Things we've learned from Jorgen...

Mallory and I wrote some cards for Tina and Kim, and Else and Brian today.  Although we will be signing Jorgen's "Farewell book" soon, we decided to write a letter to him that we'll leave on the table when he drops us off at the airport.  When he gets back home, he'll be able to read this letter that contains a list of everything he has taught us this semester.  Hopefully it'll cheer him up!!  I thought it'd be a funny list to look back on someday, so I wanted it to post it here...

15 lessons we have learned from you this semester:

1.       Do not put an opened can of beer in your purse; you’ll probably break your phone…

2.       From Vanlose St, walk home past the Blockbuster.  Do not take the 25 minute way down Jernbrane Alle

3.       Listen to your directions, you won’t get lost everywhere you go

4.       Sip on Snaps, do not take it like a shot

5.       Do not throw batteries in the trash can, you’ll get arrested and the government might slap you!

6.       How to split a bottle of wine

7.       Drink Royal beer! Tuborg and Carlsburg suck…

8.       How they pee in Greenland

9.       Do not be loud at 4:30am when coming home from party partying

10.   “I’m so full” means “I’m so drunk”

11.   Never ask what the weather will be like, you’ll know tomorrow

12.   Learn how to blame others for your spills at the dinner table

13.   Do not eat like the Polish or burp like the Japanese

14.   If you lose your phone on the way home from party partying, the nice neighbors will return it

15.   And most importantly, you have taught us how to have the best 4 months of our lives

9 days left...

Well, I knew this would come eventually, but it realllly just hit me that I only have 9 days left in Copenhagen.  It started this morning during my last Psychology of Leadership class.  Throughout the semester, this class really has become like a family.  We have all grown to be so close through group projects, countless dinners, and nights out together in the city.  My teacher, Nancy, is a visiting professor from Villanova University who was hired by DIS for the semester.  She arrived in Denmark around the same time as all of us so we really have all been together since the very beginning of our time in Copenhagen.  Nancy is by far the best teacher and mentor I have every had throughout all my years of schooling.  She has not only taught me a great deal about leadership, but she has pushed each and every one of us in the class to get to know ourselves and figure out what we really believe in.  I honestly never thought I could learn so much from just one person.  I can't put words to it, but this class has brought the entire semester full circle for me.

Psychology of Leadership Class, with Nancy in the middle!

In our last class today, we gave Nancy a Georg Jensen Christmas ornament, chocolates, and a card signed by everyone in the class.  She definitely wasn't expecting it and started to tear up as she was thanking all of us.  I think this is when it hit me... This semester is actually coming to an end.  I think the hardest part is thinking about how excited I was and how much I looked forward to studying abroad, literally since freshmen year of high school.  Although I am looking forward to being home with family and friends, it's a pretty depressing feeling to know that this long awaited semester in Copenhagen is nearing the end.

But, I still have 9 days.  Nine days to enjoy Copenhagen at Christmastime, spend time with Jorgen and the rest of my host family, hang out with all of the wonderful people I have been lucky enough to meet, and maayyybe do a little studying for finals.  Making the most out of these last days in Copenhagen...

London

Can't believe this was my last weekend of traveling this semester.  Mallory, Nina, Collin and I spent it in London!  We met up with a few DIS friends over there, Delaney and Kavanaugh.  It was a great last weekend of traveling but hard to believe it was our last trip.  Just this semester I've traveled to Sweden, Germany, Austria, Hungary, England, France, Spain, Greece, and Italy... I'd say a pretty good list for 4 months!

We landed in London on Friday afternoon and got settled into our hostel, which one of the people in our room described as "a concentration camp".  It wasn't that bad, but cramming 8 people into a room the size of a closet isn't the most ideal situation, but we made it work.  The first night we walked  across the street to Hyde park, then went to see Buckingham Palace and Big Ben.  On the way home we passed through Winter Wonderland in Hyde park, which is a seasonal carnival that they set up for Christmastime.  It reminded me a lot of Tivoli.  They had a ton of food and sweets, rides, fun houses, singers, and a Christmas market.  We hung out in there for a while and watched a bunch of drunk old ladies sing and dance to one of the entertainers at the park, it was pretty funny. 

  

 

The next day, we started off at the Portobello Market in Notting Hill.  There were tons of cute little shops all along the streets, it was a really cute place. 

 

Then we went to the Parliament buildings near Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Trafalgar Square, the London Eye, and Kings Cross (where a scene in Harry Potter was filmed).  It was a LOT of walking but we had a great day touring around the city.  I think London and Rome are my two favorite cities other than Copenhagen.

                                         

Westminster Abbey

 

Big Ben


Harry Potter, Platform 9 3/4



Buckingham Palace

 The next day we took the train to Greenwich, recommened by Jorgen, and walked around the town.  The Meridian line is in Greenwich, separating the East and West hemispheres.  We took a bunch of pictures there, then made it back into the city to see London Bridge, the Tower of London, and Tower Bridge.  It was so pretty at night time, everything was all lit up!

 

Greenwich Park and the Meridian Line

 

London Bridge                                                                     Tower Bridge

A Danish Thanksgiving

On the 23rd, Mallory and I cooked Thanksgiving for Jorgen and is family!  At first, we were told by Jorgen it would only be us and him, so we figured we could handle it.  A day before, he invited the whole family over which was 10 people total...  Me, Mallory, Jorgen, Else, Brian, Tina, Silje, Signe, Casper, and our friend Nina joined us.  We went shopping the day before, which is not an easy thing to do when you're trying to find all American foods.  We were out of luck finding cranberry sauce, but after about an hour of searching we found everything else for the meal.

With my cooking background (nothing), I had it in my head that this would be a major fail; we would burn the turkey, serve cold food, or mess up the stuffing somehow.  But after a whole day of cooking, it turned out to be a huge success!  We had turkey, carrots, green beans, corn, mashed potatoes, stuffing, sweet potato casserole, rolls, and apple crisp with ice cream for dessert.   The family loved everything, I have no clue how we pulled it off.  Although it was no Thanksgiving in America with my family, we had such a fun day cooking with Jorgen and eating with the family.  I'll never forget our Thanksgiving in Copenhagen!

 

Royal Christmas beer!



 

Baby Silje!

 

Post Thanksgiving meal with Jorgen

Russian Christmas at Tivoli

On November 11, the Tivoli Gardens opens up for Christmastime.  This year, they decided on a Russian theme and featured St. Basil's Cathedral, with a 21 meter tower with domes and spires.  The park is open for Christmas from November 11th to December 30th and has a wide range of decorations, gifts, delicacies, and yummy food!

Mallory, Julie, Anna and I went yesterday afternoon.  It was a really cool atmosphere with elves, a Christmas market, music, sweets, food, reindeer, and all kinds of entertainment.  Santa, or Father Frost as they call him here, had a whole set up on the main stage and all the little Danish kids were taking pictures with him.  We bought some Tuborg Christmas beer and these things called "sticks", which literally are sticks with strawberries, bananas, marzipan, and nougat all covered in chocolate and dipped in hazelnuts.  They were so good!  After enjoying a little snack, we walked through all of the Christmas shops and took lots of pictures.  By the time we were heading out of the park, all of the lights were on and everything looked so pretty!



A Russian Christmas



A "stick" and a holiday beer!

  

  

 

 

And now we're in the process of cooking Thanksgiving dinner for 10 people... Turkey, stuffing, corn, rolls, mashed potatoes, carrots, green beans, candied yams, and apple crisp for dessert! 


I AMsterdam

The traveling just never ends! I spent this past weekend in Amsterdam with Mallory, Julie, Anna, and Collin.  We left Friday afternoon after class and arrived in the Netherlands around 6.  We stayed in the Flying Pig Uptown hostel.  It was pretty nice, but my first experience in staying in a room with strangers so that was a little weird.  One of the girls in the room just slept 24/7 and there were 4 other guys in the room that all snored REALLY loud.  So let's just say I'm not a huge fan of the whole hostel idea.  I guess we were spoiled for the two week break with all private rooms.

  

Amsterdam is a really nice city.  It reminded me a lot of Copenhagen, especially the Christianhavn area, with tons cute little houses and buildings lining canals.  There were a lot more canals in Amsterdam, but the city itself wasn't as big.  All along the water were tons of houseboats, many of which are considered real houses of the city.  It was pretty cool.

The first night, we grabbed a quick bite to eat at a Chinese place called Walk to Wok.  It was so good we went back the next night too.  Guess we didn't really experience any Dutch food but oh well, I think I like Chinese better.  After dinner, we walked around downtown Amsterdam.  There are coffee shops everywhere, surrounded by places like Burger King, the Pancake House, pastry shops, Chinese buffets, and anything else you could ever want.  I'm assuming all these food places do pretty well!



The Bulldog Coffeeshop



The next morning we had breakfast at the hostel then made our way toward the Anne Frank house.  It was a beautiful day; the sun was shining and it was pretty warm out compared to what we had left in Copenhagen.  The Anne Frank house was located right along one of the canals in a really pretty area of town, making it that much harder to imagine the events that occured there during the German occupation.  The house was set up like a museum and it guided us through the few years of her life spent in hiding.  I read her diary a long time ago so it was pretty cool to be in the house and to see in person what she was describing.

We made our way towards the center of the city and decided to do a canal tour.  Again, it was very similar to the canal tour we did in Copenhagen, just a lot more canals.  It looked like the houses were built right on the water and were floating.  Everything was really pretty.

   

   

When we got off the boats, we saw the Sex Museum right across the street.  I had remembered Kristen telling me she went to one before and said it was the most bizarre thing ever, so we decided to do it.  And it was strange... We were laughing the whole way though, and what made it even worse was that other people were actually taking it seriously.  We were in and out of there in about 10 minutes.

 

We ended up walking around the city for a while to take some pictures and enjoy the beautiful weather.  Then it was time for Walk to Wok round 2!

After dinner, the five of us decided to experience the Red Light District that we had heard so much about.  It was pretty crazy, I've never seen anything like it.  It was a few streets lined with tons of women in windows illuminated by red lights..  We were all so fascinated (in a bad way) by what was going on that we stood on the street corner and just watched it all happen.  It was pretty sad actually..  And I can't even imagine why something like that would be legal.

The next morning, we all went to the I amsterdam sign about five minutes away from our hostel.  It's a one of the big tourist attractions in Amsterdam and usually you can't get pictures of the sign without people in it, but it was a crappy day and we got there pretty early.

                         

And then it was time to head to the airport for our flight back home.  It was such a great weekend, I really liked Amsterdam.  But Copenhagen is still my favorite city!  It's so crazy that I only have one month left here.  It really just hit me that I'm actually leaving in 4 weeks and may never be back in this city again.  I'll definitely be making the best of the rest of the time we have here; Tivoli, the Nyhavn Christmas market, and Stroget at Christmas time are on the list!  Mallory and I are also making Thanksgiving for the whole family this Wednesday... I'm so excited but the whole cooking part should be interesting, hope Mallory pulls through.

I can't wait to enjoy the next month in Copenhagen at Christmas time :)