Happy Birthday Queen Margrethe

There she is... The Queen of Denmark, celebrating her... 68th birthday. All of Denmark comes out and stands in Amalienborg Castle square on the queens birthday and waves to her. She came out at noon, and was gone by 12:15. This is actually a big holiday here, they let the kids out of school, give them flags, and its all quite adorable (see photo below).

Let me start by telling you the story of the first time I was almost run over by the next King of Denmark. My brush with Crown Princess Frederik, who's in line to be the next King. (He's the man with dark hair standing on the Queen's left in the photo above.) I had gotten to the square a little early, and this black Bentley almost hit me on my bike, and while it was driving past I thought to myself, "Well that's a little weird... you don't see alot of Bentleys in Denmark." There was a man with dark hair driving, with two children in the back seat. And then I noticed it didn't have a license plate, only a crown painted onto the car alongside 124. So then when he came out with his mom I was like, THAT'S THE GUY THAT ALMOST HIT ME WITH HIS ROYAL BENTLEY!

Anyways, the lesson of the day is that the Danes love the royal family. This picture gives you a better sense of the set up in the square, and how many Danish flags there were. The royal family is a pretty interesting phenomenon. They certainly are national celebrities here, and they actually take a salary for their duties as Statesmen and representatives of Denmark. The crown prince (the one who tried to take me out) married a woman from Australia, and it was the party of the decade here a couple years ago. But they follow their every move and everyone in Denmark knows everything about their royal family, its a big source of national pride.

The actual waving ceremony was somewhat uneventful. The queen waves for a minute, and then it becomes awkward... so she just continues to wave. Eventually she starts saying something that nobody can hear and waving her arms and everyone yells "Hurrah! Hurrah! Hurrah!" to her beat. The most exciting moment of the whole experience was when one of the grandchildren almost got his head stuck in the balcony grate, now that would be memorable.

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The other interesting thing I did this week was make it over to the Parken for an FC Copenhagen soccer match. Boy do Europeans love their "football." The Danish league is by no means one of the top leagues in Europe, but don't tell the fans that. They stood the entire match, usually bouncing to the beat of some drummer. The first half may have been the most exciting half of soccer I've ever seen. FC scored first on a bicycle kick, and then built up a 3-0 lead, before allowing in 2 goals in about 15 seconds. They held on and pulled it out 4-2.

There was also 3 idiots who ran onto the field. (One of them was actually from the DIS program). Now the reason that this kept happening is that security was much too kind when they apprehended these drunks. At Fenway, when security finally catches you, they twist your arm, shove your face into the ground, punch you between the shoulders (if you're lucky). After that there's a big fine and a miserable night in jail ahead of you. The Danes just handcuff you and ask you not to come back for the rest of the season... what a joke. The most outrageous moment was when a fan from the other team's side tried to make a break for it, except that he face planted in the empty seats on the way down, one of the most painful things I think I've ever seen.

The FC Copenhagen theme song is pretty great as well. The key line is... "I wake up and my girlfriend asks me do you want to _____ (censored, this is a family blog remember, it involves a word that sounds like duck), but I say, no! I have to go! To the Football Game! because We love FC! WE LOVE FC COPENHAGEN! (It's all in Danish, so this is by no mean a direct translation but you get the gist. This refrain is repeated many times.)

But I'm very glad I made it to a football match, my European experience wouldn't have been the same without it.

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School has been alright this week too. I finished my Viking Economy paper and have started working on a long one involving the Death penalty... ugh. We did a Model UN Security Council today for my International Law class. I was selected to be the UK rep, which involved being the chairman of the hearing... So I mostly did a lot of banging with my 'gavel' (empty water bottle). Another interesting experience on top of many other interesting experiences.......