Vi Ses Danmark!

I can't even think of the right words to describe my time abroad. It made me reconsider so many things I thought I knew about myself, my own culture, and Europe. I feel like as I better understood Danish culture, I better understood the American culture as well. I am definitely already missing Denmark and all of the great things about it- especially the people :( but rather than dwell on all the sadness of leaving, ill list a couple of my favorite things about Denmark that I wish I could/will bring back to America!

p.s. this isn't as well thought out and insightful as I had hoped it would be, because I wrote it on the plane in between naps. but I think it covers most of my feelings haha 

1. The welfare state. Is. So. Fucking. Cool. Granted half of you reading this will probably freak out about the socialism of it or whatever, but it works in Denmark. Sadly I know this isn't something I can ever try to bring home haha. But I will try to help people at home understand how it works so well for them! Also, maybe if Americans could learn to want to care for their fellow citizens as much as the Danes, we would be better off. Danes pay such high taxes to receive so many benefits from the state, for themselves as well as others. They think everyone should be entitled to good healthcare and a good education and a home. I can't think of any reason why Americans shouldn't want the same thing for each other. I know paying half my salary in taxes to get all those benefits wouldn't work in America, but a girl can dream right? Or just move to Denmark..  

2. Awesome things about Danish culture in general:
- BIKES. It makes so much sense and is so good for the environment! Also for yourself! Can't understand why every city isn't actively trying to be as bike friendly as Copenhagen 
- everyone is gorgeous. It must be in the genes. Or the constant biking. Or..
- the foooooood. I know not every Danish family eats like my host family, but my family eats so healthy and every single meal I had I loved. If you know me at all, you know that is a miracle, especially considering Denmark is the land of herring (fish=no). Like actually their food was so good and the fact that an after dinner snack was often fruit, and so much of their food is homemade, without preservatives.. Awesome. My body and stomach will probably hate me now that I'm home lol
- open container laws. Need I say more? 
- maybe the greatest public transportation system ever. I will so miss my 20 minute commute each morning, on the comfy train that runs every ten minutes, that's quiet, clean, and with free wifi. Couldn't ask for more. 
- pastries. Needs no explanation. 
- the fact that a place like Christiania can coexist in a city without much issue. Like never in America could a mini city dwell within a major city where they abide by their own rules and governing system, with illegal activity well regulated and not often bothered by the police. it's just so cool, and also beautiful.  

3. People I met while abroad
I know this isn't really Danish (some of them are) but I think the fact that we were all drawn to study in Denmark is key here. I made so many amazing friends who I plan on keeping in touch with and visiting when I can! I've never met so many people from the Midwest before, but I love them. So many lovely days were spent huddling in a cafe over coffee, freezing while exploring the streets of Copenhagen, huddling for warmth outside of bars, being cozy and writing papers in vestergade 23, basically just being cold together anywhere will bring people together. Then there were those few beautiful weeks of park lunches or sunny explorations. 
In terms of the Danes, my host family left the best impression. I couldn't have asked for a better family to live with for the past four months. Each of them made me feel so welcome, in Danish or in English, all the time. They allowed me as much freedom as I wanted, while providing the best home for me to live in, complete with adorable cats :) my favorite times are when we were all together at night, talking or eating or playing cards or watching tv or a movie. Or going to handball or football games together. Or going riding with lærke. Or having friends over for dinner. Also any meal together. Basically, all the time was just great. It was very 'hygge' (my new favorite concept) which I will explain.. Now! 

Hygge is literally the coolest thing about Denmark. It doesn't really translate into English, but usually it means cozy or a good time with friends. Basically, it's any situation where you're with people you love in a comfortable, happy setting. And Danes try to make so many things very hygge. I love that as a culture they value time with loved ones so much. This is probably why they're the happiest people in the world. Of course every other culture values this time as well, but I've never seen it so highly prioritized as in Denmark. You can really feel the intimacy and happiness in every situation too, whether it's in a cafe or classroom or living room. It's one of the things I fell in love with first about Denmark because its just so nice and happy and relaxed and full of loved ones, and isn't that how life should be? 

So now I'm home and struggling to readjust to American culture. Struggling hard actually haha. I had a great travel back, except when they made me check my carry on cause there wasn't enough 'cabin space', and except for that time that I landed in JFK to find that only one of my three checked bags was there. After 14 hours of travel that was NOT what I wanted to hear. So I've been in America since Thursday night and only got my bags Sunday morning, after my dad had to drive to the Philly airport to get them. So basically, fuck you klm and delta baggage services because now I've had only Sunday night to unpack, do laundry, and repack for Tyler place.  

And so this is my last blog post because sadly my time in Denmark is over :( but if, and hopefully when, im in europe again, i will definitely be back in copenhagen! there were a lot of tearful goodbyes, but I'm hoping most of them will only be see you laters :)

Loving London and Milan

This past Friday, I flew to the London Gatwick airport to meet one of my Glenwood flowers from TP, Faye!! At the airport, I met up with Morgan, another DIS person who stayed at Faye's house with me. Seeing Faye again was sooo nice, as was her lovely accent! After spending the night at her house, Faye dropped Morgan and I off at Leeds Castle on Saturday morning. It was b-e-a-uuuutiful, and also used to be the home of the Tudors (which if you know me used to be one of my favorite shows therefore this castle was especially awesome). The castle has huge green fields and streams around it, and lots of white and black swans. Check out the pictures for more on how pretty it was!

Then Saturday afternoon Faye and I made the 2 and a half hour drive to Oakham and to Stevie's house. We had an awesome TP reunion there between myself, Stevie, Faye, and Ellis. I also met Stevie's friend Marisa from somewhere else in England. Between the five of us, the house was full of very different accents. I also met Alfie, Stevie's sister's newborn, who was adorrrable, as were Stevie's dogs, Bonnie and Clyde. That night we went out for Stevie's 21st and I got to meet so many of her friends and family it was awesome! I also got minor whiplash from attempting Faye-level dancing, and killed my feet by wearing wedges for 8 hours, but it was SO fun and so worth it. It made me that much more excited for TP13!

Monday, Morgan and I took the train into London, dropped our suitcases off at our hostel in Earls Court, and went off to explore the city! We saw Big Ben and the houses of Parliament, went inside Westminster Abbey (soo worth the 15 euros),  saw London Bridge, tried and failed to see the Camden Market (we got there too late). That night we also met up with my friends Ami and Violette, from DIS, for a drink around the same time the Boston bombings news broke. Luckily, our bar had wifi, and I spent most of the time there constantly refreshing my nytimes app and getting info from Katrina. Tuesday morning was a bit of a struggle.. Morgan and I set out to find this massive store on Oxford street, which was also near a Chipotle. If you know anything about me at all you know that I can't be in a city with a Chipotle and NOT get any. So, probably against my better judgement, I waited for chip to open at 11, then tried to hurry back to my hostel. But of course, the tube going to the hostel was delayed, then the tube from the hostel to Victoria station was majorly delayed, causing me to miss the train from Victoria to Gatwick that only runs every half hour.. and with that I knew I had missed my flight. I arrived at the airport by 1 for a 1:20 flight and was beyond frustrated.

However, I easily switched onto a flight two hours later into another Milan airport, reminded myself that I was still getting there on the same day, and calmed down a bit before flying. After much struggle trying to get from Malpensa airport to the city center, and getting a cab from the station to the Marsaglia's house (I forgot English isn't as popular in Italy as it is in Denmark). After going to the wrong apartment, I finally saw Carola, Ginevra, Giovanni and Giacommo (Ginevra was my senior one-on-one from tyler place this summer, and Giovanni is her senior midget brother). I arrived right in the middle of Giovanni's birthday, and so I got to meet lots of family members. It was so nice to see Ginevra again!! :)

Wednesday, Carola took me to one of the schools she teaches at, University of Pavia. There, she had her TA, Camillo, take me around the city of Pavia. After some general sight-seeing, I for some reason mentioned that I go to an Augustinian university, and my guide and I got really excited when he told me St. Augustine was buried in Pavia! Slowly, all the Augustine stuff I learned in ACS and my theology class last semester came back, and it was pretty cool seeing the church and tomb he was buried in. When Carola and I got back into Milan, I had a couple hours to explore by myself while she did work at her other school, University of Milan. I went out the insane fashion district, where all the Italian brands like Gucci, Prada, and Dolce & Gabbana, just to name a few, have their massive stores. I didn't go in any, because the tall guys in suits at each door were kind of intimidating. But just looking in all the windows was really cool. I also explored a three-story Zara where I was actually able to afford something! Later that night, we went back to the apartment, where I ate some delicious pesto pasta with Ginevra and Giovanni, watched some cartoons, and got a good nights sleep plus lots of reading The Da Vinci Code.

Thursday, Carola arranged for Giacommo's cousin Julio (most of their family lives in or near Milan) to take me around the city. We saw a lot of stuff. We went inside the Duomo, as well as climbed up it which was really really cool (check out the picsss). We also went to Milan's Castle, and saw the beautiful park behind it! We also went to the Scala museum, where we got to see inside the theater quickly, and they were rehearsing Giselle, which I was obviously very excited to see. Afterwards, I went back to the park behind the castle and read on my Kindle for an hour or two. It was a beautiful sunny day out, like 70 degrees, and everywhere people were playing soccer or frisbee or reading or napping and it was just so so nice! A lovely way to spend the afternoon :) That night, Carola, Giovanni, Ginevra and I got pizza at a very traditional restaurant that serves Florence style pizza (very deep dish) that was soooo so good.

Friday, I was mostly on my own. Carola set me up with a bus tour of the city, which had several routes and you could get on and off at any stop all day which was really nice. I also took Friday to find somewhere to eat lunch which was outside, with seats in the sunshine, that serves pasta, and had wifi (their apartment's wifi wasn't set up yet, and I desperately needed to catch up with Boston news and also with friends and family). I spent two nice hours with pasta, espresso, and wifi :) Later that afternoon, I picked up Ginevra and she came on the bus tour with me! Then, we met up with Carola and she took us to one of her favorite stores, which is an outlet store for all the really nice Italian designers. She bought me this great button down tank/dress, which i'm really excited to wear when it's finally warm enough!

On Saturday, unfortunately I had to leave right before Ginevra's singing/dancing performance at her school :( The whole visit with their family was so so nice, it was both really exciting and interesting to see Milan but at the same time relaxing to be with them. Ginevra asked me when I would come back, and I told her as soon as possible, so I'll definitely be making another trip to Milan as soon as I can to see her :)

After a long trip with AirBaltic, I finally made it back to Copenhagen! It's funny that as Copenhagen begins to feel more and more like home, I get simultaneously sad to leave it and excited to get home for a few days and then get to TP13. There are definitely things I really miss about home, like Chipotle, Surf Bagel, and most definitely not being there to say goodbye to my beloved Polly :( And visiting with Stevie, Faye, and Ellis this break only made me that much more excited to get to Vermont in less than a month!! But on the other hand, I'll be so sad to leave this lovely country, my host family, and all my new friends here. But i'll deal with that when the time comes!

No more international travel for me until I go home! This week is again, full of work (surprise surprise) but hopefully after I get through this week and next, the majority of my work is done and I'll have the last week or two to really enjoy Copenhagen before I leave!

Go check out the pictures to see everything I just talked about!

xoxo Colleen

Father and Daughter do Copenhagen

So while I was leaving Rome on Saturday night, my dad had flown into Copenhagen Saturday morning. I gave him the best instructions I could on how to take the metro from the airport to the city and he was successful!
Sunday morning we explored Copenhagen a bit, and somehow Dad brought the best weather Copenhagen has seen since January. Pure sunshine! Cold, but sunshine. That afternoon we went to my friend Rosie's house for her 21st birthday brunch! Needless to say it was absolutely delicious, there were two quiches, apple cobbler, banana french toast, apple french toast, salads, breads, cheese, hash browns, and I'm definitely forgetting lots of things as well. We had a wonderful time with Rosie's friends and her super nice host family, eating and drinking and then chatting outside in the lovely sunshine. That evening I brought dad to my host family's house for dinner, which was equally delicious and then I proceeded to crush everyone in cards!! It was glorious. :)

Seeing as Monday was the day after Easter, I had no class! Dad and I ventured out to Frederiksborg castle, which was a bit of a long ride out there but sooo worth it. It's a castle/national museum, and they have almsot every inch of wall space covered in paintings! The chapel and Great Hall were both beautiful rooms, I recommend checking out pics on Facebook. We spent a long time in there and both probably took way too many pictures (thanks for that gene dad). There's a massive garden behind the castle, which unfortunately would have been way prettier had it been June or July. Afterwards we got some lunch after my somewhat successful translation of the menu, and ate outside with blankets on. It's still cold but you have to take advantage of the sunshine while it lasts! Upon getting back to the city, I took dad to Christiania, which was fulllll of people relaxing around the lake in the sunshine. We had a quick dinner at the Italian restaurant connected to dad's hotel, and then took the rest of the night to relax.

Since I had classes on Tuesday, we didn't do quite as much. Between my first and second class, I took dad to a cafe called The Living Room, which is literally the definition of Danish hygge. It's full of couches and comfy chairs, very dimly lit, with lots of candles. After my second class, we went to the Black Diamond, or Royal Library. Definitely need to go back there when it's sunny out and I have work to do! Then, I had tutoring, during which I learned that the 12 year old I tutor aspires to be a house music producer, is going to see a DJ in Stockholm alone, has a studio in his house, and spends thousands of kroner on DJ equipment. Shocking but kinda cool. Had dad over again for dinner and then he and my host dad Bjarne had a nice conversation about politics. Then rested up for the busy day tomorrow!

So on Wednesday we started out with a canal tour, for which there was nice weather but the wind on the water got a little chilly occasionally. But we got a great view of Nyhavn, Amalienborg, and the Royal Library. Afterwards, I took dad to Sandwich Pigeon, a DIS classic, and we ate before going to the Carlsberg brewery tour. Somehow we ended up running into my friends Katie and Catie who had gotten there just before us! So the four of us did the tour together, which was very very cool, and included two beers. Met some of the Carlsberg horses which was awesomeee. Also their bottle collection was incredible.. so many! After the tour, dad and I went back to his hotel to get ready for the ballet. We had a really good dinner at Kobenhavn Brewpup, which is right next to one of my classrooms. Then we headed to the Royal Theater to see Romeo and Juliet, which was just incredible. It was the only one of the 4 ballets I've seen so far to get a standing ovation. The dancers playing Romeo and Juliet were fairly young, but that just added so much to the ballet. I think maybe my favorite so far! Although I really liked La Bayadere as well.. Too many good ballets. Dropped dad off at his hotel, and said goodbye until May. So happy he got to come visit, and especially in the good weather! Copenhagen has actually changed from when I left for Rome to when I came back. So many tables outside (albeit with blankets, but whatever), more tourists, and new shops opening. Can't wait to see more of spring! Oh wait but today it rained/snowed/hailed... oh well. It was nice while it lasted.

Coming up in my adventures...
- lots of work this week. yay?
- Ellie Goulding with Rosie!
- London for Stevie's 21st and staying with Faye!
- Milan to visit Ginevra and her family!

Stay tuned for pictures :)

When In Rome...

I'm not even sure where to begin with my Rome trip... other than that it was awesome. You can see pictures of prettttty much everything I mention here on Facebook, seeing as I took somewhere around 1600 pictures in the span of 5 days.
So we arrived around 1 on Monday, after I had had a mere 7 or 8 hours at home to shower, un pack, re pack, and get to the airport. We saw..
Trevi fountain: so so beautiful. and also packed! Rome during Holy Week was definitely an experience. So many people selling things everywhere.. umbrellas (for as soon as it starts raining), sunglasses (for as soon as the sun comes back out), weird dancing cats, roses to take pictures with, etc. Regardless of all the sellers and all the people, it was amazing, and even more amazing at night!
Column of Marcus Aurelius
Pantheon: also amazing. such a beautiful building with so much to see inside
Largo Argentina: Rome's cat heaven. This is an area of ruins that has literally been overrun by cats. Ideally they have their own government system with a pope cat and maybe a censor cat.. jk jk. but that'd be cool.
Campo dei Fiori
Piazza Farnese
Ponte Sisto
Piazza di Trastevere
Four Rivers fountain: Also awesome, and packed with people.
We ended Monday with a delicious group dinner of spaghetti carbonara and of course bruschetta! (obvi I also took pics of my food)

Tuesday, we got up brightttt and early for our visit at the Vatican museum. However, later that day we quickly realized why our teacher Thyge (great man) took us so early. Already at like, 7:45am the place was packed with tours. We followed our tour guide throughout the massive museum, seeing so many things I can't even begin to list. We saw amazing sculptures and paintings and tapestries, and ended in the Sistine Chapel (where sadly no pictures or talking are allowed). It was breathtaking honestly, it's so hard to try to take everything in, basically you just have to stand there and try to focus your eyes on just one part at a time! After our guided tour, we got some time to explore on our own. I tried to see new parts of the museum (according to Thyge it takes two full days to see it in its entirety), but some of my classmates went back to the Sistine Chapel at around noon and said it was actually impossible to make it through it was so crowded. And then we understood why we were up so early. After a delicious group lunch, we went to wait in line for St. Peter's. At first the line looked impossible, but it moved rather quickly. And it was beyond worth it, because that building is beyond words. I wish I could describe to you all how amazing St. Peter's basilica is but I just can't because it is that amazing. So big and gold and full of paintings and sculptures and things with more history than our country... omg. Except we kept realizing we probably shouldn't say 'oh my god' inside the pope's church.. oops. Anyway, the only way I could have maybe described it is through pictures, so check those out.

Wednesday we first went to the Colosseum bright and early on our first sunny day! Naturally, Rome, a city with 300 days of sunshine, decided to have 3 of its 65 rainy/cloudy days when we were there. But I can't complain cause it was sunshine. It was amazing of course, and I also did a WHAM photoshoot! If you don't know what WHAM is you're out of the loop so check it outtttt http://wehadamoment.com/. After the colosseum we visited the Forum Romanum, a huge ruin area of where the Forum was in Roman times. Also so so so much history in every bit of marble. We had to do some sketches, but luckily Thyge accepts my horrid drawings. Afterwards, we went up the Palatine hill and had a great view of the Colosseum, Forum, and into Augustus' house which has just been opened a bit after 25 years of excavation! Check the pics. seriously.

Thursday we travelled out to Ostia Antica, a large area of ruins a half hour from Rome. Ostia was the port through which the Romans got most of their supplies. I don't remember the numbers from class but I know that the ancient Romans had an allotted amount of water per day somewhere over double that of people in NYC! Sadly, Ostia was windy and rainy and kind of cold, but it perked up throughout the day. The highly of Thursday though was definitely after we left Ostia, and a group of us went to the Mediterranean which was only a metro stop or two away. I was SO happy to have my feet in an ocean, even if it was frigid. It was so much fun, and I brought back some sand and shells as well.

Friday was definitely a day to remember becauseee we saw Pope Francis!!! But before I get into all that excitement, Friday morning we saw the Walls of Aurelian and Circus Maximus, among other things. Honestly, the best part about the Circus Maximus was playing with some Italien's dogs.. totally trying to steal them onto the plane. Anyway, Thyge being the great teacher he is, switched our schedule on Thursday, allowing us to do our last group dinner together Thursday night and end early on Friday for those of us who wanted to set up camp for the papa. So Katie, Abby, Katelyn and I had delicious lunch, stocked up on dinner sandwiches, snacks, and some playing cards, and hurried over to the Colosseum. We arrived around 2, although the stations of the cross wouldn't begin until 9:15. However, anyone trying to see the Pope at a public even obviously needs to show up many hours early right? Wrong. Apparently, that's only Americans haha. We were very pleasantly surprised to round the corner to the Colosseum and find the area directly in front of the Pope's stand very empty. It was too good to be true! (turns out it kind of was) We sat, ate, played cards, napped in the sunshine in front of the Colosseum, and made friends with the Italians around us. We talked a lot with an Italian mother and her daughter who go to as many pope events as possible, which she showed us on her camera. But she told us some bad news: around 5, they would kick everyone out in order to make them go through security. And they most definitely did. After the area had filled up substantially, the Italian police slowly forced everyone out of the area. They translated but only roughly, and very meanly. We were sad to leave our prime viewing spot (right on the fence, clear view straight to the pope, right where the procession would stop for station 7, and right across from the media tower). We were sardined and smushed and pushed for about a half hour until we re-entered through 'security' (a casual bag check and patting down for some of us, nothing for others), which would never ever be considered security in America. This was actually one of the only times I missed the American way of doing things. But, luckily, we got right back almosttt to our spot and had a great view. The rest of the night was amazing, a little cold, but we got candles, programs (in Italian but whatevs), and witnessed the procession of various church leaders from around the world right in front of us, and saw Pope Francis in real life and heard him give a speech (also in Italian but whateverrr). Even just the experience of being there was amazing. I've never seen such a large crowd sooo quiet. I was surrounded by nuns, big pope fans, children, the elderly, and many nationalities. Never again (probably) will I have the opportunity to see a new pope give his first Good Friday address, in front of the Colosseum.
Seeing as I'm not Catholic, and I don't generally agree with many of the church's teachings, it may seem odd to some people that I'm so excited about that opportunity. But honestly, it's a life experience I'm so happy I took advantage of for so many reasons above. Plus, I'm a firm believer in understanding the other side, and I couldn't disagree with things without having tried to hear the other side out. And this is the most legit of other sides ever. So no, when I applauded Pope Francis, I wasn't applauding some of his remarks, but I was applauding his mere presence, and his apparent return to a more progressive church, including women and other religions. Plus the man is just adorable!

Saturday: We explored the Castello St. Angelo and took some pictures overlooking Rome on the very windy top. For the next few hours, free time including searching frantically for a viva il papa flag with Francis' face on it (unsuccessful), and eating a delicious last Italian meal.

More fun facts about the trip:
- I had gelato at least once, if not twice, every day. Flavors I tried include: mint, straticella (basically vanilla with chocolate pieces), baccio palma (chocolate with peanuts- THE BEST), champagne (not as good as hoped), and white chocolate.
- Had mostly pasta every day, such as spaghetti carbonara, gnocchi, four cheese ravioli, and the most delicious- spaghetti with garlic and olive oil.
(and yes, I've probably gained quite a few pounds as a result of the two things above... but probably lost them with what I'm about to tell you)
- Rome involves a hell of a lot of walking. I thought I'd adjusted to large amounts of city walking in Copenhagen, but no. My feet, as well as my classmates', were literally crying in pain at the end of each day. They still haven't recovered.
- I was able to buy a vial of holy water in St. Peters, and yes, it is the coolest souvenir ever.
- In case you were wondering, no one's quite sure how to pronounce my teacher's name. We usually go with Tiga, Tiger, Toooooge, etc.
- I felt a selfie was appropriate at every monument.. so yeah, get excited for those pictures.
- Check out our pic of our debut on Italian TV! #famous
- The ceiling of many buildings we visited is almost always cooler than what's in the room. Had neck cramps from looking up so much. But actually, when you walk into a room, always check out the ceiling.

Hellooo Scotland!

So I've been mia for quite a bit but with good reason! Here are some updates on my travels:

After almost missing my flight to Edinburgh (thanks EasyJet for posting the gate like ten minutes before it closes) I landed and miraculously found Jim without any kind of communication. I thought I'd gotten used to the opposite side of the road situation in Belfast, but when I walked up to Jim's car and went to the right side he said, "Oh are you driving?". I only made that mistake like... well all the time. Friday night we went to a cool tapas restaurant and then to a bar to watch the Wales vs. Scotland football match. Apparently, this was the match between two of the worst teams.. and sadly Scotland lost. Regardless, the atmosphere was really cool. The bar was an old bank, so it was huge and was a really cool building. The one time Scotland scored there was so much cheering!
Saturday, Jim and I did an underground ghost tour of Edinburgh. We went through underground vaults that run underneath the Royal Mile, and heard some pretty creepy stories. Sadly it was absolutely frigid that day and our poor guide couldn't wear any gloves to fit with his character! Then we found Erin and spent some time catching up with her :) It was sooo nice to be back with two of my favorite TP people. We got some Dominos for dinner, which was also such a nice reminder of home. We also saw Jim's sister Rachel donate most of her hair to an organization to help make wigs for children who have lost their hair to chemo!
That night, we went to a 50th birthday party of a family friend of Jim's. All I can say is... IT. WAS. AWESOME. Never have I ever (and probably never will I again) be at such a cool birthday party, especially for someone turning 50! It was just down the road, not in a big bar or anything, just a house, but they know how to throw a party better than any bar or club I think. They had so much food, and a seemingly endless supply of alcohol. Everyone was so so nice as well, and it's awesome to have so many people interested in the fact that you're American. Occasionally there were accents I couldn't understand but whatever scottish accents are the greatest. I was getting sleepy around midnight but had to catch a second wind because the dancing didn't stop until 3 or 4 am! The only thing I can really say to describe the party is this video...

Sunday Erin, Jim and I went into Edinburgh and visited Camera Obscura, this awesome optical illusion exhibit with a camera up top to see a 360 degree view of Edinburgh. Some very fun pictures came out of that exhibit which I recommend checking out on Facebook for a good laugh. On my flight back I started to realize just how special tyler place relationships really are. In all of my years there, as both a guest and staff, many of the people I've met have gone on to become my best friends (also boyfriends). I still have a set of best friends from my years as a guest, and now I have a new set of best friends from working there. And while these are friends I see maybe only once or twice a year, it always shocks me how it's always as if nothing changed when we see each other again. It's an amazing thing which I can't ever accurately explain to people (I know Emily shares that same issue with me seeing as we have both tried to write about Tyler Place for various school assignments and it never does it justice). My weekend with Erin and Jim was amazinggg and it only made me that much more excited to get to Vermont this summer, and for Erin to visit TP13!

Two Things I Love: Ireland and Frankie!

First of all: So so soooo sorry for not having updated this in a while, and for failing to Skype like everyone I told I would skype. Things got surprisingly busy!! And this week is no exception, but luckily I finished my paper earlier than planned and took this time to (quickly) update the last two weeks since I won't have time from now until when I'm back from Rome!

Before I left for my study tour, I went riding with my host sister Laerke, which was SO nice! It felt so good to ride again and especially on suchhh cute ponies! Despite the fact that it was freezing, it was so fun and I hope I get to go riding again before I leave!

So- IRELAND: Greatest of all countries, mainly because of the accents

We were in Belfast, which is Northern Ireland, and part of the UK. I don't think I can possibly recap the entirety of Northern Ireland politics I learned, but here's a short rundown.

There are the Catholics/Nationalists/Republicans. They want to be part of the Irish Republic and resent British forces in their country.
There are the Protestants/Loyalists/Unionists. They want to remain part of the UK.
The IRA (Irish Republican Army) is the paramilitary group of the Nationalists.
The UVF (Ulster Volunteer Force) is the paramilitary group of the Unionists.

Basically, they have been fighting each other since the 60's. One thing after another, between British soldiers killing 14 marching nationalists on Bloody Sunday and the IRA bombing and killing unionists. They reached the Good Friday agreement in 1998, but tensions are still very, very high. Consider these points:
- Almost everyone in Northern Ireland goes to a segregated school (Catholic/Protestant) (not universities)
- Almost everyone grows up in segregated neighborhoods
- A good percentage of families would not approve of cross-community marriages
- Children writing "Kill all Tieges" (slang for kill all catholics, and spelled wrong, it should be Taigs)
- Certain sports jerseys banned in bars for fear of violence
- Using one word over another can identify your entire background and stance on the issue (your name, your primary school, gold/orange, Ulster/6 counties, Derry/Londonderry, how you pronounce your H)
- They have more 'peace' walls around Belfast now than they did when they reached the Good Friday Agreement
- The nationalists want the national language to be Irish, therefor the unionists created a new 'unionist' language Ulster-Scots
- Kids my age witnessed and heard about their classmates being shot for wearing the wrong school uniform through the wrong neighborhood walking home

Our time there was really interesting, and it was crazy to see such a segregated culture in something we usually think of as so similar to ours. There were times in our trip where my classmates and I really just wanted to ask "Can't you just suck it up and get along?" but there were other times when we understood where they're coming from, like when they talk about their best friend, father, uncle, or husband being murdered. But at this point, far fewer nationalists even want to join the Republic of Ireland due to their shitty economy, so we're not sure what the fighting is for other than over past feuds. Which is just silly. But, regardless, I learned a lot about some really interesting stuff that really makes you think. A lot of people we talked to tried to compare it to American's tensions between whites and blacks and now with middle eastern cultures, and as much as you don't want to admit it sometimes they seem similar. I'm still shocked and dismayed that such a segregated culture exists in a country I always considered perfect green rolling hills full of wooly-jumpers, but studying it really helped me to actually understand where they are coming from, even if I don't agree.

While we were there we...
- Toured Falls Road with a former IRA member who spent 10 years in prison. he was pretty nice and less scary than you would expect (how can anyone with an Irish accent be scary though...?)
- Toured Shankill Road with a former British soldier who pulled body parts out of the rubble of an IRA bombing
- Visited Derry/Londonderry, the site of the Bloody Sunday massacre (don't know it? youtube the U2 song) and talked with the Bogside artists who painted murals along the road where the massacre happened commemorating the lost and trying to reach peace
- While in Derry, rolled down a lovely green Irish hill.. where Chloe rolled through dog shit hahahaha
- Visited the Titanic experience museum at the shipyards where the ship was built
- SAW THE SCRIPT IN CONCERT. and yes it was awesome. stay tuned for videos.
- Visited the BBC Northern Ireland
- Had tons and tons of my new favorite foods: beef stew, potato and leek soup, and Guinness.
- Visited the Northern Ireland Parliament and talked with a member of the Alliance party (the biggest of the few parties working towards integration and peace.. and by biggest I mean 8 members, compared with the two largest Unionist and Nationalist parties, with 38 and 29 members respectively)
- Visited Queen's University in Belfast
- Visited Trinity University in Dublin
- Went on a musical pub crawl in Dublin... yeah it was as awesome as it sounds.
- Discovered the best Irish pub in Belfast with cheap(ish) drinks, live traditional Irish music every night, and lots of Irish couples being merry and dancing
- Had a class Irish dancing lesson. Really wish there was a video of that!

Then, we flew home on Saturday night and after sleeping allllll day Sunday I anxiously awaited Frankie arriving on Wednesday!!!

After lotssss of trouble with his flights (first flight being delayed an hour an a half, barely making his next connection, and a 7 hour flight for someone who hatesss flying), he finally arrived!!! :D
.... without his suitcase :(
So we spent all of Wednesday relaxing and on hold with the airline, who eventually said they would deliver it to my house on Thursday. Which was helpful except we had tickets to see La Bayadere with my class that night and sadly sweatpants aren't really allowed.
Luckily, Frankie and my host dad Bjarne are similar sizes!
La Bayadere was beauuuutiful, of course. Probably less exciting for a super jet-lagged Frankie than it was for me but he was a good sport :)
Spent all of Thursday navigating a cold and windy Copenhagen, and I use the term navigating loosely. Despite being here for 2 months I suddenly forgot how to read a map (even though I was known as 'the' google map in Belfast) and we ended up just seeing a lot of the same circle of Copenhagen in my quest to find the Black Diamond. But, we did see some important stuff and got some good pictures!
Friday we FINALLY got his suitcase by going all the way to the airport between my classes. Annoying, but worth it so Frankie could wear his own clothes again. Major props to Bjarne for lending Frankie his:
- Pants
- Jacket
- Gloves
- Scarf
Friday after class we explored the city a little more, got my favorite lunch crepes, went up the round tower, and accidentally spent like $30 on candy... most of which he left me here to eat by myself.. uh oh. We also played cards with my host family (one of my favorite activities ever) anddd while I didn't win, I did beat Frankie, fair and square (he would tell you otherwise!)
Saturday we spent a cold day at the Copenhagen Zoo! Got sooo many pictures of the most adorable of animals, and spent lots of time with the polar bears (who were very disturbingly and violently eating half of a horses head... so not okay), and the cutest of monkeys.
In our effort to go to a nice dinner Saturday night, we took a recommendation from my host dad, who said it had gotten great reviews but he didn't know about the price range or food type. Upon arrival we quickly learned- before being explained the menu situation we were served a potato-egg-caviar dish. Then the waitress explained the 4 course meal to us which included stuff neither of us liked, and cost a whopping 600 kroner ($104) per person. Naturally we freaked out cause we can't, and don't want to, afford a meal like that, and so we very awkwardly and politely explained to the waitress that we weren't aware of the price situation before we came, and that if we could pay for our first course and service we'd be very grateful. She was so nice about it of course but we felt sooo bad, but saved ourselves a whole lot of money and then went to a delicious Italian restaurant! Lesson: when you see caviar, make sure you figure out the price super fast!/ maybe restaurants should update their websites with prices so people don't have that confusion in the first place!
Sunday I had to take Frankie back to the airport :( and now we're looking forward to Tyler Place 2013 in just two months!! :)

Upcoming Adventures:
1. This week of assignment hell
2. March 22-24: Scotland to see my favorites Erin and Jim!!!
3. March 25-30: Rome with my art history class!
4. March 30 - April 4: Dad visits Copenhagen!
5. April 12-16: London for Stevie's 21st and exploring London with Faye!!
6. April 16-20: Milan to visit my one-on-one Ginevra and her family!

Stay tuned for pictures and videos on Facebook! :)

Love,
Colleen

Cooking in Denmark!

So on Thursday I accidentally overslept by an hour (I did actually wake up, there's evidence in a illegible text to Frankie, but I must have fallen back asleep) and would have been unacceptably late to my first class. My second class had been cancelled and with my third class of the day not being until 3, I decided to sleep in till 10. When I woke up at 10, I had an email that my third class had been cancelled! Great day. So I got inspired to bake/cook dinner. I chose to make a very American dish, and a personal favorite- macaroni and cheese. I went with a Martha Stewart recipe (also very American), but choosing a recipe was just the start. I also made the New York Times recipe for the best chocolate chip cookie.
First I had to halve the recipe. Then, I had to convert everything to the metric measurements... which was just a hassle. And then I had to translate everything into Danish. And then I had to check for the ingredients. At least two hours had passed until I was ready to go to the grocery store!
I biked to the grocery store, which is right down the main road, which I was pretty proud of. I'm also very proud of myself for finding all of my ingredients and only needing to ask for help once! I discovered chocolate chips are apparently not a thing here and so I ended up buying lots of bars of chocolate. I also solved the mystery of the existence of baking soda in Denmark. Then, I biked to a cheese shop right next to the train station (because I couldn't find parmesan or gruyere cheese at the grocery store). And I'm very proud to say I managed to buy those cheese in the (relatively) right amount from the nice old man who didn't speak any English!
I spent the rest of the afternoon asking my host sister Cecilie where various things were in the kitchen and made my cookie dough. Then it chilled for 24 hours. Next I baked the macaroni and cheese (half on the stove, half in the oven) and despite how nervous I was about it.. it was a success! Very cheesy and fattening and American. Not Kraft or Annie's but pretty good. I don't think my host family was very familiar with mac and cheese but they seemed to like it! As a side dish I wanted to do a parmesan roasted asparagus or green beans.. neither of which I could find at the grocery store. So I grabbed some zucchini instead... only to realize I actually grabbed cucumbers (they look very similar!). But no worries, they tasted good as well.
On Friday I baked the NY Times cookies and they were also a moderate success. They came out thinner than i would have liked, but I'm chalking that up to the difference in ingredients and probably some math errors on my part. What matters is that everyone likes them!

In other news, lately I:
- Went to see the Dans2Go ballet program at the Royal Danish Theater (and am seeing it again with a different class this week!)
- Got a lovely package from my family containing the essentials... tissues, contacts, peanut butter, and Reeses
- Managed to survive a week by myself while my host family skiied in Austria
- Skyped the Villanova career center in an attempt to start looking at internships for next fall
- Emailed/Skyped potential new Tyler Place employees to answer their questions
- Successfully (I think) taught Charlie, the 7th grade boy I'm tutoring, how to solve for a variable
- Went dumpster diving and worked with an asylum seeker from Afghanistan on a photo essay to be published in a magazine in Copenhagen
- Made friends with Bertram, that cat who never likes foreigners (I was the only one feeding him so I'm not sure he had a choice)
- Booked my flights to London, Milan (almost), and Scotland
- Most exciting...
FRANKIE BOOKED HIS FLIGHT TO COME VISIT :D

Here are some baking pictures, and more new ones will be on Facebook soon!

Love,
Colleen

Travels in Sweden!

Just got back from a whirlwind adventure in another city in Denmark and two cities in Sweden! And I'm exhausted and fighting the worst sinus infection ever sooo I apologize in advance if this blog post is lacking, but I felt the pictures I uploaded needed a lot of explanation.

So first we started in Helsingør which is like an hour north of Copenhagen. We had the best tour guide who teaches what sounds like a really cool class, Royalty in the Land of Equality, but i don't have enough room in my schedule to take it :(. Also, he is Danish but speaks English with a British accent... further proof of his awesomeness. We looked at Kronborg Castle (where Hamlet takes place!) but couldn't go inside as it was closed :(. Still pretty cool though! This was just the courtyard where we were.

I should also note our whole tour of Helsingør was the most rainy, cold, and dreary day imaginable. So no one was really sad when we got on the ferry for the 15 minute ride to Helsingborg in Sweden!

Then, we drove about an hour up to the coast to visit Ladonia (GOOGLE IT). It was definitely the coolest part of our trip. Long story short, this guy built a bunch of structures out of driftwood on a beach in Sweden. Then, the Swedish government got pissed and told him to take it down or they would. But he sold it as an art exhibit so they couldn't touch it and then declared it the nation of Ladonia (You can apply for citizenship online here http://www.ladonia.org/). Pretty fucking awesome. Seriously, google it. But what we learned that google didn't tell us was that people got kind of upset over this guy and his art and some threats have been made... so whenever he goes to Ladonia a police car escorts him as far as possible, costing the Swedish tax payers some ridiculous amount of money. So they're understandably upset. Other cool things we learned were that one of the national anthems is the sound of a pebble dropping.. and the King is a pair of shoes. Pretty sick. Sadly, my pictures don't even BEGIN to do it justice. The hike was way harder than anyone (including my teacher) expected. None of us had been before though. It was super steep (steeper than the picture seems) and beyond slippery. There was obviously snow, and fallen leaves, and lots of slippery rock surfaces and moss and ice. Honestly, I'm surprised our class made it back alive, in one piece, and without any serious injuries. I think if they do this trip in future years there may be an insurance issue haha.

But, once we got down to the structures it was SO cool!! I can't even describe them and the pictures sort of suck cause it was so overcast, but google (really, google it) has way better pictures. We spent a while exploring and going over the rocks and taking a million pictures, hopefully my classmates got some better ones! The only annoying part was all the driftwood structures were held together with nails sticking out every which way, and I got a little tiny snag in my coat :( but better than that in my hand ha. Surprisingly, everyone made it up the crazy cliff as well. Less surprisingly, everyone was exhausted and so sore the next day.

So after Ladonia we had tea and biscuits type thing at a little restaurant. It was supposed to be 'fike' or 'fika' which is like 'cozy conversation' in Swedish (except I'm sure that's not how you spell it). Then we headed to our cute hostel and had dinner, some delicious ice cream for dessert and watched a popular Danish movie. They told us it had 'dark undertones' which apparently in Scandinavia means the whole movie is entirely depressing. After that everyone was happy to get some sleep.

The next day we drove down to Malmo (can't figure out how to add the two dots over the o) which is a small but very up and coming city in southern Sweden. We had a cool architecture tour by another DIS professor who showed us the very old parts of Malmo (see the pic of the houses with basically slanting frames), but also the really new parts. There was some housing exhibition where Scandinavian architects built and designed their own new types of housing, all featured right on the water in Malmo with a nice view of the bridge from Malmo-Copenhagen. It was super cool but also super cold. It's funny that the houses really didn't look on the outside like super chic houses, but the interiors were probably much cooler, and it probably looks way better in the summer.

Then we visited Sydsvenskan, a fairly big southern Swedish newspaper. While we were in Malmo we really focused on how the city is dealing with its large immigrant population. At Sydsvenskan, we talked to them about how they dealt with the declining role of newspapers and also how they tried to reach a more multicultural audience, not all of whom probably speak Swedish. It was definitely interesting.

That night, we did a comedy workshop with a stand up comedian in Malmo. It was pretty fun, but her main exercise was to have us go around and anonymously write bad things about how we presented ourselves.. not the most fun, but generally amusing. We had a good dinner at a restaurant in Malmo after. On our trip was the 31 students in our class plus two others. We also had our awesome teacher Helle, the most chill teacher who's up for anything, and likes to have DIS pay for our stuff.. she gets away with it because she taught at Stanford. We also had Billy, a guy who we think is in his mid 30's (highly contested and we never got a straight answer from him), who is from Dublin but moved to Malmo about 6 years ago and works at DIS designing catalogues and brochures. He was awesome. Being from Malmo, he took our whole class + Helle out to his plan C Malmo bar (turns out not many are open late on Tuesday nights.. weird). He took us to a Malmo microbrewery and convinced them (in his little Swedish) to open up the entire upper floor for us.. awesome! But the best was yet to come... Helle and Billy had DIS pay for the first beer for everyone! Great class bonding. Billy even invited his cool Californian girlfriend and we all had a great time.

On Wednesday we started the day with a trip to SVT (I think), a big TV station in Malmo. We got a cool tour from the head of news production, and then had an awesome discussion with him. He talked a lot about how Malmo gets represented in the news due to its large immigrant population. Apparently, being born in Sweden doesn't make you a Swede if your parents or grand parents or great grand parents were not born in Sweden. They praised America for calling what Swedes would call a '3rd generation immigrant' a '1st generation American', until we reminded them that we call illegal immigrants aliens. So we all have our problems. We also watched clips of how Fox and the Christian Broadcasting Network portrayed Malmo during a rough time to America. They 1) pronounced the name wrong, 2) listed facts with zero sources and 3) blamed the Muslim immigrants for everything and 4) interviewed a man who they listed as a 'head of something important' in Malmo, who has actually been convicted and arrested several times for his incredibly racist remarks. The people of Malmo are not too happy with Fox and CBN. Billy (in the pic) also got his friend who works there to show us an awesome show he does where they interview artists about how they came up with their songs (Chris Martin of Coldplay NBD). A pretty cool visit.

After, Billy took us for falafel, a traditional Arabic food that's popular in Malmo. However, the combination of ordering Arabic food in Swedish was pretty difficult and I, being the picky eater that I am, was not super pleased with the dish. However, afterwards Billy gave us a tour of Malmo and got us (DIS paid) baklava (turkish or arabic I don't know?)! I liked that a bit more. He also pointed out his house and where he DJs, and his DJ name.. wait for it... A boy called Billy. Greatest. Lastly, we went to a Jewish community center where we talked to a rabbi who moved to Sweden with his wife from NYC to better serve the Jewish community there. It's kind of crazy, he admits that he lives in fear of many attacks and threats from other ethnic minorities in Malmo yet he will stay there forever. When we discussed the roots of anti-semitism he kind of dismissed most of our ideas but didn't really offer up any of his own so we didn't get very far on solving any major world problems. But it was interesting to see how western immigrants are treated better than Middle Eastern or African immigrants, yet the Jewish people still have a really hard time in Malmo.

Thennn we went home and I slept the whole hour ride. I'm still exhausted! But it was really nice to come back to home cooked meals again! When I tried to recap the trip to my host family I couldn't even remember everything because I was so tired.

Last part I promise! Today we first had a mini presentation by two people from an organization that I unfortunately can't remember. But they're working on a campaign to stop discrimination in Copenhagen, especially in the nightlife. I haven't heard of much of that happening, but I have heard that  a bar near DIS, A Bar (australian bar), doesn't let in many minorities. Apparently some bars around the city won't let in minorities because they feel those are the people usually causing bar fights, buts its basically discrimination. After the presentation we got a tour of a nearby neighborhood, Norrebrø, by Hiba, a 23 year old muslim girl who studying to be a dentist. She offered to do our dental work for free! :) She gave us a tour of her old school, a k-9th grade private arabic school. I have to admit it was weird seeing so many people in head scarves and with arabic writing on the walls, but she told us some pretty interesting stuff. The school had such good grades that the education department was suspicious of cheating (because why would minorities ever be smart apparently) and had people watch over their exams, but found no cheating. Her school had some of the highest grades and ratings in Copenhagen. Kind of reminded me of how the technical high school, traditionally for people not going to college, had the best academics of our public schools haha. The kids were SO cute and so friendly!! She also showed us around the neighborhood, including an area thats pretty run down and covered in graffiti. Apparently the government used to own a house there specifically for youth, kind of a place where they could live together and do whatever youth did back then (i think mostly drugs). Then, the government sold it to a super christian organization whose name I can't remember, and they promptly tore down the building because the people inside weren't following Christian rules or whatever. And now every year there are riots on the day it was demolished, and the drugs have spread into the city instead of being in one house. Hiba was not pleased. We also learned that no mosques have been approved for building in Copenhagen (maybe all of Denmark?) yet. For now, they worship in normal buildings where they just put down carpets in rooms for prayers. And showed us a 'ghetto' in Copenhagen (below), apparently one of the worst that is considered the 'lowest of the low'. To be a ghetto in Denmark, there are a few requirements it must fill. I believe they include having a certain percentage of immigrants, a certain number of inhabitants who have committed crimes, and maybe a certain number of apartments? Anyway, looking at this 'ghetto' it appeared WAY nicer than places not considered ghettos at home. It was crazy. Like I would probably live there. My host family said there aren't any real ghettos here though, at least not in comparison to the USA, because of their strong welfare system. Pretty crazy. Then she took us to a great Turkish restaurant where I got a chicken shish kebab which was deliciousss!

And then I came home and wrote this novel... AGAIN. Sorry I keep doing this to you guys it just kind of happens somehow. But if you skimmed all the stuff above, the gist of it is that I had a great time in Sweden, learned a lot about the issues with Denmark and Sweden's immigration policies, and bonded with all my classmates after we saved each others lives several times during our hike, and braved lots of cold walking tours and different foods together. And now I'm ready for some serious relaxation! Hope you enjoyed the forever long blog post again! At least this time I included pictures :)

Lots of love,
Colleen

10 Things the Danes Are Born With...?

Ten Things I'm Convinced The Danes are Born With...

1. An amazing immune system

Naturally, being true to myself, I've come down with a cold. The gross kind where I'm constantly sniffling, sneezing, and struggling to breath through my nose. First of all, I see no boxes of tissues... anywhere. Luckily for me, I had this same congestion when I left the US and so I had a spare pack of travel tissues. A life saver for me today. But whenever I blew my nose around other Danes, like on the train or while walking on the sidewalk, they all stared at me like I had the grossest disease ever. I was perfectly clean about it, sneezing into my elbow and all that stuff. It's like they've never had a cold before! My last piece of evidence to support this probably wrong assumption is that when I went to the 'apotek' (pharmacy) for some tissues, decongestant, DayQuil, NyQuil, etc. I found none of the above. Except for the tissues, I did find a pack of travel packs (my classmates will be thankful probably, less sniffling) and a single box of tissues. No super packs of eight or anything like you find at home. And most disappointingly.. no Puffs Plus :( If you know me well, you know how attached I am to my Puffs Plus in times like these. Sadly, all I could find in terms of decongestant was a nasal spray... gross. But I'll try anything at this point. And it is for these reasons that I have materialistically concluded that the Danes simply just don't get sick, which is ironic because they have free health care.

2. An innate sense of cleanliness

Things are just clean... everywhere. The streets of the major city are clean, even after I saw them a night or two ago filled with cigarette butts and broken glass. There's far less gum stuck everywhere, and they don't even have big trash cans. They have trash cans about the size of the one in my apartment at Villanova, and there are green footsteps leading up to each of them, as if they needed to remind the already-clean Danes to not litter. My host family's house is super clean, so I'm trying to adjust my sometimes normally usually always messy philosophy. A home cooked meal which definitely took a lot of pots pans and things looks like it was never made, and a dinner is cleaned up within seconds. I simply don't understand!

3. Avoidance of lung cancer?

This is probably very wrong and perhaps offensive to any Danes with lung cancer (which I don't intend it to be) but I'm still shocked at the number of people who smoke in Denmark. And according to my host mom, its mostly younger people who smoke! They definitely grew up with at least some of the anti smoking culture that came to power as we got older. They are smokers everywhere, which is even more shocking in such an otherwise health centered society. I just assume that if lung cancer was as prevalent here as it is in America, less people would smoke, or especially take up smoking knowing that fact.

4. Extra hours in the day

From what I've heard from others in host families, and from my own, freshly made bread is often a staple. As is a home cooked dinner every night. As are both parents working full time jobs. Therefore, the Danes must have like, 27 hours in the day to get all of this done. Clean houses + children + fresh food + full time jobs + sometimes working pretty late = impossible.

5. Trusting nature

Only in Denmark could you leave your dog tied up to your baby stroller (tied to nothing with no lock) outside a store in the middle of winter with no fear of the baby being stolen (or freezing, but more on that later). While it has happened sometimes in the past, it doesn't happen nearly as often as it does in the United States; There, babies are stolen from much less convenient places, aka requiring more effort to intentionally steal a child. It's also illegal in Denmark to carry a handgun, knife, pepper spray, or really any kind of weapon (as far as I know). There's a much lower crime rate here than at home. Not saying this to comment on any gun control arguments; simple to state that in a safer place it's not necessary to carry such safety measures that are a staple for many US residents. Babies can run around in a city and manage to not get hit by bikes, cars or pedestrians. They pay high taxes to take care of themselves as well as the less fortunate in the country, and trust that people won't abuse the system. Not that their system doesn't have its flaws, they just seem to be a trusting people.

6. Blonde hair and long legs

Everywhere.

Good thing I'm not that insecure about my appearance or anything..

7. Excellence in biking

Children who struggle to ride a tricycle in America are successfully mastering a real bike in suburban and city areas in Copenhagen. Somehow pedestrians know how to navigate cycle-crowded streets, whereas I look like a deer caught in the headlights whenever I see a bike approaching me. I have a deep fear of continuing to get in the way of it and somehow seriously injuring a Dane.. not the way I'd like to be welcomed into the country. I don't know how they learn so much bike etiquette and excellence at such a young age and so my only explanation is that they're born with it.

8. Naturally skinny

I don't think I've seen anyone overweight here in my 15 days, despite the availability of delicious danish varieties around every corner.  I'll chalk it up to the otherwise healthy diet, smoking, biking everywhere, high cost of food and alcohol, high tax on cars and gas, obsession with football and handball, and the blond leggy genes.. definitely makes sense now.

9. Patience

If I lived in a country with a national language that everyone spoke, and still encountered Americans and other foreigners asking me questions in my not-native language everyday (or butchering phrases in Danish, which isn't hard to do), I'd get a little pissed. But so far everyone I have ordered from, asked for help, or talked to hasn't seemed at all upset with my lack of Danish. I'm sure they get used to it, but still it must take a certain amount of patience. I think that those who promote the 'live in America, speak English' (even though America has no official language) argument should pop over to Europe for a day where almost every sign is doubled in English... even though they have an official language.

10. Timeliness

Somehow, the Danes are always, I repeat, always, on time. It's been talked about in every into and orientation to Danish culture we've had here- the Danes don't accept tardiness. Last week, we had about ten guests over for dinner. They were invited at 5:30. Pretty sure the doorbell rang at 5:30 sharp and they were all there, despite having come from different places. Same scenario this past weekend. A family with two small children were invited over at 3pm, and (I checked this time) arrived at 3:03. So sharp! I don't know how they do it, especially when so many people travel by public transportation which has a reputation for becoming delayed due to the smallest weather convenience. My host mother told me she and her colleagues were to interview what was looking like a pretty sure thing candidate this morning, but she arrived 20 minutes late with no excuse or concern for her tardiness. Needless to say, she is no longer so certain of a candidate. Even my art history professor today arrived five minutes before the start of class, and was apologizing about his lateness. He blamed the S-tog, and informed us that he's usually there before anyone else. I don't know how the Danes do it but somehow they get everywhere right on time.

Classes and Culture

Hello! So I think currently it's actually colder at home/Villanova than it is in Denmark... HAHA welcome to my life! Except for you guys it'll probably last a week and for me at least another month. Anyway I'm not going to give a recap of everything I've done this past week because no one wants to read another book. So I figured I'd just tell you about some of the cultural differences I've noticed so far that are pretty cool!

1. There are babies running around everywhere in adorable little snow suits. Their attitude towards children seems pretty different from what I can tell so far from that in America. First of all, I'm pretty sure both moms and dads get maternity/paternity leave when they have a kid, which is a lot more accommodating than policies at home. And they trust the people around them a lot! Moms and dads and couples are walking around Copenhagen all day with their babies just running down the streets. You can also leave your baby in a stroller outside a store while you're shopping inside, and very rarely will any harm come to your kid. Definitely not something anyone would ever do in America. I think actually I heard a story that a Danish woman tried the same thing while visiting American and got arrested for child endangerment or something. They also ride with their kids on the back of their bikes, or in like carriages attached to their bikes. It all looks pretty foreign and dangerous to me, but everyone does it and everyone seems very happy. Also the snow suits are just beyond adorable, these are the most bundled up kids I've ever seen and when I have kids I will most certainly be buying all of their clothing here. Plus, I think a lot of children are allowed to sleep outside or are put outside when they're crying (from what I've heard). That's probably why they have lungs of steel and are able to play sports outside for hours when its like in the teens.

2. They have so many political parties! At least five but definitely more. However, they realize they need to compromise between them all, and they seem to function far better than the political system in America. My friend and I were curious as to how opposing they are, since Denmark operates under a constitutional monarchy and social welfare state idea. As far as we could tell, none of the parties really oppose those ideas, although I think there is some small party that wants to abolish the social welfare state. But otherwise, they just differ on ideas of how prominent it should be. I'm not sure about the other policies, but it's pretty refreshing to be in a different country instead of the consistent liberal conservative arguments at home.

3. Biking! Everywhere all day every day. I don't know how their faces don't freeze off but they don't. Other than my first biking experience the day I arrived, I'm waiting to get back into it until it's maybe above 30 degrees and not slushy from the snow. But the public transportation is super accommodating to bikes and so are the streets! Naturally I seem to get in the way of bikers because I don't know how to navigate through them like the Danes do but everyone seems so safe and natural about it. Most stair ways going down to the train have a ramp on the side for bikes, and there are bike racks everywhere. There's also one or two bike cars on the train. Definitely can't wait for it to get warmer so I can try and be truly Danish and bike everywhere.

4. Public transportation here is the coolest thing ever. They have the train (S-tog), regional trains, the metro, and buses. Its all so easy to use!! I take the train into the city every day and its awesome. Its comfy and fast and generally reliable. Most Danes actually find them really unreliable as I guess sometimes they get delayed due to weather, but compared to public transportation at home I think it's awesome. The insides of the trains are really nice and everyone stays generally quiet. Plus, they have free wi-fi, which is just awesome. Of course, whenever I plan to catch a certain train, I miss it; now I just leave and catch the next one.

5. Danes in general seem really informed about world news, even about American news and politics. They also aren't afraid to talk about politics with you, or so I've heard. Most of my teachers say that Danes don't really do small talk, and so it's not abnormal for them to bring up issues like abortion or gun control. But the GREAT thing about them is that they generally don't judge you for your ideas, as long as you can support them. Which is my general stance on all politics and so it's awesome that most people here are similar. Very refreshing from the close minded ideas of 'I'm right and you're wrong' that you usually get.

6. Danes LOVE throwbacks!! I've been in a cafe when they played Destiny's Child 'Soldier' and Usher's 'My Boo'. And when we went out Saturday night there was one bar that basically only played American throwbacks. Love it.

There were some other things I wanted to mention that naturally I forgot but I'll write about them when I remember! Also meant to tell you a bit about my classes..

At 8:30 on Mondays and Thursdays I have cross-cultural communication, which is my core course. Basically it means that's my main area of study here and we go on a short tour to northern Denmark, and Kullen and Malmo in Sweden. Then we go to Belfast for a week. So far it seems pretty cool. The instructor is the head of the communication department here and she seems nice. We've watched a bunch of videos of different cultures communicating, through ads and comedy which I like a lot.

Then I go to Danish.. As hard as I thought French was, Danish is even harder. And for once, I think it'll be the vocab, not the grammer, that is hard for me. It's like nothing is pronounced at ALL the way it's spelled, and it's really hard for me to remember words if I can't picture the spelling in my head. It's completely different from English French or Spanish and I am struggling already. But, our Danish class did go to a cute cafe last night for a (free) dinner and wine which was nice; we all bonded over how hard the language already is. Luckily I have 5 people already fluent who can help me! :)

And then my last class on Monday/Thursday is International Advertising, which also seems pretty interesting. It's a lot more marketing than it is like designing ads, which is new for me. We have our main professor who likes to think of himself as our 'coach' instead of our teacher, and who was the head of a lot of companies involved in international advertising which is cool. We also have another part time teacher who currently works in the field.

On Tuesdays/Fridays I start at 8:30 with Journalism vs. Public Relations which definitely wins the prize for coolest teachers. It's taught by two professors, one for PR and one for journalism. The PR teacher is a guy who's super funny, and works as the head of press for an organization here called DIGNITY, which is the Danish Institute Against Torture. And the journalism professor is a woman who used to be a broadcaster for one of Denmark's biggest TV news stations... and she was on dancing with the stars... and she ran for parliament. She said she wasn't a fan of/didn't know there would be so much tabloid publicity with dancing with the stars, and her politician career was fairly fleeting. However, she quit broadcasting for a specific reason that she hasn't revealed to us yet. I think now she runs her own journalism company of some kind and might still commentate on TV news? Either way she's pretty cool, and the two of them together are hilarious.

Anddd lastly I have History of European Ballet, which I only had for the first time today. It seems kinda boring but interesting nonetheless because it's about ballet. The teacher is an older guy who teaches theater stuff I believe, and is kinda grumpy but really passionate about ballet. Also we're going to see 4, maybe 5, Royal Danish Ballet performances so I'm not complaining. Plus it looks like we're going to spend a lot of class time watching ballet variations so still happy.

I've been here for over a week now and only slightly adjusted to the cold! But I will continue trying to update this and take as many pictures as possible! :)

Love
Colleen

First Few Days

So the first few days have been super busy and so I probably won't be able to write about everything or in great detail but I'll try to give a run down of what's been going on since I arrived! The airplane ride was pretty interesting, there were lots of other DIS students on my plane and I ended up sitting next to one! The plane was awesome (minus the tiny seats) because each seat had a tv on the back with free movies, games, and music. And the movies were like new movies not out on DVD yet! Airplane dinner wasn't as gross as I've heard, it was actually pretty good. I watched the Dark Knight Rises, and then unsuccessfully tried to sleep. Once it become clear sleep would never happen, I watched Dark Shadows. Then, we landed in Amsterdam at 5:15am our time. It was pretty confusing to get to our next gate as we had to go through passport control and security, but we met up with lots of other confused DIS students and made it through. The second plane ride had a great view of the Scandinavian sunrise (which happens at like, 8:30 am)... which I mostly slept through. After waiting for baggage, we met DIS helpers at baggage claim and made our way to the adjoining Hilton Hotel to meet our host families! Before they arrived I got my shitty Piccell phone to be able to text other Danish numbers, and had a short orientation meeting. Then Tove and Bjarne Eriksen were there to take me to my new home for the next four months!

On our way home they pointed out important places. Their home is only a short maybe 20 minutes from inner city Copenhagen. Once I got unpacked a bit, we had some sandwiches for lunch and then went to see Cecilie in her handball game! They won, and it was my first introduction to the very popular sport in Denmark. It's sort of similar to basketball, only without a net and instead with a soccer type net, and much faster and more physical. We biked there, which is how most Danes get to school, work, the train, or around their community, and naturally I fell off my bike for the first time in years. Lesson learned- don't try to go over curbs that are clearly too high. I'm blaming the jetlag. We did some grocery shopping on the way home and then I finished unpacking, took a shower (in an awesome bathroom with heated floors!) and had dinner with the whole family. Afterwards, we watched Denmark vs. Russia in handball in what I think is a world cup? It's a super popular sport. Sadly I could barely keep my eyes open the whole time because I'd been up for 30 some hours at that point but by not sleeping that whole day I avoided probably the worst of the jetlag.

So Monday was our first day of orientation. It also required that I take the train (S-tog) all by myself into Copenhagen. And by all by myself, I mean with the other 900 DIS students that I saw somewhere on the train or in the metro. You can easily spot us due to our confused looks and desperate searching for maps. We had an opening ceremony which consisted of talks from people working at DIS and the director, as well as two performances by the DIS strings. It was actually pretty cool and way less boring than I expected. The only bad part about it was that we had to check our coats before we went in- and checking 900 coats took foreverrr. Then, we made our way to a DIS classroom and were split up by housing types and areas. My group was all other students in host families who live in the surrounding train stops on my line. We were split into smaller groups and then given an 'amazing race' assignment; we had 5 specific places to visit, hear a DIS professor tell us about the landmark, and get a stamp. The activity was really cool, except it meant spending at least three hours walking around in 20 degree weather with wind making it feel like the low teens. We visited the Danish Parliament, the Black Diamond library, a church in Christiantown, the Kings New Square (right by the canal with the multi-colored houses that is on like every postcard of Copenhagen) and the royal palace. They were all really cool places, and we learned a lot about how politics is built into the architecture. It was really interesting; the built the church in the shape of a Greek cross which is more equal than a traditional Latin cross, and everything on the inside was symbolic of the monarchy. In my pictures, you can see the ceiling which has the crown on it. There's a massive organ about the door leading into the sanctuary area, which seems to be supported by two carved elephants on either side of the door. Those stood for reliance, intelligence, longevity, and other things associated with elephants that the King also wanted associated with the monarchy. The royal palace architecture was also really cool. Several of the old castles burnt down, and eventually the royalty bought out 4 mansions which face each other in a square. The mansions surround a statue of a past King whose name I can't remember. Anyway the palace is very open to the public in that they can stand in the square and around the statue, whereas most palaces are gated off. The DIS professor talked a lot about how Denmark's monarchy works with their constitution- while the Queen technically has the power to veto things, she never does because she knows the people would 'fire' her as Queen if she did. The royalty are still very important for like head of state activities but are more often celebrity figures, leaving the politicians somewhat out of the spotlight unlike in America. However, my host father Bjarne said politicians are still very often gossiped about. Anyway the whole tour was really neat because we learned a lot about Danish history, the social welfare state, the constitutional monarchy, and pros and cons to all of the above. Also it was very very cold.

Today, we started the day with a housing session led by two DIS employees with lots of people also in host families. We talked a lot about how to work the transportation (S-tog, metro, and regional trains). In general, it's super easy. To get into Copenhagen and to DIS all I do is walk down my street for about 10 minutes, cross the road and go to the train station. The trains run very often so I don't have to worry about catching a particular time, and they are so clean and organized! Danes can take their bikes on specific parts of the train, and its very quiet and doesn't smell horrible like trains in new york or philadelphia. We also talked about how to live and shop on a budget considering how expensive Copenhagen is. Most Danes pack a lunch because it's just impossible to buy one in the city many days during the week. And of course we talked about how to adjust to living with a Danish family and how it would differ from our American home. Then I went to get books (for free!) for my classes. And lastly I went to a quick orientation for the communication program which looks really cool. Tonight we watched another handball game, Denmark vs Chile. And now I'm super tired after writing this novel which probably no one will read haha. I'm really liking my time here and am actually excited for classes to start because they seem so cool.. definitely a new feeling. Its been lightly snowing since I've been here and it's so pretty! See Facebook for pictures. My host family is awesome! And so nice. They've made me a delicious dinner every night and gave me my own room and bathroom! They've also made figuring out aspects of living in Denmark much easier, like transportation and communication. It's also really cool to learn about the differences of Denmark, with their super high taxes but really well functioning and happy society, and then how things operate in America. 

But really I am exhausted haha, so check out Facebook for some pics!

Love

Colleen

p.s. I didn't read over and edit this sooo sorry

Airport!

So I'm going to attempt to keep a blog while I'm abroad since that seems like something most people do, although I don't have very much faith in myself that I'll keep up with it, but I'll try! 

Anyway I'm currently at JFK airport waiting for my first flight to Amsterdam and then connecting to Copenhagen. The airport wasn't too bad, but carrying all three of my suitcases was definitely a challenge and I'm not looking forward to getting them at baggage claim in Copenhagen. Packing was a nightmare as usual, but it always is for me. By some miracle my bags weren't overweight! Security wasn't bad either, although I was surround by two groups of Russians which was mildly intimidating. The international terminal is pretty cool though. So now I have an hour and a half until I leave! I'm definitely very nervous, a little scared, super tired, but also really excited. I can't wait to meet my host family and get settled in, and start seeing the city! But I think for now I'm going to watch some It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia and relax before my 7 1/2 hour flight! If I haven't already told you, I can talk via whatsapp or facebook or skype while I'm there so hit me up on one of those :)

Talk to you next from Denmark!

Love Colleen