School's Out!

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

It's Sometimes Sunny in Copenhagen and Learning to Pay it Forward

...thank god because seasonal affective disorder (a.k.a. seasonal depression, don't I sound educated?) would have definitely set in by now.

The sun and the warmer weather here made me realize that there are actually people in this city. As soon as it got nice out there instantly was a change in the atmosphere here, as if the sun magically makes everyone happy. With that kind of vibe in the air you can't help but be happy yourself, and of course instantly miserable as soon as it rains.
I had my first picnic in the park this past weekend. Although as soon as we laid out our blankets clouds covered the sky, it was one of the most relaxing things I've done in a long while (hard to imagine since it appears I have been relaxing for the last 3 months).

I've hopped on the popular trend wagon and picked up the book Eat, Pray, Love (the author is a little full of herself but so far so good) about this woman (the author) who after a mid-life crisis spends a year living in various places to more or less "find herself". Anyway, I read this part where she is living in Italy and learned that the Italians have this ideal, "bel far niente" which translates into "the beauty of doing nothing" which is the goal of everything that they do. To completely relax and find pleasure in everything. And of course it goes into this whole thing about how American's have an "inability to relax into sheer pleasure", which the more I think about the more I realize that it's true (think about it you know I'm right on this one). So it's something I am going to try and work at in these last couple of months here because lately I have been only thinking about how I have two months left, how quickly it's going to fly by, and how sad that makes me. It's turning me into a Debbie Downer and I'm not happy about that.

On a more interesting note I have a funny story that I'm sure you'll enjoy. I never fail to amaze myself with how easily I can embarrass myself with little to no effort (it's practically a skill). So here is goes:
Once upon a Thursday evening, Carlye decided to wear a dress to a party at the Copenhagen Business School (damn the classy precedent set by all business schools, which I can't help but try to fit in to). At said party are the said "hottest guys" in all of Copenhagen (who can resist a guy in a suit?) and two cocktails for 40 kroner (STEAL). The party takes place in the atrium of the B-School building and there are a lot of people there (is the scene set enough?). So I decide to go to the bathroom (easy enough) and I walk out and back across the room. I get about 10 yards into the room when this girl comes running up to me from behind and grabs my shoulders saying "undsykld" (sorry/excuse me) and then grabs at my dress. I look at her puzzled and say what, to which she replies, "your dress was tucked into your underwear..."

Like I said, skilled in the art of self-embarrassment. It made me think about how many times I've noticed something like that with people and didn't say anything. Because of that I am implementing a "pay it forward" mentality so I can avoid future dress-tucked-in-undesirable-places incidents. So far I have flagged down a grounds keeper to let him know something fell off his truck (go me!).

I promise to tell you about Berlin soon. I'm off to Barcelona in a week, the first of my last two trips, damn not having a larger bank account.

Much Love

A little bit of Ireland

I decided that it would be best to tell you about Ireland before I actually forget what I did. It's amazing how bad my memory is at 20...it makes me worry about 30,40,50 etc.

When we arrived in Dublin I have to admit it wasn't what I expected. I don't know why I felt this way because I had never seen pictures of Dublin, but for some reason I was expecting cobblestone streets wet from rain, green mossy buildings, and collies. It's amazing the standards you can form, of things that you have never seen, based on movies that you've watched or stories that you've read. This makes it sound like I hated Dublin, when the opposite was true. Though it wasn't as nearly as astonishing as London, Dublin had it's unique Irish charm.

The second day in Ireland was mostly spent on a bus winding through the streets of western, trying not to get motion sick, and seeing the Ireland that I had pictured in my head (green, stone walls, black faced sheep etc.). If you take anything way from what you read here it should be this: put the Cliffs of Moher on your bucket list. TRUST ME on this one. I spent a good portion of my time there memorizing every sense that I had of the experience; the smell of spring in the air, the sound of crashing waves, how blue the Atlantic Ocean is, and even the way the stone wall felt on my hands. This way, every time I look at the pictures, I can remember the sense of awe that I felt seeing something that was so naturally beautiful.

Much Love

England: "Americans...this could have been yours"

I just want to say, for the record, that being a tourist is exhausting. Of course it is all worth it in the end, but after 8 days of traveling and seeing I could not have been happier to see MY bed in MY room without 2-8 other strangers in it. That being said...

London was amazing.

The quote is from the Yeomen Warder (or Beefeater as they are also known) from my tour of the tower of London. I couldn't help but feel a little sting of jealousy from that comment after having seen what London was like, I could easily see myself there someday :)

I arrived in London to the sight of a young couple being lead away in handcuffs, at the passport check, by two big police officers with even bigger guns (not the muscle kind). Needless to say when the guy was checking my passport for an extended period of time, questioning me, and consulting a colleague, I began to sweat a little. Thankfully I won't have to add "being arrested" to my list of firsts.

I experienced this sort of child-like thrill the first few minutes of our bus ride into London when we began driving on the wrong side of the road.

Paula and I managed to get to the hostel with little issue. When you live in a place where the primary language isn't your own you forget how nice it is to be able to easily communicate with people and find your way in new places. When we finally made it to Piccadilly Circus we had trouble getting our bearings from the several google maps I printed out (which I have learned are not helpful when you can't find street signs). Luckily a group of semi-locals (they only came to the city for work) saw the confused looks and our faces and let us share their cab to our location without having to pay. Our luck didn't end there. When we arrived to the hostel, we were put into a 4 bed room instead of the 12 person we had originally booked. That was HUGE!

The next four days were jam packed with at least 8 hours worth of touristy things a day. I brought along the most hideous pair of tennis shoes to walk around in (I opted for comfort over looks) so i definitely fit the tourist profile. We saw everything that you could think to see in London:

Big Ben
Parliament (and even sat in on a meeting in the House of Commons)
Trafalgar Square
The National Gallery
The National Portrait Gallery
The Eye
Westminster Abbey
Buckingham Palace
The Thames River
St. Paul's Cathedral
Tower of London
Tower Bridge
London Bridge
The Globe Theater
Abbey Road
The Camden Markets (I had my first bargaining experience)
Portabello Street Market in Notting Hill
China Town
Soho/Red Light District (and drag queens)

It would be interesting to know how many miles we walked to see all of that. It was almost sad but after every day of tourism we were too exhausted to really get out and experience the night life of London...other than a pub crawl around Soho.

And of course we couldn't tour London without splurging on a meal or two. The ironic thing about London is that, while it's an expensive city, I found that the prices we paid on our dinners were still cheaper than I would have ever paid in Copenhagen. We had a typical English dinner of fish and chips (chips = fries) and chicken and leek pie. And what is London without a little Indian food?! We had a fabulous three course Indian meal and we were so full in the end that our pace was definitely slowed that day. Four days of meals consisting of bread, cheese, and fruit from a grocery store really teaches you to appreciate a cooked meal.

There is really so much to tell about London that I could really go on and on for a long time. I know it's annoying to say that and then not tell more but I feel like I can't do the story justice in type. Unfortunately, it looses it's luster this way.

Stay tuned for the abbreviated story of Ireland and some 500 pictures of both places...maybe that will make the long post easier to read.

Much Love

It's not writers block ...

One of the biggest things I have come to realize about this trip is how fast it changes you. I knew that coming was a big change, but I didn't realize that I would actually notice changes in myself...it's kind of exciting :)

Things learned so far:
1. I like to cook
1 1/2. The US should switch to the metric system...everyone else is doing it
2. Light beer should be banned from the US
3. It turns out I like eggs after all
4. The gym is my friend
5. Sunshine should not be taken for granted...EVER
6. "Ice winter" is as bad as it sounds
*to be continued upon realization*


Enough of the sentimental stuff! I haven't had much to tell lately, hence the extended absence of new posts. BUT, next week I am off to London and Dublin for 8 days! I'll have plenty of stories to tell after that! Abbey Road here I come!

Much love

My two cents

I called the doctor today to make an appointment to have prescriptions filled (technicality, they don't take American prescriptions here) expecting to have to wait a week or so to see the doc, because that's how it is at home. I have an appointment for tomorrow. I just wanted to let people know how "hard" it is to see a doctor under a social health care system.

I felt the need to share this thought.

Back to school

Last week went by so fast it made me realize how quickly the rest of my time here will pass as well, especially if I sleep until noon everyday. My first day of class was a real eye opener. My social psychology course has 8 other people in it with a teacher that, instead of lecturing us for 3 hours, discusses the topics with us and asks us for our opinion. It is more like a 3 hour discussion session than a lecture and I think I am going to take a lot away from that. The amazing thing is the informal manner of teaching. He is very catered to our needs instead of the other way around. My one day of class has also been a real eye opener into the social welfare outlook on life. It makes me wonder why anyone would choose anything different.

Politics aside, last week was the welcome week for international students. A university organization set up what was called the insomnia tour, where every night (from last Monday to last night) a different club in the city hosted an event. I didn't make it to all of the nights but it was a great time getting to see different clubs in different parts of the city, even though I lost my voice somewhere along the way. One of the nights there was a party at one of the student apartment buildings and they set up a flip cup tournament. Now this normally wouldn't be a big deal except Europeans don't play drinking games, and most of the teams were made up of people who had never played before. Needless to say my team of two Americans, a Canadian, Spaniard, and a German took the tournament by storm, winning the flip cup super bowl and a bottle of the worst liquor you have ever imagined (called Fiske Fjæs, which apparently translates to fish face).

After many hours spent planning, I have my next trip planned. I will be meeting up with my friend Paula in London for a 5 night stay, and hopefully seeing my friend Grace while I'm there, and then continuing on to Dublin, to meet up with some of her friends for three nights. I still can't get over how cheap it is to get around here! My flight from Copenhagen to London was $24 with my most expensive flight being $60 form Dublin to Copenhagen. While we are in London we are looking into trying couch surfing (Google it). It's going to be a great trip!

That's all for now.

Much love

And I thought I was leaving winter behind,,,

It seems that winter has followed me to Copenhagen...and I am not very happy about that. When I arrived here there was barely any snow on the ground and green grass everywhere, I didn't think such a thing existed this far north. I've been told Denmark is having what is called an ice winter. Since last Wednesday there has been three snow storms, factor in the strong winds of the sea shore and you almost have blizzards that are worse than the ones in Wisconsin. The amazing thing is that there are still people biking everywhere! These Danes don't mess around when it comes to their biking. I'm too much of a chicken to even attempt biking in this mess so hopefully the snow will start melting soon...at least before the 15th because that is when my metro pass expires and I really don't want to buy a new one.

Tomorrow my friend from California is having her 21st birthday party so we have a big night planned. In Denmark, I have heard it is traditional to have a lot of Danish flags present on your birthday, and since she's actually half Danish maybe she'll teach us a thing or two. She tried teaching me the happy birthday song in Danish the other day but of course that was a lost cause. I am going to attempt to make her a gluten free cake for her birthday, which will prove to be challenging seeing as how I still struggle buying normal food (the other day I bought what I believed to be a fruit smoothie (it came in a milk carton) and it turned out to be yogurt...I got a few strange looks from my Danish roommates when I started pouring my "smoothie" into a glass).

I have my first university related meeting today and then my first day of class starts tomorrow! I am extremely anxious (in a good way) to get into the swing of things again. As much as I know that I will never have this kind of free time again in my life, I almost miss my busy Madison schedule. I wouldn't have to find things to do to occupy my time because it was decided for me. This is definitely going to be a challenge.

Much love

Poland and Back

5 days and 4 nights of Poland...where to even begin this story. The beginning sounds appropriate I suppose. What started out as a simple flight out of Malmö, Sweden to a Warsaw hostel via shuttle, turned into a 12 hour trek with 11 hungry (therefore slightly crabby), and freezing cold people. Needless to say, things did not get off to a very good start, not to mention the not so fabulous first experience of a Hostel (you think the comforters in hotels are gross...and our 6th bunk mate in a group of 5 girls was a 50 something man with a belly that would put Santa to shame).

I realize everything to this point sounds really negative and awful, but of course that's not the case. Warsaw was a really beautiful city, not so tourist friendly (I've never have had so many people mad at me in such a short period of time) The best thing about Poland was that everything is so cheap, so we went a little crazy with our brief period of being able to afford eating out (not possible in Copenhagen without emptying your wallet).

Friday we were up at a time that no person should be up at (4:30am) to catch a train to Krakow and from Krakow take another train to Oświęcim which is where the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp museums are located. I think that has to be one of the most profound experiences of my life, other than moving to another country of course. The air seemed thicker there and you could still sense this overwhelming feeling of desperation that was once present. Something like that makes you really appreciate the life you have, no matter how hard it gets.

We returned from Poland on Sunday with few travel issues and the anticipation of getting away from cold and snowy Poland. However, Copenhagen greeted us with 4+ inches of snow, and today a lovely snow storm. Funny how I thought I was going to be able to escape winter by coming here and it only seems to have followed me. Denmark is having one of the worst winters in 23 years.

Classes start this week and I am very excited to get back into the swing of things. I'm only taking two classes and they both happen to fall on the same day of the week. So with only one day of class I'm going to have a lot of free time to fill (if you have any suggestions of hobbies that I could take up please let me know).

I realize this has been waaaaay too long of a post, so if you have made it to the end without being completely bored cheers to you! Much love.

Hang on to your hats people of Warsaw!

So what started out as a trip to Amsterdam turned into a trip to Berlin which then turned into an excursion around other parts of Denmark/Sweden (who knew there was more to Denmark than just Copenhagen!), which then returned to a trip to Amsterdam...and somehow is now a trip to Poland, though I'm not quite sure how that happened. Anyway, we (as in the foreigners and I) will be spending 4 nights and 5 days in Warsaw doing what ever it is you do in Warsaw. It's funny how you go abroad with plans to go to certain places and end up somewhere completely different; Poland was not on my list. And here's the kicker...the entire trip so far comes to about $100 (Mom ignore the dollar signs), and supposedly everything is cheap there, though I'm not sure how anyone knows that since no one going has ever been there. To top it all off I will get to experience my first ever Hostel stay (Mom don't watch the movie Hostel)! Another first in a rapidly growing list of firsts!


Love

Pictures etc.

Here is the link for my photo album/journal/what ever

http://kingabroad.shutterfly.com/

The last 13 days in a nut shell...

I can't believe that I am actually making a blog...I don't even like the word! But I figured that coming back after six months of being away and trying to answer "how was your trip?!" would be impossible. So here you will find the answer! I'll try to keep this up to date for my avid fans, but I can't make any promises...seeing as how I already forgot my password. I think I can post pictures on here somehow so you can see what I am seeing (sort of), plus this would be so boring to read if there weren't any pictures!

I'll get you up to speed with what I've done so far! When I landed in Copenhagen it was 1:20pm and the sun was starting to set...as if my internal clock wasn't screwed up enough from next to no sleep and a 7 hour time leap. My friend Mark and his parents Lone and Flemming picked me up at the airport and drove me back to their house in Humlebæk (pronounce hum-leh-bek), about 30 minutes north of Copenhagen by train. They are like my Danish family, Lone worries about me as much as my mom does and they like to spoil me. That night I went out with Mark and his friend Magnus to my first ever bar (ironically called Manhattan), in the town called Helsingør, and had one of the local beers called Tuborg (not as good as Carlsberg but good in it's own way).

New Years was quite an experience! At midnight thousands of people go to the city square in Copenhagen (they have a clock tower there) and everyone lights off fireworks. Needless to say I was a little nervous when I saw people walking around wearing huge plastic goggles, but I'm happy to report I still have both eyes. Mark gave me a tour of Copenhagen and it is a beautiful city! The buildings are amazing, there are cobble stone streets and there are people everywhere. I definitely enjoy the feeling of living in a big city! There is so much more to do and see that I don't even know where to start!

On the 5th of January my Danish class started and although I am the worst at learning languages it has been a lot of fun. I made friends with the majority of my class (about 13 people) and we do things together nearly every day. The Danes have this motto or mentality that they call "hygge" (good luck pronouncing that one) which involves spending time with friends and enjoying each others company (beer/wine optional) which I think is something that we have down pat (usually with booze).

Tonight was a monumental moment for me so brace yourselves for this one...I cooked myself dinner! Alfredo from scratch with garlic chicken and well of course pasta. Be amazed! It's a huge step up from rice or pb&j. I should have taken a picture but I don't want you to be jealous of my new found talent. I'd like to thank the movie Julie & Julia (or what ever it's called) for motivating me to try cooking...it only took me two hours.

More to come soon. Hope you're not bored already. I'll work on the pictures

Love