Seen and Done in the Last Three Weeks

Shopped at Petticoat Lane Market and Brick Lane in London
Looked at art in the Tate Modern
Visited the Globe Theatre
Rode the London Eye
Ate fish and chips in London
Toured the BBC
Won a BCC mug on a mock game show
Saw the Rosetta Stone at the British Museum
Learned about marketing for newspapers at the Telegraph
Saw Spamalot!
Visited Oxford and the Oxford Union
Went to the stop of the Eiffel Tower
Went to the top of the Champs Elysees
Took a boat tour of the Seine
Visited Montamarte and Sacre Coure
Also the cemetery where Jim Morrison and Oscar Wilde are buried
Notre Dame
Shakespeare and Co in the Latin Quarter
The Musee d'Orsay
Place de la Concorde
Musee de l'Orangerie
Rue Mouffetard
Jardin du Luxembourg
the Louvre pyramids
Walked around and shopped in the town of Luzern, Switzerland and saw the Lion and bridge that are famous there
Took a train through the Swiss country to Jungfraujoch and the Top of Europe!
Picniced by the jet water fountain in Geneva and windowed shopped there
Looked at the Trevi Fountain like the pope used to
Walked past the Spanish Steps, Piazza del Popolo, Largo Argentino, Piazza Navona and the Panthenon
Walked the step to the Marcus Aruelius Statue at Capitol Hill
Took a million pictures at the Forum Romanum, Palatine Hill and of course, the Colosseum as well as Imperial Foras
Went to Vatican City and saw the pope! Well almost...
Sistine Chapel, the Belvedere Torso, the Scraper, Apollo...and more and more and more
St. Peter's Basilica, where the pope was giving a mass later in the day, and the Pieta
The Bath of Caracalla and Pyramid of Sestius as well as John Keats grave
DAVID! the statue by Michaelangelo, not my other favorite David
Piazza Signoria
Santa Maria Nouvella
San Lorenza and the Medici Chapel
Santa Croce
Ospitale del Innocente
Ponte Vecchio
and the DOUMO
finally the Uffizi Museum and the Birth of Venus and the Spring and many other pieces of fine art
and then I had the pleasure of seeing the alps from the plane on my way back to Copenhagen.

Needless to say I had an amazing three weeks with no hitches at all. I think my feet are on the verge of breaking in half from walking about a hundred and fifty miles on cobblestones, but I have about a thousand pictures of some of the most beautiful things I've ever seen and that many memories of Europe. I think I'll try to think of some good short anecdotes to write up for the blog and otherwise, hopefully you'll hear all about this trip one way or another.

Until then, I will be celebrating my birthday the best way I know how: sleeping and relaxing. I'll be on skype and aim all day, so send a message!

Quickie!

Just wanted to do a quick update since I won't be posting for about three weeks...prepare yourself, I'm sure it will be a long one when I get back!

This week is midterms week, as I think I mentioned. So far, so good. I've taken two and have four more in the coming days. Slowly but surely all my plans are being worked out, and I'm getting ready to start the packing process. Including some cute new shirts and $17.93 jeans! (The exchange rate was great yesterday!) PS this is UNheard of in Denmark, where jeans are one average $60 to $100.

Last night, I went to dinner with my friends Matt and Olya and Matt's parents. I really enjoy hanging out with parents more than I ever have before because its such a sense of home away from home, plus they always have really neat things to talk about.

Dave's independent study project is kind of famous and his professor is coming to Copenhagen to present it! I'm planning to have meet up with the professor while he is here the week that I return from traveling.

I'm super excited and can't wait to start traveling, and especially to see Dad and Julie! Too bad St. Christopher has been downgraded to a mere legend...

Talk to you when I get back!!

Kristina is 21!

We brought in Kristina's 21st year of life the "wiking" way! The weekend began at about 3 o'clock with a private tour of the Carlsberg brewery. Kristina's teacher, Neils, has some sort of connection to the brewery, so he showed us around to the largest beer bottle collection in the world and the most expensive beer in the world, the most beautiful distillery, a mini-Little Mermaid and lots of swastikas (they've been using it as a symbol since the late 1880s, and then to the bar. We could try any of the many, many beers, which we took full advantage of.

At about 7, we left the brewery and headed back to the kollegium. Alex and I picked up some drinks and Kristina got the pizza. As we were walking back, somehow it was a good idea to racewalk and thus the beginning of my racewalking career was ended with one skin-removing fall. That or, I prefer the version where I am Indiana Jones and the huge ball was coming for me, and when I ducked down in the ditch to let it go over me my hand skidded on the ground a little. Despite the blood and the ripped jean, the night continued. We ate dinner, made a cake and had some drinks before going out with some of the Danes.

We went to Wall Street Pub for the rest of the night. It was a pretty typical bar. I made friends with a Dane in an F&M shirt and his cousins. One of the cousins is a soldier who had just gotten back from Afghanistan.

But, the best part of the night, by FAR was the birthday tiara. Of course, in the Kingdom of Denmark, we couldn't find a tiara to save our lives-- but what we found was so...much...better. A WIKING HAT! Kristina definitely was a champ about it and made it so cool that everyone wanted to wear it, especially when it became adorned with Danish flags.

And now, all the fun is over as it is midterm week. I have so much to do on top of the fact that I need to continue working on finding a job and pack for THREE weeks of traveling. Way too much for one week, but I'm sure I will manage.

Other than these things, I'm still doing well. It definitely doesn't feel so foreign here anymore, and I'm really happy with my situation. Very excited to start traveling. I'll upload pictures tonight, so make sure to enjoy those!

Godt Weekenden!

This has been a lovely weekend.

On Friday, after class I quickly met Kristina's parents before going home. The weather was beautiful, so I went for a run. I explore some new areas of my neighborhood and found a little dirt path with apple trees and a horse field. Upon my return the house smelled like chocolate cake (chocolade kage sho-co-la-kay-ah), and my host mom said, "Would like some cake and tea?" Of course!

After cake, the whole family went to Stig's work. He is in charge of all the military hospitals in Denmark. At the base he works on, he has a garage area where he builds racing bikes. Somehow the concept of having a garage at work does not seem strange at all. His office looked exactly like their house except for the big Monet print on the wall.

Simone and I went home and made beef and brown sauce over mashed potatoes for dinner. Beef and brown sauce is basically ground beef in water and flour with brown food coloring and seasonings. It was really cute having some time to bond and talk about how I like it here and the family.

After dinner I went into the city and met up with Kristina, her parents and Alex. They had had dinner at a little pub restaurant. We went back to the apartment Kristina's parents rented at NyHavn (the colorful buildings along the canal). The place is really nice and has everything included like pots and pans, dishes and silverware etc. Alex and I left Kristina to hang with her parents and went back to their kollegium for a drink. It was a very relaxed Friday, and I went home to watch Grey's online (finally saw the last episode from last season) and also talked to Dave.

Saturday morning, I slept in for a while, got up and watched more Grey's, then got ready to go to the market/fair with my host sister. We met Stig and Jane there and walked around for a while. It was like a regular fair with tents, rides, carnival food and live music. Danes like to line dance. Simone and I explored on our own and then met back up with Jane and Stig so they could buy me ice cream (tak for is!). I found a new purse, which I was excited about since I need one with a zipper for traveling. And it was pretty cheap. Simone and I left and Jane and Stig biked out to wherever they were camping. The ride there and back was about 45 minutes each way, which is really far when you live in a tiny country. We had lots of time to talk and get to know each other. Simone is going to come visit me when I live in a big city.

Silly me double booked my dinners for Saturday night, one with Kristina and her parents and one with Olya, who's birthday it is today. I decided that the best thing to do would be have dinner with Kristina and her family and then go out with Olya. So, I hoped on the train switched to the metro and followed a very nice DIS kid to his kollegium, which is also Christina's kollegium, who was hanging out with Olya before they went to dinner. I gave Olya some birthday chocolade and then left to meet up with my dinner pals. We had spaghetti with shrimp and crawfish, salad and bread. It was sooo good to have American food cooked by American parents. Dinner ended up being very hygge, so we talked for a long time after and then we had cake (which had nuts in it, so I had some yummy cookies intead) and then we talked some more, and by the time we were almost done talking it had gotten pretty late. Alex and I tried to meet up with Olya, but it wasn't working out because they were at some bar in the "former" red light district. So we walked and walked and ended up getting beers at a 7-11. Classy, I know.

But it was a really good thing because there was almost an international incident when these two idiots from DIS were on the train talking about American politics as if they had ever even held a newspaper. I was sincerely embarrassed to be from the same country as these morons who were distinguishing Senator Obama's career as when he was a state senator vs. when he was a US senator. I wish I could remember the exact phrase the one kid used to comment on the financial crisis, basically saying its a decoy or a tool to make things interesting in the election. And then they proceeded to discuss the Danish welfare state in a way that I found offensive, and I'm not Danish, so I can't imagine what the people (who all understand English) sitting around him were thinking. So in the end, the only thing that kept me from making any suggestions to them was the humbling fact that I had just had a pounder.

This morning I went to Olya's host family's house. They had a very elaborate lunch and gave her a beautiful necklace. It was a weird mix of emotions because on one had everyone was happy it was her birthday, but on the other hand the host mom's sister is very sick. I can't believe how much they did for her birthday though. It shows that there are some really fantastic, caring people out there. After lunch, Olya and I rode bikes through the farmlands. It's like being a little kid again, just Denmark is a little prettier than Reading and my bike had breaks.

Pictures!

I just opened a webshots account, where I can upload 1000 pics plus videos plus 100 more pics every month, much more than flickr's limits. So, look to the right and you'll find the link to those! There are plenty to browse through, but not all have captions yet!

I saw the Queen!

Of course it was the day I didn't bring a camera, but luckily Kristina had hers!

We decided to test out the water buses today. The last stop takes you right to the loading/unloading area for the Royal family onto the Royal Yacht. When we got off the water bus, we saw the flags raised and a crowd of people around a red carpet. Across the canal (past the Royal Yacht) they did a canon salute for her, then a bunch of Navy boys came out onto the yacht and saluted, then a little boat came from the yacht to where we were standing and out she came! She walked down the red carpet and waved to the people after some man gave her flowers and got into her little car and sped off to the castle. What are the chances!

This weekend was really fun and busy. On Friday night, I hung out with Alex and Kristina and Danes from their hall. We did a Pub Crawl through the island of Amager (pronounce Ah-mar). We kicked it off in a very Danish way with smorebrod sandwiches, Tuborg and a shot of snaps. It was fun hanging out Danish style and being able to talk to Danish people. We definitely met some interesting people including a bellbottom-wearing, very snooty Dane who kept referring to the island as uncivilized. After he said Danes were uncivilized and bad things about Americans and Brits, I asked him where he would live ideally to which he responded Southeast Asia as if it was completely obvious. Later, after we got back to Alex and Kristina's kollegium, we all took a trip to the roof. He found me again and asked, "What are you doing up here?" Very interesting. Another Dane was wearing a 1992 style windbreaker, brightly colored, that at one point in its life had a pair of matching pants and belonged to a woman on her way to jazzercise class. And another one was wear a Helly Hansen jumper/overalls with reflective strips around the ankles. And two others were wearing leather vests and jackets.

I stayed over (in Kristina's bed, thanks!) and we woke to more Danish interactions. This time Jakob (Yak-ob) wanted to make us some pancakes aka crepes. So we let him. We talked politics a little and got to the point that Denmark is better than the US because its a welfare state. I tried to use the example that even making reforms in NYC is a big deal with only 8 million people and how much praise is given to the mayor for cutting down on crime etc. But to make changes to a system of 300 million people is absurd. Denmark went into $16 billion worth of debt creating its health care and other systems in the 90s. Could you imagine what it would cost for the US to do the same, especially during a war? From what I've observed, its really difficult for people in a small population (5.4 million in DK) to comprehend the magnitude of the US. We have 20 states bigger than Denmark!

After breakfast, I got some work done before heading home to shower. I got ready and headed back out to meet up with Alex to go to DIK, the international kollegium, one town over from me. They had an open bar and BBQ from 5-9. Very fun and got to meet some new people. We went back to Alex's kollegium to hang out with Kristina at 9 and made the rest of the crepes with ice cream for dessert.

On Sunday, the girls and I went on a canal tour. B-e-a-u-tiful day for this. I let Alex take hold of my camera and work her magic while I sat back and relaxed. Alex and I explore Vesterbro, the former red light district, after the tour while Kristina went to a birthday party at her visiting host family. We met up with a boy named Alex and went to the soccer game, FCK vs. Aab. FCK won! 3-0. Definitely a great experience because of the fan base and insane amounts of songs and cheering that went on. And I had my first Franskpolse (french hotdog?). It's a hollowed out french bread roll with a hotdog stuck in it.

I've been feeling a little stuffy and have been taking lots of vitamins and sleeping as much as possible. Yesterday was rough, but today I had coffee in the morning, which made my life wonderful.

Tomorrow I am going shopping with Alex and Kristina, meeting about a group project and then going to the Bodies Exhibit with my class! Yay for these field studies paying my way to really cool stuff.

It's hard to believe that tomorrow marks being here for one month. I'm definitely doing better in terms of homesickness and am really enjoying being here even when I have no idea what its being said over the loudspeaker on the train! In only one more month I'll be in Paris and one month after that we're having a Thanksgiving dinner and one month after that is Christmas Eve! I sent my resume to a bunch of people for proofreading and will hopefully be able to start sending it out within the next week or two to apply for jobs.

I'm working on uploading pictures- there's a lot from this weekend!

Quotes from The Copenhagen Post 9-12/18/-08

"Copenhagen will play host to the UN climate conference, the International Olympic Committee's congress and homosexual Olympics the Outgames next year."

"A novel about Aisha, the 6-year-old wife of Muslim prophet Mohammed, deemed to controversial to print in America, may be too expensive to print in Denmark."

For an idea of the cell phone ad, go to http://samsung-sensation.com/landingpage/ and put your cursor over the Netherlands (NOT where I am...). The mermaid is a full page ad, not sure what bejeweled boobs have to do with phones, but hey! We're in Copenhagen.

"Movie Only a Mother Could Love": "I am Mike Myer's core audience. I almost passed a kidney stone watching the Austin Powers series and I am known to readily quote Fat Bastard, even after it became unfashionable to do so. My sense of humor hasn't developed much since 1990 and I was eager to meet "The Love Guru" Myers' first original character since the Powers films." (spelling and grammar article's own)

And the weather is forecast as dry with sunny spells...damn those spells of sun! Damn them all!

Now, add a weinerbrod (Danish pastry), and you just had yourself a taste of a Danish morning.