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..

Oh Me Oh My

Oh man, I suck. I haven't written in over a month and every time I make moves to write another post, something comes up and I wind up not doing it. Clearly. Take this concentrated time now to channel your frustration at me. Ok done? Ready for recap? I begin:
Short study tour went swimmingly, as you may have read. Tuesday upon returning from the weekend in western Denmark was Valentine's Day and I was scheduled to go to a beer tasting at the Nørrebro Bryghus (I had signed up for a three-part beer tasting course through DIS before coming to Cope).  Søren, our teacher/tour guide/head brewer of the brewery, taught us about hops, malt, pale ales, lagers, yadda yadda it was a whole lot of information. And then we sampled 4 beers from the brewery. I'm not the biggest beer girl so as the night wore on, it grew increasingly harder for me not to laugh at the descriptions of the beers I thought tasted bad but everybody else enjoyed. Ironically, one of my friends Malia used to brew beer in her basement so she was taking things really seriously while I was... not. We left the brewery in the snow, I realized I had left my favorite leopard-print gloves on the bus, and I deemed the whole night a failure. Until I met this furry animal and it cheered my whole night up:

fuzzy wuzzy

Skip to the next Wednesday and I went to Frederiksberg Castle (shown above) for an assignment for my fashion class. It was interesting. That is all. That night, my fashion class viewed a documentary on Anna Wintour and our teacher made us cosmopolitans and laid out this huge spread of homemade food - I wish more American teachers did that for their students.. totally broke down the student-teacher barrier that we're used to back at school. On to the next memorable moment..


The following Wednesday (since we don't take classes on Wednesdays at DIS) I had two extra-curricular events for my classes. In the morning I viewed the independent Danish film "Hello My Name is Lesbian" for my Human Rights and Gender Perspectives class. It was an interesting insight into different lesbian relationships in different areas of Denmark - it was really informative and we were able to engage in discussions with the filmmakers after the viewing. After a quick lunch and an afternoon spent at the Black Diamond library (my home away from home), I went to a concert at Vega, this trendy concert venue in Copenhagen, to see a couple Danish bands for my Danish Language and Culture class. It was awesome. The main band actually performed first and their style was kind of reggae pop with some French accordion thrown in - it sounds weird but it worked. The opening band was actually the closing band and they were more jazzy so I decided to call it quits and head home after a long day.


That is more or less it from the month of February - I obviously left out details about different tests and papers and other assignments I had but February was a fine month nothing too exciting clearly or I'd be writing about it. March has been very busy since the beginning. It was my dear friend Nicki's birthday Sunday March 4 however we were all going on long study tour random times during the weekend so we decided to have a birthday party for her Friday night. Here she is in all her 21st birthday glory:

nickita tequila

My contribution to the festivities was managing to sprain my right ankle when walking on cobblestones in flat shoes - honestly I baffle myself sometimes. (side story: freshman year first semester I sprained my left ankle twice in 2 weeks - first time I missed a couple stairs, second time I was dancing too hard and slipped on a wet fraternity floor. oh the memories) So saturday, my very funny roommate, Amanda, and I went to the Bispebjerg Hospital to make sure it wasn't broken and we experienced the joys of universal health care. After filling out a form, we only waited 15 minutes to see a doctor that spoke perfect English. She checked my foot, and diagnosing it as just a sprain, sent me on my way with 4 free ice packs and no other hospital charges. WHAT? Fast and free? I'll take it, thanks. 


Sunday my swollen foot and I spent the day being transported from Copenhagen through Germany to Poland, where my core course would be staying in Poznan for two nights. We were told we would be driving for 12 straight hours - initially I approached this day with dread, however due to the recent accident it became a blessing in disguise as I slept and kept my foot elevated on the seat next to me. We traveled by bus to the end of Denmark, where we took a 2 hour ferry to Germany and then drove straight through to Poland. 

we're on a boat

First thing we do: check into a four-star hotel in Poznan. Fine with that. Second thing: three course buffet dinner. Third thing: steam room and sauna in the spa downstairs. Fourth thing: shower and sleep. Rinse and repeat this lifestyle, please. 

view from my room on to the main drag, sweaty martian street

Monday and Tuesday were spent shadowing an OB/GYN, a Perinatologist, and a Pediatrician at the Poznan University Hospital. It was interesting to note the differences in the three different areas and the lack of hygiene at the Pediatrician's office - the woman we were observing didn't wash her hands once in between 3 different physical examinations. So I asked her if I could wash my hands in an attempt to bring to her attention that she hadn't - nope, didn't work. In addition to these academic visits, we had a mini amazing race activity that led us around Poznan to a bunch of different notable locations (none of which I can remember) and we eventually ended our day with a plate of steaming hot pierogies. The Polish Zloty is definitely a friend of mine - a plate of 10 pierogies plus a caraf of wine plus tip turned out to be less than 15 dollars. I also purchased a bottle of Garnier Fructis shampoo for 3 dollars! Done. 

authentic yum

Tuesday afternoon we drove to Berlin and upon checking into a not four-star hotel but a plain jane hostel, we went to dinner and were fed well yet again. An excursion to a beer garden that we stupidly thought would be open in the dead of winter led us to an absinthe bar:

a good view

A trip to the German Heart Institute the next morning (read free sandwiches, sodas, chocolate bars, and 40th anniversary commemorative books in both German and English) preceded a lively romp down the Berlin Wall. Some highlights:

After a yummy yet rushed dinner (our trip leaders got lost/led us around in circles), we went to the Berlin Symphony that night and enjoyed the language of music - good because nobody knew any German:

overwhelmed

So yeah, that's about it for Germany. I really liked it for the short time I was there, and definitely have an appreciation for their efficient transportation system (hey Alexanderplatz station). I will discuss about the past two weeks in a different post, this one has been too long for anyone's enjoyment so kudos if you read this all the way through - you have my undivided appreciation and admiration!

Short Study Tour Weekend

Hello all, look at how prompt I'm being! I promised I would write and here I am, writing my blog and updating you on my adventures (what a concept). This weekend I went on a short study tour with my Medical Practice & Policy Program to two cities in Western Denmark, Ebeltoft and Aarhus. Thursday morning, my roommate and I woke up at a ripe 6 am to make sure we caught our busses at 7:30 in the center of Copenhagen. We are proud to report we both made our busses and both had really fun weekends - Amanda's twenty first birthday was Friday and she was in Hamburg, Germany for the weekend which is a pretty cool free birthday present if you ask me.

So we're all on the bus, trying to sleep, when our course assistant (and second year medical student), Adam, decides it's a good idea to turn on a loud and violent movie called coincidently, Adam's Apples. It is apparently a perfect representation of Danish humor. I think it was just a very weird movie. We arrived at the Aarhus University Hospital around 11 and tried to stay awake through a lecture about the different scanners the hospital has at its PET center - they have 2 MRIs, a PET/CT scanner, an HRRT, and an MEG scanner. We took a tour of the scanning center and were all getting hungry to eat our lunches on the bus.

So I enjoyed my ziploc bag (I didn't want to use tupperware) of pasta, tomatoes, avocados and sriracha sauce as we set off to a General Practitioner's office in Skødstrup. At the Skødstrup Laegepraksis, we actually enjoyed a lecture about the universal health care system in Denmark by one of the doctors at the practice. In Denmark, every citizen chooses a GP as their primary doctor - you go to your GP for anything and everything, and then you get referred to specialists in other practices or hospitals for specific problems. Eighty-eight percent of the population visit their GPs every year, and maintain good relationships with them. Since Denmark has universal health care, the GPs focus on improving health in their own communities, and so they have a list of patients in their region that they are responsible for taking care of (and also get paid by the National Health System to take care of).  If you don't like your GP you can always switch to a different one, but you are limited by the number of GPs in your area. Even though the Danes pay between 40 to 70% of their income for taxes, some Danes opt to additionally pay for for their own private insurances. All the money that's collected from taxes goes to paying everyone's complete education and medical costs - it's pretty awesome.


After taking a tour of the GP's office and rooms, we set off to our hostel called Danhostel, and had a short discussion with Adam about the main differences between the health care systems in America and Denmark. We also understood how the educational system works in Denmark - primary school goes until year 13 (and you have to choose a track for high school - either math/science, language, or arts/music), and then for medical school there are 6 years of uni, 1 year doing a post-graduate internship, and then 5 years training to be a specialist. Adam told us that the final test for medical school is being able to diagnose a patient in 7 minutes or less (you get multiple tries) - very different than all the standardized testing we're used to.


After a small break, we headed into the tiny town of Ebeltoft for an amazing buffet dinner and bowling. When I heard buffet, I admit I immediately thought of huge pans of mac and cheese, mashed potatoes, different meats, salads.. this buffet wasn't exactly like that. On a small table, there were bowls of shredded lettuce and different toppings like corn, peanuts, feta cheese, etc and then there were small pans of french fries, roasted potatoes, scalloped potatoes, and finally a meat plate. Even though it was a small buffet it was delicious and everyone went up for seconds, thirds, some even went for fourths - it was a great meal. Bowling was so much fun - I hadn't been bowling since I think middle school when I had birthday parties at the glow in the dark bowling lanes at Chelsea Piers or Port Authority. I did roll a lot of gutter balls, and I definitely lost every game but it was still really fun to be doing a classic American past-time in the middle of nowhere Denmark.


After a decent night's sleep, we were up bright and early for a great continental breakfast and on the road to the AROS Art Museum in Aarhus. Little did I know a museum would be the highlight of the weekend. There were three exhibits that made the trip so awesome. One of them was a giant room filled with smoke and different color spectrum lights so each time you moved you were stepping into a different color gradient. Photos speak better than words:

The second best room was this one with different suspended metal rings/squares and lights that reflected off of them:

The third was this ring of color on top of the museum - as you moved around you saw the city of Aarhus in different shades of colors and it was really cool: 

We enjoyed a lovely lunch of potato soup and sandwiches at the museum and then went off to Skejby Hospital, the largest hospital in all of Denmark for a lecture and a tour of the facilities. The lecture was super boring and nearly everyone fell asleep buttttttt we got to see med students operating on live pigs! I didn't bring my camera in with me so I don't have any pictures but here's one I grabbed from someone's facebook album: 

After that, we traveled to the Steno Museum at the University of Aarhus and were treated like fourth graders by our tour guide as we learned about the history of medicine in Denmark. It was really weird. And there was a giant uterus display that you could climb into and relax in - I guess I was born again this weekend. Weird weird place. There was a giant pendulum attached to the ceiling that revolved around and hit different pegs according to the earth's rotation and we were all enamored by it and literally spent 10 minutes watching and oohing and aahing and eating Danish ice cream.


We traveled to our second hostel, also called Danhostel, and prepared for our night out in Aarhus. I ate dinner at a restaurant with a few friends and we got twenty dollar bacon cheeseburgers but they were really so delicious that it was worth it. Except when they charged us for a bottle of water and wouldn't give us tap water instead - weird. We walked around the shops on the canal and wound up joining a bar crawl of Danish physiotherapy students that all had numbers written with eyeliner on their cheeks. It was their orientation weekend and their tutors were herding them around like cattle. It was really entertaining to hang out with these students for a while but we eventually headed to a bodega to hang out with the other kids from our MPP program and ended the night buying snacks in the 7-11 around the corner.


Saturday, our final day of the trip, we went to see the Jelling Stones and got a tour of the museum there by this really kooky Scottish guy. The first rune-stone was created in the 10th century by King Gorm the Old in dedication of his wife Thyra. The second rune-stone was created by Harold Bluetooth, Gorm's son, and states Denmark as a Christian country for the first time. When we asked Adam what the stones said he told us they said "Denmark, bitches."

Denmark, bitches

After seeing the stones, we ate a Danish lunch of fish and meats and cheeses and then headed to a handball game in Fredericia. Very confusing sport, but very entertaining to watch the goalies stand stupidly in the goal and try to shield a mini soccer ball. After a weekend chock full of academic and cultural activities, it was nice to kick back with an ice cream and watch a sport I didn't understand at all.

Michelle gives handball a thumbs-up

This weekend was a whirlwind but very very fun indeed. I reunited with friends last night and today I slept until 1:30pm and lounged in bed and caught up with friends from Roch and spent 3 hours writing this blog on and off. I just made swedish meatballs that I accidentally stole from Ikea and even though I overcooked them, anything free still tastes delicious.

Ketchup Catch-up

Although I haven't written this in two weeks and it seems I have fallen into the Baltic Sea, alas I have not! I have been busy frolicking around in Cope and giggling with glee. Not really giggling gleefully but definitely frolicking. Ok. I'm rusty at this. Soo what I have done in the past two weeks? A trip through iphoto will help describe what I've been up to:

The first weekend we were here I went to Ikea to snatch some necessities for the room - somewhere in all those bags were pillows, towels, hangers, a pretty shower curtain, a skillet, and some desk organizers. In addition to carrying two very heavy bags I also lugged around a 39 kroner table to put our microwave on. It was well worth the struggle as we now have space to prepare our meals! (rather than using the top of the microwave as our cutting board - ew). Here I am on the bus home with all my precious belongings.

my excessive spending habits at ikea

DIS doesn't offer classes on Wednesdays so we have a day off in the middle of the week - it's a weird adjustment but it definitely helps break up the week and allows for more social and cultural exploring. So last Wednesday, I met up with three friends and we went on a canal tour and took in some Copenhagen scenery by boat.  The tour took us to The Little Mermaid and we were able to get out and take pictures - a touristy event we had all wanted to experience!

the (very) little mermaid

On Thursday, I was able to see a fashion show at Fashion Week for my Meaning of Style class and we saw collections from graduating TEKO students (TEKO is the Cope equivalent of Parson's)! I was standing strategically close to where the models stopped on the runway to be photographed, so I got a lot of cool pictures as demonstrated below.

justification for all my fashionable parkas

black is always slimming, even on models

 The winter onesie is very common among children. So naturally I needed to try one on too.

when i wear a onesie

when children wear onesies

On Saturday, I went to Kronborg Castle in Elsinore. It was frigid by the water so I whipped out my fleece-lined spandex, uggs, and a big warm scarf and called it a day.

i built this castle

kronborg castle, danish flag, sweden in the distance!

I have a few friends:

maia + lila = maila

friendz taking da bus 

Today I went to Laundromat Cafe with a few friends and here is one of them, Nicki, posing with the washing machines by which we were enamored. I met Nicki at the airport terminal all the way back in America (she was my first abroad frienddd!) but everyone asks us if we knew each other before the trip... so we tell them we've been best friends since fifth grade. We're traveling together over spring break to Budapest, Prague, and Vienna so accustom yourself with her beautiful face for it will be repeated in future posts!

wine and dine.. and wash

So yes that has been a pretty decent summary of what I've been up to. I really like my classes and I will list them for you now: Meaning of Style (I will come back from Cope a very trendy lady), Gender Differences on Human Rights (good ol' feminism), Danish Language & Culture (I will be able to pretend to understand what the signs say), Complexities of Cancer (nerdy science terms) and Human Health and Disease (my core course in the Medical Practice & Policy program).

I will elaborate on the MPP program. It is awesome. Each program (there are 15 I think) in DIS has a core course and you travel with the people in your class on a short weekend study tour and also on a week-long study tour. Our short study tours are this weekend so tomorrow at the ripe hour of 7:30 I will be whisked away on my chariot (a coach bus) and shuttled to Ebeltoft and Aarhus for the weekend where we will see many exciting academic and cultural scenes. I will be sure not to procrastinate and update immediately upon my return to Cope. Anyway, back to MPP. My Human Health & Disease class meets Tuesdays & Fridays from 2:30 to 4:30 at Frederiksberg Hospital and is taught by two doctors, hence why it's so late in the day because they still have to do their jobs. Our course assistant is a current medical student and it's really interesting to get all of their perspectives/experiences with medicine in ways that are similar and also different from our own. For instance, you must decide if you want to be a doctor in high school because it's your grades from these years that determine which medical schools you can apply to. A lot of American students have no idea what they want to do with their lives when they're still in high school, so it's hard to imagine committing so seriously to a profession at the age of 18, or in my case 16. (I am a baby genius. No, not really, I just skipped kindergarden. Why? Because I didn't want to finger paint. Real reason: I could read at a fifth grade reading level at the age of 5. Baby genius.) So yeah, in addition to shmoozing with our teachers, we actually get to do cool stuff like learn how to insert IV needles into dummies (and people) and how to give lumbar punctures (spinal tap) to dummies (and people). Yesterday we practiced all these skills on dummies and some people even tried it on each other - not the spinal tap, just inserting IV needles into people's hands. I did not want anyone poking my veins, no way.

Final words: in case you haven't been spending enough time out in the freezing cold, you can choose to sit and sip your Carlsberg with a nice free blanket covered in snow! Right up my alley.

That's all, folks!

Amazing Race

I feel a lot better since the time I wrote the last post. I will explain why: yesterday was awesome. The day started off early - I woke up at 7:30 and at 8:15 Mads, one of our SRAs, (student resident advisor) took a big group of DIS kids from Hoff (abbreviation of Hoffmans Minde Kollegium) to the opening ceremony at Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek (I believe it is a museum) and we experienced monday morning traffic! It took a little longer than expected to get into the city so we were a little late and missed the first speaker but we enjoyed some nice classical tunes and other welcoming speakers and then navigated our ways to DIS and split up into groups to start the Amazing Race. I admit I thought it would be lame at first, but it was incredible and I became an instant tourist, snapping pictures here, reading maps there.. in short it was obvious I was American but I was too happy to care. I am giving myself this week to be touristy and then I will try to blend in better. Another thing I am letting myself off the hook for: posting pictures of scenery. I usually hate it but there is no way to describe my day or my semester without pictures! So now that's decided, here are some pictures of yesterday's excursions:

adorable square

view from a church

the royal library and the black diamond - my new study spot

NYHAVN (pronounced new-houn)

church next to Amalienborg castle where royalty resides

artsy picture of Danish Guard at Amalienborg

After trekking around the city, we also had to go to a grocery store and pick up some foods for a classic Danish lunch of Smørrebrød which means "butter bread". It usually consists of rye bread, butter, and a lot of different toppings in the open-face sandwich style so that will be my lunch for the next 4 months.  


After that, I picked up my textbooks for my classes and it was a very different process than I'm used to. There were at least 2 books for each class - so at the minimum I had 10 books - but then others had extra binders and extra readings and I wound up lugging around this big blue Ikea bag trying to find the bus. Luckily I am really good at maps so I navigated a couple people and myself to our bus home and in exchange, one boy carried my books. He used my navigation skills to get home, and I used him to carry my heavy books - it was truly a win win situation.  


After meeting my roommate, we took a trip to the Netto to get some more essentials and while she continued to unpack I went into the city with a big group of 15 or more Americans (exactly what everyone tells you not to do) and went to a couple bars near DIS. Luckily we came back early enough that we didn't have to worry about figuring out a night bus schedule.. I'm sure that time will come soon enough.


Today I have a couple workshops but I'll probably explore the city a little more as well. Anyway I need to get ready for the day but will update later!

Awake For 36 Hours

I have been awake for 36 hours at this point.  I was too anxious to sleep on the plane and then the day just kind of ran away with itself so I only had 15 minutes to power nap and pretend to pull myself together so I could at least resemble some sort of human form.  I somehow managed to get all my baggage from America to Copenhagen, and more importantly into my dorm room, but not without being judged by many a rude Danish bus driver. Oh well, I have a tendency to over pack - all my leftover toiletries/medications not in use right now are stored in one of my big suitcases underneath my bed.  I have mostly set up everything in my room except for some pictures of friends and family to remind me of home etc etc, and I was able to spread out because my roommate's first flight was cancelled so she is unable to come to Copenhagen until tomorrow morning.  This morning I waited for 2 hours in the Kastrup airport for the DIS bus to come back from delivering other students and pick us up and bring us to our designated dorms.  We were given free Starbucks hot chocolate to ease the pain but it definitely wasn't the same as the Starbucks I know and love from my meal plan in Rochester and so I was homesick after the first hour.  The excitement of being in Copenhagen quickly turned into anxiety and annoyance and the overcast weather was very fitting for my mood.  Upon arriving in my room at Hoffmans Minde, I did what any typical study abroad student does: I called my mom and cried, partially from exhaustion/hunger, partly from shell shock.  After composing myself (eating a chocolate chip cookie from New York), one of the DIS interns took a bunch of us into Copenhagen proper and we got to see the DIS buildings where we will be taking our classes and we actually wandered down Strøget, the longest pedestrian street in all of Europe.  It doesn't matter that H & M looks exactly the same in Europe as it does in America, it's a Danish company which means I have a moral obligation to support them, and I shall do so.  I took a 15 minute power nap and then headed out to Netto, a supermarket located a thirty second walk from the kollegium to get some bread, cheese, yogurt, juice, and soap for the kitchen and bathroom. All the DIS students living in Hoffmans Minde gathered for a welcome dinner where I had a piece of bread, a piece of sliced cheese, and a couple tomatoes, oh and some curried egg salad.  I'm so totally ready to embrace the food culture of Denmark.. only if Danishes are included in every meal.  After "dinner" I finished unpacking and skyped with the parents to give them the grand tour of my room, and now I am heading to bed so I can be prepared for three days of orientation!


I don't know any Danish yet except for the municipality I'm living in outside of Copenhagen is called Brønshøj!

The Calm Before the Storm

Packing: verb [trans] = to fill (a suitcase or bag), esp. with clothes and other items needed when away from home... to cram a large number of things (into a container or space).

I have officially packed everything I deem necessary for Denmark. All my necessities have been packed into two checked bags that are both bordering the 70 pound excess weight limit, a 35- pounder carryon (thankfully a rolly one), and a weekender bag that is functioning as my "personal bag" filled with everything that didn't fit in the other bags. I've got a lot of "necessities"and I am known for over-packing aka this is really true to character.

With less than 24 hours left before leaving America, I am starting to get a little panicked. Usually before a big test that I'm really anxious about I experience a great calm before the storm that is the test, and proclaim "I'm over it" and pretend to not worry about how poorly studying is going. Well, I'm definitely "over" how much I've over-packed and I've come to terms with the fees I will need to pay in order to ensure my precious necessities make it to Denmark.. but I am definitely not calm. I know I won't sleep well tonight as my mind will be racing with questions like: will my flight be delayed by the looming snow storm? will I be seated next to someone smelly (or worse, chatty) on the plane or will I be able to stretch out and try to sleep? why haven't I secured a summer internship yet? what will my first meal in Copenhagen be? The list goes on and on and by the time I'm done I'll already be worrying about how I'm going to fit everything back into my suitcases in May. But I have a lot of time until then and thank god my parents are bringing an empty suitcase when they visit so I can send stuff home with them.. for right now I have to put that question into the "let's cross that bridge when we get to it" folder in my mind.

I'm not going to post a picture of me and my bulging luggage bags on here, mostly because I don't know which bag my camera is in, but I can let you all imagine what my suitcases look like. Envision big black/grey suitcases that all look like they're about to rip at the seams.  TSA approved, of course.

This image is definitely drawn to scale.

So that is that. Tomorrow I will wake up and try to eat a very American breakfast and do any last minute errands I need to before handing everything over to Scandinavian Airlines and Newark International Airport and bidding farewell to America!


I will debrief when I have settled in Denmark in a few days!