The time has come

Less than 24 hours left in Copenhagen. I am about to take my last shower in my kollegium room.

Am I sad or excited? Both. The whole idea of leaving and going back to America has been prolonged for so long that I am very ready to just get on the plane. I could definitely stay here longer, but its not that I “don’t want to leave.” However, the past two days it has been really sad thinking about leaving this place across the world that I have made a great home for myself.

I can honestly say that I have had the time of my life this semester and am so satisfied with my experience. Though I was between 5 different countries (none of them being Denmark) a month before my abroad application was due, and it was a bit dark and cold when I arrived, if I could do it all over again I would choose Copenhagen in a heart beat. After all, now it is still light out past 10. The only problem is that even if I get into bed after 4, I am up by 9 because it is so bright in my room.

Anyway, I would like to thank you for keeping up to date with my adventures, I hope you enjoyed reading! Thanks mom and dad for giving the opportunity and resources to be able to have this amazing experience. I can now say that I have lived in a country where I didn’t speak the language.

I have also realized that studying abroad is about learning a different culture, but also to better understand your own.

My flight gets in at 3 tomorrow.
See you soon!

Oh, by the way- I live…

It was the beginning of the semester and I was walking back from the grocery store with a girl from my Kollegium. She told me that there had been stabbings in our neighborhood and some violence with gangs in our area. I didn’t really know what to think…

A couple days later I was on the bus with a girl I had just meet who lives in my kollegium. She asked me if I too had heard the gunshots at night; I said huh? She said yeah, there are gunshots on the other side of the train tracks (there is a train station next to where I live). I didn’t really know whether or not to believe her.

I later on found out that I do live in the gang area where all of the gang violence is, and it has pretty much been confirmed that there are shootings right next to where I live. Apparently the gang violence has gotten consistently worse in the past 6 months (4 of which I have been living here for). But its hard to evaluate; for Denmark’s standards, this violence has never been seen before and is extremely scary. However, when judging it from a New Yorker’s perspective, or even as an America, unfortunately, it is not anything I should not be use to.
One night I was sitting in my room waiting for my friend to come over and heard loud noises that sounded like gun shots and ran into my bathroom because of the way my room is set up with a screen window it would have been the only safe place. I called her and told her to wait before getting off the bus and coming. I later found out that it was fireworks…woops! But it made me feel better that my neighbor apparently thought the same thing because he said that he ran out of his room with a knife and 911 on his phone.

Did I mention you need a key to get onto anything but the ground floor of my kollegium? Oh did I also mention that I live on the ground floor? The place I live only started getting a little scary when I came home last week to see the door across from me was shattered all over the ground. I ran into one of my friends who told me that apparently two guys had been banging on everyone’s doors last night. They had blood on their shirts and there was blood on the walls as well as kick marks on my neighbor’s door. This all happened at 3 in the morning and I could just say that I was happy I caught the 3:30 bus that night and got back after all of the commotion.

The Top Two

I have come up with the two most non-Danish daily activities that I do that has made me stand out in society this semester. Besides that I think I have done fairly well to fit in here- most people talk to me in Danish!

1. Grocery store shopping. Danes shop every few days, not in bulk. They don’t even have shopping carts, just baskets. I still did the American thing and went only once in a while to stock up. After a while however I did adjust and did not look like a freak while at the check-out.

2. Crossing the street. Cross when the signal is red? Unheard of here. Not for a New Yorker. Sorry but I continued to cross not only when it was red, but sometimes when there was not even a cross walk! Oh my! I overcame the black confused stares and still continue to do this.

Running

Since it has been so nice out I have been running almost every day- I LOVE it, but do have some funny stories associated with it.

Once I was running and a bug flew into my mouth, it was pretty gross. I licked my hand to get it off my tongue and a dead bug appeared on my hand. I licked it a few more times to make sure I got all the legs which also came along with smeared blood on my finger- gross!

I run up a hill and turn a sharp corner filled with bushes on my run, which is where I once literally ran into someone else- hard on contact.

Another day I was running belong a soccer field located in a park where lots of families picnic with a bathroom at the corner of the field. But instead a guy was peeing in the bushes beside me.

Things I miss & am looking forward to...if you would like to join me upon my arrival

American Breakfast
not that I was ever really that big of a fan, but totally craving it and cannot get it- I ordered pancakes in Amsterdam but they were crapes, not cool
Being able to afford diet coke on a daily basis
Z100
Going to temple & connecting with my Jewish roots
Getting a manicure
no I did not do this often, but maybe once in a while; it is not really poplar here and I have only heard of one place that charges about $60
Being able to read nutrition labels- can you believe I went a whole semester without
being able to read the calorie content on the box? I cant!
Looking somewhat fashionable compared to the rest of society

Running

Since it has been so nice out I have been running almost every day- I LOVE it, but do have some funny stories associated with it.

Once I was running and a bug flew into my mouth, it was pretty gross. I licked my hand to get it off my tongue and a dead bug appeared on my hand. I licked it a few more times to make sure I got all the legs which also came along with smeared blood on my finger- gross!

I run up a hill and turn a sharp corner filled with bushes on my run, which is where I once literally ran into someone else- hard on contact.

Another day I was running belong a soccer field located in a park where lots of families picnic with a bathroom at the corner of the field. But instead a guy was peeing in the bushes beside me.

ICE Bar, the oldest amusement park/roller coaster in the world and Tivoli

Last weekend I went to the Copenhagen Ice Bar. The entire bar is made out of ice, even the cups! They gave us big capes to wear to keep us warm too.

Today I went to the oldest amusement park in the world, Bakken. It is also home to the oldest roller coaster in the world. It is actually a really long, fun, wooden ride and even has a driver in the last car! This amusement park was more like Six Flags, while Tivoli (the more famous amusement park in the center of Copenhagen I went to with my parents) is more similar to Disney.

Laundromat Café & Ketchup

There is this really cute café near where I live called the Laundromat Café that I have been going to study for finals. It’s a café, but they also have laundry there too! I was wondering why I was able to get so much work and studying done, usually at home I can never go to Starbucks to do work. Then I realized- its because everyone is speaking Danish. It is a lot easier to concentrate when people are speaking a different language and you can’t ease drop! Yes, I am taking Danish, but not that good.

On another note, I am out of ketchup but too cheap to buy another bottle because I am leaving in one week! (This one lasted me my entire stay). Meanwhile in Denmark you can’t just make a Burger King bag and take a bunch of ketchup packets- you pay for them here. So I think I will get creative like my friend who does not like the ketchup here (it does taste different) and use tomato sauce; or use salsa like I do with everything else (Salsa and carrots is a GREAT snack).

The Queens Birthday

Flags were on all of the busses, it was great! Soldiers marched down streets of Copenhagen for the changing of the guards- as they do every day, but many came to watch. There was a big crowd around to see the Queens of course. However, I pointed out to my parents the apparent difference in culture. In the states if everyone was crowding around to see something, there would be no space to move! Here however, everyone remains in their own personal bubble here and do not stand close to each other. If the ball fell in Denmark on New Years Eve there still would not be a true crowd!

Danish Culture

Danes have a very different culture and are brought up differently than Americans. While Americans are raised to think they are something special, Danes are told they are no better than anyone else. This is also shown in their school system; there are no honors or advanced classes. Everyone is in the same class, not exceptions.

Additionally, Danes do not brag. You will not find a grandmother bragging about any accomplishments, gymnastics competition, modeling, or good grades as mine does. Did I mention Americans are different?

Hamburg, Germany

It was finally time for the day I had been dreading yet eager to experience. It was time to travel to Hamburg, Germany to see a concentration camp with my Holocaust and Genocide class.

We would leave Friday at 5:30 and arrive in Hamburg at 11 that night. This included about 4 hours of driving and a 45-minute ferry ride. Saturday morning we woke up at 8 (some people hung over from going out with the teachers the night before- I was smart enough to know it would be a long enough day as it was) and first went to a school where 20 children were murdered right before the end of the war (the Germans killed them because they did not want any trace of the medical experiments they had performed on them during the war). There was a museum inside but we did not have enough time to go in so we just stood outside and had a 15-minute lecture.

Next we made a short stop to see a building that still had punctures from the bombing during World War II. We then went to the city square to see a church, and had a little over an hour to walk around and grab lunch.

At 12 we headed to Nuengamme, the concentration camp we would be visiting. It was not what I expected at all. First off out your guide was great but I’m not sure she knew we were a Holocaust and genocide class; I did not learn as much as I thought I would. She is a historian and has a very interesting background. Her grandfather was an SS soldier. She also informed us that it is complete bull shit if anyone tells us people were forced into the position, it was a chosen profession. She used the term bullshit once more, it is the response she stressed to anyone in the town would claim they did not know about the camp during its existence.

Anyway, it was s beautiful day and there where a few beautiful flower bushes, which confused me- it was not the feeling one should get when visiting a concentration camp. The barracks had been taken down after the war because the camp was turned into a prison until 20 years later when it became a memorial for the Holocaust. There were extensive exhibits that were well done with a lot of material about the camp but nothing too much to see, or at least not as much as I though I would see.

I think it is good that they still have the camp in its somewhat presence because I saw a few other tours that I assumed to be “class trips.” I think for schools in the area it is a very important trip to take and I was glad to see it was there for them to visit, especially because our tour guide informed us of the 5 percent of Neo Nazis that still exist in Germany. Additionally, there are conservatives who agree with some of their standpoints; which is why I think it was good for other schools in the area to be visiting.

One girl on my class described her reaction well, “it was hard to connect with.” Another point to explain my feelings towards the camp was that my teacher said one year he was at another camp and there was a survivor who said, “they have grass here now? I don’t remember there being any grass, if there was grass back then we would have ate it.” However, I would like to mention that my teacher said the camps in Poland are very different than the ones in Germany.

My long travel

I never woke up at 5:45 the next morning so easily y because I was so excited to see my parents. Little did I know the adventure that lied ahead of me. My flight was at 8:45 and I left the apartment at 5:40, the trip from the airport to the apartment was a little under an hour and a half. However, the trip from the apartment to the airport was just about 4 hours.

The train running from the main station to the airport was out; this equaled chaos. Everyone with suitcases was walking (or running) in different directions and I did not even speak the language. I finally found my way onto a train that would take me to a bus to the airport. After a mash pit getting onto the train (with my suitcase), getting onto a bus that dropped the very crowded bus off in the middle of the Paris ghetto with everyone’s luggage, standing on another bus not being able to move with a little kid pueking in front of me I made it to the airport a little before 10 am. The only reason I was not in tears after finding out the next flight was 12 hours later was because I meet a cute boy.

Apparently 15-20 other people missed the same flight for the same reason. So I spent the day napping, reading, making friends, and trying to nourish myself in a very expensive airport while keeping kosher for Passover.

By the way that was the earliest I had EVER left for an airport for my flight and the first time that I EVER missed a flight.

What a Beautiful City

We were able to see the acropolis in the afternoon and once again I very much enjoyed the Greek food. The next day we saw some more sights including the original Olympic stadium and then was off to Paris!

After coming out of the metro and walking only one block to my friends’ Uncle’s apartment in suburbia, I could already tell it was one of my favorite cities; it was soooo pretty!

I could not even really tell you what we did the next day; but I remember telling her Uncle and him being very impressed with all that we did and how far we walked. We did of course make it to the Eiffel Tower and Muse de Orso. The next day I visited Arch de Triumph, Mona Lisa and Luxembourg Gardens (maybe a little too much time in the gardens). We went back to the Eiffel Tower at night to see it all light up which was beautiful. However, I was not able to climb the Eiffel Tower because the workers were on strike! Crazy, right? This only led me to the conclusion that I will have to return to the beautiful city.

2 Overnight Ferries in 3 nights & Yummy Greek Food

The next day was our flight to Athens where we had to meet another friend in the airport and quickly find our way to the port for an overnight ferry to Crete. The ferry was not too bad, and I was able to get a few hours of sleep, but not too much more than the night before when I arrived home at six and woke up only a few hours later for our flight.

We walked around the town of Chania where the port is in Crete and then headed to another town where our hostel was located. After a two-hour walking tour of the area with our luggage, we finally found our hostel. It seems the paper with the street name that we had was spelled incorrectly when translated from Greek to English.

Our hostel in Crete was only 9 Euros a night- what a bargain! We also had to go outside to get to the bathrooms in the hostel that did not have towels to dry us off after a nice cold shower. That night however we figured we could afford a delicious Greek dinner on the beach. Greek food was definitely my favorite.

Our plan of laying out in the sun was ruined by rain the next day so we just hopped from café to café. Later on we were finally able to walk around some old ruins before catching our second overnight ferry. That morning I woke up and refused to wear anything but my bathing suit and a black dress with the hopes of making it to a sunny beach later on. That dream never came true but I did wear my bathing suit for what felt like (and probably was) a few days because of the overnight ferry. I woke up at 4:30 Athens after the ferry with a nice indent on my hip from the tie in my bathing suit digging into my skin.

We arrived at our hostel at 7 am with it still raining outside in Athens. Can you imagine how tired we were after 2 overnight ferries in 3 days??? Even though it we were tired and it was gross outside, we only had one and a half days to see Athens. At this point my sneakers were still soaked from the day before and my stylish black boots were so well worn that they basically had holes in the bottom and were not conducive to rain. This led me to buy another pair of black boots out of necessity.

I also joined the “bruise club” as we walked out of our hostel that morning; I slipped down the very slippery wet steps adding a nice bruise to my back in the poring rain. This was in addition to the bruises on my leg from carrying around my suitcase the past week and let me join my friend in the bruise club who had slipped down the entire flight of stairs in our Crete hostel (the one where you have to go outside to get to the bathrooms); she called it a “log flume.”

We were able to see the acropolis in the afternoon and once again I very much enjoyed the Greek food. The next day we saw some more sights including the original Olympic stadium and then was off to Paris!

No sheets or towel?

After one night of rest and a bit of laundry I was ready for my next adventure. I meet my two friends and arrived in Barcelona where we wandered around for a bit looking for our hostel. It was my first real hostile experience. One room, 10 beds, co-ed, and the best part: they were out of sheets. You can assume my jacket came in handy that night. We also had to wait a day to shower because we had not towel either. Walking around the inner city, we stumbled upon a beautiful look out at night.

Monday I walked down Las Ramblas, Barcelona’s main walking street and did a bike tour of the city. I also discovered my new favorite Spanish artist: Gaudi. He has beautiful churches and a park, which I think is one of my favorite places in the world. On our bus ride to the park, we asked two elderly ladies behind us if they knew the right stop for s to get off; before we knew it the entire bus was in conversation discussing where we should get off in addition to telling us how to get the bus back.

Tuesday I was able to get to the Picasso museum (which was not all that impressive) and the Christopher Columbus statue before heading off to Madrid. Pick potters were everywhere in Barcelona. We even caught a few getting very close to use and eyeing my friends bag. This is why I decided to carry a small purse over my shoulder, underneath my jacket so that you could not even tell I was carrying one. It definitely made my but look a little large, but my passport was not stolen!

We didn’t have towels at our hostel in Madrid, which meant our sheet doubled as a towel and sheet-wow we are creative! We walked around Madrid and toured a beautiful palace. The next day we spent a short 2 hours looking at the amazing art in the Prado (we missed Jake Gyllenhaal and Reese Witherspoon by only two weeks!) and had lunch in a huge, beautiful park. I spent the afternoon walking around and can proudly say I never shopped so much for so long without buying anything! That night was one of the only nights we went out on spring break and went to a club, “Capital” with 7 floors! A nice young man walked me back at about 6 in the morning, claiming I was leaving way too early.

EU Capital

The next stop on our study tour was Brussels. We stayed in a random hotel that was like China Town but across from several strip clubs. Lomain was also delicious at breakfast- loved it!

It was pretty interesting attempting to check my e-mail at an internet café because a lot of the important letters were in the wrong place! That night we went to a bar with our professor and teaching assistant (yes, things are a bit different here) called Delerium known best for having 2,000 types of beer!

The next morning our stupid tour leader decided it was necessary to change the schedule and print out 30 copies of a new one to hand out-completely useless since we don’t follow the schedule anyway! After a long wild night it was an interesting morning to have a “Comic Strip Tour of Brussels.” Apparently Brussels is known for having cool comic book art on the side of buildings..woooo hoooo. However, this was definitely the funniest part of the trip. Because of my tour leader- the creepy one. Our class split into two groups, one mostly with girls and Kasper says, “I think I will go with the girls this time”…another student correctly opened her mouth, “Kasper, you always go with the girls!” (SO TRUE). I cannot even begin to describe the rest of the tour with Kasper. Even our comic strip tour guide caught onto the fact something fishy was going on. I liked him a lot except for the one remark he made about a building they had, saying it was their twin tower equivalent, and that they still have theirs…not funny.

We took an overnight bus back from Brussels to Copenhagen (14 hours). The bus was actually pretty empty. Even though I did not sleep, it was pretty comfortable- except for waking up at 4 am to get off the bus for a 45-minute ferry ride. There were also pre-packaged hot dogs in one of the rest stops.

I got back to my Kollegium at about 8 in the morning. Instead of going to bed, I unpacked and went for a really good run!

If you want to see pictures from Amsterdam, London and Brussels…
http://sharonstravels.shutterfly.com/223?startIndex=50

I leave tomorrow afternoon for over 2 weeks! How am I going to pack all this?

No words Can Describe

I just returned from my long study tour with my business class to London and Brussels and I really just don’t even know where to start. I had an amazing time and we did a lot of really cool activities but cannot begin to describe the amount of disorganization in this trip.

We had two tour leaders, one of which was my “grader” (like a teaching assistant) for my business class. He cannot formulate sentences correctly (“Can you make a photo of me” when asking someone to take a picture of him) and obviously cannot understand a conversation. In addition this 27 year old man grading our papers feels the need to hit on all of the girls like its his job. He also would show up to breakfast when it was time to leave for the day and decided we would leave 10 minutes later. It was about 20-30 minutes later when the entire group showed up and we left for the day. For example, on one

Anyway, back to the trip. I loved London; it reminded me a lot of NYC, which is probably why I liked it so much. The pound also is not doing well, so the city was a lot cheaper than Copenhagen.

We flew into London Sunday morning and after checking into our Hotel went to Shakespeare’s Globe Theater which was super cool. The original theater that Shakespeare’s plays were in was burnt down but they re-built a replica about 10 years ago and have shows during the summer. At night I walked around and saw all the sights, Big Ben, Parliament, Buckingham Palace, The London Eye and much more at night which was really cool and much more worthwhile than going to a bar another night! However at the end of the night my friend Molly and I decided not to wait for the elevator because there were so many people waiting and take the stairs. Bad idea. We missed the sign that said not to take he stairs because there were 175 of them; making 10 flights of a spiral staircase seem endless.

The next day we had a tour and lunch in Brick Lane. Delicious. I had been scared to try Indian food because there were so many Indian restaurants near my middle school bus stop that we passed everyday staying as far away as possible because it smelled so bad. I cannot wait to have Indian food again. That night we saw Wicked at the Apollo Theater and had amazing seats; I loved it. We went to a bar near our hotel but last call in London is 12! wow.

The next day we took a bike tour around London and got to see all the awesome sights quickly. We rode the London Eye, which is basically like a huge enclosed ferris wheel and got an awesome view of the city.

The next day we only left about 45 minutes late to head to Wimbledon (where the tennis championships take place!); at the station where we were switching trains there was an evacuation while we were there so that added a bit more time to our journey. After finally arriving we got a really cool tour of the grounds, tennis courts, press room, changing rooms and more!

My neighbor

So apparently no one had been living next door to me on one side since I had been here…until two weeks ago. How did I find out someone had moved in? The music. So loud! My friend lives next door to me (on the other side) and we had never heard each other.

Anyway one night it was one in the morning and I could not fall asleep because of the base so I went over and asked him to turn it down, I was nice, he was nice, I could sleep.

A few days later I somehow ended up in his room hanging out with a few of his friends watching a soccer/football game. He also informed me of a party he was having during the weekend that I must attend.
Friday night was late, wild and crazy. Additionally, we were planning to go out on both Monday and Tuesday this week to celebrate as my friend turned 21 and the day of her 21st birthday. My friend came over and we had planned on watching a movie online…but my Internet was out. I had remembered seeing a ton of movies in my neighbor’s room but knew that would mean I would be asked if I was coming to the party!

Anyway, 2 hours later we decided we had to stop by. I gave my friend clothes because she had come over in sweats to watch a movie! We could only stay for a bit because she had to catch the train before it stopped running at 12:30. Anyway, the party was so much fun and we hung out and meet tons of Danes. And my neighbor is AWESOME. He also got a vacuum cleaner as a house-warming gift which he said I could use. I love him, I decided he is my new best friend. Did I mention my friend definitely did not catch the train and just slept over? Best part- I started recruiting Danes to help me with my Danish homework!

Amsterdam

Last weekend I was in Amsterdam, got in late Friday night and left early Monday morning; I went with the same 3 girls that I traveled to Stockholm with Saturday we went to the Van Gough Museum which was awesome, we even saw Starry Night!

Sunday we went to the Anne Frank house, where Anne Frank hid out during the Holocaust. It is kind of like a museum, the parts that have been re-done are very modern to clearly show it is not the original structure but at the same time a lot of the house has not been touched. We walked around the few rooms in the attic where they all hid out. Some of the pictures that Anne hung up were still on the walls; and there was a map that her dad had with pushpins representing the countries as Hitler took over.

In addition to museums we also walked around the red light district, both during the day and at night. Our hotel was on a beautiful street on a canal. There actually are a lot of canals in Amsterdam, it’s a pretty city.

Weather

It actually has not been too cold lately. Of course I still have my winter jacket on but it’s not uncomfortable whatsoever to be outside! I went to check the weather today (I usually just look at the 10 day forecast). I saw March 6th on the website and was confused for a second and then realized March would be included in the 10 day forecast! That means its probably & hopefully just not a warm couple of days- its getting warmer in Copenhagen!

This is probably why I didn’t mind walking around for 40 minutes trying to find the Carlsberg brewery; which by the way was totally worth it. The tour was pretty cool and we got 2 free beer vouchers! That is definitely something I will miss here when returning to the states.