Life and Culture Update

We have been here for a couple months now, and have had some more time to form impressions of the Danish Culture.  What follows are some observations about life and the culture here:

• The latitude is 55 degrees here, and we lose a noticeable amount of light every day. It is darkish at 7 am. Darkish at 7 pm. And you can see it changing daily. Not good for us light lovers.
• A food update: We finally broke down and got "danish" from the local bakery. Yum, that was good. Actually it is the best thing this side of ice cream that we have had here. Shopping quirks continue - the yeast is the wet type, and that has taken some getting used to. We also have the odd failure, that can only be attributable to different ingredients. On the up side, I actually managed good pizza the other day.
  
• There are tanning salons everywhere.
• There is a Danish word that roughly translates as "cozy," that they use to describe many things, including a house's atmosphere.  One aspect of this is soft lighting inside.  So after dark, it is very hard to see anything in this place. Makes cooking a bit of a challenge.

As for reflecting on Culture, it was asked how much American "stuff" we see here in Denmark.  Strictly speaking, the answer is not much, although if we take a broader view of "stuff" there are some more things to say.  The television is full of shows that are from the US and in English.  There is almost no dubbing into Danish.  Instead, it is subtitles.  There are analogs to US institutions.  No, Starbucks is not here, but there is something called Barresso.  Ditto Subway (Sunset Boulevard).  And fast food is a global phenomenon. 

If I take an even broader view, I can say more.  Most view American culture as very consumeristic.  We are very fixated on acquiring more "stuff."  I expected to find Denmark a bit different with respect to this attitude, because it is not "America."  I have been fairly surprised to find that people here are actually quite focused on possessions, and things as status symbols.

A few examples:  The number, variety, and exotic destinations of vacations is a status item for teens in Denmark.  When we asked some 8th graders what to do in Copenhagen, they answered "the shopping is good."  So is this attitude "American stuff?"  I cannot answer that.  But it makes me wonder.