Saying Goodbye

My semester in Copenhagen is officially over! I can't believe it went so fast. It's been an absolutely incredible experience that I would do again in a heartbeat and that I'll never forget.

Last visit with my visiting family! More gløgg and aebleskiver? I think so.

If you remember from a previous post, my visiting family is a Danish family that I met up with throughout the semester. They invited me into their home and I got to spend some really awesome days with them. They're absolutely amazing. The parents are Ninna and John and they have a daughter, Anne (23), and a son, Joakim (20).

Ninna, John, me, Anne, and Elizabeth (they're a really tall family...)

At this last visit, another DIS student, Elizabeth, and I met the whole family at a really cute restaurant for a Danish brunch. The place was adorable and only the 2nd time I've actually gone out to eat in Copenhagen (yes, I'm really cheap). So we had a delicious brunch together and they gave Elizabeth and I a box of cookies from a local bakery (sooooo good). Elizabeth and I gave them a card, chocolates, and a pretty ornament.

Then, we walked around the lake at Christiania together, which was really pretty. (More about Christiania later).

John, Elizabeth, and Anne walking along the lake at Christiania

Next, John and Ninna took Elizabeth, Anne, and me to Tivoli which is GORGEOUS at Christmas time! (Joakim left after brunch because he had a soccer game). There were lights everywhere and little Christmas markets all down the central path :) While we were there, we got gløgg and aebleskiver, of course, and it was delicious as always. Gløgg tastes particularly good when it's night time and freezing, like it was when we visited.

That evening, I said a sad goodbye to John, Ninna, and Anne, and I hope I'll get to see them again sometime. Anne is applying to Cal Berkley now to study abroad, so I hope she gets in! I'll be keeping in touch with the family through e-mail. Maybe someday they'll make it to Kennett Square and I can host them for dinner :)

Julfrokost ("Christmas Lunch") with the frisbee team! Be proud mom and dad, I tried EVERYTHING, including liver paste and pickled herring. Believe me, there are stories...

On my last Friday in Copenhagen, I went to a julfrokost, or Christmas Lunch, with the frisbee team I've been playing with here. Although it's called a lunch, they usually take place at dinner time and they all pretty much serve the same traditional Danish menu of food. This one started at 5 and we didn't start eating until around 8 but continued eating till around 11.

On the menu:

-pickled herring and rye bread (actually, not that bad, despite that the sauce it's in is bright yellow)

-mini shrimp with mayonnaise on rye bread (also, pretty good)

-roasted pork with onions and apples (still didn't really like pork chops but apples and onions taste surprisingly delicious together)

-frekadella (a type of Danish meatballs. you can find them everywhere and they're really good. I've had them several times before)

-red cabbage salad (the only vegetable you'll find at a julfrokost I assure you. I'm not sure why red cabbage is traditional, but it tasted fine)

-SNAPS! (this is a licorice-tasting alcohol that burns and is really not good, and the Danes will agree with you, but it's traditional to serve it at julfrokosts so its ALWAYS present. Randomly throughout the meal, someone will yell SNAPS! and everyone fills their shots glasses, starts signing a song that goes something like: "snaps! snaps! snaps! *something in Danish I can't understand,* oy oy oy!" and everyone takes the shot and afterwards everyone wears the same expression of pain on their face. about ten minutes later the cycle repeats).

But then...

-LIVER PASTE (this one took a lot of convincing from the people at the party to get me to try it. They all insisted it was "delicious" and "simply the best." I kid you not, it has the look, consistency, and smell of wet cat food. I put it on rye bread like I was told and tried it, and to my disgust it has the TASTE of what you'd expect wet cat food to taste like. It was absolutely disgusting and I struggled to eat it as I shook my head and wanted to throw up. Everyone was laughing as I frantically looked for my beer to get the taste out of my mouth. I couldn't find it, so they continued laughing and offered me a huge shot of Snaps instead. Snaps was without a doubt the lesser of two evils, so I took the shot. Right after, the guy who was sitting next to me goes, "So does that mean I can finish the rest of yours??" They genuinely LOVE this stuff... don't ask me how they stomach it. I clearly couldn't).

-Ris ala mond (this is a Danish type of rice pudding which is DELICIOUS and has chopped almonds in it and is served with cherry sauce. The best part: There's one whole almond somewhere in the batch called the "almond present." The person who finds the almond present get a prize, so people take heaping portions of the pudding so that they have a better chance of winning, despite being ridiculously full from the huge dinner. The prize at this one was a light up cowboy hat. I unfortunately didn't win).

After dinner, we played fun trivia games about the people at the party and then played a type of polyanna-present game with dice where presents just get shuffled all around the table, stolen from you, or thrown at you. Lots of fun. I won a heart-shaped box of mini Danish Christmas cookies.

The night was a ton of fun, but as always, it was sad to say goodbye to everyone. The team has a bunch of great people on it and I had so much fun this semester playing with them.

Second to last day in Copenhagen: Quality time with the Danes on our hall including brunch and ELF!!

On Saturday morning, our second to last day in Copenhagen *tear,* Blaire and I cooked a farewell brunch for everyone on our hall. We made vegetable frittata, pancakes (of course), and bacon. The Danes on our hall have zero faith in our cooking abilities, so the fact that we made a real brunch I think surprised them more than anything. Everyone seemed to really enjoy the food. Many were recovering from hangovers from the previous night and were thankful for such a filling breakfast.

Then, that evening, we watch Elf in our kitchen. Blaire and I made some joke in reference to the movie, but no one understood it. We were horrified to find out that none of them had seen only the greatest Christmas movie around, so we played it for them. They all really liked it. And of course they would. How can you not like Elf??

Packing... I still can never seem to finish packing until 3am the night before...

Per usual, I was not packed as early as I should have been. I chose to watch Elf instead of finishing packing on my last night (great choice). Then, I had to go around and say good byes to everyone which took a few hours. THEN, around 1am, I realized I should probably finish packing. I needed to wake up at 6am to pick-up Kristin at the airport, and my room looked like a bomb had gone off.

Some how it all fit into 2 suitcases

But, good news, I managed to have my room packed by 3am AND my two checked suitcases were both 15 lbs underweight. I have no idea how this happened... I came with 2 huge cardboard boxes weighing EXACTLY 50 lbs each; I left with 2 medium sized suitcases weighing 35 lbs each. Packing magic? Underpants gnomes stealing my stuff over the semester? Both seem like logical explanations to me...

Christmastime in Denmark!

Christmas, or Jul, in Denmark is a HUGE deal. Christmas lights and trees start appearing all over the city at the end of November, and Christmas officially "starts" on December 1st. Celebrating Christmas is a month-long ordeal, but unlike in the States where basically shopping is a month-long ordeal, the Danes actually hold parties and celebrate all throughout December. Also, Christmas markets appear all throughout the city.

J-Day

December 1st is called "J-Day," and it's the day when Christmas beer is sol

d for the first time (of course the Danes would mark the beginning of Christmas celebration with alcohol). The beer is twice as alcoholic, very heavy, and only sold in December. I don't actually really like it that much, BUT the cans do have cute pictures of Santa, reindeer, and woodland critters, so that makes it better.

Julefrokost

Another Danish tradition is holding julefrokosts, which literally translates into "Christmas lunches." Although they're called lunches, they typically start around 4 and last long into the night. They are basically epic feasts with lots of alcohol and Danes have several Christmas lunches throughout December--one with their colleague, one with their neighbors, one with their professors, one with their friends, etc. Most of the Danes on my hall say Christmas time is exhausting because you can't go a week without have AT LEAST one Christmas lunch to attend (sort of like graduation parties, I guess).

My school held a Christmas lunch for all us students and host families, complete with gratuitous amounts of food, wine, and a pollyanna gift exchange. Plus, we all held hands and RAN (I mean full sprint) in a giant circle around the central Christmas tree all while signing Christmas songs aloud (This is another Danish tradition. A bit bazaar but really fun). Plus, next week my frisbee team is throwing a Christmas lunch! I can't wait. The people on my team are all so much fun. I'm sure there will be a blog posting later.

Gløgg and æbleskiver

Once again, these two are items are only available around Christmas time, and they are nothing short of magical.

Gløgg (pronounced "glug") is a warm spiced wine with almonds and raisins soaked in brandy and usually comes with mini gingerbread cookies. It is rather alcoholic but absolutely delicious and the perfect drink to get to warm up from the cold. Æbleskiver (pronounced "able-skee-ver") literally translates into "apple slices," but really they are these round, delicious donuts that you eat with powdered sugar and jam. They can be found ALL over Copenhagen and are SOO good. I think I've eaten them on at least 7 different occasions.

"Tour de Chamber" with my hall: Funny how an evening can begin so classy yet end so sloppy. I blame the Christmas beer.

So my hall last week threw a "Tour de Chamber," meaning we each decorated a room with a theme and then had food, and drink, and a game to go along with the theme. My roommate, Blaire, and I had our theme be "America" (predictably). The night was SO fun. It started out in Brian's room with Christmas beers, presents, candles, and santa hats. Other themes included: time machine (tin foil ALL over the food), snow storm (this white spray paint stuff all over the window and walls... which also naturally ended up being sprayed in people's faces), root vegetables? (funniest one of the night... this one guy, Kristoffer, just hung root vegetables everywhere from the ceiling and in the doorway on strings), and some less-decorated rooms that were nonetheless really fun. The night was a fantastic success. I love the Danes on my hall. They are all so great and so much fun. I'm going to miss them.

a classy beginning to the evening

time machine room shenanigans (these two are named Lars and Arni and they're 2 of my favorite people on my hall)

when "snow spray" gets into the wrong hands

Barathi and I! (representing a bit of the themes from each room... stickers, tin foil, and santa hats)

Rewind in time: Thanksgiving in Denmark!

Another reason I love the Danes on my hall is because they cook for Blaire and I all the time AND they're fantastic cooks. Since Blaire and I were away for Thanksgiving (me in Norway, Blaire in Paris), they waited till we came home and cooked an awesome Thanksgiving dinner on Monday night.

The sad part is that Danes don't even celebrate Thanksgiving but they made turkey, roasted vegetables, corn bread (from scratch), mashed potatoes, and gravy perfectly... and much better than Blaire and I could have done ourselves I must say.

Norway!

An Epic Norwegian Adventure... complete with couch surfing, sheep, hitch-hiking, cruising through the fjords, and shopping for sweaters :)

It was Thanksgiving last week, so naturally my DANISH school gave us a long-weekend to celebrate. We just got that Friday off classes, but all the kids at my school nonetheless turned this somewhat-longer-than-usual weekend into a full-fledged travel week, myself included.

On Thursday night, I was off to the airport with my friend, Alisha, who I met way in the beginning of the year on my trip to Sweden. She goes to Georgetown and plays frisbee. We bonded. For the Redhots who read this, be impressed, Alisha played on the JUNIOR NATIONALS TEAM and went to the Junior Worlds Tournament her senior year of high school. Now, she's in the running to play on the Nationals Team (since she's no longer a junior). Moral of the story, she's really good at frisbee and a pretty awesome person.

Couch-surfing is pretty much the coolest way to stay at a total strangers house in a foreign city.

Anyway, so Alisha couch-surfs all the time, so she organized all our hosts for this trip and I just followed along, but it ended up being AWESOME. I've decided that I love couch-surfing and want to do it more.

(For those who don't know what couch-surfing is: It's an online site where people post profiles about themselves and offer their couches for travelers to sleep on for free. It's an awesome way to meet people, and really not as creepy as it sounds. You chose your hosts based on age/sex and read reviews from past surfers to see how people liked them).

Example A: Our host in Oslo, Norway: Kjerstin, 25. So our flight got delayed 4 hours due to snow, so we actually didn't get into Oslo until 2:30am Friday morning. We felt horrible about showing up so late at our host's house and contemplated sleeping in the train station to make things easier. Alisha calls Kjerstin to see what we should do. Her response: "That's no problem! I'll be awake. Don't sleep in the train station. It's not safe." So, we arrive at her house just before 3:00am, and we meet the most cheerful, adorable Norwegian girl. She made us bruschetta and tea and chatted away with us. In the morning, (after a solid 3.5 hours of sleep), we wake up to find Kjerstin already awake in the kitchen making us oatmeal and tea. It was great.

What did you do for Thanksgiving? Oh, just went on The Most Beautiful Train Ride in the World. No big deal.

So on Friday, after spending only 4 hours in the dead of night in Oslo (to our dismay...stupid flight delays) we were off to Flåm! We took a 5 hour train ride between the two cities which is rated as The Most Beautiful Train Ride in the World, and it truly was. The train ride was probably my favorite part of the trip. Norway is one of the most (if not THE most) beautiful place I've ever seen. I sat their looking out the window and literally couldn't stop smiling from happiness from how beautiful it was. I'll let the pictures speak for me (although they don't do it justice):

Flåm, Norway: There's always a party when you're staying in a Norwegian mountain town with a population of 25 people

So Alisha and I arrive in Flåm around 2:00pm on Friday, only to realize that EVERYTHINGS CLOSED AND NO ONES AROUND. Hahaha. The town is a tiny little village in the middle of a valley in the Norwegian mountains. In the summer, the place is hoppin'. But in November, when its around 10*F, there doesn't seem to be quite as many people hanging on the beach... We explored around town, which meant walking down a singular street, and walked into the only two buildings that were open: The Flåm Museum (one room) and a cafe. Great. We laughed looking around town and realizing why Alisha couldn't find any couch-surfers to stay with here.

Flåm, Norway

However, all is not lost. We checked into our Bed and Breakfast hotel room, which had the most beautiful view of the fjords. Then, we curled up on the couch and watched a "How I Met Your Mother" marathon (I highly recommend watching the show).

View from our porch

Once it was dinner time, we bundled up and walked to the only open restaurant/bar in town. We were one of 5 people there, including the bar tender. But it ended up being a pretty fun night. We both got cider (delicious) and chatted with the Polish bar tender for most of the night. Plus, he made us a delicious pizza for free :) What's better than free food?? (Especially in Norway...everything is SUPER expensive).

The next morning, we took a hike up to a historic mountain town with buildings from the 17th century. Really cool. Plus, we saw SHEEP!! And we met an old Norwegian man who came to the mountain to pick up his salted sheep leg that's been drying in a shed for the past 2 years. Oh Norwegians.

On our hike back to town, we realized we were cutting time pretty close to catch the ferry to Bergen. It only leaves once a day, so if we missed it, we'd never make it to Bergen. So, what to do other than hitch-hike??? (Mom and Dad, I'm alive. I promise). We figured that this is a quaint mountain town with a population of 25 people... Anyone willing to give us a lift is probably pretty cool. And we were right! After being passed by about 7 or 8 cars (they came by rather infrequently) a guy pulled over for us! Score. He was a 27-year old Norwegian guy who lives one town over from Flåm and was on his way to pick up a friend. Dropped us off in Flåm and we made it to our ferry just in time (literally).

At 3:30pm, we said a sad goodbye to Flåm, as our initial cynicism toward the town turned to love by the end, and were off on our cruise through the fjords to Bergen! We traveled through the fjords at sunset (yes, that's at 4:00pm in Norway in the winter) but it was GORGEOUS. Plus, we went these 3 Spanish guys who were also visiting and on their way to Bergen.

Bergen: A town with people! cafes, beautiful views, and where the mountain sheep have been made into grossly over-priced sweaters.

Once in Bergen (the 2nd largest town in Norway), our host, Kim, came and pick us up from the train station. Awesome. It's pretty cold in Norway in November at 9:00pm at night. So here's the best part about couch-surfing: it gives you a chance to meet the locals and they can show you around town. So Alisha and I walked around town with Kim and we met up with our three Spanish friends from the ferry and we all went out to a bar together and hung-out all night. It was a great time. Plus, Kim treated us to a true Norwegian hotdog on our way home (delicious).

The next day, Sunday, Kim pointed out all the cool sights-to-see in Bergen, and Alisha and I were off bright and early to go sight-seeing. You really can't sleep-in in Norway at this time of year because (no joke) the sun starts setting at 2:00pm and by 4:00 its dark. So, at 9:00am, we were off! We rode a funicular up to the top of a mountain that overlooks the city, and then hiked around and down the mountain. Such a cool view. Then, we found a frozen lake, and had a great time running and sliding on the ice.

We walked around town, stopped at a delicious and adorable cafe, and shopped for sweaters! One of my goals in coming to Scandinavia was to return home with a Norwegian sweater, so I was on the hunt. We looked in every sweater store that was open, and the CHEAPEST sweater I could find was $300. It hurt my heart. Most of the sweaters were $500-$800. WTF Norway?? So alas, I did not buy an $800 sweater. But my heart was nonetheless torn when I flew home with no sweater in hand.

BUT, aside from the ridiculously expensive sweaters (and really expensive everything in Norway), our Thanksgiving weekend trip was a wonderful success and I had an absolutely awesome time. I like Norway. I want to visit again in the summer months.

Biking in Copenhagen!

The story of my first experience biking in Copenhagen:

Following the crowd when you're lost is good advice to live by... Right?

In my first 2 weeks here, my mom had told me, "You know, it's a bit ironic that you just biked 1,800 miles, and now that you're in a city where everyone bikes, you don't have one." Well, just my luck, in my third week here, I got a bike! And by "got" I mean I was given one for free :) A Dane who lives on my hall named Magnus told me he had an old bike that's just sitting outside in the bike parking lot that I could ride. The bike's nothing pretty. Only one break works, the gears don't shift, and the seat's torn. But I don't care. I was just excited to have a bike! Plus, icing on the cake, it was FREE. Magnus showed me which bike it was, gave me the key, and showed me where the closest public tire pump is (right behind my dorm, yessssss). Now I can live like a true Dane! Or so I thought...

So that Saturday, I took the bike for a test ride. I biked my route to school with no problem (to make sure I knew how to get there come class on Monday), then I toured around the town. It was great. No problems. Bike rode great, and I didn't get lost.

So, come Monday, I was excited to bike to school for the first time. Like a true Dane, I wore a skirt with leggings, a cute shirt, and a scarf. Good to go. Unfortunately, there are three main roads that fan out in all directions from where I live, and at 8:30 that morning, I mildly forgot which of the 3 led to school. I looked around a bit, then saw a huge line of bike traffic (many riders looking like students) taking the road to the left. That must be my road, I said to myself. Wrong. Soon, I found myself utterly lost and standing in front of the Queen's palace, about 20 minutes away from my school. After attempting to ask directions from Danes, and having to embarrassingly spell out the names of the roads I was looking for since my pronunciation was so poor, I finally made it to my school. I was nervous and shaking from a combination of being lost and being late for my class. The 2 mile ride that was supposed to take 10 minutes took about 55. But, (be impressed, Mom) I was only 5 minutes late to class! By my clock, that's on time. Because, I have gotten into the habit of leaving really early for my classes in case (just in case...) I get lost/the bus is late/traffic is bad etc. What is Denmark doing to me???

Biking (for real this time) like a true Dane

So now that I'm over 3 months into my semester here, I have become a champ at navigating my way to school, weaving through bike traffic, and biking away in any outfit or footwear. It's my favorite thing about the city I think, how bike-friendly it is and how Danes are such die-hard bikers. I now really look forward to my morning ride to school in the chilly morning air. It's an incredibly refreshing way to wake up, and it beats taking the slow, crowded bus any day.

Plus, Danes bike in ANY weather. I mean ANYTHING. It doesn't matter if it's sleeting and dark outside. There WILL be people biking. I guarantee it.

Example A: The past two days, there's been freezing rain. This is the only time when the weather here really is miserable. The cold is not bad, I bike to school in it each day, no complaints. I quite like it actually. But cold, wet, and windy?? Sorry. I took the bus. But you better believe I looked out the window admirably as lines of bikers cruised next to me on their morning commute to work (one of which, no joke, was a 60+ year old lady. She showed me up as I sat on the heated bus. Let me tell you, that woman had my respect).

Example B: IT SNOWED HERE FOR THE FIRST TIME YESTERDAY!!!! We got about 2-3 inches. It was glorious, but also quite cold. A group of us was heading out to celebrate my friends 20th birthday (she's a youngin), so of course all the girls were inappropriately dressed for the weather in sockings, dresses, and skirts, and as we walked from the metro to the bar, there were people cruising by us on bikes at 11:00pm, in the snow, in 20* weather. Nothing stops them.

However, this morning, instead of taking the bus (oh so tempting), I too jumped on my bike and biked to and from school today, surrounded on all sides by snow. It was actually really fun. Nothing makes me feel more Danish than biking in weather that (by the standards of any other country) is un-bikeable.

Travel Break: Week 2

London—The greatest break from school is staying in a REAL house, with real food, beds, bathrooms, couches, and kitties :)

I arrived in London last Friday, and my uncle met me at the airport. My aunt and uncle live in London in an area called East Putney, which is about 30 minutes SW from main-area London. Over the weekend, I went to a Fulham football match with my aunt and Toby (my 11 y/o cousin), on a sight-seeing bike tour with my aunt and uncle, and to a play called “Tribes” with the whole family (my aunt, uncle, pierce-20, luke-17, and toby-11). Then on Monday morning, I went to the Tate Modern, a really cool museum in an old power plant with my aunt. THEN, I was off to Dublin!! (Don’t worry, I came back to London).

My cousin Toby after the football game-- we found gelato in London, too!

My aunt and I on the bike tour of London

What do you do when you visit Dublin? Go to the Guinness Factory.

So from Monday evening to Wednesday night, I hoped over to Dublin to visit my friend, Kevin, from Richmond. He’s studying abroad there and is a fellow Frisbee kid :) He took me around the city, and we toured Dublin castle, and THE GUINNESS FACTORY.

My friend Kevin and I

The Guinness Factory is just the coolest building. It’s 8 floors, all with interactive stuff about the history and production of Guinness. Then, when you’ve gone through the museum (it takes 2+ hours), you go to the 8^th floor to the Sky Bar, which gives you a 360* view of Dublin, plus a free pint of course. Such a cool view. Kevin and I were up there at sunset and it was gorgeous. We also went out into Dublin both nights, which was of course a ton of fun. So my visit was short but sweet and it was great to have gotten to see Ireland! Then, on Wednesday night, it was back to London! (Plane tickets between London and Dublin are really cheap…hence me planning this mini-trip).

London is even sweeter when you’re there with a best friend from home.

So I returned to London Monday evening and met up with one of my best friends from high school, Bre. She’s studying abroad in Norwich, England (2 hours north of London) for the year, so she took a train down and stayed with me at my aunt and uncles house from Wed-Sat. It was so great seeing her! The combination of seeing her and my relatives was a much-needed dose of home. Plus, it was great because her and I did all the touristy things around the city, and my aunt and uncle didn’t have to worry about entertaining me during the day.

BRE!

On Friday morning, my uncle and I went out for a horseback ride in the English countyside (my life right now really is a fairy-tale). It was AMAZINGLY fun. We went out with a group of 5 people, and just rode through the woods and were galloping through fields. It’s been so long since I’ve rode and I loved it! There was just one minor detail… MY HORSE FLIPPED OVER. Don’t worry, she was fine and so was I. But the ground was pretty wet (unavoidable in England…it rains everyday) and when we were galloping, my horse tripped on a bump in the ground and actually went falling to the ground and flipped over, probably because we were moving a quite some speed. I went flying too but was able to roll out of the way and the horse didn’t land on me. The horse and I both got up, a bit shaken and a bit muddy, but neither of us were hurt and we all rode back to the barn from there. My uncle said the only thought that went through his mind when he saw me fall down was, “Oh God, Kathy is going to kill me.” None-the-less, it was still so fun!

My uncle and I-- Going for a ride in the British countryside :)

The rest of my time in England was spent exploring the city with Bre (in the rain… not the best weather) and going out into the city my Bre and my cousin, Pierce, and relaxing at the house.

My cousin Pierce and I

My aunt and uncle have 2 cats who are the coolest cats I’ve ever met. They act like little puppies—super loving and cute. PLUS, one was pregnant and she gave birth while I was there! The baby kittens were the most fragile, pathetically-cute things I’ve ever seen. They looked like little mice. Adorable.

Baby KITTENS!!

Now, I’m home in Copenhagen! Class starts tomorrow… WHAT?? I’ve forgotten what school is. I've been too busy galavanting around Europe ;)

Travel Break: Week 1

So my two week travel break has come to a close, and I got back to Copenhagen this evening. I visited Rome, London, and Dublin, and I had an amazing time.

When in Rome… eat gelato EVERYday (and sometimes twice a day)

So I spent the first 5 days of my break in Rome. Not too shabby, I guess ;) I went with my Classical and Renaissance Rome class (which is a 1 credit class that people take for the sole purpose of going on this trip) and our professor. There was about 25 students, and our professor named Thyge (try and pronounce that…none of us could. We restored to calling him Too-gee, which is a gross mispronunciation of his actual name but it’s the best we could do). Anyway, Thyge is an absolute Rome fanatic. He was like a walking guidebook and encyclopedia in one. He’s Danish, but he told us he’s visited Rome 37 times. A bit excessive in my opinion….but he clearly REALLY likes Rome.

So, while in Rome, we saw the Colosseum, the Vatican Museum, the Pantheon, the Circus Maximus, the Roman forum, the Trevi Fountain (most gorgeous/magical fountain ever), St. Peter’s Basilica, the ancient Roman port city of Ostia Antica, and MANY many more. Thyge had us on a pretty tight schedule during the day, and then we were free to explore on our own after 4pm. There’s no way I could have seen Rome like we did without Thyge leading us around, so it was tiring at times but I’m definitely glad I visited Rome on this trip rather than on my own time.

Me at Ostia Antica- the ancient port city of Rome

The Colosseum!

The Trevi Fountain *magical*

Rome itself is full of delicious food, overly eager and insistent street-market sellers, lots of amazing ancient/historical statues and buildings, lots of tourist stores and restaurants, and LOTS of tourists. Rome is strange because in one direction you’ll see ancient ruins, in another a majestic renaissance church, and in another a modern strip of stores...and everywhere in between you'll see tourists. The streets and public transportation are absolutely jam packed with people. I don't know how Italians actually live in Rome...and truthfully I don't think many do. I kept having to remind myself I was in Italy because I saw so few Italians.

The BEST pizza I've ever eaten

Of course though, the greatest thing about Rome is the GELATO. There’s a gelato place on every single corner of Rome and you really can’t walk more than 5 minutes without encountering at least 2. We ate gelato literally every single day, and on some days twice. There was one particular gelato place that sold 100 different flavors. It naturally because our favorite place… so much so that the workers there actually recognized us and actually made fun of us a bit for coming so frequently. But, our policy was when in Rome, right?? I mean really, when’s the next time I’ll be there? I had to stock up on the gelato when I had the chance :)

SOO much gelato :)

PLUS, we had absolutely amazing weather (apart from one day when it absolutely poured). Otherwise, it was 65* and sunny the whole time. We went to the beach one day (awesome) and another we all broke out our flip-flops and t-shirts. It was just gorgeous. Us Scandinavian kids haven't seen sunshine like that in a while, so we soaked it up for all it was worth.

Rainy day by the Coliseum

BEACH! On the coast by Ostia Antica

Germany and Poland

Hello! This post is far overdue... but I've actually had work for my school the past 3 weeks (lame). For my Medical Practice and Policy class, the one taught in a hospital, we got to go to Germany and Poland to learn about western and eastern Europe health care systems, and to go on an awesome trip, of course.

Berlin, Germany

Sunday Oct. 3rd

The trip started out with an 8 hour bus ride from Copenhagen to Berlin. There were 33 of us in one giant coach bus.

Highlights:

-Exploring/getting lost in Berlin!

-Dinner at Unsicht-Bar: a dark restaurant, literally not an once of light. The meal was in utter darkness, and the food was all a surprise. We all resorted to eating with our hands, licking our plates, and there are rumors of the some of the guys taking off their shirts for the whole meal.

-Epic dance party at "Øktoberfest in Berlin," where we met this fine character:

And we all proceeded to dance with him. Good times.

Monday Oct. 4th

Highlights:

-Tour of a center for Molecular Medicine (see... there is some academic element to these trips)

-A sightseeing bike tour of Berlin! We saw the Berlin Wall, Checkpoint Charlie, the Reichstag, the place that Hilter commited suicide (now an apartment parking lot), and lots of other building/memorials.

Me and my classmates in front of the Berlin Wall (I'm the one to the right of the girl in red)

-Soccer game in Berlin!! Lots of fun. Unfortunately the game ended in a 0-0 tie.

BUT my friend Barathi and I bought scarves, so we looked like legit fans:

Tuesday Oct. 5th

Highlights:

-Visit to the Berlin Medical History Museum: So cool! It was a museum about the old medical techniques that people used to use during wars and old medical "therapies." For example, they used to give sick people liquid mercury to "sweat out" their disease... the mercury of course made them sweat because it poisoned them and eventually killed them. There were also tons of specimens of human medical anomalies... a lot of which were fetuses that didn't survive. Very creepy but very cool.

-Wine in the TV Tower! It the highest bar in Berlin, and from the top, you get a complete panorama of the city.

Tv tower

-Pub Crawl with our ENTIRE group (33 college kids), plus what ever other people signed up. So much fun. We went to 5 different bars/clubs around Berlin, and you paid 14 EU at the beginning and got free drinks at each bar :)

Of course, with our gigantic group, we started the dance party where ever we went:

every person in this picture is in my class. so fun.

Wednesday Oct. 6th

Highlights:

-Tour of Bayer Pharmaceutical Company in Berlin (in the morning)

-Lunch at the Reichstag: (To give you some perspective of how my school spoils us) The Reichstag was the parliament building for Hilter's party during the Holocaust. We got personally escorted past a huge line and let in the side entrance and ate in the 5 star restaurant at the top. The meal was so good that FISH was the main course and I ate it AND enjoyed it.

We left Berlin in the evening, and set off for a 4 hour bus ride to Poland!

Poznan, Poland

Highlights:

-Arrived in Poland, had a delicious dinner, and then we all went bowling (on the school, of course).

Thursday Oct. 7th

Highlights:

-Shadowing a gynecologist in the morning.

-Trip to the most delicious chocolate cafe in the whole world... Cacao Republika. I would literally travel back to Poland for the sole reason of going here again.

Magical.

-A really fun night bar hopping in Poland :)

My friends and I at a Polish bar.

Friday Oct. 8th

Highlights:

-Shadowing a pediatrics doctor in the morning. The little kids were so cute!! Kind of made me want to be a peds doctor...

Us looking like legit doctors

-Tour of LECH Brewery (supposedly the best beer in Poland... although I still just don't seem to like beer that much. I gave the second half of my beer to one of the guys on the trip).

-Another DELICIOUS dinner

Me with my free beer from the brewery tour

Then, a 12-hour overnight bus ride home! I slept in the isle of the bus....

All in all, it was an awesome trip! Berlin is huge and has an awesome night life. Poznan is the cutest, most amazing, and cheapest city ever. I returned to Copenhagen with some amazing memories, and I became really good friends with all the kids in my core class. Great success.