Wandering around Rome

That's pretty much what Mickey and I did today, wandered around Rome. I followed Megan's instructions and successfully picked Mickey up from the train station and brought him back to her apartment. I accidentally walked past it because I didn't see the street sign, but I knew we were right by it

We got breakfast and then walked around the main part of the city, by the Colosseum and all the ruins and such, but we decided against paying to go in anywhere or take a tour of anything. The line at the Colosseum was way too long. We went to the Pantheon, Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps.

The McDonald's by the Pantheon is a lot more upscale than any other McDonald's that I have ever seen.

Velkommen til Italy

Today, Mickey and I both left Copenhagen.

I felt bad about not being the greatest host while he was here. Having a seizure put a damper on things. And then on Sunday, I had to finish a paper that I had gotten an extension on but didn't want my teacher to think I was just taking advantage of her, so I finished it. And Mickey finished a book by Obama. On Monday, I ended up not being able to skip my classes, so Mickey had to wander around by himself. He went all over the place - Tivoli, the Carlsberg "beer factory" (also known as a brewery, to some) and to the palace. We got on the train to go into the city and happened to sit with my friends Mark and Andi. I normally take the 8:32 bus, but we took the 8:52, so it was lucky that we ended up on the same train. Mickey asked what he should do and suddenly, Mark whips out a map and says "Well, I'll tell you. There are lots of things you can do." And he pointed out all these different places and I gave Mickey a map and while I went to school, Mickey went wandering. But I was and am still impressed - that was very clutch of Mark, as they say.

Mickey is going back to Istanbul for the night, for about nine hours. It was much easier to get two round-trip flights to than it was to go from Istanbul to Copenhagen to Rome and back to Istanbul.

But anyway, I got to Megan's tonight. She picked me up at the train station. She gave me instructions, which were a little off, but I got there. Instead of an overpass, I ended up going through an underpass. But whatever. It worked and I got the ticket she told me to and got there.

It was scary on the train. I couldn't see the signs, so I ended up standing up by the entrance. I was next to this guy in sunglasses who looked harmless enough. I get off the train and someone puts an arm around me. I assume it's Megan trying to surprise me, but then I look and see it's this guy and I jumped up and screamed a little. It's really bad when people surprise me. I can't help it. I jump and scream and it's very loud and obvious and embarassing. Megan didn't end up seeing or hearing it, though.

I'm excited to pick up Mickey tomorrow morning because Megan has classes. She has some classes this week, so she was even more excited I was here (also because I think we're friends or something like that) because Mickey would be wandering around alone much of the time otherwise.

Malmo Excursion

Today, I was not feeling very well. I woke up and took a shower and thought I was fine. And then I proceeded to have a grand mal seizure. Luckily, it was out of the shower and Mickey was fully awake and there to make sure I was OK. He was great - he moved things out of the way and just made sure I didn't hurt myself. When I stopped shaking, I saw him and asked if we were in Turkey. He's studying there this semester so it's not as random a question as it sounds. Then he told me we were in Denmark. He said I asked him why and I couldn't imagine why anyone would come to Denmark, which is funny, because I think that's what I and many other DIS students thought before we really explored the program and ultimately chose it. After recovering, Mickey and I went to brunch and then he showered so we could head out. Normally, I go to sleep after I have a seizure but I didn't want to disappoint Mickey and I wanted to go to Malmo, too, so I didn't tell him that.

We ended up cutting our Malmo trip short because I really wasn't feeling well and he was worried about me. But it was a lot of fun walking around. We were pretty hungry, so we found a sandwich place and got lunch. I had a normal sandwich or at least, not an open-face concoction with a lot of shrimp dumped on top. Tuve, a student at Grundtvigs who is actually Swedish, later told Mickey it was called räksmörgås. The plastic Belle standing next to it was a gift from one of Mickey's sisters, who asked him to take pictures of her with foreign things.



We were there long enough to have fun, though. We walked around a lot, which is always fun to do. We got to see the Turning Torso, which is controversial 190m-high residential and conference tower. It was finished in November of 2005 and is in the docklands of Malmo's western harbor. It is apparently based on a sculpture done by Spaniard Santiago Calatrava, the architect himself. There are 54 stories that twist 90 degrees as they go up. Unfortunately, it's not actually open to the public, so all we got to do was look at it. But it looked pretty cool and was a fun thing to go see.

After walking around a little more, we went back.
We even got back to the højskole in time for dinner, so we didn't have to buy it.

Saturday night was a future-theme party, so dinner was actually at 7 p.m. instead of 6 p.m. It's always fun when the Danes plan parties, because they go all out. The dining hall was decorated and lots of people dressed up. I wore pink tights, but that was about the best I could do. I wish I could get costumes together for all of their parties. Some of them are fantastic. But usually, the Americans just go as ourselves with some odd piece of clothing from the downstairs costume closet. It's cool that they have a costume closet, though. It comes in handy sometimes.

Mickey comes over!

Tonight, my friend Mickey came to Copenhagen. His vacation started today, so he wanted to visit me in Denmark and Megan in Italy.

I'm excited - everyone else has brought friends over but I haven't yet. It's hard because it costs $20 to get from Nørreport Station (where school is) to Grundtvigs Højskole Frederiksborg in Hillerød. Sometimes it's upsetting to live so far away. But it's even more awesome that he's here because it's so exciting to show him my greenhouse. He was amazed with my room. It really could be a triple, he said. Someone keeps asking about my bathroom, so to answer, I have my own bathroom. It's small, but it suffices. It's one of those bathrooms that turns into the shower. It was a little weird at first, but that's somewhat common in Europe and I was expecting to encounter that. It's even weirder in my gym, though. Some of my friends won't shower there. It's a room with three shower faucets coming out of the walls, no curtains or dividers of any kind. I'm OK with it. I don't really think anyone's concentrating on me. And if they are staring at my naked body, well, I think I'm cute so I'm glad they agree, haha.

But anyway, tonight we got in and we ended up just staying in for dinner. Mickey and I watched The Island with the Danes. The Americans were planning to go out but we all knew they weren't going to leave until 10 p.m. at the earliest. Mickey, at my request, brought me some Raki. It's a Turkish drink. It's also known as "lion's milk." It's cool because it turns white when you add water. Anyway, we had a little of that and then went to go watch the movie.

Then we went out to the Oklahoma bar with the other Americans I live with. It was fun, but Mickey and I headed back early. They were just going to go bar-hopping and then walk home, but we didn't feel like walking over a mile back and I don't like to drink a lot anyway so we took the last bus. The driver was really cool because he didn't make Mickey pay. He's seen me enough times and must've realized this confused kid following me must've been my friend. And what does he care, anyway? It was a fun ride because he had to stop the bus in front of the Frederiksborg Castle to call the police to take care of this drunk guy in the bus.

Mickey and I are going to sleep soon so we can get up to go to Malmo. I have yet to go to Sweden yet so I am very excited to go with Mickey.

A DIS Festen

Tonight was my hygge dinner with my Danish class.

At 6 p.m., we were supposed to gather in Vestergade 10A - 35 for dinner. I got there really early because I had a field study for Gender, Body and Sexuality at 1 p.m., so it didn't make much sense to go to Hillerød and back. It was funny, because I saw Mogens, my teacher, and we got up there and he looked at the classroom and said, "No, this won't do. It's not hygge enough."

So we went all the way to the bottom of Vestergade 7 to the basement, where we normally have class and Mogens said "This will do much better." So we went back to go get all the food that was up there and leave a sign on the door.

The hygge dinner, other than that warm, comfortable feeling, also included a dinner of smørrebrød, the traditional Danish open-faced sandwich and Festen, a Danish "dogma" film.

The sandwiches consisted of several combinations of fish, eggs, meat and cheeses on rye bread. I didn't like the bread, and it also happens to be Passover, so I just ate the top part, but I liked that. I don't eat meat, except for fish, so I was very excited also to be able to eat something because a lot of Danish food involves meat. We also had this dessert, which Danes love to try and get Americans, or other foreigners, to try to say. It's called røde grød med fløde, which translates as red fruit dessert with cream. We specifically had strawberries, or jordbær. It was delicious. I'm excited that I chose to take Danish. The University of Maryland didn't force me to, but I thought it would be a good idea and I'm very glad that I did.

The movie was also really powerful. It's a Dogma movie, which in and of itself is an interesting concept. Everything is meant to be as real as possible. The camera work is all done by hand without and the clothing that the actors are wearing is their own. I've also heard that the sex is real. Based on Festen, I suppose it's possible that that's the case. It took place mainly at the 60th birthday of Helge Klingenfelt. All of his friends and family are there. He asks his oldest son to give a speech, which turns out to be "the speech of truth," as Helge realizes that his son is going to reveal some damaging family secrets. I highly recommend it if you are ever in the mood for something serious. It's certainly worth your while.

Frankfurt for the weekend and two Passover seders I didn't understand

Class was cancelled this Friday, but since I only had one at 8:30, it didn't get me out of a lot. I also had a 9:40 flight, so I had to get up really early for that anyway. I was lucky, because I went on rejseplanen.dk to check up on bus times. I thought it was weird that it said I had to leave at midnight when I typed in a request for early morning times. Then I realized that it was a holiday and the bus schedules were different. It was pretty late when I realized this, so I went downstairs hoping to find a Dane. I found Helene sitting with Marc in the foyerway.

Marc was going to Amsterdam the next day, so it was lucky I came downstairs because he didn't even think about Friday being a holiday. Helene found a number for a taxi company in her phone and made the arrangements for Marc and I. We had to take a 5:30 cab to the train station, which was annoying but we at least got to split the cost so it was only 50DKK each instead of 100DKK.

Frankfurt was interesting. I met my brother there because he had an interview for a possible job offer. There wasn't much there. It was a pretty boring city. We went to a Jewish museum, but most of it was in German, so it was kind of lost on me. Howard realized it wasn't for him and he thinks the people who interviewed him also realized that.

But anyway, part of the reason I went to see him was that it was Passover. He found out about some seder for young professionals and students, so he paid for both of us to go to that. It was in German, English and Hebrew, so I only understood some of it. It was a lot more interesting for Howard than for me. He knows German and the people there were closer to his age and point in their lives. But it was interesting.

I got back to Copenhagen Sunday afternoon. I went back to Hillerød to bring my stuff back. Howard and I traded suitcases. He brought one filled with food for Passover and I gave him one with all of my winter clothing to take home. I turned around a little later to go to Copenhagen. DIS arranged for students to be invited to a seder at the synagogue on Krystalgade, a few blocks from school. DIS paid for it, which was exciting. Not a lot of DIS students went, which was sad, but I enjoyed the company of the people I sat with. The seder was in both Danish, English and Hebrew but there were plenty of people reading the English portions in the Haggadah. The rabbi there was really cool, also. Very spirited and just made us feel welcome.

Unfortunately, I couldn't get home. The trains weren't running all night and even if I got home, I'd have to wait for the night bus which only comes once an hour. So I was sleeping in Allison's apartment. It worked out great because her roommate's sister was going to take her bed, but she fell asleep in her parents's hotel room so they weren't going to move her. She had her boyfriend here so they went to go stay in a hostel so Allison was kind enough to lend me her bed. But since I was afraid of waking her roommates, I left with them after the meal ended so she could let me in. So with that and my early flight, I ended up leaving both seders after only the second cup of wine. But they were nice seders while I was there.

Even if they were in German and Danish.

Happy Birthday, Queen Margarethe!

Every year, the Danes celebrate the Queen's birthday.

They do a lot of interesting things all around the city to celebrate. All of the buses have two Danish flags on the top. They also put little golden balls, which they call "golden apples" at the top of the fountains. The fountain in the picture lower down is the one on Gammeltorv. If you look closely, you can see the golden apples. The other fountain picture is a man, I assume he was drunk, trying to get to the top to steal them.




I went with my Danish class, but several DIS students, along with 5-10,000 Danes, according to the tour guide at the museum at Amalienborg Palace.

The Queen comes out at noon with her family to wave to the crowd, which was certainly an enormous amount of people. In addition to the hoards of school children, there were several older people and people from the media.

It was a fun little excursion and I was glad we went. It's interesting that so many Danes go, many of whom come every year. It was adorable to see all the little kids with Danish flags.

Later today, I had a field study for Health Care in Scandinavia. We went to the teacher for the other class's house, which turned out to be in the middle of a construction site and even further away from my commute to DIS, which is already at minimum an hour. We split into four groups that represented various regions of Denmark and had a list of health care initiatives and had to vote on which we thought the little money we had should be spent on. It was actually kind of interesting, once we got there, which was a pain.
I wasn't so excited for it and we were getting a bit bitter while we were walking there. It started raining and they told us to take the 2A bus, which didn't exist so we let the 4A leave as we looked for the 2A and then I get a text message from Jeppe, the teacher, saying he was sorry, and we were supposed to take the 4A after all. We got on the bus and then were kicked off of it. I have no idea why, but we were. It was 12 of us or so, from both classes in this group. We got closer and Lars, the other teacher for the other class, picked us up and brought us there, but we'd already gone through this whole hassle. Luckily, there was still pizza and drinks left when we got there, or else we would've been really disappointed because it started at 6 p.m. and went until at least 8:30 or so. After it was done, a group of us left because we all had to take the E train, or the Lilac Line, as Ruya calls it. Not all of us had passes that covered every zone, so we had to walk there. I didn't get home until now.

Alice the former prostitute

I met a real, live former prostitute today.

I'm taking a class called Gender, Body and Sexuality in Scandinavia and this morning's session was canceled because Alice could only schedule speaking to us tonight, because she has a new job. I belive it's working for an isurance company.

I really learned a lot. Alice did not go into the business because of drugs, like you might assume most other girls do. She divorced her husband and was really worried about how to support her two children and it seemed like an easy thing to do. At this point, the thought was just crossing her mind. It wasn't until she started dating, and later married, this guy Flemming, who admitted that he had thought about going into the porn business. She was 39 when they started writing ads and he'd drive her to the clients. It got really bad - sometimes, they wouldn't go to family parties because they could be out making money. Or they'd leave early if a client called during an event.

She talked to a girlfriend of hers, who is a therapist, about it. Alice still thought she was happy at the time, but the therapist asked her if she wanted her daughter to be a prostitute and if not, why not, because you always want your kids to go into the family business if it's working out really well and you're so happy. It was then that she realized she wasn't happy and that'd she'd been blocking out her feelings to the point where she was working from the neck down.

I really admired how she told her kids as soon as she could work up the strength. Her daughter had found one of her advertisements and knew what was going on and was just glad her mother finally came clean. Her son had no idea and just thanked her for telling him, but said he never wanted to hear anything about it ever again and that she would always be their mother and that was that.

Now, she has a new boyfriend, who knows about her history. But he's accepted it and Alice is really happy. She also works to help other women get out of the business. She called an organization and they didn't have a group for women who started prostituting but not because of drugs or alcohol, so she started one. These women can still get too far into it, as she did - Alice had to have her uterus removed and after they sewed her up, the doctors told her she couldn't have sex for six weeks. So, instead, she just did S&M for a few weeks or other acts that wouldn't aggravate it as much as "normal" sex. I couldn't believe that, to have a giant scar across your stomach but still not be able to stay away?

Her story was really intense. It sounds weird to say I'm glad I met a prostitute, but it made me realize a lot about the women who go into the business. And I don't think any of my professors at Maryland would bring in a prostitute. However, I'm taking Human Sexuality in the fall, which I've heard is very intense (and also one of the Maryland must-take classes) so maybe I'm wrong. I'll find out when I get the syllabus in August, I suppose.

Ruya comes to play!

It wasn't a particularly exciting excursion, but today my friend Ruya came to Grundtvigs.

It was so we could work on our paper for Health Care in Scandinavia class, which is fun class, but I have to say, I'm getting a little sick of reading about the laws of abortion in Denmark. In case you are wondering, they're all free for women as long as they're in the first 12 weeks.

But it was just really fun to show someone else the greenhouse that's my home that I love so much. I felt bad that she had to pay to come here - I live in Zone 9 and she's in Zone 5, I believe, so she had to pay the difference. I have an alle zoner (all-zone, obviously) pass, I could've gone to her place without paying any extra, but she didn't really have wireless internet and we have a computer lab here, so she didn't even need to bring her laptop.

She lives with a host family and they were excited when they realized she was coming here - their daughter, who is now in her thirties, went here back in the day.

This week is going to be weird - tomorrow morning, all the Danes are going to Berlin with the school. They're renting the place out to senior citizens. We're also not getting any meals. Alicia asked DIS about that and got us 150DKK to help pay for food for the week, which was a good amount. It's going to be so weird without the Danes here and I'm really going to miss them. And I like getting food that I don't have to pay for.

But anyway, I wouldn't have been here for meals tomorrow anyway because I'm going to LEGOLAND! I can feel myself decreasing in age as it gets closer and closer.

Open Mic

The Danes informed us that we were planning tonight's open mic, so Josh had taken up the call to action and the rest of us sort of followed when he needed.

It was really fun, and also, I had the best cake ever at Grundtvigs. It was cinnamon and chocolate. I told Alicia she had to try it and when she asked me what flavor it was, my immediate response was "Good. Try it." The look on her face was one of such urgency; she got up right away to grab some.

Open mic night was very successful. A lot of people signed up to perform. A lot of it was in Danish, but most of it wasn't. And one group sang a lot of childrens' songs, some of which were songs like "Itsy Bitsy Spider" translated into Danish, but with the same tune, so it wasn't all lost on us.

It was also Marc's birthday! So we sang "Happy Birthday" to him. There's also a Danish birthday song that the Danes sang, which they also sang at dinner, when Signe and Amanda presented Marc with a chocolate raspberry cake in the middle of the dining hall.

But even Ole performed. If I haven't mentioned him before, he's this really cute older man who is a teacher here. I think he teaches French, but he's the one we talk to the most out of everyone. He runs our Monday night meetings to check in with us about how things are going. He read a poem by T.S. Eliot. He's so funny. I'm going to miss Ole Vind come May 18th when they kick me out of here. I don't want to think about going home!

Vi elsker, vi elsker FCK!

Today was the soccer/ fotbold match between FCK and Mid-Jutland.

Most of DIS got to go. If you were enrolled in Danish, you got to go automatically and if not, you could buy a ticket at the front desk. A few people got closed out because they didn't have enough tickets.

I didn't go with the rest of the kids from Grundtvigs; my Danish teacher offered to take us all with him and I didn't realize how close it was to school! But I went with Mogens and everyone in all his classes. I love Mogens. Danish late at night is worth it because he's my teacher.

We got there and Chloe and I went in immediately because we wanted to buy FCK t-shirts, but then found out they were actually outside and we couldn't get back in if we left. So we didn't get t-shirts, but the game was still a lot of fun.

FCK didn't play so well that day. It was sad. And they lost. I forget whether they even scored or not, because there were a few close calls. But Mid-Jutland won with a score of 2. But at least soccer/ fotbold is better to watch than a lot of other sports, I think. There's always something going on, even if the way your team is playing makes you want to cry. I feel like in baseball, you're waiting for that amazing home run to happen. And sometimes it happens, and sometimes it doesn't.

In other news, Alaina and I were on a mission to get on the jumbo-screen and we succeeded. We saw the camera guy filming a bunch of kids a few rows in front of us, so we decided to hold out our cameras and see if we could get on the screen and get a picture of it. We did! It was awesome. Ours are both blurry, but hers is much better, so I'll post it when I get it from her. It was funny, because a few people I saw later told me they saw my coat on the jumbo screen, to which I responded, "You know, that's funny, because I was actually in my coat at that point in time." I never got comments like that before, but everyone here thinks my coat is really distinctive. So far it's been good, people don't lose me in crowds. Or maybe no one's tried hard enough to lose me. I hope not.

After the game, amidst the masses of people, both DIS students and Danes alike, I ran into Allison and some of her friends. I sent her a text message asking her if she wanted to get dinner. She forgot her phone, but we were on the same page and she invited me to go to the Laundromat Cafe with her, which was really cute. Kind of touristy, but cute nonetheless. It was expensive which was unfortunate, but the tomato-avocado sandwich I got was about the size of my head and really good, so I got my money's worth. And I tried actual strawberry juice. I've never seen the brand (or even much strawberry juice in general) in the United States, but it was really good.

Farmer Party.

Tonight was the welcome party at Luux. I thought about going back into the city for it. I was done with class at 1 p.m. and I couldn't get my free drink until maybe 8 or 9 p.m., at the earliest.

But after an adventure to Vero Italiano, a small (cheap!) Italian restaurant in Copenhagen with Allison, I went back to Grundtvigs and found out that it was a farmer-themed dinner. No one really knew what that meant, except that dinner was moved to 7 p.m. instead of 6 p.m.

So, I put on the only button-down shirt I had, which was white but had some frills, and then a pair of jeans and boots. It was cute - they decorated and everything. Most of us dressed up for the occasion. The tables all had on red and white checkered table cloths and fruit and vegetable centerpieces. It was supposed to be kind of a tribute to rural Denmark at the turn of the century. They played Danish folk music the whole evening. It was kind of cool.

Interestingly enough, only one of the Americans, Carrie, could identify the leek sitting on the table. Molly and I were trying to figure out the English word. All the Danes knew the Danish word. Finally, Signe looked it up in a dictionary.

I must be a bad vegetarian, I need to freshen up on my vegetables, apparently.

Japanese Party

Tonight, I got home late from school as usual. Danish ending at 5:45 is a killer sometimes.

I got home to find the Danes (and some Americans) in the gym playing a game where they put cherry (or grape, I forget) tomatoes on their heads and rammed into the wall.

Then, the evening went on with Sing Star, which is karaoke. It was on a play station or some familiar video game console, but it was funny because there were a lot of Danish songs in addition to all the cheesy American ones that are always involved in karaoke.

Visiting family visit #2

I saw my visiting family for the second time today.

It was really great to see them and also to have a home-cooked meal. The food here is good, but it gets tiring sometimes. I also met their other daughter, Tine. I still have yet to meet Peter but I'm sure I will soon enough.

I love talking to them. It's kind of fun to explain American things and have them explain Danish things. I was talking to them about what a sorority is. I forget how it came up, but I was explaining the concept to Peter, one of the Danes at Grundtvigs, and I happened to mention that to them. It's a little bit difficult to explain, I've realized.

Let the back-dating begin!

I just got home Saturday evening from Russia. I spent the first week of travel break in Budapest and Vienna, the second traveling through Turkey and the third through Russia.

It's been a busy three weeks but I promise, the pictures and blog entries are coming.

In other news, it's so WONDERFUL to be back in Denmark. It feels like home. And they've made some changes for us students at the højskole. We used to be on a dinner meal plan. Now, we get breakfast and dinner, which is great because it was awesome to start out my morning talking to Siri, one of my Danish friends there, before I had to head off to school. We are also given a food stipend from DIS but they decided to have the højskole invoice DIS instead of going through us, which is much better because we often aren't able to find teachers to open the office and it was hard for us to get the money to them at the beginning of the semester.

Anyway, the semester is going by so fast! This week and next week I have some final projects due based on my Turkey and Russia trips and then all my papers start being due and finals are creeping up on me. I don't even want to think about the semester ending - I love it way too much here. I might even cry when they kick me out of the højskole.

Hagia Sophia, Sultanahmet Mosque Cisterns, Bosphorous Tour, Istanbul Modern and the Turkish baths!

Today was our last day with Gazi, our over-enthused but amusing tour guide. We went to the Hagia Sophia and the Sultanahmet Mosque Cisterns.

As we were taking off our shoes to enter the mosque, my friend Alaina commented that she hoped her Hebrew school teachers didn't find out, so I was happy to be able to inform both her and Gazi that Jewish law does not prohibit entering a mosque because there is nothing that could be considered idol worship, as some other religious institutions have. Thank you, Bergen County High School of Jewish Studies!


One thing that is fascinating about the mosque is that it was originally a church. In its days as a church, it was filled with beautiful paintings of Jesus Christ and other important Biblical figures. When the Muslims took it over, they wanted to respect the fact that the paintings had religious importance, even if not to them. They were too religious to be destroyed. Instead, some were covered up, which seems to me to be the same thing, but I suppose in a way, maybe it is a little more respectful. But not all of them were hidden in this way. There are still many that are faded, but still visible.

On the lower level, there is what is known as the "crying pillar." It has a hole in it surrounded by a large, bronze border. Gazi told us that it's a very old tradition for visitors to stick a finger in and turn it all the way around. Whatever wish they make is supposed to be granted. Everyone wanted to do it, because of course, you never know, and I think we were almost late for our next event because so many people in our group got on the line to do it. Hagia Sophia, I'll be waiting for my wish, just so you know.



After the mosque, we went down to the cisterns. It was a really calm walk through the dark with a few lights scattered throughout the water. It's another one of many things that I'm just going to have to remember because my camera couldn't capture it.


They gave us 20 YTL for lunch and sent us off with half an hour to grab lunch before our boat tour on the Bosphorous River, which separates the Asian half and the European half of Turkey, which is not an equal divide, as most of Turkey is in Asia. But the normal tours take four hours and since Maja knew we would like some free time, she arranged for it to only take an hour and a half. It was a beautiful day out, so in addition to the amazing scenery, it was pretty cool to look out and know that we were seeing Asia.


There's another Turkish tradition of reading someone's fortune based upon the coffee grinds left from his or her Turkish coffee. Maja told us she no longer likes to do it because she once told a woman there would be a pain in her chest and she later died of breast cancer, but she still showed us a few pictures in the coffee grinds and described what they meant. It's a very interesting process. It often is passed down in families as women teach it to their daughters and graddaughters, etc.



After that, we had the option to go to Istanbul Modern, Istanbul's art museum. Only Emilio, Alaina, Hilary, Kathryn and I went along with Peter. Hilary would've preferred to go to the Grand Bazaar, so she complained a little bit, but everyone else enjoyed it. However, I still don't have an appreciation for DVD art. Or at least, not what Istanbul Modern had to offer.

After that, we went to the Grand Bazaar to do a little shopping. We didn't have a lot of time, but mostly managed to find some things that we were looking for. Emilio, Hilary and I each bought several of those blue eyes that protect you from evil spirits. I jumped on the bandwagon after they bought them, because they had already bargained the man down. I needed to buy a magnet for Mrs. Atlas, so I got that, too, but the man forgot to charge me for it and I paid the same as Emilio and Hilary. They'll be fun to give to people since it's obviously way too difficult for me to get a lot of gifts to bring home for people.

After that, we went to find dinner and the Turkish baths. We found a restaurant and then realized we were right by the Turkish baths, so we scrapped our original plan of going back to the hotel to store all the things we bought.

Dinner was great, and then the baths were amazing. I've never gone to do something like that before. It's a little awkward being lathered and massaged by an old Turkish woman with no shirt and sagging breasts, but it was really relaxing. Hilary, Kathryn and I got the basic massage and I got a facial as well. Emilio decided that if he was going to do it, he was going to do it right and splurged on the most intense one, which included an oil massage and whatever else it had.

I don't think I've ever felt more refreshed in my life. After that, we ended the night splitting some desserts. Hilary and I originally chose not to partake, but then Emilio and Kathryn had such a reaction to the chocolate baklava that I had to try it. It was probably the best thing I've ever eaten and has shamed every dessert I've had since.

All in all, it was an amazing night. I was so relaxed that I didn't have the energy to finish my journal that night and had to do it the next day.

Topkapi Palace and US Consulate General

Today we saw the Topkapi Palace and the Harem. Today, it's a museum and has been since 1924, shortly after the Ottoman Empire ended. I've seen a few castles, but the Topkapi was just as beautiful, if not more so, than any of the other ones in every other part of Europe.

I noticed that there is definitely a distinctly different style to its architecture, which is at least partially because Turkey is very influenced by Asia as the other part of the country is technically in Asia. But the pictures on my camera don't do it justice. It was amazing just to walk around the beautiful buildings in only a light jacket after being in freezing, windy Denmark. The sun was in the sky that was the perfect shade of blue, with the perfect amount of clouds. It was so perfect in so many ways, and definitely the best way I can think of to start out the trip.


Then we went to the Grand Bazaar, but only for a half hour to grab lunch. I was promptly pulled aside by carpet sellers. I immediately made it very clear that I was could not buy a carpet, but they insisted I stay for some Turkish hospitality. They brought me some apple tea and asked me all about the United States, and one of the girls will be in California this summer so she was asking me what there is to do there. First, I was talking to her. Then, her cell phone rang and she went to answer it, so an older man spoke to me. He then introduced me to his son, Mehmet, saying that he was a very nice boy and really wanted to practice his English. I realized I had to get back to the group soon, so I asked him where I should go to buy some food. He was disappointed when I said I was a vegetarian, but found a pizza place and then refused to let me pay for the pizza. My group made fun of me when I met up with them later, but I got to keep the 20 YTL my program allotted us for lunch money.

We took a bit of long bus ride to the US Consulate General in Istinye and spoke to some Americans who worked for the foreign service. They have really interesting stories to tell - one worked in Nicaragua for two years and the man spent two or three years in Korea. In fact, the Korean girls in our group thought that he may have been the one who handed them their visas to come to Denmark.


After a long discussion about US-Turkey relations and the EU, which seemed to vaguely resemble some American propaganda, we went back to the hotel and arrived at around 5:30 p.m., where Mickey was waiting for me. He came with his friend Sally, who goes to Goucher College and is friends with Hilary, a girl from Goucher in my program. Their friend Mackenzie, who didn't know any of us, also came along. We went out to dinner so Hilary could try manka, a noodle dish with yogurt. Then we went for dessert, which was the first food I had to pay for all day since Mickey was kind enough to buy me dinner.

And speaking of food, it's all been amazing. And they did a great job with our hotel, too. It's way nicer than I expected. Honestly, I would've been fine in a hostel, I'm really not a picky person. But the room itself is on the top floor of the building so there's an amazing view of Istanbul. Oh, and there's a giant honeycomb just sitting there. Not plastic bears with processed honey inside of them, but an actual honeycomb. And any place that has an orange juicer is fine by me.

I'm in Turkey!

I'm in Turkey and it is absolutely unbelievable.

We just arrived tonight. We had dinner almost immediately after dropping off our bags in the hotel. I was very excited for dinner - even the food on the airplane was good, so I had high expectations for actual Turkish food from a real restaurant.



We ate at a place called Haci Abdullah, which Maja chose for its traditional Turkish menu. Turkish food is mainly meat-based, but there were several vegetarian options, all of which were delicious. They were mostly made of eggplant, spinach, artichoke and potatoes. We were given pomegranate juice to drink, which is definitely one of my new favorite drinks. It wasn't too tart, either.



My friend Mickey is studying in Istanbul for the semester. I got in too late tonight, but I'm hoping we get to meet up before I leave for Ephesus and Bodrum.


Our hotel is great. It's called Hotel Anemon and it's right in the middle of everything. It's going to be difficult to get lost on our way back to the hotel at night; it's right next to the Galata Tower, which has a lot of history:


The galata tower was built in 1384, it was the highpoint in the city walls of the Genoese colony called Galata

During the first centuries of Ottoman era the Galata tower was occupied by a detachment of Janissaries, the elite corps of the Turkish Army. In the sisteenth century the tower was used to house prisoners of war, who were usualy consigned as galley slaves in the ottoman arsenal at Kasimpasa on the golden horn.

During the reign of Selim 2nd (1566-1574) the Galata Tower was used as an observation point by the renowed Turkish astronomer Takiuddin, who had his main observatory in Pera. In the following century, during the reign of Mustafa 2nd (1695 - 1703) the seyhulislam Feyzulah efendi tried to set up an astronomical observatory in the tower with with the aid of a Jesuit priest, but the effort was cut short when he was killed in 1703.

The Galata Tower was reconstructed on a number of occasions in the Ottoman period, most notably, after a great fire that destroyed much of Galata in 1794 (during the reign of Selim III) and by Mahmut II in 1832. the tower's conical cap was blown off during a storm in 1875, and it was not replaced in the subsequent restoration. The tower was used as a fire- control station until 1964, when it was closed for restoratiom before being opened in 1967 as a tourist attraction. The conical cap was replaced in this restoration, giving the tower much the same appearance as it had in Genoese times, though retaining the changes in fenestration and other structual aspects done in the Ottoman period.

Source: http://www.galatatower.net/eng/tarih.php?a=1&b=1

"Lykken varer ikke evigt... (bortset fra på Grundtvigs)."

Yesterday, the Danish students had workshops all day where they wrote poetry and songs. At dinner last night, they all dressed up and performed them for the whole school and the Americans. There weren't that many Americans left because half of us already left on our study tours with school, but of those of us who were left, Tom, Lincoln and I listened to some of the performances.

They wrote inspirational quotes on the table cloths, which David translated for me.

"Lykken varer ikke evigt... (bortset fra på Grundtvigs)."
Happiness doesn't last forever anywhere... (except for Grundtvigs).

"Lev livet mens du kan."
Live life while you can.

"Tab og vind me samme sind."
Loss and victory are of the same mind.

"Øje for øje gør veriden blund."
An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind.

Today, I'm leaving to spend a week touring Budapest and Vienna. I'm really going to miss this place. I'll be back for part of every weekend, because I'm doing all DIS-arranged trips, so they include the flights to and from Copenhagen, but it won't be the same. I'm so excited for the next three weeks, but it will be wonderful to come home to Grundtvigs after them.

Might've failed the midterm, but got an A on the practicum for Health Care in Scandinavia

Today I went to not one, but two emergency rooms.

I called my local doctor much earlier to try and get an appointment this week, but there just wasn't one. I was just going to hold out until after our three week travel break, but then on Thursday night, I think I had a seizure in my sleep and Friday morning, I was have small ticks. So I asked Sarah in the DIS office what I should do and she told me to go to the emergency room and where the nearest hospital was.

It wasn't hard to get to, I just got on the 6A bus and went down for a little while. I tried to ask the driver to announce when we got there, but he just ignored me when I got on the bus, which is weird, because most of the bus drivers are more than happy to announce it. Anyway, it turned out that they had a closed emergency room, so they sent me to another hospital, which was also down the 6A route.

I didn't bother asking the driver to announce where it was because my friend showed me on the last bus that there was a monitor which actually showed the names of the stops. The 701 in Hillerød doesn't have that. I guess downtown Copenhagen is more high-tech.

I went there and eventually, I spoke to a neurologist who told me she wanted to have some blood work done before upping my medicine or getting me a new one, so I'd have to go back to the first hospital but that they'd contact me although I might have to wait 2-3 weeks.

Oh, the wonders of a universal health care system.

Meeting my visiting family

After Danish class, I went over to the Danshøj metro stop to meet Lise and her daughter, Marie, who make up half of my visiting family. Peter was off traveling and Lise, the other daughter, was with her boyfriend, which of course I understood.

I've been trying to meet them since I got her but our schedules just haven't worked out. So yesterday was nice. I went over there and had a really nice home-cooked meal with them. They didn't care that I'm a vegetarian and made this really good eggplant and tomato meal with couscous and dried apricots. It was great to have a change from the højskole. I love the food there, but sometimes it gets repetitive.

They asked me all about how I was reacting to Denmark and what kind of culture shock I had experienced so far. Honestly, there hasn't been a lot that I've found totally shocking. I think it's because I listened when people gave me advice so when I saw certain things, I wasn't completely taken by surprise.

One thing, however, did surprise me. I was on the train yesterday and we stopped between stations. I asked someone what the announcer said and apparently, there had been a suicide in front of the train, which happens sometimes. But in the US, people would've reacted to it and gotten nervous. But here, no one really reacted. Maybe I shouldn't have expected anyone to, but it just seemed odd that they seemed to be more concerned with being late for work or school.

This morning, the train was really backed up. I don't know if there was another suicide, I don't think so because everyone I heard today was complaining about train trouble. It normally takes me about 50 minutes from when I get on the bus in Hillerød to when I get off of the train at Nørreport. Today, I caught a 6:52 bus and arrived at 8:26. A lot of people in my 8:30 class were late today.

Tonight I have my orientation meeting for the third week of travel break when I'm going to Russia. I'm so excited. As it gets closer and I start getting the itineraries in my hands and meeting the DIS staff on our troops, I can't even think about anything else. Too bad I have midterms this week!

As soon as it hits 9:50 on Friday and I'm done with my last pre-break midterm, I can breathe and get ready for what I'm pretty sure will be more or less the best three weeks of my life.

Weekend update

On Friday, the Danish students at the højskole concluded their "1920's America" theme week with an elaborate role-playing game from 6 p.m. to midnight.

The Americans were not invited.

Instead, I went to a party at KUA (University of Copenhagen). One of my classes is open to KUA students as well, so we have a teaching assistant named Lisbeth who comes in and tells us what's going on at KUA because, our teacher says, "I'm not going to sit through another meeting trying to figure out why you people come here for months and never meet a Dane." It's funny, but he's right; a lot of students live with other Americans (or Russians or Chinese students). The people who get the most contact with Danes are the ones living in the højskole or in host families.

At any rate, the party was in honor of Fastelavn. It's similar to our Halloween in that children dress up and go door-to-door collecting candy and coins. It used to be a period of fasting, but now is a holiday for celebration. So the Danish students threw a costume party. It was odd because it was actually in a campus building. And there was a bar there and several varieties of alcohol. Back home, student groups have parties all the time in the Stamp Student Union or wherever, but there's never alcohol present.

It's also harder in the US, I think, to pull off a theme party. It was a costume party and surprisingly, almost everyone was in costume. The few Americans who came weren't because we had to pack for four months, so clearly we had to pick and choose what to bring and costumes didn't make the cut. There were definitely Danes who didn't dress up, either, though, so we didn't look too out of place.

The party was a lot of fun, Lisbeth introduced me to some of the Danish students. My friend Elisabeth, who is actually a KUA student, showed up and I introduced her to some of my American friends. At around 11:30, I had to head out. It's unfortunate that I live so far away because I can't stay out past the bus schedules. As it turned out, I missed the last bus, which was apparently at 12:15 and not 12:39. I should've stayed out longer, because then I would've been right on time for the night bus at 1:08, but it was cold and rainy so I took a cab instead.

On Saturday, the Danes started leaving. Their semester ended and eight of them were not continuing on at the Grundtvigs. Tomorrow, 30 new students are coming in and this semester will end in May, about the time that we're leaving.

Today, I took my first trip to a movie theater. A bunch of the Danes wanted to go see "Juno," so I went with them. I learned that movie theaters have assigned seating. Every ticket has a row and seat number on it. I've never seen that in the US, which surprised Louise. It was also interesting to see Danish subtitles. My Danish isn't good by any stretch of the imagination, but you can tell sometimes when the subtitles are a lot shorter or aren't quite the same as what it actually says.

Lost swan

I arrived in Copenhagen this morning a little later than I normally would, but not to the point where I was rushing. I stepped out of the train and went up the stairs to the above-ground area and there was a swan just sitting there on the brick pavement. I know there's water nearby, but still, it's a little far. I wonder if it was sick and that's why it somehow wandered over to Nørreport Station.

At the end of the day, I had my orientation for the first week of break. I will be spending March 8-15 in Budapest and Vienna on a short study tour with my program. I am so excited. We're going to a lot of great places. I'm excited for the Freud museum and the Mozart museum. We're also going to a really old synagogue. It'll bump me up to having dealt with three units of currency - the Euro, Danish Kroner and I believe Hungary is on the fonit. I'm spending the next week in Turkey and the week after in Russia, which will be two more.

It's going to be an awesome three weeks.

Hygge dinner - be cozy or else

Tonight was my "hygge dinner."

Hygge is probably one of the words I have heard the most since I've been here. It's this Danish concept that sort of translates at cozy, but there's a lot more to it then that and there just aren't words for them. But it's essentially what happens when you're spending time with people you're truly comfortable with.

DIS planned a hygge dinner for each student. We were split up into small groups within our programs. My friend Ruth and I were assigned to the same dinner at Cafe Stella tonight. We went, but of the 10 students that were supposed to be there, only Ruth, this girl named Melanie and I showed up. It was us and the three staff people waiting in the DIS building. I don't know why people wouldn't show up for a free meal, but we had reserved the restaurant and had to reserve our dinner as well. One of the staff people sent us an e-mail giving us a link to the menu (which was supposed to be posted in English as well as Danish, but wasn't) and letting us know that if we didn't respond, we were getting a chicken sandwich.

Kim and Morten were the two guy staff people who were with us and they were contact people for one of DIS's shared housing areas, which just happens to me about a two minute walk from DIS. We stopped there along the way and they went banging on doors to see who was around. They eventually found some boys from the business program who were more than happy to accept a free beer and chicken sandwich. Margaret, the intern with us, called Staci, another intern, who was about to head to her Danish class, but met up with us instead.

It just amused me that it was a mandatory hygge dinner. They obviously didn't enforce it, I guess they couldn't have easily, but I felt like they were basically saying, "You WILL come and you'll be cozy and like it!" I'm not criticizing DIS and I had really enjoyed the dinner I went to, but it's kind of a shame that so many people skipped theirs. It's sad to say it and it isn't how I feel, because I always like to meet new people, but maybe it would've worked better if DIS had people sign up with their friends. That's probably who most people had dinner with on their nights anyway.

Stefan's Confirmation and how many Americans does it take to bake cookies in Denmark?

This weekend was fun at the højskole. We had a mock confirmation party for Stefan, one of the Danish students here. Everyone was assigned a role. I was a friend of the family's and a semi-famous actress who had appeared on "Days of Our Lives." One of the teachers even played the drunk grandmother. We sang some Danish songs and although we didn't quite understand everything, there was enough that we either could figure out or was explained to us that made it a really fun evening.

It was weird because the parties here are normally on Saturday nights. This Saturday, they announced at dinner that the højskole had four new board games. Instead of the normal dancing and drinking, everyone was playing board games in one of the various groups spread out in the main room. It was quite a different sight. But it was definitely good to just have the opportunity to relax.

I was supposed to go to Christiania on Saturday, but I got really sick, so I didn't leave the højskole. Today I went into København to meet my friend Jackie who was going to meet up with us yesterday, but ended up being busy. My friend Carrie came along because she also wanted to leave the højskole, but didn't know where she was going to go.

We decided to bake cookies, so Jackie, Carrie and I went to the Quick Fakta, which luckily was open, even though it was a Sunday and a lot of places aren't. I tried to find the vanilla extract in the store. Eventually, I had to ask someone. I picked up a bottle and asked someone, who told me that I was holding mix for brown sauce. Apparently, they use vanilla in a powder form, not a liquid one as we do in the US. We also had to convert all of the measurements and try to figure out what oven setting to use. Luckily, Jackie lives in a kollegium with mostly Danish students who helped us out. Kollegiums are just like dorms in the US - lots of students live there in single or double rooms and there are communal kitchens and common rooms. The students living there are from several different schools, not just one like in the US where dorms are on one college's campus. Lots of students from our program live in kollegiums, but Jackie is the only DIS student in hers.

Tonight, I practiced my Danish with Siri and Lotte. Yesterday, Lotte and Peter were helping me. After I got through my homework, Peter rewarded me by playing Monty Python's "The Lumberjack Song" in Danish. Forget learning how to invite people to Tivoli, my goal is to learn how to sing it by the end of the semester. But hopefully, learning how to tell time and ask people if they have plans for the weekend will help me learn the pronunciation well enough to give me a fighting chance with the song.

Nobody buys you drinks, except the Nokia guy

One cultural observation that has been discussed in my Danish class is that at bars, guys will not buy you drinks the way they do in America.

I went out to lunch with my friend Elisabeth, who is Danish and studied abroad at American University this past fall, and we were talking about the differences between Denmark and America.

I told her I thought it was funny that guys don't buy you drinks here, and it was kind of funny, because she got all serious and said "You think that's funny? I didn't have to pay for anything in America!"

And then the guy next to us said "You want drinks? I'll buy you drinks, anything you want, just put it on my tab."

It turned out that he worked for Nokia and was trying to get people to fill out surveys. So we agreed and told him all about how we use google maps more than paper ones and how we use facebook all the time.

Short study tour, long entry

So this is a week late, because I've been terribly busy, but my short study tour was too much fun not to tell you all about it.

On Thursday, I spent much of Valentine's Day on a bus headed to our short study tour. Basically, DIS took everyone on a tour of somewhere else in Denmark (or Germany or Sweden for some students) Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

The majority of the students went to Western Denmark. My group went to Aalborg and Skagen overnight and we also stopped in Århus on the way home.

The first place we stopped was Egmont Højskole. I believe I explained what a højskole is earlier because I live in one, but it's a place where Danes can go and take classes after completing high school. They're taught by college professors but they don't get grades. It's mainly a chance for them to learn about themselves and figure out what they would like to do with their lives. It's a really interesting institution. Some are specialized; the one I live in is for journalism and the arts.

Egmont Højskole started out as a place for handicapped and disabled Danes to go. Now, it's about integration of disabled and non-disabled Danes. Approximately 70 students have disabilities and 20 do not. Many of the students who do not are personal assistants toward the ones who do. They have every part of that building equipped so that anyone with any handicap can do anything. They even have sailboats and sewing machines made so one person can use it by his or herself. There were three people who gave us the tour. One was not handicapped, but one of the other men had what I think was cerebral palsy. He was confined to a chair and had difficulty controlling his limbs. The third man translated what he was saying because we couldn't understand him. We later asked one of the teachers, who admitted that they couldn't tell if he was speaking Danish or English, to give an idea of how muddled his speech was.

That night, we arrived in Aalborg. We all went out to dinner with the group and then went to a few bars. We went to the first one because they gave everyone a free beer. Then, our teacher announced that DIS was going to buy us beer as well and that it was much bigger. I wish I'd known I could substitute something else, because I really don't like beer and this one was about the size of my head. But, I drank it like a champ. We went on to one more bar, which was practically empty except for five or six of us. After that, three of us decided we wanted to head back. We weren't sure where the bus stop was (and it had stopped running anyway, which we were also unaware of) and we asked a nice couple who were going in that direction as well. They offered us a ride in their cab and wouldn't let us give them any money for it. We thanked them profusely and told them we hoped someone was as nice to them when they visit the United States this summer.

The next day, we left the hostel to visit Råbjerg Mile, which is the largest migrating sand dune in Northern Europe and moves at a speed of 15 m/ 50 feet a year, which destroys all the vegetation underneath the sand. So far, it has moved 1,500 m/ 1 mile eastward. It will eventually go from the coast of Skagerrak in the West to the coast of Kattegat in the East. The sand dunes were incredibly fun to run around in but we couldn't stay there very long because we had to move on. But, I managed not to destroy my camera like I did in the sand dunes I visited in Israel, which was exciting. In addition, I got to use the beach setting on it.

We drove on a little further and visited the Sandy Church, which is an old church that is now partially buried in sand. Then, we went to the beaches of Grenen, which is about 3 km north of Skagen, the very northernmost tip of Denmark where the Skagerrak and Kattegat seas meet. I discovered my new boots were in fact waterproof when I ran into the water to stand in both seas. Apparently, you're supposed to drink Gammel Dansk (Old Dane) when you're there, so our teachers took out a bottle and handed out shot glasses. It's pretty disgusting but it kept us all warm for a moment. It has a lot of spices in it - I think our teacher said 59. But it tastes like really gross cough syrup.

Lastly, we visited the Skagen Art Museum and the Refugium. The museum featured work mainly from between 1870-1930 by Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, German and English artists and actually showed a lot about the history and how life was in Skagen. The Klitgården Refugium has been around for a very long time. Now, it's used by artists who pay to stay there so they can relax and just worry about their work. All meals are provided for however long they stay and it's right by the beach, so they have amazing views when the weather cooperates.

On Saturday, we began the trip back to Copenhagen. We drove from Skagen to stop in Århus to go to ARoS - Åarhus Kunstmuseum (Art Museum). This one featured mainly modern art, but had some older pieces as well. The bottom floor was filled with actual rooms as art, which is not something I would've thought of, but was really cool. You walked into the rooms and they all had different lighting and sometimes you couldn't tell where the walls actually were. There was one little room where you went out onto a ledge kind of thing and all around you for mirrors which made it look like it'd be a really far drop if you fell. There were a lot of other interesting pieces, such as "Boy," a giant statue of a boy, a painting with a man shoving a cucumber into someone else's backside and a projected image of an airplane flying in circles. I saw it was attached to a string, but I didn't notice anything else the first time. Then I read the sign which talked about how man could master machines and manipulate them, but it was no substitute for natural sexual potency. The string was attached to a man's penis as he was lying comatose on a table in the middle of a field. There was also a display of a horse that was slaughtered and put into a lot of jars. It was made in the 1970's as a protest to Vietnam. Basically, some guy slaughtered this horse while his friend sang some sacrificial song and now it's art. I'm not so sure I agree with that and I'm pretty sure most of us threw up a little after seeing it, but it was definitely interesting.

Then we drove three or four more hours and finally got back to København, where I took the train and the bus and got home about an hour and a half later. I thought it was an awesome trip. It was nice to have a break from classes and I'm very excited for my week-long study tour in march.

København Central Station Post Office

There is definitely a post office right by my school. I don't remember where, but I know it's around because we passed it when they took us around the city one of the first days we were here. I've been here for about three weeks and only last week did I finally find some of the other places they showed us on that tour. But they were all the important ones, like Sct. Pedr's Bageri.

Anyway, the pre-departure and on-site guidebook they mailed out said the nearest post office was two train stops away, which is actually a lot closer than it sounds. I have a monthly unlimited transportation pass and I had six and a half hours between my last class and a meeting here in the city, so I figured I'd try and find it.

I assumed that the post office would be in central station, but the directions online said it was on this little street just nearby the train station. I see it and walk to it, but it ends pretty quickly and after going around a block or two, I accepted the fact that it only went down to 60. The address was somewhere in the 30's. I walk back to the station and decide to see if maybe that weird little street actually continues and becomes the main street I'm on, which it actually did. So I walk and I see the little red post office signs that are all over Copenhagen. I walk in and that building looks like Parliament or something. I try to go one floor, but the door is locked so I go to another one where I finally see a guy behind a desk. I went up to him and said that all I wanted was to buy some stamps. And then he pointed me back into the station. After being in there for about three seconds, I realized it had to be some kind of administrative building, but for the postal service, that's a really nice building.

Anyway, I finally made it to the post office, bought my stamps and picked out a few postcards to send to people. I got back to the city in time to have lunch at RizRaz, this awesome vegetarian Mediterranean place, and still have over an hour to kill before going to the gym and attending a class meeting.

On Thursday, I'm going to Odense for a few days with school. It's somewhere in western Denmark, as most things are when you're already in Copenhagen. So far, they have yet to tell us a single thing about it, which is what's happening at 6:30 tonight.

Shabbat in Denmark and techno party with the Danes

On Friday night, I decided to see what the synagogue in Copenhagen was like. It's actually really close to where the DIS main buildings are, it's situated between two churches and very close to St. Peter's Bakery, which is one of the oldest in the city.

Anyway, the synagogue had a sign saying it didn't allow big bags or electronics in during services, so I left all of my things in a locker at DIS. The lockers are not actually in the building, you have to swipe to get in, but you go through a door in the courtyard. I wasn't sure when it closed, but I thought it was pretty late, so I left everything there. Including my transportation pass because I didn't want to lose it since the pockets on my coat are falling off.

Ilana and I went to services and then to the Chabad rabbi's house for dinner. It was really nice to have a home cooked meal. I love eating here at the højskole, but I really enjoyed having a shabbat dinner. Another student from DIS, who is actually in one of my classes, also showed up. The Loewenthals were really great and the rabbi also told us that a lot of DIS students had already contacted them about Passover, so those will be fun seders. All the Chabad families I've come in contact with have been, but I thought it was cool that he made sure we knew how to get back to the train station so I could get home. I didn't feel judged for taking the train and bus on Shabbat.

At any rate, Ilana and I arrive at Vestergade 7 and realize we're locked out of the courtyard. We go back to her apartment, which is conveniently only a few blocks away from DIS. Her roommate is in the Architecture and Design program. Since they work them like crazy, they have 24-hour access to some of the DIS buildings, so we got her password and took her ID. However, the architecture studio is in Vestergade 5, not 7, so we called one of her roommates to get the DIS emergency number. We called it and I felt bad because the staff person was clearly at a bar or club when she picked up. She said she'd be there in 20 minutes. We started walking back to Ilana's place and then she called back to say it'd be five minutes.

She got there, let me in and said she wasn't sure when the gates closed for the night but that all students have 24-hour accesses to Vestergade 10. So from now on, that's where my stuff will be. Then she gave me a ride to Nørreport Station where I caught the train to Hillerød 10 minutes later. By this time, it was around 23:00 and it's about an hour commute between the train and the bus from the Hillerøod station to the højskole. I didn't have the bus schedule, but I was pretty sure there was one leaving around midnight. When it gets to be that late, they only come once every hour and they stop fairly early on. It's about a 45 minute walk back from the station, but it probably would've been longer because it was cold out, I had stuff to carry and I'm a slow walker anyway. I got there in time for the 0:15 bus, which didn't come until 0:30. But, after spending 45 minutes in the cold, I was just glad it came at all because I didn't think I was getting home that night. I got to bed around 1:00, after telling my story to my friends, who were hanging out in the lobby.

On Saturday, we went to the beach in Hellerup, which is a few stops down the E line of the train. It's pretty cool to look in the distance and see Sweden. I may not make it to France or Spain this semester, but I'm definitely going to Norway and Sweden. I'm so sad because one of the Norwegian girls living here told me that every year in Norway, they put on a play of Kristin Lavransdatter. It's a trilogy that I've become a little obsessed with ever since we read the first one in my viking women class last spring. Sigrid Undset is a really famous Norwegian writer. She actually had to come to America for a few years to escape Hitler.

Last night we had a techno party. It was an off-weekend for the students, so many of them went home but there were a lot who stayed. I really love being here for the weekends. I love being able to eat brunch and dinner with everyone. It's great not to spend money all the time or have to cook. Because I would probably starve if I had to cook all the time, haha. I cook at school and it's fine, but there's so much more to do here that I don't want to stay in here and cook. Everything's also really expensive here, whether you're buying food from the grocery store or in a restaurant.

Today, I did homework. I want to watch the superbowl, but I can't stay up until four when I have a 10:05 class tomorrow after an hour commute. If I feel really daring, I might take the train into Copenhagen, watch it at a pub and then sleep in the DIS building or on Ilana's floor if I end up calling her and it's OK. But I'll probably just hang out here and find some Danes to help me with my Danish homework and hope they don't laugh too much.

Danish

I was surprisingly jealous watching all my friends do their Danish homework. I didn't really think I'd be so sad not taking it, but I was beginning to regret it. I e-mailed the registrar back, she sent out an e-mail on Monday to everyone on the wait list for Danish classes. None of the times were really desirable and I didn't think I'd care, so I didn't bother responding. So today, I sent her a nice e-mail asking if one of the four spots in two sections were open and she gave me the last one in a Danish section from 4:25 to 5:45 on Mondays and Thursdays. It sucks because I'll miss dinner but I'm excited.

Hopefully it'll go okay today, considering I have it in ten minutes and don't have any of the books yet.

First week of classes

As of today, we finished the first week of classes. We actually get every Wednesday reserved for field studies. Most schools in Denmark and also in the Netherlands have off on Wednesday, so lots of museums and things like that are discounted or free for students on Wednesdays.

I love my classes. And the two I didn't love, I dropped, haha. So now I have a decent schedule. I tried to add a section of Danish, but there wasn't an opening in a class that fit.

Mondays and Thursdays:
Gender, Body and Sexuality in Scandinavia
Biomedical Ethics
Lost in Translation

Tuesdays and Fridays:
Health Care in Scandinavia
Russia: Past and Present (only Tuesday)
Turkey at the Crossroads (only Friday)

We have a three week break in March, so I'm taking the Russia and Turkey classes as prep courses for trips there during the break.

I'm really going to enjoy all my classes. Some of them have a little work, but they're all things I'm interested in. I'm especially excited about the Gender, Body and Sexuality class. The teacher is bringing in a former prostitute to talk to us and we're going to the Museum Erotica in Copenhagen's red light district. It's starting to hit me that I'm not in Maryland and I'm not going to be for a really long time, haha.

Tonight, we went out and explored Hillerød. We took the bus to the Mexican Cantina and completely invaded the place since there were 13 of us. Then we went down the pedestrian street to Fox and Hounds, where we eventually left Craig and Brian to watch the Newcastle - Arsenal game. I kind of love living in a smaller town like this. It makes me feel lucky, because some people just live right in Copenhagen by DIS and classes and everything, but I have at least two different places to explore. And the commute isn't too bad, either. It was weird at first not being able to roll out of bed to classes, but the train ride is really pretty and when I'm not doing my homework, it's nice just to sit and think.

First week in Denmark!

I've been in Denmark one week as of today. It's been a very busy week, which is why this is the first entry.

I love the housing I chose. I live in the Grundtvigs Folkhøjskole in Hillerød, Denmark. By bus and train, it's an hour away from Copenhagen. It's annoying to have such a long commute since I'm used to rolling out of bed and walking to classes, but I'm learning to appreciate the time to think and relax that the train ride gives me.

The højskole is an interesting place. It's more or less a place for students ages 18-24 who speak Danish to pass the time while they figure out what to do with their lives. This particular one is actually oriented toward journalism and art. They take classes, but not for grades or a degree. Some of them have already gotten a degree, some of them are taking breaks before or during university. They live here for different amounts of time. Most of the Danes have been here for a few weeks, but some have been here for a year. There's a meal plan and everyone has kitchen duty at some point. We were all warned that Danes are really reserved, but the Danes here really want to get to know us. There are 64 Danish students and 14 Americans. The Danes are also kind enough to forgive us when we can't pronounce their names.

They include us in a lot of their activities. We can't take any of their classes because they're all in Danish, but we eat dinner with them every night and brunch on the weekends. Yesterday, they had a Viking Day. They did workshops all day in Danish, but they invited us to their dinner and party afterwards. It was pretty fantastic. They moved the tables to the outer edges of the room and put buckets in the middle of the floor for us to throw all the bones into. We even drank mead.

Today I went to Helsingør, where Hamlet's castle is, with Lincoln, Amanda and Carrie. Because we live so far away, we had to buy transportation passes for all zones, which pretty much means we have an unlimited pass to travel anywhere. So we took the bus and train up and toured the castle and maritime museum. It was windy and cold, but we walked all the way around the castle. It was absolutely beautiful; the sun was shining, the waves were crashing against the shore and the Danish flag was waving. You can even see Sweden from there, it's amazing how close it actually is.

I am so happy here.