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