Life in CPH after school and traveling

So I'm done with school and any major trips after the last one. Now I'm just living a normal life in Copenhagen, experiencing a "summer" vacation for a few weeks. That's something I haven't experienced in quite a few summers. I think I know why--I get really bored really easily. I feel like a brat saying that because I'm living in Europe in the center of a major city while most people my age are working full time by now. It's a little different when most of your friends are gone, you have no family, and your boyfriend has exams to still study for. More alone time than I think I have ever had before. I'm starting to really enjoy it though. I will admit that I have been a bit lazy some of the days but I don't really have anything else to do. All of the traveling is done with for me mainly due to a lack of money. The weather was nice for a few days but from now until I leave it will be in the 60s, cloudy, rainy, and windy. If I was motivated enough I would explore other parts of Denmark, but right now I'm content in Copenhagen living in a big city... I've seen the small city parts before and also I did go to the countryside one day for a bbq.

Throughout the whole semester I have been writing about money concerns and now it really is taking it's toll. It's towards the end and I feel like I am really scraping here to just make it home. I am so so sorry if I can't bring gifts home for everyone, which I know I can't. I know there are a lot of people who have been really supportive of me through this semester and I will try to get a little something for people but souveniers especially are expensive here (a plain keychain for $12) so please understand!!

A little (short) recap of what I've been up to for the past week or so:

**Been riding a bike around.. "The Mustang" one day I took it to Fitnessdk, quite a long bike ride and of course I got lost. Saves me more than $60 if I don't have to pay for a metro pass though. Biked to the beach one day, very crowded though so I didn't stay too long

**Tivoli one day--I thought it was pretty good. Not really the experience I was expecting but good. For being the most visited place in Copenhagen I wasn't all that impressed. (If you don't know, Tivoli is an amusement park/gardens place that a lot of concerts are held) I think too nerdy business students shouldn't be allowed to go there alone because conversation always lead to the murky water or how expensive it was for one ride ticket vs. the bracelet, etc etc. At night there were the illuminations though--a light/sound/fire water show which was sweet. Dino loved the Cold Stone ice cream (the only one in Europe).

**On the night of Dino's exam (exam was in the morning) I surprised him with dinner in the park and chocolate fondue. I made spaghetti w/meat sauce (his favorite meal) and we had homemade fondue, which is really fun and easy to make but can't be healthy for you. That night we played cards with a bunch of people upstairs.

**Spent a few days in Helsingor with Dino's family. They were excited to hear about our trip to see their family. One night we made the fondue for his family with melted Toblerones. Other than that we were pretty lazy the whole time, worked out and watched tv.

**After Jonathan finished his exams (a Friday afternoon), we went to Kongens Have (big park) and had a few beers. That night we met up with Dinos friends at A-Bar. A really good night, it was great to mix CBS exchange students with Dino's friends that I have hung out with before.

**Walked to Christiania. Uneventful because I've been there before (twice) and I still think it's a sad place. This is the alternative lifestyle place in Copenhagen mainly just a district where all people want to do is not work and do drugs. Everyone just seems screwed up. I think I might take my kids there to scare them straight to never do drugs.

**Went out for Marcos' last night. Probably one of the best nights in CPH in awhile. It seemed like everyone was there and having a really good time. We all hung out upstairs beforehand just like we used to--drinking and fighting over music that usually ended up being country. Then we all went to Sams Bar (karaoke) and ended up singing "Livin on a Prayer" all of us as a group. We didn't leave there until after 3am and the sun was rising. We thought it would be funny to go to the other dorm by us (Peders) and sing "Happy Birthday" to Rob, and no it wasn't his birthday. One of the first days here we did that to someone in Tordens. We also tried to make a Tordens Pyramid. Ahh.. such a good night!

**Hung out for Ben's last night. No one got any further than 3rd floor common room. We drank Pearly Bay wine, the cheapest wine ever from Netto which we have been drinking alot this semester and had a country power hour.

**Went to the Sex & the City movie. I just love going to the movies lately. I thought it was a little overrated but I still liked it.

And today the exciting news.... DINO IS COMING TO THE USA! He had another interview with the US Embassy and they approved him for a visa this time. He was a lot more prepared for it this time after knowing what they were going to ask and look for from the first one. He booked his flight tonight and will be there from June 19--July 5th!

*************************PICTURES**********************************

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2108592&l=e485b&id=73404302

(and if you're just dying to see the Tordens Pyramid let me know, I don't have the picture on this site but I can get it easily)

Pictures from Croatia & Montenegro

Split Pictures:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2109997&l=2eadb&id=73404302

Dubrovnik Pictures:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2110040&l=89835&id=73404302


Montenegro Pictures (Budva, Bar, Podgorica, Ulcinj):
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2110168&l=1f60b&id=73404302

enjoy :)

Croatia & Montenegro

Back again but this time from probably the best trip I've taken all semester. Dino and I traveled to Croatia and Montenegro. We went first to Split (Croatia), then Dubrovnik (Croatia), next up was Budva & Bar (Montenegro), Podgorica (Montenegro), and lastly Tragori (Croatia). The travels through Croatia were very touristy and we barely saw any of the real lifestyles but we stayed with Dino's extended family in Montenegro and got a real-life Montenegrian experience.

Leaving Copenhagen (on Friday the 23rd) was a disaster. Our flight (with Sterling.. who SUCK!) was delayed and we didn't end up getting to Split until 3:00am! Our ride who was supposed to pick us up around 10pm couldn't stay that long so we had to call a taxi which took another 45 minutes and $70 before we got to our hotel by 4:30am. Running on no sleep we were off to discover Split in the one day we had there. Luckily Split can easily be covered in a day if you only do the basics--mainly the "Old Town". As I would later find out, most cities have the old part of their city still intact. Old city of Split on the Dalmatian coast is centred on the Roman era palace of Diocletian, built in 300 AD! I couldn't believe it was that old and still had modern shops and trading going on inside of it. We walked along by the water and the harbor as well, all very beautiful. I loved the mix of old historically rich city with the blue water and mountains in the background. We walked all around and found the soccer stadium. It was closed but we peeked inside... very nice but Dino appreciated it much, much more than I did. Near the stadium we walked down to the shoreline and hung out by the water for a bit. It was so quiet and peaceful and I just can't believe that everyone in the entire world wasn't at this amazing spot! After a quick nap and dinner we were off to see the metropolitan center near our hotel. It was probably the most American shopping experience I've had this semester. A big mall, open late, and the grocery stores had more than 12 things to pick from. Later that night we watched the Eurovision Song Contest. I had never seen it before and it was pretty interesting to see all of the politics involved behind the voting.

The next morning we had an early wake up to meet Dino's family friend, Edi. Edi was going to take us to the bus station to catch our bus to Dubrovnik. He took us out for coffee and seemed to be a really nice guy. He spoke very little English to me that day (we met him on our last day too where he spoke almost all in English) but seemed to be chatting Dinos ear off in Bosnian. Our bus trip to Dubrovnik was 5 hours long and TERRIFYING! In case you don't know, I have a deep rooted fear of being a passenger in pretty much any vehicle. This doesn't sit well when the vehicle is an South-Eastern European tour bus and your driving on a mountain. Pretty much the entire drive was curves and there was hardly any room (I mean inches) between the edge of the road and a deadly drop. I was a mental wreck after about an hour of the ride, gripping the seat and Dino's hand. We stopped off in Bosnia for a break, which was well needed. My only time in Bosnia it would turn out. We had tentatively planned on going to Sarajevo (capital of Bosnia and where Dino is from) but the roads and buses are apparently even worse there and it was going to be 38 degrees (100 degrees Fahrenheit).

In Dubrovnik we had a really nice apartment/room in a sweet little old lady's house. Her name was Marija and I think she was really glad to have some young blood around. Again we didn't have all that much time in Dubrovnik (a day and a half) so we had to cover ground quickly. I think we made good work of it though. That afternoon we went to the Old City of Dubrovnik which was surrounded by fortresses and completely walled in. It was quite a bit bigger than the old city in Split. It was built around 600 AD as a place where the Greeks could seek refuge from the Slavs. The interior was the same concept as in Split--modern shops, restaurants, and even hotels. The harbor was nice and looked up to the mountains. The coolest thing was that we could pay to walk along the top of the city walls. It was a bit scary because it was pretty high up but you could get a view of the entire city (both old and new), as well as the water and mountains. It is a long walk though. Very long. That night we walked along through the Old City and into the modern day town. We ate at this little sandwich place that had HUGE burgers and chicken sandwiches for only 20 Croatian Kuna (around $4). Then we walked back and had a beer at a bar in the Old City. It was clearly all Croatian guys in there (absolutely no women) so we got a few strange looks but it was cool to feel the real Croatian atmosphere. They were all singing Croatian songs loudly together and watching sports. We got our next beers to go and walked to the harbor and sat there for quite awhile.

The next day was beach day! Of course, one of my favorite kinds of days. We went to the beach right outside of the Old City (the one in most photographs and postcards of the place). I guess there's not all that much to say about a day at the beach. The most beautiful beach I've ever been to in my life with crystal clear blue water and sun all on one beach. We did a lot of laying and swimming. They have rock beaches down on the Dalmatia coast though, which hurt like hell. That night we had to catch a bus to Montenegro. The bus ride, again, was pure torture for me. The bus driver was going 90km/hr in a 70km/hr zone, talking on the cell phone, smoking, and chit chatting with passengers. Oh yeah AND changing the radio station too. I was freaked out. When we got there, his uncle picked us up and we went into the city of Budva with him and his girlfriend. His uncle has THREE girlfriends!! Supposedly they don't know about each other but seriously how could you not?? Either way, we went to the old city of Budva (of course there was an old city!) and then to the energetic side of town with a lot of music, food, restaurants, and people. Dino and I were dead tired so we didn't stay all that long. We drove to their summer homes right outside of Bar. Dino's family is rebuilding their summer house and three of his aunts/uncles have their summer houses right in the same neighborhood. We stayed at his uncles (who has apartments for people to rent and he let us stay for free)



The first day in the summer house town (called ''Dobra Vode'' or... good water) was a hot one. Temperature ranging in the 90s so it was nice to have a beach to go to. In the morning we ate breakfast, met his grandpa, and then walked around the neighborhood. Dino's grandpa seems like a nice guy, although again I couldn't really tell because of the language thing. By 10:00 we were on the beach.



Dino took me for a walk around the beach and pointed out all of the changes from over the years they've been spending their summers there. From a quaint private area it's now quickly turning into a tourist attraction. Sad to hear how much things change just in the name of making money. But I guess it is understandable--either they have private beauty and no tourist revenue (large sorce of income in the area) or they share it with other people and turn a profit at the same time.



It was nuts to see how much construction work they were doing. It is an upcoming tourist area so it's not surprising, but it was so hot I couldn't imagine having to wake up and do manual labor for the entire day. Plus their ways of construction were way different than I'm used to. Although I'm no construction expert, it looked like they were building anything everywhere. A lot of cement and fights over electricity, sand, and water pressure.



We ended up staying the whole day at the beach, until 7pm and it was still ''beach weather''. We went back, ate dinner, showered, and went out to a little town called Ulcinj. My shower was OUTSIDE!! The house is under construction and the power was out so we had to shower (with bathing suits on.. of course) from a hose. It was probably one of the coolest things we did because 1) I was showering outside and 2) there was a mountain sunset in the background. Ulcinj was nice..of course, there was an old city but a lively nightlife to go along with it. I was told typical natives walk the strip on a typical summer night. The strip was in fact covered with locals and there was an outdoor soccer game going on down at the sand part of the beach.



The next day we were moving on to yet another city--the capital city of Montenegro--Podgorica. We were going to meet the last of Dino's extended family. First, we stopped at a little store to pick up a few gifts. He has three young cousins that live there permanatly--Edi (3 yrs), Lara (6 yrs) and Eni (10 yrs). We ended up deciding to spoil them a little bit and picked up a big toy truck for Edi and Barbies for the girls. Along with chocolate, Pez, and lip glosses as well. We took an old communist train into Podgorica, it was a little eerie to be in such an old, historic, and still working train. We were greeted by his uncle and cousin Lara and then driven to his grandparents house to meet the rest of the family. The city seems under construction and just driving around was quite a sight. More laborers and construction, poor neighborhoods, and gypsies. Giving the gifts didn't start off too good... Edi started to cry when we gave him the truck because apparently he had just seen a snake get ran over by a truck. Lara was unimpressed by her gifts as well. We spent a lot of time out on the balcony talking and visiting, a little hard for me to join in with but it was interesting to see the family dynamics. His grandparents have had their house since at least his mom was growing up, his grandpa built the house himself.

That night we took the two girls out in the city. At first it was going horribly. We tried a walk through a park, offering anything from ice cream to pizza to toys for the girls to talk to either one of us. I couldn't figure out why they were being so quiet and then Dino told me a nice little story about how much Lara hated his brothers old girlfriend and doesn't like when girls take her cousins away. I was losing hope fast, to the point that Dino even had to call his mom to see what was up! Awhile later for some reason we got on the subject of putting make-up on Dino. I guess that was the answer because after that they couldn't stop talking. Lara ended up really taking a liking to me and I don't think she stopped talking or let my hand go for more than 2 minutes the whole night. Keep in mind she speaks Bosnian so I didn't know what the heck she was saying but she didn't care. Dino could help us but then she wanted to start telling me SECRETS! When we got back the adults thought it was so funny and kept telling her that I didn't know what she was saying. In the city we had seen the famous bridge, the center square with a fountain, and had ice cream at a cafe. We had done a lot of bonding on picking out dresses and make up for Dino. Those girls just adore him, it was so cute to see how much they look up to their cousin. (I think he has a weakness for us girls too)

Our last full day was spent by a river in Podgorica. It was sooo hot I couldn't go another day without air conditioning or water. The water was freezing but I jumped in anyways. It was me, Dino, and Lara that went and she kept taunting us to go in. It felt like I was doing a polar plunge it was so cold. We also saw a cool waterfall and sheep being herded. Who knew sheep really got herded in real life?? That night we met Dino's uncle and (another) girlfriend in the city--walked around and had a soda at ''Cafe Trendy''. Some workers tried to rip me off by selling me a water for 6 euro ($9), luckily Dino heard them and saved me.

The next day was all traveling. We were out the door by 8am and drove with his uncle to Dubrovnik. We had 2 minutes to spare to catch the bus to Split and arrived there around 7pm. Edi (family friend) picked us up there and suddenly couldn't stop speaking English! Of course I loved having someone to communicate with after a full week of only being able to talk to one person really. He's a really interesting guy and very nice to both of us. He has two degrees from universities and has lived a lot of places in Croatia. We met his family and saw his house too--the home was a modest apartment but very nice and his family reminded me of an All-American one. After that we still had awhile before our flight so he took us to Trogir, a small city near Split. It had the same historical harbor city feel but much quieter than cities like Split or Dubrovnik. Not too much time to stick around there because we had a plane back to Copenhagen. All was fine on the flight home.

Overall impressions (not already talked about):
**It seemed like even though people may not have as much as people in other parts of the world, it seemed like they were more generous and wanting to make sure everyone was taken care of. It seems like in US people are more concerned with getting ahead personally. Not necessarily even by taking from other people, but just not going above and beyond doing their share.

**You can really tell that money plays a big part in a countries development. We saw gypsies, actual gypsies, in Podgorica. People that lived in shacks made of tin and scraps of garbage and didn't have enough money for a car so instead used horses and flat beds as their form of transportation. Roads were much less safe than any regulations would ever allow in the US--maybe because of lawsuits? Or do we just have all of the basic needs taken care of that we can concentrate our resources on improving safety? Health issues too--It wasn't unusual to see missing teeth or hear stories of people who needed medical care but those services can cost a large percentage of a family's income so are gone without a lot of time. It's weird to see that lifestyle when in other parts of the world people aren't happy unless they have their weekly teeth whitening appointments or cosmetic surgery.

**The human body must be really adaptable because it was so hot there (100+ degrees and humid) and I thought I was going to die. Natives were wearing jeans and working construction! I could barely leave a dark room sometimes and they were actually doing physical activity outdoors. But they do eat really fatty foods which I think they need to be able to not sweat to death.

**I think maybe it's human nature to never be satisfied. As soon as we came back to Copenhagen, we were on the metro and these little punk boys were drunk and broke the door. We were delayed 10+ minutes and they just laughed and left. Danish kids especially have it pretty darn good. A social welfare system that provides health care, dental care, and they are allowed to do pretty much anything and everything yet still abuse it. I sorta can't blame them though. They don't know any better so of course they will not appreciate anything but just think that of course they will have all of that stuff.

**My favorite foods were cevapcici (sausages), these krem stopi things (wafers with chocolate inside), and the Bake Rolls.

**Best descriptive words for the area (thank you Dino): ''Wild Beauty''

.......thats all I can think of for now, might add more later as time goes by.....

Quick Post before Croatia, Montenegro & Bosnia trip

Just wanted to write a little so I can start fresh after my trip. To be honest, I have done nothing really but party these past few days. People are dropping like flies and we're going out every night to "celebrate" (even though it's not really a celebration..). I am packing for my trip tonight in hopes to be able to have a mildly decent day tomorrow before leaving. Last night I went to a wine/cheese night before going out. It was really nice, tried wines from all over the world and had homemade cheese fondu. Something I really want to try and organize when I get home. Everyone paid 100dkk, chose either red or white wines and got to sample three different wines. There were printouts with the bio of the wines next to each bottle so you could start to get a feel for what tastes you like the most. I don't think I like flint stone in my wine. There was also one final dessert wine, which was nice--a muscat it's called...? Anyways, for Marc and Alis last night (Tuesday) we had a BBQ in Tordens and then Wall Street after that. Last night was Hannah's last night so we had wine/cheese night and then LA Bar. Here are some pictures (last link, only updated):

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2108592&l=e485b&id=73404302






Info on my upcoming travel plans:
Friday & Saturday--Split (Croatia)
Sunday & Monday--Dubrovnik (Croatia)
Tuesday & Wednesday--Montenegro
Thursday--Sarajevo (Bosnia)
Friday--Bus from Bosnia to Split, back in CPH around 1am Saturday morning

There will be a lot of bus traveling so we can make it to all of these places but I am so excited to see them I couldn't stand doing less bus while not being able to see all of these places. Dino's family is paying for all of our accommodations, which is quite nice of them. We are staying in their summer home while in Montenegro and they have rented us nice apartments by the coast for the other days.

New Pictures!

Copenhagen Spring Pictures:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2107400&l=f4b0b&id=73404302

More Spring Pictures:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2108592&l=e485b&id=73404302

Can't everyone stop leaving?!

So since the last post I think I'm really starting to feel the depth of how much a study abroad experience can affect a person. People are starting to leave Copenhagen for good. To be honest, I know this means there is a very slim chance that I will ever see them again. People that were my whole world for these past few months are just gone. I feel like I have gotten so close to people here I just can't imagine this being taken away so quickly. Does this really have to end? I have become wrapped up in the carefree lifestyle of barbecues, beaches, friends and fun. I guess friends is quite the understatement. Having come here with nobody along for the ride these people have truly become family to me. I know I'm being a bit dramatic or emotional about this, but it really feels like a shot to my life that this has to end. WHY DOES THIS HAVE TO END?!?!!? Everything was just perfect when my friends were just a call or a floor code away. Or when I could just look out the window and see if the grill was on or not. I can only really remember the past few weeks right now, but the entire experience was beyond amazing. Even the crappier stuff I got through with help and support from friends here or family back home.

A few things I will miss dearly (and I'm not even gone yet..not even close!):

Brewsters loud footsteps and hot chili sauce on everything, calling Jos and Brewster "The Brewsters", Hideaki's loud phone calls with his girlfriend or him scaring Dinos friends, Ubah eating ice all the time (for some reason), never seeing Ariane (like never), Alex and his Borat suit or bizarre sober confessions. Jonathan's bickering about American/British English and long talks about anything, drunk Yasha, Grimey, the phrase "304", "205" and "207" (how we answer the phone), Ben constantly telling me I'm not funny but still letting me talk to him about nearly anything and anytime, Josef always telling me what the biggest thing in Copenhagen is, Marc being the perfect dad on spring break, Marcos and his grilled banana/chocolate, Hannah's stories, and the list goes on and on and on... these are only a few of the people in my residence.
Pearly bay, Kulor bar, being called "Jo Zibell" or "Ms. Arbell"

Just a few random thoughts I wanted to post before I forget them. No need to say that there will be tons more added through this next month.

Okay, back onto my journal portion of my blog:

**Thursday was studying studying studying then Ubah's going away dinner. She cooked Indian food and it was amazing! So sad to be saying goodbye

**Friday was my exam. Four hours but it wasn't too bad, International Management, only two questions but could be long/involved answers. After that we sat outside, went to Aldi, then had a bbq in the backyard. That night we all went out to an international students party at a club called Rename in honor of Brewster's last night with us in Copenhagen. It was nice to see so many exchange students again!

**Saturday--Brewster left, we were all crowded in his room for about 1/2 hr saying our final goodbyes, etc. I ended up moving into his room so me and Elyse could each have our own rooms instead of being cramped in one. Saturday night we hung out on 3rd floor common room for awhile and then Dino and I went to Copenhagen Casino with his friends. It was expensive and we played the 1dkk slots. It was my first casino experience, so I was glad I went.

Today (Sunday)--We were going to go to Tivoli but the weather was so cold. Ended up getting pizza and hanging out with people all day. Finished moving and then said my goodbyes to Ben. Luckily he isn't leaving for good yet, I don't know if I could deal with so many people leaving right away!

Nice weather is finally here

This past week a lot has happened... here's a quick recap

**Tuesday, May 6th--Dino and I went to the American Embassy to get his stuff settled for his visa to come visit me in the States. It was a big, gray, ugly building with a small waiting room which was also the room that they do the interviews in so you could hear everything. We had to wait an hour and a half before it was time for his interview! When the lady asked him how he knew me he told her we were friends, but I think she caught on. She probed a little harder and he finally admitted that we were "sorta dating" the entire waiting room heard and burst out laughing. It was pretty funny, I've never seen Dino that embarrassed before. Later that day, I went to a park that I had found on the way to the Embassy and studied for my final. I would say there was more napping/tanning than studying.

**Wednesday, May 7th--Today we went to the oldest amusement park in the world which is right outside of Copenhagen. It's called Bakken and is right in with a big nature park. You walk a ways into this park and then finally BAM there are rides, candy stands, restaurants, everything. We ended up buying the unlimited rides bracelet (200dkk) and made good use of it. I think we went on this one that reminded me of the tilt-a-whirl about a million times, each time better than the last. There were bumper cars, race cars, haunted houses, everything.

**Thursday, May 8th--Went back to the park and found a nice place to get to serious studying. I ended up staying there for quite awhile. That night there was a barbecue for one of the girls' birthdays in Tordens. There is a really nice grill and sitting area in our courtyard so a bunch of people from the dorm were there, lasted almost til midnight outside before it was too cold/dark.

**Friday, May 9th--It was such a nice day I decided I would try my hand at a run outside. Considering I love sun but hate running it turned into more of a walk/tan than anything else. After that I was hustled out to go to the beach with Marc Larivee, Chris Brewster, Ben Murphy, and Jonathan Jones (friends from Tordens... I was asked to use their full names so they could google themselves..idiots, I know). Dino met us a little later on. It's so sad to think that this is one of our last outings together!!!!!!! People start leaving on the 17th (one left on the 10th). After that we picked up some grill food and had another dorm-wide bbq. People from other dorms joined us too, turned into a good gathering with lots of people I haven't seen in awhile.

**Saturday, May 10th--Had an early library session to try and stay on track with my studying then I met Brewster, Ben, and Marc in Kings Park for the Whit Carnival celebration. It wasnt the actual carnival part of it, but the parade was on Stroget so a ton of people gathered there. I went with Alex and his friend who was visiting. We got some beer and sat and enjoyed the weather. Another barbecue that night... smaller this time and at some point I got a brilliant idea to go visit Dino and his family in Helsingor. I ended up getting there around midnight...

**Sunday, May 11th--Mothers Day. Dino and I got his mom some flowers and I wrote out a card for her (in Bosnian). They don't really celebrate Mothers Day that much in Danish or Bosnian cultures so I think she was really surprised and happy to be getting flowers. Later that day we went to the beach in Helsingor which was right on the coast and you could see Sweden across the way. Another barbecue.. Bosnian this time though. Pretty much that just entails a lot of food.. the chevapcici sausages, hamburgers, chicken, salads, fruit, everything. That night we rented some movies and had a quiet night

**Monday, May 12th--Another Danish holiday. I don't know or care anymore what all of these holidays are. To me it just seems like another vacation day for them. We worked out, watched movies, then got ready for ANOTHER BBQ! This was definitely the most interesting of them all, and I promise they do stop after this one. It was a BBQ with Dino's friends, the same ones we played basketball with a few months ago. I would say there were about 10 people in all. I can't really find words to describe how I felt during most of the time there, everyone was speaking Danish and making jokes in Danish and laughing in Danish (if that's possible). Dino seemed to be having such a great time with his friends that I felt a little forgotten about, like I was just dumped into this weird sea full of Danish speaking people. Almost a cruel joke because it seemed like they were having so much fun and I could see the fun, feel the fun, but not understand ANY of it. While the food was cooking, a group of people were outside and I got to talking to Dino's friend Stasha. He was so nice and really seemed to take an interest in what I had to say. He spoke almost perfect English and went out of his way to make me feel welcomed. Throughout the dinner whenever there would be a funny joke he (or sometimes a few of the other guys) would translate and make sure I wasn't left out. It was such a nice gesture to try and make sure I could laugh with them but it was hard because jokes don't translate all that well and it felt like the spotlight was on me because everyone else had their laughs already and were waiting on me to react. I really appreciate having the opportunity to have been at a true Danish house and experience a true Danish gathering (even though most of them are foreigners too) because with the exchange program you really don't get integrated into Danish culture, more into being only with other exchange kids. Other elements of human interaction and connections that I hadn't noticed before were more evident--you could tell who were the funny ones and the quieter ones. The experience really did shake me a little bit though.

Tuesday, May 13th--Came back from Helsingor, studied at CBS, workout, then made dinner. Nothing too exciting to report. After dinner Dino and I walked this trail near Osterport station and found a preserved army fortress.

Wednesday, May 14th--See above. Exam Friday

Foods I figured out I liked

I’m dedicating a blog to recording all of the foods I’ve discovered I like throughout my travels.

Helsingborg, Sweden—Turkish food

Oslo, Norway—Buffets on cruises (so pretty much nothing new)

Paris, France—Nutella crepes

Madrid, Spain—Paella

Barcelona, Spain—Tapas (sort of), boxed Sangria, cava

Berlin—Nothing much, not enough time there

Amsterdam—Old Dutch cheese, white beer, Peter Bier chocolate

Prague—Goulash, dark beer (the sweet kind)

Mallorca—Nothing specific

Copenhagen— I think a very special blog section is called for as a tribute to my “7-11 Food Loves”: P.I.B.s, Haribo gummies, Matilde cocoa milk, Vanilla & Mint gum, Danish hot dogs, Kim’s Minimum white popcorn, and portable yogurts. Other than that, not that much really, nothing that is really “Danish” except I guess pork or something of the sort. I had a sandwich from a place called “Danish Lunch” and that was the closest I’ve gotten to being sick from food this whole trip. I do like Carlsberg and Tuborg beer, Pearly Bay white wine, Fishermann’s shots, oh and Danish honey.

Dino’s family—Tea (with or without Danish honey), Chevopcici (Bosnian sausages), vegetables with vinegar, homemade pancakes (preferably with Nutella), Bosnian spice (on chicken is the best), goulash, homemade bread,

I’ll keep adding to this list as travels go on and if I remember some other ones

My first live "Football" game

This past week hasn’t been all that exciting. After the buzz of Mallorca, I’m not sure how it could’ve been. Sunday night when we came back though was pretty busy. I had a presentation the next day for my Societies in Transition class to present about the 57 page group paper we’d written. I had to quickly put my bags down and prepare a few slides before going to bed. The presentation went all right; luckily it was only pass/fail so it wasn’t a big deal. The next few days I devoted to finishing my Sports Economics final paper.

One of the days I found out my grade for my Corporate Finance exam (the one I thought I did so well on). A FOUR!!!!!!!!! That is absolutely horrible! I don’t know how on earth I could have done so poorly, especially when I thought I did so well. (If you don’t me all that well, I am usually a very good student—A’s or AB’s) I will definitely have to figure out what went so bad. It’s so frustrating because this is the same teacher I had problems with before—Bechmann (avoid him like the plague). He uploaded all of the class information to the site that full-time degree students have access to but international students have very limited access to. That’s frustrating for many reasons, for example, no exam information was posted previous to the exam (where/time/etc), and no information about who his secretary is or how to contact him/her. I emailed him a few other times, letting him know that international students can only see part of what he posts with very snotty replies mainly to the effect of “Contact my secretary”. Which, would be fine (still annoying, but fine) if I had access to that information!!!!!!!! I think I have a new arch nemesis…

Other frustrations dealing with CBS Administration this week—Housing Department. I may sound like I’m going on a crazy lady rant, but honestly, this administration is so messed up. Paying for the second half of housing has been a complete joke. I went to get my bill on March 15 (when they originally said it would be out), and they were late with it. Two more times this happened until I finally received the bill. Great, there goes about $30 lost due to the plunging exchange rate while they were so late in getting their stuff organized. Then, when I went to pay the thing…following their instructions, and let me quote… “Your payment can easily be made in any Danske Bank branch office or at the post office…” Following strict instructions I went to the post office to “easily” make my payment. Stood in line for a good 15 minutes until they told me only Danish bank cards are accepted at any/all post offices in Denmark. Luckily we’re INTERNATIONAL students, by definition not Danish so why they think we would necessarily have a Danish bank account is completely beyond me. Not to mention all of the problems our residence itself has. Anything white I brought here is now a permanent state of dingy and dark grey. Our washing machine leaves clothes soaking wet to the point that we have to wring out the water from our clothes and our dryer doesn’t work. After numerous emails and no action done to fix things in our residence, I finally got someone to set up a meeting with to discuss all of the problems tomorrow (Monday) at 1pm. I can’t wait for that one..

Yeesh.. okay moving on. Wednesday night I went up to Espaergade (near Helsingor) to stay with Dino’s family for a few days. Thursday was a Danish holiday (not sure what, but they don’t do anything that day). We were going to have a barbeque but it was such bad weather we couldn’t. Dino and I took a walk around Espaergade that night, very pretty and quaint neighborhood. Oh and I got to try the Fitnessdk up in Helsingor, it was really nice. Of course, there was so much food I was stuffed the entire time. Friday we went back into Helsingor and walked around and ate dinner. I also went to mail a package to my roommates (finally after I had been trying for a week or two) and because I wanted to mail a shot glass (to Anna for her 21^st) they were going to charge me almost $30!!! Without that it was close to $15…sorry Anna I owe you a drink or two.

Saturday we came back to Copenhagen, I got a good chunk done on my Sports Econ and talked to mom on msn. That night no one did anything much, stayed in, relaxed, and watched the golden girls. Dino and I had Sunset Blvd for lunch/dinner, but they renovated the place and I don’t like it nearly as much as before.

Sunday (today)—we went to Vladebeck or somewhere like that to watch Dino’s brother play soccer. His first game back since a foot injury about 6-7weeks ago. Very nice weather, he scored a goal, but they still lost. I think I’m turning a little European because I actually enjoyed watching the game a bit. A good workout, finishing my book (Diary of Anne Frank) outside in our courtyard, and finishing up some things to round out my weekend. Whew.. long blog but I think I’m updated!

Mallorca Trip

So I'm back from the sunny and 85+ weather that we enjoyed in Mallorca. For anyone who doesn't know, this included me up until about 2 weeks ago, Mallorca is an island off the coast of Spain. We left CPH on Wednesday, had a full day of traveling with a long layover in Madrid. We finally got to our hotel, Hotel Linda, around 9 or 10pm. It was sooooooo amazing! Warm weather at that hour, unreal. Our hotel was only about a 5 minute walk to the shore (of the Mediterranean Sea) so that night we walked along the beach and tried to get our bearings as to where our hotel was.

The next few days were filled with beach sitting, walking along the strip, and some pool time. The first day in the sun (Thursday) we fell asleep and got sooo burned. Dino didn't buy or bring any sunscreen so he was fried, I was a little burned but mostly tan. The first night we went into the city--Palma-- and walked around. We ate dinner at a little Spanish restaurant, had paella, and then to a little shop for dessert. The city was like any city--had its restaurants, shopping, people. I think we were the youngest people we saw for most of our trip though.

Friday night we went out for dinner (spaghetti on the beach) and then to some bars. We found this one called "Rat Pack Pub" that had old music on and we found a few drunken old people to sing and dance with. This one had the hotts for Dino so bad, it was hilarious. Then we went to another pub and met a couple from Wales. They were really fun and we started plotting our voyage to Africa (I desperately wanted to go). The night ended in a weird bar called "Linda Salsa", our hotel club I guess. We stayed for maybe 5 mins and then got the hell outta there... too weird for us!

Saturday night we wanted to stay low-key because we had a flight the next day so we had a few beers down in our hotel bar (not the salsa place) and played air hockey. I'm not reporting the results of those games..

All in all it was a really good trip, probably my favorite as far as a "vacation" goes, most traveling we do here is not to tropical island but to historical cities. The breakfast buffet every morning was also a perk. I was a little nervous, I'll admit, to travel alone with Dino for that long. It turned out much better than I ever could've anticipated and makes me look forward to Croatia and Montenegro even more now!

**********PICTURES!!!***************

Album 1:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2106560&l=53007&id=73404302

Album 2:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2106572&l=934b4&id=73404302

Czech out my Prague Blog

Before Prague--Tuesday night we all went out to Moose Bar to celebrate one more night together before we left on our trip to Prague. We had such a good time, all hanging out in my room before going out as one big Tordens group. Alex went in only shorts, a muscle shirt, and flip flops.. hilarious. There were quite a few exchange kids from other residences that I haven't seen in forever. Didn't make for a good travel day the next day but definitely worth it!

Okay, onto Prague trip:

Pictures:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2105418&l=df65c&id=73404302

Blog:
Another trip! Yes, this time it was Prague, in the heart of the Czech Republic. Our group of travelers for this trip included two groups of four each. My group was me, Elyse, Teddy, and Chris. We met up with Alex, Ben, Matt, and Jess the second day. Our flight left Wednesday around noon. Dino took us to the airport and we were off to Prague! When we arrived, we found our way to the hostel by using the bus and metro. Their metro is so different than Copenhagen’s. It is really old, loud, and dirty. My first look out at the city was beautiful. You can see all of the historical old city parts of Prague (cobblestone, uneven streets, old buildings), the newer, more modern big city part, and beautiful nature all in one view. Tall, grassy hills and bluffs are surrounding the main center of town. Prague is split between a few districts, pretty much Old Town and New Town from what we were traveling in. We stayed in the Old Town side of the water that splits the two sides at Chili Hostel.

Night 1—We dropped our stuff off at the hostel and were off and running to explore Prague. No destinations or sights to see in mind, just trying to get our bearings and see where we were. We found ourselves hungry after awhile and ate dinner in the a basement restaurant with authentic Czech food. I had goulash and dumplings, my new favorite meal I think. It isn’t too expensive there either, not dirt cheap, but definitely reasonable. I had a big thing of goulash and dumplings with a side of garlic soup and water for around $11.50. Later that night we went to a Czech pub close to our hostel and had a few beers with some guys we met at the hostel. It was very bright in there and not the atmosphere we were looking for so me and Elyse decided to go our separate ways. Teddy and Chris stayed and hung out there with our newfound friends and we ended up meeting people and going to another bar. We were looking for this popular five story club but couldn’t find it so we ended up in an underground bar. At first I thought it was really lame because it was adult Czech people who were drinking and dancing, only about 10-15 of them max. We ended up having a few drinks there and talking to our new friends from Ukraine and Germany and eventually joined the adults in dancing to Czech music. All in all it turned out to be a pretty good time.

Day 2—Our first real day in Prague we decided to go to the National Museum. I feel like I’ve been to my share of museums for awhile since being abroad but this one was quite a bit different. Elyse and I went apart from the guys in the museum and had a good time. There was a huge mineral collection and a zoo-like exhibit. The zoology room had real animals stuffed (taxidermy I think they call it..??)—everything from birds to bison. A little creepy if you ask me, but interesting none the less. There was a foot exhibit too. It had a bunch of interactive things for kids and Shaq’s shoe!

After the National Museum, we walked to Old Town Square. We saw the Astronomical Clock and then got lunch at a stand and ate in the square. Lunch was horrible, we watched them microwave our food and then hand it to us.. sick. The square was really pretty and lively--music and people everywhere and a pretty nice day too. Next up was the Jewish Quarter. We couldn’t really tell a difference except there were a few temples and people selling Yakimas. They charged for everything there, including a cemetery. Who would pay to see dead people?! Not this girl. We walked by the water and then headed for the hostel for a quick nap before meeting the other group. When they arrived, we went to The Globe (a student bookstore/café/bar/restaurant right by our hostel) for happy hour. Some of the guys took shots of absinthe which the bartender lit on fire. Pretty serious drinking at 5:00 in the afternoon! We all got ready and headed out for the night. We ended up splitting up again because some people wanted to eat dinner at an expensive place and go to pubs while another group wanted cheap dinner and a club. I opted for the second option. We found an Italian place, then a bar after that. We met a guy from the States who teaches English in Prague. He was telling us all about this place called Cross Club and said we had to check it out. He ended up taking us all the way there, what a nice guy. Except he did ask where I was from and didn’t think I was from America because he said my English was not native English. What that hell?! Either way.. Cross Club was not that exciting on a Thursday night but it was a cool building. The interior looked like a bunch of car engines on the wall and they had the best dark beer I have ever had. It was sweet almost and tasted so good. The music there was not my style either, the whole place seemed like there was an underground drug culture that we didn’t know about. Well, until some guy offered Teddy “nose ice cream”, haha!

Day 3—We split up seeing the city again. We were all supposed to meet at noon by the clock and the other group never showed so we decided to take on the city by ourselves. Me, Elyse, Matt, Ben, and Chris all went across Charles Bridge to the other part of the city. We saw Prague Castle (which had a church, royal building, and Golden Lane). I like that side the best I think because it was a more upbeat atmosphere. We found the funniest souvenirs ever—t-shirts that said “Czech Me Out”. Matt and I each got one and wore them for awhile that day. We were making up hilarious puns on Prague and Czech. Some of the best—“Can I pay with a Czech? –Okay I think there’s one over there”, “Prague-ability”, “Prague-nosis”, “Impraguenate”, “Czechpoint”, “Czech that out”, etc. That night Elyse and I had dinner at The Globe then met up with Alex and Matt and went to U Flecka beer hall. We had more of that dark beer and shots of cider, too bad it closed about ½ hour after we got there because it was a lot of fun. Then we met the rest of the group and went to this three story bar/club called Chateau. It was quite the hike and again seemed like more of a gothic/dark scene. Matt and I didn’t stay very long and then went back to the hostel to get ready for an early flight the next morning.

All in all I think there is something so different in the Czech culture than the Danish culture. I was trying to explain it to Dino and the best explanation I could come up with is that there is an innocence about Scandinavian culture. The Czech culture is lacking that innocence, much harsher and dark culture. Not that the people were outright rude or mean, quite the opposite, but you could just feel a difference. It seemed like there was a much more obvious drug culture there than in Denmark or anywhere else I’ve traveled to so far. I still really liked the city and was glad I got a chance to experience it.

Since we've gotten back: Saturday we arrived back in CPH around 1pm and it was a gorgeous day out. Dino and I took a 3 1/2 hr walk around the city. We went to our favorite eating spot, Sunset Boulevard, and stayed for quite some time like usual. That night we stayed in and watched a movie and talked to some Tordens people about their weekends.

Sunday--Me, Jos, and Jon took a walk to try and find this man-made lagoon that is supposed to be really nice during the spring and summer. It was another nice day, sunny and 55'F and it was quite a hike. We decided to get a Carlsberg for the way and when we got to the beach we found a nice sand hill and sat and chatted for hours. We had a few beers long and just enjoyed the nice and relaxing day in Copenhagen. On the way back we stopped at Christiania for a drink. The bars in there are sooo much different than traditional CPH bars. Then the three of us came back to Tordens and cooked dinner together.

Monday--Today I'm working on my papers and trying to get caught up before leaving again. Next trip is Mallorca for 5 days!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! An all inclusive resort in the heart of the shopping/restaurant/bar district. Our resort looks so nice I can hardly wait to go!

One last blog before Prague!

This past weekend was a pretty good one back in CPH. Friday night at A-Bar was a lot of fun. We pre-drank in Ben's room until about 10:45pm then to Australian Bar. I couldn't believe you can actually drink that cheap anywhere in Copenhagen! 60dkk entrance then free drinks (ALL drinks..) until 1am and 10dkk after that!

Saturday I was pretty lazy--worked on my 10pg paper for my Sports Econ final and tried to catch up on sleep. That night Dino took me out for a "surprise". We ended up going to see the movie "PS I Love You" which just came out over here. I finished reading the book towards the beginning of my trip. I thought it was one of the best movies I have seen in quite awhile. Much different from the book, but still good. Coming home from the movies was a quite interesting...Dino and I ended up getting into a fight based around me being "too nice". It was a little more than that, but basically about differences in how we see things.

Sunday we decided to workout at a different FitnessDK. We went to Vesterport, it had much more high tech equipment (machines with TVs in them) but I didn't like the feel of the whole gym. I feel like I have my routine at the Frederiksberg one. For dinner we went to a sandwich shop, then went back to Tordens. That night I talked to mom on msn and tried to get to sleep early but a certain Japanese neighbor was on the phone (LOUDLY) which kept me up until 3am!
Needless to say Monday morning was a rough one after hardly any sleep from the night before. I still woke up around 8am and went to the gym. Had a good workout, then to the library to work on my paper. I finished four pages but I don't feel like this one is coming along as well as the other econ paper. Just something about it that doesn't seem to "flow". Dino and I used the wellness center at fitnessdk that afternoon. I like the jacuzzi but hate the fact that you have to get out every 15 mins for it to self-clean. Its soooo freezing after that! For dinner that night we went all out--lemon pepper chicken, fries, and (best of all) ice cream for dessert. A few episodes of golden girls while we "punched our stomaches" (translated into English from the Danish way of saying "digesting"). Again I was going to try and get to bed early but Elyse and I ended up staying up and talking til almost 2am! yeeesh I gotta get some sleep sometime soon..

Today is a beautiful day outside..almost 50 and sunny. I took a leisurely morning and am now waiting in the library until class starts. Finally a chance to update my pictures (except Paris still to go) and my blog before I have much more to blog about when I get back from Prague. Ahh what a life... Prague tomorrow and Mallorca in a week :):)

********Pictures from Spring Break and more CPH*******

Quick note before giving out all of the links to my albums... I deleted my Paris pictures but am going to get the pictures from Marc and Elyse and get them posted soon, also more pictures from the other places may be added shortly. I will keep you posted, but here's what I've got for now

Here are links to my spring break photo albums:

Barcelona:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2104802&l=695f8&id=73404302

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2104864&l=fae51&id=73404302

Madrid/Berlin:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2104873&l=66834&id=73404302

Amsterdam & Moms visit: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2103693&l=4b231&id=73404302

More Copenhagen:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2098022&l=4835b&id=73404302

Since Spring Break

Dang that was a lot of writing and catching up to do! This past week and a half since I last blogged about has been pretty uneventful, for the most part. I'll try to sum it up as best as I can in one post so I'm back on track. Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday I spent most of my life studying for my Corporate Finance exam. That was on Wednesday, 4hr long written exam.. ugh.. but I think it actually went ok. I don't get the results for probably another 2 weeks or so, it will be interesting to see how I actually did on the exam..

That night called for a celebration... we went to a birthday party in another dorm, it was okay but not too many people were there. When we were riding the metro home, there was no one else on the entire time! We had a dance party and were just being stupid the whole way home, definitely something I wouldn't have seen coming that night!

Thursday night we went out to Australian Bar (A Bar), a ton of fun.... a lot of Tordens residence went out together and had 40kr entrance with 10kr drinks. The next few days I dedicated to writing this paper I had to about Turkey's economy. Sunday I went up to Helsingor to see Dino and his family after I had lunch with the ladies of Tordens. We went to a place nearby called Restaurant Chili that has a 60kr student special but since my school ID got stolen they were huge jerks about it. It was a pretty quiet time at Dinos, just watched some videos (Golden Girls which we are now obsessed with, Dad sent me the complete first season). Back in CPH after Monday I pretty much tried to study and get some homework done and relax a little. Elyses family was in town so I went to dinner with them one night at Jensons Bofhus. After that we were going to go out but instead the night ended with me, Ben, and "The Brewsters" (Jos and Chris) in the brewsters room having wine and talking. My new workout routine is getting more intense.. since I hate running I always dreaded the treadmill but have now incorporated it into my workout and am beginning to like it more and more.

Last night Dino and I went to the ballet. He came over with a dozen roses and pizza, so we had cava (champagne from Barcelona) and candles too. After dinner we had a drink at Nyhavn before heading off to the Royal Theater. The ballet was alright, it was called Onegin but the guy sitting behind us was a complete jerk! He was just so rude, at one point I made a comment to Dino (quietly whispered) and the guy tapped me on the shoulder really hard, almost a push, and started yelling at me in Danish loudly. I can understand if we were being really loud to begin with but it was already hours in and I had just made one comment. He could've just nicely asked me to be quiet but he had to be such a jerk about it. That pretty much ruined my wanting to stay for the third and final part of it, so we left after the second intermission and went to Nexus. Tonight we are going back out to A Bar for 60kr entrance and open bar from 11-1.

Cultural epiphanies.. even though I'm sure I've said it before, these past few weeks have made me realize how little "life" there is to Danish culture. Everyone is so prim and proper and never says a word. It makes me appreciate American culture so much, even though people say we are loud and whatever, I'd much rather have "life" in my culture than just plain blah. Also, Danish guys are VERRRRY feminine. It's so weird. Nothing that I am used to at all... they have much tighter jeans than most girls and wear women's scarves all the time. It is one of the most unattractive groups of men to me ever, but Danish girls must like it because almost all of the guys have the same style. Oh.. not to forget these huge ridiculous Buddy Holly glasses that look like the ones from the prank glasses with the huge nose and mustache attached. The first time I saw guys with them on I was expecting them to bust out laughing or something but no, apparently they are serious about this style. Bizarre. Okay, that's my rant for the day!

Spring Break, part 5--Amsterdam & More

The next day we were in Amsterdam (Wednesday, March 25th) we started by taking a canal tour. I didn't know there were so many canals in Amsterdam, but there's one almost every other street. We first got off the tour by the city square and went to the flea market. There were some pretty interesting finds there to say the least. After that we stopped at a bagel place and waited forever for a bagel sandwich. Seriously the customer service there was the worst! No one waited on you and they took forever to do one small thing. Frustrating. We must've read the canal tour map wrong b/c pretty soon our "green line" boat all of the sudden turned into a "red line" boat so we had to ride it around for about an hour more.

We finally came to the Anne Frank house.. very eerie to be inside, its the secret annex her and her family stayed in while in hiding from the Nazi Germans. Very well preserved, except there was quite a few artifacts that were undergoing restoration so we couldn't see them. I ended up buying the book (Anne Franks diary) at the gift shop (okay lets be real, MOM bought me the book..) and I got it specially stamped saying that I bought it at the actual Anne Frank house.

Next up--Winkles for dutch apple pie. It was alright, tasted like regular apple pie but it was good. It seems like they don't really want you to find anything in that city though. There is hardly any signs up of where to go or how to get there, much different than Paris or Spain.

We found a nice Irish pub and had a drink and some appetizers after the apple pie. Finally got to try their famous white beer (very good). We decided we should see the red light district at some point, so that was our nighttime activity. It really wasn't all that bad compared to what I had expected. There were girls in the windows and a lot of "red light district" type shops, etc but it seemed more like a tourist destination than anything. We found a bar there and had a few beers, then to a sports bar. While we were changing bars we saw a bus tour of old people walking the red light district around 11 or midnight! Really not the crowd I thought I would be seeing! The rest of the night was filled with nice bathroom attendants, pizza hot dogs, outrageous cover charges and bouncers, random $1,000 atm withdrawals, and me spending 28euro ($42) in less than 3 minutes.

Thursday--Elyse went to see the Jewish historical museum while me, mom, and Ellen went shopping. We found this pretty big shopping district right by our hotel the night before. There were soo many stores it got overwhelming, but we did find the department store called Hema. We bought stroopwaffles (very popular and very good) there. More shopping..more shopping.. lunch! Had lunch at a little cafe/restaurant nearby, ended up staying and talking for quite awhile, very good food. After our shopping day it was time to get back to CPH. Flights went well, and back to CPH we were. We just got pizza and some sodas for dinner and called it a night.

Friday--Another country... Sweden today. We took the train to Helsingor and then to Helsingbourg by ferry. In Helsingor, we met Dinos dad at a cafe/bar and had coffee with him. It was so interesting to see someone else finally in my place as far as language barriers go. Dino is a good translator, so it wasn't much of a problem, but I feel like now they have an insight to how hard it can be at times. We walked by the shoreline in Helsingor, past Hamlets castle, to the ferry. In Helsingbourg we ate lunch at a Turkish/Greek place Dino and I ate at the last time we were there. Very cool decorating, authentic of what I would think of Turkish/Greek. We walked around Helsingbourg for awhile, saw the fortress and some shops, then went back to Helsingor to meet Dinos mom this time.

Back in CPH we decided to have a night in. Me, mom, and Ellen got pizza and sodas (yes, again) and stayed in and watched TV. Man do I miss having a tv... not that I even really watch it that much, but it was so nice to have one for a night! There was quite a lot of talk about African surfers...haha..!

Saturday--Their last day in CPH. We were thinking about doing the Carlsberg Brewery Tour, but heard it was $30 so we decided to stay in and be lazy for the morning. It was rainy and dreary out anyways so I didn't mind. I did a little homework and then we met back up around 2pm. We ate lunch/dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe and stayed in from the rain. On our walk back, we went to The Dubliner (an Irish pub on Stroget) for a few beers. Saw the soccer match but didn't pay much attention (at least I didn't know what was going on). By that time it was pretty late and they had an early flight to catch so we decided to get back.

Sunday--5:30am. Yeesh thats early.. took mom and Ellen to the airport and sent them on their way back to Wisconsin. The final end to my never-ending spring break. It was hard to say goodbye after finally seeing them in so long and the week seemed to fly by. It made me realize that I really don't have all that much time left here in CPH.. at that time it was about 2mos and 3 weeks. Can't believe it..

Spring Break, part 4--Mom and Ellen in CPH

Less than a day after arriving back in CPH, we were back at the airport again... mom and ellen are in Copenhagen!! We picked then up around 1 in the afternoon, got them to their hotel, and then showed them Tordens. They stayed one street away from me at Best Western Hotel City, which was nice that they were so close. I really liked seeing their reaction and how they perceived everything when first arriving here. It reminded me of how I saw things those first few days... so new and unfamiliar. I think they were surprised to see how great of a location I actually have, it really is right in the center of the city. Maybe I will persuade Mom and/or Ellen to write a little synopsis of their time in Copenhagen so we could see their perceptions..? Either way, that night we walked down Stroget, which was frustrating because everything was closed (sunday, and easter). For dinner, we went to this Turkish buffet that Dino and I had gone to awhile back. It was sooooooooo nice to have them both in Copenhagen!! I think it made me realize how much I really did miss home. Just to have people that know and understand the background to my stories without countless explanations and to understand my sense of humor that is usually not as well received by other people. I also liked showing them my life as of right now, the streets I see on a daily basis, the building I always pass, the buddy that always hangs around ;), etc.

Day 2--Dino and I met mom and Ellen at their hotel for breakfast, then we walked to Nyhavn to walk around. Nyhavn is the canal strip right by my apartment with a lot of bars/cafes/restaurants. Our walk continued to the Royal Palace, and then to The Little Mermaid. The Royal Palace was pretty close to my apartment and I was a little embarrassed to admit that I had never been there. It wasn't all that special, but still nice to have seen. The Little Mermaid was a huge disappointment. It is supposed to be Copenhagen's signature sightseeing thing, but if that's all they have to offer I would say don't bother. It was so tiny!

Next up was showing them my school.. I sort of forgot how much different it really is than Wisconsin schools and universities. Because it can have corporate sponsors, it is about 1,000,000 times more modern than the schools I'm used to. After I couldn't persuade them to go to class in my place, we decided to walk down Stroget to see the city square. The parliament buildings and Tivoli are really close so we saw those as well. We ended up at Hard Rock for a drink, then we went to Central Station. We found this Boston/Irish pub called O'Learys, so we stopped in for a drink there. There was some crazy lady in the bathroom.. this story only makes sense if you were there, so I will not elaborate.. hilarious. That night we walked down to Nyhavn again and had dinner at one of the restaurants while listening to musicians.

Day 3--Finally, the stores were open! Who knew there was an Easter Sunday AND Easter Monday?!?!?! Of course, I haven't seen snow except for maybe once the entire time I've been here and sure enough when mom and Ellen come it snows! We were shopping so we didn't notice all that much. We had lunch at the same kebab shop as the day before and I think the owner liked me because he gave us a huge thing of free falafels. (too bad we all hate falafels) The Round Tower was our last stop before leaving for Amsterdam. Even though I've been there twice already, I would say it's still one of my favorite spots. I would guess that they liked seeing the entire city as well.. (?)

Day 3--cont--Our flight to Amsterdam went well, but getting to our hotel was a completely different story! The Amsterdam public transportation system is one of the worst ever.. after we finally figured it out and were on our way to the hotel we had to use the tram system, aka: The Death Tram. It had people sliding everywhere and getting stuck in the accordion part. Whew, after surviving that ride we found our hotel.. and 3 Sisters Pub. We had a few (or more) pints of Heineken and then decided we should go walk around our square (Rembrandt Square). We found that a lot of things were closed except some coffeeshops (the ones that sell weed legally) and a place called Cafe Nasty. We ended up opting for finding fries and pizza and going back to the hotel room.

Spring Break, part 3--Berlin

Our early morning flight from Madrid to Berlin was a little rough but we made it there alright. Finding our way to the metro system from the airport was also a little rocky. It was obvious that Berlin is still a recovering city (from the late 80s when East Berlin and West Berlin were reunited). Things like the metro (UBahn and SBahn) were so much less modern than the other ones we had been on in other cities. Even the buildings and street vendors, everything was different than any of the other cities we were in. Anyways, we found our hostel and had to book it to make it on time for a free walking tour. Whew.. we made it! The walking tour took us all over, showing us some of the most famous spots in Berlin. The Brandenburg Gate was our first stop, right across from the French and US embassies, and Hotel Alton. Hotel Alton is the site where Michael Jackson dangled his baby a few years ago. We also saw the Berlin Wall, the Jewish Holocaust Memorial, Checkpoint Charlie, the Book Burning Memorial, Hitler's Bunker, and a bunch of other stuff. Towards the end it started hailing and was freezing cold.. which was weird because it fit perfectly with the depressing, dreary stories that were being told. I'm glad we did the free walking tour and glad we picked Berlin as a place to visit because it is such a different culture. I felt like Paris was historical but in a more glamorous and romantic way, Spain was full of life, and Berlin was very stern, cold, and utilitarian. Through high school I went through a phase where I did pretty much all of my projects, papers, etc on the Holocaust and WWII so I thought Berlin was amazing to see where those things really happened. I stood on the place where Hilter and his wife committed suicide...creepy but I felt such a connection to history during that time.

Berlin nightlife is quite the opposite... not dreary or depressing at all! We did the pub crawl with our newfound friends we met on the tour from The Netherlands. It turned out to be a group probably over 150 people, which was fun but hard to maneuver to 4 bars and a club. Same as in Paris, we got free vodka/orange shots before each bar and drink specials at each, it was 12 ($18) euros per person to go though. The club we went to at the end was called Matrixx and was SUCH a good time! Two rooms with music and packed with people. Towards the end of the night they started playing 70s music in one of the room.

..and that was our short, short stay in Berlin. I really would like to go back to Berlin if I get the chance, there were a lot more guided tours I would have liked to take and so much more to see there. The next day we boarded our plane and landed back in Copenhagen for the next few days.

Alright, time for the second part of spring break... Madrid and Barcelona. We had to take a bus from our hostel in Paris to the airport and then an early morning flight. This time it was only me, Elyse, Jonathan, and Marc. We landed in Madrid on Saturday morning, and I was bound and determined to wear a strapless dress and flip flops all day long. A little on the optimistic side, but much better weather than in CPH or Wisconsin. We checked all of our luggage and were on our way to see Madrid for a day. We found a restaurant with outside seating and ordered Paella, it was so nice to be able to sit outside and eat in the sun. For the most part we had a relaxing day, a little wondering in and out of shops and saw the Reina Sofia museum. The first store the guys came in with us (Miss Sixty) we were in for all of 30 seconds before leaving and as we were leaving Jonathan set off the security alarm and had to be searched.. it was HILARIOUS!!!!!!!! We had to catch a night train to Barcelona so we headed back to the train station, gathered our stuff, and were on our way...

The night train is quite an experience in itself. It definitely makes you value faster and more comfortable modes of transportation a lot more. There were cabins that housed 8 people (4 people per side) with seats the size of very very very small airplane seats, maybe like a car bucket seat I would say. In my cabin, there was a mother/daughter from Madrid, a soccer player from Argentina, and an American girl studying in Spain. The daughter was 20yrs old and even through our language barriers her and I got along pretty well. It was interesting to hear the mother/daughter speak to the American student, I took Spanish for a few years so I could listen and somewhat understand what they were talking about.

When we got to Barcelona, we found our hostel (Saint Jordi) but couldnt check in for a few hours. Luckily the lobby/reception area had some couches so we just killed time there before showering and getting ready for the day. Our first stop in Barcelona was the Hard Rock Cafe...haha, totally an American thing to do. Then.. Sagrada Familia, which is a famous (huge) church, still under construction, designed by Gaudi. It was amazing how huge it really was. I liked all of the intricate details throughout the outside of the church, but when we went inside it looked like a regular construction site. We decided to wait in line and take an elevator to the very top, it was such a good view of the city! On our way down there were little alley ways we could go through and see outside, it was nice because it gave you another view of the city as well as an up close look at the architecture.

A nap was definitely in order after the lack of sleep from the overnight train. After about a 4 hour nap we decided to wake up and go try and find the Badger basketball game. We wondered to Las Ramblas (popular street in Barcelona) and found a place called Sport Bar. As we were watching highlights from the game, I wanted to reformat my picture settings on my camera so I would have enough room for the rest of our trip. Well, that failed miserably. I accidentally pressed something wrong and ended up deleting ALL of my pictures I had taken up until that point!!!!!!!!! Ahhh, talk about a crappy way to start Barcelona...

Day 2 in Barcelona---Decided to start at Park Guell, which is a park unlike any I have ever seen before. A lot of the designs were by Guadi and it was HUGE. Many different peak points to look out at the city from, along with a big open area with a ceramic bench surrounding the whole place. Luckily it was a beautiful day, I think if the weather was crappy it wouldn't have been so nice. After spending a good chunk of time there, we got some souvenirs and were out of the park. About a half block later, I was going to buy postcards from a street vendor and my wallet was gone. We searched everywhere and it was nowhere to be found (I just had it at the souvenir shop outside the park), so with about 99% certainty I can say it was definitely stolen. The rest of the day was more or less dedicated to solving that problem.. Marc's friend Tessa (who works in Barcelona) met us and helped me figure out what to do about getting everything fixed. She had just gotten her wallet stolen a few months back so she was a great help. I had to go to the police station and everything. Thankfully I got all of my credit/debit cards stopped and reissued, and mom was coming in only a few days so she brought the new cards for me. It just sucks... I had SOOO much stuff in that wallet! Besides it being a really nice wallet (leather, Fossil wallet), I had my drivers license, 3 student ids, gift cards, 40 euros ($60), ticket stubs from everything from a year or more, my Danish CPR card (similar to a social security card, but much less valuable/important), and other stuff I don't even remember.

After that episode, it was time for some authentic Spanish food. Tessa took us to a real tapas restaurant. In case you don't know what tapas are, they are like little hors devours (or however you spell it..) that we picked from a buffet line. The ones I tried were very good, but expensive. After dinner we walked around the old/gothic part of town and saw the architecture and went inside one of the main churches. The church had an open courtyard with a fish pond in the middle! It was definitely not what I would have expected from a church. Next up on our guided tour (w/Tessa as our guide..) was a walk along the beach and boardwalk area. This is where a lot of the clubs and restaurants are, and it was a really nice night out. So much better than snow!!! Later that night we went to a club down on that strip called Shoko, free entrance and drinks til 1 or 2am. We had sangria from a box before going out, probably not as classy as the regular sangria but good none the less.

The next morning was the first without the boys. They had gone their own way (to Seville) and we still had two more days in Barcelona. We slept in and then when I got up Elyse was still sleeping so I decided to go exploring on my own for awhile. It was the first time I ate by myself in a restaurant (sub shop, but still) I think in my entire life. I usually want to cry and accompany people if I ever see someone eating alone but it actually wasn't too bad. I had my books and maps to plan out my strategy and got to take as long as I wanted to plan whatever I wanted to do. I walked down La Ramblas and found a food market right off from it. It smelled like fish but had a lot of variety of foods. Next on my agenda was to find "the up and coming new popular street" Playa de Royal. I found it, but I didn't see anything thing very new or popular, just a regular road with men who talked too much to me. I went back down to the beach and walked there for awhile, and ended up finding this free Catalan region museum. The Catalan is the region that Barcelona is in, people there spoke their own language (as well as Spanish) but it is a very independent region. The museum was obviously pretty new and had a lot of 3D displays, a good deal for being free. After my jaunt alone, I met up with everyone for dinner. It was only me, Chris, Elyse, and Marie left. We went back by Sagrada Familia to an italian restaurant. I was glad because I got to take more pictures after erasing mine from earlier. After dinner we went to their hostel, HelloBCN, to hang out at the bar there. It was a pretty nice hostel, much bigger than ours and had a bar inside of it with 3euro pints of beer or sangria. Not too many people were there though so it ended up being a pretty quiet night.

The next morning (our last in BCN), I met Marie for coffee at La Vaca Paca while Elyse and Chris went to the Gaudi apartment. When we met up again, Elyse and I decided to go to the Olympic Stadium from the 1992 olympics. It was up on a huge hill and wasn't what I had expected. I assumed it would be one or two large venues but there were stadiums and tracks everywhere. One of the doors to the track was open so we got to run on it (probably legal..).

Our last activity in Barcelona was to visit the shopping mall right on the water. We had lunch at Fresco Buffet, which had only fresh/healthy food. There was tons of fruit, vegetable, whole wheat stuff, fresh veggie pizza with no tomato sauce, and a bunch of other foods. There was even frozen yogurt, but I think it wasn't even the traditional frozen yogurt, probably just slightly flavored ice with a little skim milk. Either way it was good and I ate about three bowls. We did a little shopping but didn't have too much time because we needed to catch another night train.

This night train was slightly better than the last, but not much. More like an airplane (seats and set up) but yeesh.. still uncomfortable. I got a little studying done, but that's about all. When we got back to Madrid, we were still sooo tired. When we found our hostel, it creeped us out. It was on 3rd floor and as we were walking up the stairs there was a guy in the hallway. And he wasn't standing or moving. I thought we had just found a dead body, we were so freaked out we ran out with our luggage and didn't ever want to go back. We decided to ring the front desk and the receptionist went down and kicked the homeless (allegedly not dead) guy out and came and got us. We couldn't check in for a few more hours so we went to a coffee shop and then to an internet cafe. When I checked my email there was one from mom with an attachment to a news article about Osama Bin Laden's new video and how he talked about the Danish cartoonist's controversial drawing. It was scary to read about the place I've been living being talked about by such a complete psychotic creep. There was even talk about me coming home, but I don't think that will happen until after my program. When we finally got into our room we slept for hours. Our room was so nice because it was only a 2 bed room, almost exactly like a hotel room. When we woke up, we walked around Madrid and saw it in its prime hour--late night. Dinner time is normally between 9 or 10 pm so we were right on time for being out and about. The streets were filled with people and noise (such a change from cph), everything lit up.. ahh it was so nice to feel some sort of pulse in a city.

Spring Break, part 1

Ahh... FINALLY back and in blogging business! It's been a little over three weeks since I've last blogged, and let me tell you I feel like it has definitely been longer than that. These entries will most likely be cut very short so I can catch up...sorry!

I'll start with the first lag of my spring break--Paris! We left early that Wednesday morning, boarded our plane, had a Tuborg or two on the way, and landed in Paris. After navigating the trains and metro we finally found our first hostel (Aloha Hostel) which was very close to the Eiffel Tower. It was me, Elyse, Marc, Jonathan, Chris, and Chris's girlfriend Marie. We all stayed in a 6 person dorm for that night, which was nice to not have to stay with strangers. The first thing we did was to go to the Eiffel Tower. Marc, Jonathan, Elyse and I decided to walk up the Tower. It was quite a hike but the view sure was worth it when we got up there. I had been to Paris before, during my senior year of high school, but it was still nice to go with a smaller group. Next up was the famous Nutella crepes, one of my favorite things of the entire break. (PS when I used the plural form of crepe, that was no mistake.. there were definitely MANY crepes eaten after the Eiffel Tower!)

A quick walk and we were at the Arc de Triumphe and Champs Elysee. We stopped for wine at a cafe/restaurant on Champs Elysee and toured around the Arc. We had planned on doing a pub crawl with our hostel that evening, but when we layed down for a nap we didnt wake up until hours later. Instead, we went up to Socre Coeur (basilica on a hill overlooking the entire city), very pretty view of the city at night as well as of the basilica itself.

Day 2--We had to move hostels, which was very annoying considering mine and Elyses excess of luggage and the shortage of escalators and elevators in the metro and hostels. This time we stayed on the other side of town in Friends Hostel. My first hostel-mate ever was a total creep. About 55yrs old, reeked of booze, and when I said "Hi" he said "Yeah, I wish I was". Ahh.. is this hostel life?!?! Eeek! Other than that the place was pretty cool.

After we dropped all of our stuff (and said a prayer Alvin/Alfred/Arthur (creeper) wouldn't steal or touch anything), we went to the Louvre. Walked around there for a few hours, saw the Mona Lisa and a lot of places mentioned in The Divinci Code.

Since our hostel was in a relatively ''bad'' part of town, there were a ton of junk shops around, which I for some reason love going in, so I did a little browsing. I later found out that the majority of the stuff there (cell phones, perfumes, etc) is actually stolen. Who knew? I found this one store, resembled a Wal-Mart, where I found this perfume --Ms Arbell-- for 1.99euros (about $3), my first big purchase in Paris! I thought it smelled kinda good, but when I brought my prize purchase back, everyone else disagreed. Ahh well.. dinner at our neighbor kebab shop and then finally the pub crawl! Our group was relatively small (only about 18people in total), and we went to 4 bars and one club. A pretty good night, met a few cool people but more laid back than other pub crawls I've heard about.

Day 3--Pompidou (modern art center/museum) to start off our last day in Paris. I really liked the Louis Burgess galleries, and some of the other modern art was a nice change from the Louvre artwork. We did a little shopping after that, nothing major pretty much just killing time, then got ready for our last night out in France. We ended up going to this amazing fondu place, it was a total tourist place for the younger crowd but we had a blast. It was a small restaurant with a lot of character--a booth with one long table and chairs on the other side, so if people were sitting at either end you had to climb over the table and we drank wine out of baby bottles. Actual baby bottles. We got cheese and beef fondu, I have never had real fondu so it was quite the experience for me. Probably one of my favorite places we ate on the entire trip, I think we all had a blast. We were pretty close to the red light district (ie. Moulin Rouge), so we walked around there for a little bit. It was a lot classier than I would have thought, maybe we were just there before all the fun started, but really it was relatively calm. We had to get back to our hostel early for our flight to Madrid...(see next blog)

Weekend in Helsingor

This past weekend I went and stayed with Dinos family up in Helsingor. Another overall cultural experience because of the language differences and ways of life. I still haven't gotten used to the feeling of not being able to speak to people, especially people who's house I'm staying at. Here are the highlights:

Friday--I took the train (all by myself) to Helsingor. I almost started to feel like a local, except then when Dino called I had to spell the name of the stop I was at so I think that sorta ruined that idea. As soon as I got there, we went to this old elementary school gym to play basketball with a bunch of his friends. They were all really nice to me even though I felt like I was invading their ''guys night'' territory. We played 4-on-4 and it was pure pick-up game, no organized anything. Thank God I didn't suck as bad as I could have for not playing in months. I ended up scoring I think like the first 8 or so points. The weird thing was hearing all the guys talk (and probably trash talk) in Danish because to me it was like playing a basketball game in pure silence. Except with the constant question of whether or not they were talking/complaining about me or my style of play. I never realized how much body language and the overall just watching and observing conversation you really can figure out quite a bit from what people are saying. I later found out, though, that you cant know everything just by observing.... Dino told me that they were talking about me in Danish saying things like "I dont want to guard her, I cant push her cuz she's a girl" and "I think she pushed me" and one guy even teased Dino about me scoring more points than him (for the record, since I KNOW he is reading this, he (probably) scored more than I did..). Later in the night this older man came to ref/coach. He was soooo nice, translating everything to English for me. I felt sorta like an idiot needing things translated when I had gotten along just fine before but it was still very nice of him. He even stopped the game at one point to do a little ''lesson'' for everyone and told them to watch how well I was moving to the open spots on the court and to feed me the ball! I could've went home right there and had a good weekend. After basketball, we picked up his dad, then went back to their place. His parents are hardcore food pushers so his dad made us these Bosnian sausages. Probably the best thing I have EVER tasted since being here. Then came spinach, bananas, granola bars, and I was already full. At one point I even declined a banana and he gave me one anyways. The rest of the night we watched a comedian with Dinos brother.

Saturday--Woke up, had breakfast, got ready and went into town to do some shopping. We walked around Helsingor for hours trying to find black sandals for my spring break and a guidebook for all of Europe. Two things that I could find in about 2 seconds back home. I don't think I saw one pair of even remotely wearable sandals in the entire city and all guidebooks were for specific countries and all other continents besides Europe. I was getting so frustrated with everything that we needed to take a little shopping break. Dino brought me into this coffee shop and we sat for a few minutes in silence, of course I started thinking (pouting) about all sorts of stuff--not being able to find sandals, the fact that we are IN Europe why wouldn't they have a guidebook for it?, how I felt invisible at his house when him and his family were talking b/c I just sat there like an idiot b/c I don't have a clue about what they are talking about, and how crappy it was that after I was not being able to talk like normal all Friday night Dino decided that the ride into Helsingor (about 10-15mins) was going to be some silent "look at the scenery" ride. DAMMIT! All I wanted to do was to talk!!!!!! About anything, just something, I had almost a full day of not being able to talk whenever I felt like it all bottled up in me... and if you know me, that's saying quite a bit. Anyways, after my little meltdown we kept shopping. Found this bag store in an alley, the lady in there was a little on the nuts side--talking to us forever. Maybe that was Gods secret way of warning me to watch what I wish for.. I wanted to talk and he gave me exactly that---a crazy lady to talk to. I ended up buying a duffel and a purse (2 for 200kr, or $20 each). As soon as we left I tried out the purse and the zipper was broken. Soooooo that went back. Then we went back to his place and, yes, more food. This time it was rice and goulash. Dino went grocery shopping so i ate with his brother. I think his brother and I are getting along a lot better than right at first, we talked about a ton of stuff and even a few laughs in there. When Dino got home, he was supposed to take the laundry down to the washer/dryer and I made a joke about how he should have to do it. His mom and I had our first real conversation!!! She said that she likes her laundry done precisely, so thats why she wouldnt trust any of the men to do it, and told a story about how she was gone for 5 days once and they couldn't figure out anything. Later that night we talked to mom on webcam for awhile then got ready and went out to Club Manhattan. It was a younger-crowd bar with lots of pool tables and bar games. Dino and I played air hockey (not my best performance), then he went to return the stuff for it and I grabbed our stuff and went to the bathroom. When I got out, he was frantically searching around for me and then I got in trouble for not telling him where I was going. I felt like a child again... cripes I'm 20 years old I didn't know I had to ask permission to use the restroom. He was freaking out like "where were you?!?!" okay where do you THINK I would be-- I was gone for all of 2 minutes and I had just drank like 3 sodas. I feel like sometimes he feels like he is my permanent babysitter since I don't know pretty much anything about Danish or where we were, etc. It's a weird line to draw--where are we regular people and where does he need to guide me through all this stuff I don't understand..? So that pretty much killed the mood for the rest of the night, so back to his house we went. More food. Of course.

Sunday--our day of studying alllll day didn't really work out as planned, there was a lot of naps and tv watching going on. It was nice to have a lazy/relaxing Sunday again. I was originally planning on leaving during the afternoon but then we decided to go to the movies at night so I stayed until Monday. I thought maybe I was overstaying my welcome but when I asked him he laughed at me and said of course not. Chicken fajitas and nutella for dinner. The movies was an experience... $18 to get in, PER PERSON!!! So if you think movies are expensive in the States, think again. Then popcorn, soda, candy, etc.. add another $15 per person. The theater was pretty much exactly like an American one, much better preview commercials though. We watched "The Bucket List", a pretty good movie with Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman. In America its called "The Bucket List" but it translates to "Now or Never" in Danish.

Monday--We had breakfast and then I was outta there. I had sooo much to do for preparing for spring break! I got back to Tordens, got ready, and went out by Kongens Nytorv to find sandals. I finally found some and also found the guidebook. By that point I was by the central station so decided I should figure out how to navigate the train to Norreport. I was a little frustrated because it seemed like all of the trains were going the same direction (North when I needed to go South) but I somehow figured it out. Then to the library to study for awhile, back home for dinner and packing. I had to catch up on all of the happenings in Tordens since I had been gone. I ended up talking in Bens room for quite awhile getting the highlights and overall just talking. Ben even did some of my laundry with his!! That's about as eventful as the night got.

Today--class, workout, dinner with Dino, packing, sleep for an early wake up tomorrow!!! So I won't be updating until I get back from Spring break. Talk to you all when I get back!