Weekend.

Hi! Happy beginning of the work-week everyone! First off, I would like to wish my mom a lovely first day of school! Hope you have a good semester!

Now, for my weekend! I had a fairly boring weekend, I just stayed home for most of it. Today I woke up and showered, then Amanda and I played a number of games together. She just came to my room and looked like she wanted to do something, which I liked. Her English is becoming really good! And its coming to her quicker now too- though I wonder if it is a little bit because she isn't as shy now as she used to be? Her English teacher has asked me to come to her class on Monday the 29th, which I'd love to do, but I have class until 1 and he wants me to get there at 12:30... There is an express bus I can take right to her school, or I can take the metro to the train and be there pretty fast too, but I can't get there much before 1:30 and I think her school is over at 2? We'll work it out though. Anyway, after we played MANY games, I had to clean my room... And Amanda asked if she could help! So we cleaned my room. I think she mostly wanted to spend time with me? I don't know. Then I let her use my internet cord for her computer so she could try that out. So I did some reading while she played games until lunch (at 2:30...) It was a good morning :) After that, I came down to do research... a little on Poles in Lithuania... really interesting. Poland and Lithuania used to be one country, then they broke apart, only to have Poland invade the part of Lithuania that Vilnius is in... Then Russia came and helped Lithuania kick Poland out... And they succeeded... But Then Poland came right back. So, needless to say, there's a large Polish minority in that area. After I did a bit of that, I had to do research on a Danish Political party for one of my classes because we're having a debate on Tuesday... Only, all the websites with information about the political parties are, well, in Danish. And, since I don't know Danish... that makes research awfully hard... We'll keep trying some other time. After that I called my papa (Hi Dad!!!) and headed up to spend some time with Pia and Amanda. We watched a Danish TV show... I don't really know what was going on. People were angry, someone got cheated on, someone lost all of their money and a guy ended up in Africa. It was in Danish. And, now I'm down in my room again.

Yesterday was even less exciting, if that's possible... I woke up late (noon!!!) and the house was EMPTY. I was rather confused, so I just sat in my room and read for... 6 hours? Homework. I did get all but 2 readings done for the week, so that's nice :) I also tried to start booking my travel break... But that proved to be rather difficult... I'll be in Lithuania. And I found a 10$ flight from Riga, Latvia to London... And I know EuroLines busses has a 20$ bus to take me from Vilnius to Riga... But I couldn't figure out how to buy tickets for the bus and I didn't want to buy the flight unless I knew I could get there in time... So then I got frustrated and gave up. By the way, if any of you are free for the week of Oct 20-25 and would like to visit Brussels, Amsterdam and Berlin... Let me know! I would *LOVE* to have you as a travel buddy! Otherwise, I'll be travelling alone. Without a cellphone or a computer since I'm only bringing 1 backpack for 3 weeks... Travelling light. Anyway. After that, Amanda came downstairs and had me set up her brand new computer and told me dinner was on the stove. So I set up the computer and went and ate before doing more homework, talking to Mikes and my Mom and heading out to go to the bar with Kara. Only, neither of us knew where the good bars were... So we ended up at the student house. And then came home at 11:30. I had a really good drink though! Sommersby... its apple cider. But cold, and in a bottle.

Now, FRIDAY. Friday was good. Friday was TIVOLI! And its the reason I went backwards- I was saving the best for last :)


Tivoli Gardens is an amusement park RIGHT in the middle of downtown Copenhagen! It was built during a war to keep peoples' spirits up. AND its its last week open. So admission and a all-rides pass was only 100 kr (20$!!!) And it was *SO* worth it. I had a blast! I went with Kara and Gabi and we tried to go on all the rides. It was lots of fun. The best ride there were the swings:


Yes, they're swings. Just like the classic swings that spin you around so you go up... Only these swings are 83 meters up in the air! You get a GREAT view of the city :) Basically amazing. Other notable things about Tivoli before I just give you pictures... Tivoli is great. The food is even really good! Denmark has really high health standards, so the burger I had that was FABULOUS. You can buy cotton candy there too... but its bigger than your head. In fact, its TWICE as big as your head. I didn't buy any. Also, every food stand sells beer. And then, if you don't want to wait in line at the food stand, you can just go to the tent thats selling beer. At the amusement park. And no one cares. Its partially because, while people drink a lot, no one gets 'publicly drunk' to the point where they're disruptive. Probably lots of other reasons too... But thats for another time. Now, pictures.

In the fun house! This was spinning like a hamster wheel. The whole fun house was AMAZING. AND built inside the roller coaster! It had fun lights and moving bridges and spinning things... Great fun.

The ROLLER COASTER. It is the oldest operating wooden roller coaster. Its so old that this guy sits in the middle of each of the trains with a brake so you don't go down the hills too fast.

Okay. So. Its a small world? No. This is the ride where you sit in a treasure box and it tells you all of HC Anderson's stories while you go past beautiful puppets reinacting each story.

This food stand was IN a landrover! It was pretty cool.

In China Town. By the big roller coaster. It was a good roller coaster. A bit short, but good. Loved how tacky China Town was. There was even a fake great wall. And the food stands, which were named "Asian Station" sold hamburgers and hotdogs... which we thought was rather funny.

LOOK! Its me and Hans Christian Anderson! Okay. So this isn't in Tivoli... Its right across the street by my bus stop. But still...

Carousel! I rode the GIRAFFE. It was really tall.

Creepy statue by the front of Tivoli... Nothing says 'WELCOME TO TIVOLI' like this creepy face...

Castle thing in Tivoli... It lights up at night!

Me on the octopus/squid ride thing. Yay for children's rides :)

Kara and Gabi on the octopus/squid (we couldn't decide) ride!

Entrance to China Town. haha :)

And thats about all I have for you for this weekend. This week, I have a presentation, a debate, another presentation and I have a guest lecturer and friends are coming to visit(!!!) and tomorrow is cooking class... And then on Saturday... LEGOLAND!!! Why? Because legos were invented here and they have a HUGE legoland and *I* am very excited. You'll get pictures on Sunday, no worries :)

**PS: as always: there are more pictures on my photobucket. I took over 50 pictures. I think there are 15 here? I didn't count. So, there are lots more.

National Museum and Red Cross Asylum Center!!!

Today was a busy, but amazing day! I might have to keep it pretty short since I have some intense reading left to do tonight... but I'll try to keep it good. OH! And no pictures. I didn't feel like taking pictures in the museum and there wasn't really much to take pictures of at the asylum center...

First thing today I met up with 5 of my friends and we went to complete and assignment about the National Museum (its free!) First we spent an hour wandering through the enormous Denmark pre-history exhibit that went through the stone age, bronze age and iron age. It was really interesting seeing how technology evolved and how long people have been wearing necklaces and combing their hair for... OH! and there were BOG PEOPLE! Meaning, these people were sacrificed into bogs... then perfectly preserved for... until now. They were really cool... kinda creepy, but really cool. Then we headed to the Greenland exhibit... which was just a ton of stuff shoved into glass boxes with lots of fur clothes (including fur underwear?!) And a little bit on eskimos. Part of our assignment asked "what does the Greenland exihibit lead you to believe about Greenland? How does this differ from the way Denmark is portrayed in the pre-history exibit?" To which we answered, "Denmark seems to be very rich and strong with a long history while Greenland is portrayed as simply being a cold home to eskimos." Which... was pretty much how they were presented... despite the unfair representation... Then we headed up to the classical greek antiquities room... I found the toys room first... which lead to the modern Danish history bit which I thought was REALLY cool, but one of the girls I was with didn't like it and just hurried her way to the greek exhibit which I was pretty uninterested in... So I'll be going back to look at the modern history room... And most of the other rooms since we left after that to find lunch.

We couldn't find a good, not busy, cheap lunch place, so we ate at Spicy Sandwich, which... was good, just not amazing. They got whole pizzas for 40 kr! AND the pizzas were good. It was a pretty sweet deal. And then two of us met up with another classmate and headed over to the meeting place for the asylum.

We took the metro there, ended up there an hour early and went to a park across the street and sat there and chatted for a bit before going and meeting the rest of the class.

So. We went to the Danish Red Cross Asylum center. Basically, when people started trying to come here as refugees, the Danish government asked the red cross to find a way to give them food and shelter while their applications for asylum were being processed. The Red Cross got some money to do this and have been doing this ever since. Now, I could go on for a bit about the history of Danish immigration and current immigration and asylum laws, but I will spare you the pain. If you're interested... e-mail me or we can discuss it when I get back- my whole class is focused on this theme. To start with, we had a short mini-lecture giving us a history of the organization and she explained why they were there and everything they do. They house many asylum seekers and they feed them, they provide activites for kids and teens and classes for anyone over 17 (because they are not eligable for public school when they turn 17.) They can do job training classes or take classes in danish or english, they can take classes on integration... Lots of things. It was interesting to learn that, while seeking asylum, you cannot hold a job. Keep that in mind. Anyway, we learned about their newspaper that they publish (in english: www.newtimes.dk) That the asylum seekers publish. Then we split our class in half for the really interesting part. There were two people currently living in the center who agreed to come talk to us- One from Algeria and one from Sri Lanka.

My group talked to the one from Sri Lanka. He came here with his wife, and the two of them have been living in the center for a year and a half waiting for a response to their application. The two of them had a child 10 days ago! (The baby girl is NOT a danish citizen because Denmark doesn't do the where you're born you're a citizen thing- they do whatever your parents are, you are, thing.) Anyway, His story was he was a freelance investigative journalist who spoke both languages in Sri Lanka. Theres a civil war there and he would go between the two sides and get facts and give them to the media... which the government didn't like... So the government started following/threatening his group of journalists and he paid a guy to take him and his wife to Switzerland (90% of asylum seekers pay a person to take them out of the country: human traffiking...) Problem being, these people they pay usually leave or ditch them or get caught along the way and the Dublin agreement says that the first place you're registered is where you have to stay... So he landed in Denmark and an official asked him why he was here... and now he has to stay. He thinks that the government won't decide on his case because they want the war in Sri Lanka to be finished so they can just send him home...

The other guy had a really interesting story... He has been living in the Asylum center for 9? years!!! He applied for asylum because he was in the army, but didn't agree with the government or what he was fighting for... but being a deserter gets you killed or tortured in Nigeria... So he simply can't go back.... but being a deserter isn't reason thats accepted to get you asylum... so he was rejected. Now, policy says, when you're rejected you must leave... but in practice this doesn't happen. He appealed the rejection 7 years ago and is still waiting for a response...

We also learned about the problem with Iraqi refugees... The problem is, they've all been rejected but Iraq wouldn't take them back. So... they've been stuck in political limbo for 9? years... over 350 of them! They just live in these centers and can't go anywhere else. Just today or yesterday, an agreement was signed though between Iraq and Denmark where Denmark is now paying Iraq (yes, Denmark does have the second highest amount of troops in Iraq...) to take back their refugees... And then they're paying the refugees to leave too and giving them money to start businesses or whatever (Copenhagen Syndrome: We want you to be successful and happy... just not here!) One guy in particular who has a PHD from a university in Bahgdad has been here for a VERY long time and is very scared to go back because he worked for the previous government... the one the present government hates... So that could be dangerous for him.

But anyway... it was REALLY interesting. We all got business cards and pleas from the people there to come volunteer and since I don't think SheZone will give me enough hours for my class... I just might take them up on the offer! I think that would be so interesting...

So... after all that, a few of us went to a cafe for a debreif which was good. I love talking about these things with a small group thats genuinely interested AND (important AND) informed. Our professor stuck around too, which was good. Then I checked the time and BOLTED it was 4:45... it takes me ATLEAST 40 minutes to get home... and I was making dinner for my host family!!!

I managed to make it home by 5:20 (super fast! I made a bus that I didn't think I would...) and then just started cooking. I made marinated chicken and potatoes with olive oil and thyme. It was all very good and everyone really liked it... even though we didn't eat until 7 (Michael's bed time... whoops...)

And now I'm posting this, sending some quick e-mails and doing many, MANY pages of reading until (probably) very early in the morning... Whoops!

OH! Friday I'm going to Tivoli!!! Whos excited? I'M EXCITED!!!

Classes!

This is just a quick update about my classes!

Cross-Cultural Encounters in a European Context: Really good class! We just got back from our study tour focusing on identity in the border region... Its all really interesting and the professor is GREAT. I'm really looking forward to our trip to Lithuania! Now that we've studied the border region, we're going to move onto learning about lots of different minorities all across Europe and I'm really excited.

Ethnic Conflict in Modern States: Its an interesting class... But the readings are a little heavy... and we're still a bit unsure about what our midterm is... But there are some really nice locals in the class that I'm starting to talk to a bit!

Language, Society and Ideology: Basically, a sociolinguistics course. But its interesting hearing all the different sociolinguistic theories. I disagree with a lot of the theories, but its all interesting. I'm kinda worried about the final project and hope I don't actually have to do field research...

Migrants, Minorities, and Multiculturalism: Super amazing! I love the professor even though he paces like a mad-man. He tells funny stories and gets distracted a lot but we learn a lot. We're just finishing up with learning about Denmark's imigration rules and how the conservative turn of the government in 2001 is affecting immigration and we're learning all about the Danish People's Party, which is the third biggest party right now, despite being completely xenophobic...

Service Learning Seminar: Probably my favorite class. I only have it once a week, every other week, but its always fun. We've learned about cultural intelligence, multiple intelligences theories, and intercultural communication and how societies and their cultures differ and how to work with that and the class is always hands on and its great. I don't start volunteering until the 4th though (Because I'm working with Muslim girls and September is Ramadan...)

They're is QUITE a bit of overlap between all of them... and what I've studied before... but I don't mind because they fit in perfectly with EVERYTHING I'm studying and I find it all really interesting... And with the overlap I get more perspectives and a deeper understanding of the situations... So its good :) People ask me how I can handle all the repetition and I see it all as a good thing.

Other random side note: I'm sure you've all heard about how Denmark is so Liberal and everything is ALL ABOUT equality and women are treated as equals... right? Well, its all true for the most part... but I've been finding some issues with the women's rights thing... So... Denmark has the highest percentage of women in the workforce or something, right? Its mostly because of the (basically) required daycare from age 1-6... Most of the women work in nurseries and schools... So. This girl I know visited her host sister's bording school... And found out they only taught cooking, child rearing and equestrian... The host sister is 19... and basically going to school to learn how to be the perfect rich, 50's house wife? And then it seems like the women still do most of the cooking and cleaning... So... while they may be liberalized (to the extent they don't wear bras when its warm... even with decently see-through shirts...) when they're outside of the house and have all of the same rights as men, I feel like in the private sector... they're still a few years behind... If you know more than me about this subject, please tell me? Aaand... I fully intend on talking to a female dane about this issue when I get the chance...

Finally! The long awaited post!

HI! So. I got back from my study tour on Sunday! Study tour was good. Many hours on bus with people who have colds have me a cold... so breathing is a little tough... and I'm way tired, but good otherwise :)

So. Where to start??? Thursday. We had to catch the bus at 8 AM sharp, so I got there at 7:30, went to 7-11 (the only place open...) and bought myself some snails (a type of danish... like a cinnamon roll :) ) They were two for 10 kr... So a really good deal :) I ate them and listened to my news podcast while waiting for everyone to show up. (Note on news podcast: I was feeling really disconnected from news since the news here is (obviously) all in danish... so now I have BBC, the Economist and NPR news programs all on my iPod... I listen to them instead of music most of the time.) Eventually, everyone got there, and we were off! One girl was still a little drunk from the night before and telling some pretty embarrasing stories from the night before about how she didn't know how she got home and such really loudly... which kept everyone awake until the movie started. We decided to start our lovely day with a bright and uplifting movie called "the downfall." Well... its title was in German but thats what it translated to. It told the story of Hitler's last days. It was pretty good, but it was dark so I couldn't see it really well and the subtitles were TEENY and it was really early... But I got the main idea. We watched it because our lecture on Monday night talked about the problem of how Germany went from zero pride about their country, to trying to rectify what they did through education and monuments and apologies, to now some people are trying to victimize the Germans. This movie was really controvercial because it shows the 'human' side of Hitler, only mentions concentration camps or anything once or twice and basically shows Germans as the victims of the war. It was interesting. Not a good movie for 8 in the morning though...

Our destination for the first day was supposted to be a ferry, a palace then the A. P. Moller Skolen ( a school for the Danish Minority in Germany.) However... our bus driver got lost repeadedly and we missed our ferry and never got to the palace because we were running so late... And then we were late to the school too. It was all very bad. Anyway: the school was AMAZING. I think they said it cost a WHOLE LOT OF MONEY? It was all a private donation... But it had art by that guy who put waterfalls on the Brooklyn Bridge (hes a famous danish artist...) and it had state of the art sound in the gym AND auditorium... It had BEAUTIFUL wood floors and smart boards in EVERY class room. I forgot my camera when we went there... but I took some pictures from others on facebook...

That's my professor in that picture! She's super awesome and SO nice!

Yeah. That's the school. And two of my classmates. Isn't it BEAUTIFUL? And see the orbs on the top? Yeah... thats the art. It was really nice. It was the 8 planets and the sun but it was all mirrored and amazing. The boxes on the top left are classrooms and student lounges and things and at the top of the stairs is the library which just chills in the middle of the school, its not in a room or anything. I loved how open it all was.

Anyway. We listened to a lecture there by Jorgen Kuhl which was really good. He wrote a book we read for class, is a leading scholar on border regions... and is the headmaster of the school. He helped plan it and you could tell. He looked like a kid in a candy store! The lecture was a bit repetitive... but thats okay.

After this, the bus got lost again. We estimate we spent an extra 2-3 hours on that bus at the very least because he was so clueless. But, eventually we made it back to DK, where we stayed the night in Aabrenaa. It was a cute little coastal town on a fjord (i've seen like 3 or 4 fjords now. They're really not that amazing.) We were supposed to do a scavenger hunt there... but we got there late (of course) and didn't get to it. Instead, we just went to dinner at this really nice restuarant with a name that translates to "Under the Sail." because the whole restaurant was under a sail! It was really good... Especially the brownie and pastacio ice cream we got for dessert...

After the meal we all went seprate ways... Some went back to the hostel... some went to the beach... me and a couple others wandered around the (little & deserted) town in the dark. Eventually, we found a bar, which was empty ( it was 9. Danes do go out until 11) but they played funny music (Limp Biscuit, Bob Marley and Aqua... back to back???) We got drinks and were off. My little group split up, with half going back to the hostel and me and my new friend Kara heading to the beach... we ended up walking along this creepy peir into the middle of fjord that was pitch black. And taking crazy pictures there (with Kara's camera... But I stole them from facebook, so you're in luck!)

Me, by a random statue by the Aabrenaa Town Hall...

The pier... Fun story about the pier. Kara and I were taking pictures and talking about how creepy the pier was when I look up and see a shadowy figure walking down the pier towards us. Super creepy. Just a classmate though. We could only walk half way down before we got a little freaked out.

Me and Kara! Her flash was super bright, I had to look away.

After that we went back to the hostel and sat with a big group of our classmates. I don't have much of anything in common with them, but most of them are really nice and it was good to get to know them and their names. I eventually moved and talked to the other group (the one I'm a little closer to) and found out two of the girls I was rooming with went and jumped off the end of the pier... into basically the Baltic... with their clothes on so the walk back was freezing.

The next day we got up and headed back to Germany. (We didn't get lost this time because our bus driver was fired and we got a new one. Yes, he was that bad.) We went to Flensburg and the Duborg Skolen! Probably my favorite day of study tour, by the way. Flensburg is a really cute German town... that used to be Danish. But then Denmark lost a giant battle to Germany and lost all of their industrialized land and their second biggest port (after Copenhagen, of course.) This included Flensburg. Which, during WWII, happened to be the Nazi naval base and was bombed incessantly by the English... So the whole town has basically been rebuilt. There are pictures of Flensburg around... but I don't remember which they are... so you're out of luck... Sorry! At the Duborg Skolen (the other Danish secondary school in Germany) We met with a bunch of students and got tours of their school. Their school was really nice... but old. We asked them about how they identified: with the German majority or the Danish minority or somewhere inbetween. The answer I got? "Almost German." I had to write a reflection paper on their response... that was fun...

The school! Its pretty. And made to look like a castle!

A nifty piece of art... I think donated by the Queen???

After that we had lunch break... Buying food in a small German town where few people speak english is QUITE the adventure. But we got it. Yum yum, cheap fast-food... At a German fastfood place though! None of this McDonalds or whatever. After that... more bus...

We took the bus to Sonderborg, DK. Its a nice old town with a castle! But first, we had to sit through a boring lecture by this guy. He had interesting things to say, but SO unemotional and dry... So I don't remember anything of it. It was in an awesome building though! More about it later. On the way we stopped at an old palace! It was pretty. had a beautiful church...

So... Its was the palace of a Danish Duke... then people found out he supported Germany, so they kicked him out... And then Germany took over anyway and they had royalty there (I think...) but then in 1920 people voted and the land became Danish again and the Palace became state property... So now its an insane asylum/mental institution.

The BEAUTIFUL Baroque church attached to the insane asylum!

Following the boring lecture, we went to our new hostel. yay. The hostel served us a tasty dinner... and we were off to our ghost tour at the Castle! We didn't see any ghosts (duh...) but it was interesting. Basically this creepy lady:

(this room WAS pitch black... camera just had a BRIGHT flash...)

she took us around the castle and told us scary stories and historical stories and such. But... the castle was a museum. So it was basically walking through the museum at night...

The castle...

The crypt where like 17 kids are buried...

The thing where kids were baptized? But they only put new (holy) water in it once a year... so it was basically a germ pool and it killed a bunch of kids...

The only entrance to the dungeon. People had to hang in the dungeon so they didn't escape... But they weren't HUNG as in killed... They died, but that wasn't the intent.

After this, we did like the Danish... and went to the bar. Its name was "maybe not bob" I had a tequila sunrise. It was tasty. We hung out for an hour or so... then tried to find a dance club... We found one, but it was closed until 11... So we went to a Mexican bar (in Denmark...) and I had a Mudslide... Fun story about this mudslide. I go up the the bartender and say, "A mudslide." he says okay, I look away for a minute to talk to someone, turn back around and he's given me a pack of cigarettes... I look at him and say " I DON'T want these!" Show him the menu and point to the mudslide... Which he them gives me 5 kr discount on. Anyway. We hung out there for a while (with our professor :) ) and then headed over to Buddy Holly: Bar and Dancing. The bouncers ask us where we're from and they let us in free... And then we find out its a gay bar. But our whole class is there. So we stay. And it was fun. We left at 1... And went back to hostel and slept a lot.

The last day of study tour was tough. I had started to come down with my cold so I wasn't feeling so hot and we had 2 lectures. The first one was good (though I think I may have accidentally nodded off a couple times... Apperently colds make me slightly... prone to falling asleep at inopportune moments... like really interesting lectures.) It was a member of the German minority in Denmark who had been travelling with us. He talked about how he identifies and how he reconciles his German past with WWII and such. It was really good. Then we had lunch... But all the cafes were closed??? So we went to the fast-food stand. I had a kebob pita. It wasn't amazing. We met back up and had an architectural tour of the building (its name is 'The Alsion Complex") we had spent part of yesterday and all of today in. It was an AMAZING building. It had an area for companies to have offices so they could all collaborate, it had a clean room (so they could do research on nano technology), it had what will be the concert hall with the best acoustics for a year (until a new one in Hamburg is built) and then that was all attached to the University... like... in the same building. And it had art by the waterfall guy too. The tour was interesting... But all in danish and it all had to be translated... So it was a little awkward...

The only picture I got of the building...

After that we had another lecture. This was a guy who works in the government as a part of the German Minority party. He was a little sick, but he was good. He talked about some really interesting things :) My problem: I started off really well... then started to fade (sleepy wise) and did everything I could to stay awake. I was taking notes on interesting things he said... then I'd forget what I was writing in the middle of a word... And then I started to just fall asleep in the middle of words... it was bad. Eventually my teacher had to wake me up... Super embarassing. But as soon as the lecture was over, the whole class just started laughing at me... Which I didn't really mind. It was funny and I don't really care. Apperently, they'd all been watching me instead of the lecturer... And, one of my friends told me, at one point I had completely slumped forward and my professor and another guy who was travelling with us both looked at me, then at eachother and just started cracking up laughing. I was glad they weren't angry... But it seems like everyone knew I could not controll this... And I got a good bit of sleep the night before too!!! I don't know what was up...

But yeah. After that, we made the 5 hour drive home. I made it back to my house and promptly went to bed and slept until noon. Woke up and did a bunch of homework and went back to bed. Okay. here are some more random pictures from the trip. Random meaning that I don't remember what they're of or they didn't fit elsewhere...

I think this is Sonderborg? I know its in Denmark because of the flags hanging on the street...

This was when we were on the Odense Bridge... the second longest in Denmark!

I think this is Aabrenaa... And that would be fjord in the back :)

Crappy picture, BEAUTIFUL light house!!!

Sonderborg, at sunset!

Sign by a drawbridge in Sonderborg: Stop for blink!

These guys randomly 'fought' in the streets of Sonderborg while we were buying lunch...

Old windmill by the battlefield where Denmark lost to Germany...

Sonderborg... And sailboats!!

Battlefields! With destroyed German fortifications!

Sonderborg... but it reminds me of Nyhavn.

Pretty, typical street in Sonderborg.

Anyway, Monday was pretty good. I had class (including a ridiculous 20 question test that we got 35 minutes for despite deep, multilevel answers being required for each question...) and then I had another class... And then I met up with Gabi and we ate lunch in her Kolligium before going to cooking class!!! Cooking class was good... Its more a cook in large group with supervision and I kinda feel like it was a waste of my money... but it will be good to have good meals and get some good danish recipies... Then I came home... at like... 11 PM (shoulda been like, 10:30, but the busses never run when I need them to...) And then I went to bed.

Today I got up, fought to get my internet to work and then skype'd Mikes :) Then went to my least favorite class... then my favorite class... then I had a meeting with my Cross-Cultural prof to talk about how the class was going (I'm class rep... one of two :) ) and then I went to my other favorite class where we discusses intercultural communication and cultural styles and things and then did a role-play where we each had a different cultural trait and we had to work with other people to build an awesome marshmallow/spagetti/ apple tower... We were in two groups... it was a competition. We won.

The top is above the guy in the orange shirt's head... its a white marshmallow... can you see it?

After that, I came home and played games (connect 4, war, speed, 500, guess who...) with Amanda for a couple hours before coming down here and writing this lovely blog for you fine folks. Have a lovely day, and I hope you enjoyed! I'll probably get another update up for you before the weeks over since tomorrow should be interesting: National Museum and the Red Cross Asylum Center (where the people waiting to be granted asylum are held...) Then, much homework, of course.

'Allo!

Hello loyal followers! I have made it back from my Study Tour in the Border Region. It was fantastic. However, it left me with a lot of homework and a bit of a cold. My pictures are up on Photobucket (as always) and I will try REALLY HARD to update this before Wednesday. Its kind of a busy week with events everyday and I have to miss dinner three nights... Which I'm really sad about (since dinner is family time and is very important... and I like my host family lots.) and its just craziness.

By the way: Gas here is over 11DKK/liter. divide by 5... thats over 2$/liter... and there are about 4 liters in a gallon. So, gas here is over 8$/gallon. Just so you know.

Also: Doors. They all go opposite of what you'd expect... I still fight with the front door of the house. Really embarrassing... particularly early in the morning when I don't know if the door is locked and I forget to pull... and keep on pushing and wondering why the darn thing won't budge! Also embarrassing in public.

If you visit: Please keep in mind to avoid the bike lanes.

Myth! Danes DO NOT wait for the little green man telling you you can cross on the cross-walk. They cross when possible, just like everyone else. This goes against everything anyone told me before coming.

Furthermore: Stoplights. They're yellow before they turn green too... Kinda confusing when riding a bike and you're preparing for a red light because the light was just yellow... then it turns green.

Miss you all! Send me your addresses please! I'm accumulating post cards and one day I might work up motivation to go buy stamps...

Swinging.

HI! Gabi and I just got back from swing dancing. And, I must say, it was quite the experience. So, I had the address and the walking directions and headed out right after dinner. I took Pia's bike and headed for the train. Half way there, my chain falls off. Then, I take a wrong turn. I finally make it to the train station and go to the bathroom to wash the chain-grease off my hands. Then I hear a train- either coming or going. I rush out of the bathroom, to see my train leaving. It wouldn't come again for 20 more minutes... and I was supposed to meet Gabi in 5. I quickly improvise and take a bus that I know to stop near Town Hall Square, where we're meeting. It was the 250S train... Which I'd never taken. After a quick bit of forgetfulness in not showing the driver my pass... him smirking as I walk down to my seat (later remembering to go show him my pass...) the bus heads off. Its a double decker bus. I have no idea what the 's' stands for, but I think it just might stand for "Super Quick!" I'm pretty sure it beat the train there. And if not, it gave the train a run for its money. So, I make a quick call to Gabi to tell her I'm running late, and then, 15 minutes later, call her to tell her I'm there. We head off... in what I *think* to be the right direction. I was pretty sure I'd passed it on my Other Copenhagen Tour during orientation week, but wasn't sure I remembered how to get there...

Well... we ended up in a little bit sketchy bit of town. Not exactly on the right road, but it got us where we needed. Its an old working class section that has gone through a bit of urban-renewal as of late. We're walking down the street, not knowing where we're going or even what road we're on. We find a street sign, and it definitely isn't the right street. So we wander around a bit more, in what we know to be not one of the best sections of town (its no where near the worst either...) We eventually find a sign for our road... Which was the one we'd been walking on. Confused, we looked around and kept walking. We eventually find the building... Well the backside of it. It looks exceedingly creepy. Its basically an empty house with graffiti on it... But we hear swing music coming from the inside. We peeked through the window, and saw the door was on the other side. We walk down the road, and its a little gated place with a number of little cafes and things situated around a courtyard. This side is NOT creepy. There's some nice people sitting at an outdoor cafe, and a balboa class going on in one of the other buildings. We walk in, and look like confused Americans. But its all right. The people tell us to come in and ask if we know how to swing. I do, Gabi does not. They tell us to just ask people to dance, and are very welcoming.

We hang up our jackets and take a seat next to the bar. A lady comes up to us and introduces her self and says she doesn't recognize us, and usually she knows everyone who comes. We talk to her for a bit, and later find out she owns the place... She was really nice and also reccomended we ask people to teach us. There was a lesson going on (that we missed...) and waited a few minutes for the dance to start. Most of the people there were older... Not like old... Just older than I'm used to with the college swing dance scene. A couple people ask where we're from, she's from San Francisco... And I say Seattle just because its the only place they're likely to have heard of. And, whenever I say Seattle, they're like, "WHOA! Seattle has GREAT dancers!" and I get kind of scared that they have high expectations for me... But its all good :)

Anyway, we both kind of hide on the couches for a bit... Sometimes people come to find out why there are 2 Americans sitting on the couch, but most of the time we just sit there awkwardly. We meet the DJ, who teaches us a little bit of the Balboa basic (this particular swing club is more for Balboa/Charelston... with faster swing music.) He tells us about all the Copenhagen events and is very nice to us, but then gets back to DJing. Then, this guy named John who is from Stockholm but works in Copenhagen every other week came and asked Gabi to dance. She goes, admitting that she doesn't know how to... he helps her out, then comes and gets me and the three of us went outside and he goes over some east coast/ lindy basics with us... And the charelston too. Mostly for Gabi's benefit, I think. Anyway, he's super nice. The two of us then danced for a couple songs... With him doing some tricky things (which means I did okay!) but he repremanded me for not doing the triple steps right in my turns... and for trying to lead. Which is something I've had problems with since I started...

After that, people started to leave, including lots of guys. There were already many more guys than girls. The crowd was already smaller than usual due to there were lots of swing parties over the weekend and most people were swing'd out... Not finding anyone to dance with, Gabi and I left and got ice cream from a nice ice cream vendor that wanted to talk to us but knew very little english. He was nice and seemed genuinely interested, which is odd. Then, we wandered around for a little bit and made plans for dinner and dessert night :) I'm excited.

It was a good night. I got home at, like, 11, but it was good. I think I'll keep trying to go to a lot of the swing events- its a really good way to meet people. And, I think if I get better it will be a whole lot less awkward. This time, it was kind of uncomfortable and I'm really glad I had a friend there with me. But I think it will get less and less awkward. And... the swing community seems pretty small and tight knit, which would be great for getting to know people and stepping out of my iPod box that I've kind of started to get trapped in. On Sundays theres a dance at the Student House... on Thursdays they have a bar they rent... somewhere. And theres usually something on fridays. If I'm around, I think I'll just swing-club hop. The people seem nice, and helpful and like that we're getting out and doing things. And... swing dancing is fun, something I look forward to doing. I think Gabi had fun too- she said she'd go back, and I hope she meant it since I don't really want to walk back to that place alone... Its in a decent bit of town, very gentrified, but to get there you have to walk through the (former?) red-light district. Which isn't as bad as it sounds, actually. Its very well lit and I didn't feel unsafe at all. There were lots of people around and live bands in all the bars, and people just seemed happy. But still, basic urban safety precautions say not to go alone.

So, thats my night. Hope yours is good too! <3

A few more notes.

So... last night I got really tired and sped through the end of my post. So here's more of what I wanted to say: While in Sweden, and getting lost, and learning to take the hard road, I thought a bit about how the whole adventure was a bit of an analogy for... life, but more specifically life abroad. For example, in the beginning we set a goal to get to Nimis. But, we kept getting lost and having to ask directions. We avoided up hills (since our legs were tired) and stayed off dirt roads- they couldn't lead anywhere! In the end, we found out that we had to go up the hills all the way and take the dirt roads. I guess that could be taken as, take the challenging road as well as the road less taken? By going up the hills (more than once some times) and taking the dirt road, we eventually made it to Nimis. Even through the road there was a VERY trecherous one. And when we made it, we were both glad we had put all the work into doing it and getting there.

From this, I gather that I should stop hanging out in my room and plugging into my headphones while on the bus/walking around town. I'm missing out on a lot of challenges and taking the easy road. I'm having a great time, but I'm not becoming a part of the community- I'm just an island living IN the community, more or less isolated. Thats no good. Its so hard to step out of that bubble though...

Anyway. I was elected class rep for Cross-Cultural encounters! I'm really happy for that. Hopefully people let me know what I should say before Tuesday when I have a meeting. Next tuesday is going to be crazy. I have 2 classes, (maybe a meeting), a meeting with my Cross-Cultural professor and then my service learning seminar. Wow!

Today was fairly relaxed. I got up and talked to Mike (great start to a day!) and then got all ready and headed off to school. I got my readings done, and went to my two classes then went with Gaby to buy me shampoo and her some groceries. Then I entered myself in the blog contest with DIS. I figured, since I already have a blog, why not put it up on the website so future DIS students can see it... So its up at dis.dk/blogs. Or, rather, it will be soon. I think someone has to go through and read everything and make sure its all safe and unoffensive.

Now, I'm just sitting in my room waiting for dinner, at like 7 or 7:30. After that I'm going up to Town Hall Square and meeting Gabi and the two of us are going to go swing dancing!!! I'm excited! I've always said that if you don't know anyone, swing dancing would be a great way to meet people... So here I go! I'll report back tomorrow.

Tomorrow I'm booking my travel break trips and I'm going to Ikea and I have a field study to the German Minority association... I think? I know I have a field study atleast. I'll also be packing and such, but I'll make sure to atleast get a quick post in about dancing and all of my other little adventures tomorrow. After that you won't hear from me until Saturday or Sunday since I'll be... elsewhere :)

Have a lovely day!!!