So much to do, so little time

It’s starting to get really cold over here. It’s already sleeted/snowed twice...and I probably scared my host family by running outside screaming, yelling, and catching snowflakes on my tongue…that was fun. The end of the semester is really quickly approaching and I’m realizing there’s so many things that I have yet to do. I still haven’t made it to Malmo, Sweden, which is just a half an hour across the pool, and there are a ton of places in Europe that I would love to see since I’m here. It would only cost $50 to go to Oslo, Norway, and it’s really tempting…and my friend just came back from Barcelona, and he says it’s perfect weather right now. Then there’s always Brussels, Amsterdam, Budapest, Stockholm, Helsinki, I could keep going on.

But classes are also picking up and this week is a little hectic: three tests, a quiz, a paper, and a presentation. Yikes! And there’s also tons to do here in Copenhagen, too that I need to also do. This Wednesday (I guess that’s tomorrow already- gosh, time flies!) my host family is having another monthly dinner with their good friends, Suzanna and Alan. This Saturday is a DIS julefrokost (Danish Christmas feast) with a ton of people, friends, and host families. Also, this Sunday is one of Denmark’s biggest soccer games, FC Kobenhavn v. Brondby IF, and I’m going with my Danish class. It’s going to be delicious.

Hygge Hygge

I have lots of good memories from last week: My friends and I had another Asian dinner, Thanksgiving, and Tivoli at Christmas! Asian dinner was a success, as usual. It consisted of munduguk, fried mundu, tofu and bean sprout panchan (by me), adobo (Merianne), spring rolls (Ben), pajun (Paul), lychees from a can (my host family had never seen lychees before), and a delicious desert made from macaroons, alcohol, oranges, and homemade whipped cream (Jette). This time it was at my host family’s house, so I was really excited to show off my home and family to everyone.

For Thanksgiving, my host mom, Jette, was nice enough to cook a lot of food, and my family even got a turkey. I felt so lucky! Turkey is really rare here so you have to pre-order it. The menu was: spinach/artichoke dip, baked brie, green bean casserole, homemade cranberry sauce (me), savory sweet potatoe pie, stuffing, gravy, turkey, homemade pumpkin pie and whipped cream (from real pumpkins), and a store-bought chocolate pie (Paul). Yum! Paul and Ben were able to come and join in and it was a really fun and good time.

DIS subsidized tickets to Tivoli’s comedy show, Crazy Christmas Cabaret, and it was hilarious. The show makes fun of all types of people (especially nationalities), and there were crazy accents and outrageous costumes, and audience participation. It was great. But what I like even better was just being inside Tivoli. It really looked magical. There were so many Christmas trees and all the little shops were decorated with festive accessories. They were selling all of the traditional Danish Christmas snacks like glogg (apparently warm red wine with spices) and aebleskiver (spherical Danish pancakes). And I was skipping around singing holiday tunes. The whole atmosphere was just hyggeligt, and it really felt like Christmas had started.

Orchestra concert

Today was the second of two orchestra performances, and thus concludes my time with KUSO. It's been so much fun, and I really love everyone there. I love, Lise, my chair stand partner; we've had a lot of good times, and she's helped me through so many scrapes! But really everyone I met was so fun and nice; I hate to leave! I don't know if I mentioned earlier, but we played a premier work called Lego, Carl Nielsen's Flute concerto, Marche Slave by Tchaikovsky, and then this wedding dance written by the conductor, Kresten. It was so much fun, and it just really shows, I love playing and miss it so much. I'll hopefully will stop by to bring some cake and drink tea during break at least one more time before I go.

Equality vs. Competition

In Danish class not only do we learn, obviously, Danish, but we also take time to learn about the Danish culture. So far we’ve talked a lot about the differences in Danish habits and manners, but recently, we’ve talked about the Danish mentality of equality versus American competition. I think this is a very debatable and interesting topic, and I can really see both pros and cons of each side. On one side I see that the Danes strive for an environment of equal access to all citizens whether it’s health care or education or whatever. As a result, idealistically, most have access to the same equal opportunities as everyone else. Again idealistically, this leads to low crime rates and a “happy," fair society. On the other hand, in a classroom, this means that no one emphasizes special treatment for gifted or slower students. There’s no praise for being the best or shame at being the worst. The class is only as good as its worst student. In America, from as early as when a kid goes to school, they can be placed in an accelerated class and the gap between students begins. As the kids grow up, this gap just increases until there is a large disparity between those less advantaged and the privileged. However, this competition to be the best pushes kids to strive to be better, to try harder, and as a result, these accelerated groups allow the kids to reach their full potential and push past unfathomable limits, idealistically. So very broadly speaking, there is this choice between a solid medium group or a wide spectrum of different people from disadvantaged to very priviliged. Of course, these are very, very large generalizations, but, these concepts were just interesting to talk about.

Healthy Danes

Now that I’ve been in Europe for three months, my perspective looking back at the US has really changed, especially in terms of food. Danes are so health conscious and make time for working out and taking care of themselves. At first, it was really frustrating to take a 30 minutes train to class everyday, but I’ve learned to use it as time for me to read or just space out and think. I have never made time for this in the states. I think this alone gives me sanity. But also besides cycling to work or walking everywhere, Danes also work out on top of everything. This isn’t to say that American’s don’t do the same – especially coming from Austin, but it just seems that everyone here does everything: cycles, walks, works out, takes time off to relax, and eats right. And on the topic of eating right, I think that it’s also just natural in Denmark that everyone eats less. Food, here, is expensive. That’s enough to stop me from eating right there. It also comes in small quantities. Everything is tiny like the pieces of fruit, bread rolls, vegetables, packages of meat, and the shrimp. And the meal sizes, if you’re wealthy enough to go to a restaurant, are moderate. There’s no supersizing here, and no transfats! Yay! But even though I still eat more than my host family, it just goes to show, Americans just eat way too much. There’s no reason for us to be eating as much as we do to try to be “getting our money’s worth.” And it’s not just food intake alone, but the whole package that makes the European lifestyle so healthy. Now, if we can only work on smoking issues…..

Playing Piano

Last week I started playing piano for a local hospice in Frederiksberg. I’ve been there only twice so far but I already feel very welcomed and at home. The sunset around 4:30PM here, so by the time I arrived, it was dark, but the nurses lit the rooms with candles and it felt very warm and cozy. It feels good to play the piano again. I haven’t really played since I left for Denmark, and the piano is really nice there. One of the residences came to listen to me play, and he was a really patient and sweet audience member. The others heard from their rooms. I felt bad that I didn’t have too much repertoire prepared, but everyone seemed understanding. I think I’m going to really look forward to going there from now on.

Travel Break

Traveling for the last three weeks was crazy and fun. I really had some amazing experiences and I feel so privileged to have been able to go. I got to see Europe and I felt like I learned so much. I traveled with my friend, Merianne, and traveling wouldn’t have been the same without her. This was our itinerary:

Poznan, Poland
Berlin, Germany
Prague, Czech Republic
Vienna, Austria,
Athens, Greece
Venice, Italy
Rome, Italy
Florence, Italy
Milan, Italy
Paris, France
Lyon, France

There are so many stories of the people we met, things we saw, and mistakes we made, but even though I would at the time, looking back, I don’t think I would change anything. Everything shaped our experience into what it became. And with Rick Steve’s as our reference, I think we spent about $1000 for everything.

I think some of the best moments were:

Watching where the sun should have risen in Athens on St. Paul’s hill (without knowing
it was St. Paul’s hill) eating Philipino fruit cake, but not being able to see it because there was a larger hill in the way - lol
Watching the sunrise successfully in Athens Lycomethia Hill
Sleeping in an airport
Sleeping in a train station with hobos
Eating the bread basket in Prague and having to pay
Trying to break the language barrier with my distant Greek relatives that I’ve never met
before using made up sign language
Bearing the wind on the lookout tower in Austria
Going to a “Blind” restaurant
Eating dolce de la casa in a Venice cafe
Being packed literally like sardines in a train in Rome
Drinking holy water
Watching the Eiffel tower sparkle

After all of that I came back home to a presentation, a paper, and two tests. And by the weekend, I crashed, sleeping until a record 4PM on Saturday. It has been a good three weeks well spent.

Abroad

So I only have a few moments at an internet cafe but I just wanted to give a brief update. I'm now in the middle of the DIS long study tour and am at Berlin. We went to Poznan, Poland from Sunday to Wednesday, and we will be in Berlin until Saturday. So far it has been amazing. I feel so priviledged to be able to be abroad and travel during school, and we've been able to see a lot of very interesting things. Apart from just being in Poland and Germany and experiencing the two cities, DIS taken us on some medical related trips like autopsies and pediatrician shadowing. Both experiences were really interesting and eye-opening, but I was really moved by the autopsies. I think the only way to describe it was surreal. Seeing the knowledge that the pathologists had and how masterfully they can move through the body was really fascinating.

And the cities are, of course, a lot of fun. We've been on tours, seen museums, all the good stuff! I will give more details later, but just wanted to say....Europe's amazing!

Party Weekend

This past weekend was packed.

Friday: Pancake party in the city

Tons of homemade pancakes with delicious house blend syrup. I got to meet some new people. Shared housing here is pretty much a hotel!

Saturday: Orchestra practice in Buddinge and Brett’s 20^th birthday party in Gentofte

I got completely lost in Buddinge, a suburb outside Copenhagen, and my wonderful chair stand partner found me. (I learned that stand in Danish is “poot!” What a cute word!) My first traditional Danish birthday party was a lot of fun and filled with delicious food. Brett’s host family were really nice and interesting people. His host sister is planning on traveling to Tanzania to volunteer at an orphanage there. Afterwards, I was invited to sleep over at Merianne’s so we could have some extra time to plan our 2 week travel break. Yay for slumber parties!

Sunday: Flea market at Holte and Asian cooking party at Birkerød

I’ve actually never been to a flea market before, and I thought this one was SO much fun! Finagling prices with the locals was interesting and I think it turned out pretty well. I got a beautiful ceramic coffee pot for free and a few neat Danish gifts! It was funny because I noticed that there were a LOT of Asians shopping there, but then I noticed that my entire group of friends that were there were also Asian- haha. Asian thriftiness is universal! After shopping the four of us went for a nice stroll around the local lake and forest to Ben’s house to make dinner, which was a complete success- I made a Thai coconut soup, Merianne made Adobo, Ben made spring rolls and desert plantains, and Paul made Kimbop (Yes, Paul has joined the cooking trio)- Yummy! Ben’s host family was very sweet and enjoyed the meal. It was nice to talk to them about their travel experience because they seem like they’ve been everywhere. The 16 year old host son probably has traveled more places then the four of us combined!

Now that it’s Monday, it’s time to start finishing everything due before the travel break. Fortunately for me, I don’t have that much- just a Danish oral and written exam and an outline in Healthcare in Scandinavia. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it yet, but I’m taking:

Complexities of Cancer

Danish I – the program we use is “Danish Ducklings,” hence the name of this blog

Human Health and Disease

Healthcare in Scandinavia

Youth and HIV/AIDS in Africa

I really like all of my classes and the professors, so going to class is really not that bad- but we’ll see how it turns out at the end of the semester. For now, though, only one more week till travel break!!!

Danish field trip

This past week was so eventful! After coming back from the Sweden trip I had a chance to go on a cultural study tour with my Danish class to Christiana and Roskilde! It was really interesting, and I feel like I learned so much more about the Danes.

Christiana is a small part of Copenhagen that has created something like an anarchy/ co-op society. The mentality is you can do whatever you want as long as it doesn’t impede your neighbors from doing what they want. (That includes marijuana, hash, and alcohol). But it is a great place for personal freedom. For example, the citizens are allowed to make their houses in any way. So on one side of the side walk (no cars allowed here) you might have a German house that’s shaped like a banana, and on the other side you might have a lean-to, and right next store you might have a “mansion.” All the citizens have to do is pay a small fee per month and their plot of land is theirs for whatever they like. This area was such a stark contrast from just outside its walls that it was hard to tell that I was still in the same country. There is so much controversy and political disputes about this community, and I would really like to explore it a little more.

Roskilde was a very sharp contrast. Roskilde is a small village outside of Copenhagen where the Danish royalty and nobility is buried. Most are all buried within the large cathedral there and their tombs are humongous. I think the most interesting part of the area was to see how the King’s sarcophaguses changed throughout time. Some were extraordinary and some were very simple and small, but all were very beautiful. This was definitely a trip that I don’t think I would have gone to see by myself, so I was glad that I had the opportunity to go with my class.

Weekend Sweden Bike and Canoe Trip

Written last week: I’m so glad I have a late class on Monday! It gives me so much more time after a busy weekend of exploring! I really needed the sleep today cause I came back from biking and canoeing from Kullaberg, Sweden, this weekend, and I’m definitely tired.

On Saturday, I rode the ferry from Helsingor to Helsingborg with a group of DIS students and stepped on Swedish grounds for the first time. It’s pretty much just like Denmark because it’s so close, and we never had to show our passports or IDs. But it was still beautiful to see the quite country-side, big windmills, and ponies.

From the ferry it was about another hour drive to our hostel, and we were pleasantly surprised to find that the hostel was more like a bed and breakfast hotel! It was very cute and clean and decorated with original furniture from the early 1900s. Soon after arriving, we were off on our (self-guided) biking tour.

It rained a little, but it hardly took away from the beautiful country side and small rolling hills. We first rode to Nimis (pretty much everyone’s destination) which is a giant driftwood sculpture that you can walk and climb on (at your own risk- everything was really wobbly). The artist is this guy who claims this and another structure, Arx, a part of his micronation called Ladonia. Nimis is amazing and crazy. It looks literally like a chaotic pile of drift wood that cascades down the coast into climbable towers, and there were a lot of other tourists there. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to meet the maker, but we had a really good time climbing and taking pics.

After words, my group (5 of us) decided it would be great to go to the lighthouse at the end of town…little did we know, that the light house was on top of a giant hill. For 45 minutes we peddled on our little one speeds and got a really good work out. But it was worth it for several reasons 1) there was this Swedish guard/toll man that we talked to for a while, and he let us pass for free. 2) Getting to the top felt like an achievement-haha 3) The light house was cute and had a great view! Even though it was hard work, I was really glad we chose to go up!

But by the time we got back to the hostel, we were frozen, drenched by the rain, tired, and HUNGRY. Fortunately, an amazing dinner was waiting for us, and we had a chance to meet some of the other DIS students from other programs that we don’t really get to see often. After some good conversations, I fell asleep as soon as I hit the pillow.

The next morning, we had a huge breakfast, and I felt refreshed and ready for some quality outdoor bonding. Everyone was really optimistic because the sun had actually come out. My group was canoeing today, and I was so excited because I don’t get to canoe very often. We canoed through Angelholm, a small town, and it was very peaceful, because the current did most of the work.

Ben, my canoe partner, and I made three stops. Once to try climbing a bridge-which turned out slightly disastrous because it was so muddy, once to stop with a larger group for a picnic lunch, and once to sight see the town. The river we canoed kind of reminded me of the swampy south, but the town was definitely like a small Demark town with Swedish writing and currency.

After words, we stopped at a small harbor to look around while we waited for the other group that was cycling to get back. The Mölle harbor is so peaceful and quaint, and reminds me of the towns you see in postcards.

Soon after, we left back for the ferry, and this time, I bought some Swedish chocolate. (The ferry is between the borders of two countries, so there’s no tax and everything is much cheaper!) And I split a delicious cinnamon Danish with my friend, Alice, as we enjoyed the view of a Danish castle. Haha…a castle! A perfect way to finish a great weekend!

Tasty Thai

So, Sweden tomorrow! I'm excited and am praying for good weather! It's going to be a fun weekend especially after this week (2 tests and 1 presentation)!

Tonight, my host family had one of their monthly dinners with one of their good friends, Allen and Suzanne. I was so happy because my host mom was very brave and cooked some Thai food! I was so impressed! She made my favorite coconut soup....and it tasted almost exactly like my beloved Thai restaurant in Austin, Madam Mams! YAY!!! She also tried making pad thai which was good, too.

I'm also very excited because my host family has a motorcycle, and my host dad might let me ride it on Monday if the weather is good! I've never been on a motorcycle before so that would be VERY fun!

This afternoon, though, was very sad, because one of the flights that Merianne (my friend and fall travel buddy) and I were very excited about and planning to buy was sold out! It was only $30 from Vienna to Athens (I felt so bad -because I was the one that hesitated on getting all of the tickets!) So, we have to rethink our itinerary again....and unfortunately, now the ticket price is VERY high.... :(

Well, gotta go to sleep. I have to wake up 6AM tomorrow for the trip! Hope everyone is doing well!

Lights Out

The power has gone off in the neighborhood, and luckily, my lap top still works! I’m actually really happy, though, cause it gives us a perfect opportunity to congregate. We’re forced to be together around the candles-haha! And it’s so romantic….we’re eating some yummy cakes (leftover from what I baked for my orchestra and what Linnea made in class) and some fresh apples from the garden. Jette and Linnea are reviewing Linnea’s hw and Niels is washing up for the night.

Today, I spent pretty much the whole day planning the two weeks of fall break with Merianne. It was a lot of fun, and I can’t wait to go. We have a pretty ambitious itinerary. After our school field trip to Poznan and Berlin, we would like to go to: Prague, Vienna, Athens, somewhere else in Greece, Milan, Rome, another Italian city (TBD- maybe Florence), and Paris. It won’t be a very detailed visit to each city, but it will definitely be a nice sampling of a lot of Europe!

I also watched a Danish movie called Festen (The Party), and all I knew about it going in was it was about a birthday party, and it was the first of the Dogma movies. I thought it was going to be a sweet and cute movie- ha! It’s quite the opposite. I won’t spoil it- and you should see it if you haven’t yet, but it was very surprising and nothing like I expected! It had a very twisted story line, and I spent a lot of time being confused. But it was worth it!

The Running Mothers

My host mom is part of a group that we refer to as “the running mothers.” It is a bunch of her friends that coordinate times to run during the weak. It’s a really great idea. They use an internet network to record when they are going to run and others sign up to join them. Last week I had the chance to go along with them and tour my town, Vaerlose, a little more. We traveled around a small lake with beautiful trails and a nice view that’s about 5 km. The running mothers were so cute, because they have matching red jerseys with their team name which translate to Lionesses. (The husbands are lions.) And they all jog like pros together, with even the girl golden retriever, Chige.

The Cooking Trio

My friends, Ben and Merianne, are geniuses and had an amazing idea of getting together to cook Asian food last week! Yum! I had been having SUCH a craving, and the food here is expensive and not really Asian at the Asian venues. So, we prepared all day by visiting the Copenhagen China Town and cooked at Merianne’s host house. I say it was a complete success. Merianne cooked puncit (which is a delicious Filipino noodle dish), Ben cooked spring rolls and buchi (Fried sesame balls with red bean paste), and I cooked, of couse, bulgogi. The host family hopefully had an interesting experience. (I also bought some canned kimchi – which everyone got to try). And I know I really loved everything! The three of us decided we would have to get together and cook more often. Next time we will go to either Ben or my house to cook with our families. I’m so excited!!!

Meeting the People

I really love meeting all of the new people here. One day (probably like two weeks ago) when I was coming home late from after orchestra rehearsal, I met two girls who were on the same train as me. From what I understood they were from a program that invites students all around Europe for some type of architecture program. The girls I met were German and Spanish. Pretty cool. They are here for the semester as well and had just come from working on a group project. I would really like to meet them more! We exchanged numbers and will hopefully get together sometime.

A few lists from my new world

Once again, it has been a long time since I’ve written, and (of course) so much has happened.

So, today…I am going to write a lot of lists to try to sum up everything.

I never mentioned all of the weird Danish quirks:

1) Danes eat with a fork in the left hand and knife in the right hand. They don’t switch or put their utensils down in the middle of the meal. They also cut and eat, and don’t cut everything at once.
2) Special meals with friends last hours.
3) Scentless candles are very commonly lit during most meals (even the casual ones).
4) At the end of the meal, you look at the cook and say “Tak for mad.” (Thanks for the food.)
5) Danes are ALWAYS on time, and don’t tolerate being late.
6) In my family, people often take small portion for their plates, and then eat, and then take another small portion, and eat, and keep going….
7) Danes don’t really care about the rain. (I guess they don’t have too much of a choice.) But everyone acts exactly the same whether it's raining or not.
8) If something socially unacceptable happens, many Danes ignore it.
9) There's a lot of PDA.
10) Many people think of serious dating as “marriage.”
11) Wedding rings may be worn on either the left or right hand for many couples.

Fashion here is different for me, too. Mostly, though, I think it’s just because of the weather. I’m really not used to wearing layers or jackets and scarves (especially in September). But everyone seems to be very fashionable here.

1) black tights that go to your ankles, short skirts, flats, and a long jacket
2) neutral colors and red and yellow
3) skinny jeans with knee high boots that go over the jeans
4) BIG purses (like back-sized)
5) A lot of the styles are 60s-esque (think go-go girl jackets and dresses)
6) Punk = hoodies

Food here, I thought, was very easy to adjust to. I’m not a picky eater, so maybe that helps a lot, but everything I’ve tried so far is good.

Breakfast:

Option 1 (on weekdays): natural (no flavor or sugar-sometimes flavored) yogurt with
muselee or rye grain mixed with sugar
Option 2 (on weekends): slice of bread with topping (butter and choose 1: jam, cheese, meat, thin piece of chocolate) and fruit
Option 3 (on special occasions): everything above plus eggs, bacon, BBQ beans, and
wienerbrod (Danishes)

Lunch:

Option 1: Regular sandwich (inside might have bell peppers, cucumber, lettuce, butter, deli meat, liver pate, mayonnaise with horse radish)
Option 2: smorrebrod which is rye bread with choose 2: frikadeller (meatballs), pickled beets, liver pate, salmon, butter, pickles
Option 3: Cold board which is a combo buffet style of everything mentioned and more

Dinner

Of course it varies but typically:

Carb: potatoes typically
Meat: red meat
Veggie: we’ve had a lot of different things

Oh, and I had my second test today….which was (like my first test – in my cancer class,) very general over view topics and principles, but this time however, timing was a huge issue (for the whole class). There was too much to write, and not enough time to write it. L But at least everyone is in the same boat.

And by the way- I joined an orchestra called KUSO (the translation is Copenhagen’s Youth Symphony Orchestra) and it’s been a lot of fun. We meet once a week, but it makes my Tuesdays very long (7:30AM-11:30 PM). Today, though, I made and brought some sour cream pecan coffee cake and small pecan pies for the orchestra to eat as a snack during break (this duty gets passed around each week). Supposedly, a lot of Danes have never seen pecans, so it was nice to be able to let them try it!

Alrighty, I’m tired. Off to bed. I’ll have to write more later. (Tomorrow I’m meeting with Merianne- my friend from several of my classes- to make plans for the two weeks break and this weekend, I’m going to Sweden for a biking and canoeing trip! I can’t wait!)

Short Study Tour to Southern Denmark

This was written after I got back from my short study trip to Southern Denmark from Thursday September 13^th to Saturday September 15^th. Sorry I just got it up!

So, it has now been way too long since I’ve written and I keep telling myself that I will come back to recount everything from when I arrived- but that doesn’t seem to be happening. So, I’m just going to start adding entries about what happened recently and maybe I’ll eventually catch up. (Cross fingers!)

This last Thursday to today (Saturday) DIS took all students for a short three-day study tour around to different places. My program was taken to the Southern part of Denmark to learn more about medical practice there and the Danish culture. To tell you the truth, I was a little sad that we weren’t going to go to the Northern part of Denmark, which I had heard so many good things about, but looking back, I had a great time in southern Denmark and would recommend anyone visit.

While driving to the first city, I got to see my first Danish movie “I Will Love You Forever.” Supposedly the actor, Mitch Mickelson (Who was the James Bond villain with the bleeding eye) is a very famous Danish actor and a heart throb to all Danish women. The movie was very realistic with an ending I wouldn’t expect, but what I really liked was the cinematography. I don’t know anything about filming movies, but I did like how the cameras were obviously carried by someone so they bounced around a lot, and I felt like I was watching the film as an onlooker. There was also a lot of zooming into certain props to emphasize them. The whole feel of the movie was very different from anything I’ve ever seen.

We first arrived at Under Sejlet (restaurant) where we were greeted by a nice lecturer (Stig Christensen) who happened to be a world traveler and chief medical doctor of the Southern Jutland Hospital. I was thrilled to find out that we were having a traditional Danish lunch complete with pickled herring. The second place we visited was a private clinic shared between 5 general practitioners. We had a chance to talk to the physicians, ask questions, and tour the facilities. I learned a lot and had a much clearer picture about health care in Denmark. Lastly on Thursday, we visited and stayed at the first folkehojskole (which is kinda like an optional undergraduate school) in Rodding and learned about what goes on here. It’s really fascinating. Foldhojskole, or gymnasium, is a place where young adults (17+) may go for a semester or so to expand their mind and learn about what to do in life. Students live at the school and get to choose their courses, but there’s no tests or grades. It was really interesting to talk to the students and sing songs at night (a tradition during special occasions). We also had a lecture from the principal, Mad Ryknd-Eriksen.

On Friday, we went to Region South Denmark and and learned about the new changes in the municipality system. This change was made to use resources more effectively. I learned a lot about the political side of Danish medicine and hospital structure. For lunch we had wonderful chicken sandwiches at Café Karma and American style. And then afterwards we had a chance to go to Trapholt, which is a modern art museum complete with Danish chairs and paintings. The chairs had been entered into an annual contest, and I would love to have any of them!

Afterwards we visited Koldinghus castle, which had a really spooky dungeon and beautiful tower view, and then we headed to a youth hostel in Sonderborg. This was definitely a very nice hostel and that night we had a great bonfire. How fun!

Today, we rode the ferry from Fynshav (Jutland) to Bojden (Funen) - a lot of people got sea sick L and visited Egeskov castle. My fav! The castle was beautiful, but the castle grounds were even more gorgeous with so many flowers and interesting museums and places to see. It was a perfect way to end the trip.

Now, reality time, and I have to concentrate for my first DIS test on Monday- eek! Wish me luck!

Finally, a post about my first day!

I still can’t believe I’m here sometimes. It’s absolutely crazy to think I’m half way around the world from everything I’ve ever known. I left for Copenhagen, Denmark a week and a half ago for a semester-long study abroad with the Danish Institute of Study Abroad (DIS) and (ba da da da da) I’m loving it!

So much has happened since I’ve arrived, and I hardly know where to start. Since I’m so behind, I will just talk about the highlights (which, I’m sure will take a long time- everything feels like a highlight).

This is my first time in Europe, and I really had no idea what to expect. This was my first time to leave North America and travel to an unknown place completely alone. I think it really creeped me out to hear all of the foreign tongues even in just the Chicago International airport terminals. The overseas airplane was the biggest plane I had ever been on, and I almost felt ashamed to talk because my American accent was so different from every one around me.

I was so nervous landing in London, my first time on European soil, but I was so excited. After a long route to my next terminal, I had some time to explore Heathrow’s stores with the British version of the Harry Potter books, Gucci clothing, and Chanel perfume. Unfortunately, I realized, though, my camera batteries had died, and I haven’t really been able to take pictures since coming.

Arriving in Copenhagen was exhilarating. I was so tired from the three different flights and 20 hours of traveling, but the adrenaline kept me going all day. It turns out that a lot of DIS students were on my flight, and we all met up and grabbed our luggage. I think the first thing I noticed was how modern the Copenhagen airport was. The second thing I noticed was the weather. SO beautiful. It was about 60 degrees Fahrenheit, and slightly overcast. Literally it feels like a November in Texas. I was actually cold! Texas was 90 degrees at that very moment! Hard to believe.

Once we got to the DIS centre, everything happened very quickly. We were checking in, picking up school supplies, getting transportation money, yadda, yadda, yadda. There were a lot of students and all of a sudden, my host family was there! What beautiful people, blond hair and blue eyes and cute accents! They were such nice people from the very start.

Riding back to my new home, it was so fun to see Copenhagen for the first time. The colorful buildings, beautiful architecture, Tivoli, everything I had seen in post cards. It was all here! I think, though, one of the first things I noticed was that every one just left their bike laying around on the side walks. In the US, most people put their bikes at least next to a bike rack, but here, bikes are propped next to random buildings, trees, or pretty much anywhere. I found out later, that many of the bikes here have built in locks so they don’t have to chain it to something- very handy! Also, my favorite part: there is a bike lane everywhere! In Austin we are lucky enough to have a bike lane in most parts of the city, but here, there is a bike lane in almost every single road, even in the suburbs. So the roads have three “layers” a sidewalk for pedestrians, a lane for cyclist, and a car lane. Each lane is complete with its own street light. So at every cross section for each direction there are three different lanes and lights. Really interesting! AND because of that, it’s really easy- probably the easiest- to get around by bike. So EVERYONE does it! So far, I’ve seen old ladies with their weekly groceries, CEO’s in their nice suits, models with huge stilettos, and even a whole family (the SUV bike) – tandem with a trailer in the back for the kids!

Getting to my new home, I was very excited to find it was cozy, welcoming, and stylish. All of the furniture is very modern looking and there was even an orchid in my room- my favorite flower! The evening was spent meeting my new family (Niels, Jette, and Linnea) over a good meal, and I finally crashed around ten o’ clock.What a long day!