I know. I know. You've all been checking my blog at least 10 times a day to see if I've chosen to grace you all with an update of my fabulous life here in Coldland. Well here you are ladies and gentlemen. A nice mix of academia and alcohol. The way everyone should live their lives.
Last Thursday-Leave for århus.
But first we listen to a very rushed but informative lecture on Bosnia and the anti-love triangle between the Bosnians, Serbs, and Croats. Let me tell you who has problems. Those guys.
Load on the bus. Adjust my small self into a little curled up ball and pass out for a respectable 3.5 hours. Sorry class. My fever comes before bonding.
Get lunch at a restaurant entirely too fancy for a medium size group of college students. We receive a number of strange stares...eat our very large sandwiches...and peace out.
Quickly check into our hostels. Hostels in Denmark are like palaces compared to other countries so I have heard ( since I haven't actually been to any other countries yet).
Listen to two lectures at the University there in the city. My fever refuses to allow me to actually focus on these lectures but I'm sure they were more than exciting. All I can really recall from those lectures was that the first speaker shared a strong resemblance to Einstein.
Go to dinner in the Universities dining hall. I pick at something we start calling "Salmon mousse" which literally could have been sold in the yogurt isle in stores and decided I would stick to the wine. Our attention was drawn towards our professor Ulrik after he downed a few glasses of wine. We then bonded over our "asian glow" and everyone at the table got the definition of chatty. It was nice. and only 7:00pm. Which here in Denmark means "just warming up".
Our other professor, Nicolai, went to law school here so he knew lots of the bars. After first trying a few beers at the university bar (and maybe the ordering of a keg by my fellow classmates) we ventured out to a very lively bar downtown...the exact location I am unclear about.
Explained to the bartender what an Irish Car Bomb was...and received a shot that really was nothing like an Irish Car Bomb. Language barriers at work again.
Watched Danes play something similar to Yahtzee.
Explained to Dane after Dane that I was American.
Refused a number of shots and offers of beer.
Finally we decided we should go. The large and loud group of Americans attempt to find our way back to the hostel that is conveniently in the middle of nowhere.
I convince a very sketch man who owns a very sketch pizza place that I am Puerto Rican with my very twangy Spanglish. Receive pizza and fries that tasted like the gods themselves had blessed.
We stand around trying to decided wether to take a taxi or not. This meant we stood around talking and eating until a taxi went by and then we ran after it trying to flag it down. Fail. Start walking. Gabrielle ( classmate) and I get a little worried we are never going to get home and decide we love taxis. Take a taxi home and worry about the rest of our group the whole way there. I get locked out of my room and have to sleep in another room. My luck is exhausting.
Friday:
Wake up the next morning twice as ill as the day before. (Not hungover, I assure you.) Back on the road which means back to sleep for Callie. Now, our very academic Justice and Human Rights professors tried extremely hard to find academic things for us to do for this short study tour. But as it turns out lots of military bases or special operations bases don't really feel comfortable with a group of college students hanging out with them for the day. Needless to say our short study tour was much more...cultural...than others. So we made our way to Ringkøbing in western Denmark where we would take a 2 hour walking tour of Hitlers Atlantic Wall on the beach, bowl, and travel to see Jelling Stones. The hostel we stayed at was, again, amazing. My mother would have even approved of sleeping on those beds. We had a short workshop where we split into groups and read a UN document concerning Srebencia which I found really helpful. Then we had ribs and french fries for dinner and bowled ( or attempted to bowl). I, still running a fever, take two Tylenol PMs and pass out at 10:00 or 22:00 as I'm trying to learn to use.
Saturday:
Wake up the next morning feeling like a brand new person. I happily pack my things and go to breakfast. Chatty and full we get bacccckkk on the bus. ( I became extremely attached to this bus)
2 hour walking tour. on a beach. My toes, face, and hands hated that tour. I'm sure it would have been nicer in the summer.
Back on bus. Back to sleep. Jelling. Tour of stones. Super fascinating. I found it really strange that most Danes are not very religious yet this specific image of "Jesus" that was carved on a jelling stone over 1000 years ago is now on every Danes passport.
Eat at a restaurant where I ate salmon that will go down in history as the best salmon I've ever eaten. Drank hot chocolate that was like a melted chocolate bar in a glass. Happy.
Back on the Bus. Stay awake the whole way home. Copenhagennnnn. Get back to Vaerløse pretty late but not late enough to not go out of course. Meet up with Sam and Sarah at a friends apartment in the city. Go to a really nice bar with the really interesting name of Francis Pony. Learned that Whitney Houston died and bonded with a man in the Danish military over her music. Pay your respects people.
This week my host family is away skiing in Austria. I've been mostly staying at Sam's house (her family is also gone) and rummaging for food that I do not know how to cook. Tuesday night we went out to the very American Kuløbar. It wasn't nearly as crowded as our last experience so taking advantage of the "free beer till 1am" thing was a little easier. Sarah spends 15 minutes of her life trying to convince me we can walk to Helsingnør which is an hour away...by train... home at 6:30 am with Sam. Story of our lives here.
Explored the city with Sam, Brooke, and Kate on Wednesday. Ate pizza and drank wine while we attempted to plan our spring breaks. I get stressed out.
I actually have a paper and a presentation next week. Like real school....not ok.
I now will venture out into the cold to find food with my fellow nommer Sarah because we didn't bring out lunches today. If only there was taco bell. I miss it so much it hurts.
Wish you were here.
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