Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Toilet Ruller

31/8/10 16:56



I am not sure what this is. I thought it was toilet paper but judging by its consistency it must be some sort of industrial sand paper. It says “20 blade” which I am pretty sure in English translates into “when makes contact with any skin feels like someone is stabbing your flesh with 20 blades”. Okay, so it is not that bad, and that is what I get buying based purely on the fact that there are 8 rolls in the package and they drew the 8 to look like two rolls of toilet paper on top of each other. But it feels like a very bumpy thin egg carton? Margie would love it. I may go TP the queen or something, because I am pretty sure if I put this in the bathroom I will be shot. There were also only like 3 choices, no Charmin or Quilted Northern here! Except all the little cute stores seem really big into gag toilet paper? For example, Tiger had toilet paper with hearts all over it, and our new favorite store (it is like “World Market” or something but is really just adorable and Danish) had purple, green, blue, and Sudoku…

Our internet was supposed to be fixed today, it isn’t. I will go to the library tonight to do some school work. We have every Wednesday we have no class, but almost every week we have a “field study” which tomorrow means I am going to Christiania. My professor says that she hopes “our tour guide is not too stoned” because the more sober ones are more fun. There is also a street we are not allowed to have cameras out because they have “hash stands” a la lemonade stands? I do not quite know what I am getting myself in to, but I will be with my professor and a tour guide, and it is safe as long as you do not do anything sketchy.

Today in Developmental Disorders we talked about sexual abuse towards children and I could write a novel about that right now, but instead you get to hear about my failed toilet paper.

30/8/10 21:20

I just went to dinner and it was great, but now it is time to really work on my homework, but it is 21:22. I have never had this much reading in my life. So badly I want to push it off and do it over the weekend, but this is my birthday weekend and I hopefully will be very busy. My Developmental Disorders class will be the death of me. It is this guys first semester teaching at DIS and he is intense. We have a test on Friday already, like, really? Just because you are an attractive British man does not mean you can assign so much reading.

People are going out tonight? And they justify it by the fact that they did not go out on Saturday because they got in from Friday at 4:30 in the morning. I hate to be the stick in the mud, but my mud says I need to read over 100 pages by tomorrow at 10 and my stick would appreciate it if you would pregame a tad bit quieter.

As antisocial as I just sounded I got a full 5 more numbers in my phone today. DIS better watch out for it’s new social butterfly… even if I do fail out of all my classes.

Hårde Stoffer

30/8/10 18:34

Now that you all know how to say “hard drugs” in Danish, let me tell you about my day. Well, I was actually in class all day and it was unlike any day of class I have ever had in my life. In my Multicultural Context class we talked about a bunch of intro to class stuff, but then she had us go out on the Strøget and talk to people. It was the scariest thing of my life. So far out of my comfort zone I cannot even describe. After that class I went to Paradis with Amanda, Kate, and Shelby. Then we went to our second class where we are making introduction booklets for the children we meet. Maybe when I finish mine I will post pictures, it is pretty basic just pictures of my family, friends, and house and stuff so we have something to let the kids know about us since they do not speak English. Well, after that class I came home and thought “oh! I will just do some of my homework! How about this worksheet for my Danish language class, that looks easy!” WRONG. Oh so wrong. Because I am going to be interacting very soon (this Thursday) with the children I am in the crazy crash course Danish class. Our homework tonight was to read a ¾ page blurb about Christiania. IN DANISH. Okay, so far my vocabulary consists of words like “cat” and phrases like “my name is Julia”. Christiania is very interesting and the urban area established in 1971 by hippies and bohemians. We are going as a class on Wednesday so I understand why we read this, but it is in Danish. I just spent a good 45 minutes trying to answer the questions about the article and I feel like a 5 year old wrote my responses, which are in English. Example:

2. What are some things tourists do when they visit Christiania?
Eat at organic vegetarian restaurant and tour, go listen to music, or go to Christmas festivities.

I go to college, I should be able to at least write a sentence, but apparently when my brain is all scrambled with Danish I cannot do anything. I will for sure have to edit this if I have to turn it in. There is a word bank at the bottom of the article with some of the key words they assume we would not know. It has fun and cheery words “hårde stoffer” which means hard drugs, and “hjemløs” which means homeless.

I am off to meet up with a few girls from my Danish class to find the place out Danish professor is taking us for dinner. It sounds very posh and is called Café A 22. However, it is Copenhagen so it is raining, and it is like a 30 minute walk from our school. If I buy rain pants will you please not laugh at me when you see pictures?

Monday, August 30, 2010

Playtime with Monks!

18:39 on 29/8/10 – The time and date are like a foreign language within themselves.

I just got back from the “Spears, Arrows, and Abbey Ales” trip. It was basically play with medieval weapons then get drunk. We went to the countryside to an abbey (well, about 1/10th of an abbey because the rest has been destroyed) and it was gorgeous. However, it POURED rain. At first it was a slight drizzle, but while we were in it, it rained kats and hunds. It was raining too hard for our group to get to jousting, which we were bummed about, but then again “jousting” was sitting on a wooden horse and pushing each other towards a stationary wooden man. I was kickass at archery though. I am telling you, with my fencing and archery skills if the world suddenly lose all technology and we have to go into wars without guns you will all want me on your side. It was a total blast though, so much to the point where I may sign up for this trip again next semester. Each group made a shield and a flag. We were the Flame Throwers and our motto was “We Bring the Heat”. By now I hope you all realize that facebook is where the picture portion of my life is being uploaded, but the pictures from today should be epic. I have to get them from someone else because I did not want my camera to die in the rain. I feel like today was a good bonding day for the people I met, afterwards I went out to McDonalds for dinner with a boy. I never realized what a precious gift fast food is in America. Seriously, food here is so much work and so expensive. I paid like $7 for a McChicken, small fries, and a small drink, however it was totally worth it in the moment. I really need to learn to master the Netto (grocery-ish store).

N’sync and Owl City are playing on my itunes right now. This is a shout-out to Michelle, who also has an awkward shrine thing in my room. It is not supposed to be a shrine, but because everything is neutral but with the present she gave me in the center it looks a little creepy. I keep waiting to be unpacked and my room to be clean to take pictures of it, but do not fret, it shall happen soon.

Also, my hair looks adorable right now because it is crazy curly from the rain, too bad I am going to read and do homework instead of going out.

Sunday, August 29, 2010

I Spoke Too Soon.

(28/8/10)
I just had my first homesick breakdown. Okay, it wasn’t a breakdown, it was 5 minutes of crying, and it wasn’t really because I am homesick. I am very lonely. I cannot imagine a more lonely feeling then studying abroad, unless Amanda did not come with me. A lot of the students came over with friends, there are some universities with over 30 people here. It seems like the students who did not come over with friends have already formed cliques while I was sick in bed. It also seems like the reason people chose my housing option was so that they could live with their friends and/or go out and party every single night. I do not have the stamina or the cash flow to go out to bars every night, and there is that little fact that I am not invited. I was the first couple nights, but I was sick, and now no one asks. I have tried to be friends, I do not hide in my room, and I go into the common room frequently, but then that is awkward also because it is the kitchen and the TV doesn’t work and we have no internet so you just have to kinda sit there and pretend to be eating. So I have no friends and they think I am a fatty.

I realize I am making myself sound very unattractive, but here are the facts:
- I am a familiar face on the floor. I talk to people and they talk to me. If they see me outside of housing they say “hi” and we make small talk. People are nice to me and I am nice to them.
- People talk to me in class.
- I introduce myself to new people.
- I have 4 numbers in my phone.
- I have not done anything totally embarrassing or gross to make a public fool of myself.
- I have been approached by people that I have met just a few times.
- I am involved with events that my school has.
- I have Amanda here with me, kinda.
- I do not have a host family to take care of me.
- I have a lot of free time because classes are not in full swing yet.
- It is the first week, and I have 9 more months.
- I have recently had some very complicated friend issues that already have me questioning my likeability, and make me think all relationships are a scam anyways.

The conclusions I can make from this? I have made a lot of acquaintances. Friendships take time. Everyone else is feeling just as lonely and clinging to each other in a desperate attempt to fill the void until they make real friends. I am jumping to the assumption that no one wants to be my friend when I have no concrete evidence. The problems at home were caused by unique circumstances that do not apply in this situation.

EDIT: I was searching my itunes for “You’re Not Alone” by Saosin to add background music to this feeling, but ended up with “We Are Not Alone” by Starfire. Thanks itunes for helping me remember the deal. God has a plan, I just have to trust that everything happens for a reason.

Saturday, August 28, 2010

We Dance Like Gingas

Yesterday was my first real day of classes. I had Developmental Disorders, History of European Ballet, and Danish Language and Culture. I am completely smitten with my Dev. Disorders professor. Oh goodness. He is British and came to Copenhagen for "failed love". He is also slightly very nice to look at. I could seriously listen to this man talk for hours, as can the other 25 females in the class... My Hist. of Ballet professor is a total bigshot in the cultured world of Denmark and France, he has been on the boards of all these super famous art organizations and is also super adorable. He is completely obsessed with his work and even though I have to read 5 books for that class it looks amazing. My language class has 12 people, all Child Dev students so that we can talk to the children in our practicum. It is a very fun group of girls, and our teacher is precious. She is taking us out to dinner on Monday on the schools dime so we can "have a beer together". Basically, if you are a teacher at DIS you are automatically my favorite person ever.

Yesterday I also got to see Kathrine! I know, you are all super jealous. We walked around the Strøget then she bought me ice cream at Paradis, which is kinda like gelato, but not. They make all their ice cream fresh in the morning and it is amazing. Then we went to the top of Rundetaarn, which is this really old round tower that has gorgeous views of the entire city. I will try to post pictures later, but not having internet is killing me. We had it for like an hour one night and now it doesn't work anymore, which is more frustrating then not having it at all. We then walked to Jysk to get her sheets for where she was staying, and I learned that Danish people do not share comforters! It is really hard to find a douvet cover for anything besides a twin because even if you sleep in the same bed you usually each have your own comforter just for you. This blew my mind.

After that I went to the DIS Welcome Party, which was epically fun. It was in a night club around the corner and had free refreshments. They music they played was so much fun, all sorts of crazy stuff! They played Shakira, and French music, and stuff from our top 40, and even stuff like Cotton Eyed Joe and Grease Lightening. Also, in clubs here it is about dancing and having fun, not having sex on the dance floor, which was very refreshing. I met some Danes and talked to them for a while, then Amanda had to go so we left. Then there is a really embarrassing story about the computer lab, but we do not need to get into that.

This morning/all day I went to Kronborg, which is Hamlet's Castle. It was beautiful and made me all sorts of happy.

I know that I am still in the Honey Moon stage of my time here, and in a week I will be miserably homesick and crying, but right now I am in love.

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Who Needs Sketcher's Shape Ups When You Have Streets Older than America?

The streets of Hell must be lined with cobblestones because I cannot imagine a worse punishment for eternity. Pretty in pictures, painful in reality. Every girl I have talked to has swollen ankles, and heels? Oh heck no.

No Excuses!

I am having a little bit of a hard time living in a country with no "please" or "excuse me". There is "tak" which is "thank you", but there is only so much you can do with that. It is harder to move around crowded places as an American because I feel the need to justify my every bump into someone else with a word, where as that is just how they move around. The Danes are also a very quiet people. Everywhere you go is just so much quieter, unless it is a tourist spot. On public transportation it is seen as being rude if you talk, and they even have specific silent cars. It is very nice, and I am afraid I may become annoyed once I get back to America.

Amanda, Kate, and I discovered this store called Tiger. It is like a combination of Ikea, Target, and the cutest thing you have ever seen in your life. I got some stuff for my room there, but I still need towels and shower shoes.

Yesterday we also did our first "shopping trip" at the Strøget, but it mainly ended up with us watching this football (that is soccer in America, they all feel like they need to explain this to us) team who had just won a game or something. They were getting drunk on a pub patio and were singing and dancing and attacking people. There was a news camera. Yeah, less then a week here and I am already on Danish TV. We have decided that we are just going to be famous by the time we get home.

Classes start today, but I only have my practicum on Thursdays so we have a 3 hour orientation for that. I love the daycare thing in my building. Children flock to it and there is a very fun youthful feel. Also, I have noticed that since my housing is on the Copenhagen University campus there are quite a lot of hot young Danish men roaming around. I am not sure yet what I am gong to do with this situation, but I hope it ends in my favor.

My jetlag ends today. I have decided this. I will not go to bed until at least 10.

Squeegee Broom

Let me take a moment to introduce my new friend Squeegee Broom. Squeegee Broom (or SB for short) is what happens when a window cleaner falls deeply in love with a maid and they have babies. It is about 5 feet tall with a handle like a broom, but then at the bottom there is a squeegee instead of a brush. And what do you think SB’s job is in the world? PUSHING WATER BACK INTO THE SHOWER! Okay, not to sound all smug, but I think America has a better handle on the whole shower design. Maybe I should have my people call their people and fix this one little flaw in their country? The showers have no bottom confinement. Like, there is no sizeable rim or border around the shower area, just the floor and MAYBE half a centimeter divot before the rest of the bathroom floor. I do not know how many of you have ever seen water, but it is wet and fluid and if it does not have something telling it to stop it can get a little bit free spirited. Basically, there are 3 showers and not everyone understands SB’s unique place in our new world, so every time you walk into our bathroom the ENTIRE ROOM is flooded with like an inch of water. In this water lays the dirt and hair and trash and paper towels of 10 girls. We have no one to clean for us so that means that at some point we will have to clean. The point of SB is to gently persuade the water to get back into the shower area instead of all over the floor. It is a very useful tool and I have heard many people just get SB’s little sister Hand Squeegee, but I resent SB because I KNOW that it really has no point because a simple barrier at the bottom of the shower would serve a better and more practical purpose. I never see anyone and do not know how to politely tell them to get their act together and embrace Squeegee Broom into their hearts. I am writing this post at 2:30 on Wednesday morning because I had to go to the bathroom and someone left the toilet door open, so that was also flooded today and my feet are all wet and it is gross.

Yesterday we had a really awesome Scavenger Hunt and I went all over the city. I will post pictures as soon as I unpack my camera cord. Today I have the more boring orientation about classes and then Amanda and Kate and I are going to do some shopping so I can get things like a hamper and a trash can.

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Sick

Julia’s 10 Step Guide to Making Yourself Really Sick your First Week in a New Country:

1. Be really stressed out the weeks before you leave. Try braking up with some friends or try to over plan everything for your trip.
2. Get 3 hours of sleep the night before you leave, even less if you can.
3. Do not sleep on the plane, if any dozing does happen arrange for the girl next to your to climb over you every 2 seconds, this will wake you up without fail..
4. Take at least 2 planes so you can be exposed to the most germs in confinement as possible.
5. Make sure that you fly into a country that is just starting it’s day (getting in before 7am is desirable), this way you will be forced to do activities and unpack the first day instead of sleeping. Those 3 hours of sleep you got 30 hours ago should be all used up and a complete feeling of exhaustion should have taken over your body.
6. Try to fight your jetlag because everyone says that it will help regulate you.
7. Move to a country with no fruits or vegetables.
8. Your second day after you wake up with a horrible runny nose and sore throat, pretend it is allergies.
9. Walk EVERYWHERE until your body hurts with fatigue.
10. Forget your sweater so when you have to walk home from the National Museum and it starts raining harder then you have ever been in before you get a nice 45 minute shower in a tank top..

Join us next time for “Julia’s Easy Plan for Staying Sick as Long as Possible” it will include fun tips like “Don’t have your Danish CPR card yet so you cannot go to the Doctor” and “Make sure the pharmacy is a 45 minute walk and you do not know how the bus system works yet”.

UPDATE: Other student in my housing gave me cold medicine. I am feeling much better. At orientation and drinking coffee. I also conquered the very confusing 7/11 Danish coffee maker.

Delayed Post #2, August 23rd

Today is Miss. Amanda’s birthday, but I have not seen her yet and have no internet and cannot unlock my phone… I am sure I will see her soon though.
Today is also the first day of our orientation. We have this big lunch thing (it is 10am right now). City Hall has invited us to have pancakes, which is apparently a really big. The way it was explained to us is that it is the same treatment the World Cup winning team would get if they visited Copenhagen. The last time DIS was invited for pancakes was like 10 years ago. The mayor of Copenhagen will be there and give a welcome speech. (UPDATE: DIS has never been invited before, and they cannot be for another 10 years as per tradition. We ate off of the Royal Danish china with real silver, and they mayor is called Lord Mayor).



Last night I went to try to find internet at my school with a few other people. Yeah, my school does not exist. We didn’t get lost, but we walked around the area like 5 times looking for the street and we never found it. This city is amazing though. A lot of people went out to bars last night, I slept instead. Oh jetlag. I was also up today at 6. I am going to try to stay up tonight until at least 10pm with no naps.
I am getting a bike today, the biking here is so insane! There are WAY more bikes then cars, and they show no mercy. I have yet to be ran over, but I may have gotten one or two dirty looks. Also, people do not lock their bikes? I think back to Sonoma where no one bikes anyways and bikes were always getting stolen. Maybe because everyone already has one, and a used bike is cheap as dirt anyways? (UPDATE: They do lock their bikes, but they lock the wheels instead of the bike to a post or something like we do here.)

In other news, I went grocery shopping by myself today. I do not know what I was expecting, but not really what I experienced. First, EVERYTHING was in Danish, and I get it, this is Denmark, but everything else I have seen that is not a proper noun has the English translation underneath the Danish. But nope, not food! I bought bread with a hot nature man on it, it was between that or the brand called Viking. They had a nice American sized loafs of white bread, but they were obviously not what people bought and I thought I would at least attempt to eat in a way that does not scream “CLOSED MINDED AMERICAN”. I also ran into problems when trying to buy juice (I have developed a sore throat and a runny nose, I am hoping just allergies but thought I would buy orange juice just in case). Well, the box has pictures of oranges but says “appl(something, I forget the rest of the word)”. After much debate I decided to trust the picture, and it is indeed orange juice, but it caused me much distress. I also bought cheese that is called “Tasty Mild” and think that if it has tasty in the name, it must be okay. Shopping for meats and cheese is WAY different then at home. I am afraid I am going to be totally spoiled by living with all these fancy cheeses when I get back to CA and am offered Kraft singles… They also had pineapples! Which I did not buy, but I was relieved because they are tart. It is really embarrassing at check out, because it is all self check-out that talks to you. In the midst of all the nice quiet machines talking in Danish, mines was yelling at me in English for doing things wrong and everyone was staring. My goal is to get good enough at it that I will be able to use the Danish setting so that at least if it yells at me I can play it off.

I am afraid that this may turn into an over-sharing blog about all the mundane details in my life. I am sorry, but I have quite a lot to say. Hopefully soon I will become so immersed in my life here that I will forget to post. ☺

Day One

I have no idea what time it is. My laptop says 1:12 am, and that should be 10:12 am, but I am so tired I do not even know. This post will also have a different time stamp on it because there is no internet yet because this building just got redone. The date is the 22nd of August. My flight got in at 7 am Copenhagen time and was a series of 2 flights the first of which I was at SFO by 4:45 am CA time and totaled 14 hours in the air. I got maybe 45 minutes of sleep on the plane. I may be a little bit cranky.
My room is different then I expected. I thought I was going to have my own bathroom, but I do not. We have one toilet and three showers for like 14 girls, I am intimidated. I also did not bring a shower caddy, so that will have to be arranged… and the shower doors are glass… lets get European and comfortable with each other really quickly please.

I have already met some really great people, and I am excited to be here. Everything has so much history. The city (what I have seen of it so far) is GORGEOUS. The building that I am living in is and old hospital that has been converted into flats for students of the University of Copenhagen, but DIS is renting it. As I type I can hear the bell tower in the courtyard ringing for 10:30. I will post pictures because it really is quite spectacular. I am on the second floor after the first and ground. Ground is a daycare facility for the University of Copenhagen, and 1 has a student café. The other parts of the hospital have been converted into classrooms for the University of Copenhagen’s business and economics departments or something. I am secretly hoping that the hospital used to be a psych ward and is haunted. Except there are no crazy Danes… if we ignore that whole Hamlet thing.



My bed is an awkward futon couch thing. Think Ikea on crack then mass produced for dormitories. Also, my closet does not open because there is this ancient skeleton key thing that refuses to turn in only my room. It’s probably the ghosts.
I am waiting for everything to hit me and for this to stop feeling like a vacation. I am going to go try out these crazy showers and then take a nap. I have no idea what time it is in the real world, and since I have no internet I do not know the code to unlock my phone to set and alarm, can you do laptop alarms? We will find out!
Tomorrow is the first real day of orientation. I will take lots of pictures and hopefully find internet!

EDIT: The girl living 2 rooms down from me goes to school in an old CA state mental institution! I am sure this is a sign because I blogged about this earlier, I just do not know what it is a sign for exactly. It is now about 4pm and I broke the main rule of jetlag and just slept for like 5 hours. It is POURING rain, and everything is closed on Sundays here anyways, so I do not want to go exploring. My closet is broken so I cannot unpack, and I seem to have lost any sign of other students. Blogging sans internet for the win!

Monday, August 23, 2010

Oh Internet

I do not have internet yet in my housing. Expect delayed blog entiries in a few days. I love it here. Everything is 100x cuter in Denmark.

Saturday, August 21, 2010

All my bags are packed, I'm ready to go...

T-minus 5.5 hours!

Today has been quite an ordeal, but everything has worked out. I never realized 50 pounds of luggage could be so little! I definitely bring more to Church Camp for a week then is currently sitting in my suitcase right now, but my mom found a way so shipping the rest of my stuff is cheaper then another suitcase or paying the weight fee, so I will deal for a few weeks.

This summer may have been one of my most interesting yet. Most of the time I was preparing for this trip, but I had a lot of relationship dynamics change also. Some of them heartbreaking, but others blossomed in ways I could have never imagined. I am feeling confident that I can handle anything that is thrown my way at this very moment, and that includes being at the airport at 5am for an international flight with a transfer.

I am going to go to bed now, well, that is actually a lie, I am going to go triple check my carry-on and have a piece of the cake my mother made me, but then I am going to go sleep for a last few hours in my bed before getting up and starting the adventure of a lifetime! Ouch, comma abuse.

Thursday, August 12, 2010

Nine Days of Optimism

After a very intense "why me" pity party I had last night, I thought I would spend this post focusing only on the super fabulous.

- I just got back from a nice relaxing family vacation.

- I get to go to Disneyland in a few days.


- My Danish phone arrived, and it will not consume my life with apps the way the Droid does. I may look a bit skeptical in the picture, but it was taken before I realized that this is pretty much THE phone I wanted when I was 11. Also, this one is much lighter and has a cell phone charm hole thing for the cell phone charm that I made with Evida a few weeks ago! The number is also fun with a country code and an 8 digit phone number!

- I got my housing today, and I am in the middle of the city near a bunch of cool cafes and clubs. (The "A" is where I will be living).


- I have a single room... I think.

- I said goodbye to my sister yesterday, which will make the next time I see her in 10 months even more exciting!

- I am going to go to school with people from Princeton, Georgetown, Columbia, and all sorts of legit colleges, which means that somewhere someone thinks I am smart enough to be on their level, I will also be with other people who care about academics as I do.

- They say things like "deliver a parcel" when they speak in English, which makes me feel fancy, and I always like to be fancy.

- I am listening to The Beatles.

Thursday, August 5, 2010

Homework

From an email from the director at DIS:

"Please, be aware that the success of your study abroad experience will be partly determined by your own attitude. Human beings largely comprehend what they expect to comprehend. Your preconceived notions of study abroad will influence your actual experience. It is therefore important that you articulate your expectations. Remember, the ability to adjust your culture-based expectations is the core of intercultural competence.

During the Arrival Workshop in Copenhagen you will kindly be asked to articulate, share and discuss your individual expectations to the semester with DIS in Copenhagen. In a special Articulation Workshop you will do so together with other students and a DIS faculty. Please take notes (and bring them to Copenhagen!) with your answers to the following three important questions:

1. What do you expect of the academics? Does it has to be like at home? Are you prepared to give the different teaching style a fair chance? Are you prepared to do serious academic work, realizing that in study abroad learning is a 24/7 process?"

Wow, talk about a loaded question. It is not like I am going to respond to this 'meh, I am not prepared to work hard AT ALL! PARTY PARTY PARTY THATS WHAT I"M HERE FOR! Everything has to be EXACTLY like it is at home!' But in all seriousness, in academics I am expecting to work hard, but to love my classes. In high school I did very poorly in school, and since coming to college I have revolutionized my attitude towards studying and learning. I am a little bit uptight when it comes to wanting a good GPA, and I know that I can accomplish that at Sonoma. I have been told that in Denmark my professors will not hold my hand like American Universities tend to do. I will have little to no fluff work to help my grades and will probably have less assignments but have to work a lot harder on them. I have also been warned that there is a lot more outside research expected from us in writing papers and being knowledgeable about our subject. However, I am not going to Denmark for a vacation. The reason I was so set on this plan is because the program is academically perfect for me. Every class I am taking is about something that I love and truly want to know more about. On Mondays I have my Children in a Multicultural Context Seminar; Tuesdays and Fridays I have Developmental Disorders, The History of European Ballet, and Danish Language and Culture 1 with Child Development and Diversity focus, and Thursdays I have my Child Development and Diversity Practicum where I will be working in a Danish school with children for 9 hours. And next semester I am having a problem even figuring out what to take because I want to take about 4 more classes then I am allowed! The teaching style will be different, and I know this, but hopefully the subject matter will encourage me to stay focused and keep my drive.



"2. What do you expect of the intercultural immersion? Will you decide to qualify for the DIS Intercultural Leadership Award? Are you prepared to step out of the cozy comfort zone of fellow American students and take advantage of the many intercultural immersion options available to you?"

This is a touchy subject for me since I had hoped for the most Danish interactive housing option, and instead am stuck back into my "cozy comfort zone of fellow American students". Yes, I am still bitter, but I am working through it. I have signed up for a DIS buddy, a visiting family with weekly interaction, and applied to be a weekly volunteer in the Danish community. I have already started contact with my DIS buddy, and she seems great and I am very excited to meet her. I will be interacting with Danish children and adults at my practicum site, so I know I will at least have that. I am also hoping to get into contact with a few of my friends and families connections in Denmark. I want Denmark to feel like a home. Now, about this Intercultural Leadership Award? I had not heard of this until this email was sent to me, and I have searched the website and can find no mention of it except that the "DIS Intercultural Leadership task force gave a presentation"... sketch.



"3. What do you expect of traveling in Europe? You will be offered faculty lead course integrated study tour opportunities and also time for individual traveling. The classic German author Goethe said "You see what you know." Are you prepared to investigate the burning issues of Europe, rather than consume tourist sights?"

It may sound bad, but I kinda want to consume the tourist sights. Not in Denmark, and not on my study tours, but if I go to England for few days I will want to see Stonehenge and the British Museum. I will not want to get wrapped up in the UK's burning issues. I like to be culturally aware and I don't want to be completely ignorant, but I will be in Denmark for a year and expect to do a lot of traveling. Sometimes it is fun to be a tourist. I do want to stay in hostels (obviously as a student) and meet all sorts of different people and exchange views on the world and our home countries, but what can they honestly expect of us? Even when I went to Belfast, Ireland and we learned about the violence in Northern Ireland, the taxi tour that was teaching us about it was designed for tourists! When I go to a country that I have a friend in I will want to meet up with them and learn about that country from the perspective of someone living there. But if we "see what we know" will it do us any good anyways? Won't I just look at their burning issues through the eyes of an American? I really do not like how directed this question is. In Denmark I want to know their burning issues, I want to culturally aware in other places and go into my travels with an open mind, but I am not "prepared to not consume tourist sights" in exchange for a crash course in an issue that is probably way beyond my comprehension anyways.

Maybe I should come up with a different answer for the last question. I am going on 2 vacations before I leave, which leaves a total of 7 days (split up) at home. This is becoming reality and I am thrilled. :)