To Sensation or Not To Sensation..?

As I promised, and since I'm on a blog roll, and don't feel like doing my homework quite yet, I will elaborate on the past two weeks since long study tour. Upon returning from Germany I was greeted with a presentation, a test, a field study, and a cooking class before I could depart from Denmark yet again and head to Brussels, Belgium for the weekend for SENSATION, a techno rave that requires you to be dressed all in white (accessories and footwear could be colored). I stayed with my friend Jiore from my sorority back at Rochester and we frolicked and laughed the weekend away. Details:
I took a cab from Brussels International Airport to Jiore's apartment - it was supposed to cost 15 euro. It cost me 45 euro. I got to the apartment and didn't see any lights on, couldn't get through to Jiore's phone, the cab has left me, I didn't speak Flemish or French (the national languages of Belgium), and I was hungry. So I rang all the doorbells hoping for someone to respond, and she did! Great. I dropped off my bags and we headed to Flagey, an open square near their apartment, for some classic Belgian frites. Yum. We shared frites with two kinds of spicy mayonnaise sauces and caught up about the semester and Rochester gossip that had somehow trickled across the lake to us. In essence, it was great. We readied ourselves for the night and headed to Delirium, a bar where every single American you never wanted to see again was there, being American. We ran into some affectionate Italians who told us we would get goosebumps upon entering the Sensation arena with 50,000 people (we didn't get goosebumps) and continued on to a karaoke bar with them. Result of the night:

me and jiore and a Belgian

Saturday, more of Jiore's friends came and we toured around the Grand Place until it started raining so we took cover in a very touristy restaurant and went home to prepare for Sensation. Our original plan was to visit friends of friends at their university, halfway between Brussels and Hasselt, where the Sensation arena was, and then proceed from there. One misspelled vowel and we were at a different University, either at the Dutch campus or the French campus - we were at the one that they were not - and that is when the night began to spiral downwards. We had to take a train back into Brussels in order to first take the train to Hasselt. Three cabs to each of the main train stations in Brussels later, we realized the trains had stopped running and we would have to take a 45 minute, 150 euro cab to Hasselt - luckily there were 5 of us. We finally arrived at Sensation and got on line only to realize Jiore had brought her train ticket to Paris, instead of her sensation admittance ticket. The security guards thankfully let her in and by the time we had stored our stuff in a locker, it was 1 am.

did you get goosebumps?

We raved here and there and left at 5, but the first train out was at 6 so we got some frites and waited for the swarms of people to push us onto the train. We arrived back in Brussels at 7:30 am and ran into our other KD friend we had been trying to meet up with all weekend while waiting for the bus back to the apartment. We passed the farmer's market that was opening for business at 8 by the time we got back and crashed until 1 pm. I woke up, showered, said farewell to Belgium (without even trying a Belgian waffle) and left for the airport for my final return to Copenhagen.

When I returned I had to write a group paper and study for two tests during the week. It was a great welcoming gift. This past week I have been reading The Hunger Games avidly and now NEED to see the movie. I wasn't expecting to like a book that seems so barbaric but seriously it was fantastic. If you get tired of reading my blog, please go forth and read the hunger games. But enough of the book club.

This weekend I was finally able to relax after a whirlwind past few weeks. I walked around and explored the city, got my bearings in some more sections of Copenhagen, and started a list of things to do when visitors come to stay with me. One of my best friends from Rochester, Carly, comes Thursday morning to spend the weekend with me before we jet away on our two week long spring break! Carly, Nicki, and I are going to Budapest, Vienna, and Prague together then Nicki's splitting off to Switzerland while Carly and I meet up with two of our other best friends from school Dan and Elyssa (I call them Delyssa for short) and chilling in Prague until we throw our cautions to the wind and finally take on Rome. I can't wait.

delyssa, carly, and me sophomore year

I also can't believe that the 2 month mark has come and passed (I flew into Cope on January 20, and fly out on May 20, so March 20 is the exact middle). I also can't believe that I get to go on a two week vacation in the middle of school. And I also can't wait for my parents to come so I don't have to worry about doing conversion rates in my head for every item I think of purchasing!

EEK time's a-ticking

Many more stories to come, hopefully in a more timely fashion. But let's not get too ahead of ourselves..