13.5.10
7.3.10
She Is,tanbul
In no chronological order....between: pre-departure papers, unpacking & re-packing, visa lines, sunshine in my face for (most of) the week, exotic compliments, walking above sea-level & looking down on layers of city, trekking back to the hotel because it's midnight and I'm without a "spoon", stimulated by bold colors, neon colors, and natural colors, sitting at the bar by candlelight with a drink and a smoke exchanging names with Turkish sociology majors, dining daily on the cheapest to most expensive cuisine in the city, passing street after side street smelling cigarette, cay (tea), and dead fish, turning the corner to Taksim, re-learning'Thank-you' as "Sal," not "Tak", constantly double-taking the shops that might all sell the same but knowing each ceramic bowl is truly detailed differently, then 4 Turkish Lira dinner on the water (salad, bread and fish), hookah and tea with Armenian tabu radio hosts, & then a toast before every second draft of beer, the East side view of Turkey in Asia, Prayer call heard at least twice a day, visits to old mosques and big mosques, and Blue Mosque, before a well-preserved Sultan's Palace, sharing the streets with stray dogs and cats, toasted water chestnuts for a snack off the street, American music on officially any European dance-floor, palm reading after my Turkish coffee cup reading, apple tea (no sweetening necessary), Salep, bottled water (nothing less or your stomach's in trouble), Turkish delight, Turkish haggling, Turkish translations, "Yes, please" meaning, "Come into my shop," seeking out the minority beef with Turkey and within Turkey, scoping the nightlife (but never alone), & back to bed before 9 a.m. breakfast.....I got just past acquaintance with this city when all of a sudden we were boarding the bus to the airport for our flight back to Copenhagen. I think Istanbul was a serious love affair for all of my class and it has taken awhile to shake off. It was such a wonderful taste of old Europe (but not technically) that I never would have thought to explore until I signed up for my core-course four months ago. It only helped that my class gets on pretty well together and by the end of our trip it was a good exhaustion from six packed days of lectures between visits between meals before free-time. By far, a city I know I'll be able to continue a relationship with someday along with the rest of this continent.
19.2.10
9.2.10
I could spend the rest of my Monday nights stuffed from dinner, leaning on Kelli's leg listening to trashy MTV reality shows in the background while
the rest of my dormmates shout out new rules for a new card game all the way from Jasper, IN thanks to Margot, while we all simultaneously practice our profanity with international accents from all corners of the room..."Hallo, my name is Tom ClaRk." :)
I couldn't think of a shorter title but what a perfect lead into a new entry. Pulling up to the bus stop coming home from our short-study tour (to Western Denmark) last weekend I felt something new with Copenhagen. The more familiar that the buildings and restaurants and "torvs" looked as we pulled up, the more happier I felt to be home after a busy busy three days with my class...let me rephrase being HOME. It hasn't even been a full month yet but I am in a place where having up-days and down-days is what makes it home here. I re-learn everyday about 'how to make the most of a new experience in just four months.' Although I wish all my family and friends could see and taste what I am exposed to everyday here, I know that I will be saying the same thing about my new friends here while I am back home in the spring. I want the best of both worlds with one foot across each border.
This past weekend on our study-tour was split amongst our programs. I felt really lucky with the people I got to tour with in mine and the places my professors pulled strings with to get in. My program here with Migration & Identity deals with a lot of immigration issues in Eastern Europe that I never had a clue about until my first day of class here. A lot of museums, a lot of lectures, and SO MUCH GOOD FOOD. A lot of Danish taste between the buffets and free beer. Our first museum tour in Odense was the Brandts Museum with a specific visit to the contemporary 'I-Lands' exhibit. I think the theme was open to interpretation regarding man as an island and what society makes us feel towards individualism and needing to thrive with the help of other people...very contemporary, actually. Another place I took heart to was the Sondervangskolen (side school?) where kids in grade 0-9 make up 85% of the ethnic background with 20 different nationalities between classrooms but almost all of them consider to be Danish regardless of where their family is from. School runs from 8a.m.-4 p.m. and they have the same teacher for nine years........NINE. Think of how much more passion teachers in America would have for their jobs and on top of the effect they would have on their students practically teaching through their whole childhood. The students here also have a mature aura about them that takes longer for most kids in the U.S. I got to sit down with a couple of ninth-graders and although they were shy to ask questions, one of them already had a year of work experience with his family's business, able to speak four different languages, and a respect for every one of his classmates. He's fifteen. I was really impressed with the school where I also learned the real game of Handball...no Berlin High opt-out gym class game...I had fun!
On the last day of our trip, we left Arhus after lunch, but I got the chance in the morning to take a walk by myself in the city. Arhus is the second biggest city in Denmark and for that there underlies a territorial grudge. My art professor had a few jokes about the city kind of drawing a similarity with Polish jokes in the U.S. My walk around the city center was easy to not get lost for a half an hour. I found a bunch of side streets with music cafes and coffee breweries and fair trade shops. We were pretty close to the harbor which still amazes me to see salt water frozen. I put my headphones on and followed an old couple bundled in fur walking my way which led me back to the hotel, eventually. It was nice to head in no direction on my own for the first time since I've been here. Our last stop before heading home was the ARoS meseum in Arhus. A lot more Danish modern art than just colonial.The museum was split up by levels with a symbol(ization?) to each floor...the top being Heaven where a lot of colonial art painting that symbolized Danish history and the lowest ground feeling like Dante's Inferno (Hell, I guess) with a lot of modern sculptures and active art. There was so much to see and interpret or ignore. Museums can express a lot about a particular place.
After being fed like a queen for one last meal on DIS' tab, we headed back on the bus for a four hour ride with European movies, a short quiz on Denmark, a quick pit stop, and a shot of Danish licorice liquor...oof. Inevitably, I have been sick for the past few days but so have a lot of my Keops mates. And what do you get when you're an American sick in a foreign country without your mom? A check-in from the rest of your roomates keeping dabs on how you're feeling/offering to make a Fotex (grocery) run... :) hyggely
I couldn't think of a shorter title but what a perfect lead into a new entry. Pulling up to the bus stop coming home from our short-study tour (to Western Denmark) last weekend I felt something new with Copenhagen. The more familiar that the buildings and restaurants and "torvs" looked as we pulled up, the more happier I felt to be home after a busy busy three days with my class...let me rephrase being HOME. It hasn't even been a full month yet but I am in a place where having up-days and down-days is what makes it home here. I re-learn everyday about 'how to make the most of a new experience in just four months.' Although I wish all my family and friends could see and taste what I am exposed to everyday here, I know that I will be saying the same thing about my new friends here while I am back home in the spring. I want the best of both worlds with one foot across each border.
This past weekend on our study-tour was split amongst our programs. I felt really lucky with the people I got to tour with in mine and the places my professors pulled strings with to get in. My program here with Migration & Identity deals with a lot of immigration issues in Eastern Europe that I never had a clue about until my first day of class here. A lot of museums, a lot of lectures, and SO MUCH GOOD FOOD. A lot of Danish taste between the buffets and free beer. Our first museum tour in Odense was the Brandts Museum with a specific visit to the contemporary 'I-Lands' exhibit. I think the theme was open to interpretation regarding man as an island and what society makes us feel towards individualism and needing to thrive with the help of other people...very contemporary, actually. Another place I took heart to was the Sondervangskolen (side school?) where kids in grade 0-9 make up 85% of the ethnic background with 20 different nationalities between classrooms but almost all of them consider to be Danish regardless of where their family is from. School runs from 8a.m.-4 p.m. and they have the same teacher for nine years........NINE. Think of how much more passion teachers in America would have for their jobs and on top of the effect they would have on their students practically teaching through their whole childhood. The students here also have a mature aura about them that takes longer for most kids in the U.S. I got to sit down with a couple of ninth-graders and although they were shy to ask questions, one of them already had a year of work experience with his family's business, able to speak four different languages, and a respect for every one of his classmates. He's fifteen. I was really impressed with the school where I also learned the real game of Handball...no Berlin High opt-out gym class game...I had fun!
On the last day of our trip, we left Arhus after lunch, but I got the chance in the morning to take a walk by myself in the city. Arhus is the second biggest city in Denmark and for that there underlies a territorial grudge. My art professor had a few jokes about the city kind of drawing a similarity with Polish jokes in the U.S. My walk around the city center was easy to not get lost for a half an hour. I found a bunch of side streets with music cafes and coffee breweries and fair trade shops. We were pretty close to the harbor which still amazes me to see salt water frozen. I put my headphones on and followed an old couple bundled in fur walking my way which led me back to the hotel, eventually. It was nice to head in no direction on my own for the first time since I've been here. Our last stop before heading home was the ARoS meseum in Arhus. A lot more Danish modern art than just colonial.The museum was split up by levels with a symbol(ization?) to each floor...the top being Heaven where a lot of colonial art painting that symbolized Danish history and the lowest ground feeling like Dante's Inferno (Hell, I guess) with a lot of modern sculptures and active art. There was so much to see and interpret or ignore. Museums can express a lot about a particular place.
After being fed like a queen for one last meal on DIS' tab, we headed back on the bus for a four hour ride with European movies, a short quiz on Denmark, a quick pit stop, and a shot of Danish licorice liquor...oof. Inevitably, I have been sick for the past few days but so have a lot of my Keops mates. And what do you get when you're an American sick in a foreign country without your mom? A check-in from the rest of your roomates keeping dabs on how you're feeling/offering to make a Fotex (grocery) run... :) hyggely
31.1.10
we say, "Hej!" they say, "Hej!"
..There IS a difference between the two. Danes muffle it & Swedes sing it I guess. Side note is, I crossed another border off my list this past weekend! Malmo is a small city across the coast in Sweden known for a city shopping center, but we didn't really experience that part on account of we winged the whole day there. We probably wandered 3/4 of the day but I like that travel style..just following each other to nowhere under the sun's clock. Restaurants and mini-malls were really the shops that kept open on the weekend. Finding lunch for a table of 5+ has been hard anywhere over here so a table for 8 of us was greeted with, "No." Thankfully the hostess suggested Bogg-werjlakfj? where it was smaller but able to seat ourselves because serving style was like a cafeteria. Basically one option on the menu for the better price (with student discount!) and all vegetarian. I can't even remember chewing, I was so hungry & happy to sit down with a hot meal of sweet Indian food.
After refueling we continued on with our stray schedule looking for THE spiral tower that Tom suggested to find. Again, no significance- just another pretty apartment building (to take pictures in front of).
Finally, we ended our roam on a shopping spree in one shoe store because of the 70% off sign annnd I needed SOMETHING from Sweden besides my lunch receipt so we all thought the same thing: Let's get some shoes!
Our sunset route brought us back to the train station just in time, but we were only lucky for 10 minutes into the ride when we were again booted off at a stop to catch a transferring train back home. Cold is such an understatement here. We all have yet to find a mild temperature here...hopefully sooner than later though. Our night was the perfect ending to Saturday partying in our own kollegium which means no digging between my wallet and purse for public tran$portation, coat check$, cover charge$, & (expen$ive) drinking. Just loud music, neighbors, and 5kr beer was in the picture. It was great and thankfully happens once a month here.
I get a lot of daily epiphanies while I'm here, especially after a Sunday afternoon snowed in with a case of homesick for anything familiar. It gets pretty overwhelming when I feel like I am stuck in a place only because I'm so confused from how to get here to there and then back on my own. Many of the places I've been to are passed on from word of mouth between my friends here so I always feel behind in research of what is around us. Once I am over that puddle though, I feel quite okay with being lost because I WANTED the risks that come with a big change and I have been very lucky so far with the people I've met and the things I've figured out for myself...very very lucky (I'm happy here Mom, I promise!)
Selvfolgelig selvfolgelig!
25.1.10
"I'm walking through the city drunk, but not- with my slip showing a little like a drunk, but not."
Relatively inexpensive things I've come across in the D.K.:
1. Wine
2. That's it
I learned yesterday that most nursery schools here begin outside for children to climatically adapt to this Arctic freeze (for the rest of their lives!!). I see pedestrians on bikes passing by with tears running down because the wind in the face makes it 10 degrees colder outside. I would cry too, but I'd be afraid of tears freezing my eyes shut. I still can't get use to it but I also heard it only gets warmer from here. I cannot wait to see 18 degrees celsius on the thermometer.
I was quite the tourist this weekend trying to keep busy with meeting people. The school offers trips to sign up as part of orientation so I took advantage of seeing Kronborg Castle in Elsinore...a.k.a. where Shakespeare set Hamlet. Never really took the time to understand Shakespeare but I came out with some nice pictures...
My favorite part about this view is that the castle is on one of the farthest points out to the sea. Which means about twenty-five minutes across the water is Sweden. A whole other country. Right there. So a group of us have decided to take off on a Saturday to Malmo this weekend and probably be home just in time for a Dane party right in our own kollegium.
Sunday was spent outside again for the love of ice-skating and hot chocolate for ten dollars. Skating ended a little earlier than imagined but the homemade cocoa on this man's ship service as a restaurant right in the Nyhavn was not what I expected either. I was on a boat. Drinking cocoa and coffee and it felt reeeaaally good.
Classes have been intimidating so far but the challenge doesn't really phase me. I'm gonna learn what I can while I'm here but I know much more of it is gonna come from outside the classroom...& Det OK!
20.1.10
I think I found my feet again
Exactly a week ago, I was just starting to pack suitcase by suitcase figuring ten days of clothes would be enough for four months. Another week later I think I've just finished unpacking...ten days of clothes + an extra 3 pairs of everything...I don't believe it. And only three days ago, I was wandering Copenhagen with a local- now, I am the local (I mean, according to my first Danish social security card =] ). But I can take a bus and know when to switch stops on my own, and I can grocery shop with the right conscience of splurging for Danish labels (7 avocados for $5, Ma!) and I can make it to class on time and enjoy my walk around square going from menu to menu to compare kaffe latte prices (even if I end up back to class empty-handed). I've got a great group of kollegium folk to call on for anything and scope out the rest of this city at night even if it means leaving by midnight to finish homework for an 8 a.m. class. I'm learning to live everything while I'm here. I'm constantly aware of where I am no matter how lost I got an hour ago (I just keep walking). I've come thousands of miles away to feel more comfortable with myself and it's a comfort that I wasn't expecting in the beginning. It's been less than a week and the amount of people I've met already from all over the states aside from the continentals living on my floor (everyone should meet an Aussie). I'm living it here and as scary as it can get, it's also a thrill.
The amazing high of a new place..
Skål!
18.1.10
Crash course in Danske grocery
2 apples, a bag of carrots, hand soap, a loaf of Soft Kerne, probably a weeks worth of paper towel and TP, a quart of skim milk, a box o' red grapes, and (what I think is) a light scallion flavored cheese spread & 149 Kroner later: I made my first (successful?) grocery shop. Not alone, though. I don't think I trust myself enough yet to wander and see what happens. I feel a lot more accomplished today than yesterday of course, but it's only day 2 and if I can keep up with this culture by achieving at least a small personal task everyday- I'm happy. I know I've got a much better appreciation of American cities after today for the English street signs and directions as well as the frequent jaywalk. In Copenhagen- nobody lives above the law. Today was my first real stroll in the streets and I wish every city was cobblestone...gives it much more character. The buildings still standing from the 17th century are old and scraped and cracked in just the right places..it's picture perfect and apparently hip to live in. I'm trying to observe as much as I can from the bikers to the people in line at Baresso coffee, the pedestrians taking the bus, and of course, my classmates. Maybe it's cultureshock...it's probably cultureshock but I feel like I'm more open to watching what's going on instead of participating in it because I feel like I don't know how to yet. Then I remember I just have to respect the norms and tradition here but I still have the right to be myself. In fact, MORE than myself-- initiating a conversation with any stranger let alone a Dane is risky but what do I have to lose in a place where I'M more of a stranger here.
So my next task is finding my routes, to and from and around the school. Class starts thursday at 8 in the a.m. so this might be an everyday task until then.
Until another one,
Hej hej!
1.1.10
The first of the rest
It's taken me weeks to come up with the words for this entry. This is about as close to pre-departure as I'll ever be with my mind thinking as far ahead as unnecessarily possible. I've been back and forth with questions from a semester ago and some I still have yet to check off with an answer. Studying abroad has always been a match lit in the back of my head, Denmark- not so much. Somehow choosing a country felt effortless. People still ask me, why Denmark? I just like to be different, I guess. I would never have guessed four years ago- nay, one year ago, that I'd be studying in a Scandinavian country my "senior" year. Better late than never ever.
In less than a day I'll be taking a nap over one country and waking up in another.
!!!!!!!!!!!!
I'm everything about this experience now. More than anything I think I feel selfish. For the next four months this will be my time to take care of myself, and my choice to ask for help no matter how American I'll seem, and my chance to introduce myself to meet as many Danes & non-Danes as I can. There is a strength to this kind of selfish and I'll find it when I least expect it. But my selfish decision to start somewhere new again is bringing me to Copenhagen (where I'll be swiping in under International Student)!
In less than a day I'll be taking a nap over one country and waking up in another.
!!!!!!!!!!!!
I'm everything about this experience now. More than anything I think I feel selfish. For the next four months this will be my time to take care of myself, and my choice to ask for help no matter how American I'll seem, and my chance to introduce myself to meet as many Danes & non-Danes as I can. There is a strength to this kind of selfish and I'll find it when I least expect it. But my selfish decision to start somewhere new again is bringing me to Copenhagen (where I'll be swiping in under International Student)!
I've read that the only constant is change. Fact. As much as I fear it, I look for it and I certainly can't stop now. I've got a lot to learn this semester..
So ready or not,
here I go (again)
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