OK, so I am not Tina Fey, but I had an AMAZING weekend with so many stories and pictures too! So if this entry is really long, I am sorry. I guess I will go day by day, feel free to skim...
Friday (wow, that seems like a long time ago) I had an awesome class in the morning, "The Impact of Epidemic Disease on European History." Yes, it is public health, my dad is so proud that he is slowly converting me to the dark side! The professor is great, he is kind of like a giant teddy bear. But more importantly, he really knows his stuff, and just seems so excited to teach us! He spent a lot of time asking us questions that we didn't have answers to in front us from the reading, but he was trying to make us use the inherent knowledge we already have and apply common sense to explain things like fluctuating world population and average life expectancies throughout history. This is completely different than any classes I have taken at Smith, and I am really excited to learn about it! (Yup, I'm a nerd, but I challenge you to sit through this class and not be excited too!)
On to less academic adventures... in the afternoon I had a few hours to kill, so I decided to explore more of my neighborhood, which is North of central Copenhagen. I jumped on my trusty bike (I think it needs a name, suggestions?:
and set off down a road I had never been on. After a lot of rambling, I came across a large area enclosed by a red brick wall. Based on a sign in Danish, I discovered it was an old cemetery and crematorium, and visiting hours were over. But there was this open door... so I went in... And I am so glad that I did. I have never been a huge fan of American cemeteries: rows upon rows of tombstones, I tend to get really depressed. But this place was completely different and was so amazingly beautiful. I can't even express it. There was absolutely nothing depressing in the air, it was so open and organized. It was kind of a cross between a park and a memorial. There is no way to do it justice with words, so here are pictures:
And this may be my favorite statue I found:
OK, maybe I spoke too soon, this one is really pretty too:
I know I only saw a tiny part of the whole cemetery, and now I really want to go back when it is actually supposed to be open, and maybe I can learn more about the history.
Well after that adventure, we had a canal boat tour, which only made me realize how many things I have yet to see in Copenhagen. So now I have a checklist. But it was lovely to see the city from a whole different perspective.
So after the boat ride, part of the Smithie group decided to treat ourselves to a nice dinner. I LOVE MY SMITHIES! Rachel, Ania, Cara, and I had so much fun. As much as I wanted to come here and challenge myself in a whole new environment, it is so nice to have friends that I can call up anytime. I love you girls! Thank you for being amazing!
Saturday
I love having time to relax at home! I decided to make soup to freeze so that whenever I am feeling especially lazy I have ready made Ginger-Carrot soup! By the way, La Dolce Vegan is possibly the best cookbook ever!
Well later that day, Rachel and I decided that we needed to make chocolate chip cookies for her host family while they were gone. And we were both alone at our respective homes, and that is just silly. So usually I am rather proud of my baking abilities, but baking here is NOTHING like baking at home. We ran into a few problems: butter doesn't come in sticks, it comes in spreadable containers, which isn't quite the same. Vanilla comes in powder, not liquid, brown sugar was impossible to find (but apparently it does exist. Chocolate chips, on the other hand, do not exist here, nor do normal cookie sheets. But all that just made it more exciting! And we did end up with cookies that were (more or less) what we were aiming for!
And later... well without going into details (I need to protect the innocent... and guilty?) let me impart a bit of wisdom I learned:
1. Australian bartenders are nice and will let you taste beers until you find one you like.
2. If a group of Danes start talking to you, apparently they will eventually start buying round of beers (and they buy the BIG ones, not like the little one I bought for myself), and they will not stop, even if you have three full beers sitting in front of you that you are clearly not about to drink. And then they will laugh at you.
3. Bars in Copenhagen close at 4:30am.
4. You know its a good night when you need to figure out the night bus schedule (which runs starting at 1am). You know its a GREAT night when you need to know when the morning bus starts (6am, just in case you were wondering).
Yeah. Saturday night was an definitely my first real adventure in cross-cultural interactions, and I had a great time :)
Sunday
After sleeping in for a good long time, Rachel and I decided to be tourist-y and went to the National Museum for the afternoon. If you haven't been, it should be on your To-Do list. We saw the whole history of Denmark, prehistoric until the present, which included lots of preserved bodies, artifacts, everything. But the best room was a room full of dollhouses, which we thought were really cool on their own...
And then we walked around the back... each and every house was full decorated and we could see a bunch of them. It just brought back great memories of the house my mom and I built when I was little. Mine was (ok, is) full of Playmobile, and it was (ok OK, IS) one of my favorite things.
After a fun filled museum trip, we met Ania and Cara to go to the soccer game! FCK (the Copenhagen team) vs. their rivals. Again, words really cannot describe the party/riot/crazy atmosphere surrounding the game and the entire city. Let's just say, nothing like this could happen in the US. But again, hopefully some of the pictures can capture what it was like to be there. (Oh, they ended up tying 1-1).
Wow, that is pretty much all I have to say. Oh, and I few more tidbits of wisdom:1. If a police horse starts running and kicking at you (or really the guy next to you, but whatever), RUN AWAY!
2. Just ignore anything drunk fans from either side shout at you, its not like you can understand it.
3. Be very happy you have amazing friends who offer to carry you to the train station when you cannot walk. THANK YOU!
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