The end

In less than 24 hours I'll be home.

I pulled an all-nighter on Tuesday, but on Wednesday afternoon I went with the host family to Tivoli for a couple of hours, went on a few rides, etc. Promptly crashed by 9:30 and slept for like 12 hours. Then I had my last final on Thursday, which went okay I guess. Afterward I shopped for a little bit.

I met up with Anna and Caitlin on Friday early afternoon and we walked about the botanical gardens a bit, then split up, and as I had some time to kill before the closing ceremony thing, I decided to pay to go into Rosenborg Castle, which I had neglected to do. It houses the crown jewels, and a bunch of other cool stuff, and the throne room -- the Long Hall -- was pretty impressive.

Then I went over to the place for the closing ceremony, where we heard unecessary speeches, several of them (inlcuding those given by two DIS students) were painful to listen to due to their clichéd-ness. But that ended, and I headed home to (maybe) start packing. I did a little bit. But then we had dinner -- my host family gave me a charm-bracelet type thing as a going away gift -- and then I left to go to the DIS farewell party thing. Met up with Anna and Caitlin and eventually Kathryn, and we stayed there for awhile, and it was pretty fun, but then we decided to leave to go to Vega. Anna ended up just going home, so we said our goodbyes as we went to different bus stops. Then Kathryn, Caitlin, and I got to Vega and waited in line for a pretty long time (ended up not getting in before 1, so we had to pay, but we wanted to go, so), and then stayed there and danced to the the techno-DJ tunes for a while, and eventually figured out the roundabout routes we needed to take home. We also made our goodbyes at Rådhuspladsen as we went our separate ways for night buses!

I finally made it home around 4, and there was already sunlight on the horizon.

Today it's rainy and gross and I've just been packing away. I'm getting to the point where most of the stuff I have left to pack is the annoying toiletries/small item stage. Grr.

See you soon.

A few days left

I leave in like four days. It's crazy.

Things we've done recently: went out again to the Dubliner and Nørrebro Bryghus (from which I may have... appropriated a glass with their name on it), went to Tivoli this afternoon with the host family, been writing papers and taking exams (last one tomorrow), went to Bakken, another amusement park, for a few hours last weekend.

Things I still need to do: consider packing/do laundry, buy gifts (for people at home, and for my host family), hang out with my friends, take pictures of some of my favorite places (Sankt Peder's Bageri, for example), savor the rest of my time in the city.

The rest of Heather's visit (and beyond)

On Saturday, we got off to a sort of late start, and headed out to the Carlsberg Brewery, arriving there around noon, I think. As we're walking to go toward the visitor entrance, this group of mostly middle-aged (I think) Danish guys call over to us, and ask us if we're going in. Well we are, so they tell us to come in with them because they are one short of 15 people, thus getting a reduced group rate (40kr instead of 60), so we're like "Okay..." Anyway, then we go in and as Heather and I are getting money out of our wallets the guy who is paying just waves us off and tells us not to worry about it. So, sweet! We basically ended up getting two free drinks out of this (they give you vouchers). Anyway, the brewery is interesting. You see mostly historical stuff, including a really detailed timeline that starts with the first recorded brewing of beer and then moves on to get more into Danish brewing history and then the Carlsberg history. Most of the rooms and such are historical representation about how the process would go in like, the early 20th century. Also: massive beer collection! When you are finished the tour you can go to the bar to redeem your vouchers -- Heather ended up trying the Carlsberg Elephant Beer and I got one of the specialty Jacobsen beers called Saaz Blonde, and then we both got sodas as it was only like 2 in the afternoon! Then we wandered out to find the elephant gate and take some pictures. Afterwards we headed back into the center of the city. We stopped at a gift shop on Strøget and Heather picked up a few things, and then I think we got bagel sandwiches again and then... possibly sat in a park for a bit? Not sure. Eventually we made our way home to have some dinner, and then went out to meet Anna and Caitlin at Palermo. We each had a drink there, and then decided to try this cocktail bar and cafe we had passed by a few times by Nørreport. They had a ridiculous drink menu. I ended up getting a Japanese Slipper. There were these two girls (sisters) sitting next to us, one of whom had worked for DIS at some point, and they invited us to go a club with them after we had our drinks, so we went with them to this place called L.A. Bar and danced for some hours -- when we got there they were playing songs like "Surfin' USA" and "Blue Suede Shoes" and it was highly amusing that the Danes there knew all the words to every song, when we didn't, and by the time we were leaving they had gotten into playing like, late '90s or so pop/rap. It was amusing! We took the night bus home and went to bed around 4... at this point we had given up on our hopes for Legoland as we didn't think we could get up early enough, and it was going to be like 1200kr a piece or more for the whole shebang. But oh well.

We got a reeeeeally late start the next day, but traveled over to Christianshavn and walked through Christiania a bit. Christiania -- for those who don't know -- is a sort semi-autonomous commune within Copenhagen. It was formed when some people squatted in the abandoned military barracks in the 1970s, and for some reason the Danish government just let them take it over. It's weirdly separate from Denmark -- as you leave, there's a sign saying, "You are now entering the EU." It's kind of an artist's paradise -- there's graffitti murals and cool art everywhere, but they don't let you take any pictures. So we wandered around there for about a half an hour, but we both felt really out of place, so we just headed back in the direction of Christiansborg and sat by one of the canals soaking up the sun for awhile.

We got dinner at a place in Gråbrodretorv, and then met up with Katy and got some hot drinks from a 7-11 and chilled with her in one of the squares in the city for a while. Then we headed home, watched a movie, held a short video chat session with Amy, and went to bed.

I went in to my 8:30 class on Monday, and Heather met me in town afterward. We mostly sat around outside, as she had her backpacker's backpack with her and there was no where to store it. We met up with Katy again to grab a quick lunch, and I deserted Heather in the DIS library for an hour and half or so to go to the beginning of my afternoon class, then jetted from that, we got ice cream, went in a few stores, and then took the Metro to the airport and said our goodbyes!

So that was two weekends ago now. Last week, we had a field study to the Politiken offices. Not that enlightening. On Friday, I didn't have any classes, and arranged to meet up with Anna and Caitlin at Fælledparken, near the stadium, because we had heard that was something that Danes do on May 1. We were expecting it to just be a bunch of people chilling, having some drinks and snacks. How wrong we were! It was like a festival -- there were rides and stages and food stands and massive amounts of people. It took us about an absurd amount of time to locate each other, because when Caitlin told me they were near an inflatable giraffe, I thought I knew where they were. Turns out there were at least three inflatable giraffes in the park that day. But eventually I met up with them, and we met up with a (male) Alex from our program, and Kathryn, and hung out there till it started getting too chilly, and I had a bagel sandwich I had bought and a crepe and some popcorn and a couple of ciders. 'Twas fun! Caitlin and Anna biked back to their kollegium and Alex and I walked and took the bus to get there, and then we decided to watch the Lindsay Lohan version of "Freaky Friday" which I relentlessly made fun of, but it was still a good time!

Then on Saturday we took a short day trip to Malmö. We had heard the shopping was cheaper, because the exchange rate is better ($1 = apprx. 8kr Swedish and 5.5kr Danish), but prices are about the same (so something could be 98kr in Sweden and Denmark, so it's a little cheaper to buy it in Sweden). Also, we just wanted to say we had been to Sweden! We all ended up getting something -- I got a top and some brown sandals from H&M, but when we left the last store we went to around 5:30, everything else was closed already! So we walked around a bit and then got dinner at... a Pizza Hut, but it was the fanciest Pizza Hut any of us had ever seen. Do they serve you your pizzas in the deep dish they cook them in, in America? And Anna got an absolutely massive salad, which she took slightly more than half of back with her. We stopped in a convenience/gift shop on the way out of town, and I was disappointed that they didn't have Swedish fish in their candy section. Our train got back into CPH around 8, but I didn't get home till nine because when I got off the Metro around 8:05 and saw that there was a 10-minute wait for my bus, I decided to walk a little bit... and then I decided I should just walk to the ice cream place... and then I had to walk while eating my ice cream... and by the time I finished I was almost home. And, I think only three buses passes me that whole time, the last one not even until I was almost at what is my home bus stop, so I didn't feel to absurd that I had walked.

I think we are going to go out for a bit tonight... possibly to a karaoke bar? Purely to observe and mock, though!

Heather came to visit!

SO. What been going on since travel break finally ended? Well Easter weekend was basically recovery weekend. Classes started up the Tuesday after Easter. I accompanied Anna and Caitlin when they went to rent bikes (in lieu of getting transportation passes). I almost beat them back to DIS (on foot) on their first bike ride in Copenhagen. That Wednesday, I went with my Danish politics class to Parliament (where we had a short lecture/discussion from the woman who is the chair of the foreign affairs committee). We were meant to have a tour of Christiansborg but apparently our group was too large and they wouldn't split us up. Then we had a break for about an hour and a half, and then went to the Copenhagen Police Department. We had a short tour of their building, then a talk about how they handle demonstrators/protests, and then a quick demonstration/tour from the riot squad (they got into their riot gear in well under five minutes, and then they showed us some of the weapons). On Thursday I went with Anna over to Amalienborg to watch the royal family wave from the balcony because it was the queen's birthday. I think that weekend was relatively uneventful. Had to pull an all-nighter on Monday the 20th in order to write a paper for Danish politics (got an A, though).

Then on Thursday, Heather arrived! I met her at the airport around three, we got her a klippekort, and then we took the Metro into the city center. Heather got a pastry from Skt. Peder's and we went and relaxed in a park for awhile, as the weather was beautiful. (In fact, the weather has been absolutely amazing ever since I returned from Krakow.) We headed back home and Heather met the host family, and then we had dinner, conversation, etc. I was amused that my host mother has trouble saying "Heather" -- it's something about the soft "th" sound -- but Caroline could say it perfectly. Heather and I ended up hanging out and watching The Office and some other stuff online, then turned in for the night.

I skipped classes on Friday to make the most of it. We planned on doing a bunch of stuff and going to Carlsberg today. We ended up taking the train out to Østerport, walking through some of the grounds of the Kastellet, and over to the Little Mermaid. No adornments this time! Then, we walked on and found the Gefion Fountain, which I had not seen turned on yet and was pretty cool. Heather got a hot dog with everything on it from a pølsevogn -- I've not even had a hot dog from one of the carts yet, but oh well. We then walked along the water all the way down to Amalienborg, where there was also a cool fountain switched on, and briefly into the church that's right across the way. Its dome is pretty impressive but photos were frowned upon -- I took a couple of illicit ones of the altar. We then made our way down to Nyhavn, and ended up getting some smørrebrød at a little restaurant. Afterwards we made our way to the Round Tower; it is what it sounds like, and there are (almost) no stairs inside, it's just a winding incline up to an observation platform, so you can see a nice view of the skyline, and even Sweden! We got the first of several bagel sandwiches, ate them, and made our way over to Tivoli. We decided to suck it up and pay for the price of the multi-ride wristband on top of the entry fee, instead of paying singly for each ride we wanted to do. So, in order to get the best bang for our buck (or the most bang for our 285kr), we basically went on all the major rides. None of them are particulary big, so Heather somehow managed to drag me on to the rollercoasters and this ridiculous ride that I think we both ended up hating that spun around and then twisted you up and down and was completely crazy. But we did the freefall ride and bumper cars and the giant swings. The couple of really tall rides give you great views of the city as well. We stayed for quite some time, as there was to be a concert; we listened to about half of it before we decided we were cold enough, and headed for home!

Krakow

Saturday April 4

Got up around 6 and left around 6:30 to take the bus and the Metro to the airport. Everything went smoothly, and I landed in Krakow around 10:30. Here also I decided to take a cab rather than deciphering the public transportation, and then I just basically been chilling/napping in the hostel all day. But I guess I need to leave and find some food… I did eat, at a restaurant about half a block from the hostel, because they had their menu posted outside in Polish and English. I ordered chicken breast with spinach because I wanted a vegetable (spinach is gross). And, I was randomly served some sort of alcohol (a type of vodka?) when I asked for the check.

Sunday April 5

I got up and made some toast and tea for breakfast, then waited around until the one shower/bathroom was free – I waited for awhile. Then I took a shower and putzed around here on the Internet for quite some time. Around four I decided to wander around outside, checked out the main square, saw a street breaking group called “Missionaries of Rhythm.” Also need to locate something cheap to eat and then figure out how I am going to get to the airport to meet MaryElise. Should I brave public transportation or should I just take another cab? I should find the cheapest option (the bus, I know, but bus systems are sometimes challenging enough even when you do speak the language) or the train and just go.

Ended up taking the train there, and we took a cab back (which was doubly expensive because it was Sunday, ugh). And then basically hung about for a bit and went to bed.

Monday April 6

We got up around 10:00 and tooled around having a light breakfast and checking our emails at the hostel, then decided to just wander about the city. It’s an oddly small city, we covered pretty much the whole of the Old Town in a couple of hours going at a leisurely pace. We grabbed some “pizza baguettes” from one of the many kebab stands – basically a whole half of a baguette toasted with cheese on it, and you can get more things put on as well, and ate them in the main square. We wanted to branch out a bit outside of the Planty but we really had no idea where we were going. So we went back to the hostel to recoup a bit (and I took a shower), and then wandered out again to find somewhere relatively inexpensive for dinner. We ended up at a place that had some Italian foods, I ended up getting lasagne. Then we went out to locate an ice cream shop, grabbed small cones and headed back to the hostel as we ate them.

Tuesday April 7

I had to get up around 6 (but I didn’t actually until 6:30) in order to register for classes for next semester. Then I of course couldn’t really fall back to sleep. I sort of dozed on and off for a few more hours, and finally got out of bed around 10. We finally made our way over to the Wawel Castle, to check out what sort of admission prices there were. Kind of annoyingly, they charge you separately for every exhibition. So we picked one – the crown treasury and armory. Emphasis on the armory. Tons of spears, guns, swords, cannons. And then the treasury consisted mostly of golden goblets, plates, decorative items, etc. Also – no pictures allowed inside, though I took a couple illicit ones before I was informed of that rule. It’s a nice little castle. We wandered around in the beautiful weather some more, and then I think we went over to the Galeria Krakowska to browse the shops – it’s just a giant shopping mall, but whatevs. Oh also, we located one of the many organized tour places that had the lowest price we had seen for a trip to Auschwitz-Birkenau (60 PLN), so we paid for that for the next day. We stopped back at the hostel and went out again to find food – we went to a place whose name I can’t pronounce for pierogis (with meat, not cabbage!), and they were tasty.

Wednesday April 8

We got up early to grab a bite to eat and walk over to the meeting point for the bus. After stopping at the other meeting points and picking people up, we got on the road to Auschwitz-Birkenau by around 9:30. They showed a 50 minute video/documentary on the way there, which was kind of unnecessary as the tour guide went over most of the information that had been covered. Anyway, we started the tour at Auschwitz I, where most of the blocks have been turned into exhibitions. Probably the most striking things I saw was the display of two tons of human hair that was cut off upon arrival to the camps and from the bodies of those who were almost immediately gassed – they used the hair for various things, rope among them, I believe. They have rooms and beds and washrooms set up as they were when they were used – also creepy was the cutesy little artworks on the walls of one of the washrooms – which of course we completely unsanitary when in use. We also walked through one of the crematoriums, which was kind of indescribable.

We then had a short break and then a short bus ride over to Auschwitz II-Birkenau. Birkenau is so much bigger, but less well preserved than Auschwitz I. Most of the wooden barracks were destroyed, but a lot of their chimneys were left, and you could get an idea of the number of them. We went into one of the barracks, which housed the latrines, and another that was living quarters, and then we were able to go up into the main watchtower and get an idea of the size of the camp. We were only at the Birkenau camp for about 40 minutes – I wish we had had longer because I believe at one end of the rail tracks there is a memorial that I would have liked to see.

We got back on the bus, and after an early morning and suitably draining day, I dozed for most of the ride back into Krakow. We decided to go into St. Mary’s Church (it was 8 PLN for the entrance and photo permission), which was a good choice because it is a pretty beautiful church. We also decided to get an early dinner at one of the restaurants on the main square (called Sphinx) which had large portions for a not terribly unreasonable price. I got a Carlsberg and was carded, and I was trying to be helpful and show the waiter where it said on my license that I was over 18, but he was confused and just wanted to see the birth date, whatever. We ate, and got ice cream, and chilled in the square a bit, then came back and went to bed early.

Thursday April 9

We got up pretty late today – not until like 11. And then we both took showers and had some light breakfast, then wandered over to the Jewish district called Kazimierz. It was… kind of like every other part of the town. There’s apparently a bustling market in the main square over there on weekends and mornings, but we were there in the early afternoon, so everything seemed kind of dead. We decided to go into the Old Synagogue, it being the thing to do when in the Jewish district (?). They just had some interesting cases of not too old artifacts and religious paraphernalia. We got pizza and smoothies at a restaurant we located, then wandered back and chilled in the main square for an hour or so. Now we are taking a break at the hostel and will probably go back out in a bit to find something to eat for dinner, then likely ice cream again. Or maybe cotton candy.

Friday April 10

The last full day in Krakow! I’m glad, as I miss being in Copenhagen at this point. I didn’t really think I missed it after Paris, but as I took the cab home from the airport that night, I was really happy to recognize places on the streets, and know the rest of the route home. Didn’t end up doing anything extremely exciting today, we both bought something from the market on the square, and looked in shops, and then chilled and packed.

Saturday April 11

Flight back to Copenhagen! All went well.

Paris Day 5 and 6, 1 Day of rest in Copenhagen

Wednesday April 1

I got up and did my thing at the hostel, then met Heather after her class at the Catholic Institute. We bought sandwiches from a boulangerie before we headed out to spend the day at Versailles. Luckily our IDs got us in for free there as well, or that would have been 20 euros we were both out. Versailles is ridiculous. Every room is insane. And we just couldn’t believe that hundreds of people actually lived there at one time. We took our time walking through all the various chambers, including the Hall of Mirrors, and then went out to the gardens to find a spot to settle down and eat our sandwiches (rather late at this point, near 3). Oh you know, we were just chilling in the gardens of Versailles eating our lunch. Nothing special. !!! We took some toolish pictures and basked in the sun (seriously, the weather was beautiful the entire time I was there), and then went to get the train back to Paris. We didn’t realize until we were on the train back looking at our maps of Versailles that the garden extend so much farther than we knew. And it was a good thing we didn’t realize it, or we would have felt obligated to explore and we were tired. I nodded off a bit on the train.

We had dinner at a little café right across from the hostel, then went to meet up with people at the Smile for drinks. We stayed there for a couple of hours, then went and had some dessert (nutella) crepes, and went our separate ways for the evening.

Thursday April 2

I checked out of the hostel but left my large suitcase in the luggage room. We met up to try to go to the student cafeteria again, but they were checking IDs, so we bought sandwiches and ate them in the Luxembourg Gardens, which the Senate building is also on.

Then we walked quickly through Le Bon Marche and Le Grande Epicerie before running some errands. Heather bought some eyeliner, we picked up my computer and things from her home, went somewhere to print out my flight confirmation, picked up my luggage at the hostel, bought another bag of Surf Fizz (for me, as I’ve opened one and ate a bunch of them), and then went on a ridiculous trek to a Metro station. We bought my Orlybus ticket and found a café near the bus station to get something to drink and, as it turned out, ice cream. I got vanilla and a coke and it was glorious. Then we said our goodbyes (but not for long as Heather is coming to Copenhagen in a few weeks!), and I got on the Orlybus. It was a lot shorter than either of us knew, so I waited for check-in, then did all the security and more waiting, and it was midnight by the time I got my luggage and all at the Copenhagen airport. I decided to suck it up and pay for a cab, but I had to withdraw more kroner to do so. It was probably the best choice I made though, otherwise I would have had to take a train, then the bus, then walk a couple blocks. So I was home by about 12:30am, and in bed by 1 or so.

Friday April 3

I got up at 10, awake naturally as I had forgotten to turn on my alarm. My host mother was actually home, as her brother-in-law had come to help her take some measurements in the kitchen, she’s getting ready to redo it in the summer probably. But she went back to work shortly, and I popped in the first load of laundry. I basically spent the whole time this day when I wasn’t hanging laundry or taking a shower catching up on the TV shows I watch. So it was a nice relaxing day. And the weather was also beautiful in Copenhagen so I was able to hang my things outside. Packed up most of my things. Had my own pasta dinner as my host mother came home from work and then went to IKEA with a friend. Went to bed in preparation for an early morning.

Paris Day 3 and 4

Monday March 30

We got up, borrowed some tape from the hostel, borrowed some scissors from the Metro information desk, and voila! I am an art history student named Emily. We went to the modern art museum, the Centre Pompidou, where my new identity worked like a charm. Pretty cool stuff in here too, Picassos and Braques and more. Then we picked up some lunch (panini and a drink and dessert) and at it in the gardens/park behind Notre Dame. I hesitate to say it, but that chocolate banana tart I had may have been the best thing I ate while in Paris. After that we walked in Notre Dame. It was of course crowded, but still amazing! We discussed how neither of us really liked the animated “Hunchback of Notre Dame” movie. And I just realized I should have tried to climb up to the bell tower and shout “Sanctuary!” Heh.

Then we went to Saint-Chapelle, a (I believe) Gothic chapel with these crazy stained glass windows. They are literally like fifteen or twenty feet high, and there are fifteen of them, not counting the rose window. The pictures I have are just like, walls of stained glass.

Then we Metro’ed it to the Montmartre area, to go into the Sacre Coeur and see the view of the city from the hill. We also wandered over to take a picture of the Moulin Rouge, then headed back to the hostel area for a drink and talking at The Smile. We decided to go to dinner at Breakfast in America, wherein I had some delicious pancakes and bacon. Mmm. My diet has been sorely lacking in bacon since I came to Europe. We went back to the Rue Mouffetard and had another drink at a place called Studentbar (they put glowsticks in our drinks!), then I went back to the hostel and Heather headed home, as she was booked just for the weekend in case the place was uber-creepy or something.

Tuesday March 31

I traversed the bus alone with detailed instructions from Heather, and met her a student cafeteria for lunch where we got a freshly made personal pizza and a dessert for under 3 euros. Technically you need an ID for this place, but they weren’t checking that day, so. Yay cheap! And good. Oh and also I discovered that a bird had apparently, at some point while I was waiting for Heather, shat on my purse.

Then we headed over to the Musee d’Orsay. There was kind of a long line through security, but once again, no waiting to buy tickets. Heather left me here to go to class, which was fine. There were so many artworks I recognized in there I was astounded. Mostly from that one art history class I took. And the building was really beautiful too, as it was a converted train station that Heather tells me they at one point were planning to tear down. The weather was so beautiful that when I finished in there I decided to walk outside along the Seine and down to have a look at the Pont Neuf (the oldest bridge in Paris, but it’s called the new bridge, isn’t that hysterical). Had to do some texting with Heather when it wasn’t clear where I had ended up, but we met back up and sat for like an hour soaking up the sun along the Seine.

Eventually we walked to the Ile de St. Louis to try to get some ice cream that Heather says is the best in Paris, Berthillon. The main store was closed, but there are several vendors in the area. We ended up getting cones of raspberry sorbet and going back to the park behind Notre Dame to sit in the sun some more after we were done eating. Here, a random Spanish tourist must have though we were French, and wanted to take a picture with us. We totally didn’t get what was happening at first, and then when we finally did we were like, “uhhhh.” So that happened. Then we moved to a bench further away because it was more in the sun, even though we knew it looked like we were running away from the creeper. Whatevs.

Heather and I had crepes for dinner again at another creperie, then met up with her friend Emily in Bastille for a bit.

Paris Day 1 and 2

Saturday March 28

Got up and checked out, then back to King’s Cross/St. Pancras, where I waited around for hours as my train wasn’t until 1:30, I couldn’t check in until around noon, and I had to be out of the hostel by ten. So I finished reading “Fire Watch,” bought some flip flops for use in hostel showers, had a crepe (right before going to Paris), eventually checked in and went through security (which included a dog sniffing all bags), then waited for the train to board. Found my seat and relaxed for the just over 2 hour ride. I got to the train station in Paris and only waited about 20 minutes for Heather to arrive!

Heather wowed me with her French skills as she figured out what type of Metro pass would be the best option for me to get. Bought a five day pass (which I couldn’t use until Sunday) for unlimited travel on the Metro and buses, as Heather had some other tickets I could use in the meantime. We dropped off my laptop and iPod/headphones at her home and so she could grab a bag of clothes, then headed to the hostel. It was about two blocks from a Metro stop on Rue Mouffetard, a pretty hopping street/area. Checked in and dropped off our stuff, then wandered the streets of Paris! Saw Notre Dame at night, and went to a creperie for dinner and conversation.

Afterwards, we met up with some of Heather’s friends outside a bar they frequent (The Smile) which was literally down the street and around the corner from the hostel. I don’t think either of the two Emilys recalled the most hilarious situation of the night, wherein Emily 1 (who shall be called Emily) crepe-slapped Emily 2 (who shall be referred to as her initials, EHC) with a nutella crepe, and then ran off to get another crepe but it had to be from a different crepe stand. Wandered some more, but ended up that Heather, myself, her friend Jess and her visiting boyfriend went briefly to a place in Bastille called The Hideout. We had one drink, but we weren’t really feeling it, so we headed back to the hostel area, got some nutella crepes and ended up talking for a couple of hours in the hostel lobby area. It was three by the time we went to bed (damn daylight savings time), but it was an auspicious start to the visit!

Sunday March 29

We got up in time for the hostel breakfast (of rolls and croissants, some cereal if you wanted it, orange juice and tea) and to take showers. The showers were kind of gross, but not overly, and shower shoes make all things tolerable. Heather’s program gives them passes that claims they are art history students so they can get into museums for free, and EHC never attached her picture to hers… so we went to pick it up for a little temporary doctoring. We intended to use it that day for the Louvre, but we couldn’t find a photobooth, and we didn’t have scissors or tape, so I sucked it up and paid for the Louvre (well worth it). Saw amazingly famous works of art up close and personal!

We took a break from the Louvre to go to Angelina’s for pastries and hot chocolate – but this hot chocolate was no watered down crap. It was basically like, pure melted chocolate. And then they give you a type of whipped cream to stir in yourself. Almost went into a sugar coma. Then we sat outside in the Tuileries gardens for a bit before going back into the Louvre to check out some of the Egyptian stuff. Also very cool!

After we were finally done with that whole scene, we went to the Arc d’Triomphe. How ridiculous is it that I can just type that? Oh, the Louvre, the Tuileries, the Arc d’Triomphe. No big deal. We walked a bit on the Champs Elysees, and when it threatened rain we headed back for a break at the hostel to use their Internet, and also to buy some soap and some Surf Fizz (a candy Andrew specifically requested). We met this girl who had just arrived from Canada who was going backpacking around Europe. So we invited her to come with us to get dinner and head our to the Eiffel Tower after. So we got fondue and wine, thenwent to the Eiffel Tower and the Champs de Mars to see it all lit up and chill there. So we did that, and all of a sudden the Eiffel Tower starts sparkling! It was crazy, crazy, awesome. After that wound down, we headed back to the Metro as it was getting a bit chilly, and went to bed.

Also at some point this night, I took my photobooth pictures in order to doctor myself up an ID. Oh yeah.

London/Oxford (Day 5 and 6)

Thursday March 26

This day was kind of absurd. We were all supposed to be on the bus and on our way to Oxford by 9. Of course people are late, and we don’t even get going until around 9:30. Then there’s obviously ridiculous traffic, as London is one of the most congested cities, and I think it took us over an hour to get out of London proper. Also one of our teachers was annoying the hell out of everyone by playing at tour guide and telling us all about the things we had heard on our bus tour a few days ago, when all anybody really wanted to do was sleep.

When we finally get to Oxford and have mostly unloaded everyone’s luggage, we realize we’re at the wrong Holiday Inn (we were staying at the Express by Holiday Inn). So load back up and back on the bus for a bit. Finally make it to the right hotel (also, this whole trip took so long that we missed a guided walking tour of Oxford that I think I really would have enjoyed), and they don’t have our rooms ready? So they want us to leave our luggage in the lobby and they’ll put it in our rooms. Uhhhh, what? No. It’s somehow worked out that they give us our room keys so we can all drop our stuff off. Back on the bus to take us into central Oxford for lunch.

We make it slightly (15 minutes) late to the place we’re having lunch, the Vaults and Garden Café. It was apparently supposed to be a buffet, but since we were late they decided to take orders giving us options of like four dishes. I decided that the vegetable tart sounds most appealing. It was delicious (turned out to basically be a big slice of a quiche) and I think I may have gotten the last serving of it, as they were running out of dishes and having to redo orders. They also got us slices of cake for dessert, and promised us all a drink on DIS after our lecture.

So we got to a lecture by an Iranian born journalist, and it ended up largely being a lesson in Iranian history (which I didn’t need) and illustrative of the ignorance of select members of my group. So that happened and then we all went to a big Irish pub/restaurant wherein we ordered any drink we wanted (vodka and cranberry). Then Kathryn, Caitlin, Anna, Jenna, and I went to try to locate Christ Church (to see the Great Hall) – we found it but it was closed. Also stopped by the pub where C.S. Lewis did a lot of writing, then went back to the same Irish pub to get food as we knew it was cheap (and cheaper than anything else we had seen). Took a black cab back to the hotel and watched “Waitress” on my laptop, then went to bed.

Friday March 27

Get up and have breakfast and a “wrap-up” lecture from one of our teachers. Highly annoying. It ends up that we’re basically going to be able to have an hour or so in Oxford. They call cabs for us and pay for the cabs we take back to the hotel, we just leave our luggage in a holding room and they will load it onto the bus before we get back (I took my backpack with me though, wasn’t leaving my laptop to be flung into storage under the bus). Jenna, Lauren, and I go to Christ Church even though the Hall is closed, but the Cathedral and rest of the building was pretty cool. We also popped over briefly to the covered market, and I bought a cookie from what I had been told was the best cookie place in the world. It was pretty good, but I don’t know about best. Took a cab back to the hotel – it was amusing because there were like three cabs in a row all filled with DIS people. Hopped on the bus for the transport to Stansted Airport.

When we got to Stansted I left the group to wait for my bus back into London. Worked out well. Then I hopped on the tube to King’s Cross/St. Pancras. I found the Eurostar luggage services to make sure my bag wasn’t too big to take on the train (it wasn’t), and then walked to the hostel. Then I bought some Internet time and drained my battery completely, and went to bed.

London (Day 3 and 4)

Tuesday, March 24

Up again early for breakfast and setting out to another academic visit. Travel went much more smoothly, as none of us really waited for anyone, and met up successfully at the final destination – which was a PR firm, Edelman. The guy who spoke to us, Luke Pollard, was a pretty interesting guy; had trouble making his presentation about the company and PR very intriguing. I can’t honestly say that I learned much from the presentation, but I learned that Luke is into Twitter and thinks we should all try it, and is running to be an MP from Devon.

The visit was short and sweet and then we had the day until 4 (when we were to meet somewhere) free. Anna and I went direct to Buckingham Palace to take pictures and wait for our compatriots in the other section. We ended up waiting there a lot longer than I would have liked, as their presentation ran late as ours did. They eventually meet up with us, and we do a lot of things that mostly involved seeing the exteriors of buildings. Up close to the Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey. Then we went to Leadenhall Market, where Diagon Alley was filmed for the Harry Potter films, and had lunch at a random sandwich shop. After that we walked and saw the exterior/what was visible from the entryway of Saint Paul’s, as you had to pay to see it and couldn’t even take pictures inside. We walked across the Millennium Bridge, wanting to do a tour of the Globe Theater, but it was nearly 3 by this point – tours were 40 minutes long and we needed to be at the Museum of Brands, Packaging, and Advertising by 4 (in Notting Hill Gate).

So we followed some orange lampposts to the nearest tube station, and had a ridiculous time trying to find this museum. We ran into like ten other people from our group trying to find it. We were fifteen or twenty minutes late, so we “only” had an hour in the museum. We only needed like twenty minutes. It was lame. Just cases and cases of old packaging and such. Kind of interesting, but not in the way it was laid out.

Then we head back to Covent Garden area for dinner. Somehow my friends and I and a few other people ended up totally separate and way ahead of the group, so we got to the restaurant and were seated way before the others arrived. Roasted bell peppers for an appetizer, some weird fishcake thing for the main, and a type of cheesecake for dessert? I only tried the dessert and gave it (male) Alex to finish. Also, pomegranate and berry martini.

The last scheduled thing of the night! Performance of Chicago. It was good, I enjoyed the music and everyone had great voices, but the production itself was weirdly minimalist. And not really what I was expecting. Also really tired at this point, so when it was over Kathryn and I jetted out of there to the tube as fast as we could. Sleeeeep.

Wednesday March 25

Lecture by one of our teachers at the London School of Economics (basically like any other classroom ever). We were supposed to have a guest lecturer as well, but he had been called away to cover some story in Devon. Then we had a group lunch in some hole in the wall café nearby. It down poured as we tried to find the place and we got pretty soaked, which was annoying. After lunch, my section had about an hour free before we needed to head off to the offices of The Guardian, so Anna and I spent like 45 minutes in the British Museum. I really just wanted to see the Rosetta Stone, which was cool. Checked out a couple of other rooms really quickly, then traveled to The Guardian. Also kind of a boring visit – though we did learn that 40% of their online readership is from North America, which is pretty interesting. After this we also had the evening free, so Anna and I met Kathryn, Jenna, and Alex in King’s Cross to be tools and take pictures of Platform 9 ¾.

Then Kathryn, Anna, and I went on a quest to find somewhere with Internet, as the hotel’s had been down for two days. We tried the Holborn public library but the staff was incompetent, so we ended up tracking down a souvenir shop/Internet café in the area that we had heard about. It was really cheap – one pound for half an hour, so we split that and afterward tried to find some shops around Oxford Circus. Basically all just big department stores, so we grabbed some food at another pub (The Spread Eagle), and went back to the hotel.

London (Day 1 and 2)

Sunday, March 22

So on Sunday, I got up to allow myself a lot of time, figuring I wouldn’t want to rush. I made it to the airport in plenty of time to meet the group. We checked in and went through security, and by that point we had about 45 minutes before boarding, so we just found some seats near the gate and chilled.

We eventually arrived at London-Gatwick, did all the necessary airport stuff and got on a bus to take us to our hotel. This, of course, took longer than expected due to traffic. We make it to the hotel – the Britannia International at Canary Wharf, around 6:15 or so, when we had a dinner reservation for 6:30 that was pushed back an hour. They’ve assigned us rooms, but we end up working it out that Caitlin, Anna, and I are in the same room. Drop off our stuff and head out to dinner at MemSaheb, and Indian restaurant in walking distance on the Thames. We’re all starving, and we don’t even actually start getting food until close to 8:30 or 9, as which point dishes just continually arrive at our table. Also, we probably annoyed the wait staff by continually asking for more pitchers of water – to be a trend on this trip. But dinner was good and we took a few pictures by the Thames, then we went back to the hotel to go to bed.

Monday, March 23

Get up early and meet the group after breakfast in the lobby to go to our first academic visit at The Telegraph. People are late for the meeting (also to be a trend), so we head out to the Underground around 8:10am. On our way there we find out that the line that serves our nearest station (the Jubilee Line at Canary Wharf) is down, so we have to take the overground DLR (Docklands Light Rail). We get up to the platform for that, and every single train that comes through is packed. We’re trying to travel in a group of like 20-odd people, since none of us really know where we’re going, but we do get broken up a bit. We cram on to a train and head to a station with a nearby Tube stop (but end up turning right instead of left out of the station and have to backtrack). We make it to The Telegraph a full 45 minutes late.

At The Telegraph – England’s only remaining broadsheet newspaper – we have a talk mostly about advertising, as that’s what the guy who gave the presentation is involved in. It was interesting, but not really what I was expecting and went on for way too long – two hours even though we were late. We also had a short tour of the newsroom, which is actually a pretty cool design. There’s a central table with basically spokes coming out from it, and the editors of the sections sit nearest the middle.

After that we headed off to our group lunch at a place called Medieval Banquet – it was fish and chips served family style, and it was pretty good. Then, we hopped on a coach bus for a bus tour of London. It was all right I suppose, but I think I would have rather had the time free. Our tour guide was kind of amusing. We get dropped off at the London Eye with a bit of time to spare, but we get our tickets and hop on. It moves really slowly, and doesn’t stop as you get on or off, so we had to rush a bit to get on as we had our group split in two and pretty much the maximum occupancy of two of the cabins. Cool views indeed – unfortunately it rained just before and some during while we were up in it, but it was still impressive!

Afterward we had the rest of the evening on our own. Caitlin, Anna, Kathryn, and I went to the Notting Hill Gate area and just walked around, browsed some shops, and got some cheap pub food for dinner at the Prince Albert. Also – got a Guinness, and it made me tipsy for about 20 minutes. Then we just headed to the hotel, took showers, and went to bed.

Swans on a sunny day

It was fantastically sunny here the past few days -- Tuesday to Friday was brilliant. I snapped several outdoor pictures, and finally convinced myself to stop off at the Lakes and take some pictures of the swans.

Leaving CPH soon

I meant to update earlier this week, but I've been pretty busy. Let's rewind to last Friday.


Friday: watched the results of X-Factor wherein the best singer almost got voted off, tried to go to Palermo, but they were having another private party, and ended up at Out of Juice for a bit. Went home pretty early, but made plans for dinner the next night with Anna and Caitlin.


Ended up at their kollegium and we and their friend Matt had pancakes and some frikadeller (meatballs of a sort) and strawberries (which were surprisingly ripe and cheap). Also watched "Across the Universe" -- but since we had all seen it were also kind of talked through it, but that's the way to go with movies sometimes.


On Tuesday (Saint Patrick's Day), we of course had to go out to an Irish pub. We chose The Dubliner, by virtue of it being the closest to the Metro stop we all decided to meet at. We got there around 9:45 and it was, of course, absolutely packed and probably had been all day. There was a three-legged race/pub crawl earlier in the day, wherein the competitors had to race around to several Irish pubs and drink a beer at each. I had wandered around a bit earlier during the day and saw some of the competitors and the crowds around the pubs. But, we went in and fought our way to the bar, each got a beer, and then went to find a place to try to see the live band (doing covers -- Oasis, U2, etc.), and ended up standing on benches and/or table to do so. Probably the best choice, as we were then mostly above the rest of the crowd. So we stayed there for a couple of hours and sang and danced until we were tired and sweaty and wanted to make use of the trains and regular buses, and not wait for the night bus. Got home by 12:30, took a shower, went to bed.


On Wednesday I had a field study to the Danish Resistance Museum with my Danish language class. Basics of Denmarks involvement in World War II: occupation started in April 1940, and the government cooperated with the Germans until 1943 (during cooperation they were able to still hold elections, administer most things as normal). After August 1943, there was more open resistance, and of course there was an underground resistance movement that assassinated German officers, sabotaged trains/supply lines, etc. Denmark successfully evacuated the Danish Jews (all but about 500) to Sweden in in October 1943. It was pretty interesting, they have a lot of cool artifacts, but we were only there for an hour and it was a museum better suited to individuals, as all the information was in Danish and English and I probably would have gotten more out of it if I just went around and read all the placards myself.

That's about it! Now, I have to basically pack for the first couple of legs of my trip tomorrow, and then we fly to London on Sunday afternoon!

Ballet

I went to see my first true ballet last night at the Royal Danish Theater -- "Romeo and Juliet." I signed up for it through DIS and got a discount -- and through some mix-up they bumped our seats up; we ended up being in the last row on the floor, under the first balcony/mezzanine, so it wasn't an amazing view but pretty sweet (of course, front row of mezzanine is ideal for any performance, but I think we would have been higher up originally). The balconies went pretty high up in that building too.

Right before the performance started, everyone in the crowd stands up and we're like, "...what?" But then we found out from some Danes in front of us that the queen was there. So everyone had to stand up and wait till she was seated to sit back down. And there were two intermissions, so this happened three times.

It was a long performance -- three hours with two intermission, longer than I expected. But it was entertaining. I think I appreciated the orchestra more than the actually dancing. And the sets! The sets were amazing, moving seamlessly -- I really liked how it was staged. One scene in particular, where the friar details the plan to make Juliet appear dead, etc. was done well. There was this sort of "acting troupe" within the ballet that as Juliet and the friar stood frozen in the foreground, acted out the plan. Thought is was interesting.

And they all made dancing en pointe look ridiculously easy.

Random observation

While watching the Danish version of "X Factor" with the host family last night, I saw something surprising. Now, this show is watch by like, half of Denmark's population, is a family show, and is on at eight o'clock Friday primetime on the nation's second most watch television channel.

So imagine MY surprise when a sign supporting one of the contestants was shown, reading, "MOHAMED -- YOU'RE THE FUCKING GREATEST!" and was shown no less than three times during the broadcast, and it passed by without comment from any but myself.

Apparently this sort of thing is just accepted.

Another week gone by

I can't believe we're already one week in to March. In two weeks and one day, I will be in London for the CMM study tour/first week of travel break.

Travel break for me, looks like this:

March 21-27: Program study tour in London and Oxford
March 27: extra night in London
March 28-April 2: train to Paris on the 28th, fly out to CPH the night of the 2nd
April 3: One day in CPH to recuperate
April 4-April 11: Krakow

I'll be meeting and hanging out with Heather in Paris -- she's even staying with me for the first two nights at the hostel. I posted a message on the DIS forum at the end of last week, asking if anyone wanted to go to Krakow in the third week, and someone actually responded: a full year student named MaryElise. We booked everything this afternoon. The flights were pretty cheap, but the price on the hostels was AMAZING. No more than $15 a night; for seven nights it was still under one hundred dollars for two people. I have a feeling I will love the cost of things in Poland. Then, Heather will be visiting me from April 23-27, so that'll be fun too!

What else has been going on this week? Last Saturday, I went out in the morning to a small photography exhibition called "Mirror" by Camilla Holmgren, because I need to write a 4-page exhibition review due this past Monday of an exhibition of a female artist. I also went to H&M and bought a cute shirt off the sale rack, and a necklace. Caitlin, Anna, and I went out to a bar called Palermo, where we paid for overpriced drinks. (Basically all cocktails were 75kr, almost $13.) But the place was cool, and we found out that cocktails are only 50kr on Fridays before 11, so we might go back there next week. We all decided we would rather stay in tonight. And Kathryn lives so far away that she has to crash somewhere if she wants to meet up with us in the city -- last weekend we acquainted ourselves with the night bus system. We had to take one, and then get on another heading in the opposite direction to get to my home, and we would have ended up walking like 15 minutes in high-heeled boots if the second bus driver hadn't been extremely helpful.

My first class of the day was cancelled on Monday, but I (and about 25 other people) didn't know because our teacher had posted a message on the forum but not e-mailed it to us. I got up at 7am when I could have slept till like 10 instead. Ack. On Monday night, Anna and I went to a restaurant called Peder's Oxe for their Monday night burger special -- great, decently sized burger for 35kr (compare that to the cost of a drink mentioned earlier and it would only make me angry). We ended up having to wait for awhile because they have a really inefficient serving system, but it was worth it.

Tuesday was my Danish written exam (cultural things, easy) and my Danish Politics exam (which, although I was kind of... improvising on a couple of the short essays, I still got an A on the test when we got it back today). Wednesday was our field study to the Venstre (Liberal) Party Headquarters. We just had a short talk and Q&A session with one of the higher ups, it was okay. Most interesing parts of that field study, though? The candies with wrappers emblazoned with "Venstre" and the backwards clock. The numbers and hands went around counterclockwise. It was freaky.

Today I had my Danish oral midterm, which went well. But yeah, I'm staying in tonight and likely watching "X Factor" with the host family, and then I don't know what I'm doing for the weekend yet! I think we're going to make the trip up to the Little Mermaid on Sunday at some point, and maybe we'll go out for dinner or a couple of drinks tomorrow...? We'll see!

I haven't taken many pictures lately, but one of these days (hopefully when it's sunny -- a rarity) I'm going to stop off at the lakes and take some pictures -- especially of all the swans! I don't think I've ever seen so many in my life.

Random notes

Am feeling mostly better. Still a little congested and coughing some, but not really a lot, so.

Midterms are basically next week. I don't expect them to be difficult.

Today I came up with a crazy idea: get a small tattoo of the national flag of every country I will visit, while in the respective country (so that would amount to, right now, Denmark, England, and France -- maybe Sweden?). I know it is crazy, and I won't do it... I don't think. Too much money. Though I am putting out some feelers... :D

(Rest assured, all reading this, this is highly unlikely to ever happen. Even if I could convince myself to spend the money on it, there are still the NEEDLES to consider. *shiver*)

Today I bought a personal-size type pizza from a bakery near DIS (Sankt Peder's Bageri). Everyone frequents this bakery for pastries (which are delicious -- side note, "Danishes" as they are called in the US are named here under the umbrella term "wienerbrød," of which there are a number of varieties), but I forgot to pack a sandwich today and so I saw them and, instead of buying a pastry, bought a tiny, fresh, homemade pepperoni pizza for 20kr. It was fantastic!

Hopefully doing something fun tomorrow with some people, after attending some art exhibit somewhere (I have to do an exhibition review for Monday...). It's a very vague looking Saturday at this point.

I signed up/paid for to go to a ballet on the 10th -- Romeo and Juliet. A couple of people I know who are in a history of ballet class went with the class and they all enjoyed it, so DIS was offering a discounted price, I'm game.

Am also trying to pre-order the new Decemberists CD but the site is down, presumably because so many people are trying to access it. The first 750 people to preorder the CD and 250 people to order the vinyl get a copy signed by the band, and a chance to win some weird instrument (also signed by the band) and two free tickets to any of the shows on their upcoming tour. So, if the site works, that's $13.00 well spent, in my opinion. If I haven't managed it in the next hour or so before I go to bed, I'll pass and let the other fans have a go. :)

Danish Welfare

Looks like I'll have my first personal experience with the Danish welfare system tomorrow, most likely. I almost certainly have a sinus infection -- my host mother's about ready to take me to a hospital just so I can have medicine immediately, but this is definitely not a medical emergency, it can wait until I can get an appointment with my state-assigned doctor tomorrow.

So, what's all this about a welfare state, you may ask? We had a discussion about it in my Danish class on Friday; how's that for apt timing?

Well basically, just about all medical care is free... well, not quite free. Because taxes are sky high. My politics professor put it this way, "Everybody gives, and everybody gets." When I got here, I had to register for a CPR card/number, basically a Social Security card/number. At the same time I was assigned a doctor near my home, actually the same doctor my host family has. Also according to my politics professor, "You can't exist in Denmark without a CPR number."

And then, if you need to go the doctor, you call in the morning and make and appointment, go, the prescribe you something, you go the the chemist and pick it up. All without being charged. Hospital and emergency care is also covered, I think people may pay on their own for more specialized things -- for example, I think past a certain age dental care isn't covered, and my host mother says a lot of people don't go to the dentist for that reason, and people have to pay part of the cost for glasses or contacts.

Also, in regards to unemployment -- you definitely still can collect money when you are unemployed, and something extra about Denmark: the government has a responsibility to try and help you find another job. We all boggled at this in class, and our teacher boggled at the facts we were telling her about Social Security and unemployment in the US.

We also discussed how this would never work in the United States. Part of the reason is was successfully enacted in the 60s and 70s is due to the fact that, at the time, there were still a very low number of immigrants and the vast majority of the population in Denmark were ethnic Danes. The population of the country was so homogeneous (and so small in comparison to the US and other countries, as it still is) and people were all sort of raised the same way and of the same mindset that the policies could be successfully enacted. Part of the problem in Denmark today is the resistance to immigration and how that's affecting the welfare system. The US is just too large of a country for one thing, too diverse, and people have a mentality that is more "look out for myself" than "make sure the whole country's doing well." People would balk at the high taxes and say, "Why am I paying for all these other people to get medical care, etc.?" It's nice ideal, but, sadly, ain't gonna happen.

On a completely unrelated note, here are a couple of interesting stories I think you should take a look at: Facebook Won't Let You Remove Dead Relative's Page, Per "Policy" and the update where Facebook gives in and says it was a misunderstanding. The second post there raises an interesting question, though: what happens to a person's online/virtual life after they die?

Utterly ridiculous

So, on the way back from Odense the other weekend, we filled out a survey about the study tour, and there was this quiz-type thing (for fun!) with just questions about Denmark -- and they told us whoever got the most right, would win a prize. So I filled it out. And I won. This:


"When is it appropriate to wear this?" I asked my friend Kathryn.
"ALL THE TIME," she answered.

Other recent happenings: Wednesday was the field study to Roskilde Cathedral, where all the royals for hundreds of years have been buried. It was pretty cool! But also really weird, because there are coffins and such which have remains in them about three feet away from you, and then you also walk over all these different tombs which are in the floor. But, on the whole, very pretty and interesting. Made the first jaunt on the trains here too, which was kind of confusing because I didn't know how to get anywhere, so I was just following along, and then if the people I was following didn't know what was up, it was crazy.

The host family made it back yesterday from Norway, with some delays because they ended up having to take a bus to Oslo and get a flight, as the airport they were supposed to fly out of was experiencing heavy snow.

Friday night I went out to dinner with Kathryn, Caitlin, and Anna, and then we hung out at Caitlin's for awhile before Kathryn came here and stayed the night, as she lives over an hour away and it was late, she wouldn't have made it home due to the bus/train schedules until after 2 in the morning.

Today, it snowed like all day. I was ten minutes late for my first class because the buses were running late and there was traffic, ugh. But, I survived another Monday, and the week only gets easier from here.

This post will be epic (part 3)

So we had breakfast again around 8:30, the same type of food. Then we were split into two groups for walking tours of Odense. We went into the old part of town, a lot of the buildings date to the 1800s I think, because they were at one point burned to the ground during the some war or other. We saw Hans Christian Andersen’s (recently graffitied) home from the outside, then went into the museum. They have a large collection of his books, manuscripts, crafts, and personal effects.

The whole town is basically a monument to Andersen. Just about every building or street corner has some tie to him or his family. “This river is where Andersen’s mother washed clothes for a living.” “Andersen was confirmed here, and he tucked his pants into his new boots to show them off.” “This is the one room home where he spent his childhood, and the gooseberry bush he sat by writing stories.” “This is statue of him” Etc, etc. In the church where he was confirmed, they also have the bones of a Viking king and his brother, they were at least 800 year old bones. Pretty astonishing.

Our final stop on the tour was Brandts, a media museum. They had a lot of cool printing press type devices, but everyone was crashing at this point. We went for our last group meal and had gigantic sandwiches, and when one of our group leaders asked if we would like to start the trip back to Copenhagen early, a great cheer went up!

I finally made it all the way back home by about 5 or so on Saturday. Spent a relatively relaxing night, wished my host family a pleasant trip as they would be leaving before I woke up on Sunday, and got some glorious sleep.

This post will be epic (part 2)

So we got up around 7:45 on Friday, gathered up our things, for the most part, and went to get breakfast, which was cereals, the was stuff for sandwiches, etc. We left on the bus around 9 for Kolding and the castle there. It was okay, but our tour guide was repetitive and the structure had been restored in a way that didn’t really preserve it. I think it would have been much better looking as a ruin. We also had time to get something to eat in Kolding, so Caitlin, Anna, and I did that at a coffeehouse/sandwich shop, which translated to English as The Golden Oven.

Got back on the bus for the ride to Odense, and we actually arrived at TV2 – Denmark’s largest television network – about a half an hour early. This was definitely the most interesting academic visit. We had a lecture and discussion with a man who I believe was a producer of some sort. After that, we were given a tour of the studio. The building was impressive, I believe it was at one time a place for selling cattle; they even kept the old Danish phrase on the wall directing people not to lead their cattle through the square. We were able to go into the studio where they film their sports broadcast, and the array of technology suspended in the ceiling was crazy. We also walked through the new wing of the building and into the newsroom! We were able to stand in the newsroom during the short four o’clock broadcast. The anchor joked around with us a little bit before he went on air.

Kathryn, Caitlin, Anna, and I checked into our room in the second hostel, which was so much better than the first. We had our own bathroom in the room, it was not as clinical, there were carpets, and we all got our own key card. We weren’t even disappointed in the first hostel until we got to this one! We had about an hour before a group dinner, so we made our beds and relaxed for awhile.

We went to a restaurant called The Ugly Duckling (but in Danish, of course – I think it was Den grimme Ælling). It was just a buffet style place, but it was also really nice and we were able to get a glass or red or white wine or beer paid for by DIS. We headed back to the hostel after dinner and ended up hanging out with the girls who were staying in the room next door to us, just talking and sort of watching Friends on someone’s laptop. I ended up taking a shower and working on the study tour assignment, and I went and paid 10kr. to use the Internet for 15 minutes, but I was glad I did because I had so many emails. Bed early again, by 12:30 I think, and got a good night’s sleep.

This post will be epic (part 1)

So last Thursday, I got up at 6, gathered a few things, ate a banana, and was out the door and into the snow by 6:30 or so. I mad it in time to Frue Plads, out meeting place for the bus, and waited around with people to find out which of the many buses there was ours. We finally get on the bus and head out, and end up turning around after a couple of minutes to get three people who were extremely late.

Roughly three and half hours late we arrived (20 or so minutes late) in Århus for a lecture at the Danish School of Media (the Journalisthøjskolen). The guy giving the lecture was cool, but it was really nothing we hadn't heard, and everyone was still tired and hungry. So after about an hour of that we went and had a group lunch at this very posh place. Everyone got their own giant fried filet of sole -- my first fish in Denmark -- and potatoes and such. It was good, but had all the bones in which no one realized when they took their first bite.

After lunch we went for another lecture/discussion at the media house Midtjyske Medier. They publish what I think is the largest local paper in Århus. The guy who gave this lecture was also pretty cool. Talked some about how they are dealing with the Internet, etc.

Then things started getting good! We went to the ARoS Museum. While we were waiting for our group leaders to get our tickets, some man who worked at the museum came up to us, asking us where we were from, what we were doing. Then he told us that there was a new exhibit opening the next day, all about digital and interactive art, that he thought would be perfect for our group, so he managed to get us into an unopened exhibit for about a half an hour. What was even more amazing was that almost all of the artists were there, setting things up and whatnot because there was a press conference later. So we got explanations about the pieces from the artists! The coolest piece were the Life Writer and the Pulse Room. The former piece was an old typewriter somehow wired to a computer, and based on this coding, whatever was typed could then be created into little programmed insects that moved around. It was very cool. In the Pulse Room, the cieling had 300 lightbulbs on it, and there was a device that transferred your pulse into this pulsing lightbulb -- the room went dark for a few seconds as the new pulse transferred to the a single lightbulb and the 300th beat was replaced.

So after all this, we went to the hostel and checked in, then the bus driver was nice enough to drive every back into the city so we could go and get dinner. Myself and three of the girls I was staying with, along with three guys from our program ended up joining us, and we just went to a cafe and got sandwiches and such. We then met up with two of our group leaders and went the the Studenterhus (Studenthouse) for a little while -- got a Carlsberg, it was actually good. We watched a band play for about twenty minutes, but we were tired and wanted to get showers before bed, so we found our way to the bus we needed to catch for the hostel. Bed early!

An interesting discussion

I just had my Danish Language and Culture class, and we had a really interesting discussion about the Danish mentality, so I thought I would share some of the most interesting points with you, dear readers. So basically it kicked off when were talking about the Jante Law. Some Danish author in the 1930's wrote a book which included this kind of cultural code that amounts to "Don't think you are special or better than anyone else."

"Don't think that you are special.
Don't think that you are of the same standing as us.
Don't think that you are smarter than us.
Don't fancy yourself as being better than us.
Don't think that you know more than us.
Don't think that you are more important than us.
Don't think that you are good at anything.
Don't laugh at us.
Don't think that anyone cares about you.
Don't think that you can teach us anything."

So we got to talking about how this is not exactly taught in schools, but represented well by the public school system, where basically everything is taught for the average student, and we really branched off on how in America, everyone is taught that they are special and unique from a young age, and how that contributes to (well, at least perceived) American arrogance versus Danish modesty.

Some other simple things that tie into this concept of modesty and everyone being equal, that I think differ greatly from the US:

It is impolite and very difficult to brag about anything, even successes in school.
Parents won't even brag about their kids to others.
There's no talk in grammar schools about what kids want to do as a profession, not even in a fantasy-type way, as far as I can tell.

And in regards to university education:

Most people need to know from day one what they are going to study.
But then, almost everyone takes a gap year to figure that out.
Programs are three years for a B.A. and two more for an M.A.
Everyone does the five years, because you can't get a job here without an M.A.
Students get state financial support for at least four of those five years, what amounts to 3,500 DKK a month (roughly, 700 dollars) -- but this is for all expenses like rent, books, food, travel, and most students get a part time job.

Things I learned while typing this post: There is no key for a dollar sign on these Danish keyboards at DIS! (I didn't bring my laptop with me.)

I'll probably update again later today all about my study tour to Århus and Odense!

I did a lot this weekend

On Friday night I watched the Denmark vs. France semifinal handball game with my host mother. Denmark lost, and then yesterday lost to Poland, so they didn't even get third place. Oh well. But apparently handball is huge here. It's kind of exciting, it's like basketball except they carry and throw the ball at a soccer-like net with a goalie. High-scoring, fast-paced, so it's got that going for it.

On Saturday I went to the Statens Museum for Kunst, the Danish National Gallery, because I needed to pick and artwork by a female artist to talk about when the class goes together on Wednesday and we all have to do short oral presentations. It's a pretty cool place, and it was free, so.



I think I'm going to present
on this piece, called "She was never alone" by Kathrine Ærtebjerg. We need to talk a little about visual qualities and take a stab at the meaning, so I think I can do it.






I also ended up walking through the Kings Garden and snapped a few pictures of Rosenborg Castle on my way back.




On Sunday I went on a trip to Fredericksborg Castle. I believe it was originally built in the 17th or early 18th century; some of the rooms are reconstructed due to a fire that destroyed a couple of wings at one point, but the chapel, which was probably the most impressive bit, is all original. The tour guide was pretty cool as well, he kept pointing out things like a tiny piece of graffiti on the wall where King Christian V had drawn a 5 inside of a C. Pretty cool!

Can someone identify this bird for me? I see them around, and I think they're pretty interesting.

A lot to do

I don't know that the beginning of a semester has ever been packed with so much stuff to do. Not only do I have a lot of readings and already at least one group presentation to prepare for, I'm still adjusting and settling in, and wanting to explore (which, I really haven't done, just right around the DIS area).

Anyway, Friday night there was a welcome party at a night club near DIS. I really regretted my decision to go when I walked outside and the wind was whipping around. But, I went for a little while, hung out -- it was a cool club and was fun for a while, I just wasn't really in the mood for it, so I came home and (might have) watched "House" or something. I stayed in this weekend too, doing reading, chilling with the host family. On Saturday night there was some big thing on TV -- some fundraiser with all the money going to African children I believe -- that I watched some of. But I was nodding off in my chair at only 9 o'clock, so I went and got ready for bed. Also, it should be noted that "Mamma Mia!" is apparently well liked here -- at least by my 12 year-old host sister Caroline. Abba is going to be stuck in my head. As well as various pop songs that I hear on the radio on the bus everyday -- those unfortunately being things like Britney Spears and Katy Perry.

Yesterday I also sacked out early. Tonight, our "survival Danish" class had a cafe night scheduled -- so everyone went and we had a choice of hamburger or a vegetarian dish, of which I got the former and it was gigantic, and we were encouraged to order our drinks in Danish. I had "en øl" (otherwise known as a beer) and didn't really enjoy it, but the dinner and conversation were good. A lot of the people are in my actual Danish class, so it was good to get to know some people better.

I might stay up till 2am here tonight, because the Jeopardy! online test is at 8pm Eastern. Which I didn't know about until today, but I signed up to take it, and if I don't do it tonight I'll just have to stay up for a later timezone tomorrow or the next day. So tonight it is.

Classes have started!

I've had four of the five classes I'll be taking (I won't have the fifth until Feb. 2), so let's break it down!

News Media in Transition -- this is my core course for the communications and mass media program. Seems like it will be interesting, and challenging. Along with this, we are doing a short study tour from Feb. 5-7 to Ødense and Århus, as well as a week-long trip to London and Oxford for the first week of our three-week long travel break from roughly Mar. 21 to Apr. 13.

Women, Art, Identity -- not sure if I'm cut out for the feminist interpretations of art and art history, but I'll give it my all. See some cool art along the way!

Danish Language and Culture -- Danish is hard. Our instructor phrased it that Danish is easy once you get the pronunciations down, but that's easier said than done. Each vowel has like four different pronunciations, plus there are three extra (æ, ø, å). And other consonants have special rules. For example, when "d" is used between two vowels it is the English "th" sound (though is actually sounds a lot like and "l") as in "Vestergade" -- sort of like "Vestergathe."

Danish Politics and Society -- my instructor for this seems really cool, but Danish politics are a lot more complicated than I think I ever imagined.

For every class, we do field studies as well. So I'll be visiting art museums, the headquarters of the Liberal party and the Copenhagen police department, as well as the offices of the major newspaper Politiken, and I think one for Danish class is to go to a soccer game at the national stadium.

There's going to be a lot to do.

I AM living in Denmark!

I made it! It's been hectic here, with orientation meetings all day on Monday, Tuesday, and tomorrow. Anyway, the flight arrived on time on Sunday (7:15am local), but then we waited for the DIS charter buses to come and pick us up, with all our luggage. A short drive and tons of paperwork picked up later, I was picked up by my host mother. She took me to get my public transportation pass, and then to my home here. It's a large apartment in Brønshøj (which I think in pronounced roughly "Bronze-hoi"). I unpacked, had something to eat, and then took a nap. I probably could have kept sleeping, but I didn't. Anyway... everything is kind of blurring together.


On Monday morning my host mother took the bus with me so I would know where to go and where the stop is for the ride back. After some speakers, we headed to the main DIS buildings, which are right in the center of old Copenhagen. After a short break there were more orientation sessions in the afternoon. I somehow managed to get a phone this day as well.

Tuesday: oh wait, that's today. I had a three hour "survival Danish" class, wherein we also went to a supermarket and had to find the Danish words for fruits and veggies. Had lunch again, then met up with the four others who were in my "scavenger hunt" group. We had to travel around to various locations and answer a couple of questions about each.

We stopped at the largest department store, Magasin, and then headed to Amalienborg Palace, which is set up like an octagon, with four large mansions and two cross streets. It's the winter residence of the Queen and the royal family when they are in Copenhagen (flags fly to indicate it, like at Buckingham Palace). The Queen's residence as well as another that is used by I believe the Crown Prince both had flags flying. It was odd to be standing in basically the courtyard of a royal residence -- there was only one guard outside of each, it seemed very odd.




We also passed by Nyhavn, where I took the stereotypical "This is Copenhagen!" picture. We waited nearby here for the "harbor bus" which is a ferry. We ended up getting on one that forced us to make the loop of the harbor, but we eventually got to the Royal Library, also known as the Black Diamond, for obvious reasons. Then it was over to Christianborg castle, which house all the branches of government. A lot of the building in the area are government affiliated.


Then a quick stop at some square of which I forget the name, and the Church which is the offical state church, where royal weddings and state funerals would take place.

Afterwards I picked up my books and lugged them all home. Right now I'm really paranoid about missing my stop, or losing my bus pass, or just getting lost.

My host mother wasn't home for dinner but her mother cooked (who speaks little English) and the kids were home. Caroline, the daughter, helped us all communicate. Watched the inauguration, had dinner and some conversation, put my schedule into iCal, and wrote all this up. Might check some news sites and go to bed, as tomorrow is going to be another long day...