Gone With the Wind

Yeah I’ve been sitting on that title for about a week now… My apologies for the delay of this post. Lots of work with very little motivation does not equal blog post, apparently. But here I am, back in business, ready to tell you about my trip to Amsterdam! And some other stuff too.

Amsterdam:

stroopwafel... two layers of wafel cookie with mapley syrupy stuff inside. so addicting.

Allie and I were both pretty tired post-Thanksgiving and we also were in different stages of colds so we decided from the get-go that we wanted a pretty relaxed weekend… i.e. we definitely went home at like 9pm every night. Still, it was a really fun weekend, and I loved our approach to it. We got to stay with my dad’s old friend Carole, who has been living in Amsterdam for the past 4 years. She was kind enough to let us crash in her loft a few floors up from her apartment, which was located right on a canal on the edge of the city center. Perfect. Not only did we get a cozy living space all to ourselves with convenient access to the city, but she also fed us breakfast and Dutch goodies, like stroopwafels (pictured above on the right). Yummy!

so pleased about my life choices

After settling in on our first day, we just spent the evening wandering around the surprisingly small city center. We found out later that we’d been wandering in the Red Light District (I think all the coffee shops and passing the Sex Museum should probably have given us a hint). First we stopped and got some of the famous Dutch frites; I had mayo and onions on mine–DELICIOUS. Then we had dinner at a Chinese restaurant (to get the authentic Dutch experience, obviously). We had a lovely time chatting over dinner, and talked for over two hours after the waiter cleared our plates until we found out that we really had to ask for the check in order to get it! Obviously we got dessert as well, and I sprung for a fancy schmancy apple strudel.

We began Saturday morning with breakfast and tea with Carole. We got to chat with her about her experiences living in Europe, and I updated her on my dad’s happenings. Then Allie and I headed out for a day of exploring, which included the Van Gogh museum and the Anne Frank House. Luckily Carole warned us to buy our tickets online ahead of time, so we didn’t have to wait in any lines! We also were able to walk around the whole time (rather than taking public transit) because everything in Amsterdam is surprisingly close. Of course, we also found the flower market and some cheese shops along the way. I may or may not have bought a cheese wheel and some balsamic mustard… (after trying all twenty of the samples in the store, obviously).

on the way into town, we walked right past the zoo, which is apparently "the 2nd most popular destination in town." I wonder what is the first?

one of my many, many canal pictures...

I was in heaven...

I enjoyed the Van Gogh Museum a lot. It was a good size (fairly small) and very well organized, so you could follow his life while seeing the progression of his artwork.

can't go to Amsterdam without this picture, even if there are strangers awkwardly in your photo...

our lunch was one of my favorite meals. it began with these...

I couldn't resist the raspberry juice... soooo yummy

I had a whole wheat bagel with sun-dried tomato cream cheese and olive tapenade with sun-dried tomatoes. Definitely a trip highlight.

Amsterdam had even more bikes than Copenhagen--a feat I didn't think was possible.

we stopped for some delicious hot chocolate before our evening reservation at the Anne Frank Huis... so hard to resist getting a second.

The Anne Frank Huis was a really well-done museum, and a really powerful experience. We paid a few extra Euro for an introduction in English, so we would know a bit more about what we were seeing. It was just crazy to know what people had gone through exactly where we were standing many years before.

For dinner that night we had Italian (we really immersed ourselves in the Dutch culture…). Then we went home early, grabbing some Turkish rice pudding along the way (missing Istanbul already!). Snuggled up in our loft, we each read our respective books (Harry Potter in French for me and Breaking Dawn for Allie, which she found in the loft). It was really a great end to a lovely weekend. Sunday morning, we slept in and ate a late breakfast, still reading. The weather was pretty windy and rainy, so it was just as well that we decided to stay in. We headed to the airport around noon, where me and Allie had different flights because of a sudden price-change midway through our booking. Just as I was about to get settled at my gate, C9, I found out that it had changed, and had to go all the way to D58. Then the plane was a bit delayed because the crew had gone to C9. I thought I was done with travel issues, but Copenhagen had other things in mind for me.

When we were about to land, there was a windstorm going on (unbeknownst to me) and the plane was experiencing a lot of turbulence. In fact, when we went down for landing the first time, the plane was tipping back and forth, and the pilot decided to pull back up and try again. Not exactly confidence-inspiring. However, when we went around and tried again the plane landed successfully and everybody applauded. Again, I thought finally I could have a smooth trip the rest of the way home. Again, I was mistaken.

I made the train successfully and settled in, excited to see my host family again. The train was shaking a bit, but I didn’t particularly notice until the train stopped and the driver gave a couple of longer-than-usual announcements. I heard the girl sitting across from me (who was talking on the phone) say in Danish, “The train’s only going to Birkerød,” and sure enough, the list of stops changed and Birkerød (two stops and about 15 min. before my own) became the end of the line. I thought I heard something about a bus that would take us the rest of the way (the announcements are all in Danish, so I only understand key words). So I was feeling okay about piling off the train, and prepared to wait for the bus. There was no bus immediately though, and many of the other people were catching taxis so I started to get a bit worried. After a few minutes of waiting, checking rejseplanen.dk in the station’s computer to see if there was a bus that could take me closer to Hillerød, and watching to see what other people were doing, I eventually called Søren to ask for a ride. Of course, once he was about 10 min. away, the bus finally came, but by that time it was easier to just wait for him.

On the way home, he told me that the wind storm (which I’d noticed by then after being blown around by the wind) had apparently caused a tree to fall on the track, which is what caused my train to stop. Apparently the train that encountered the tree falling (which could not have been more than one or two trains before mine because our train driver only discovered it halfway through the ride–good thing my plane was delayed!) had to stay put for several hours because they were worried about the danger of electrical shock. Of course, Søren also told me that you were supposed to avoid driving as much as possible, and I saw why as the car got pushed a foot or so over every few minutes as we were driving home–not exactly a relaxing ride. When I finally got home, I checked the weather and apparently the wind was gusting up to 60mph, and in some parts of Denmark it was hurricane-level wind. So in other words pretty serious storm.

Luckily by the next day my train was all fixed up and everything was normal again (definitely not something that would happen in the U.S.). Overall, our trip was really fun (even if it had a bit of a hectic ending), and I was really proud of myself for packing only my backpack! I know it’s not a terribly impressive feat for a weekend trip, but I feel like all this independent traveling has made me a more efficient traveler and packer, and I just feel like I’ve gotten better at the whole process.

Other happenings this week:

Det Frie Gymnasium! For my Adolescence in Northern Europe class, we had to complete a learning lab, in which we visited a site to see Danish adolescents in person and use the experience to answer our research questions. My group visited Det Frie Gymnasium, or “The Free Gymnasium”, a Danish high school (or the equivalent) in Copenhagen. The school is known for being super democratic, so the students are involved in all official decisions, from what the cafeteria serves to what to do with the new building the school has acquired. We talked to a girl named Anna, who is family friends with my teacher. She gave us a tour of the school (which is covered in graffiti because the students voted that they should be able to paint wherever they wanted, except on chairs of course). The students are on an equal level with teachers, and are able to question what they’re learning and have some say in the way they are taught (though of course they have to complete a certain curriculum, and in subjects like math there aren’t very many ways to teach the material). It was really cool to see such a different school environment and talk to some Danish teens in person. It definitely tied together a lot of things we’d been discussing in class, and was a really unique opportunity.

SO MUCH HOMEWORK. Three presentations and two papers, to be exact. Hence the reason I haven’t been blogging all week. But I’m close to being done (two papers and two tests left), and soon I will just be enjoying my last two weeks in Denmark . Wow it is weird to type that. While I’m getting even more excited to go back to the U.S., I’m also really enjoying Christmas season in Denmark at the moment… Charlotte hung a little bag (sort of like a stocking) on each of our doors, and she has been giving us little gifts (I mean the Nisse–the Danish gift-giving elves that supposedly live in your house). I got an advent calendar and some little Danish cookies. The advent calendar has definitely been helping my motivation… It’s a lot easier to get out of bed when you know you get a surprise chocolate candy!

Tomorrow is my first Danish birthday party, and it will be a 50 person affair. More specifically, it’s my host farfar’s (grandpa) 70th birthday. Danes go all out for birthdays, so I’m sure this will be pretty epic, and definitely will last late into the night. Then on Sunday I’m going to an FCK (the Copenhagen “football” team) game with all the Danish classes. Should be a really fun weekend, but I’ve also got to write an essay and study for a final sometime in there. We’ll see how that goes…

Happy holidays from Hillerød!

From Unicorns to Disneyland: A Magical First Travel Week

Welcome to my mid-travel break post! I promised I’d give you one so here goes… I’ll try to give you a sort of highlights reel/general overview, but basically everything about this first week rocked so it’s hard to separate the “best” moments. See if you can pick out some of the major themes (*cough* FOOD *cough cough*).

Saturday 10/29 [CPH to Paris]: Day One

Saturday airport logistics went quite smoothly—we all got to the airport on time, checked our bags, and were at our gate with about a half hour to spare. Of course, there was a brief moment of potential concern when one of the airport workers told us our gate didn’t exist (of course, Shuyao and Mariya’s first reaction to this news was: IT’S LIKE HARRY POTTER. IT’S MAGIC!). Luckily he was wrong, and our gate technically existed, although it wasn’t much more than a big warehouse stuck out about 15 min. walk from security. We actually got to walk out on the tarmac to our plane for that reason though, which was kind of cool (though a bit chilly). I was a bit nervous for our time in Paris, because I was the only French speaker in our group, but I hadn’t taken any French classes for almost two years. As soon as we heard the French people around us on the plane though, I felt so at home! It was the most of a country’s language I’d been able to understand so far, which was very exciting.

Our first night in Paris, once we were taxied to our apartment because the trains were apparently wonky, we immediately set out in search of dinner. We found an AMAZING crêpe place and thoroughly enjoyed a delicious dinner, after which we found a little market where we picked up a bottle of wine, and some cheese and crackers. We spent the rest of the night snacking in front of French TV in our cozy apartment.

best crepe of my life

wine and cheese in our apartment--so Parisian!

Sunday 10/30 [Paris]: Day Two

Sunday morning first thing we went in search of a boulangerie, and didn’t find one for a bit (a difficult feat in Paris) but finally stumbled upon a place to get fresh croissants—yummy! Then we walked back up to Sacré-Cœur, about 5 min. walk from our apartment. There were a LOT of steps, especially including the ones to get up to the dome, but it was definitely worth it for the gorgeous view. For lunch we headed down the hill again to find the Café Des 2 Moulins–where Amélie works in the movie! It was really cool to see the café in person, and our waiter (obviously very used to tourists) was hilarious. And we had our first French crème brûlée–delicious!

our crazy waiter

After lunch we went into the center of Paris to meet Shuyao’s friend (who is studying in Paris all this year) at the Arc de Triomphe. She basically gave us a full tour of Paris in just a couple hours, and it was really helpful to get a sense of the city with someone else who knew what they were doing (especially because we only had a metro map to guide us). Along our way we stopped at Ladurée, the most well-known place to get macarons, and boy, was it worth the twenty minutes in line. The four of us shared a box of eight flavors, each taking a bite of one and passing them all around so we could all try each kind. My personal favorite was pistachio, but they were all super light and tasty.

At dinnertime, we parted ways with our wonderful tour guide and Shuyao, Mariya, and I had dinner in the Latin Quarter. We each got the three course dinner special, which for me consisted of soupe à l’oignon, duck confit, and tarte aux pommes. It wasn’t the highest quality French food, but it was still good (especially for the price). After dinner we had a second dessert (obviously) of crêpes at a nearby crêperie. I got one with Nutella and whipped cream. It was very fresh, so it melted all over the place, but it was SO yummy!

Just when we thought the night couldn’t get better, we stumbled upon a street artist doing paintings with spray paint. We ended up watching him make an entire painting, which was really cool because you couldn’t tell what he was making until it was basically finished and it looked amazing. We ended up each getting a painting as a souvenir because it was just too special to forget about.

coolest experience ever

Monday 10/31 [Paris]: Day Three

Monday morning we tried to make it out to the Louvre first thing, but we ended up not making it there until about 10am, by which time the line was clearly over an hour long. Rather than wasting our whole morning waiting, we decided to come back later, and instead took some pictures before heading over to the Centre Pompidou. There the line was much shorter, plus we got in free thanks to our EU Resident Student status (WOOT). Even in the “smaller” museum there was tons to see, and we spend a few hours going through just the permanent exhibition. It was fun to see the mix of older and newer art, especially since it was organized chronologically so you could see the progression of how artists have pushed the boundaries for the last one hundred years.

Of course, after tromping around in a museum for a few hours, we were pretty tired and hungry, so we went over to L’As du Fallafel, which is supposed to have some of the best falafel in Europe. It definitely lived up to expectations. It was also really nice to have a different kind of food (i.e. not the same meat, cheese, and potatoes you find in much of Europe). We did a bit of shopping and exploring as well before heading over to the Louvre to try again. We got a bit distracted taking pictures with the pyramid, though, and by the time we started to head in, there was no line, but the museum itself was actually closing in 20 minutes. So we took a few pictures from within the pyramid and took a look at the gift shop, but did not manage to see the Mona Lisa.

Our next stop was the Eiffel Tower, obviously a must-see when you go to Paris. We chose not to go all the way to the top (about a 3 hour endeavor) since we’d already gotten a pretty good view of Paris from Sacré-Cœur, but instead just took the stairs to the first level and then took pictures on the lawn. It was very surreal to be at such a famous monument, and it still hasn’t really sunk in that we were actually there.

it's US! and there's the eiffel tower in the background...

For dinner we went to our favorite little grocer near our apartment and bought some pasta and veggies to cook. It was wonderful to have a hyggeligt little dinner at home (we’d missed hygge a lot since leaving Denmark) and our cooking did not taste too bad, although we way overestimated the amount of pasta we needed.

Tuesday 11/1 [Paris]: Day Four

Tuesday morning Shuyao and Michelle (who’d joined us Sunday night) left early for Versailles to meet another of Shuyao’s friends studying in Paris this year. Mariya and I decided to stay home instead since we’d seen a lot of castles in the past few months, and instead chose to go to the Musée d’Orsay. We started off the morning in a nice leisurely way, stopping in a boulangerie for some baguette which we ate on the way down the hill to the metro. Perfect morning. Of course, we also got drawn in by a macaron store on our way to the museum, and just had to get a few. I found my new favorite flavor–Praline (hazelnut and almond)! It was a good thing we stopped for a snack because we had to wait a while in line (as always) to get into the museum, and it began to sprinkle a bit while we waited. Of course, we had both contemplated and then left our umbrellas in the apartment, so we had no rain protection, and were not particularly inclined to buy an expensive umbrella from the street vendors passing them out nearby. Luckily, the rain held off for the most part until right after we got under the covered roof of the museum, at which point it began to pour. Perfect timing!

I again got free admission to the museum, but Mariya forgot her residence card at the apartment so she had to pay the reduced regular student fee. When we got in, we looked at the map and realized just how huge the museum was. All in all, we spent about five hours there, and we even missed one of the temporary exhibits! It was definitely worth the time commitment though, and we both really enjoyed the art. It was especially cool to see the famous Impressionist paintings and realize that we’d been to some of those locations in Paris–just a really crazy feeling.

Since we finished the museum at about 4pm, we were both absolutely starving, and found the first place we could that had a reasonably priced croque madame. Yum yum! Shuyao and Michelle called us during our late lunch and we met back up with them after a quick stop in the Notre Dame. Because it was All Saint’s Day, the church was having a ceremony as we were leaving, and we got to see the procession enter the church while the organ was playing! It was really ominous but beautiful and definitely worth stopping in for. I also really liked seeing the inside of Notre Dame because it was simpler than the other big churches I had been to, which meant you could really appreciate the details of the architecture, and it was very nice to look at.

Mariya's raspberry (i.e. unicorn) cake

Our first stop upon meeting up with Shuyao and Michelle was, of course, a boulangerie-patisserie where I got a chocolate eclair and a Paris-brest. Gotta love that pastry cream! We sat for a while outside under the restaurant’s heat lamps chatting about this and that, feeling a bit Parisian. Soon we were ready for real dinner, and we found another place with a three course deal which was actually much better than the place we’d been Sunday night. I had soupe à l’oignon (better this time), tartiflette, and a scrumptious lemon mousse for dessert. Mariya had a fluffy raspberry cake, which we decided tasted just like unicorns.

Wednesday 11/2 [Paris to Prague]: Day Five

Wednesday morning we went through about three different morning plans, since we first thought we were leaving at noon, then 11am, then we finally realized at about 9:40am that check-out time was 10am. Not exactly our smoothest departure, but we all made it out on time and dragged our suitcases down to a nearby boulangerie to have a final breakfast. First we tried to sit at one table and drag chairs over, but a waitress told us we could not move the chairs, so then we (rude Americans that we were) asked some other people (who had not ordered yet) to move down a seat so we could sit down. We bought some baguette and pastries, moved our suitcases out of the walking path, and finally thought we were settled in when the waitress came back and told us the tables were for restaurant patrons only (as the boulangerie was also an actual restaurant) and we had to order something off the menu if we wanted to stay. So we each got some hot drinks, and I had an oeuf dans sa brioche (basically toad-in-a-hole with brioche–NUMMY), which actually turned out to be great anyway, and a nice farewell-to-Paris breakfast.

Our trip to the airport went pretty smoothly since we were pretty familiar with the metro system, except when we almost got off at the wrong terminal (a few minutes ride away from the correct one). I was sad to leave the French-speaking atmosphere, but ready to go to a quieter city where we could have a less hectic schedule. Plus I was ready to turn over the language-translation reigns to Mariya, who speaks Russian, which is sort of similar to written (though not spoken) Czech.

Our first hour in Prague was a bit of a struggle bus (literally) because first we could not get transportation tickets because we had no change for the machine, and had to allow several buses to pass us by while we debated what to do, sent Shuyao in to buy the tickets, got worried about Shuyao and went to find her, then all almost missed the bus again. Then of course once we got on the bus I definitely fell over onto some poor people seated behind me when I got caught not holding onto the pole when the bus decided to start moving. Not exactly a good first impression.

When we finally made it to our hostel (relatively uneventfully), the nice man at the counter smiled at us and said “Welcome home!” He was a lot like one of the Danish University students working at DIS, and was very sweet. Our hostel itself (Charles Bridge Economic Hostel) was great–very clean with good facilities, and lots of discounts on local happenings. Best of all, it was located literally at the Charles Bridge, in the very center of Prague’s tourist area, and everything we wanted to see, so we didn’t have to take any public transportation the whole time we were there. After settling into our hostel, we (as always) went out in search of food. We ended up asking for a recommendation from the guy at our hostel’s info desk, which was the right decision because we found a great restaurant called Lokal.

Czech food, as you’d probably expect, is a lot of meat and dumplings, but surprisingly delicious ones. Plus for dessert I had one of the best pastries ever–a traditional Czech pastry with cream, basically a slightly flavored cream puff. It was amazing. After dinner we wandered around a bit (basically, Prague at night looks like Disneyland), and even went to a black light show (very strange but definitely a cultural experience) before settling in to our cozy room for a good night’s sleep.

Thursday 11/3 [Prague]: Day Six

We decided to explore the west side of the river first, the side where our hostel was, so we started the morning with a quick pastry run to a bakery recommended by our hostel. I had a yummy apple pastry that was mostly filling with thin layers of pastry on top and bottom. Then we started climbing the big hill up to the Prague Castle (nothing compared to all the steps of Sacré-Cœur). At first we just looked around at all the pretty architecture (and of course took some silly pictures with the castle guards–they were not amused). There were tons of tour groups around, and we knew next to nothing about the Prague Castle, so we found an English-speaking tour group and followed them around for a bit. The tour guide turned out to be really funny, and it was really nice to hear some of the history behind what we were seeing (and for free!). The St. Vitus Cathedral was especially beautiful. Apparently it was designed by the same architect as Notre Dame, so it had a lot of the same elements, though St. Vitus was definitely more ornate, and the stained glass was simply divine.

After finishing our “tour” of the castle area, we headed back down the hill to find something to eat. Along the way we stopped at a cart where a man was making fresh trdelniks, which is a kind of Czech dough/pastry made on rotating sticks and coated with sugar and cinnamon. Delicious and highly necessary if you ever visit Prague. Of course, we still needed some real food, so we walked around looking for a good place, and before we knew it, we were basically right next to our hostel, so we decided to ask for another recommendation.

We were pointed in the direction of a small bar well out of the touristy area. They only had five menu items, all in Czech, so our waiter had to translate them for us. He also taught us our first (and only) Czech word–”děkuji,” or thank you. We kept trying to use it for the rest of the trip, but a lot of people looked at us blankly or did not respond, so I think we may have been pronouncing it wrong. The food was really cheap and delicious, and it turned out to be right near our next stop, a hill with gardens and a tower on top.

This hill turned out to be legitimately steep, and we definitely burned off those earlier calories. The view was gorgeous though and the scenery was really pretty–lots of trees of different colors, much like New England (according to Mariya and Shuyao–I am a West-Coaster myself). It was nice to get out of the city for a while–there were practically no other people around on the hill, so it was very peaceful. When we got to the top, we saw a funny exhibition on a Czech inventor inside the tower. It not only showed his inventions, but pretty much every available artifact from his life, including his second birthday present, and his older sister’s dress that he wore from time to time.

There was also a “Mirror Labyrinth,” which was fun in a touristy/cheesy sort of way. First there was a hall of mirrors where you couldn’t really tell which way was real, and then there was a room with all kinds of funhouse mirrors that we spent probably at least twenty minutes playing with. There was also a “Magical Cavern” somewhere, but we didn’t end up finding it. Instead we went a bit down the hill to a restaurant with AMAZING hot chocolate. Shuyao ended up having two, and Mariya had two teas and a hot chocolate. I followed my hot chocolate with a ginger ale. I think the waiter probably thought we were pretty weird, but maybe they get strange people a lot with all the tourists tromping around.

That night we met our friends Elise and Stephanie, who happened to be in Prague at the same time, for dinner and jazz. We went to U Stare Pani, a hotel/restaurant/jazz club, since I’d read some good reviews of it, and it turned out to be even better than expected! We all met at 6pm, but the lady at the restaurant told us to make a reservation and come back in a couple hours since the jazz didn’t start until 9pm. So we went and wandered around the Old Town Square, which we hadn’t seen yet, and checked out the Astronomical Clock. Mostly we spent a while catching up while standing in the middle of the square, which was fun because we all got to share about our trips so far.

Dinner was amazing–the jazz show was only $5 with our student discount, and food was all less than $10, but it was all super high quality. I had a HUGE plate of red cabbage, duck, two kinds of potato dumplings, and bread dumplings. Somehow I managed to finish it all (probably because it was DELICIOUS) but I was definitely stuffed afterwards. We also tried the famous Czech dark beer, which was actually much lighter than we expected and quite tasty. Then of course the jazz started, and the night was perfect. The band was really cute–the main singer/pianist especially was really into it and kept making faces, but you could tell they all really loved what they did. They also had about five young girl guest singers, which added a little bit of variety. One of them was only 15, but they were all really good.

definitely one of my best meals ever

We tried to get some dessert, but by the time we ordered it the kitchen was already closed. It was slightly disappointing (hardly a dent in our FABULOUS evening though) but it was probably for the best because we were all absolutely bursting from our dinners.

Friday 11/4 [Prague]: Day Seven

Our goal for our last day was to explore the other side of the river, and we began by finding somewhere for breakfast. We eventually happened upon a cafe, which turned out to be called Choco Cafe, and it had tons of specialty “hot chocolate” (basically melted chocolate in a cup). Shuyao had a plain one, I had one with sea salt, and Mariya tried the one with coconut milk. Obviously it was delicious, but super rich and none of us could finish much more than half our huge cups. We also all tried some “horace rolls” which were giant wafers rolled up with cinnamon, sugar, and cream inside, with (of course) chocolate to dip them in. It was an amazing breakfast, but by the end of it we never wanted to see chocolate again (or at least not for a little while).

Our next goal for the day was to find somewhere for Mariya to get her hair cut, because it would be much cheaper than in Copenhagen. During our search, we wandered through the Old Town Square again, and managed to catch the Astronomical Clock on the hour, when a man comes out and blows a horn. I also got a sausage in a baguette (Prague’s version of a hot dog) with ketchup and mustard which was super tasty. We were also looking for souvenirs/shopping opportunities, and eventually we found this cute little independent designer store, where we wanted everything but could afford nothing. We did talk to the woman at the counter though, who turned out to be a psychologist with a Master’s degree with very good English and a lot of interesting things to say. Before leaving, we asked her for a recommendation of a cheap haircut place, and she pointed us to somewhere we never would have found on our own. It was a haircut/piercing/tattoo place, and while Mariya was looking through the magazines to determine what type of haircut she wanted, Shuyao decided she was going to dye her hair. I decided to join in the spontaneity, but since I’d just gotten a haircut like two weeks before, I chose to get a cartilage piercing! It was all much cheaper than in the U.S., but it was also a very legitimate/clean place, and we were all very satisfied with our results. We spent about three hours of our day there, but the experience was definitely something we won’t forget.

the Golem was a mythical monster said to have been created to protect the Jews in Prague

By that time we were starving (a common theme in our travels) so we looked for something to eat even though we hadn’t accomplished all of our touristy goals for the day. We found a nice restaurant where we all finally tried Czech goulash (very tasty) and got ice cream for dessert. Unfortunately, by the time we were done it was dark and everything in the Jewish Quarter (the area we had not yet fully explored) was closed, including the Cemetary. We did manage to find a good souvenir shop, though, and we got our necessary Central Europe gifts before heading back to the Old Square for some hot wine (very tasty and mild-tastes a bit like juice because of added sugar/cinnamon) our free ghost tour (tickets provided by our hostel). The tour was cheesy, as expected, but surprisingly fun, and we actually learned some interesting things about the history of Prague. It was not a bad way to spend our last night, and we wandered around for a bit afterwards and got our last trdelniks of the trip.

Saturday 11/5 [Prague to CPH]: Day Eight

This morning was mostly smooth, except when we were on the bus and I realized we had an hour less than we thought we did (yikes!). Luckily we made it to our flight just fine, and Mariya even managed to spend her last few koruna on some honey cake in the airport. We had a bit of a surprise when we walked through the gate to board and the tunnel ended at a bus, not a plane. It turned out we had to take a bus to the plane because it was a small jet sitting out in the middle of the tarmac. For a small plane, the ride was surprisingly smooth, and I had the front row with some extra leg space. It was so weird to come back to Copenhagen this afternoon and hear Danish again. It felt like coming home to somewhere I’d lived for years after being gone for several years. Everything felt familiar but somehow different. But it was actually really nice to see my host parents again, and have a homemade dinner (pizza–yummy!) and see my own little computer again.

I still have lots of packing to do for tomorrow–I have to be at the airport at 10am for my study tour to Istanbul!–so it’s time to round off this post. It’s somewhat unbelievable that I’m headed off on another week-long adventure tomorrow, but I’m sure it will be tons of fun.

Until next week!

Party At Fakta: My Short Study Tour!

Last night I returned from my short study tour to Western Denmark, and it was AWESOME. I ate a TON of food and enjoyed myself quite thoroughly. There’s lots to tell, so if you’re planning to read this whole post, you’d better snuggle in and grab a snack because this is gonna be a long one. For that reason I will also divide it conveniently into three parts to give you some safe stopping places.

Thursday:

Thursday morning I awoke bright and early, determined not to forget any important items or to be left behind by the bus. I double-checked my bag approximately five bajillion times (I counted) and added a couple last minute items before it was finally time to go. I had an awkwardly large duffle bag with my little DIS backpack since my only other options were two backpacks or a rolling suitcase (not a good choice on cobblestones). I squeezed my way out the door and successfully onto the bus at 7:36 am. On the train, I sat a few seats down from Colin, a boy in my class who lives in the folkehojskole (another DIS living option) in Hillerød. I slept a little bit but I woke up earlier than usual because I was determined not to miss my stop, even though at this point we were scheduled to be about 30 min. early for the tour bus. As we approached Nørreport station I noticed Colin was still fast asleep. At first I assumed that he would wake up when the conductor announced our stop, but we arrived and he showed no signs of stirring. The trains do not stay long at one station, and if you miss the two minute window, you are stuck on the train until the next stop. So I knew I had to try to wake Colin, so he wouldn’t miss the bus. First I tried calling his name, but I didn’t want to shout and be rude to the Danish passengers. He didn’t budge. So I grabbed my huge bag and went over to him and shook his shoulder, which finally woke him up. It wasn’t easy though, so I think if I hadn’t woken him up he might’ve slept for another hour on the train. Time was running out to get off the train, and the door nearest Colin had a no exit sign, so I had to turn around and go through the bike compartment. As I reached the doors they were already closing, so I think I barely made it out on time. I started walking towards the stairs out of the platform and I saw Colin standing at the no exit doors trying to open them. Of course, they didn’t open. I’ll never forget the look on his face as the train started pulling away. Luckily we were still super early so he was able to get off at the next stop and catch a train back, and he even still arrived early for the bus.

As we climbed on the bus we FINALLY got our schedule for the trip. Before we’d only been given a vague idea of the itinerary, to the point where it was a bit absurd. My host family had asked me where we were going, and I could only give them a guess answer. Our schedule booklets had a full itinerary, maps for our “time on own,” pictures of everyone on the trip, and a few sudoku puzzles in the back. The bus was a double decker, and apparently brand new (the bus driver had only gotten it 14 days before the trip). We were only supposed to sit on the top level, since the bottom mostly had a table and the bathroom. Ansley, Allie, Jenna, and I sat together towards the middle of the bus and settled in for our 3 hour drive to the island of Funen (home of Hans Christian Andersen), where we would have our first academic visit. Our tour leaders Julie and Tilde (our teacher Gitte couldn’t make it) were super nice, and they gave us fruit and candies on the way. When it was determined that everyone was hungry, we also got to stop at a gas station to buy snacks. Everyone was super excited at first because we were curious what a Danish gas station would be like, but then the excitement died a bit when we just stopped at a Shell. It was still nicer than U.S. gas stations, though, and they sold hot dogs and pastries in addition to the usual array of candy, chips, and soda. I didn’t want to spend too much money, so I just chose a candy bar that looked tasty. It was called a Yankie, and it was actually perfect–caramel with chocolate/malt nougat, kind of like a Milky Way, only way better.

Our first academic visit was with Kaare Christensen, a professor at the University of Southern Denmark. You may have heard of him from his recent appearance on 60 Minutes. He wrote a brief article about possible reasons for Denmark’s consistent #1 spot in the happiest countries ratings. His conclusion was basically that Danes have low expectations so they are not surprised when things go badly, and they are pleased when life turns out better than they expected. The article and the interview are pretty tongue-in-cheek and I recommend checking them out. He also talked to us about his research on aging, which was very interesting. He discussed a few studies about the relationship between health and happiness, including one about perceived age, where health and life satisfaction were compared with how old the participants looked rather than how old they actually were. It gave us a lot to think about, and it was a nice way to begin the trip.

We next headed off to Odense, the 3rd largest city in Denmark, also located on Funen. Since we were running a bit late we only had about half an hour to grab our own lunch (we chose shawarma–cheap and delicious). We all met up at the Brandts Klædefabrik art museum, where we got all-exhibit passes and got to roam around on our own. It was just a tourist visit for our class, though we saw other DIS groups there who had an academic visit there. The Communications and Mass Media group even got to produce their own newscast in what I guess was the “media” exhibit of the museum. The first exhibit we saw was a photography show by Jacob Holdt. I did not read all of the placards, nor did we have a tour guide, but from what I gathered he was a Danish photographer who had gone to the U.S. in the sixties to take photographs of poor people. It was a pretty intense exhibit because it basically paired photos of African Americans with those of white supremacists, including members of the KKK. There were couples, families, and individuals in all kinds of situations, but most of the subjects of the photos fell into one of those two categories. Some of the captions said things like “____, a mass murderer, shows his daughter ____ how to use a gun.” (The names weren’t blanked out I just don’t remember them.) The KKK photos were especially hard for me personally. There were photos of people dressed in KKK uniforms just eating a family dinner. It kind of emphasized how all these people are just everyday people, and in many other ways they seem just the same. I’m glad we went to see it, but those photos just took me unawares. Luckily the rest of the exhibits were not nearly as emotionally charged, and so after that room it was much more relaxing. My second favorite (after the photography) was a dark room filled with fake lit-up flowers in swirly patterns around the room. The flowers made a crackling sound that almost sounded like crickets if you didn’t listen too hard, and the whole room was very peaceful. In the rest of the museum there were some other photography exhibits, the media room which had its own printing press in addition to the news studio, and some fun cloth sculptures (pictures forthcoming).

After the museum we had another two and a half hours on the bus before arriving at our hotel in Århus, the 2nd largest Danish city. On the way Julie and Tilde showed us a Danish film, Italian for Beginners, but I think most people slept instead of watching. We also got to sign up for our hostel rooms, so Allie, Ansley, Jenna, and I got a room together. Our hostel was in the middle of the woods, but it was pretty cute. We got a few minutes to settle into our room and set up our beds (we had to bring our own sheets) before heading out for dinner again. Our room was actually really nice, with two bunk beds, a little chair and table, a tv, and our own bathroom with a shower and everything. I think a lot of us were picturing a huge room with several bunk beds and a communal bathroom, so we were pretty excited to have such nice accommodations. For dinner, we all piled back on the bus again to drive into town. We ate at a super nice restaurant (which was extra special because restaurants are so expensive in Denmark). We were served a DELICIOUS salmon with creamed spinach and lemon wedges. It was super yummy, even though we didn’t get dessert.

We had to find our own way back to the hostel after dinner, so the four of us decided to go exploring around Århus a bit. We went the opposite direction from the rest of our class, found a quiet little pub where we had some drinks and chatted for a while. There were some Danes sitting at the table next to us, and after a bit they introduced themselves. Apparently they had been wondering if we were from Spain, which was quite the compliment since we were all very much American. It was a really fun evening, but we were tired from traveling all day so we left earlyish to determine how to get home. We first made a valiant effort to determine how to use the bus, but it was difficult to figure out in a strange city, and eventually we just decided to go with the cab that was sitting conveniently nearby. It ended up being pretty cheap since we weren’t too far from our hostel and we split the fare between the four of us. When we got back to our room, we figured out the tv (surprisingly tricky) and found a funny french movie to watch for a bit before we all dropped off to sleep one by one.

Friday:

Friday morning we had breakfast at the hostel, which was basically a typical Danish breakfast buffet. I had several pieces of bread with different combinations of butter, jam, and cheese. The cheese slicer was awesome–there were two blocks of cheese on a round platform with a handle attached to a slicer. When you turned the handle, it sliced the cheese and the whole thing moved down so you could slice a new layer of cheese. Basically the best thing ever, especially because I’m so bad at using Danish home cheese slicers.

Our first academic visit for the day was to KAOSpilots, an alternative entrepreneur school that emphasizes team-based education, real world testing, and process learning. It was a really cool program and it almost made me a little jealous of the students. It’s a three year education, kind of like a “bachelor’s degree” but you don’t get a diploma as such. You have to be 21-35 years old to apply, so that everyone has a certain level of maturity. The application does not require test scores or grades, but rather answers to questions about your personality, interests, and motivations. Instead of having a bland presentation with a powerpoint, we got to engage in a couple of exercises to demonstrate how their education works. First we did a dream journey, where we had to relax and close our eyes and visualize ourselves in the future. It didn’t exactly work for me because I got distracted by an inconsistency in the “story” we were being told, but it was relaxing. My favorite part of the presentation, and perhaps the whole trip, was the next exercise we did. First we had a minute and a half to write down seven things we were passionate about. Then we shared them as a group. We repeated it with things that make us angry and things that we’re good at. The angers were especially good to share because at first we were all stepping over each other shouting them out, but the presenter, Sarah, stopped us and told us to listen to each other. After that only one person spoke at a time, even though there was no raising of hands, and each anger shared was felt by the group. It was a really cool bonding experience. After making our lists, we were told to get into groups of three people with others we don’t know well, and to find themes for each list. This was really interesting because a lot of the things people wrote down were super random, like being good at making pancakes, or hating socks that fall down. But when you sat down with someone’s list and thought about it, it was really possible to come up with meaningful themes that described their list. The final step was to write down our themes in the form of a statement: “My wish is to use my passion for [passion theme] and my talent for [talent theme] to [verb] [anger theme].” The exercise felt not only really cathartic, but also productive because it was about using the themes to combat what makes us angry. Everyone came out of the presentation feeling good and with new energy for the day ahead.

Our next stop was group lunch in town at another really nice restaurant. We had pesto pasta with veggies and salad on top. Super delicious, and I cleaned my plate. It was nice to get some more veggies too because Danes are not always big on those. After lunch we got time on our own to explore Århus, so Ansley, Allie, Jenna, and I went to Den Gamle By, or The Old City. One of the other options was the ARoS art museum, which is supposed to be awesome, but we had just gone to an art museum the day before and we wanted to spend some time outside. We took a rather roundabout way getting there, which was okay because it was a gorgeous day. It has three sections–the 1800′s, 1927, and 1974. The 1800′s part is the biggest, as I think they are still building the 1927 and 1974 areas. The whole thing was really adorable, and it was nice to have some time to relax and just walk around. Dessert was on our minds basically the whole trip, so of course we found the bakery to get pastries. I got three vanilla almond cookies for only 10 kr. and they were scrumptious. Though it was only a small part, I really enjoyed the 1970′s part of the “city.” There was a poster museum which had retro Danish posters, some of which were pretty funny. There was also a music store with old tvs and record players, records, and cassette tapes. Once we’d seen everything we had some extra time so we slowly wandered back to KAOSpilot, where we were supposed to be meeting the bus. We stopped at Netto to get some snacks for the bus (I got a giant bag of banana chips) and then sat in a large square near the church and the theater to relax and munch on our food for a while.

There was only a short bus ride to our last academic visit at Camp True North, a summer camp for teens designed to raise their positivity and self-esteem. From the moment we got there it felt like returning to camp. The presenters were just as overly smiley and enthusiastic as you’d expect, and they had us do all the little claps and sayings that they have campers do. At first I was skeptical, but then they had us stand up and go around to ten different people and tell them “You look FANTASTIC today.” It was very silly, but after doing it a few times everyone was laughing and it was actually fun. After an introductory story about the need for positivity, we went to the back of the room to play Gopher. We stood in a circle and each person had a “trap” hand and a “gopher” hand. Traps were laid out flat and gophers were one finger placed in the “trap” next to you. When the “gopher caller” said “gopher,” you had to try to trap a gopher while get your own gopher to escape. I was pretty bad at the game because I just got so surprised every time that I just threw up both my arms, so my gopher escaped but I never caught another gopher. After each round, everybody who was successful did their “gopher dance” which was basically any dance you wanted. It was really silly, and I’m not sure what academic value it had, but it was a lot of fun.

After playing Gopher, we had to do a Maze activity. For this one, we were divided into two teams and each team made a grid on the floor with masking tape. The point was to find your way through the “maze” without getting beeped or buzzed by the Maze Master, who had the key to what spaces were “safe” and not. Every time you stepped on a wrong square, you got “beeped” and had to return to the beginning, and each time you didn’t follow the rules, like going back the way you came, you got “buzzed”, and your team lost a minute on your time. Most importantly, you couldn’t talk at all during the game. Our team worked together really well, and soon we fell into a system for finding our way through the maze. I thought it was really fun, because it felt really collaborative to be working with our class to solve the puzzle. When our team finished by getting everyone through the maze, the other team still hadn’t found their way through it. I’m sure it didn’t help that once we’d finished, our team sat down to watch their team struggle to the end. Their team was not working together nearly as well, and they all looked visibly frustrated. After both teams completed the maze, we got a sort of weird concluding talk about how every day should be a job interview, and the facilitator said she knew what ten people she would hire after that activity.

A lot of people left the visit complaining about the maze and the campy feel of the presentation. I personally really enjoyed myself, and it was a little frustrating to have to listen to others complain so much. My main problem with it was the fact that we didn’t get an explanation of the methods of the camp or any academic discussion of the benefits for the kids who attend. I liked the team-bonding-ness of the maze activity though, and the gopher game was fun too. On the bus to our hostel, Julie and Tilde played Little Miss Sunshine for us, which was fun because it was so familiar (and also just an excellent movie). When we arrived it was already dark at the hostel so we all went off to check out our rooms and set up our beds. This time we had rooms of six, so our group of four from the day before was joined by Randy and April. We were in a cabin with two bedrooms, a loft with two more beds, a kitchenette, and a bathroom. It was nice and spacious, and cozy in a different way than the previous hostel. Ansley and I took the loft, which was super adorable, though the ladder up to it was awkward and bringing our stuff up and down was a definite struggle bus. The kitchenette was also super cute, and it was stocked with plates, pots, and even a hot water heater, so we were disappointed that we had no food to make. Instead, dinner consisted of chicken sandwiches and soda at the hostel dining room, which was also pretty tasty, if not as exciting as our other meals. After dinner we hung out in the lounge with some other people for a while. There were two other DIS classes there that night (one Psychology and one European Politics and Society) so a group of people went “out,” but it was such a small town that we didn’t want to participate in a DIS invasion. Jenna I played a game of Go Fish with the other people in the lounge and someone even found a guestbook from the 60′s. It was pretty cool to hear about other people travelling through the same hostel fifty (wow that’s weird to say) years ago, enjoying their own European discoveries. After one round of Go Fish, I was pretty tired, so I headed off to the cabin to join Ansley and Allie who were already there. We had a nice little chat up in the loft before we all went off to sleep.

Saturday:

Saturday morning, I was a little sad that our trip was ending, but also pretty tired and ready to be home. It was weird to be going “home” but not HOME, and it didn’t help that everyone was moving in at Carleton that day. Breakfast at the hostel was perhaps even more yummy than the last one. They not only had all the same bread/jam/cheese, but also chocolate slices to put on your bread with butter. Allie had been telling me about them because her host family has them a lot, so I was quite excited to try. Sure enough, it was just as delicious as it sounds. I also had a bowl of raw oats (what Danes have instead of cereal) with yogurt for good measure. I was absolutely stuffed and could not have eaten another bite, which is saying a lot for me.

That morning our final stop was in Jelling to see the Jelling stones, some runestones carved in the late 900′s (the Viking era) by Harold Bluetooth (namesake of Bluetooth technology) and his father Gorm the Old. We first got a guided “tour” of the museum (there was only about one room) and our guide got pretty into it and acted out some pieces, so it was more entertaining than ancient history usually is for me. We also learned about the horrible things the Vikings did to their slaves, like cutting off the tip of their nose and purposefully infecting the wound with gangrene to mark slaves as different from regular people. Pretty gross and awful. Then we had a few minutes to check out the real Jelling stones outside, and climb one of the “mounds” built to mark/frame the spot. We had to hurry off to lunch because we were already running pretty late, and Julie and Tilde told us we’d only have about half an hour to get our food and eat once we reached the restaurant.

Our final lunch was a traditional danish buffet, with bread, meats, salmon, shrimp, hard-boiled eggs, sausage, cheese, and a few veggies stuck in here and there. I grabbed almost everything even though I’d had a huge breakfast. Something about being on “vacation” during this trip made me feel like I could eat anything and everything. Again I stuffed myself to bursting, but it was delicious and I regretted nothing. Back on the bus for our final 3 hour leg, Julie and Tilde played a Danish movie they’d warned us about the first day. I didn’t watch it because I was too busy doing Sudoku, reading Harry Potter, and sleeping, but I heard that basically everything bad that could happen did happen in that movie. When we were approaching Copenhagen, Julie and Tilde surprised us by bringing out cupcakes they’d gotten for Dylan’s birthday, which had been the day before. It was a nice way to round out the trip while we filled out our study tour evaluations and prepared ourselves for arrival back in Copenhagen.

In the final goodbyes and walking to the train station, vague plans were made for Tivoli, dinners, and fun things ahead. Søren was nice enough to pick me up from the train station because the bus wasn’t coming for another hour. Lots more has happened since I arrived home, but that is a topic for another post. This study tour was more fun than I ever thought it would be, and I learned and experienced more than I expected to. I am now eagerly awaiting our week-long tour to MILAN of all places, which will no doubt be even more exciting and exhausting. The rest of the weekend has been quite excellent, and a post about that is coming soon.

Final note: I was chosen to be a DIS blogger! That means that MY BLOG will be posted on the DIS website with my photo and everything. I submitted my blog on a whim, never expecting to actually make it. Now I will have to step up my writing game, and continue to be diligent about updates. And I’ll actually have readers! (Not that I don’t count you, lovely family of mine and Allie. ) Thursday all the bloggers will meet and get our pictures taken, and get advice about blog stuff. I’m excited!