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Show ye In Denmark When Miss Ruth Hansen left Delta for an LDS mission in Denmark, Den-mark, the Chronicle asked her to write for them about that country. coun-try. The following letter was re- ceived during the week, and it is iiui prising how much information Miss Hansen has packed into one airmail letter. And it is interesting interest-ing too. Her letter was written from Copenhagen Feb. 25. "Some times I feel almost like , an "infodl", native that is, and at other times I feel so foreign that ' it will be a relief to get back to my own country. It has been an J interesting experience though, and something I'm glad to be having. I have learned a lot and only , hope that I have done a little good in the time I've been here. Perhaps you'd be most interested inter-ested in my impressions of the country after a year and a half. I'm back again in Copenhagen nf- j ter having spent' nine months in Esbjerg, the Chicago of Denmark. I enjoyed my time in Esbjerg very much. It is one of the few cities in the country, if not the only one, where most of the) streets runs at right angles to each other. As a result I could easily find my way -.'oiincl there. Here in Copenhagen, I don't go anywhere without a map. Several times, down in the old part of the city, I've tried to walk from one place to another but have always had to give up and take a street car. The streets are always turning at such odd angles that I lose entirely en-tirely my sense of direction, which is absolutely nil here anyway. The sun has never come up in the east or set in the west the whole time I've been here. Copenhagen is an interostir.2 city and I can readily see why it is the chief tourist attraction of the country. The old part of the city is really the most interesting. I could spend hours wandering' the streets down there, if I had the hours to spend. As it is, I welcome wel-come the chances to get down there, and see what I can. As one gets away from the center cen-ter part of the city, all the streets are line with the "opangs', apartment apart-ment buildings, each housing from - 12 to 15 families to as many as a hundred or more. There are places in the city where one of these opangs op-angs is as long as two or three city blocks and each apartment in them just like other one. No wonder everyone has a plate on his door so he knows where he belongs. be-longs. But sometimes that can even be confusing since everyone has the same name, more or less. That's one thing this country needs badly, some new names, both given ones and surnames. It would cut down the confusion. There are so many Sister Petersens, or Brother Jensens, Jen-sens, etc., in the church that it takes ten minutes to identify the one you mean. Then in the midst of these op-gangs op-gangs and modern building developments devel-opments one occasionally comes onto an old house, many times with a thatched roof. It is rather surprising. But Copenhagen has grown rapidly within the last 50 to 100 years and the city has now engulfed many areas that were once country villages. So occasionally occasion-ally in outlying stretches o'f the city one even finds the old farmhouses farm-houses and barns still in existence exist-ence and surrounded by modern buildings. Another thing 'that has interested interest-ed me here is the "Paalaeg" shops. That's where you buy al kinds of ready cooked foods, cold meats, cheese, salads, boiled potatoes, (sometimes you can even get them while they are still warm) red cab bage (fixed the Danish way and do I like it) and the like. The Danes really only cook one meal a day so these shops are always well patronized. I've come to the conclusion that this is so because the fact that Denmark is really a poor country when it comes to nat ural resources. All the fuel used in this country coun-try is imported except for a peatlike peat-like substance that isn't used a great deal when other types of fuel can be obtained. As a result, the people are forced to conserve fuel as much as possible, so I suppose sup-pose it is really cheaper in the long run to buy most of your food ready cooked. This fuel situation also accounts no doubt, for the lack of kitchen appliances, washing machines, and so 'forth, that we take so much for granted at home. It could even account for the fact that most of the apartments, even among the comparatively new ones, don't have bathrooms as we know them. Most people, when they want a bath, go to the public bath houses. The fuel situation is rather crit- ical at the present time, due to the fuel shortage in England not so much is being shipped out.Many times people can only buy a sack of coal at a time and I have heard of some being refused coal because be-cause they had no small children in the home, and the coal sold only to those with children. I'm glad our landlord is well supplied and that spring is on its way. This past winter, well the one is nearly past, has been colder than it was last year. I have had the opportunity of really seeing more of Denmark than many people get a chance to see. Last October I travelled with the President and his wife and counselors to the various districts dis-tricts conference to help hold a MIA convention in each district. As a result I can really say that Denmark is a beautiful country and a contrast to Utah. Even now in the middle of winter the fields are green. In the summer the entire landscape land-scape is a beautiful green dotted with woods and lakes, farmsteads and little cities. But Denmark definitely lacks mountains. I won't say it is a flat country, not after biking over as many hills as I have. But it does not have anything that even faint- 1 - , . ly resembles mountains. Not the mountains we know in Utah. They will really look good to me. I'll be seeing you in about five months. mon-ths. Sincerely, Ruth Hansen." |