Gettin' ready to visit the dam...Amsterdam that is

Tomorrow morning at exactly 8 AM I will be climbing onto a bus bound for Amsterdam. This wonderful way to begin a Sunday morning marks the beginning of my three-week travel break! The Amsterdam visit will be from Sunday until Friday and is part of my child development program, so my same group that went on the short study tour around western Denmark will be going to Holland. Our first stop is actually Groningen in the Netherlands...don't really know too much about it, but I guess that's part of the adventure! Friday afternoon, I'll climb on a bus bound for Brussels, Belgium all by my lonesome and explore the city for the weekend, then hop on a plane back to Copenhagen to meet my parents at the airport!! Wahoo! Right now I'm sitting at my computer (obviously) procrastinating packing and fixing to take a shower and get ready for my host mom's birthday dinner. The extended family is due to arrive at 6pm and the food is going to be deliciousssss. I spent the morning chopping up onions for the french onion soup, so a few tears went into the making of this dinner.

    So what was Brooke up to this week? Well, I'll tell ya. First of all, I had two midterms on Friday. Two, on the same day. That's just wrong. So most of my week was dedicated to studying...oh whatever, for those of you that know me, you know I mostly procrastinated. But I did have a bit of fun Tuesday because it was St. Patrick's Day, and supposedly Copenhagen is known for a 3-legged race for charity. It started at 2:30pm and it involves tying your leg up to a partner and running around Copenhagen like a crazy person to 6 different pubs and chugging a beer at each! Hey, it's for charity. 

If you look at the above picture, you'll think, "wait, why are there THREE people?" Well my friends, my partner (Danielle) bailed on me last minute, so I was tied to my friend Mary and her boyfriend Scott. Yes, three of us, tied together, hobbling around Copenhagen. Most of the time we couldn't move because we were laughing too hard!! Alright, well that's all I have to say for now, so see ya after Amsterdam!

"I'm part Irish! Well...it's just 1/16 or something, but still"

Dublin was a craic time. Craic, pronounced 'crack', is the Irish term for fun/great! Supposedly it rains alllll the time in Ireland, and we were fortunate enough that not only did it not rain, but it was sunny and warmer! So let me start at the beginning...Friday night we got to the hotel at around 11:45 and got ready to go out. We went to the Temple Bar area and had drinks at Gogarty's and The Temple Bar (yeah, the area is called temple bar and this bar banked by using that as the name of their pub...pretty clever). 

There were SO many people there for St. Patrick's Day, lots of green hats and wigs. We were shocked that the pubs all close by 2:30 because in Copenhagen it's not til 5, but then we found out its because they re-open at 10am. We found this out because we went and got us some Irish coffees the next morning :) yummmm. From there, we walked to City Hall to meet up with a tour guide for a free walking tour of Dublin (its with the same company that does the free tours of Berlin). Our tour guide's name was Conor and he had a very thick Irish accent and lots of jokes for us. He showed us all around the city, and we saw everything from Dublin Castle (and a crazy man outside playing a saw...in shorts) where we got free hotdogs for St. Patty's (aren't the Irish nice?) to Trinity College, one of the top 50 colleges in the world. Here is the Viking Memorial, with Conor on the left telling us about Ireland's history with the Vikings.

After the tour, we went walking along Grafton street just seeing all of the different shops and hearing local musicians sing and play in the middle of the street. For dinner, we later went to The Brazen Head, the oldest pub in Ireland. I was intent on having a 'traditional Irish dinner' and I found it! I had a traditional Irish stew with lamb in it that basically melted in my mouth, it was sooooo good. And, of course, what is Ireland without a Guinness to wash it down? I was a little freaked out about having Guinness, but it's actually really really good in Ireland (unlike the states...sorry, it's true). The restaurant had different currencies covering all the walls, signed by customers from all over the world. I turn around, and what is right behind me? A dollar bill, signed by people from Brenham, TX. Yes, it IS a small world.

The Temple Bar area didn't have any Irish music for the weekend since there were so many tourists, so we went a little out of the way to Cobblestone Pub, where Irish singers sit for hours and just play fiddles and sing old Irish songs. It was very like 'P.S. I Love You', minus Jeffrey Dean Morgan. Darn.

The next morning was an early one for us because we wanted to take the train down to Bray and then up to Howth, totaling an hour and a half of travel time. So we left bright and early for Bray, and it was sooo worth it. We climbed up to Bray's Head, a 40 minute incline where from the top you see Ireland.

Here's another pic that actually includes the coast in it too:

After that, we went on to Howth, a small little harbor town. We watched people feed the wild seals, ate fish and chips, and went walking around. It was a great day and an amazing weekend...I could definitely go back to Ireland in a heartbeat!! But the weekend wore me out, so I need a nap...

"This place just got attacked by Americans"

Sorry that this post won't hold anything very entertaining, but I mean you've only missed out on my Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, and those are the most boring days of the week, right? Good, I'm glad you agree. In fact, they were so uneventful that I refuse to exert the effort needed to upload pictures. Hey, my blog, my rules. So let me give you an overview of the past three days of my life. In class on Monday, a "complaint sheet" went around and we all wrote comments on it regarding our long study tour. This is because when we came here we were all told our study tour would be 7 days long--Saturday to Saturday. Well, now we aren't slated to arrive in Holland until 8pm SUNDAY and we're leaving at 2pm FRIDAY. That's just insane! That's like...nothing. So we all requested that we get lots and lots of food and cultural excursions to compensate. That night I sat on my bed for four hours straight just looking up different travel options. I don't think I got a single thing done. Woohoo Mondays!

   Then Tuesday night was my friend Nick's birthday party at Wall Street Pub. He invited a ton of DIS students, so the place was swarming with Americans. The title of my blog is a direct quote from some Danish guy that was sitting at the bar. I agree with him though. We were unfamiliar with the area the pub was in, and actually ended up getting lost and walking around Norrebro, the 'dodgy' area of Copenhagen, for about 30 minutes trying to find the way home! Eek! But Wednesday was an absolutely amazing day. The sun was shining and it actually compelled me to jog along the beach. I sat and watched the water for a while, and then sat and watched the harbor. By far, one of the most beautiful days I've seen since I've been here. That evening I met up with the people I will be going to Rome with, and our instructor talked about what all we can expect to do and see while there. He's taking us EVERYWHERE, I'm so excited! That night my friend Mary had her birthday party at The Dubliner...the owner actually gave us a private room and everything (for free). Ballin'!

    Right now I'm taking a break from packing for Dublin tomorrow! I made a Google Map with all the things people have suggested we see and do while there. Our flight doesn't leave until 7:25 pm tomorrow and we have one stop along the way...so we're actually not getting to Dublin until 11:30 pm!! We are a 7 minute walk from the happenin' Temple Bar area though, so our Friday night should still be fun. Saturday and Sunday are going to involve a LOT of walking, so I'm preparing myself for that. Can't wait to update ya! Here's a clip you should watch  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqg6BNSUG5Q

it's from Whose Line is it Anyway, the Irish Drinking Song! Love it.

Swedish Fish, Sushi, Shopping, SWEDEN!

Wow, two blogs in three days? I'm getting so much better at maintaining this thing!! (but don't let it spoil you..) I wanted to give y'all an update on my weekend, since I spent my Saturday in Malmo, Sweden! I went with my main partner-in-crime Danielle, as usual, and her host mom drove us to the bus station where we took a 25-minute bus ride into Malmo. Yes, in less than half an hour, you can be in a different country. Once we got there, we immediately went into a candy shop (when I say immediately, I mean we saw that candy shop and we made a beeline for it) and bought some Swedish Fish! Yeah, you know, that fish-shaped candy you can buy in the U.S....only for some reason it just tasted ten times better because it was from Sweden. We then went and got some sushi for lunch, because we've been craving it for weeks but can't get it in Copenhagen because it is ridiculously expensive. The Swedish kroner is very very weak right now (9 kroner to 1 US dollar) and the Sushi was 35 Swedish crowns...that's about $4.

Then we went to the main walking street to do a little shopping. But we have the worst luck in the world, so of course we happen to come to Sweden on the day of a massive demonstration. Tons upon tons of Swedes are marching down the streets with signs, protesting against the U.S. and Israel and asking for peace. I said, "Danielle, whatever you do, don't speak English too loudly right now". 

We braved the protesters and went shopping at H&M. H&M is like the Forever 21 of the northern US and of Europe, and it originated in Sweden. I bought a scarf and 2 shirts for less than $40. Ballin'! 

It was fun just roaming the streets after that, saw lots of funky advertisements for "American" items like the Hot Texas burger at Burger King (first picture). We stopped in a bar/restaurant called Mello Yello and had garlic bread and chocolate tapas with wine...so good. Danielle actually knows a couple of guys that live in Sweden because they studied abroad at her university, and she called them up to hang out. They were our tour guides of the night because they took us to a sort of hidden nightclub/disco that is jokingly called "Slaughter House" because its called slaterhuset and that, well, looks like slaughter house. All in all, great experience, maybe because Malmo was a LOT like Copenhagen since they are basically neighbors. I'll leave ya with this pic of me as a 'lost American statue' in the square of Malmo.

Sad News and Happy Memories

    This week has definitely been a bittersweet one, because on Wednesday morning I found out that Nana Lavadia passed away. For those who do not know, Nana was the grandma of my cousins Jackie and Brett. She was such a sweet (and short) little lady who was always wanting to talk or willing to listen (and always saying, "What?!"), and I'm going to miss her. It's tough being across an ocean and not able to hug everyone and go to the funeral. So, this blog is dedicated to her and to her family.

  As promised, I will talk about the Brondby vs. FCK match that I went to on Monday night. Here's a pic of us Brondby 'hooligans' (since Brondby is known as being a sort of rough area, all Brondbyans are lovingly referred to by this name). This is my host sister Maria, me, and Danielle with the extremely large and rowdy crowd of Brondby Stadium behind us.

Note the Brondby scarves and jerseys ;) The game was definitely intense and at the beginning of the game they put a huge flag over the top of everyone on the Brondby side, and you just jump up and down to move the flag and you can't see anything but supposedly this looks very cool from the other side (claustrophobics are strongly encouraged not to sit on the Brondby side). One of the greatest parts of the game was when I looked down and said, "wait, who are THOSE guys?" and realized it was two Brondby hooligans running across the field, and then proceeding to moon all of the FCK supporters. It was great. 

So, I've been trying to avoid this fact, but...we lost. 1-0. Grrrr. But good news: on Wednesday I finally saw the world-famous, extravagantly spectacular (ok so I'm exaggerating a bit) LITTLE MERMAID STATUE! 

No wonder I haven't seen it before...its not exactly in the center of the city! But I love its location...I also realized that I haven't taken as many Copenhagen tourist pictures, so here's one of me on a street in Copenhagen that runs right along a river. I love these buildings!

In case you haven't noticed yet, cobblestone streets are a big deal here! Alright, well I'm making it an early night tonight because I'm going to Malmo, Sweden tomorrow (20 minute drive away) and want to be well rested since I went out Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, AND Thursday night. Yeah, I think I deserve a little sleep! See ya next time...

Copenhagen>Berlin. There, I said it!

Here I am, back in the big CPH from a weekend in Berlin! I'll rewind to Thursday night first, when we cooked for the host fam! We made nachos, fajitas, charro beans, Spanish rice, and then gelato for dessert (I know, it doesn't fit in). My host mom provided the Coronas. Here's a pic of the food....as you can see, the Spanish rice doesn't look very, well, Spanish, but it all tasted good. Shocker!

Then Friday we took a 6-hour bus (including a ferry ride) to Berlin. We got to our hostel around 1:30 AM, went out to an iffy nightclub and then woke up early to explore the city. This is the first thing we saw in the morning when we got off of the central train station.

Berlin offers a free 3.5 hour walking tour of the city. Our tour guide was from the great state of Georgia (random) so we had no trouble understanding him. The pickup point was here, at Pariser Platz, which is named as a kind of slap in the face to the French. The statue on top of the columns is looking directly at the French embassy, as if to say "we're always watching you". 

The next stop on our tour was the Holocaust Memorial. Pictures can't capture this place; it's many different rows and columns of various-sized blocks. You're supposed to put your own interpretation as to why (I got really philosophical on this one, ask me if you wanna know) 
I have a lot of pics from the tour but not enough room on the blog, so I'll upload them to Facebook for all you Facebookers. Now this is an absolutely awful pic of me but look at the food in front of me! We had a traditional German lunch of bratwurst, sauerkraut, fried potatoes, and Berlin Pilsner. And of course, a dessert of apple streudel. It was delicioussss.

We had a German dinner later at a place set up with long tables and consisting of nothing but Germans. We were served beer in stoneware mugs.

The next day we took a 45-minute train ride to a concentration camp. The only thing I regret is not setting off enough time to really look at everything here. It was very eerie and just reading the stories of what these people had to endure was emotional.

On the way back from the concentration camp, we had a train stop called Hohen Neuendorf. So, Grandpa, you definitely have a German last name!

The only reason I say Copenhagen>Berlin is because of the feel of the city. Berlin was pretty much torn apart during World War II and most of their buildings are modern and there is a lot of space. Copenhagen is more old buildings and narrow streets, and I like the feel of that more. Also, we got yelled at in German for not tipping our way out of a bathroom (which we didn't know we had to do for that bathroom...) and therefore I'm a little wary of the Germans! Overall it was a great experience and I'm so glad I went.

Tonight, I have tickets for the Brondby vs. FCK (Copenhagen) futbol team; these are the #1 and #2 futbol teams in Denmark, and it's supposed to be a very intense game. I'll keep ya posted!