"What you mean you no eat no MEAT???"

   If you don't recognize the title of this blog, it's from My Big Fat Greek Wedding. But I'll get to it in a second. First, let me tell you about how bad my luck with the train system has been this week. We were waiting to take the train home Sunday morning, and all of a sudden all trains stop. A man had "been hit by a train" at Vesterport station and all trains would be delayed. Danielle called her host fam and they said the train could be delayed for HOURS. No way, Jose. So they came and picked us up. THEN, Wednesday morning, we get on the train and what happens? It stops at the next station and they tell us to get off. Another person decided to see what a train looked like from the front, and our train would be delayed for hours...so we took a different train, and then had to wait an hour for a bus (so 2 hours total). They say lightning doesn't hit the same spot twice, but bad luck has hit our train twice in less than week. 

   Wow, I guess that was me venting just then. Sorry about that. So on a happy note, this week has been the celebration of Festelavn, the Danish version of Halloween. For the holiday, the bakeries sell these special rolls filled with whipped cream and jam. I went and got one after class on Monday and it was divineeeeeee.

 Then Tuesday was, of course, Fat Tuesday, and I ate more than my stomach could handle just because I could. I also brought cake to choir since it was my turn...let me tell you, making a cake was more difficult than I thought it would be, because they use different measurements. Basically, my host mom and sister made it for me. The next day was Ash Wednesday, and I finally, FINALLY, found a Catholic church I like. Its really close to Norreport Station and is called Sakramentskirken (Sacrament Church). The mass was in Danish, but on Sundays it's not (there, mom and dad, happy?) Danielle and I had some time before church so we went to a park in Norrebro we had heard about, its really a cemetary/park where Hans Christian Andersen is buried. It's really old and neat (I need to take pics) with funky trees. In the summer, people sunbathe there. Yeah, a little creepy. Anyways, back to the Ash Wednesday thing: the title of this blog is what it is because that was my host family's reaction when I said I couldn't have meat on Wednesday or on any Friday til Easter. Wednesday we had pasta with beef, so I just sort of picked around it. Today was my day at the kindergarden and I have pics to share with you!!! Yay! Unfortunately, Blogger is being weird and I can only get one to upload... Oh and tonight I'm cooking Mexican food for my host fam, I'll have to let you know how that goes...I'm also going with a group to BERLIN, GERMANY tomorrow and coming back Sunday night!!! So I'll have a lot to update you on for Monday. For now, enjoy my one pic of the kiddos (these are the 4 year olds.)

Children, Trees, and Chilly Weather

I write this blog on my newly fixed computer! wahoooooo! Mom called today to remind me that this means I need to make a blog, stat. So, here you go mom. I'll just give an overview of my week.

Sunday: Felt much better, so tried out a Catholic church and left after 5 minutes because it was absolutely awful. So went and wandered around the King's Gardens (the pic with the trees that you see). It's so big and beautiful, and I can't wait to see what it will look like in the spring!

Monday: Every Monday, I have my Children in a Multicultural Context class from 10am-1pm. This class involves comparing and contrasting the Danish education system to the U.S. It's interesting to hear everyone's experiences in the schools and see how they differ from mine. I found out that the kindergarten I go to is actually one of the most strict in Denmark...which is interesting seeing as how I think it is VERY unstructured! I had my first day of work in the Travel Corner at DIS for my work study scholarship, and it basically involves me sitting there and getting homework done...which is fine with me!

Tuesday: Every Tuesday I have International Advertising class from 11:40-1 and then Classical Foundations (art class) from 1:15-2:35. I really like my International Advertising class because we get to compare different ads around Denmark to the ones back home and its fun to take a class I wouldn't get to back home. Then I work in the travel corner, and after that run to choir practice. This Tues. we had a choir dinner at a Mexican buffet restaurant and let me tell you, it was NOT real Mexican food. I miss Tex-Mex like you wouldn't believe. It was a lot of fun and I got to sit next to a German, across from Danes, and diagonal from a Swede. Very international!

Wednesday: Usually my day off, but this time we had a field study for my education class to a preschool. We went into an 8th grade classroom and introduced ourselves, said where we are from, etc. There was a substitute teacher so most of them were acting up and making jokes about us in Danish.

Thursday: My day at the kindergarten! I spend 5 hours hanging out with the little ones. This past week I went to the "birds" room (the older kids--ages 5 to 6) and got to see what all they did. There's actually a lot of structure in their room vs. the younger kids who just run around and play with our hair! One of the birds, Nadia, was such a character. She would make jokes and the teacher would laugh and translate what she said for us. Example: one of the kids completed their assignment, and Nadia goes "one thousand points! encore!" (in Danish of course). Then Thurs. night I volunteered as a bartender at the Studenterhuset (students house) and got to meet some people who of course were interested that I was from Texas (one guy: "so, in Texas if I steal something they will kill me, right?")

Friday: Same schedule as Tuesday, but no choir. Met with my International Ad group to go over our project that we have to present on Tuesday, and found out we got an A on our presentation last week! What what!

Saturday (today): Mary, Danielle, and I went to a cozy cafe in

Norrebro and had a traditional Danish brunch!

It was so delicious. The place was really funky and eccentric with stuffed animals

all over and weird masks and doll heads for lamps (as you can see in the pic). I'll have to take mom and dad here when they come down. Then we went walking around

and stumbled across a cute park with an iced over pond (see pics at the end of this). After THAT, we went to the Carlsberg brewery, which is not even a brewery anymore so basically a museum, and the highlight was I stumbled upon my old friend Ariel. As in, Ariel the Little Mermaid. This is the original Little Mermaid...I have yet to see the one that's on the water, but I hear its not much bigger than this one! Gotta love tourist attractions.

Reality Check

When the clock struck midnight for Cinderella, the spell was broken and she was just an ordinary girl. I can relate. At the stroke of midnight (literally) on Valentine's Day, I got a very big reality check as I clung to the toilet trying to stop throwing up. Yes, I have the dreaded 24-hour bug. Getting sick has made me remember that even though I am having this amazing experience in another country, I am still just an ordinary girl living my life, no matter where it may be. I finally fell asleep at 4:30 AM and woke up this morning to go to a Valentines Day brunch right down the street at Danielle's. Now, you know I'm sick if all I ate were some eggs and bacon, and the sight of waffles made me sick. I'm now sitting in my host family's house, alone (they're at a wedding) with a fever. Happy Valentine's Day to me, right? Since this would be just a sad and depressing post without some pictures, I'm going to add a few from the past couple of weeks! Oh, by the way, tomorrow marks my one month anniversary in Copenhagen. Already.

A mural in Christiania

Me and my 'partners in crime'
Another pic of ice skating on Kongen Nytorv. Beautiful.

Everything IS Bigger in Texas!

I know, I know...I need to blog more. The sad thing is, my computer is STILL MIA! I got the CDs to install a new system, but the computer is being shady and won't accept them. In the meantime, I'm using my host sister's computer and uploaded some pics for your viewing pleasure. Let me start by introducing you to my friend, the Fransk Hotdog (and Mary too!)When you've been out bar hopping, this is the food of choice. Its basically a hotdog that you eat vertical...ok nevermind its too hard to describe. Just trust me. This next pic is of ice skating on Kongen Nytorv, right by the harbor. It had actually just snowed that day, so it made ice skating even cooler. My host family gave me some hot chocolate for the road, and I learned that their hot cocoa is reallyyyyy rich, but reallyyyyy good. Since my last post, I've learned some random facts about Denmark, such as honking is illegal. Yeah, even if you are about to have a head-on collision because some idiot isn't paying attention, if you honk you can be fined. Isn't that crazy? Oh, and I've also joined the International Choir! We meet every Tuesday from 5-7 pm, it's so much fun and most of the members are Danes so its a great way to meet people too. Now I can get singing out of my system a little.

This past Thursday through Saturday I went on a short program study tour of Western Denmark. We went to Åarhus, Odense, Kolding, and Skanderborg. Got to see lots of neat places, including different preschools and culture centers, and got to bond with the people in my program.

The reason my title is about everything being bigger in Texas is because you can drive across the entire country of Denmark, by bus, in 4 hours. Yeah, you can't even get to South Padre Island in that time. This is a pic of us playing 'dress up' at the Hans Christian Andersen museum. We were like big kids the entire trip, so it was fun. When we got back Saturday, I went to Danielle's host brother and sister's 18th birthday party. My first Danish birthday party! Let me tell you, the pull out all the stops. They had cocoa,

cakes, a live band, mixed drinks (with a mixed drink 'menu' posted on the fridge...it was intense). As you can see by this picture, it was very festive with all the drinks having cute straws. On the left is me and my friend Annie, on the right is Danielle and Maria, my host sister. Then a bunch of 16 and 17 year olds! HAHA we were the old Americans. So I will leave you for now, but hopefully not for long. Here's a couple of pics to help ya out before I go.

This is right outside of the backyard where I live in Brøndby. It's the harbor to the beach, and it is filled with swans and ducks. It's so beautiful. These last two are of some bicycles and Copenhagen and of my backyard, because it snowed last night and the outside is so pretty and covered in snow (its unusual for snow to stick to the ground in Denmark, supposedly).

Everybody's Dancin' in the Moonlight...

I realize I have a lot to catch up on, seeing as how it's been a week (ALREADY!) since my last post. Yeah, time just flies when you're having fun...but somehow my computer is still not fixed. Anywayssssss last Tuesday night I went out and made everyone in a bar dance. Now, you may think I'm exaggerating. But I'm not. The bartenders were playing some slow boring stuff, and I went up and requested everything from Lady Gaga (how can you not dance to a song called 'Just Dance'?) and a little Britney of course ('there's only 2 types of people in the world'...) and got everyone movin'. Texas represent! Then Wednesday I went to Christiania, the land of the stoners and boozers. Marijuana is legal there, and I saw middle-aged men and women buying weed on the street. It was completely insane...they don't allow cameras (go figure) but I smuggled an empty hemp beer bottle out (legal only in Christiania and Amsterdam). I'll use it as a flower vase in the states. Oh by the way, you're allowed to drink on the trains here, and the other night I saw some 14 year olds chugging beers on the metro. It was definitely an experience. But now to the most exciting news (DRUMROLL)...I had my first day at the Danish kindergarten on Thursday!!! It was soooo much fun. The children are from diverse backgrounds because its a multicultural børnehavn, and trying to communicate with them is definitely a challenge. I let them play with my hair and use plastic wrenches to curl it, and at one point had 3 hairbands, 2 scrunchies, and butterfly clips in my hair. The children I was with were all 3 or 4 years old and so adorable, and when we left they were all standing at the windows and waving. I can't wait to go back, but I can't until Thursday the 12th because this Thursday through Saturday my program is going on a short study tour around Western Denmark!! I will upload some pics of that experience and blog when I get back. We are going to Åarhus, Odense, Vejl, and Skanderborg, and taking buses and sleeping in hostels. Isn't that so Europe? And shoutout to mama Joani whose birthday is this Thursday! Love you! Now I haven't been able to upload pics of my recent adventures, but I'm going to put up pics of my crazy family members who spread out along the side of the road from Columbus to Austin and held up signs wishing me luck on my travels. It was the most adorable thing ever, I love the fam. But before I go, I watched the Superbowl last night from 12:30 to 4:00 AM in an Irish pub and what an exciting game! Vi ses!first sign in the yardChe-Che! 'Dirt Tot & da Sand Phew'

Grandma: 'Oh Brooke Please Be Careful!'

Granny, Pops, and Lacy: 'Love You!'

Uncle John: 'I Once Was a Rabbit'. (As I was taking the picture: 'Hurry, hurry, this is embarrassing!!)

Aunt Tammy: 'Hellooo?! Brush your teeth...& floss!'

Kelsey: 'We Can't Wait to Have you Back IN AMERICA' (sorry I dont know how to flip this picture)

The Estradas: 'Du Spuchen De Danish?'

Warschaks: 'Shaniquah don't live here no more...she be in Denmark!'

Jan & Jackie: 'Gonna Miss: Aunt Jan I need a Favor..' and 'Se Danmark Hun Kommer!'