Monday, February 27, 2012

Worth it.

Yes, it happens.  I've been pretty busy this last week with papers, assignments, quizzes- you know, typical college things.  Thanks to a reminder from former Copenhagian Amy, here's a random collection of the recent happenings in my life!

This past week I was working on the first part of my project for Sociology of the Family- I want to look into parental incarceration in Denmark/how visits within prison affect the parent/child relationship.  As always, Psychology of Leadership keeps me busy, but I don't mind because most of class is spent doing leadership exercises similar to those the Stonehill Orientation Team utilizes (miss you Peer Mentors!!)  In the wonderful world of field studies, I got to go see a modern Danish dance performance on Thursday night with my Danish II class.  It was pretty different from any dance show I've ever seen before, and the second half of the show was pretty far out there, but overall it was enjoyable!  Classes are picking up for everyone especially with long study tours coming up so soon!  At this time of the semester, DIS bravely sends us all out into the world with our core program for relevant academic visits but also fun cultural activities too!  Personally, I am BEYOND excited to get to go to Istanbul for five days, and my roommates are equally pumped about Paris, Brussels, London, Riga, etc.  Last semester my class went to Kosovo, and it was such a great experience that I can't wait to see what this semester holds.

In other abroad happenings, it's over a month into the semester- crazy how fast it's gone by!  I refuse to think about the end.  With all the schoolwork and cold weather, I think we all have a bit of cabin fever (and we're also mourning Rita's computer that crashed in Café Paludan on Wednesday..  RIP).  I also JUST recovered from a 4am bedtime Wednesday night..  I was bartending International Night at Studenterhuset, which was so much fun-- everyone should go!  But Grandma Tara wasn't quite cool enough to stay up until the bar closed and then wake up and be a functional human in her 8:30am class.  Oh well, worth it.  I got to spend all five hours behind the bar this time, so I'm slowly but surely becoming a pro.

TRAVEL PLANS are also in the works so we have lots to look forward to as spring is on it's way.  The other day, my friend Margaret and I booked a trip to Amsterdam leaving the morning after we get back from Istanbul (8:00am flight, oh my), and Rita and I booked our flights to Iceland over travel break!  We're so excited to go to the Blue Lagoon, see the Northern Lights (hopefully!), and go on a pony ride!  I've heard only good things about Reykjavik (and flown through like three times) so I can't wait to explore.  As it stands, we don't have a return flight, SOO we might never return.  Just kidding Copenhagen, we're working on it.

Speaking of which, booking flights is one of the most stressful experiences.  You sit in front of your laptop with your travel buddies double/triple checking the airline website, putting in all your payment information, and finally counting to three and pressing "Submit" at the exact same time.  Dramatic?  Maybe.  But sometimes things go wrong, like when there is one seat left on a flight and your friend gets it before you, or the website spells the name of your state wrong (Rhodes Island) and your payment doesn't go through.  Despite these little anxieties, the result, aka TRAVELING is completely worth it.

And finally, because I know pictures are fun, here are some of my good-looking housemates!  (I know I've been slacking on the picture front..  I guess this is like the phenomena of parents not taking pictures of their second born child, except I just slack on taking pictures of my second semester.)






Saturday, February 18, 2012

Behind the Bar

Earlier this semester, I signed up to volunteer at Studenterhuset, which is basically a student cafe/bar for the University of Copenhagen.  As a volunteer, you get to attend lots of fun events, meet some really cool people, and get nice discounts on drinks/snacks.  You also get to bartend!



Last night was my first night volunteering.  Studenterhuset was hosting a pretty large event and had a bunch of DJs from all over Denmark playing music all night, so the turn out was expected to be huge.  I've never bartended before in my life, so I was pretty nervous, but it turned out to be a lot of fun!  I poured some beers (tilt glass, get perfect amount of foam), made some mixed drinks, and got to socialize with some mildly inebriated individuals.  Some friends stopped by too!  The hardest part was working the cash register.

Considering that bartending is probably how I'll be financing graduate school and replenishing funds from an entire year galavanting around Europe, this looks like it'll be great practice for being a pro-pourer!  :)

Friday, February 17, 2012

Workin' on my Fitness

Recently, Rita, Meaghan, and I decided that due to our immense increase in pastry, hot dog, and peanut butter consumption, we needed to join a gym.  Last semester, I toyed with the idea of joining a gym but never ended up doing it.  This time around, I decided I needed to take the plunge.  DIS had also worked out a pretty good membership deal, so that helped subsidize the cost a bit too!  Armed with my sneakers, Nike gym shorts, and tye-dye Peer Mentor t-shirt, I set off for my first gym experience.

Yes, I have never before belonged to a gym.  Furthermore, I have never even utilized the gym that Stonehill provides for free.  So this whole experience was new to me.  The fun started almost as soon as we walked in.  Rita and I swiped our membership cards only to discover that they hadn't been activated yet.  This lead to an awkward interaction with a staff member who clearly thought we were idiots.  After dropping our things in the locker room, we decided to ease into our workout on the elliptical, only to discover that since we're in Denmark, all of the machines give instructions in Danish.  This made things interesting.  As we ellipticaled our little hearts out, we scoped out our fellow gym-goers.  Which brings me to my next point:

The best fitness/weight loss strategy in the world is to join a Danish gym.  Everyone was blonde, fit, decked out in coordinated workout apparel, and NOT SWEATING.  And then there was me, in my t-shirt and shorts, on struggle-street on the elliptical.  Oh well, it provided Rita and I with some motivation to continue going so that one day we too can become Danish olympians.

Proud of ourselves, we rewarded ourselves with a banana, passion fruit, and apple juice on the walk home.  I guess that's pretty good motivation too!

Monday, February 13, 2012

Fastelavn!

Recently, a few of my housemates and I got to celebrate a super fun Danish tradition called Fastelavn- it's basically the Danish version of Halloween, and everyone wears costumes, enjoys Fastelavnsbøller (Fastelavn buns), et cetera.  The kollegium two buildings down graciously invited us to celebrate with them on Saturday evening, so immediately upon arriving back home from short study tour, Anna, Rita, Meaghan, Stephanie, Sarah, and I set to work putting together costumes out of our incredibly limited resources.  This is the final product of our efforts:

Sarah as Hello Kitty, Stephanie as "Winter," me as a robber (I would), Rita as a cat, Anna as a masked salsa dancer, and Meaghan as a mouse!

We set off down the street en route to the party, knocked on the door, and were greeted by two confused, costumed guys.  Apparently, the kollegium was still finishing up with their celebratory dinner and not quite ready for the party (obviously US) to arrive yet.  After awkwardly standing around for a few minutes, we were finally escorted upstairs into the kollegium's library, where there was a bar set up and music playing.  Minutes later, we were once again ushered out onto the main staircase to observe the breaking of a large wooden barrel decorated with a painting of a black cat- think piñata, but potentially more dangerous.  The cat-barrel-piñata is based on the old tradition of actually putting a live black cat inside of a barrel and then striking the barrel repeatedly until it broke, sending the cat (or the messenger of Satan) running away into the night.  During the age of the Enlightenment, the Danes realized that this practice might be a little cruel and instead switched to candy.  By the way, the person to successfully split the barrel open with a baseball bat was a guy dressed as a nun.  That nun had quite the arm.

Note the costumes and the mad-dash for candy.

Considering none of us (besides Anna and another Danish friend Nicoline) knew what to expect, it was a pretty entertaining experience.  We were originally told that the kollegium was home to only guys who were studying to be priests, but this turned out to be untrue- we found some law students too.  Most people were grad students though, so we all felt a bit young/inadequate; oh well.  Also interesting was the system of purchasing a klipkort (clip ticket usually used on trains) to buy drinks.  And above all, the fact that this whole party took place in the library with people dancing around and everything.  If you're Anna, you even took the opportunity to do some light reading:



Overall, I'd say my first Fastelavn was an experience to remember- being the only Americans there, it was fun to try to blend in with the Danish students (at least until I opened my mouth).  At the end of the night, they even handed out pastries!!  That in and of itself is enough to make for a successful party.....  

Sunday, February 12, 2012

Odense and Aarhus: Short Study Tour!

Before I regale you with stories from our magical short study tour to Western Denmark, let me start by saying that OUR HEAT IS BACK ON as well as our hot water!!!  And the Siberian winds have subsided, so no more struggles with the bone-chilling cold.

I spent the past weekend in Odense and Aarhus with Conflict and Migration- the short study tour was one of my favorite parts of last semester, so the bar was definitely set high, and it didn't disappoint!  We started out bright and early Thursday morning.  Fortunately, I live five minutes from where we were catching the bug, so the 7:30 departure time wasn't quite as horrifying to me as it was to some.

DAY ONE:
Our first stop was Vollsmose, which is a low income housing area outside of Odense.  It's notorious in the media for having a high crime rate and a high immigrant population.  It's also referred to as "Dish City" because most of the apartments have satellite dishes attached to pick up foreign news stations.  When we arrived, we got a tour of the new cultural center they have to serve the people in the area.  We spoke to one Somalian girl who participated in a mentoring program for women, and in a few weeks she is leaving Vollsmose and going off to university.  They also have a music studio at the cultural center where anyone can come in and record songs or raps.  It was a quick visit, but it was so interesting hearing about the different community initiatives that are in place, seeing examples of their success, and also how there is still room for improvement.  For me, seeing a so-called Danish "ghetto" was eye-opening, and it was definitely not what I would expect the "most dangerous place in Denmark" to look like.  My assumptions were based off of places in larger American cities, and comparatively, Vollsmose didn't seem so bad at all; however, there are still tensions and problems in the area, the biggest problem still being working to integrate immigrant populations into Danish society.  We would see more examples of this as the tour went on.

Next, we made our way into central Odense and went to see Brandts Museum.  As I've probably mentioned, I'm not a big museum person.  Most museums make me tired, thirsty, and want to sit down.  This was one such museum.  It was a lovely place, just not really for me.  After a quick guided tour, Sarah, Molly, Laurie, and I opted to head over to the main walking street and grab some shawarma and falafel for lunch.  We wandered through a few shops and I found the BEST deal on a big, fluffy, gray infinity scarf- such a steal, and I'm obsessed with it.

Odense

Then, it was back on the bus and over to Syddansk Universitet (The University of Southern Denmark) for a lecture with Mehmet Necef, a professor who was presenting his new book about the problem of racism in Denmark.  He had a really interesting perspective being an immigrant himself, and everyone in class was eager to ask questions and discuss with him.  After working up quite an appetite with so much academic stimulation, we got dinner at a Mongolian barbecue- the best part of which was the ice cream bar for dessert.  From there, we checked in at our hostel, which was out in the woods and looked like a cute little summer camp.  As per usual, we roasted bread (I've been told its a Danish tradition), enjoyed a few beers around the campfire, and then got some rest before day two!

DAY TWO:
After the signature breakfast of bread and lunchmeat (which I honestly really enjoy and most people think is weird and gross) we went to see a school where most of the kids are of immigrant background.  The school is doing a lot to help the kids, improve test scores, and make it successful, but there are a lot of challenges and many schools like this have been closing down recently.  We got to walk around the school and see the library, the cafeteria, a few classrooms, and the most adorable children ever!  Everyone at the school was so welcoming and hospitable- they gave us plenty of coffee and tea, and even sent us off with sandwiches!

Next, we went to Bazar Vest, which is an enormous indoor market where the vendors sell anything from clothes, food, produce, cars, you-name-it.  It was definitely an experience walking around inside, as there were so many different languages being spoken.  Interestingly (and probably kind of obviously) is that most people spoke their first language as well as Danish, and English wasn't as common as it would be in Copenhagen.  It was cool though, I got to use a few elementary Danish words while ordering lunch!

After exploring the Bazar, we went to Gellerupparken, an area similar to Vollsmose.  Again, the neighborhood was comprised of a few high rise apartment buildings complete with lots of satellite dishes.  We heard a presentation from Youth-4-Youth, which is an organization that was started to keep kids off the street and reduce crime in the area.  They seemed to be well received and plan some nice activities, but I was still (and still am) struggling to wrap my head around the difference between issues in those areas as opposed to a US "ghetto."  The presenters seemed hesitant to talk about specifics, only saying that there were issues and it wasn't perfect, but overall it's a safe area, which lead me to be more confused as to why they exist in the first place if they started to reduce crime.  Oh well, Criminology major problems I suppose.  One interesting thing I did learn was that most crimes are committed outside of the immediate community, sometimes on public transit, because most residents know each other and there is a sense of solidarity with the people who live in Gellerupparken.

Our visit with Youth-4-Youth marked our last real academic visit, so it was time for fun in Aarhus.  Incase you weren't aware, I love Aarhus.  It's the second biggest city in Denmark, and also my second favorite city (next to Copenhagen of course!)  We had a great dinner at a Greek restaurant where I tried the best hummus in the world as well as some other yummy treats.  After dinner, DIS snagged us tickets to the hottest show in town- The Pidgeon Detectives, a band from the UK.  I was pretty skeptical as to how the concert would be, but it turned out to be super entertaining, and I think the band really appreciated the huge audience that DIS created for them.  Before heading home, most people went out to explore the city and Sarah and I met up with our friend Dylan who is studying in Aarhus and who we met on study tour last semester!

Aarhus and the charming canal that runs right through the city


Check out one of their songs!

So close...

The closest I've ever been to the stage, perfect for when he poured water on himself and shook his head into the crowd..

The crowd...  95% DIS

The Pidgeon Detectives with Margaret, me, and Molly


DAY THREE:
As I said, I don't really care for museums; however, there is one museum that breaks this pattern- ARoS. It is THE COOLEST PLACE in the world.  You might remember from last time, but they have a few exhibits themed around rainbows, including a rainbow panorama circling the entire top of the museum as well as a room full of dense rainbow fog.  Last year, Sarah and I took a video walking through the fog and ended up crashing into the back wall because it's THAT hard to see.  This year, I was able to get a more successful video without any injuries and with a random sighting of my housemate Edwin!  Enjoy.


Rainbow Panorama

Look familiar?  (The best part of this picture is the new SCARF that I got on sale)

Hey Boy!


After some coffee and cake at ARoS courtesy of DIS (and running to my Danish teacher who was there with another program!!) we had a few hours of free time before boarding the bus home to Copenhagen.  It was a great couple of days to get to know the people who I'll be traveling to Istanbul with in just three weeks!!

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Siberian winds, brr.

You're saving me, little guy..
Today as I was taking a nice afternoon nap, I was awoken by my frozen housemates Rita and Molly jumping into my bed after they had just taken a long, cold bike ride.  The cold is nothing new to us hearty Copenhagians, but these past few weeks have been a little ridiculous.  As you might know, most of Europe is being hit by bone-chilling Siberian winds that are causing quite a few problems in Eastern Europe especially and even for St. Kannikestraede.  In addition, our poor little apartment is also struggling with hot water as well as heat.  As we speak, I'm sitting in front of our brand new space heater in the dining room.  Apparently, this whole area of the city is without heat, so I'm hoping that resolves itself soon.



Despite the cold, there was still much to do this past weekend, as my friend Mike (Hersh) was flying in from London to visit for the weekend!  Saturday morning started off bright and early with a visit to St. Peter's bakery for some delicious, authentic Danish pastry.  Before we left, Rita picked up a baguette on impulse and from there, it was off to Nyhavn to see the beautiful harbor and nom on our baguette.  Nyhavn is one of my favorite places in the city, but it was a little different this time because the canal was almost completely frozen!

Frosty Nyhavn 
Baguette!

Hersh (with break in hand) and me

We then set off on a quest to find gloves, as my poor little London friend forgot to bring them and the Copenhagen air was pretty unforgiving.  After picking up some mittens and thermal socks, we ventured over to the Round Tower with Rita and Meaghan.

*Note the new mittens*

Housemates :)

After climbing the tower, we went over to the glass market, which is becoming a favorite spot of my entire house, and for good reason- let's not forget that the glass market is home to Agnes Cupcakes!  This semester, we've discovered a great Greek deli that sells hummus, stands with fresh smoked salmon, and even froyo!  From there, we checked out the park behind said glass market.  There's a pond in the middle, which was (surprise!) completely frozen, so we got to see a few small children playing on the ice.  

After a full day of sight-seeing, we decided to brave the cold for a little while longer to check out some Copenhagen nightlife.  The next day, I woke up to SNOW outside my window.  It was a total surprise and must have taken place between the hours of like 3am and 8am, but it was so pretty on the yellow house outside my window:

Perfect little dusting outside my window!


Another frozen, snowy canal


Despite the snow, we managed to walk all the way to Christiania without slipping and severely hurting ourselves.  After a quick walk around and a nice warm cup of soup, we took the Metro back toward home where we hung out in the warm for the rest of the day before Hersh had to leave for the airport.  We were a little concerned all weekend because lots of flights to London were being cancelled due to snow, but Hersh made it home safe and sound and (hopefully) had smooth travels!  I think I sufficiently convinced him that Copenhagen is the best place ever, and overall it was a great weekend- having visitors while abroad is the BEST.  



Even though this week has just started, I've been keeping busy with some reading, some projects, and getting ready for the short study tour.  On Thursday morning, I'm heading off to Western Denmark with the Migration and Conflict program and I'm really excited!  Short study tour was a great experience last semester, and I can't wait to see some new places this time around while also meeting up with our friends in Aarhus!

Until next time, stay hyggelig and stay WARM.

Thursday, February 2, 2012

Attitude is everything.

Attitude is everything.  Cliché, but true.  While perusing the internet (namely some of my favorite tumblrs) in pursuit of insightful quotes, I stumbled upon this one:


"Things are changing ever so slightly. Can you feel them? Pay close attention. You’re going to want to feel them. Your life used to be different. It had a different texture, a different shape. Now it’s something else. Can you recognize it? Poke at it. Rub your fingers through it. Get comfortable. This is your life now. Sometimes it doesn’t feel right and sometimes it does. Hold on to the latter and fruitlessly try to forget the former."


At the start of a brand new semester abroad, I thought it was especially appropriate, speaking not only to the feelings I'm having now, but also to many of the things I grew to understand last semester.  Last August, I remember walking through the cobblestone streets of this city wondering how it could possibly change me and how different things could possibly become.  Those first few days were a whirlwind, but once I took the time to slow down and open my eyes, I started to let go of my old routine and embrace my new life.  I began to take each experience and interaction, positive or negative, and let them affect me.  Sometimes it was in the form of feeling myself smile for absolutely no reason as I walked down the street, and sometimes it was a test of patience as I was faced with negativity from others.

This is such a different life, and it is so easy to get frustrated and feel the effects of culture shock, but I think it is so important to take everything as a learning experience.  Negativity becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, and it affects others outside of yourself.  Sometimes things don't go as we want them to.. but sometimes they do, and I think it's important to take the lesson out of every experience and focus on positives rather than negatives.

Coming back for second semester, I didn't really know what to expect.  The first night I was here, everything felt so similar yet so different at the same time, and I didn't know what to do with myself.  I tried my best to let things settle, and after a day or two, many naps, cups of coffee with my housemates, and the magic of this city I can safely say that coming back for second semester was 100% the right decision for me.  Everyone who I have encountered has such an amazing, positive energy.  I love all my classes.  AND sometimes it snow flurries during the day.  I know it won't always be perfect, and this semester will no doubt pose a challenge or two, but to quote the lovely song "Good Life" by onerepublic- "the hope is we have so much to feel good about!"


By the way, HAPPY FEBRUARY and HAPPY GROUNDHOG DAY!
...and this weekend one of my good friends from Stonehill is coming to visit!!!! :)