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!
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Thursday, March 6, 2008
More Updates
Things have been relatively quiet lately. Classes on Tuesday (Corp Finance and Societies in Transition), they are both pretty boring but the second one is the worst! It might be an interesting class except for the fact that we have probably one of the most boring lecturers I have ever had who assigns ridiculous amounts of readings. And for I think the first time this whole trip I can honestly say that I sympathize with my Wisconsin friends/family---IT SNOWED!!!! After classes Dino came over for a little while, and I wasn't feeling the greatest. He was going to run to 7-11 to grab me a 7up or something but came back with 2 pizzas, candy, and soda! It was like a fat kid feast from out of nowhere. We had a veggie pizza and a pastrami pizza.. they have such interesting toppings on pizzas here...very good, just interesting. In other good news that night--Dinos dad called and said that they are going to pay for ALL of our accomodations while we're on our trip to Croatia/Montenegro/Bosnia!!! How nice is that! I still feel bad accepting that because they've already helped us so much in planning the trip. How do you say no to that though??
Wednesday--Sports Economics class early in the morning. We had a guest lecturer who rivaled my Societies in Transition professor... needless to say I got a lot of homework done for other classes. After that, workout, lunch, library. Becoming my routine. Then I came home, straightened my hair for the first time in a lonnng time, had dinner quickly, then got ready to go out. A group of people were going to check out Norrøbro, supposed to be the ''young and hip'' area of Copenhagen. We started off taking a train at Norrøport, when we should've just walked, so it took a long time to get where we were going. After we were in the right direction, it was cold/windy/rainy.. typical CPH weather.. so much for straightening my hair! We found one bar, it was the complete opposite of anything ''young'' or ''hip'', so we got a beer, then continued on. The night ended early because we didn't find anything remotely cool in the whole area.
Today I've been in class alllll day. Corporate Finance and International Management, now a few minutes at the library to read and update this, then workout and going out to celebrate with Dino for him completing one of his exams. This weekend I'm going up to Helsingør to stay with Dinos family, then next Wednesday already we leave for spring break!!!
Wednesday--Sports Economics class early in the morning. We had a guest lecturer who rivaled my Societies in Transition professor... needless to say I got a lot of homework done for other classes. After that, workout, lunch, library. Becoming my routine. Then I came home, straightened my hair for the first time in a lonnng time, had dinner quickly, then got ready to go out. A group of people were going to check out Norrøbro, supposed to be the ''young and hip'' area of Copenhagen. We started off taking a train at Norrøport, when we should've just walked, so it took a long time to get where we were going. After we were in the right direction, it was cold/windy/rainy.. typical CPH weather.. so much for straightening my hair! We found one bar, it was the complete opposite of anything ''young'' or ''hip'', so we got a beer, then continued on. The night ended early because we didn't find anything remotely cool in the whole area.
Today I've been in class alllll day. Corporate Finance and International Management, now a few minutes at the library to read and update this, then workout and going out to celebrate with Dino for him completing one of his exams. This weekend I'm going up to Helsingør to stay with Dinos family, then next Wednesday already we leave for spring break!!!
Monday, March 3, 2008
****OSLO & More Copenhagen Pictures******
Here are some more pictures from my trip, still in Copenhagen:
http://uwlax.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2098022&l=d1a96&id=73404302
and Oslo pictures:
http://uwlax.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2099340&l=70b81&id=73404302
http://uwlax.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2098022&l=d1a96&id=73404302
and Oslo pictures:
http://uwlax.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2099340&l=70b81&id=73404302
Oslo Cruise
Before I get to the goods about the Oslo booze cruise, I must update on the few days before take-off.
Wednesday--Dino and I had plans to go sight seeing around Copenhagen but the weather was so crappy there was no way I was doing that. My only pictures at cool places with wet hair...?? Ehh.. I dont think so. So that plan flopped. I had morning class (Sports Econ workshop), then we tried out the wellness center in the gym. It's pretty cool--jacuzzi, sauna, and steam bath. That night we tried out our cheffing skills with a toasted Italian sandwich. Very good, I think we're actually getting the hang of this... that night, the exchange kids all went out to LA Bar. A fun/interesting night with a lot of laughs and stories.
Thursday--Early morning workout w/Dino, lunch at a place by school (Italian place), then a full afternoon at the library. Later in the afternoon/evening we walked down Stroget all the way down to city hall and to the central train station. The train station was really cool, it has news stations and radio broadcasts all on the top of it that you could see into. When we stepped out on one side we were in the ghetto and the other side we were back to the downtown area. That night a few people went to Nexus but Dino and I stayed in and I packed for the Oslo trip.
**hilarious moment of thursday night.. (sorry if no one else finds this funny, but i just really don't want to forget this): So Dino and I are at the central station and I'm at a 7-11 type store getting a snack. He came over and I had picked up honey roasted peanuts already ("Honning ristede"), they had a picture of peanuts and a huge honey jar on the front so it wasnt too hard to guess what they were. Not to mention the name similarities.. so anyways he comes over and I said "oh i got some honey roasted peanuts" he looked at me with the most serious/stunned face and said "How did you know that?!" It was HILARIOUS! My response.."Im not a complete idiot.." I couldnt stop laughing, he was seriously shocked that I figured that out. While we were waiting for our train we were reliving it and I asked him, while pointing at "honning ristede" how you really say that anyways. He replied "K-i-m-s Pea-n-u-t-s". I KNOW ENGLISH!!! After that I just lost it and couldn't stop my laughter. Just now as I'm writing this he's here and I asked him how to spell honey (i was assuming he would tell me what it was in danish since I'm writing about that) and he replies "H-O-N-E-Y".. ahh hilarious language barrier jokes.. I don't think they will ever get old
Friday---OSLO!!!! I had stupid class that morning.. raining and I could only make an hour of it.. it was in the movie theater because our classroom was being used for this case competition. After class I came back and we all headed off to DSDF station to board our ship. The ship in general was pretty cool. More of a ferry than a cruise ship, we found this out when we noticed that our sleeping deck was below two decks of cars. The rooms were sooooo small!! Four people with bunk beds and about one square foot of moving room. That night we had dinner at 7 Seas restaurant on board and it was a buffet. Some of the BEST food I have ever had, I ate so much I wasn't sure if I could physically walk out of the restaurant. Amazing though... after that, the party began. Everyone was hittin up the duty free shop for cheap booze then a little pre-partying in our cabins/deck, then to the club that was reserved for CBS. I felt a little motion sickness but got over it pretty quickly after taking a pill for it. At the club there was karaoke and a lot of dancing... so much fun
Saturday--morning breakfast, more buffet... still amazing. Then Oslo---we walked around to the fortress, downtown by city hall, the parliament, the royal palace, down some main streets, saw the National Art Gallery, ate lunch, and walked (far) to Statue Park. Whew. Everyone was a little tired but we made the most of our time in Oslo. I thought the atmosphere there was definitely different than that of Copenhagen. For a Saturday morning/afternoon the city barely had a pulse. The weather there, again, was not beautiful so that didn't add to the atmosphere very much. For some reason it seems like Norwegians are obsessed with naked statues. At Statue Park it was just a bunch of weird/sexual positions. It was the WEIRDEST thing ever!!! Definitely nothing I expected to see in Oslo...
Back on the boat there was more buffet dinners and then 60s night. So many people were getting motion sickness because there was a really bad storm that night so only about 1/2 of the students went out. The dance floor was hilarious to watch because everyone swayed as the boat did. There was more karaoke, 60s music, and then some popular music. At karaoke, all of our residence sang "We are Family" it was a good time for sure. The night ended pretty early because of so much sea sickness and tiredness from the night before/day.
Sunday we woke up, ate breakfast quick, and were off the ship. Back in Tordens, there was a lot of napping going on. I woke up relatively early and got some homework done. Then talked to mom on msn for awhile, worked out, ate dinner, and tried to start on a paper. I think even if I worked out for 4 days non-stop I still would not have made up for the amount of food I ate over this past weekend.
Today (Monday), I had no classes, but like the closet nerd I apparently am, I was at the library by 9am. Dino and I stayed there until 1, had lunch, and ended up talking for about 2 hrs about random stuff. That's a really easy way to lose time in a day... so its already 3 in the afternoon and we went to fitnessdk to workout, then grocery shopping. I had zero food in my cupboards/fridge so we went to Irma (really expensive grocery store)... never going there again.. too expensive so I only bought a few things that you can't get anywhere else, then to Fotex for the rest of the groceries. We made lemon pepper chicken, homemade soup, and salad for dinner. Our spring break group met to try to plan/organize our trip... veryyy long and hard to do. Now I'm back at the library trying to work on this paper and update this blog. Glad this is up to date now though..still can't believe its march!!!
Wednesday--Dino and I had plans to go sight seeing around Copenhagen but the weather was so crappy there was no way I was doing that. My only pictures at cool places with wet hair...?? Ehh.. I dont think so. So that plan flopped. I had morning class (Sports Econ workshop), then we tried out the wellness center in the gym. It's pretty cool--jacuzzi, sauna, and steam bath. That night we tried out our cheffing skills with a toasted Italian sandwich. Very good, I think we're actually getting the hang of this... that night, the exchange kids all went out to LA Bar. A fun/interesting night with a lot of laughs and stories.
Thursday--Early morning workout w/Dino, lunch at a place by school (Italian place), then a full afternoon at the library. Later in the afternoon/evening we walked down Stroget all the way down to city hall and to the central train station. The train station was really cool, it has news stations and radio broadcasts all on the top of it that you could see into. When we stepped out on one side we were in the ghetto and the other side we were back to the downtown area. That night a few people went to Nexus but Dino and I stayed in and I packed for the Oslo trip.
**hilarious moment of thursday night.. (sorry if no one else finds this funny, but i just really don't want to forget this): So Dino and I are at the central station and I'm at a 7-11 type store getting a snack. He came over and I had picked up honey roasted peanuts already ("Honning ristede"), they had a picture of peanuts and a huge honey jar on the front so it wasnt too hard to guess what they were. Not to mention the name similarities.. so anyways he comes over and I said "oh i got some honey roasted peanuts" he looked at me with the most serious/stunned face and said "How did you know that?!" It was HILARIOUS! My response.."Im not a complete idiot.." I couldnt stop laughing, he was seriously shocked that I figured that out. While we were waiting for our train we were reliving it and I asked him, while pointing at "honning ristede" how you really say that anyways. He replied "K-i-m-s Pea-n-u-t-s". I KNOW ENGLISH!!! After that I just lost it and couldn't stop my laughter. Just now as I'm writing this he's here and I asked him how to spell honey (i was assuming he would tell me what it was in danish since I'm writing about that) and he replies "H-O-N-E-Y".. ahh hilarious language barrier jokes.. I don't think they will ever get old
Friday---OSLO!!!! I had stupid class that morning.. raining and I could only make an hour of it.. it was in the movie theater because our classroom was being used for this case competition. After class I came back and we all headed off to DSDF station to board our ship. The ship in general was pretty cool. More of a ferry than a cruise ship, we found this out when we noticed that our sleeping deck was below two decks of cars. The rooms were sooooo small!! Four people with bunk beds and about one square foot of moving room. That night we had dinner at 7 Seas restaurant on board and it was a buffet. Some of the BEST food I have ever had, I ate so much I wasn't sure if I could physically walk out of the restaurant. Amazing though... after that, the party began. Everyone was hittin up the duty free shop for cheap booze then a little pre-partying in our cabins/deck, then to the club that was reserved for CBS. I felt a little motion sickness but got over it pretty quickly after taking a pill for it. At the club there was karaoke and a lot of dancing... so much fun
Saturday--morning breakfast, more buffet... still amazing. Then Oslo---we walked around to the fortress, downtown by city hall, the parliament, the royal palace, down some main streets, saw the National Art Gallery, ate lunch, and walked (far) to Statue Park. Whew. Everyone was a little tired but we made the most of our time in Oslo. I thought the atmosphere there was definitely different than that of Copenhagen. For a Saturday morning/afternoon the city barely had a pulse. The weather there, again, was not beautiful so that didn't add to the atmosphere very much. For some reason it seems like Norwegians are obsessed with naked statues. At Statue Park it was just a bunch of weird/sexual positions. It was the WEIRDEST thing ever!!! Definitely nothing I expected to see in Oslo...
Back on the boat there was more buffet dinners and then 60s night. So many people were getting motion sickness because there was a really bad storm that night so only about 1/2 of the students went out. The dance floor was hilarious to watch because everyone swayed as the boat did. There was more karaoke, 60s music, and then some popular music. At karaoke, all of our residence sang "We are Family" it was a good time for sure. The night ended pretty early because of so much sea sickness and tiredness from the night before/day.
Sunday we woke up, ate breakfast quick, and were off the ship. Back in Tordens, there was a lot of napping going on. I woke up relatively early and got some homework done. Then talked to mom on msn for awhile, worked out, ate dinner, and tried to start on a paper. I think even if I worked out for 4 days non-stop I still would not have made up for the amount of food I ate over this past weekend.
Today (Monday), I had no classes, but like the closet nerd I apparently am, I was at the library by 9am. Dino and I stayed there until 1, had lunch, and ended up talking for about 2 hrs about random stuff. That's a really easy way to lose time in a day... so its already 3 in the afternoon and we went to fitnessdk to workout, then grocery shopping. I had zero food in my cupboards/fridge so we went to Irma (really expensive grocery store)... never going there again.. too expensive so I only bought a few things that you can't get anywhere else, then to Fotex for the rest of the groceries. We made lemon pepper chicken, homemade soup, and salad for dinner. Our spring break group met to try to plan/organize our trip... veryyy long and hard to do. Now I'm back at the library trying to work on this paper and update this blog. Glad this is up to date now though..still can't believe its march!!!
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