It's the first time that I've actually dreaded the end of the school year, even after having worked 10-12 hours a day for 5 days on a exam paper (and for the first time ever finished it 3 days before the deadline, shocking I know). It's weird to think about being home in 2 weeks.
Anyway, due to irritable volcanoes and closed airports, my trip to Barcelona was rescheduled for this past week (just got back last night). I like to think that things happen for a reason because the weather for the original trip wouldn't have been nearly as fabulous was the weather was this week. 80 and sunny the entire time! I couldn't help but to soak up the sun as much as possible, even at the expense of my poor pale skin.
Barcelona was a beautiful city. I can't even describe to you how beautiful and the pictures will fail to do it justice. If you ever get the chance to go, take it.
I have hundreds of pictures from the trip that I will upload for you to see, I think that's the best way to describe what we did during the trip.
Tomorrow I'm heading down to Slovenia to meet up with Jason, Michelle and Sidney! Hopefully the rain will go away for that trip!
Much Love.
Friday, May 28, 2010
Sunday, May 16, 2010
T-Minus One Month
I realized last night that I will be home in exactly a month...where did time go?
Last weekend I went to Milan to visit my friend Paula and was reminded what spring is really supposed to be like; green and at least over 60 degrees. I actually got to take my coat off, it was fantastic. Although Milan was more of a metropolitan city than I would have preferred it was great to see some friends from home and eat some great food.
Friday my friends and I hosted our long awaited 90's party. Although attendance was lower than I would have liked we all had a great time dressing and dancing like it was 1995...or '96, '97 or what have you.
The weather here has been extremely drab and it's starting to get to everyone's head a little bit. For the last week it has been overcast, high 40's, and either windy, misting, raining, or pouring. I even got a text message from my Danish friend apologizing for the weather saying the "weather is never like this"...I've gotten similar texts from the same person on at least 3 other occasions in the last 5 months.
Tomorrow I get my exam questions and have about 6 days to turn out a 14 page paper. It's going to be a rude awakening having to actually work and study for the first time in 5 months, though I will be rewarding my efforts with a trip to Barcelona on Sunday :) Hopefully there will be sunshine and warm weather there...not to mention Sangria.
Much Love
Last weekend I went to Milan to visit my friend Paula and was reminded what spring is really supposed to be like; green and at least over 60 degrees. I actually got to take my coat off, it was fantastic. Although Milan was more of a metropolitan city than I would have preferred it was great to see some friends from home and eat some great food.
Friday my friends and I hosted our long awaited 90's party. Although attendance was lower than I would have liked we all had a great time dressing and dancing like it was 1995...or '96, '97 or what have you.
The weather here has been extremely drab and it's starting to get to everyone's head a little bit. For the last week it has been overcast, high 40's, and either windy, misting, raining, or pouring. I even got a text message from my Danish friend apologizing for the weather saying the "weather is never like this"...I've gotten similar texts from the same person on at least 3 other occasions in the last 5 months.
Tomorrow I get my exam questions and have about 6 days to turn out a 14 page paper. It's going to be a rude awakening having to actually work and study for the first time in 5 months, though I will be rewarding my efforts with a trip to Barcelona on Sunday :) Hopefully there will be sunshine and warm weather there...not to mention Sangria.
Much Love
Monday, May 3, 2010
Danish Mifflin
This past Saturday was the legendary Mifflin Street block party in Madison and I was asked if I was sad I was missing it. Luckily May 1st happens to be the Danish labor day and the party that goes with Danish Labor day, I am sorry to say, blew Mifflin out of the water (and the Badgers thought they knew how to party). Everyone goes to this park called Fælledparken and picnics, bbq's, drinks all day long listening to live music and the occasional policical speech by Socialist activists (maybe communist, I have no clue it was in Danish and there was a few communist flags, but I was told it was a socialist holiday). This park is huge by the way, and every inch of it is covered with people. I also didn't have to worry about having an open intoxicant because it's legal to drink in public here...though in Mifflin's defense I think part of it's charm is avoiding arrest all day. Other than those few things it wasn't that different from Mifflin; the first thing I saw when I got there was still someone bending over to throw up (drinking too much seems to be universal).
Sunday I went to tour the newly renovated palace for the Crown prince Fredrik and his family. I went with Lone (for all intents and purposes my Danish mom) and we only had to wait in line for an hour and a half (worth it). I couldn't take any pictures but it was beautifully decorated inside, I can't imagine living in a place like that. Afterwords we went out to Helsingør to watch Mark (her son, my Danish brother for all intents and purposes) play football (the American kind). The Kronborg Knights got beat on by a team from Copenhagen but it was really homely sitting there and watching American football. Then I went back to their house where, and I will have you know that this was by special request, I cooked them my alfredo sauce (again). Yes, I am that good of a cook now :) Go me.
I'll put some pictures of the park up on the photo journal.
Much love
Sunday I went to tour the newly renovated palace for the Crown prince Fredrik and his family. I went with Lone (for all intents and purposes my Danish mom) and we only had to wait in line for an hour and a half (worth it). I couldn't take any pictures but it was beautifully decorated inside, I can't imagine living in a place like that. Afterwords we went out to Helsingør to watch Mark (her son, my Danish brother for all intents and purposes) play football (the American kind). The Kronborg Knights got beat on by a team from Copenhagen but it was really homely sitting there and watching American football. Then I went back to their house where, and I will have you know that this was by special request, I cooked them my alfredo sauce (again). Yes, I am that good of a cook now :) Go me.
I'll put some pictures of the park up on the photo journal.
Much love
Saturday, May 1, 2010
Spider incident, Tour de Chambre, and Copenhagen heat wave
The dreaded moment has arrived. Along with allergies spring has finally brought me my first spider (not itsy bitsy by any means). I knew this was coming, and not having 5 boys around to have kill spiders, I knew that I would have to suck it up and deal with it myself. So I've been psyching myself up, getting into the "you can do this" frame of mind, it's just a spider and your shoe is much bigger than it. When I discovered a web and spider legs outside my window I wasn't sure if it was just a dead one left from the season before or my first encounter. The rest of the story goes a little like this:
-I think there is a big spider on my shutter (calm, cool, collected, I can handle this mode)
-Move the shutter, spider drops into sight and starts crawling around
-@!#!$!%@#!@# and lots of screaming
I spazed so much that I almost gave my friend a heart attack and scared him from going anywhere near it much less killing it (oops).
Said spider is still at large.
Last night my floor had a tour de chambre (round robin of bed rooms so to speak). 8 of us participated and for each room you had to come up with a theme, decorate, dress up, come up with a drink (not the Shirley Temple kind) and a game to play. Lacking any sort of creative bone, cell, and/or gene in my body I came up with a flower theme (original I know), which gave me a good excuse to buy myself flowers :) and play pin the bumble bee on the flower. Needless to say every other theme was more creative than mine, including a girl who transformed her room into a disco, Saturday Night Fever style. One of the games for the Communist Russia themed room was throwing these Danish chocolate marshmallow ball things (surprisingly good) at the face of G.W. Bush. It was kind of funny because all of my Danish roommates were looking at me waiting for me to be offended. Too bad I'm such a poor shot; my throws went over the target, into the wall off to the side of the target, and onto the floor a foot in front of the target...and I can't even blame that on being intoxicated because it was the first game of the night.
In other great news the weather here hit 64 and sunny on Thursday! I could actually take off my coat! It was short lived though because now it's back in the 50's and raining. Don't be alarmed if you confuse me with an albino when I come back.
Thursday I am off to Milan for 4 days of warm weather and carbo-loading!
Much Love
-I think there is a big spider on my shutter (calm, cool, collected, I can handle this mode)
-Move the shutter, spider drops into sight and starts crawling around
-@!#!$!%@#!@# and lots of screaming
I spazed so much that I almost gave my friend a heart attack and scared him from going anywhere near it much less killing it (oops).
Said spider is still at large.
Last night my floor had a tour de chambre (round robin of bed rooms so to speak). 8 of us participated and for each room you had to come up with a theme, decorate, dress up, come up with a drink (not the Shirley Temple kind) and a game to play. Lacking any sort of creative bone, cell, and/or gene in my body I came up with a flower theme (original I know), which gave me a good excuse to buy myself flowers :) and play pin the bumble bee on the flower. Needless to say every other theme was more creative than mine, including a girl who transformed her room into a disco, Saturday Night Fever style. One of the games for the Communist Russia themed room was throwing these Danish chocolate marshmallow ball things (surprisingly good) at the face of G.W. Bush. It was kind of funny because all of my Danish roommates were looking at me waiting for me to be offended. Too bad I'm such a poor shot; my throws went over the target, into the wall off to the side of the target, and onto the floor a foot in front of the target...and I can't even blame that on being intoxicated because it was the first game of the night.
In other great news the weather here hit 64 and sunny on Thursday! I could actually take off my coat! It was short lived though because now it's back in the 50's and raining. Don't be alarmed if you confuse me with an albino when I come back.
Thursday I am off to Milan for 4 days of warm weather and carbo-loading!
Much Love
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Hot Wheelz
I think if there is one inanimate object that I am going to miss when I leave this place it's going to be my bike (sans the unknown guy who walked into the picture).
It's funny how something as simple as a bike can make you feel like you belong. Once I got over the thought that Danes were crazy for riding their bikes in the winter (as scary as it sounds), I became more and more dependent on my bike, especially it's basket! I didn't realize this until one night coming back from a club I found the front wheel of my bike mangled beyond repair and for about two weeks I was seriously inconvenienced by my lack of bike (walking quarter of a mile while carrying groceries is not fun). To think that before I came to Denmark the thought of getting a bike and learning how to bike through the city made me nervous, and now it's something I love. Biking in Madison used to make me nervous and the bike traffic there doesn't hold a candle to what it's like here. Hopefully I will be able to find it a good home come June.
Much Love
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
And then there was Berlin!
I decided that I should take a break from staring out the window (in disgust) at the white stuff (that should not be named, but to give you a hint it's not volcanic ash) falling from the sky and finally write about Berlin.
About Berlin
The trip started with a 7 hour bus ride starting at a time of the morning that no one should be awake. Thankfully I packed enough tylenol pm to knock myself out with until I arrived in Berlin :), though I did wake up for part of the Ferry ride across some body of water (I have no idea how we drove to Berlin) only to resume my nap on the floor of the boat for the 1 hour 45min ride (as uncomfortable as it sounds).
We had fabulous weather for the entire trip, a little cool some days but always sunny. We didn't do much the first day there (weary travelers) except for prowling the city in search of a sports bar to watch a football match, Barcelona vs. Arsenal for the record. This walk produced my first "first" of the trip; First #1: I saw my first hooker (the real deal; hooker boots, fanny pack, etc.), which would be quickly outdone by walking to dinner one night and spotting a hooker every 10 yards.
The remainder of the trip (5 days total) went a little something like this:
Wake up at 9
Eat breakfast
Sight see all day
Siesta time
Dinner at 9
Go out until about 6am
Repeat
We took an extensive walking tour (3 hours kind of extensive) around the city seeing all the top historical spots (see picture album). It was really interesting learning about the history of Berlin, mainly the wall. It was something that I had never taken the time to learn, (or in my defense never had the opportunity to learn about) and it was extremely fascinating. I loved our visit there, and I think it's the history of the place that made it such an interesting place.
Another part of our trip (4 hours to be exact) was spent inside the famous Pergamon Museum. Not being one for museums, my attention span was lost an hour in, and I literally was forced through the rest of the museum. At the time I wasn't to thrilled but looking back I think it was a cool thing to experience. The Museum was full of all these ancient artifacts and reconstructions of discovered buildings and statues that dated back to the BC ages. There is something cool about seeing something that old, and even more interesting was how they had moved these enormous pieces of building from their discovery sights and into the museum (still a mystery).
When it comes to traveling, the one thing you always think to do is eat something that is specific to that country. All I could think of that I had to eat in Berlin was a brat (OK so I thought of more things but this is the only one that I would have eaten), which we found a stand at a train stop selling brats for 1 Euro that did the trick. I also continued my tradition of eating Indian food in every place I travel to. That was something that I never really planned on doing, but since it's sooo expensive to eat out here it's become a tradition when I travel (though it might be ruined in Italy). Needless to say, the Indian food, although delicious as always, was not nearly as good as in London (next best thing to India I hear).
On our last day we spent 3 hours in a line (on 2 hours of sleep) waiting to get into the Reichstag (Parliament) building to go to the top dome. It was worth it in the end, but still...3 HOURS! To top it off our 7 hour bus ride was spent attempting not to go crazy from being exposed to a baby crying...for the entire trip (not exaggerating).
In other news, I hate Iceland.
I was supposed to be in Barcelona right now (I bet there isn't white stuff falling from the sky there right now), but due to the stupid volcano in Iceland my flight was canceled. Sooooo I'm going to try to rebook at the expense of the airline (suckers) and hopefully will make it there without incident. Otherwise I have Italy to look forward to in the beginning of May.
A little less than 2 months left over here (try not to wet yourself with excitement) so I'm making the most of my time! I promise more pictures with people in them.
Much Love
About Berlin
The trip started with a 7 hour bus ride starting at a time of the morning that no one should be awake. Thankfully I packed enough tylenol pm to knock myself out with until I arrived in Berlin :), though I did wake up for part of the Ferry ride across some body of water (I have no idea how we drove to Berlin) only to resume my nap on the floor of the boat for the 1 hour 45min ride (as uncomfortable as it sounds).
We had fabulous weather for the entire trip, a little cool some days but always sunny. We didn't do much the first day there (weary travelers) except for prowling the city in search of a sports bar to watch a football match, Barcelona vs. Arsenal for the record. This walk produced my first "first" of the trip; First #1: I saw my first hooker (the real deal; hooker boots, fanny pack, etc.), which would be quickly outdone by walking to dinner one night and spotting a hooker every 10 yards.
The remainder of the trip (5 days total) went a little something like this:
Wake up at 9
Eat breakfast
Sight see all day
Siesta time
Dinner at 9
Go out until about 6am
Repeat
We took an extensive walking tour (3 hours kind of extensive) around the city seeing all the top historical spots (see picture album). It was really interesting learning about the history of Berlin, mainly the wall. It was something that I had never taken the time to learn, (or in my defense never had the opportunity to learn about) and it was extremely fascinating. I loved our visit there, and I think it's the history of the place that made it such an interesting place.
Another part of our trip (4 hours to be exact) was spent inside the famous Pergamon Museum. Not being one for museums, my attention span was lost an hour in, and I literally was forced through the rest of the museum. At the time I wasn't to thrilled but looking back I think it was a cool thing to experience. The Museum was full of all these ancient artifacts and reconstructions of discovered buildings and statues that dated back to the BC ages. There is something cool about seeing something that old, and even more interesting was how they had moved these enormous pieces of building from their discovery sights and into the museum (still a mystery).
When it comes to traveling, the one thing you always think to do is eat something that is specific to that country. All I could think of that I had to eat in Berlin was a brat (OK so I thought of more things but this is the only one that I would have eaten), which we found a stand at a train stop selling brats for 1 Euro that did the trick. I also continued my tradition of eating Indian food in every place I travel to. That was something that I never really planned on doing, but since it's sooo expensive to eat out here it's become a tradition when I travel (though it might be ruined in Italy). Needless to say, the Indian food, although delicious as always, was not nearly as good as in London (next best thing to India I hear).
On our last day we spent 3 hours in a line (on 2 hours of sleep) waiting to get into the Reichstag (Parliament) building to go to the top dome. It was worth it in the end, but still...3 HOURS! To top it off our 7 hour bus ride was spent attempting not to go crazy from being exposed to a baby crying...for the entire trip (not exaggerating).
In other news, I hate Iceland.
I was supposed to be in Barcelona right now (I bet there isn't white stuff falling from the sky there right now), but due to the stupid volcano in Iceland my flight was canceled. Sooooo I'm going to try to rebook at the expense of the airline (suckers) and hopefully will make it there without incident. Otherwise I have Italy to look forward to in the beginning of May.
A little less than 2 months left over here (try not to wet yourself with excitement) so I'm making the most of my time! I promise more pictures with people in them.
Much Love
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Because I Said So
My dad wrote me the other day telling me to write on here more often, and like any good daughter, when dad tells you to do something...you do it.
This past weekend I went to a triple birthday party for a group of friends who all turned 21 in the same week. They all happen to be Scottish, and apparently turning 21 there is as big of a deal as in the US. And by "big deal" I mean they out-do any American belief that we make 21 a "big deal." There were Scottish men everywhere dressed in kilts, and at one point, the birthday boy broke out his bagpipes and played while all the Scottish people began dancing little jigs all around the room. It was quite a cultural experience and it made me realize that I can't come up with anything specific to my culture for my birthday...other than my friends trying to get me to black out and/or vomit.
Tonight we are having the first good bye dinner of our group of friends. I'm not looking forward to saying good bye and it is not helping with the fact that I am trying to forget that I leave soon as well. I am making a chocolate chip and sour cream cake (comfort food) for our little dinner that we're having, cross your fingers that it turns out.
Much Love
This past weekend I went to a triple birthday party for a group of friends who all turned 21 in the same week. They all happen to be Scottish, and apparently turning 21 there is as big of a deal as in the US. And by "big deal" I mean they out-do any American belief that we make 21 a "big deal." There were Scottish men everywhere dressed in kilts, and at one point, the birthday boy broke out his bagpipes and played while all the Scottish people began dancing little jigs all around the room. It was quite a cultural experience and it made me realize that I can't come up with anything specific to my culture for my birthday...other than my friends trying to get me to black out and/or vomit.
Tonight we are having the first good bye dinner of our group of friends. I'm not looking forward to saying good bye and it is not helping with the fact that I am trying to forget that I leave soon as well. I am making a chocolate chip and sour cream cake (comfort food) for our little dinner that we're having, cross your fingers that it turns out.
Much Love
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