'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!!!

When in doubt, take the uphill, dirt road.

So... I'm still in a busy sort of place. I'm thinking I'll be busy for a while longer too... But That's good... I think :) I have SO many stories from this weekend (and I'm hopped up on sugar so you get to hear them despite it being after midnight and I'm getting up early to talk to Mike for the first time since he got to Japan...)

OKAY! So. We started off on this bus. Our bus has a beer tap.


We drove to the Ferry in Helsingor. That's the Danish word for it. In English... its Elsinore. There's a castle! Its kinda far off in the mist in my picture though...

Its the blurry yellowish? thing in the middle. Its also known as... HAMLET'S CASTLE. Its the castle Shakespear wrote about :) Isn't that nifty?!

The ferries here are awesome. So much better/nicer/more efficient than the Washington State Ferries. Like... it looks like a boat and then the front is on hinges and just opens up like a giant mouth and the cars come out. And theres a restaurant and a cafe and a duty free shop and artwork... Its kinda really ritzy. No pictures though. Camera stayed on bus.

Anyway. We then got to Sweden! Sweden looks a lot like Denmark. Except all the signs have two dots over most vowels instead of the o with the slash or the ae thing and the a with the one circle over it. We drove for like an hour... Here are some things we passed!!!

Downtown. Its cute. We only drove past it...

WINDMILLS!!!

Anyway. We finally got to our hostel. It was really nice and it used to be an Old Folks Home.

It was a VERY NICE hostel.


Me in the window of our room at the hostel.

We had a half hour to unpack and get ready... Before they handed out the worst maps I've ever seen and gave us these horrible bikes. They point to where Nimis is... and where we are... and we head out and see BEAUTIFUL views in the really cute little harbor village. There were even thatched roofs!!!

The view.

The sea view.

Homes in the cute town.

Nice hotel in the cute town. I think its name was Arild?

Yay views.

However, when we got down to the nice views from the little town, we realized we had no idea where to go from there. So we asked friendly Swede #1. She was a nice old lady who's very specific directions said "go out of the town, turn right, turn right, then when you get to Himmelstorp turn right." Awesome. Off we go.

But first... Up a GIANT hill. Sweden is VERY hilly. We get to the top... and see that the next place we go is also a hill. Ouch. So up we go. We're riding along... when the road just ends. It just turns into a dirt road. Megan and I just look at eachother all confused like and ask friendly Swede #2 for directions. He says "Its very close! That dirt road might lead to it, but I think its a dead end. So turn right, then turn right and when you get to Himmlestorp, turn right." Awesome. We got this... Again. So, we follow his directions... and they send us down the giant hill and back into the town. So we ride around a bit, wondering if we missed a turn. We end up by a bus stop and ask friendly Swede #3 where to go. She points to a giant hill and tells us to go up there and ask in the store... Only... that was the hill that we came down to get INTO the little village in the beginning. We heed her advice... and up the hill we went. By now, we're quite sore. And kind of frustrated at the map... and the lack of proper directions. We get to the top and realize that we're going in completely the wrong direction. Crap. All the way up that hill for nothing! Sooo... back down we go. We stop to eat in the nice little villiage...

When we're done, we ask more people for directions, but they're friendly Danes on holiday that don't know where anything is... So we just go into the ritzy 4 star hotel and ask. She gives us great directions, using a GOOD map and tell us to follow the red dots. And warn us about this dirt road...

So we go back to the dirt road we were at 2 hours earlier. Thats right, it took us 2 hours to find our way. Anyway, we take a couple wrong turns on the trail as well... but end up in the Kullaburg Nature Reserve. We follow some nice trails (again, mostly up hill...) and end up on some super rocky trail. So... we ditched our bikes and decided to foot it the rest of the way. Good decision.

The first half of the trail to Nimis wasn't bad. AND guess what we found?!

HIMMELSTORP!!!

So, we turned right at Himmelstorp. And ended up by these nifty tikis... AND there were some yellow 'N's on trees to mark the trail...

Aren't they cool? I thought so.

Note: its a clearly marked, normal looking trail through beautiful wilderness! This was soon to change.

Soon, this trail seemed to cease to exist. It became a ridiculous, slightly damp, mess. The following pictures are of our 'trail.'

Arrow! It helped. Especially since it pointed away from the nicely tread trail...

None of these pictures capture how treacherous this 'trail' really was.

Do you see a trail? I don't...

That's Megan! She looks scared. It was scary. I don't blame her.

In these pictures, please remember that this is all on a slightly slimy, steep down hill.

Anyway, then, we made it to Nimis! And, for hour 3+ hours of work, it was COMPLETELY worth it. 200%. Like, I'd pay admission into this place. Click here for the wikipedia article. Its super interesting! For a little bit of background: This guy somehow ended up in the woods and he decided to make his own 'Nation' of driftwood towers that you can crawl all over. They're amazingly sturdy. Here are pictures of the entrance! I'm in most of them :)

We found it! The entrance! Note that I am here navigating over large, slipperly boulders with holes between them.

I'm there, in the entrance to Ladonia!

Yeah... He built a nice wooden sculpture trail down. It was steep. And slippery. Make sure you get a good grip!

Better view looking down the wooden entrance. He built all this. Isn't that CRAZY?

Here you can kinda see the entrance tunnel snake around and such... Its pretty much massive.

Yeah... So he build all of this. With drift wood and nails. All by himself... (I took LOTS of pictures of it. Like... over a hundred. They don't get comments anymore.)

MOST of the towers...

There is a stone castle too!!!

Looking down...

Too narrow... We couldn't get through :(

Looking UP!

Yes, they let any child older than 4 climb ALL OVER these things. Its a scandinavian thing. They let their kids teach themselves through trial and error.

Books... nailed to a board?!

Crocodile rock!

We made sure to touch the Baltic before we left!

Back up the steep... thing!

Back up the steep... trail!

Wait! Where'd the trail go? Oh yeah... It never existed...

Anyway, we made it back only 15 minutes late! And then they bbq'd for us and gave us beers. Which I didn't drink. They weren't good beers. And we played cards for a bit... Before going and crashing into our very comfortable beds.

The next day we woke up, cleaned up our rooms and went... CANOEING! It was much more relaxing AND we didn't get lost! Always a plus. The guy said it would take 3 hours... It only took megan and I 2! HAHA! Take that... RIVER!

It was a nice river.

After we stopped canoeing, we ate a quick lunch, which included the tasty...

Orange juice (made my coca-cola!) and digestive chocolate!

After that, we got caught up on our weekend theme: lost in Sweden. We were told that when we were done, we'd be in a cute little town that we could wander around in... Only... we couldn't find it. Megan, me and 8 other people wandered aimlessly through residential and creepy industrial area... then Megan and I turned back to ask directions a the boat house while everyone else kept walking...

As we got back, we saw the other half of our group! Including group leader. So we followed them down the dirt road we'd decided not to take (always take the dirt road. This is what Sweden taught me.) And ended up in a really cute... something. Its kind of like a farmers market meets a plant show... meets farm animals... with windmills and a playground. We got ice cream there and wandered around...

MINI HORSES! They were adorable.

Best. Playground. Toy. Ever. Its a tireswing zip line thing. Its amazing. And would be banned in the US :(

No clue what this is. But it was in the middle of the park...

After the ice cream, we heded back and found the other 8 people, who were upset they didn't get ice cream. So they got candy on the ferry. The rest of the ride home was uneventful. So I'll skip it so I can get to today's guest lecture!!!

Heres a SUPER quick overview since I'm really sleepy:

he was an AWESOME lecturer. He is part of the German Minority here in Denmark (Relevant because we're going to the Danish/German border region this weekend to study how people form their identities there) He started by asking us what we thought of when we thought of Germany... To which we all answered "hitler" "sausage" "cars" and "nazis" ...of course. Then he asked us how we delt with the bad stuff from our pasts (slavery, only atom bombs, japanese internment camps, and what we did to the Natives (which apperently some scholars classify as genocide...)) which was just us being like "Yeah... long time ago... We look to the FUTURE." After that, he told us lots about the holocust... Like how Lithuania used to be 45% jewish... then the Nazis came and killed 95% of them and how 2 million Soviet Captives were killed too. He didn't try to justify any of it, of course just mention how Germany has done many things to try to rectify the past like how they built all these giant monuments (pointing out we didn't have giant momuments to our 'dark spots') and how germans were scared to reunite East and West Germany because it might cause more nationalism... and even 10 years ago no one would show the flag or sing the national anthem because of the negative associations with nationalism (Hitler and the Nazis were all about nationalism) Germany even changed their flag and the national anthem (they got rid of 2 of the verses of the national anthem.) Then world cup came and everyone was so proud to be German again finally... but all the old people who were around for everything (since it was only 60 years ago) got scared that the nationalism was going to send them down the wrong path again. And now apperently germany is one of the biggest proponents of the EU because they like the idea of a supernational body that keeps peace... and they're VERY weary of war now.... for obvious reasons. He also kind of touched on how once Germans started publishing books, some of the people in the government started to feel like they were trying to switch the victimization and drop the responsibility of what happened, which they're trying not to do. They now accept this part of their history and are trying to behave and get everyone else to behave too.

Well... thats all I have for tonight. I'd love to talk more about this when I'm more awake. E-mail me if you have questions or comments or anything :)

OH! I'm pretty sure I have my travel plans all set up!!!

I'm going to lithuania with my program... then bussing up to latvia since their air port is the hub for air baltic. Then I'll fly to London and meet up with manda, zoe, james, and ryan. I'll spend some days there... and take the train over to brussels to see the EU buildings and such. Then train up to Amsterdam, then train over to Hamburg, Germany. Then train back to Copenhagen to meet up with my group for Czech Trek. The last day there is Thursday (in Prauge) so I'm going to chill there for an extra day and Amanda might(probably will) fly over and meet me... then we're going to go to Poland to visit Auschwitz. After than I head back to Copenhagen to start writing final papers... And this weekend I'm in the border region. Next weekend I want to go either to stockholm or oslo... and whichever I don't do I want to do the weekend after that since none of my weekends after that are free...and then Amanda, Zoe, James and Ryan are coming and visiting the 25th and 26th to visit And I'm SUPER excited about that...

Have a good night everyone! Miss you!