Malmo Trip :)

So yesterday was the first international travelling I've done since I got here. This is really dorky but I want to keep track of the number of countries I visit while I'm here, so I'm going to start numbering them so Sweden would be:

Trip-2

Life-14

Its a bit stupid really but its actually harder to keep track of then I would've thought and I want to remember the order in which I visit places for when I'm looking back.


Malmo was an interesting experience. Getting there was the easiest thing in the world, we litteraly just bought a $30 roundtrip ticket, got on the regional train and just commuted into Sweden. It was like less formal than taking the Mark Train to Baltimore. When we got to the train station in Sweden there were absolutely no customs, which was a good thing because 2 of the people I went with had forgotten their passports.

When we got there we made a b-line for the castle which turned out to be a VERY bizzare museum. It didn't help that absolutely everything was in Swedish. There were only about 4 rooms of the castle dedicated to castle like things and then the rest of the building was divided up into the most eclectic mix of exhibits possible. In the basement there was an aquarium, there was a section didicated to the history of Swedish labor struggles, a special exhibit on Nelson Mandela, a room dedicated to a detailed look at the different stages of pregnancy and some dinosaur replicas thrown in there. All of us felt kind of like we were in the twilight zone, it was a strange experience to say the least. But the rest of Malmo was lovely, even though it was freezing.


This is the square where we ate dinner its dark so its kind of hard to see. Malmo was danish territory for a long period of its history so alot of the city layout looks a lot like Copenhagen, with open plats and so on.

This is a cool set of bronze statues that look like a marching band, one of the famous malmo attractions, so I'm told.

This is the Malmo train station, where we got in. Its really pretty and surrounded by canals which are supposed to be lovely in the summer but are completely frozen over right now.

This is the turning torso, its avery famous building. I'm not really one for abstract architecture to be honest, but it seems to be a big thing in scandinavia. A lot of my friends at the hojskole are architecture students, so its kind of what the area is known for. in Copenhagen we have the Black Diamond, which is the new royal library and its also a very famous building. This was cool though, and completely redefined the Malmo skyline. I'm curious about how the people of the town reacted when it was first being built.

Viking Field Trip

Ok so we had our first field trip yesterday (Wednesday are reserved for fieldtrips) and we went to the National Museum with my Nordic Mythology class to see the Vikings and Prehistory exhibit. One thing that always Astound me when I go to Europe is how old their history is. I suppose it is technically that old in the states too but its entirely different seeing things that are so relatable and easy to tie in to today's Danish culture that originate So Long Ago. I also realized how utterly off my impressions of the Vikings were ... I feel a bit cheated actually.

First and foremost, I think I am amoung MILLION who thought that Vikings had horns on their helmets. They dont. This is not the Viking, this is from the eaarly Iron Age, like 500 BC, while the Vikings were around from about 800-1200 AD. They're cool anyway, and I'm glad I got to see it.

Some other non-Viking things from that era that I think any of us would've Pinned as viking esque. Very cool looking.

Celtic couldron, VERY Badass.

These are previking Horns, again often mistaken for the Vikings. They look really modern art-y to me.

Viking pretzels. Very tasty. This is actually the kind of things that Vikings made, very detailed Very cool. Not what I was expecting though.

Thors Hammer, one of the few viking things I'd heard about thats actually from the vikings. woohoo!

FYI

When coming to a different place, its hard to describe the essence of the new society/ culture without cheapening it or sounding like a total idiot. My friend Michelle just showed me this blog, and it kind of captures a lot of what Copenhagen is like. It's called http://www.copenhagencyclechic.com/ and it's probably the best way to show you what I've seen of this culture so far. Enjoy!

First Weekend!

This weekend was the shit. Friday night we went to the DIS party downtown at this club called IN. The program rented it out, so before 11 it was free beer and champagne and all DIS kids. Lots and lots of fun, but unfortunately Americans don't really understand restraint persay... lots of drunken fools falling about giving our country a bad name. Luckily my friends from my hojskole kept it classy so we all ended up having a really good time. We stayed at the DIS party until around midnight and then met up with my friend Kassandra's cousin who lives in Copenhagen (she's half danish) and hung out with her and her friends. Here are somepictures from that night, stolen from Kassandra since I've been embarassingly bad at taking my camera out with me.

Some of the girls from my hojskole with Kassandra's cousin (her heads on top of mine) lots of fun times already and I'm sure more to come :)

Waiting for the train...

on the S-tog...

Most of the girls together at the DIS party.

Then Saturday we prettymuch stayed in Hillerod and slept (we didn't get back til almost 5 am) but we explored the town a little bit. I still really need to go to the castle in town its gorgeous, and we've been on the grounds (even walked on the frozen moat) but I haven't been in yet because the timing is always bad. Last night we had a theme party (famous couples) and I came as monica lewinski with one of the guys I live with. It was really funny the Danes go all out for these things. The party was a lot of fun, they're not afraid to act like children here which is great. About half way through we did this rediculous relay race in the gym. I can't explain it but watch for yourself, its pretty funny.

THE SUN!!!!

THE SUN IS OUT!!!!!

This may not sound terribly exciting to those of you in the States but I have been here for five days and this is the first I've seen of it. No glowing circle underneath the clouds, nothing. They don't even have a word for the sun in danish (not true). But today it was out in force! And between the clouds you could see blue! Its terribly exciting.


Today was also the first day of classes, and I had my core class on the European Union and Warcrimes and Human Rights. Both were very interesting and both professors expect a LOT of work. My warcrimes professor is a major in the Danish Army who has done human rights work in almost every major conflict in the past 20 years (Bosnia, Afghanistan, Israel, Napal, Iraq, etc). She's kind of my idol for the moment, I want to find out how you get into that kind of stuff without joining the Danish military. I also feel terribly ignorant I had no idea the Danes were in Afghanistan or Iraq, it probably accounts for some of the flack we've gotten for being Americans, although to be fair, if their government is doing it too they really have no room to talk.

The class on the EU is really interesting! I had no idea how complicated it was. We breifly talked about the problems they're having selecting a system for electing representatives. Our professor was telling us that their was a move to divide up votes based on populations proposed by the Germans, and that the Polish response was that if the Germans hadnt killed so many Poles in WWII they're population would be much bigger, so that went awkwardly out the window.

We're having our first cafe night (aka bar night) at the hojskole tonight so we'll see how that goes. We also have a theme party on Saturday and we have to come as famous couples which should be interesting. I think I'm going to have to come as Cleopatera or something, because I have no theme party clothes to speak of. We'll see.

Scavenger Hunt

Loooooooong day today, but all in all pretty good. We did a scavenger hunt around Copenhagen which was a good (but cold) way of seeing the sights. I'm exhausted now and I need to relax before I go out in Hillerod with my friends from DIS and (hopefully!) some of the danes from our Folkehojskole, but here are some of the sights we saw!

This is the old stock exchange... its hard to see but its what A LOT of the stuff in Copenhagen looks like, dark brick copper roof and sandstone trim, apparently a combo stolen from the dutch but I think it looks very Eastern European. Not that I've ever been to Eastern Europe... but it looks different doesn't it?

If you want to give unhelpful directions in Copenhagen tell someone that they need to look for the square with the huge green statue of a guy riding a horse. I think we walked through about 6 of them today. I don't remember the name of this guy, but its cool nonetheless

This is the Nyhavn Canal in Copenhagen, it kind of reminds be of rainbow row in Charleston, its famous for its beautifully painted houses. I was also shocked to see how many old wooden boats were lining the docks. If you look at the water you can see that the water in the Canal in covered in ice. A LOT of the canals and waterways in Copenhagen are frozen right now and some so much so that you can walk on them!

my internet is going really slowly so that's all I can do for now, but I'll put up the other sites soon!

All moved in!

So I just moved in to my Folkhejskole (folk-eh-skull-eh) which is in Hillerød about 30k outside of Copenhagen. The place itself is really interesting, I don't think we have anything like it in the US. In Denmark, you have to declare your major when you apply to College, so for people who are not sure what they want to do they have folkhejskole, where they get to try out different things without getting graded on anything so they can explore as much as they want to. The building is VERY green, the hallways have glass ceilings and are lines with plants so the whole place kind of feels like a green house. Its hard to describe but if you look at this picture you can see the lines between the panes of glass in the cieling.

The DIS students who like in my hejskole are all really nice, but we've been a little shy when it comes to interacting with the Danes we live with. Its only been two days so it should be better eventually. Tomorrow night we're all going out in Hillerød so hopefully it will bring us together some. I met Danes my first night in town with girls from my hostel so I think its so weird that I'm being shy now. I guess its because these impressions matter, but its a bit stupid.

I havent explored town yet but there's a CASTLE! Its a bit insane. This picture isn't mine, we haven't seen anywhere close to that much sky since I got here, but this is what it WILL look like come spring time. When we passed by it this morning all the tourets were snow capped which was cool.

Orientation was a bit boring not going to lie. The professors seem excellent and the staff all seem fun and interesting, but sitting through orientation lectures are never very exciting. I can't wait for classes to start thursday, as dorky as that sounds.

Arrival in Denmark!

Ahhh I made it! Just by the skin of my teeth actually, I way underestimated the security lines at Dulles, I was being called over the intercom by the time I got to the gate. By the time I boarded I was getting stern looks from the towering flight attendants- SAS's slogan is "the most punctual airline in Europe." Oops.

We got to Denmark about 10 minutes early, and the first thing I noticed was the dark. To be fair, our flight landed at 705 but even from 38000 feet there was no trace of sunlight on the horizon. Just by chance I met up with my roommate by the baggage carosels which was great luck since navagating Copenhagen with 200 pounds of luggage before any bussinesses are open served more difficult than either of us had anticipated. Eventually we ended up taking the taxi to this great hostel Sleep In Heaven which is a really easy walk to the Forum metro stop and has beds in the 6 dorm room for like 35 bucks. The atmosphere is realy great and as you can see theres free wifi, and I would reccomend it for anyone trying to travel here on a bugdet.

So far, what I've noticed about the Danes is that they are a very quiet and clean people. Not sure exactly how I'm going to adjust to that, but I'll keep you posted.

Predeparture jitters

So, I really wasn't planning on doing one of these, but due to my mother's constant encouraging I am actually ready to go two hours early and need an outlet for my nerves. My flight leaves tonight at 5:20 and all I have left to do between now and then is to wonder if I made the right decision and wage a mental battle between my desire for a waist line and the temptation coming from the brownies sitting on the stove. Jitters aside though, I am truly excited about going. This process has been shockingly easy and calm, so far the hardest part has been realizing that gumby can't fit in my suitcase and will have to stay and guard my bed at home. I'm really relieved that I'm meeting up with Janet tomorrow, its nice to have someone to explore with. Alright, I suppose this is all for now, next time I write I'll be in Copenhagen!