Life Since Break

So, I still have to tell you about Berlin and the Czech Republic, but I will get to that! I wanted to let you know what I've been up to for the last week, since I have been back in Copenhagen! Its nothing super exciting, but I like to keep you updated anyway (and I'm sure you enjoy avoiding whatever work you're supposed to be doing...)

I got back on Halloween! Nothing special happened, I just hung out in the house and slept and recovered from traveling for three weeks. It was nice. I did the same thing on Friday. I don't really remember much from Thursday or Friday, but thats okay. Saturday I woke up and took it easy before going to volunteer- except I got there and I was told it had been canceled because of a life guarding class, so I just came back.

On the way back, though, I just really started to miss home. There wasn't any reason for it to hit me at that moment, but it did. I was sitting on the bus and thinking about how I wanted a McDonalds burger... which I don't ever eat in the states and they're readily accessible here so no idea why that reminded me of home... But decided against it. Instead, I decided to make cookies. I like cookies and cooking sometimes just relaxes me. Amanda had her best friend, Anne, over. She comes over a lot, so I've gotten to know her a good bit. She's so sweet. She doesn't speak very much english (whereas Amanda can ramble on and on in english) but she's sweet. She'll just snuggle up next to me or come and visit me in my room if Amanda is busy. Anyway, Amanda and Anne helped me make cookies! I made sugar cookies... Only I don't know how to explain the difference between baking soda and baking powder and they only knew of one and I don't know what it was (oh, translation issues.) so I just doubled up on whatever one I used... it turned out okay. Actually, they're delicious. The girls wanted to put sprinkles on them, so I made up some milk+powdered sugar icing, and let them decorate them and they had a great time. And they loved the cookies. I... thought they were much too sweet with the extra icing... But oh well. It was fun.

In the morning I woke up first and really wanted pancakes. So... guess what I did?! I made pancakes for me, amanda and anne! Pia didn't want any. Amanda mixed them and anne put them on the stove... it was great I basically just directed them and over saw what they were doing. And then Anne LOVED them and took the recipe and kept telling me how they were SOOO GOOD! She's adorable :) Then Anne went home, and I went to volunteer and everything was good :)

Volunteering was great. At first it was a little awkward because no one remembered me or anything. But it worked out okay. I went around and helped the women that were in the first group with their kicking and their crawl stroke arms. One lady was having a really hard time because her kick wasn't moving her at all. I went over and tried to help. I demonstrated, explained a couple of different ways, body language... everything... She never did get moving. Its so hard because even when I'm working with people who speak english and I tell them to kick from the hips, not the knee they say "okay!" then keep kicking with the knee because they're just not aware of their body in that way yet... And between that and the language barrier, it was so frustrating. But she was such a sweet woman. I thought she was angry at me or something because I couldn't help her. She didn't speak any english, but after class she came up to me and smiled and gave me a hug and said thank you and looked really appreciative even though I couldn't help her. I was a little frustrated that I couldn't help her, but in the end it was good to know that she knew I was really trying and I knew she was trying. And I'm so glad, that despite our differences, we were able to get our gratitude across to each other.

When i got back from volunteering, I decided that, finally, I should probably stop avoiding my work. I still did... but I made a list of my work for the week and wrote out all my assignments for the rest of the semester... Its going to be rough. I have 8+ page papers due every week in addition to conducting 4+ interviews, going to extra lectures, and giving presentations. And the normal readings on top of that. And the research FOR the papers. It should be... fun.

Monday was back to class. Nothing exciting happened. Classes. And Tuesday, again, nothing exciting... UNTIL EVENING! I was a little worried that I would have to sit in my room all night, alone, to watch the elections on the internet. Two of my friends are sick and another was tired... But then we found a party to go to that was free, so we did that. We met up at 10:30 PM... well before any of the polls closed, and went to the bar that was having the party. In the back of the bar was a big room with a projector playing CNN... So we just parked it back there, in the room of Americans, and watched the elections. It was great fun (especially when Wolf Blitzer pulled out the hologram!) We stayed there until we were kicked out at 4:40, 20 minutes before the west coast polls closed, so we moved to a different bar. Where I then stayed until 6:30. The called the race for obama and cheers went out everywhere. Everyone was smiling and cheering and up out of their seats... it was amazing. One of the guys (who was not american) got up on the bar and stood up and started chanting. He switched between "NO MORE FEAR" and "O-BAM-A!" One of the ladies went around and gave huge hugs to all of the Americans saying thank you and congratulations. She was SO excited.

But, the whole thing just made me wish I was in America for this. It was such a monumental occasion. I loved seeing the reactions of non-americans... But I would have so loved to be with friends watching this. By this time, the friend I'd come with had to leave since she had to get up early in the morning. So they called it for Obama and I wanted to cheer and scream and give everyone hugs... But I didn't know anyone there. And after Obama's (amazing) acceptance speech... I left. And the roads were dead. No one cared, in the end. Whereas, in America I've heard so many stories of colleges all pouring out into the streets and celebrating... I would have loved to be a part of that. But, in the end, I'm just glad Obama won.

However, I'm kind of upset that proposition 8 didn't pass. But I'll leave that at that. I've been political enough here and that's not the point of my blog. We can discuss this elsewhere if you want.

Today, I got back to my house at 7:30 and went straight to bed. Woke up at 11 and went on with my day. Checked some election analysis and ate some food... Did some work... Then I made dinner! It was curry apple chicken. Which... I make from my head. But... I forgot how I made it the other times so it wasn't quite as good... But that's okay. Now... I have to read a 55 page paper about muslims in the EU. And write a reflection paper about my 3 week travel break.

Have a lovely night everyone!