My Little Goodbyes

Here I am, 15 days away from being back in Texas! But, since today is my last day in Copenhagen, that means it's my last blog as well. The "study" part of study abroad is completely done for me and it feels great! For my last blog, I figure I will recap my last week here in CPH and then go over some of the things I've learned about Denmark. Sound cheesy? A little. Just read it!

So I left off last time with Monday night. That night Mary and I did a nightwalk around Copenhagen and saw all of the big tourist attractions by night as a sort of goodbye. Then we watched "The Reader" on her computer. Now, I don't know if you've seen that movie or not, but it's kind of disturbing. But still really good, Kate Winslet is such a good actress. OK enough talking movies...

Tuesday: Went into DIS to work on my paper and ended up watching two hours worth of Gossip Girl instead. Not good. Then came home and started studying out on the porch for my final, the weather has been sooo nice this week. Danielle and I took a study break and walked along the beach while eating Lion ice cream cones (Lion is the best flavor EVER, it has chocolate, caramel, graham crackers...basically everything that makes ice cream good). For dinner I had frikadeller, or Danish meatballs. They're amazing, and something I'll miss when I'm gone. 

Wednesday: On the way to my final I saw a guy passing out newspapers to bike riders as they rode by...another thing I'll miss is how people do everything on their bikes, from talking on the phone to picking up the paper! I then went into my favorite little convenience store to get a hot chocolate and saw two DIS students buying Grøn Tuborg. Keep in mind it's 11:30 in the morning. The cashier: "Isn't it a little early for this?" The DIS students: "We have a Danish oral exam in 30 minutes, we need all the help we can get". My final was pretty tough, had to write two essays in two hours, but I think I did good. Afterwards, to celebrate the end of exams, I went to Tivoli! Yipee! That night I went out with Mary and Greg to a tiny little bar in Svanemøllen and met some Danish folks. As I was going out, I noticed that the sky was still light (at 11pm) and at 4am it started getting light again. CRAZY!

Thursday: finished my paper and worked book return ALLLL AFTERNOON to finish up my work study scholarship hours! Somehow, Danielle and I made it fun by making a game out of the book filing and chatting with the interns. Then I went to see "Angels and Demons" and I got really into it since I've been to basically all the places in Rome that were in the movie! 

And that brings me to today. My final day. It's 10:24 AM and I still haven't packed. EEK. I'm meeting Mary at the King's Gardens around 1pm and then we are going to the DIS concluding ceremony. From there, Danielle and I are hopping on our plane to begin our next 15 days of travel. It's going to be exhausting but I'm looking forward to it...especially the Greek cruise :)

OK so some of the things I've learned about Denmark...

1. There are three main food categories: meat, starch/bread, and alcohol. Vegetables are almost unheard of. And they butter everything...for example, a sandwich will consist of bread, butter, ham, and cheese. Which will be followed by a slice of bread with butter and chocolate pieces on top. Sounds like what your parents never let you eat as a kid, right?

2. Biking is a way of life.

3. The Danes do not believe in small talk. Don't expect them to smile at you as you're walking down the street; in fact, they will probably avoid eye contact. But if you begin the conversation they are very responsive and will talk your ear off...so don't ask "how's your day been?" if you're not wanting to hear more than "fine".

4. Danes are very helpful with directions, and most of the time will either walk you there themselves (has happened to me numerous times) or give you step-by-step directions.

5. Although there is a state religion (Lutheran) and most Danes have to pay taxes to the church, I have yet to meet a Dane who goes to church regularly, or believes in God for that matter.

6. In Denmark, sarcasm=sense of humor. Don't take anything too seriously.

7. Denmark is a small but proud country and is vary wary of immigrants; good luck getting a visa here. Case in point: after I leave, I'm not allowed to return for 6 months since I've been here for 4 months.

8. Using an umbrella in Denmark is unheard of. I hope you have a hooded raincoat.

9. Denmark loves Obama. To the point of obsession.

10. If the temperature goes above 60 degrees, the Danes will be out and about in summer attire. Or will just lay in the park half-naked.

11. It's never too early to drink (just ask the people sitting in the "morning bars").

12. Danish children are probably the most adorable thing I've ever seen.

13. I WILL be back to visit!

Brooke's study abroad adventure is officially at an end. And yes, I just started crying after I typed that sentence. Hej-hej Denmark, it's been a blast.

You don't need to talk so loud, I have perfectly good herring

This is my second-to-last blog---it's officially here, the final stretch. I have a final on Wednesday and a final paper due on Friday, but I'm definitely going to try and finish the paper ASAP so that by 2pm Wednesday I'm free to enjoy my last few days! I'm not looking forward to packing though, that's for sure...

Soooooo let's review my last weekend in Copenhagen, shall we? Thursday night was a holiday night here in Copenhagen because everyone is off of work and school on Friday, May 8th (I forgot the reason, sorry) so when Danielle and I went out we realized we were surrounded by high schoolers. And by surrounded, I mean SURROUNDED, the streets were packed! Oh, and before I go on, I would like to back-up quickly to talk about Wednesdays here in Copenhagen. They are one of my favorite days because of the famous Sankt Peders Bageri snegls (cinnamon rolls). 12 kroner, or about 2 dollars, for this big thing. It's fabulous. OK back on topic...Friday, for lunch, I finally had the traditional Danish lunch of pickled herring and Schnapps with my host family. Here's the deal: we each had a Rød Tuborg (a seasonal beer), a shot glass with Schnapps, and a slice of rye bread. You butter the bread and put herring on it, followed by a sauce of your choice (I liked the egg salad and the honey mustard). After a bite or two of herring, you all say "Skål!" and take some Schnapps, then you refill the glass. Needless to say, it can be dangerous if you don't pace yourself. My host mom told me that the Danes say "the fish need something to swim down with" as an excuse to drink the liquor! From all of the things I had heard about pickled herring, I was surprised by how much I liked it. Of course, the sauce helps, especially when you put lots and lots of it on.

That night I went out to Kulør Bar for a night of dancing and fun with friends, where I met some fun people from Århus and made friends with the DJ because I kept requesting Nik & Jay songs. This was followed by my 9am wake-up call to go get Casey at Nørreport Station. We spent Saturday taking a grand tour of Copenhagen, complete with Wienerbrød, funky fountains, the harbor, palaces, Little Mermaid, and lots and lots of walking. I had a little photoshoot by my school, and to the left you can see the gate that I entered just about everyday to go to school. Not that exciting, but hey, I figure someone may went to see where the studying took place! Later we had a light lunch of crackers, ham, and cheese on the harbor with our feet dangling over the edge as a boat almost crashed into us and tourists went by on the canal tours taking our picture. Then it was back home for a quick walk on the beach and dinner with the host family. Later that night we went out to explore the Copenhagen nightlife but didn't stay out too long because we'd done so much walking all day.

Sunday morning=Happy Mothers Day! I got to talk to my aunts, cousin, sister, mother, and grandmother all in one day, which already made it a perfect day. That morning we had a 'party in the kitchen' with my host family, Casey, Danielle, and I all hanging around listening to music, having breakfast, and drinking mimosas (yes, I introduced my host fam to mimosas...and they liked them!) Us three gals then went into Copenhagen to have lunch and walk around the naturey side of the city, seeing King's Gardens and the Botanical Gardens--my first time to go there, and it was so pretty! Look at all the people in King's Gardens soaking up the beautiful weather...

And here is a lake in the Botanical Gardens complete with lilypads and green all around...We also saw a not-so-pretty side of Copenhagen that day. Early Sunday morning, riots broke out down Strøget, the walking street of Copenhagen, and a group of young Danes that are anti-society and anti-government decided to make a statement by graffiting a huge part of the street and smashing windows. Copenhagen is very big on being clean, so the streets were all cleaned up and there was no broken glass to be found, but the aftermath was still intense. As we were taking pictures, a Danish news network was filming for the nightly news and zoomed in on us taking pictures. The film guy followed us as we inspected the streets, so I'm pretty sure we were on the Danish news at some point that night. To the left is graffiti and boarded up broken windows, and below is the camera-man and the broken windows of Matas, a pharmacy that I just visited last week.

When the sun went down, we walked through Tivoli by night and saw how beautiful it was all lit up, since last time it was too cold for us to really enjoy it. The place definitely has a different feel by night, and it's fun to watch the lights change as the roller coasters move and see lights twinkling along the fountains and sidewalks. It was kind of like a fairytale. Then we saw the light show from the bridge, which is the right spot to watch it (unlike last time) and it was definitely worth it...especially since its free. Check out the Cinderella-esque gazebo below...

And this is one of my favorite photos, with the lights of Tivoli reflected in the lake.
Today I had to come into work at DIS but afterwards I met up with Casey and we did a little souvenir shopping, chai tea drinking at Baresso (Danish Starbucks) and pastry eating at Sankt Peders (never gets old). All-in-all, a great last weekend, and with a weather forecast of 60 degrees, sunshine, and no chance of rain for this week, I'm guessing its going to be a great last week as well :)

Brooke Biked Bornholm

Guess what today was? LAST DAY OF CLASSES! Yipee and it's also Cinco de Mayo, what a wonderful combination. I'm still exhausted from this weekend, we biked over 100 km. around the island of Bornholm, I had to sleep on the floor on the ferry (so I didn't sleep very good) and then stayed up til 3 AM last night finishing my portfolio for international advertising. Before I begin telling about my beautiful weekend, do you recognize the pictures to the right and left? Yep, they are from the King's Gardens, only this time they've been attacked by spring! The trees are blooming, the sun is shining, and the flowers are a-growing. Love it. And here is a picture from inside Tivoli last Thursday, and one of us girls in front of the Dragon, a crazy ride that literally makes you do 360 degree spins for 3 solid minutes. Mary and Danielle have their game faces on, and I'm freaking out just a little (of course the pic is posed, but seriously it was intense). 

OK so back to Bornholm. Friday night we took an overnight ferry and found a couple of couches to sleep on, arrived at 6:30 AM and began biking by 8:30. We rode around all day, looking at the beaches, including the Doedde beach that has the softest sand ever--it is even exported around the world to be used in hourglasses! We watched glass blowing in a little shop in Svenke, and had an Is (soft ice cream) by one of the lighthouses. Bornholm is known for their smoked herring, so we stopped at a smokehouse to have a taste. It was literally a fish, sitting there staring up at me, skin and eyeballs and all. It was pretty good but I cut it wrong so that it still had lots of bones in it so it was really awkward to eat (I found out when I got home on Monday, from my host mom, the right way to eat it. Good advice, just a little too late!) The way back was alllll uphill and I'm not gonna lie I was having a tough time but it made dinner just that much more worth it. I think my body was wondering why I spent a semester eating pastries from St. Peter's Bakery and was now deciding to bike like it was my job. At about 7pm I was like "I'm going to go take a nap"...well, it turned into a 13-hour nap. Obviously I was a little exhausted. The next morning we did it all over again, only this time instead of biking along the beach we did the Wilderness Trail and rode through forests with waterfalls and ivy. We saw rounded churches, sacred cliffs, and pine trees that looked like they were straight out of Fern Gully. Then it was back to the town our hostel was in, Gudhjem ("God's home"), for some famous soft ice cream and a stroll through the town, followed by dinner and a social. It was a great weekend, and you know what? I'm gonna let the pictures speak for themselves...enjoy!

riding through the countryside

taking a rest stop in Svenke

Duodde, the famous hourglass sand beach

conquering a waterfall

so much green!

Jeg KAN taler dansk!

After this week, I officially consider myself part-Dane. Here's why:
1.) I was able to go into a Matas (pharmacy), buy some items, and complete the entire transaction in Danish. The cashier asked me some questions in Danish and I knew exactly what she was asking and how to respond. Earlier that morning, I had gone into a Tiger (discount store) to buy a folder and had the same experience; no English involved whatsoever. SUCCESS
2.) I've been listening to Danish music on Youtube more than American music lately. Yes, I've fallen into the Nik & Jay trap, and I will be buying their CDs
3.) I own the daisy necklace, worn by every Danish female living in Copenhagen
4.) I went to Tivoli yesterday, the most famous part of Copenhagen, and rode just about every ride. Without throwing up.
5.) Today is May Day, the first of May, which is a huge deal in Denmark. Basically, it's their excuse to party. I went, by myself, to Fælledparken and had a pølser and Carlsberg while laying in the sun and listening to music.
6.) I'm able to wear sandals, jeans, and a short-sleeved shirt in 60 degree weather and be warm. In fact, I feel like its 'shorts weather'.
7.) I got asked for directions the other day.
8.) No locals think I'm a tourist. It used to be that I would walk into most stores and they'd automatically start speaking in English. Now, it's Danish all the way baby.

The countdown starts today. Exactly two weeks left in Copenhagen. Will I make them count? Oh, you better believe it. This weekend=biking around the beautiful island of Bornholm (part of Denmark's territory). That should have been my #9 reason I'm part-Dane...I'm going to spend a weekend BIKING! I will have some perdy pictures to post upon my return :)

Yooooodelllllllllayehooooooo (my attempt at yodeling on a swiss mountain)

So here I am, somehow still alive after staying up til 4 AM finishing my portfolio. Correction: after finishing ONE of my portfolios...2 more to go! But I'll worry about those later. Right now, I need to tell you about my weekend in Switzerland...

I got to the Zurich airport at like 7:30pm Thursday and from there took a one-hour train to St. Gallen. This, of course, was after looking at the prices to see just how expensive Switzerland really is. Well, $8.50 was the lowest price for a cup of Starbucks. As some of you back home gasp and moan, I have to confess that it's even more expensive than that in the Copenhagen airport. Yeah, never will I ever complain about my $3 lattes ever again. Back to the story...Casey met me at the train station and her apartment was literally right around the corner. She had 2 bottles of wine and some Swiss chocolate waiting for me as a welcome gift! So sweet. We then went on a night walk of St. Gallen and climbed to the top of one of the biggest hills to get a view of everything. We did the same thing the next morning to see how it all looked during the day. 

One word: breathtaking. We also checked out the red street, a street in St. Gallen where everything is covered in this red material (cars, tables, fountains, everything). Of course this was a great opportunity for a photo op.

Some other places we checked out were the large abbey, the library (where you're not supposed to take pics, but I did) and the streets lined with ornate windows from way back when. 

    After our Friday morning walking tour, we hopped a train to go to Rhine Falls, the largest waterfall in Europe. Now, I'm going to be honest, I was expecting it to be a *little* bit bigger. But this is Europe, not the Amazon. We even got on a boat and went right up to the waterfall 

and climbed to the top of one of the little hills that separates the waterfall.

That night, we went out to a honky tonk. No, I didn't stutter. There was a honky tonk in St. Gallen, Switzerland. It started at 8pm and you get a wristband and go around to a bunch of different bars that all have live bands playing. I shoulda brought my cowboy boots! Actually, I don't think it was THAT kind of honky tonk. But whatever. It was A LOT of fun!

    The next morning Casey, three of her friends, and I went to the Santes Mountains, which is considered part of the Swiss Alps. We took a cable car to the very top of the mountain, where you can see 6 countries (Germany, Italy, Luxemborg, France...and I'd have to look up the other two!) There are no words to describe this, I'll have to let the picture here speak for itself. And even that doesn't show it for how beautiful it was!

      That night we had a campfire on top of one of the hills and roasted bratwurst (very good) and had some smores. We then ventured into town for one of Casey's Swiss friend's birthdays. Basically, it was an amazing weekend (what else is new?) The only thing that was not fun was getting fined 600 kroner ($120) when I got back to Copenhagen because even though my train pass was for zones 1, 2, 3, and 4, it was for 33 and 44 and not 41 which is what the airport was in. Confused? It's ok, I was too. And I had absolutely no idea. Yeah, try telling that to the train guy. Oh well, it's the start of another beautiful week...I walked barefoot on the beach earlier today, the weather is wonderful, and short-sleeves are actually a reality! 

Hanging with the Swiss, not to be confused with Sweden

Hej-hej everyone! I'm slowly surviving this week, it's been a toughie. I have my portfolio for my practicum due on Monday (15 page paper) and I'm almost halfway done with it. That's not good enough, I know, but I promise all day Sunday will be dedicated to that thing. For the meantime, I'm visiting my friend Casey, who also goes to UT, in SWITZERLAND! This is the second time in my life I'll be taking a plane by myself, and then taking a train from Zurich to St. Gallen where she studies. It's supposed to be gorgeous, but could you expect anything less of Switzerland? Didn't think so. It should be a fun weekend :)
So last night after spending the day writing a paper that was due today, I joined Mary and Danielle for quiz night at The Dubliner. We were separated into different teams and went through 3 rounds of 10 questions of just random trivia. My main contribution to the group (I was the only American in my group, two were Danes and the other was British) was knowing the answers to 'what were the first names of the Wright brothers' and 'what are the 6 weapons in the game Clue'. Oh, and knowing how many dwarves in Snow White had beards. Other than that, I was clueless. We got 2nd place out of four teams, woohoo! haha Later that night...I took the last train home and fell asleep on the train. A guy woke me up at the last stop, and I realized I was now in a pretty bad situation--no more trains running, stranded at the last stop on the A line. Great. So I called my host sister to get the number of a taxi and then waited in the cold for one to arrive. Not a smart decision, next time I will MAKE myself stay awake!
After my portfolio is turned in on Monday, the work does not end. I still have a LOT to do. But I found out I made a B+ on both my Classical Foundations and International Advertising midterms, so that's good! For now, I'm going to kick back and enjoy Switzerland, and brace myself for the crazy week to come.

Age ain't nothing but a number...unless its your 21st!

I'm 21 I'm 21 I'm 21! And no, I have not been carded yet :( And no, it's not a big deal at all here. I'll need some belated celebrations when I return! Anyways, it feels amazing to be back in Copenhagen and see that Tivoli is open, trees are blooming, and people are SITTING OUTSIDE! Who would have thought? I wish I could go outside and enjoy the weather more but I have sooooo much homework due. SOOO much. I'm talking 50 typed pages due within the next two weeks. Somehow, I will make it happen and still enjoy my last few weeks here---I'm determined! So back to my birthday...

   I got back into the big CPH Wednesday and had to leave yet again Friday evening for Amsterdam. So, needless to say, this traveling is wearing me down. Danielle and I checked into our boat hostel and hurried out so that we could ring in midnight (my bday) in the downtown area. I had a BLAST. We spent the weekend paddle-boating on the canals, exploring the Heineken brewery, shopping in the flower markets, and enjoying the sunshine that the Weather Channel had swore would not come our way (take that, weathermen!) 

Here we are about to take a canal cruise...see, not a cloud in the sky! Our flight didn't arrive back into Copenhagen until 8:30 this morning (Monday!) and we had the brilliant idea of sleeping in the Amsterdam airport...aka we didn't really get any sleep. But after class and work today I got a very nice surprise at home---thanks family for all of the wonderful cards!!!! It meant so much to me to come home and see all of these different birthday cards from the fam. And my host family cooked me a really nice dinner and even bought me a beautiful bouquet! Great birthday weekend, and now its time for an early night to bed so I'm fresh and ready to tackle all the homework I have this week....yuck