All Roads Lead to Rome

I thought I’d start you off with a soundtrack to my trip to Rome. First, this song, An Evening in Roma, which was featured in the Lizzie McGuire Movie, my inspiration for wanting to visit Rome, which came out 10 years ago (I know because I saw it for my 10th birthday party)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gi1Hq_41kUQ

Also, this song, Hungry Eyes, was featured in Dirty Dancing. The movie has nothing to do with my trip, but it was playing in a store in Rome, and it encompassed my and Bonnie’s insatiable sweet tooth appetite when in Rome.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6oKUTOLSeMM

I highly recommend watching both films in full. You will not regret it. But at the very least, listen to those awesomely cheesy songs as you read my blog.

Saturday, Sept 28: Bonnie and I left for the airport rather early, but then enjoyed the decadence that was the Copenhagen airport. It’s basically a mall– a very good mall. When we got into Rome, I was all smiles and full of anxiety about pickpocketing. This anxiety took several days to cease. 6 to be exact, the length of the trips. We took the train and metro into the city, admiring the Italian men and stopping for a meal of pasta in a cute piazza. Pasta in a piazza. When we arrived at where the hostel was supposed to be, and could not find it for the life of us. Bonnie suggested maybe we were the victims of a hostel Ponzee scheme, which seemed unlikely, but we were a little shaken until we went across the street and they told us that the door we were looking at was the correct door. Oops. We got inside, found that it was clean and wood-paneled, and the girls who worked there were hilarious. I highly recommend this hostel, Pensione Ottaviano, if you ever go to Rome, reader. It may not have been the most beautiful place, but is located right next to Vatican City, a truly fantastic area to live for a few nights. The hostel had character and characters. Also, look at the art in our room, and the view.

Come on, you can’t pass that up.

Rome Day 1:

So, the Vatican Museums are free on the last Sunday of the month for only three hours, and the Pope was giving a mass, so there were nuns singing on the street starting around 5am (not a joke.) Bonnie and I got up and got pastries and got in line, not too far back, and we got into the museum by 9:30. I’m not sure if I’ve ever been to a museum so big, and because of the thousands of people, we couldn’t exactly pick and choose what rooms we saw. We just went with the crush of people towards the Sistine Chapel. Unfortunately, there were no pictures in the chapel, but you can google it 🙂 The art was very impressive and old  but I thought that the architectural elements were more interesting.

The entrance to the Vatican Museums

A beautiful Vatican courtyard

I will never not be impressed by mosaic floors. Seriously. I WALKED on this.

Ceilings can be cool

Even windows that have scaffoldings. Pinching myself always

Another life-changing ceiling. No biggie.

I don’t even know what this was. Amazing though. One of my best shots from the Vatican. A lot are very blurry b/c no flash

Don’t die, you’re about to be at the Sistine Chapel!

After the Vatican we realized we had the WHOLE CITY OF ROME at our fingertips. We wandered and wandered and wandered some more. People always say that everywhere you turn in Rome is a cute little alley or a tourist site. Accurate. We saw a lot of Americans and ate gelato. Also, I saw the Trevi Fountain, which is where my dream of going to Rome started. Or more accurately, Lizzie McGuire meeting Paolo at the Trevi Fountain in 2003.

This is the Pantheon. Just chillin’ somewhere in Rome. We were in no way looking for it.

So there was this outdoor art display outside of the really big famous art museum in Rome. The artist’s statement is below in Italian, English, and French. It was sooo good. See next picture. 

This is the artist and one of his pieces, The Boxer. He made me a sketch while he was standing there. it was GREAT. Made my day, an already awesome day.

A cool and somewhat creepy statue on a bridge.

The Trevi Fountain!

A statue in front of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

In the evening, after a solid 14 hours walking around, we went back to the hostel to play cards, and we met a very nice Dutch guy named Barnabus (he went by Bus) who taught us a new way to play Uno (yes, the card game from my childhood) and shared a beer with us. It was very hospitable and not hostile at all (get it? hostile? hostel? Oh well.)

Day 2:

We had plans to meet another girl from DIS, Breanna, at the Spanish Steps for lunch, so we had a leisurely morning which included really amazing pastries and espresso (when in Rome!) standing up (cheaper) at a quaint cafe on the river. We walked for about an hour before we realized we were headed north instead of south, and then turned around and walked south for way too long. We got really lost, ended up walking for about 2 hours in the most torrential rain of my life, and we didn’t even find Breanna. We did however, remain damp for the next 8 hours (cotton IS rotten.)

Because we were cold and wet, we took this picture for Breanna

Because we were in Rome, we actually felt like this

The rain finally cleared, and we headed over to the Colosseum because we figured the rain would have scared away a lot of people. It was amazing, and I couldn’t help think about all the movies I’d seen set at the Colosseum. Bonnie had taken a film class about movies set in Ancient Rome, so I can only imagine it may have been more awesome for her. In Latin II my senior year of high school, my Latin teacher told us if we ever go to the Colosseum to lick it, which is what she did when she went. I was totally prepared to do it, but then. EW. Wow, I saw it and COULD NOT IMAGINE DOING SOMETHING SO GROSS. Over a thousand years of history also means a whole lot of who knows what. We did see cats, who I obviously also did not lick (or touch). Colosseum cats seem really happy and cute.

Oh hey there, Colosseum…

A lovely afternoon at the place of gladiators.

Oh hey, that cool basement part (no floor anymore) and a cat.

There are no stands as there were in ancient Rome, only the base of the building, the marble is thought to have been stolen in the Middle Ages

Cats of the Colosseum. Part dos.

We had a really cheap dinner that night in a park overlooking the Colosseum and then walked around the streets for several more hours, and my search for boots continued and Bonnie stopped to read many menus at cafes, something I have never done, but she does kind of like window shopping for me. It’s not necessarily meaningful, just something interesting to look at. We also drank Italian hot chocolate, which is made by pouring hot cream over chocolate. So incredibly rich. It was calorically dinner and breakfast, I’m sure.

We got back to the hostel and played cards again with Bus, and went for a walk with him around St. Peter’s Cathedral, approximately 2 blocks from the hostel. Really, could not ask for a better location.

Day 3:

We checked out of the hostel and enjoyed breakfast gelato with Bus and both gave him a hug goodbye. He was going to work on a wine farm in France after this trip to Rome and Paris.

A sight from our walk in the morning

We walked along the river and got latte machiatto, which in true Italian style was pretty much just steamed milk with a tiny bit o’ espresso and headed over to Circus Maximus(!) and thought about chariot races and Ben Hurr and then went to the Roman Forum. I went pretty zonked by then, just solid DAYS of walking and seeing things, so I definitely didn’t appreciate it enough.

I’m at the circus!

Palatine Hill/Roman Forum

The she-wolf and Romulus and Remus. Not the original, but something I was dying to see in Rome.

We didn’t spend a ton of time there, and went to meet Rachael (was going to say who this is, but if you don’t know… read the blog) who was also in Rome, on a school trip. We had a great lunch, walk, gelato, and a quick trip to the Trevi Fountain on our way to the train station, because Bonnie and I had to catch a flight to Barcelona! Rachael and I are the cheesiest and realized that the day our friend Caitlin introduced us (HI CAITLIN!) we watched two great Rome-themed movies together: The Lizzie McGuire Movie (see above) and Roman Holiday. Actually, I left while the others were watching Roman Holiday because sleep. But let’s just say, all roads lead to Rome.

Nice gelato places give you whipped cream and a tiny cone on top. This cone of canteloupe and cherries and cream only had the tiny cone.

The gang in front of the Trevi Fountain. This is what dreams are made of.

Rome was absolutely all I imagined, hoped, and expected it to be. I would go back again, I’m a little in love. Not like, want to live there or anything, but there’s so much to see and do, and. Go. That’s my advice.

Barcelona in my next post. In the meantime, Arrivederci!

My Flickr Pictrs

Flickr is a photosharing website. It seems that a lot of you prefer my posts that are chock-full of photos, so if you’d like to see what I’m doing with my dinky little camera from 2009 (which is an amazing little guy, but by no means a photographer’s camera). I put my best photos on Flickr, even if they don’t make it into the blog.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/101347037@N04/

Here’s a taste of my Flickr, a few pictures of my trip to the biodynamic farm Kiselgaarden, and Roskilde Cathedral

What Does Cactus Even Taste Like?

My week in review. It’s been another long week, with me posting once already, and I have another post about a certain dessert item that may or may not make it to the interwebs before this one. Stay tuned.

I have this journal, which is something I’ve never really done consistently before, but was inspired by the coincidence of seeing this post on Pinterest around the same time I got a journal for Christmas from my cousins Mike and Nicole (Hi Nicole!). So since December 23, 2012, I’ve written a sentence about every day. Just a sentence of the highlights. I’ve never missed a day, and I’m pretty proud of that. I also picked a good year to start because I got to write about seeing my Gram in a casual way right up to when she died. So that’s something that’s nice. ANYWHO, I sometimes use it to see what I did in a week, but the problem is that I sometimes have boring days and then I have nothing to write and have no idea what happened that day, when I look back.

For example:

Saturday Sept 14: “Made brownies and watched Dr. Who with Maria.” Here are some pictures. To all those who have told me to watch Dr. Who over the years, you were right. Love love love.

From those slutty brownies I said I’d make

How they ended up looking. Oops, the brownies crushed the cookies, making it more like a cookie crust. Also, yum!

Sunday Sept 15: “Lazed around, went into Copenhagen, and did some creative writing.” I’m actually pretty happy with the writing I did last Sunday. So that’s good, right? I won’t post it here, though. Not for a while.

Monday Sept 16: “A humdrum rainy day featuring good food and a walk with Gabby” (hi!) But seriously, what did I do all day? I bought a luggage/locker lock for my upcoming trip to Rome and Barcelona! That’s all I can recall.

Tuesday Sept 17: “Finished The Only Good Thing Anyone Has Ever Done [by Sandra Newman] and met with HopeNow.” I wouldn’t say it was the only good thing anyone has ever done, but it was good. I would definitely recommend it to a creative writing professor or student. There were some BEAUTIFUL sentences. Sentences I read and reread. Wow. HopeNow is an anti-trafficking organization based here in Copenhagen which I’m working with with my advertising class to give them a communication campaign, as basic as they may be. They do really good work.

Wednesday Sept 18: “Got a book out of the library, went to the Louisiana, and ate a butt-ton of food.”  First, yes, I wrote butt-ton in my journal. When I look back on this when I’m old (or next year) it will seem so embarrassing hilarious that I ever though that way. The book was Jodi Piccoult’s Handle with Care. As I write this on Saturday, I have read 400 pages. That’s approx. 100 pages per day. I mean, it is the standard formula Jodi Piccoult, tugging on heartstrings in a New England courtroom, but I can’t put it down. I went to the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art again to see YOKO ONO: HALF-A-WIND SHOW and write about it for my art history class. It’s actually very interesting to read about her, and realize that she’s not just some artist who got famous because her husband was (John Lennon, for those of you who live in a pop culture-free hole somewhere) but is actually an artist in her own right. Who happens to take advantage of her husband’s influence, name, face, and money. 🙂

We are all water.

A slide to get into the show. Also, my classmate Sasha’s face.

Thursday Sept 19: “Read a lot and watched Rent– also there was a guest speaker about Sophie Calle.” Like I said, I read about 100 pages per day, so… yeah. I also watched Rent for the first time since high school and cried quite a bit at Angel’s funeral and burial and at the end. It’s like seeing old friends… die. SAD. In my art history class (Women, Art, and Identity), a program assistant at DIS came in and spoke about Sophie Calle, an AMAZING French “surveillance artist” look her up, she’s the coolest. Her show “Take Care of Yourself” and her book “The Address Book” are especially impressive and creepy. Take a google at them. I might be purchasing The Address Book later, when I get back to the states, if I can’t find it at a library first. SO COOL LOOK IT UP.

Friday Sept 20: “Saw some great bands at Hillerod Kultur Nat with Breanna.” Says it all. Me and Breanna (a third friend from Smith. Seriously, maybe I should have gone to Smith. kidding. kind of.) walked around Hillerod and saw

A gospel choir: They were fun and I’m thinking about joining them. It was hilariously obvious that English was their second language, unlike in the other groups we saw.

A “Rock Choir” singing Coldplay, among other things. A women’s chorus called “Hot Notes” singing classical Danish music. And this nice view of the castle (plus me, wearing this new vest/leather jacket combo I just discovered doesn’t look stupid)

The MOST AMAZING SWING BAND EVER. They’re called Overjive, and they were attractive and Danish but sang in English (because swing/big band is in English mostly). People danced. People here can dance, I say, dance! I took a video of people’s feet at one point, but wordpress won’t let me upload. Remind me to show you sometime.

Cute, right???

All cleaned up! (The other pic was from their sound check. We were a little early)

A pop band singing American and Danish pop music called The Donut Brothers. Cuteness in bowties.

I ate this perfect sandwich (and I know how to order in Danish “Jeg vil gerne have en vegetar sandwich” SO THERE!)

And we bought these beautiful apple ciders with a hint of CACTUS, of all things. “But what does a cactus even taste like?” we asked ourselves and each other.

Today: I have yet to write in my journal, as I always do it before bed. I wrote part of my Yoko Ono paper and baked. There will be a post about the latter.

A week in the life. Do not expect a post from me next weekend, because I’m going to 1) English: Rome 2) Italian: Roma 3) Danish: Rom ON SATURDAY and then 1) English/Spanish/Danish: Barcelona ON WEDNESDAY and then I’ll be coming back and be sleeping and doing incredible amounts of homework next weekend. Just saying,it might be a while.

Why Danes are Happy, Part I

Now presenting, Part one of the multiple-part series, “Why Danes Are Happy”

So, the Danes are the happiest people in the world. Not sure if you missed that, but right now my host sisters are sitting next to each other, drawing on each other, and giggling. And they’re 17 and 18. So the Danes are doing something right. There are even official reports to back this up, it’s not from the giggling. Here’s the link to the World Happiness Report from 2013.

There are the obvious reasons (I haven’t read the report, as it is 152 pages. But go for it!). The Danes get major financial struggles paid for by the government. While us Americans are wondering what the heck we would do if we were in college and also needed to go the the ER (personal experience) and you’re just so in debt to the world. BUT NOT DANES! Free doctors, free college (they even get paid to go, $1000 per MONTH). But I’ve been observing some other trends too.

1. Their kids are well-behaved (and well-dressed):

I have NEVER seen a child in Denmark have a fit, yell at a parent, run from a parent, or hit their parents/siblings. I consider these behaviors to be pretty normal things you would see if you sat in the DC metro for an hour or two. In Denmark the kids hold their parent’s hand WHILE THEY RIDE THEIR BIKES and smile and hold hands with their parents and friends and it’s adorable. They also dress like tiny adults (H&M kids IS a thing) so they’re approx. 43978 times more fashionable than me. These kids aren’t (necessarily) Danish, but they are indicative of what I’m talking about.

I tried to find kids who actually looked like kids I would see, versus obvious catalog models. I think these two fit the bill.

2. They love each other (a lot)

I’m pretty sure I’ve said this once (or twice) before, but it’s just still really hard for me to ignore when people are soo in love here, because it means they’re making out a) on the train platform b) in the train c) in a museum d) in the middle of the pedestrian street e) other. Or they’re holding hands. People young and old hold hands here, like a 30 year old woman and her 60 year old mom might hold hands on the street, or a 25 year old couple might hold hands while they ride their bikes next to each other (I witnessed this today and was baffled)

3. They eat carbs

Do they ever. Those Danes aren’t shying away from a meal that is ONLY potatoes (I ate that this week), and I eat a fair share of wienerbrød (which is their word for Danishes, it means bread from Vienna!), but I don’t think I’m alone in my eating of excessive pastry. They have SO many pastry shops. I would say it’s comparable to how many coffee shops we have in the U.S., but I think it’s more. Maybe the same amount as coffee shops if you include Dunkin Donuts and then imagine Boston, pastry-filled.

I’m fairly certain I’ve been to this pastry shop, but it’s VERY standard looking. So many pastries in the window 🙂

5. They work less

An average workweek in Denmark is 37 hours, and they get 6 weeks of paid vacation per year. So good. Really. This is really apparent when you go to get on a train between 3:30 and 6. Because that’s rush hour, not 5-7/8. Even at 5, things are lightening up.

6. They’re (all) law-abiding

This is most apparent in the fact that they WILL NOT jay walk. Like, there might be a crowd of 20 on each side of a crosswalk, waiting for the light to change, then 1 person might run across, but no one will follow. They’re patient and wait for the lights, because I guess there’s a big fine for jay-walking. Also, without jaywalking, cycling becomes a lot safer. Think about it.

Fun fact, a life sentence (as in, maximum sentence) in a Danish court is 12 YEARS. 12!

7. Their feet don’t hurt.

       True life, everyone wears sneakers. This is not New York, where if you’re trying to fit in as a tourist you bring your highest heels (I mean, you don’t, but you think about it). If you’ve got a pair of black Nikes or white Converse (this applies to men or women, though I think women a little more) or even a pair of cheaper, less stylish running shoes, you’ll fit in just fine. Just make sure you pair it with not running clothes. No one runs here. Because of the cobblestones on literally every street and sidewalk, it makes much more sense than stilettos or flimsy flats. A good wedge boot is pretty common too.

This picture is pretty indicative, though no one is wearing black sneakers. The rest of the clothing looks very Danish too.

****

I could go on forever, but I thought I’d save it for another post.

Coming up next time:

8. They’re sexy and they know it

9. School is less stressful

10. They don’t binge drink (as much)

11. They travel

… AND MORE

Also, as a part of this series: “Why Danes Aren’t Happy” featuring

1. The weather

2. Taxes

… there may be more but I’m not sure yet

We now return to regularly scheduled posting

It’s Not Like We Were Exploding

So. It seemed like the day by day thing went pretty well last week, so I’ll do an encore, and maybe it’ll become a thing (or maybe I’ll get more busy and you’ll never hear from me again!). OOh, and before I forget, I want to plug my AU friends’ blogs, all of whom are studying abroad and whose blogs I check on the daily (I could stand to be more busy): Rachael of “Tertiary My Dear Watson” (TeMyDeWa is a group blog and she posts one day a week), Kevin of “Kevin Visits Spain”, and Bekah of “Red Runs Madrid” are all in Madrid; Hannah of “My Semester Down Under” is in Sydney; Kim of “Winning London” is in London; Lizzy of “Lizzy in Kenya” and Val of “Valerie in Kenya” are both in Nairobi (surprise!); Paige of “My Study Abroad Adventures” is in Florence, and Gabrielle of “A Danish Adventure” is in Copenhagen with me! Yay buddies traveling! I’m not sure if my other friends abroad have blogs. Thanks to Hannah for this idea!

Sunday: I don’t usually post about Sundays, or haven’t the past two weeks, but it was an exceptional day. It started out with a brunch in celebration of my host dad’s grandson’s second birthday! The party was really big, with all four sets of grandparents of the birthday boy (yup, divorce on both sides), aunts, uncles, and cousins. And friends! (Me and my host sister’s boyfriend…) The brunch was outside, and over the course of the morning it was every kind of weather. It was all very happy and we had a shelter, but wow, I did not bring enough coats. There were a bunch of cute kids at the party, including Otto (birthday boy) and his three-month old brother Frede, and their cousins Emil, 7, and Isabel, 4. Isabel is the cutest and came wearing soo much eye-makeup, like a true Dane. Including a star out of eyeliner on her forehead. Her mom definitely was not the one with the pencil in hand…

We got to the brunch around 10 and started eating breakfast stuff, so I filled up on homemade bread, cheese, jam, eggs, fruit, and tea. Then they brought out the “American” pancakes, which were conventionally shaped and served with mapley syrup, but weren’t actually American. Then they cleared the table and I though it was all done. Nope. They brought out two beautiful cakes.

When they cleared the cakes they brought out beer, nuts, and cookies. I was so full (which actually is the word for drunk here. But drunk I was not, at 1pm on a Sunday, thankyouverymuch). When we got home, we left after putting on more layers, to go to a party for all of the host families, which was long and fun and I won’t go into much detail here. I met some peeps who hopefully I can hang out with later in the semester.

Monday: I got up super early (5:25) for my core course week short study trip. We hopped on a roomy coach bus (not sarcasm– 22 on a bus made for… 55? spacious) and went to Odense! We got a tour of a quaint area of town, part of Hans Christian Andersen’s life, as he is the most famous Dane and from Odense. We also visited TV2, which is a big news station here in Denmark. Our teacher, Christian, used to be a news anchor there, so we got a real behind-the-scenes look. This guy was literally introduced to us as the “hot weather man.”

Then we went out to dinner at a local brewery and everyone got burgers, except the two vegetarians, who got a plate of veggies, and our drink of choice. Some people order wine at breweries (why?), but not I!

After dinner, the class went to the local student union and caught a Danish band rocking outside on a Monday night. After, a lot of girls stuck around and had beers at the union, but were sitting in a circle as a group of loud Americans and it was not my scene at all. So me and my friend Mickey went back to the hostel, and during the trip back: 1) We stopped for candy and 2) A couple frantically asked us for directions to a bar. We didn’t know where it was, but we asked if we could join them. And we went with them to Dexter, a jazz club in Odense with no cover charge and band members who were young and attractive and playing instruments and looking very jazzy. We befriended the two German exchange students that the couple had been running to meet (the couple was Dutch exchange students) and hopefully we’ll meet up with them in Copenhagen later this semester. They were both grad students studying Middle Eastern Studies. Tres interessant.

Tuesday: We did a crash course in TV production, the 10 of us (half of our class) producing a 10 minute news segment in 5 hours (harder than it sounds). This was at a media museum called Brandts. Anywho, I was a journalist and camera-woman, filming for both the man-on the street segments and operating camera one during the studio shoot. It was really fun. Like, change majors and switch to broadcast journalism fun, maybe.

Then we drove to Aarhus and went to this AMAZING design firm called DeisgnIt. They design everything: insulin pens, train cars, websites, advertising campaigns, and apps for banks. SO many creative people. Audi is their biggest customer, along with NovoNordisk, a huge pharmaceutical company. Also, their Paulo Alto office just got its first call from Google. So, big news to be in their HQ.

Wednesday: We went to Jyllands-Posten, a major newspaper in Denmark and one that was made famous in 2005 because of a very poorly thought out publishing of 12 cartoons depicting the prophet Mohammed. Google it. I’ll just say that the most infamous cartoon’s cartoonist is still under 24/7 security (because of death threats and murder attempts) and the newspaper building itself was super secure, more so than the Copenhagen airport. Afterwards, we went to the ARoS art museum, which is themed as Dante’s Heaven and Hell, with the most beautiful, heavenly art at the top, and the scariest at the bottom. It was super creepy (a lot of it) and so beautiful (a lot of it). The museum is famous for the spectrum of light/rainbow room installation on the roof.

And for the statue “Big Boy”

He’s big.

Then we went to Danske Commodities, an energy-trading firm, which was really cool and like a mini-stock market, and drove home.

Thursday: We split into small groups and each interviewed a comm director at a major company or agency. My group went to Dyrenes Beskyttelse, which is the Danish version of the Humane Society. Then we had to write an article about it, and I ended up doing a feature about the fact that the agency is privately funded. It was more interesting than it sounds, I think. Also, I ate a poppyseed and marizpan pastry called Thebirkes. Which reminded me of The Berks, a place I will likely be living when I return to DC.

Then I went to the thrift store near school and made my second, third, and fourth purchases. I justify that by saying I under-packed. Which I totally did, I promise. I brought 4 t shirts for 4 months. WHO DOES THAT? Also, you can’t beat the prices. The Røde Kors Butik (Red Cross Boutique) is definitely my favorite store in Denmark. So far.

Friday: Site visits at NovoNordisk and F.L.Smidth, two huge Danish/international companies, where we talked to their heads of communications about corportate internal communications. Snooze fest. I ate a cookie called Chokorye, which was pretty much just a heavy rye bread bun with chocolate chips. Then we had a class social, which was fine, but what I was really looking forward to was my plans to go out with friends after their socials, which ended at 8. So I had two hours to kill. I found a bench on a busy pedestrian street and read and people-watched for a while, but then I got cold. So I ventured around, trying to find stores that were open (I’m passively shopping to replace a pair of boots that are totally wrecked). And I found the MOTHERLODE of stores. It’s called Magasin, which means store in French. It’s basically a department store, but it’s also kind of like a market… major clothing, accessory, book, cosmetic, etc… vendors have stalls which are individually staffed and I guess run indepedently of each other. This store is at least 4 floors in downtown Copenhagen and just amazing. Definitely going back.

When my friends showed up, we had some beers and listened to a cool electronic band at the student house, and we chatted about real things: gender pronouns, our generation’s drinking habits, and Israel. It was so nice to meet new peeps and have good convo. Also we had falafel. When I started home, it was around midnight, so I figured it would be 1:30 before I was home. When I got to Hillerod around 1:50, where I change trains, I realized it was too late for the train, so I would wait for the night bus. And so I waited, about an hour and 15 minutes for it. It was a situation in which I swore I would never go out without a coat again. A COAT. IN SEPTEMBER. I finally got home around 2:40.

Saturday: Slept in… kind of, until 10. My host family was hosting a big family party, so I knew cleaning was a top priority. Luckily my room here is small, so it didn’t take as long as it would have at home. Also, I have significantly less stuff. When I got up to have breakfast, my host dad told me he wanted me to bake a cake for the party. And I was all “Hell yeah, I’ll bake a cake” and went back to cleaning. I decided it would be a blueberry upside down cake, so I had to go out and buy blueberries. When I got back and started cooking at around 2:15, Ole told me the cake should be done around 3 when the guests arrived. UM, what? That simply was not feasible, and it was for dessert, right? Nope, I forgot Danes eat cake BEFORE the meal, like we drink and eat cheese and bread, and olives. My cake did end up out of the oven before the cake-eating time was over, but for the sake of my posts getting longer and longer, I’ll just list the courses of this beautiful dinner.

1. Coffee, licorice tea, and cake: strawberry creme cake, and blueberry upside down cake (Danes were fascinated by it)

(then we went for a walk)

2.Chips, peanuts, white wine, and sparkling apple cider

3.Italian bread and zucchini stuffed with a mushroom cream filling.

4. Rice, green beans, sugar snap peas, red wine and a pork stew. For me it was a pork-free stew.

5. Fruit cup with white chocolate topping and port wine. The little kids and the older kids (aka me and my host sister) also roasted marshmallows over a fire.

I mean, it was a 6 hour dinner. So it’s not like we were exploding with that much food. What surprised me most is that Jytte, my host mom, made the whole dinner herself. I helped a lot because it’s really hard for me to sit in a room where no one is speaking English, and my sister Maria helped too. But in the U.S. (or at least in my house) there would be a point where guests would filter in and out of the kitchen, helping to open wine, fill up plate, chop veggies, and generally take direction. There was none of that, which I found really odd and a little sad. Jytte missed part of all the courses except the last two and didn’t come on the walk all because she was cooking. Another cultural difference, I guess.

And now it’s Sunday again! Holy moly. I thought of two ideas for future posts 1) Two posts per week. This one is so long but when when I edited, it all seemed really important to my life… 2) A food-dedicated post. I eat a lot and take pics.

See you next week, folks!

The Mermaid and Louisiana

These are the pictures of my weekend, my first of many in Denmark. On Friday night, me and some friends went out to dinner, and I had cold pickled herring with potatoes, and my first glass of Carlsberg, the famous Danish beer. It was 10x better than American cheap beer. Anywho, we then went to see the famed Little Mermaid statue in the Copenhagen Harbor. The statue was turning 100 and there was a celebration including a performance from the Russian cast of “The Little Mermaid” (yes, Disney songs in Russian!) and a Danish flamenco dancer who danced and drummed the story of the little mermaid. It was amazing, if a bit puzzling. Then, today, we went to the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art. It was very modern– a lot of it went right over my head, or was simply not interesting. Overall, it was a good museum, but very big. We mostly saw the Yoko Ono retrospective, the shining gem of it was the “Wish Tree” and I took a lot of pictures of some of the wishes. There were also some powerful poems on the walls of the exhibit, and as I read “Water Talk” I started to cry. I hope you like the pictures as much as I liked the real sturf.

On another note, trying to keep up with all the sweets I eat, I had koldskål, a dish where you put (basically) nilla wafers in a bowl with buttermilk, lemon juice, and vanilla. Then you eat it cold, like cereal. It’s weird, kind of good.

There’s herring (with the tomatoes and lettuce), potatoes, onions, capers, sour cream, and butter. A glass of Carlsberg and my friends’ beef dish in the background.

Mediocre pic of a phenomenal dancer and dress.

Cast of the Russian version of The Little Mermaid

Fun fact: that barge (with the red firework on it) caught on fire later in the evening. No one was hurt– it was put out quickly, so it was really funny.

This is the poem that made me cry

I did not make this, I promise you.

One of my favorites

My other favorite

My host sisters (Maria at left, Linea bending down to read more)

On another tree…