Monday, February 28, 2011

Real Update to Come Later

I have discovered something that sucks worse than heels and cobble stones. Crutches and cobblestones.

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Going Out and Dropping Out



I have never been the type of girl who really goes out and parties every single night. I have fun, but it was definitely not normal for me to go out to bars or clubs more than once a week. This semester I realized how much of the night life I had missed out on last semester and that is where you actually meet Danes, so I have been trying to make up for it. The bar scene here is so much fun and it helps that Copenhagen is such a safe city and I literally live in the middle of the center of town and the hip university area and can feel secure walking home whenever I need. It is true that in the past month I have met and talked to more Danish people going out that I did in a span of 3 months last semester. I also have became better friends with girls, who although American, are great. I have also noticed that this semester I am doing a lot worse academically. I think there are a lot of different reasons and a lot of stressors in my life, but I cannot help beating myself up a bit for starting to let my grades drop when I start going out more. I don't go out if I have class the next morning and it probably isn't really related, but it is just a different person than I am used to being. That being said, tonight a huge group went out dancing to celebrate THREE people that I knows' birthdays and I stayed in to study for my two midterms tomorrow. At least I can still maintain the facade of being responsible.

I had the best day at practicum today. Complete with the kids remembering my name, climbing in my lap, fighting over who got to sit next to me, and having conversations in Danish about fastelavn. I am invited to their fastelavn party next Friday. I have discovered that the official date is March 6th, but I had to look it up online because my two Danish friends didn't even know when it was and told me that they just kinda celebrate whenever certain groups can have parties. I have decided I can never be a real forest kindergarten pedagogue because today one of them casually took a whole pigs head (that was still furry) and tore it apart (it made ripping sounds) and made it into stew. Later they had the kids examine the boiled clean skull. I am not badass enough to handle that.

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Fastelavn og I Dag

This Saturday I am going to "Fræk Fastelavn" which Google Translate says translates to "Kinky Shrovetide"... I laughed out loud when I saw that, but it is really more like "Naughty Halloween". Not exactly where you want your daughter, but better than Kinky Shrovetide...

Fastelavn confuses me. I have heard all sorts of stories and even Wikipedia cannot really clarify it to me. The Danes say that is it just like our Halloween, but I know that there is a lot more to it than that. Some sites claim that it used to be part of Carnival (Mardi Gras) but then when Denmark turned Protestant the holiday became secular, but it still falls on the Sunday or Monday before Shrove Tuesday. A big factor is Fastelavn is beating the cat in the barrel. The story I have heard from this is that they would take the black cat away from witches and by essentially killing it by beating the crap out of the barrel they were destroying the evil and witchcraft. Thankfully, the cat is now replaced with candy and oranges, but I decided that my backup costume of being a black cat would not be a very good idea for Fastelavn like it is for Halloween in the states.

The main reason for this post is that in the next 3 days I have 2 midterms and 2 Fastelavn parties without having done much studying, no clean laundry, and no costume. I shouldn't be that stressed out, but it really is just as big of a deal here as Halloween is in America but it did not occur to me to care about it until a few days ago. The plan is to go to practicum tomorrow, come home and study until I am an expert on the Danish language and Hans Christian Andersen's entire life, sleep. Wake up on Friday, get an A on my Danish Test, go to Tiger to find some sort of animal ears/fairy wings, go home throw some laundry in the machine, go back to school and get an A on my HCA test, go home finish laundry, party for 2 days straight in whatever beautiful costume I have created.

I made cookies tonight but when I went to Føtex to buy vanilla extract I left it at the register (oh the joys of packing your own groceries) so I used vanilla sugar instead because that is what Danes normally use (it is also what they put in my favorite Danish Christmas cookie ever). I have used vanilla sugar before in recipes that have called for it and it has been fine. These cookies leave a weird bitter aftertaste in my mouth that I am SURE is from the vanilla. Everyone else loves them but I am unsettled. They started joking that I am pregnant so my taste is off, this made me remember that there are worse things than making funny tasting cookies. Not that having a baby is the worst thing ever, but another time for another thing. (Parents, are you sufficiently freaked out?)

Today I went to the open prison. I think I have been in Denmark too long because I just kinda accepted it without the shock we were supposed to experience. Eh, inmates cooking unsupervised with 10 inch knives, whatevs. Of course they can, it's DENMARK.

I bought my ticket to go to Munich, it was more expensive than I wanted. I am planning my Spring and I have decided to let go of the thought of going to Austria and Slovenia, just Prague and Istanbul for me. I think I have traveled enough that I can justify that I have fully experienced backpacking around Europe and taking trains and all that jazz. I also have decided to not come home when my school is over. I get 14 days after my visa expires before they kick me out of the country and I think I am going to go to all the places in Denmark I have been neglecting. I want to get to Berlin and Oslo but do not know if those weekend trips will be happening. Getting SO excited to see my family, but also getting REALLY stressed out.

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Happy 6 Months!

I have been saying that I have been here for 6 months for the past month and a half, but today is the official 6 month point. If we were a high school relationship I would expect some overly cheasy gesture and possibly Denmark pressuring me for 3rd base. Just when I feel like time is running out and going to fast and I have been here forever and refuse to leave, I remember that is has only been 6 months. That is all. It is not really my home and I will go back to California and expect to act like I never left.

Today the sun was shining and there was a fair amount of snowfall. I do not know where the snow came from with such few clouds, but it looked like the sky was dumping glitter on the world.

This is supposed to be the last week in the negatives. Paradis reopens for Spring on Saturday complete with giving away free ice cream.

Midterms are kicking my butt and I am a little stressed out. Tomorrow I am going to an open prison with my Psych of Criminal Behavior class. It should be really cool.

Tonight I went to a Sports Bar and watched the FCK vs. Chelsea game. It was the most important football match in Denmark since 1998.

Today I got a card in the mail that made me smile and smile and smile and smile, then cry a bit, but smile some more.

Tomorrow I may go to Georg Jensen and buy myself a 6 month anniversary present. There is a necklace that I have wanted since the first month I was here, but I felt too guilty to buy it for myself for Christmas with all the traveling I was doing. I think it will be perfect to be able to look back and remember 6 months. Only 6 months, but the best months I have had in a long time.

Monday, February 21, 2011

I am always right and not stubborn at all.

Do you ever encounter instances online or in reality where you see something that is incorrect and you want to announce to the world that whatever you read/saw/heard is WRONG and you know what is RIGHT. I have been looking online for traditional Danish cookbooks in English (which is something that I have not been able to find) and I find myself getting more and more frustrated with things people write about Danish food. I read things like Williams-Sonoma's explanation of "Ebleskiver" as "Filled-Pancakes". Excuse me Williams-Sonoma, but Æbleskiver have not been filled for generations. Like, you CAN fill them, but you eat them with jam and powdered sugar on top. Do not try to pretend that they exist to be some sort of jelly-filled donut. Also, æbleskiver are not a breakfast food, again, you can eat them for breakfast (which I will encourage in my life when I get home because the more æbleskiver the better), but they are seasonally for Christmas and you have them as a treat. In Denmark I never ate an æbleskiver before like 3 pm because you usually eat them at markets or at parties with gløgg. I hate this feeling, because I am sure that there is an entire population of Danes who would read this and go "Excuse ME Julia, you have only been here for 6 months and you don't know anything." I just hate it when people pretend to know everything about something when they know nothing (which I am guilty of ALL THE TIME). I am a pro-hypocrite. Like when people tell me when I go home that I can still eat ryebread, I just want to yell at them that they do not even understand the concept of ryebread and that they cannot tell me what mayonaise tastes like because it is different here. I did not expect that I would ever become attached to Danish food. It is slightly heartbreaking because Danish food is not really something you can get other places. Although hard to find truly authentic, a study abroad student who was in France or Italy can come home and find French or Italian food. My family is coming to visit in a few weeks and there is so much that I just want to make them eat. I am in love with Danish food. Maybe I will pass on leverpastej (liver patee) and pickled herring, but frikadeller (meatballs) and beets and potatoes and ryebread and wienerbrød (pastry) and tarteletter and lagekage (cake) and flødeboller and even ridiculous things like rødgrød med fløde. Yummm, I am getting hungry just thinking about it. Jeg kan godt lide dansk mad.

An interesting side note is that a Dane just won second place in the world cooking championship last month, and that the world's best restaurant is in Copenhagen in Christianhavn. It is called Noma and looks slightly ridiculous. I love Danish food. I plan on cooking huge amounts of it when I get home. I have found some ryebread recipes that look decent. I hope that people do not judge when I take my piece of ryebread, cut it in half, spread butter, place a few thin slices of hardboiled egg, and then dollop a spoonful of organic mayonaise on it and a little sprinkle of chives. Yum yum yum, that is my favorite smørrebrød.

In my fridge right now I have butter, jam, flour, and instant coffee. I need to go grocery shopping tomorrow. I hope I reread this post before I go so I can remember to be in love with Danish food and not cave and buy the over-priced avocados or the trail mix with "American peanuts" and "California rasins". I may splurge and buy some ice cream tomorrow. Danish ice cream is better quality, and it doesn't melt on the 20 minute journey home!

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Det er koldt.

It has been freezing. The sun has been shining and it looks gorgeous, but this past week it has been between -1º to -8º, with windchill making it feel like it was -20º! That is -4º F, which is actually legitimately cold, and not just me being a wimp from California.

Saturday, February 19, 2011

Jeg snakker dansk altid.

I speak Danish a lot now. Always terrible Danish, but a lot of it. I love it, but every time I whine "Neeeeej" or start speaking to someone at home I can sense how annoying I am. What am I going to do with a language no one in Denmark will speak to me in and no one at home will understand? I am going to be that obnoxious girl who comes home and says awkward Danish things, I hope that you will all understand and not judge me too harshly.

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Kærlighed, Venner og Snoezelhuset


Love, Friends, and the Snoezel (mashup word of Dutch words for sniff and doze) House

Valentine's day was a HUGE success. Probably the best one I ever had. We made pizza, wore matching shirts, baked cookies with pink frosting, drank strawberry orange mimosas (so that they were pink), and watched Sex and the City. It was really just a fabulous night. I am totally lucky to have Amanda and Grace in my life. If I can't have a plethora of actual Danish friends, it is nice to have friends that I can take home to California with me.
<--- This is a picture of us.

Yesterday on my field study my core class went to the Snoezelhuset, which is pronounced SNOOZELHOOZEL and is really quite fun to say. It is a "house" with different rooms designed to stimulate different senses and parts of the brain for people who have a range of different conditions from ADHD and anxiety up to stroke victims and severely disabled patients. The one we went to had 4 rooms. One was a room with bean bag chairs and black lights with glowing things and blankets full of balls that you lay over yourself. One had music and a color changing lighted ball pit of clear balls and music. One room had a heated water bed with music and a trippy lights. And then there was my favorite room, the red room. The red room had a bed and crazy music. The bed is made of plastic with some crazy bass surround sound thing. The bed vibrates with the bass, but not in the driving-next-to-a-teenager-listening-to-their-rap-too-loud way. It was awesome, and the most relaxed I think I have ever been. I could spend all day there. There were also tubes with colored lights and bubbles and the lights would change colors. I need a Snoezelhuset in my house.
vvv This is actually the worst picture of the red room ever because the flash went off and you obviously cannot see the vibrations or the lights, but it was great. I am on the right.

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Myers-Briggs Freaks Me Out

I remember doing Myers-Briggs in Psych 101 and not thinking very much of it. It is a way of categorizing personality types and there are 16 different results you can have. I remember that I was an INFJ and no one else was and it was awkward. Since Freshman year I have learned a lot more about myself. Too bad I didn't just look more into the analysis I got, it would have saved me a whole lot of soul searching. A friend here encouraged me to take the test again. Here is a bit of reading about me. It says that it was written about all INFJ people, but there is no way they could know this much about me without years of detailed stalking. I am actually really freaked out by this.

"As an INFJ, your primary mode of living is focused internally, where you take things in primarily via intuition. Your secondary mode is external, where you deal with things according to how you feel about them, or how they fit with your personal value system.

INFJs are gentle, caring, complex and highly intuitive individuals. Artistic and creative, they live in a world of hidden meanings and possibilities. Only one percent of the population has an INFJ Personality Type, making it the most rare of all the types.

INFJs place great importance on havings things orderly and systematic in their outer world. They put a lot of energy into identifying the best system for getting things done, and constantly define and re-define the priorities in their lives. On the other hand, INFJs operate within themselves on an intuitive basis which is entirely spontaneous. They know things intuitively, without being able to pinpoint why, and without detailed knowledge of the subject at hand. They are usually right, and they usually know it. Consequently, INFJs put a tremendous amount of faith into their instincts and intuitions. This is something of a conflict between the inner and outer worlds, and may result in the INFJ not being as organized as other Judging types tend to be. Or we may see some signs of disarray in an otherwise orderly tendency, such as a consistently messy desk.

INFJs have uncanny insight into people and situations. They get "feelings" about things and intuitively understand them. As an extreme example, some INFJs report experiences of a psychic nature, such as getting strong feelings about there being a problem with a loved one, and discovering later that they were in a car accident. This is the sort of thing that other types may scorn and scoff at, and the INFJ themself does not really understand their intuition at a level which can be verbalized. Consequently, most INFJs are protective of their inner selves, sharing only what they choose to share when they choose to share it. They are deep, complex individuals, who are quite private and typically difficult to understand. INFJs hold back part of themselves, and can be secretive.

But the INFJ is as genuinely warm as they are complex. INFJs hold a special place in the heart of people who they are close to, who are able to see their special gifts and depth of caring. INFJs are concerned for people's feelings, and try to be gentle to avoid hurting anyone. They are very sensitive to conflict, and cannot tolerate it very well. Situations which are charged with conflict may drive the normally peaceful INFJ into a state of agitation or charged anger. They may tend to internalize conflict into their bodies, and experience health problems when under a lot of stress.

Because the INFJ has such strong intuitive capabilities, they trust their own instincts above all else. This may result in an INFJ stubborness and tendency to ignore other people's opinions. They believe that they're right. On the other hand, INFJ is a perfectionist who doubts that they are living up to their full potential. INFJs are rarely at complete peace with themselves - there's always something else they should be doing to improve themselves and the world around them. They believe in constant growth, and don't often take time to revel in their accomplishments. They have strong value systems, and need to live their lives in accordance with what they feel is right. In deference to the Feeling aspect of their personalities, INFJs are in some ways gentle and easy going. Conversely, they have very high expectations of themselves, and frequently of their families. They don't believe in compromising their ideals.

INFJ is a natural nurturer; patient, devoted and protective. They make loving parents and usually have strong bonds with their offspring. They have high expectations of their children, and push them to be the best that they can be. This can sometimes manifest itself in the INFJ being hard-nosed and stubborn. But generally, children of an INFJ get devoted and sincere parental guidance, combined with deep caring.

In the workplace, the INFJ usually shows up in areas where they can be creative and somewhat independent. They have a natural affinity for art, and many excel in the sciences, where they make use of their intuition. INFJs can also be found in service-oriented professions. They are not good at dealing with minutia or very detailed tasks. The INFJ will either avoid such things, or else go to the other extreme and become enveloped in the details to the extent that they can no longer see the big picture. An INFJ who has gone the route of becoming meticulous about details may be highly critical of other individuals who are not.

The INFJ individual is gifted in ways that other types are not. Life is not necessarily easy for the INFJ, but they are capable of great depth of feeling and personal achievement."

Other sites also say that INFJ's work well with children and as psychologists. I am really freaked out. Take the test for yourself, then look up what it means about you. You can let me know too if you want since I am ridiculously fascinated with this right now. I am not saying that it is going to be spot on for everyone, but I cannot deal with how well it knows me.

http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/jtypes2.asp

Sunday, February 13, 2011

Happy Valentine's Day Eve!



Is 20 too young to give up on love? Possibly.

When I was younger I wanted to have my first kid by the time I was 25, now I just want to finish school by then. I really am perfectly fine being single, which is something that I have not been fine with for quite a while. Right now I need to be focused on myself and I still have quite a bit of baggage to work through before I can open my heart to someone else. It is always nice to get those daydreams in which I find the perfect man next week and we can galivant around Europe together and be sickeningly adorable, but I am not really a "cute relationship" kinda gal. I want what I can't have, and right now it would not be practical to even want anything. My beef is not with being single right now, my issue is that I feel like I am going to be single forever.

What is going to happen? Hopefully (if all goes as planned) I will spend 2 more years at Sonoma, and then 3-5 years working towards the ultimate goal of a PhD. After school I will have to throw myself into trying to use my million years of schooling and hard work towards a job that will probably overwhelm and consume my life for a few years until I can become established and credible. How did this become the plan? If you had asked the little girl I was, all she wanted was to get married and have a family, but with this plan does not seem to include time to try to meet a husband.

The future will come, and if I have to spend it alone that is something I will have to deal with then. Here, right now, it is the day before my first Valentine's Day in Denmark. It is nice because Danes don't really understand the absolute need to be in a relationship and go overboard with cliche romantic gestures, but they totally get the cute commercial aspect of it. Tiger (my favorite store ever) is selling all sorts of cute pink thins with hearts, and I approve. Tomorrow I am going over to Amanda's house with Grace and we are going to sip champagne, make pink cookies, watch movies, and eat homemade pizza with heart-shaped pepperoni on it. It is not a pity party, it is going to be a pretty party. I am quite excited.

Friday, February 11, 2011

Happy 100th Blog Post!

I have made is through the past 24 hours and now I am ready to go out and dance and forget all my worries.

The Forest Kindergarten I have my practicum at is actually the kindergarten program for a primary school, and in the same room as the kindergarten (for when we are inside) is a preschool/nursery. On Wednesday the school found out that 3 children, 2 from the primary school and one from the preschool had been shot and murdered by their father. I could write a full 5 pages of the experience I had in the classroom on Thursday, but I will save you the details. It was the most tense and emotional setting I have ever been in, and we only went outside for one hour during the six I was there. The kids did not know what was going on, but were feeding off the strange energy at the school. By the time I got home all I could do was lay in bed and cry, and I had only met the youngest boy briefly two weeks ago. I cannot understand how you can look at a 2 or 3 year old (the school told me he was 3, but the article I could find in english said he was 2) and point a gun at him. How can you shoot a baby? How can you shoot your family? The man attempted suicide, but he failed. I wish this happened in America because I am taking the Psychology of Criminal Behavior and we have learned about the Danish prison system, and this man is not going to get what he deserves. This type of thing does not happen in Denmark, at all. It is HUGE national news. I find so much irony in leaving my scary ghetto Islamic Brønshøj neighborhood to go to the idealistic world of privileged ethnic Danes in Birkerød to have this kind of thing happen. I am still pretty shaken up that something like this can happen at all, especially in the idealistic world of Denmark I have created in my head.

After I came home from practicum I went to see Dans2Go again at the Danish Ballet with my class. It wasn't as good this time, and except for Jord (the one with the hot shirtless men dancing in sand to Metallica) I resented it for taking me away from writing a paper I had due this morning. After the ballet we got Shwarma for a late dinner, and they were out of kylling (chicken) shwarma, and that annoyed me. Today has been much better, I wrote my paper for my Hans Christian Andersen class, went to class, picked up my long lost package at the post office, and am about to go to Føtex, try the Taco Shop for the first time, and go over for a Princess night before going out to a dance club.

I have actually discovered that I am Hans Christian Andersen reincarnated, just so you know. But that is another blog post for another time. 100 posts is a lot, I really applaud you if you have managed to stay interested in my life for this long.

I have discovered that 12/12 people on my floor know "In Da Club" by 50 Cent (the song that goes "We gonna party like it's your birthday, drink Bacardi like it's your birthday") but only 2 out of those 12 know the Beatles song "Birthday". I am really just about ready to give up on mankind in general.

"The Sweathearts"

The ball disappears to where the top imagines is a life of bliss with the swallow. After she was gone his infatuation continued to grow and grow. His longing for what he could never have in the first place seems to consume his mind until he started fabricating a ball of perfection in his mind. Once an idea is placed in the mind, especially the mind of a hopeless romantic like Andersen or myself, it is easy to get caught up in the excitement of what could have been instead of the reality of what is. Dreams of the perfect love can so easily overshadow flaws of the object in question that it appears to the dreamer that without the love of the other there can be no happiness. The distance between the top and the ball only drives his obsession because there is no reality to keep him in check. He is blinded by the idea of love, and not by the love itself.

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Bodies and Body Art

I am no stranger to manipulating my body. I have marked it and starved it and stuffed it and emptied it. Mostly I change it to feel powerful and gain some sense of control, even when it gets out of control. I have changed myself in order to feel and to cry out for help. It has been almost four years since I have resorted to routine mutilation, and almost a year since I have really dealt with the obsession of perfection.

Denmark fixed me. I do not want to camouflage what I just wrote in flowery prose, Denmark fixed me. If we look back four years ago, something entered my life that I loved more than myself. I was willing to give up my most prized source of comfort in the naive mindset that this new thing would take care of me, which it did. Irony loves me though, and that same thing that took care of me in my lowest points was broken and destroyed last summer when I decided to love Denmark more than I loved it.

I was at the doctor weekly last year to monitor my health. One of the forms in order to go to Denmark was a medical clearance. I was in the midst of "recovery" and seeing three different doctors. I was informed that they would not sign the forms unless I made drastic improvements in my attitude towards my body and my health. I again found a new thing to love more than myself, and really more than anything, and that was the promise of Denmark. Even last year I knew that I needed to get away and do something completely different. I do not even really remember second semester last year or my summer for that matter. All of my energy went to making sure I could come. I am glad that Denmark has fulfilled everything I dreamed of and more. When I am here I do not have to be perfect or in control, and I love that. This is the reason I am so frightened to go home. It is not that I just love Denmark and Copenhagen, I love myself when I am here. Home, even with everyone I love and miss, represents a place where I hated myself every single day. Where I loathed looking in the mirror or going out because I could see only flaws in my body and my actions.

That being said, I have decided to get a tattoo. I have thought a lot about this, and I really think that this is something that I will not regret. I want a daisy, which is a symbol of Denmark, and a quote from the Ugly Duckling which was written by Hans Christian Andersen. The quote I want is ‎"Den følte sig ordentlig glad over al den nød og genvordighed, den havde prøvet; nu skønnede den just på sin lykke, på al den dejlighed, der hilste den." The best english translation I have found or it is "He was thankful that he had known so much want, and gone through so much suffering, for it made him appreciate his present happiness and the lovliness of everything about him all the more." It is a little long and I am not sure if I am going to edit it down or not, because every part of it is so important to the meaning I do not know what I would cut out.

I would like to get it done here so that I can come home and have it during my culture shock, but I am not going to spend my parent's money on this so it is going to have to wait until the end of summer after I have saved for a bit.

I want to remember Denmark forever. I want to be able to look at my body and not see the results of destruction but a mark of promise that if I can be this happy here now, there should be nothing stopping me from being this happy at home in the future. I am so scared to go home, I never want May to come.

Dansk Super Bowl og Min Besøger Familie

The night of the Super Bowl was very fun. We left our housing at about 11:30 and went to Happy Pig, which is a bar I am obligated to like based on the name alone. The game started, but there was no sound. We thought this was okay for a bit and they gave us free drinks to compensate. Some other people we knew were at a sports bar around the corner, so we left before halftime and went to meet up with them. I only stayed until the 3rd quarter since it was 3 am and I was tired, so then I started my walk home. I LOVE walking home from the center of town at night. Copenhagen is so absolutely safe and quiet (especially on a Sunday night) that there is this overwhelming feeling of peace. It isn't quite as spectacular as when I would walk home in the snow at night with the Christmas lights and candles in all the windows, but if I can't have snow magic I am perfectly content with København serenity. I live in the perfect spot where no place I want to go is more than a 20 minute walk, I have never even taken a night bus. I got home, went to sleep, and was up in 4 hours to go to class. I was a little tired but not as miserable as one would expect.

After my 5 hour Monday class, I went home for a bit and then was off to meet my visiting family. Well, that is a lie. I have met them before. They were my friend's host family last semester, and the family I spent Thanksgiving with. They are going to be traveling a lot this semester and did not think they could handle hosting another student right now, but they requested me for their visiting kid. I am completely in love with them. The family has a mom and a dad and two daughters who are 15 and 12. The daughters wanted me to stay for a chick flick night but it was getting late so we are rain-checking that. We shared a wonderful meal together and we talked for hours. I am really a lucky girl.

Saturday, February 5, 2011

Rude Awakenings and Going Back to Sleep

So I realized that this past semester is the first semester since my first semester freshman year (where I had to take Statistics, ugh) that I did not make the Dean's List. I was really upset by this fact for about 10 minutes.

All first semester I thought that I had ample time in Copenhagen since I still had another semester. I have been away for 168 days, and I only have 102 days here left. I am getting anxiety like it was my last week, but I need to remember that some people only go abroad for a semester, and this is all the time they have. I am truly blessed to be able to spend so much time here, and fall in love with it as much as I have. That being said, my best friend leaves for Australia today for her study abroad experience! I am so excited for her I could burst! But then I am weirdly jealous that she is going without me. I do not like the idea of her having experiences that I will never be able to have or really relate to at all. I tend to be hypocritical. I know that she is going to have a life changing experience and probably the greatest 4 months of her life and I could not be more excited to see her in June.

I just got back from my Second Semester's Short Study Tour. I do not know if I have really gone into what my program this semester is, but it focuses around "Children with Special Needs" so we are learning about inclusion in the Danish school system. On Thursday we went up to Jylland (the main land-mass of Denmark) and went to a Folkehøjskole that had students who were severely mentally and physically disabled and other students that live with them and are "helpers". A folkehøjskole in itself is such a weird concept for Americans. It is a school that you go to and live at (like boarding school) for usually about a year where you do nothing but work to enrich your life. There are no grades or tests, and they have specialty ones for arts or music or language. They are really cool and a lot of Danes go to them between gymnasium (high school) and university. That day we also went to the town of Vejle where we met with a guy who is trying to change the Vejle Kommune school system. It was interesting. That night we went to the most epic hostel I have ever been to. It was on Skanderborg Lake and was made up of cabins. It looked like summer camp, but very posh expensive summer camp. Our cabin had 2 bedrooms, a loft, and a living room/kitchenette area, for just the 6 of us. There was supposed to be a "bonfire" but it kinda died in the wetness of weather. We played a game where I got one of the prizes which made me happy, and then I went out onto the dock of the frozen lake and had some good conversation and some excellent stargazing (the rain and clouds would clear periodically for stunning stars).


^^^ Our cabin.

The next day we did two academic visits. One in more southern Jylland at a school that did not do inclusion very well, but we got an hour of time in different special needs class rooms. I fell in love with the kids I was with. I do not know if I will ever be able to work with youth in a healthy way, I get super attached and love everyone too much. Later that day was went to the Odense Culture House which is geared towards disabled people and helping them make a living in the arts. We stayed and saw the band play and they were good and it was fun, but we were tired. We had the night off in Odense and while some people went out to rage, a few of us went back to the Turkish restaurant we went to last semester in hopes of fabulous dinner and Turkish pudding. They were out of Turkish pudding, and I wanted to cry, but I got "Turkish traditional dessert" instead and it was really good. We got a bottle of wine and went back to the hostel and talked and watched the Mummy on TV. It was a nice night in and I enjoyed myself a lot.

Today we went to the Tinderbox, which is my favorite place ever. It is that interactive Hans Christian Andersen story play museum place I went last semester. They changed the story from the last time I was there to The Little Mermaid. It was SO much fun and the set this time was a shipwreck and a coral reef castle and the Sea Witch's area with a whale's skeleton to keep prisoners in! It was way cool. This time I decided I didn't want to be a princess, so I dressed up like a pirate. I would also like to point out that I wore my pirate facepaint ALL day, including on the public transportation home from where our bus dropped us off in the city. We went to lunch the Hans Christian Andersen museum again. It was okay, but I was completely ready to get on the bus and pass out.



I am going to a Super Bowl party tomorrow at some sports bar. I do not care at all about football, but I feel like it will be a nice excuse to get really loud and American and go out too late on a school night.

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

The Amount I Fail and the Trade Off of Win

Here are some things I have realized I am really bad at while studying abroad:

- Writing postcards/keeping in touch any other way beside Facebook
- Finding motivation to do my laundry.
- Being frugal.
- Eating vegetables that are not beets, carrots, corn, or bell peppers.
- Exercising.
- Keeping up with my reading for class.

Things I am really good at while studying abroad:

- Finding illegal TV watching websites.
- Lighting candles.
- Dancing in my room.
- Walking and taking public transportation.
- Shopping.
- Traveling.
- Stepping out of my comfort zone and taking risks.
- Trying to learn a new language.
- Cooking beets.
- Wearing shoes that are not flip flops year round.
- Analyzing myself and the process of this year.