maybe that’s the way life goes. Challenges after challenges, train us to be stronger and equipped with more abilities to survive. In the progress you should endure some pain. Endure the twinge of regret. Endure the mood of melancholy, sometimes…
If only we could read minds. But that’s a passive way of thinking. I believe I can speak English very fluently someday in the future, and I won’t let language stop me from getting what I want again.
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