Bænken og en Hyggeaften

Every Danish class is required to have a hyggeaften— basically a night where a movie is shown and some sort of Danish food is consumed. The assigned days for Charlotte’s classes were last night and tonight; I signed up for tonight.

The film we watched was Bænken (The Bench). I’m not sure if the program dictates which movie we watch or if our teacher does, but let’s just say it wouldn’t have been my first choice for an evening that was supposed to be “cozy”. I have heard that Danish films tend toward the heavy side thematically (and apparently their comedies aren’t your typical brand of humor either), but still— when trying to have a nice night in, your first instinct usually isn’t to watch a depressing movie. Charlotte even prefaced it by saying, “This film is not a comedy.”

Bænken is the first in a series of three films by director Per Fly (the other ones being Arven and Drabet), each one about the social classes in Denmark: lower, upper and middle. Bænken is about the lower class, and that’s pretty much all I can say without having to explain the entire plot. The mood of the film oscillated between hopeful and fantastically depressing. My friend’s boyfriend was there too, and the first thing he said upon seeing the end credits roll was, “I’m kind of… traumatized….” Yup, that about sums it up.

Charlotte reappeared after the film (she’d been running back and forth between the movie room and the room next door preparing the food and the atmosphere) to formally invite us into the next room and to tell us to put ourselves in a different mood. And so everyone shuffled glumly next door.

The classroom was more hyggeligt than I thought a classroom ever could be; the lights had somehow been dimmed, and she had moved the desks so that they formed one long table in the center of the room. On the table she’d placed a golden paper tablecloth and groups of little votive candles. Each napkin was adorned with the pattern of waving Danish flags, and there were abundant bottles of beer and soda. I took a seat across from my friend’s boyfriend (my friend has a different teacher for Danish) at the end of the table and we were somewhat unexpectedly joined by Charlotte, who had forgotten to set a place for herself.

We ate traditional Danish smorrebrød with a fork and knife (the Danes eat everything with a fork and knife; my host family even goes so far as to eat hamburgers that way). Conversation was awkward at first— hindered on our end both by everyone being preoccupied by his or her food, and by our teacher’s presence (Danish teachers lack the formality of the teachers back in the States; they are always addressed by their first names and frequently wear jeans to class— so while Charlotte may be quite used to socializing with her students, it took us a while to loosen up in front of her). Once everyone had finished eating though, people were more than willing to talk.

Conversation ranged from a discussion of how seriously Americans take Thanksgiving (before coming to work with the program, our teacher had barely been aware of it), various drinking cultures (the Danes drink quite heavily, the Chinese barely touch alcohol, and the Italians take a more leisurely approach), the set nature of the American college system, and what led us to choose this particular program. I think our end of the table was slightly disappointed when, cued by the far end of the table, everyone started leaving (Charlotte had just opened herself another soda). But, I think it’s safe to say that everyone hyggede sig.