Maybe I would’ve studied more if there were castles to study in front of back home… Also, BADGER PRIDE

08-28-10

Rosenborg Slot

Danish class is finally over, and although I’ve learned quite a bit, I still have SO much more to learn.  Hopefully, my Danish roommates won’t mind me practicing (or really, butchering) their language with them in the future.  The lead-up to the exam was the best part-studied in front of Rosenberg Slot with a friend.  There’s really nothing better than nodding off over a book in a sunny rose garden in front of…oh wait, a castle?  Yes, I’m liking Copenhagen more and more…  :)

While I’m definitely enjoying my time in Copenhagen more, I’m also beginning to experience some pangs for home.  I obviously miss my family and friends, but I’m beginning to miss Madison and UW quite a bit, too.  Today, I experienced a fierce rush of badger pride today after watching UW’s new commercial or video or whatever it was…it showed highlights from the campus, the courses, the union, and above all, the football games.  Oh, how I miss my badger sports…

Chaz and I-good times...

I’m glad for coming here for a countless number of reasons, but I’ve found a new one today.  Coming here has taught me not to take things back at home for granted.  While the Danes are surely proud of Københavns Universitet in some ways, there’s definitely not the same pride that we have back in WI.  Part of it may be due to the lack of sports here.  Part of it may be because there aren’t the immense number of services and clubs that we have back in Madison (keep in mind, Danish students get higher education for free; there’s no tuition…because of that, the universities have nowhere near the same amount of money as schools like UW do).  I’m not entirely sure what it is, but something’s missing.  And my god, it reminds me of how proud I am to be a badger.

Castles, Breweries, and Sweden, oh my!

08-22-10

Woo boy, busy week despite the ridiculous amount of free time I mentioned earlier.  Have been doing all the touristy things in and outside of Copenhagen with other fellow international students.  That’s the thing about being an international student-even though I live in Denmark, I know more Lithuanian, Polish, and German students than I do Danish!  It’s both the good and the bad thing about being an exchange student.  No international student knows each other in the beginning-it’s so easy to run around, meeting everyone from all these exciting and amazing places and forget that you’re in Denmark, land of the Danes.  I only know a few and not even that well!  Gah…

Evgenia, Maria, and Frederiksborg Slot

Anyway, like I said, have been adventuring quite a bit.  One of my favorite stops was to Frederiksborg Slot (Castle), a place in Hillerød that’s about 30 minutes away by train.  It truly is one of those beautiful storybook type castles, surrounded by a moat and everything.

Maria and I admiring the young swans-they're everywhere!

Nowadays, it’s also one of Denmark’s national history museums and houses a magnificent collection of paintings and all sorts of things that the royals had.  I went with my two lovely Russian friends who I hope I’ll be able to see later in the fall with the Russian study tour.

The world's largest beer bottle collection

Also, visited Carlsberg Brewery with some friends!  Carlsberg and Tuborg are the main beers in Denmark (both very popular and veeeery good).  The brewery itself was founded in 1847 and has gained an impressive reputation over the years.  After the founder, J.C. Jacobsen died, the Carlsberg Foundation also opened up the Glyptotek, a huge museum within the city center that, or so I’m told, has many amazing exhibits, all donated by the Foundation.  Anyhoo, the tour of the Brewery offered an excellent history of beer production, in general, and included 2 complimentary beers.  Wonderful.

Harbor in Malmo

The last trip this week was to Sweden!  It wasn’t exactly Stockholm, however…in fact, it was a part of Sweden that used to be part of Denmark.  Malmo.  Was very similar to Copenhagen, but I was still excited that it was nonetheless a new country.  Malmo had another perk for us-it was the week of Malmo Festivalen, the massive party that Malmo throws once a year.  Hundreds of vendors were there, thousands of people, concerts, and a carnival.  Was very exciting.

Cool park sculpture in Malmo

I WANT TO TRY THIS.

Dansk Klasse og Mere Eventyr

08-16-10

(Danish Class and More Adventures)

Danish class finally started today!  Never have I been more excited for school to start-I have waaaaaay too much free time here.  I’m used to being reliant on my iTouch’s brilliant schedule function for where to go and when…2 jobs, far too many classes, club memberships.  As for here?  Um…nothing.  Can’t find a job, haven’t joined any clubs, and my classes really won’t meet that often once the semester starts (maybe twice a week, tops).  However, Danish has started and that means 4 lovely hours of Danish every day for the next three weeks…

Min Dansk Klasse

…or so I thought.  I still haven’t gotten used to time zones here, and slept right through the introductory meeting, just barely making it to the language placement test.  Already flustered, I thought it went horribly, especially as I hadn’t studied danish all summer.  Nevertheless, I got admitted into the lower intermediate class and spent the rest of the day staring at my Danish teacher.  Not because he was incredibly good-looking (although Jan is a lovely man), but because I had absolutely no idea what was going on.  It was exciting to catch one word of what he was saying!  Ugh, I have a lot of practicing to do…

On a happier note, I’ve been wandering through Copenhagen lately…  Here are some pics!

Busy street near the main campus w/ Danish flag

Me by Nyhavn-one of the scenes you'll find most often on København postcards

In front of the opera house

Amalienborg Slot and the Marble Church

Brilliant fountain just past Amalienborg

New Friends and the Joys of Tivoli

08-07-10

Life was getting pretty lonely here for a while…  Even though Signalhuset (my dorm) is massive with well over 300 rooms, a good chunk of the international students aren’t here yet, and the Danes seem to keep to themselves.  We all have balcony access (which I think is AWESOME), but no one’s ever out there.  And there’s no common area to see people.  Even our bike lot is deserted.  Sigh.

Luckily, one of my roommates noticed that someone put up a post to sell a bike.  Keep in mind that I LOVE biking.  I was going through biking withdrawal.  I called this girl immediately, met her, and bought the bike later that day.  After confessing that she was one of the first I’d had a conversation with, she introduced me to all of her friends and roommates and invited me to go to a concert in Tivoli with them.

Lovely friends before Tivoli's gates

Tivoli is an amusement park here in Copenhagen, loved by Danes and foreigners alike.  It’s not quite so big as our Valley Fair or Six Flags, but it’s still a very cute park with plenty of sweet rides and, of course, a copy of the much beloved Little Mermaid (turns out that the real one is Shanghai for the World Expo until November).  Though we didn’t really watch the concert and didn’t go on any of the rides, this was still one of the funnest nights I’ve had in a looooong time.  Tivoli=awesome, but new friends=MORE AWESOME.

Hej København!

08-03-2010

First day here was exceedingly lucky, all in all.  Arrived to the airport with two giant and full suitcases, a fencing bag, a stuffed backpack, and a purse being dragged behind me.  Needless to say, I was sweating buckets and received many a funny look from my fellow flyers (also felt like an idiot in the Iceland hostel-note to future travelers: PACK LIGHT).  I also soon realized though that I had NO idea where my hostel was…I only had an address-thus, second note to future travellers : KNOW WHERE YOU’RE GOING.  A lovely chat with the very helpful info desk changed that, and I soon experienced my first metro ride.

Public transportation in Denmark is AWESOME.  The metros are wonderful, the buses are comfortable, and the S-Tog (S-Train) system gets you wherever else you could want to go rather quickly. After finally making it to my stop-Bella Center (where they held the Climate Change Conference last year), I just started wandering and eventually asked directions from a girl who, as it turned out, lived in the kollegium I was assigned!  Turns out it was just a 10 minute walk from my hostel…brilliant.

Signalhuset, min kollegium!

As for first impressions of Copenhagen…hmm.  It’s a lovely mix of nature and city, really.  Beautiful parks within such a busy place.  It’s the biggest city in Denmark with just over 1.5 million Danes running about (there are some 5 million throughout the country-just like good ol’ Wisconsin).  What also struck me was how OLD this city is compared to anything I’ve known back home.  You can see it in the buildings or the cobbled roads.  One of my roommates (a lovely Danish dude by the name of Phillip) was telling me that he was baptized in a 500 yr. old church in Denmark.  Yeah…that’s older than my home country.  But so it goes…  I’m looking forward to exploring the city throughout the week-so much to see!  :D½

Reykjavik and Its Lovely Little Ponies

07-26-10

Hello from Reykjavik!!  My mom and sister Nichole dropped me off at the airport only a little while ago it seems…  After some sad yet happy (as I said, I’m conflicted) goodbyes, I boarded the plane and found myself with a windowseat and a decent selection of movies.  Upon landing in Reykjavik after watching several of these, I realized my time would have been better spent sleeping.  Even though I left Minneapolis at 7PM, it was already 6AM in Iceland…and my hostel didn’t allow check-ins until 2PM.  Was a rough day-no sleep for wandering around the city with 2 full suitcases and a fencing bag.

Hallgrimskirkja Church-My First Stop in Reykjavik

Despite my grogginess, I was still able to appreciate the country-it’s so strange!  Apparently, some people describe landing in Iceland by comparing it to landing on the moon.  I could agree with that-a good chunk of the land seems to be the lava fields-craggy fields with sparse green shoots creeping from the rock here and there.  It’s beautiful, in a very odd way.

While here, I signed up for a horseback riding tour through these lava fields.  The Icelandic horse is a bit different from the ones we’re familiar with back home. First, they’re a bit smaller-I would call them ponies, but the Icelandic folk will quickly correct you should you refer to them as such.  They are HORSES.  They also have more gaits than the horse back home-they can switch into a tølt-something between a trot and walk that’s a bit smoother.  To be honest, I didn’t really care about the differences-I was more concerned with trying not to slip into 10 year-old-mode and shriek “It’s a pony!” while jumping up and down.  I’m not sure I can say that I succeeded…

The Lava Fields

My first night in the hostel was pretty awesome-met a girl from Australia, another girl from England, and an older woman from Scotland.  It was gorgeous accent-overload.  Later on, some ladies from Spain joined us (an all girls dorm).  It was pretty fantastic and (hopefully) a preview for life in Copenhagen.  It’s so great to be able to meet all of these people from all over the world.  The Australian is actually on her way to the US where she’ll meet up with her parents after a couple months of travelling around Europe.  That’ll be me in January-doing the backpacking through Europe thing.  I can’t wait.  :)

During my last day here, I finally went to one of Iceland’s many thermal pools for some spa time-it was sooooo wonderful.  Everyone walks out of the pool building in the 45-50 degree weather in their swimsuits to go sit in the 80 degree pools.  Very relaxing.

An Exhibit at The National Museum of Iceland

I also went to the National Museum of Iceland.  That was truly fantastic.  So many great exhibits.  One of the most important exhibits there was a 2″ bronze figure that dates back to 1000 AD.  Apparently, it’s meant to be Thor with his hammer, but there was some controversy as to whether or not it could be Christ with his cross.  There’s a lot more history to it than I can remember, but it’s important, I promise.  :)

Getting ready to go back to the airport now-excited for Copenhagen.  Reykjavik was nice, but I’m not sure I could ever live in Iceland for the long run…it’s beautiful, but in a slightly dismal way.  Cold, rainy, but with beautiful landscapes.  And cute ponies, of course.  :)

I couldn't help myself-the children's exhibit at the museum.

Last Sight of Reykjavik

Hellooooooo! :D

07-24-10

Hey everyone,

If you’ve stumbled upon this, welcome to my blog.  I struggled for the longest time with deciding to write one as a) blogs can be incredibly tedious and b) I am so unreliable with maintaining steady contact with anyone, much less an online journal.  Nevertheless, I’m going to give it a shot.  Please bear with me.  :)

Why a blog?  Well, I’m going to DENMARK!!!  More specifically, I am an exchange student from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and I will be studying at Københavns Universitet for the next 5 or so months.  I am so, SO excited to be here (I cannot stress that enough), as I’ve been dreaming of this during my last few years in Madison.  With a lot of hours put in at Menards and the Capitol, the generous aid from ScanDesign and Gudrun Gytel, and the love and support from family and friends, I have finally been able to study abroad.  So, really-thank you.  All of you.  :)  Without you, I certainly wouldn’t be here.

So…I fly out tomorrow (I’m actually writing this down now in a mini-journal with the intention of posting it later-hopefully sooner than later).  I am very excited, but also more than a bit nervous.  I’m pretty much leaving everything I know and love behind.  On the other hand, I’m also going to Europe.  And as I’ve never left the continent before (went to Mexico once-good times), I’m obviously thrilled at the prospect of spending at least half a year in a place I never thought I’d see.  It’s conflicting…

One of the best parts about the flight tomorrow is that I fly into Reykjavik, Iceland-I get to stay there for a few days and explore the country before flying into Copenhagen.  Should be a good time-have already got my hostel and everything, and the nice lady from STA (which is AWESOME, btw for anyone planning on travelling-buy your tickets from them) sent me some info on Iceland and what she did while there.  Apparently, one of the biggest attractions is the Blue Lagoon-a giant thermal bath and renowned spa.  After a semester of 18 credits, a thesis, an internship, and 2 jobs, I could use some relaxing…  I think this trip will be good for me.  :)

Gonna spend more time with the family now-will write later about the flight and all that jazz.   See you on the other side.