Trains vs. Fabric Softener

There are so, so, so many things I absolutely adore about Copenhagen, Denmark, and Europe - so many that it'll take quite some time to write them all out. Conversely, there are times when I fall into a homesick funk, and I miss all the things in the States that I've taken for granted.

Denmark: I love the train. The trains here are so "hyggeligt", a word in Danish that means "cozy". It's their word - they use it for everything. Once you get to Denmark, it's one of the first things the Danes will teach you. It's true though, Denmark is a wonderfully cozy place. Anyway, the trains. It's not like any place in the States - you get on, and on occasion, they'll check to see if you're carrying your train pass. There are no obnoxious swipe things, no stupid things to walk through, just...a train station. The first month I was here, I only got checked twice. I like that they trust people here - Americans seem to have difficulty doing that.

In yet another perspective, the trains and busses are wonderful because they'll help prevent much of the drinking and driving that we get in the states. I guess that's more of what it's like in the big cities like New York and Boston, but not what I'm used to in Grand Isle, South Burlington, and Canton.

Really though, after a long day (or night, even) it's a relief to see the A-train (Reading "Hundige" - our direction home...the other direction reads "Farum") pull into Nørreport station. It's an even bigger relief to see the velvety, bright blue seats inside the train, many of which I've taken a quick cat-nap in on the 17-minute ride back to my station, Friheden, and my town, Hvidovre.

By the way, all of the things I've written in Danish - none of them sound remotely close to how they're spelled. I still (apparently) can't pronounce my train station, or even my town.

America: I really miss driving. I miss the little Honda Civic that I've gotten so attached to. I'm not sure I'll even remember how to drive when I come home - not that I was ever that wonderful of a driver anyway (Not a word from ANY of you who have driven with me). Though I really love wandering the city, sometimes public transportation isn't what I'm in the mood for.

Denmark: They're really wonderful about recycling, energy-saving, and water use here. It's really amazing to see how little electricy (or whatever) they use. I'm not always used to it, though...for example: In Tali and my family, they always unplug any appliance they're not using. Basically, they treat everything like a toaster. The only thing that I'm allowed to keep constantly plugged in in my room is my clock. The switches must always be off if there's nothing plugged into them, because that'll also save money for the electricity bill. It's still a difficult concept for me, and sometimes I forget to unplug everything. Anyway, it's cool.

America: It's cool until I want to take a really long, hot, wonderful shower. At home, Lene and Lars take showers that last literally 3 - 5 minutes - but they have short hair! Trust me, it's really hard for someone with hair down to her waist to take a 3 - 5 minute shower. The hot water only lasts for about 7 minutes, and then it turns to very, VERY lukewarm (at best) water. I finish showering as quickly as possible, but when I'm done, I come out shivering in my (more or less) heatless room.

And it's not like they're freezing me - I have a space heater, but honestly, I feel guilty using it. I know how much electricy they use, so I'd rather not run up their bill. I don't know. Basically the first thing I do when I come home to the states is jump into my big, huge bathtub shower and stay there for at like 30 minutes. Which, right now, sounds like the longest shower in the world.

Something else I miss dreadfully is a dryer. Our host family has one, but I've yet to use it. Actually, I think I've only done laundry (in their really small washer) three times in the last month (and a week or so), because I never want to use their water. I'm being slightly ridiculous, I know, because they're being paid to compensate for the extra stuff that we add up to in their bills, but still. I don't know. I don't want to seem wasteful. I think it's really cool that they air-dry their clothes, but when you live in a basement in the cold, sometimes it takes up to three days to dry. I also miss the fabric softener. Like, SO much. My clothes are always completely stiff when I take them off the line.

Needless to say, the second thing that I'm going to do when I come back to the states is do a load of laundry, and dry my clothes in the dryer. Please, I beg of you, take advantage of the fabric softener back home.

Denmark: I love wandering around in the city, it's absolutely wonderful. Yesterday I walked around for two hours (and ended up quite a ways away from Copenhagen), losing myself in the European scenery. It's never dull - gorgeous churches, there are statues everywhere (Blink!), gardens that, even in the winter, are lovely to look at and wander through, little fruit and flower stands scattered everywhere throughout the city - everything. I find myself wanting to wander for hours at a time, because I really never get bored.

America: I really miss Church Street and St. Lawrence campus. Both. Very much. I miss the people watching on church street, I miss the familiarity at St. Lawrence. In both Vermont and Canton, I miss that people are willing to smile at you - here, they don't seem to appreciate eye contact very much. In the States, I smile at everyone and anyone (well, mood depending), but here, people look down or fly by you on bicycles, practically running you over. Again, having been from a tiny town my entire life, I guess it's just something I'm not totally used to. Maybe it's the same in the big cities at home.

Denmark: The Danes that I've met here are wonderful. My host parents are wonderful people (despite the lack of electricity they use), and I love spending time with them and getting to know them better. I love the nights when Lars and I will sit down with a guitar and sing and play for hours on end, and I love learning all new things about Denmark with Lene.

I guess the only other Dane (aside from my professors) I've spent a lot of time with is Stefan. He's absolutely amazing. He's shown me this entirely different perspective on Danish culture, a much younger one. I love seeing everything with him in Copenhagen and learning so much from him. He's a wonderful boyfriend and I couldn't have asked for anything more.

America: You...all of you. I miss you all so much, too much. In a way it's really difficult for me to be here in Denmark and not share the entire experience with you. I miss talking to you and being with you and seeing you - just everything.


Jeg glaeder mig til at se jer igen! Jeg elsker dig. (:

Shocking!

Yesterday was a fun day, which ended with a movie (Pineapple Express) and dinner cooked by one of Stefan's friends, an ex-chef from Pakistan, Seamus. It was REALLY good - and coupled with waffle fries, my tummy was totally satisfied. In the afternoon, we went out for coffee after classes, and started to wander around the city. The day was so pretty that we ended up just taking a very enjoyable walk around the King's gardens by his summer castle. Picturesque, as usual. Wonderful date, as usual.

My classes are STILL boring - what a shocker. I had a test in my News Media and Transition class that I thought I did pretty poorly on - I wasn't really expecting much higher than a B. I was really nervous when my professor started handing back grades, most that I saw weren't much higher than a B+...and these are the smart kids, so I figured I'd just be totally screwed. At this point in time, I wasn't really expecting any higher than a C, but when Mike handed my test back, I was shocked to see the grade: A-!

It's actually been a somewhat intimidating class, only because a lot of the kids are Mass Media & Communication majors - which really isn't up my alley at all. I'm definitely more of the interpersonal communication on a smaller scale, so it's been a lot of new information for me. Basically, I'm really happy that I pulled that off on my first test here in Denmark!

The next test coming up is Danish, and that exam takes place over next Monday and next Thursday - written, then oral. I'm definitely nervous for that, but only because it'll be recorded. I have a new friend in that class, and Tali and I are actually going out with her tonight since we don't have classes until 3 tomorrow.

I've gotta run and pull myself together before we head out on the town, but I'll talk to you all soon!

love & kisses!

Wonderful Copenhagen

So I'm finally feeling the "Welcome to Wonderful Copenhagen" sign. I've been in love with this city and country for quite a few weeks, but this weekend really made me feel 100% at home.

Stefan and I spent most of the weekend together, cooking, walking, pet-store-ing, shopping, exploring - it was so much fun. The pet store we went to was called Zoo Zity, and it was probably the best date we've been on yet - ridiculously cool. It had little caves, tons and tons of different animals (monkeys!), and a giant aquarium with tons of sharks. It was soo big, and so much fun to hang out in for a little while...here are some pictures:


Parrot...Sign says: "Careful! Parrot bites."


The giant aquarium with all of the sharks...


Yeah. It was amazing. I've been having the time of my life this past week, and Copenhagen is looking more and more like my future home. I've fallen completely in love with it, and I'm not sure that leaving in three months will even be an option - in my first entry, I said that I wasn't coming back because of airplanes - now I'm not because my greatest love is this city.

Bartending last night was definitely a lot of fun - it was all girls behind the bar for our shift. Emily, Alix and I were together again, and then we worked with a Polish girl named Magda, and our boss for the night was Anya. They were so much fun, and I don't think I screwed anything up - I learned how to make a pretty decent Irish coffee, too. I learned how to pour two beers at once on tap with no foam - pretty cool, right? I signed up to work again on the 7th of March, so that should be fun - I signed up with my friend Lizzie, who I met on the plane over here. It's been really nice to keep in touch with her, but unfortunately we don't get to see each other very often. It'll be the third time that I'll be working, so that means I start getting free coffee and tea whenever I go to Studenterhuset. That's really nice for me because I actually go there a lot in the daytime as well - meeting up with friends for coffee, or just to do homework in general. Hopefully it'll be a little bit of a money saver.

Today in Denmark is a holiday called Festelavns - it's the Dane's version of Halloween...well, it's like US Halloween combined with Cinco de Mayo (Sp?), because the kids dress up in costumes and hit at a barrel filled with candy with sticks. It's pretty cute. Tali and I went with Lene today to see our town's little celebration, which was fun. If I were a little kid in Denmark I'd be pumped - after they hit the barrel, they go around to the houses and sing - instead of getting candy, the Danes get money...pretty awesome, I wish we got money for trick-or-treating when we were little!

Everything is going well, classes are still dull. I got an A on my first paper for the semester - I was pretty upset about it, so I asked the professor what I did wrong, but I guess DIS doesn't use A+s, because A is the highest grade - so I guess that's good.

I guess that's about it with me...and unfortunately, this week holds almost nothing of interest. Tomorrow Stefan and I are meeting up after our classes to take a look at the museums around the city. I've only seen a few, so it should be a lot of fun!

Love from your American Girl in Denmark

Zoos, Dates, and Pamphlets

Hmm...I'm trying to think of what's happened since I last wrote..

On Wednesday, Tali and I actually both had the day entirely off again, so that was really nice. We decided to take a trip to the zoo, which was REALLY fun...we watched a polar bear eat a rabbit, saw some seals...I mean honestly, it was a typical zoo, just more opened up. We still had a great time there, and spent a few hours just wandering around.

Sorry, that's really un-exciting.

Stefan and I went on our first "real" date last night, which was fun, we started at Studenterhuset for a drink, then moved onto a Moroccan restaurant, then went out to a bar for another drink. When I got in around 11:15, I didn't have much energy to finish my Danish homework, so I went to bed, and got up super early to do it today...lame.

Lately, photojournalism is like the lamest thing of my life. I don't really have a confirmed subject, so I always have to ask people if I can take their picture, and it's always really awkward. Tomorrow we have a "relationship" shot due, which means that I have to get my subject interacting with someone else. I wandered around the streets for a really absurdly long time, trying to get up the courage to ask two people that looked like they had good interactions. Unfortunately, no one struck me as interesting. Finally, as I was walking home after deciding to give up completely, a woman handed me a pamphlet. She and her friend created a teeny newspaper (that's like, three pieces of computer paper, folded) that eductates people about unknown things in politics around the world - sorry, that's the best I can explain.

Anyway, they insisted on buying me a beer (at like 3:30), and we talked for awhile, and finally, I photographed them. I got some really nice shots, so it was a successful day.

As a reward, I bought myself a new dress.

But it was only $20!!

So it's alright.

xo!

Bartending & Sweden

So Thursday (Torsdag!) really was one of the best nights so far in Copenhagen. Em and I went in for training at 6:00, and figured we'd have some time off in between to do some homework, because our shift didn't start until 9:00. Training was ridiculously easy, but instead of doing homework, we just trained for three hours or so, and hung out behind the bar. Our boss is SO cool, he's from Norway, and totally easy-going.

The perks of this job are awesome - you get seven free beer tickets to use at any time, which includes Carlsberg (whose slogan is "Probably the Best Beer in Denmark" - hilarious), regular draft, shots, and other stuff. A ticket can also get you coffee, tea, or soda during the daytime. While behind the bar, we're allowed to drink as much soda as we want, and if you screw up a beer, you can usually drink that, too. Great life. After shift ends and everyone cleans up, they order you pizza, and between all the staff workers, you get 16 beers.

So anyway, some funny things happened, made some cool friends, just a wonderful time in general. Em and I worked at the door for a little bit, because Thursday through Saturday at Studenterhuset means live music nights (and the night we were working, the music was pretty cool - we met the band and they were REALLY awesome - and really cute!). We managed to have a couple conversations in Danish! Given, they were saying things like, "Har du dit studenterkort?" (do you have your student card?) and "vil det vaere fyrre kroner" (It will be forty DKK). Rewarding experience nonetheless. I can't wait to go back again on the 21st - I signed up with a Emily, Alix (a girl from a couple of my classes), and Trine, a wonderfully sweet Danish girl with whom I have a shopping date.

At the end of the shift, Em and I ran to the night bus, which I hate, and which we had just missed. Seriously, the night bus is my mortal enemy here in Denmark, I DESPISE it. It's scary, difficult to figure out where the stops are, and just ugh, all together just terrible. It only runs every hour on the weekdays, so we had missed it and had to wait for around 30 minutes. We met this really nice couple (though they were HAMMERED), who helped us get home.

Friday night was fun, Em and I went out to Studenterhuset and used some more of our beer tickets - unfortunately we couldn't swing a free pass in by saying we bartended there...damn. I met some cool people - turned out to be a pretty awesome night!

Anyway, on Saturday, Tali and I hopped on the train at 12, got to Central Station, and got tickets to Sweden. Round trip, they were about $30 - which really, it's kind of a rip off, because it's only like a 25 minute train ride.

We went shopping there for a few hours, and definitely enjoyed ourselves - shopping wasn't AS fun as we expected, but we got some pretty cool stuff. I got this ridiculous dress from a little, Italian boutique - it's from Milan, and totally ridiculous. I'm determined to wear it soon - on Wednesday, I'm going on a date to a Thai restaurant that looks kind of informal, but I don't care if I don't fit in, I adore it to pieces...

...And it'll be SO AWESOME with my new leather jacket!! So Justin (if you're even reading this...) - I now have a leather jacket (it's black), and we can make our Dr. Who Halloween epic. Sweeeeet. I look totally badass in it - and LOVE it. It was on sale for about $100USD, so that was really exciting.

Hmm, I bought some other boring stuff, so that's not really relevant, but the rest of Sweden was nice. Tali and I had a fun Valentine's Day together, and went out to a nice little restaurant called the Moosehead, which turned out to be Asian food.


















It was really good...yeah. So then we were exhausted from shopping all day (oh, and the exchange rate is GREAT!), so we decide to go home - plus I had a Valentine's Day date (not that they really celebrate it here) that I had to be on time for. We hopped on the train at around 6:00, because it left for Copenhagen again at 6:02. By 6:18, we hadn't moved, and were, needless to say, concerned. Someone came over the loudspeaker and told us that the train wasn't working, and that we'd have to get off and take a bus to the next stop, and leave for Copenhagen at the next station. So we end up running out to catch the bus, and miraculously squeeze onto the first one. Suddenly, this couple is looking at us frantically, saying "Copenhagen? Are you going to Copenhagen? This is wrong, get off!"

Lunatics. It was totally right. So we get off, realize it was the right bus, and have to wait like, 15 minutes for the next one. Then we ended up on the second bus, and it took like 25 minutes to get there. Tali and I saw the man who'd been giving us direction running down to catch the train to Copenhagen, so we started running, too. We ended up there on time, but didn't get back into Copenhagen until like 7:50. We had JUST missed our train home to Hvidovre, and at night they only come every 20 minutes. The signs read "18 Minutes - Hundige". Damn our lives.

So we didn't get home from Sweden until around 8:30 - I'm definitely mad at Sweden. I think the Danes would be supportive of that, because to them, Sweden is like our Canada. You just make fun of them all the time...it's really funny.

So that was our Swedish adventure, and the fifth country I've been to. I've been completely unproductive this weekend, so even though it's really late my time, I've gotta go do some studying for a test in News Media and Transition tomorrow.

Oh, and here's the dress from Miilan:

I absolutely adore it - and it was supposed to be like, 799DKK or something really high - she gave it to me for 444DKK, which is around $75.

Yes, it's the second dress I've bought here. But I restrained from buying a (third) pair of shoes here - they were stilettos and they had feathers on them. It took a lot of willpower.

So that's about it in my life for now, things are going great. This week should be pretty low-key. I think I might even have this Wednesday off again - that would be more than amazing.

But anyway, I'll finally stop procrastinating from studying, and I'll talk to you all soon - lots of love from Denmark!

Wow

Without a doubt the best night of my life. I'm EXHAUSTED, since it's 3:11am our time, but I can't wait to tell you all about it. Alarm set for 6:30am - not so much looking forward to that...but oh well.

Bartending again on the 21st of February - because I'm not sure I can do any more shifts that are on school nights...and all the weekend slots are full until then - sad story, but DEFINITELY something to look forward to!

Luckiest girl in the world, right here in Hvidovre, Denmark!

Bartending

Bartending at Studenterhuset tonight! Unfortunately, Emily and I heard that the shift runs 9pm - 2am...which means the trains will have stopped running, and probably the night bus as well, since it's a Thursday. I also have an 8:30 tomorrow, so we're thinking of skipping out around 12:15am, because that's when our last train leaves.

Anyway, I'll talk to you after I've had a night behind the bar! (:

Some pictures...

The bridge to Sweden in the background...


National bird of Denmark!


A little street in Odense...where some drunk people latched onto our tour group...


The corner of the Hans Christian Andersen museum, and some of Odense


This is how foggy it was in Kolding - this was the "view" from the top of the castle.

Bahaha

Success: My Photojournalism professor said that my project looked good. I win.

But now, I think I'm going back to sleep for awhile. I don't have to do anything (well, except homework) until Thursday - No class or study tours tomorrow! Hooray!

CHEAP FLIGHTS X2!!!!!!!

So I finally sucked it up and got the guts to do this.

I have officially booked tickets.

On March 27th, our study tour ends at 3:00p.m. From Oxford, I'll be heading back to London to Heathrow Airport. At 7:50p.m., I'll be headed over to Dublin, Ireland, arriving at 9:10p.m. Consider me master travel-planner - tickets were booked at only $73.63.

I'll stay in Dublin until the 1st of April, and on that Wednesday morning, at 10:50a.m., I'll be headed to the Dublin Airport to make my way over from Paris - arrival time: 1:30p.m.

Price? $56.80.

Rock on.


Wish me luck, 'cause I'm just gunna wing it. I'm not booking hostels, I'm not doing anything. I'm going to Ireland with no plans in mind...just a backpack, some clothes, and a sheet. Yikes.

What else I'm thinking:

I can book a flight from Paris to Barcelona for $88. I can't decide. I think I'd rather hop over to Italy, but...SPAIN. I definitely want to accomplish at LEAST four countries in two weeks, if not five. I'm going to be exhausted, but I think it's worth it.

Other thoughts:

I'm really struggling to figure out what I want to do in terms of train tickets. I'm wondering if in this situation, a Eurail pass is the best idea. They're SUPER expensive, and I guess I'll use it and it'll be totally worth it. There's a package where I can get four countries, but I can only use it over ten days, and all within two months. I don't think that's a problem - I think that might actually be a logical idea. The only problem I see is that it's worth more than all of the plane/train tickets I plan to buy - combined. The thing about a Eurail though, is that it gives me ridiculously good discounts. I can get a night train from Paris to Venice for (low)$48, though I think I'd go for a little higher class (the $48 is with five other travelers), and shoot for the $82. Without the Eurail, they'd be (respectively) $221 and $230. I honestly dont know what to do. I know that I'll need the pass anyway...but the prices are so, SO high that I'm not sure I can bring myself to do it.

A four country pass with 10 days worth $459.

You can only do these on adjoining countries (aka - connected by train or ship). This would actually work out for me though, because I would get the pass for France, Republic of Ireland, Italy, and Spain.

If I don't get this pass, I'd have to figure out means of travel - and this is unlimited train. I feel like that's 10 days of endless possibilities - how amazing! So maybe it is worth it after all. I think I'll wait to book until at least March, though, because it's only valid for two months.

Any suggestions? Ideas? Concerns? Don't tell me about your concerns, actually, because they've probably already gone through my mind. I'm doing it - you can't convince me out of it. So if you're concerned, then just wish me good luck, and pray that I don't get stuck in Ireland harvesting potatoes for the rest of my life or something. I guess there's always Guinness.

Anyway, I've exhausted myself with planning for what's shaping up to sound like a fun spring break! I'm thinking that I'll go from:

Denmark - London - Oxford - Dublin - Paris - Barcelona - Venice - Denmark.

So far I'm to Paris - and have spent less than $150 - three more to go, and if I can keep them all under $100 per flight/train ride, I'll begin to consider myself a totally successful travel-planner. A totally successful traveller, though, I guess that's yet to be determined. The flights from Venice to Denmark are pretty expensive, but I don't know, I guess I'll have to take what I can get, because no matter what, I'll have to get home. So aside from my trip home, expenses should be good. The flight from Venice to Copenhagen, though, would stop in Brussels for about 10 hours - shitty layover, but wait! I'm in Europe. Time to explore? Maybe?? Belgium...supposed to be gorgeous, and a place that I'd have liked to see anyway. Am I allowed to leave the airport in the middle of a layover? Does anyone know? So I guess who knows - perhaps I'll spend 10 hours in the city, hop back onto my flight, and deal with the $214 trip back home to Copenhagen. Sounds good to me!

It's almost 2a.m. and I have an 8:30 tomorrow with a less-than-two-minute presentation that I haven't started. But I don't really care, because it basically means I have to stand up and say who I'm photographing for my final project. Done, and done.

Sweet dreams when you get there!

Lots of love,
Your Potentially-Successful-Travel-Planner

Arhus, Odense, and Cheap Flights

Although Arhus and Odense are the second and third biggest cities in Denmark, I don't think it's saying much. I had a pretty awful couple days, and we didn't really do anything fun. We spent a lot of time on the bus, and I didn't make many friends. I think I'm becoming antisocial, because whenever anyone would go out, I would go back to the hostel and read. Whatever.

So a couple cool things we did:

We went to ARoS which was so unbelievably cool - go check out that link, because I can't explain how wonderful the exhibit we got to see was. It's the digital link. We totally lucked out, though, because the exhibit didn't technically open until the next day, but the curator told us he would give us a tour. We got to meet all of the artists, too, which was amazing. Unfortunately, our tour didn't last more than 30 - 45 minutes, and the rest of the museum wasn't that cool...but oh well.

In Odense, we got to take a walking tour of the city, and saw a lot of Hans Christian Andersen stuff, which was really fun for me. I don't think we were supposed to go, but after telling Morten how much I wanted to go, he managed to get our tour guide to agree to taking us to the museum because we had so much time. We spent about an hour there, and that means that I won't have to go on a study tour to Odense AGAIN, from 9:00 - 4:30 with Janis. Hooray! Because really, it means I have a full Wednesday off. At some point, Morten and I were walking and talking, and it turns out that one of his university professors wrote a biography I used for my research paper last semester, and that I'm reading for Janis right now - really cool, huh? Maybe not, but I'm smitten. Still.

We also got to go to TV2, which is Denmark's biggest TV station - but here it works much differently than the States. There's TV2, which has a subset of five different channels. There's also DR (which I think is Danish Radio, I really don't know), and they're the competitors of TV2. We went to the station and got a really cool tour, and even got to see them broadcast the 4:00 news live - and met the anchor and everything. It was really interesting to see how news stations work. All the while, I was thinking of Marcellus Parsons - what a funny person to think about while I'm in Denmark. Weird.

Anyway, the rest of our trip was comprised of the most miserable weather ever, a super lame castle (that was pretty much the ugliest place I've ever seen, but actually it's where the first Protestant church in Denmark was), a lecture from the School of Journalism in Arhus, a visit to a local newspaper who's going partially on the net for their coverage, and a dull museum that was a floor of old newspaper stuff. On the upside, they fed us two meals a day, and they were at really upscale places, and really, really good.

Well.

Except the fish. There was a fish meal on the first day, and it was like...breaded, but an entire fish. I put my fork on it, and moved it around a little, and my fork managed to slide some of it off, but I gagged, because every bone in that fish's body was in tact...except for the head and the tail. I didn't want to waste it (they pre-ordered everything for us), so I managed to slide some more of its body off of its spine and fish version of a ribcage, but had to stop really soon after. The pieces of it that I did eat were completely submerged in butter for about 10 seconds so I wouldn't have to taste it. I asked our program assistant if I could be switched to vegetarian meals whenever fish was arranged.

But since I didn't go out (and was reading "A Prayer for Owen Meany" - thanks, Katie!), I managed to only spend about $60 - on three pretty nice meals.

Also - it was my first time experiencing a hostel - two hostels, actually. They weren't bad at all, but DIS definitely paid a good amount for them. In the second hostel, for either a three or four person room, it was like $120. I guess that's not THAT much, but considering they're sending around 500 kids to hostels, it's pretty pricey. I do, however, appreciate that they're not throwing us in some terrible place where we'd be likely to die. The first hostel was kind of annoying, because we were so jam packed - it was a tiny room with three bunk beds. I'm pretty sure it was only meant to hold four people, because that was originally what the sign-up said...and they had to add two more.

All and all a bad trip, and I was homesick for Copenhagen the entire time, but I'm still holding out hope that the Communications and Mass Media program won't be entirely lame, and that London will be amazing. We'll be there in about two months, as well as Oxford. I've been looking into booking flights out of London, but I don't really have anyone to travel with. My thoughts? I'm up for a European adventure, and I think I'm going to experiment with traveling by myself - wish me luck. I can book a ticket from London to Dublin for about $70, and then one from Dublin to Paris for about $50 - so I'm thinking about booking that soon. I don't really want to finalize anything until I'm sure that I want to do this alone, but I'm about 75% sure that I'd do alright. It's really nice to be traveling so much, because I just need to book the one-ways, which are SO much cheaper. Any thoughts from you? Do you think I can do it? Where else should I go? Having two weeks to myself for spring break is getting stressful - much less fun planning than I thought. Anyway, if I travel by myself, it'll be a good way to prepare myself for traveling alone at the end of the semester - that is, of course, unless any of you want to come with me!

It's 11:11 here, so I'll make a wish that one of you will come to see me over here in Europe - and if not, I'll just wish that you're all doing well back in the States.

I miss you!

Out of Town

Tomorrow all the DIS kids are heading out for our short study tours - this one will take me to Odense (HC Andersen's birthplace) and Arhus - two of the biggest cities in Denmark...actually, maybe they're THE two biggest cities after Copenhagen - I don't remember. But anyway, we're going to see the biggest DK TV station and some other stuff...it should be pretty cool.

I apologize for my inability to keep a blog - I've been so busy and so exhausted lately, it just hasn't been working out. I can't even think of all the things I've done in the last week...I'm sure they were fun though. I'm still totally in love with the city, and I'm determined to come back here and live for a couple years when I get older. The IT guy that helped us work on our stupid HTML coding (for FOUR HOURS....GROSS) told me I should just marry a Dane. I told him I was working on it. I don't think he really believed that it was sincere...because I think he knows my Danish professor. By the way - I really hope he never finds this blog. Like, really.

To you, my Danish professor: If you do find this, hopefully you'll only speak of it if you intend on marrying me, too. If not...........Spare me the complete humiliation, please.

Moving on. So I'll be out of town (with him, actually!!) from tomorrow (we have to get to the bus by 7:30, I'm going to shoot myself, because that means I have to leave at 6:25, which means I have to get up at 5:30....GAG.) until Saturday evening...possibly Sunday morning.

Have a great few days, I'll talk to you all soon.

And to my family - I'll miss you on Thursday, and I wish I could be with you.

!!

I keep trying to update my blog with a post that I'd saved, but it hasn't been working - so this'll be super short, but...

I'M BARTENDING IN COPENHAGEN! Emily and I start on the 12th of February!!