more traveling

So I am currently in Amsterdam with Raphy. We were in Belgium at the beginning of the week. Not my favorite country but I'm glad I went there. We went to Brussels, Bruge, and Antwerp. Bruge was beautiful and Brussels was boring. But the waffels and beer were awesome. Amsterdam is great. Not in love with it, but I could definitley spend some time here...Since its christmas, we went to the only things open today-museums. Van Gogh Museum and the Anne Frank House. Last night we went on a walking tour of the Red Light District which was really interesting and somewhat startling, but enjoyable. Tomorrow we will go to the Rembrandt museum and see where that takes us. I want to walk over to the old Sephardic Synagogue.

I'm really excited to go back to Denmark on Saturday, it feels like going home. I know how it works there and how the people are and I know enough of the language so feel comfortable.

oh.my.god

I won a free roundtrip ticket back to Denmark from DIS!!!

sidste ugen

I can't leave, I just can't. Yes I know I said that I hated it here, that I didn't fit in, have friends, and wanted to come home. But you know what, as usual I jumped to conclusions. I have a life here, have friends, and I just DON'T WANT TO LEAVE. I now know why people stay for a whole year...or just move here. We got an email saying, you may experience reverse-culture shock. I expect it. I have changed while living here and I don't know yet how exactly I'll fit into my old life.

Tonight was the first of my goodbyes. It really sucks. That is all I have to say about that.

I leave for Belgium on Friday, then to Amsterdam on Monday, and then I will be home in Newton on the 29th. yuck. home.

two weeks left

I have 2.5 weeks until DIS ends, though I will have 10 extra days in Europe traveling. I realize that about two months ago I wrote that I had accepted that I was not happy here. I had come to terms with my disappointment and that it was ok to me. Well, lets just say I have been proven wrong. I have created a strong base of friends and always have something to do now. Sadly, it is so late in the semester that there just isn't enough time for everything. I have a routine, places to go, people to talk with, and I genuily enjoy being here. I am definitely sick of DIS and my classes. The program was definitely not up to par with my standards and I wish it had been better. I also realize that I do not 100% love copenhagen and Denmark, but fortunately it is not because I didn't have friends, so I don't feel guilty for not enjoying myself because I actually dont like the city for the city, not for the lack of friends. Hopefully that made sense.

This summer, I remember remarking to a friend that despite the fact that I am 20, I did not feel like an adult. I felt like a kid inside in many ways. I know feel like I have slowly grown up and become an adult while living here. I have a new sense of maturity and independence that I don;t think you can have without living on your own and trying a new experience as challenging and risky as moving to a foreign country and making a life. I am almost 75% done with college and I finally feel like I can go that last year and be in medical school.

and to continue my fall break...

So I am finally in the mood to continue my fall break extravaganza. I last left off in Madrid...ready, set, go.

Madrid: I had the most fabulous time with Gilad. Gilad has been living in Madrid for 1.5 years and has the most spectacular life there with an incredible group of friends. He picked me up at the airport and it was just so wonderful seeing him after so long. We took the subway to the center of Madrid where he lives in the most adorable 3 bedroom apt with three cute Spaniards-José, Luiz, and Rafa. After a shower and some unpacking, we headed out to a café where I got tea, then to a bar for beer, then to a Tapas restaurant! the food was AMAZING and the atomosphere was so unique. It was loud, cramped, dirty, and smoky, but so spanish. Afterwards, we headed back to his place with a few of his friends and got after a few hours of catching up, went out to a club called Nastí. It reminded me of Bside in cleveland, which made it a lot of fun. This was at 3am, because in spain no one goes out till at least then. This club is only open till 4am, so it was not very busy. As soon as it closed, we went back to the apt and quickly fell asleep. Friday morning, Gilad had work, so José took me out sightseeing. He was incredible and so sweet. We spent most of our time at the royal palace. it was beautiful, still furnished which was the best part. At around 3, we met up with Gilad and got lunch. Madrid restaurants commonly have 10€ lunch menus that are three courses and come with wine. it was perfect. We then walked around some more and eventually ended up at the big park in the middle of the city. it was so beautiful. we took a nap on the grass next to the lake, as were many people. and then we went to the train station that has a green house inside and got churros (SO GOOD). We then went back at the apt, where we got ready to go out to his friend Julita's 20th birthday party. I was able to enjoy a truely local experience. It was all spaniards except for me and Gilad and everyone spoke in Spanish the whole time. We had an early morning the next day, so we left the group when they decided to go to a club. That Saturday morning, we woke up early and got on a bus to go to El Escorial and Franco's tomb. Francos tomb was sureal, its a huge cathedral built into a mountain. I would highly recommend it if you go to Spain. I had told Gilad that I wanted a true Madrid night experience. So after getting back from our day trip, we took a nap, cooked and ate dinner around 10pm, got dressed, and his friends came over at 12. Gilad and I then went to a club called Pachá that I had been waiting to go to since he had posted so many pictures of it last semester. It was sooo cool. Gilad is the most networked person I know, he always knows the best people. so of course he knew the main PR guy who makes the Lists. But we didnt have to wait in line. Instead we met him at the doors, he brought us in for free and got us free drinks and brought us to the VIP floor. I doubt I'll have that experience again. His friends did not join us, so after an hour or so, we left and met up with them at a place called Elastico that was also like Bside but Huge! We stayed there till it closed at 6, then went to a diner type place, ate spanish tortiallas which are now my favorite food till we were tired (around 8), then went back to gilad's apt. About a dozen people stayed there talking, chain-smoking, and sobering up till 930am! I was exhausted and just wanted to go to sleep, but I did have my true Madrid night and it was amazing. The next day, we woke up late and walked around town some more. That evening we went to see an independent movie that was in French with Spanish subtitles, though I understood most of it with my high school level spanish (points for me). Then we went and got tostas for dinner which were incredible and drank sangria, also very nice though I am now a bigger fan of tinto verano. Monday I left Madrid and made my way to...

Switzerland! Ok so definitely not my favorite place, but good nonetheless. I flew into Geneva and had to find a trainto Bern by myself for the first time ever. I was able to find a train 2 minutes before it left! so i didnt have to wait an hour alone in the station at 10pm. I arrived in Bern late and met up with my highschool friend also studying at DIS-Abby. We promptly fell asleep and spent the next day leisurly walking around, eating pretzles, and shopping. We did go to the big museum there and saw an awesome Albert Einstein exhibit. We decided to go to a semi-nice restaurant for dinner, which was great and very relaxed. my feet hurt so much at this point, i actually would have rather cut them off then walk more. We were only there two nights, so the next day we made our way to the train station and headed to Zurich. We arrived there and realized we did not have directions to the hostel...awesome. through some handy map work, we found where it was (while snowing/raining) and then up the 4 flights of stairs to reception. The hostel was so much fun, the people were incredibly friendly. We met one of the girls in our room, she was from new zealand and had been traveling for 5 months. she got a group of peope together to play cards and then go out for a drink-us (the 2 americans), an australian, and three canadians. Abby and I hung out with two of the canadians more that evening and learned they had both just graduated from culinary school, had just competed in a huge cooking competition in germany, and were moving to london for 6 months to do some internships, and just like us they wanted to go on a day trip to see the alps. so, the next morning the 4 of us left early for the train station, walked into the tourist office and said-"we want to see the alps, where should we go?". they told us, lucerne so that is where we went. it was so beautiful because of a fresh snow fall. we walked for hours. after we got back, we went to the grocery store, bought ingredients and then they cooked us dinner. it was so yummy and way better and cheaper than a restauran't/our own cooking. we just hung out at the hostel that night since we were so tired. the next day, we did the usual touristy thing, just walked around, ate roasted chestnuts, found the synagog (obviously we happened to find it), saw all the main churches, etc. we left the next day...but one last story. in the airport in zurich, i was about to go through security when the security man sees my pump. our conversation:
man-you have to take that off
ariella-i cant
m-you have to take that off
a-i cant its medicine
m-you have to put it in the basket
a-no, i cant its medicine, its ATTACHED to me (see the tubing)
m-you have to take it off
a-panicing...its ATTACHED
m- ooh, ok well you cant go through the metal detector, go around it and in the booth
a-no i can its fine
m-no, you cant
a-fined...and then i got patted down for like 5 minutes


so yeah, i arrived back in copenhagen saturday night. i wish i could have traveled for 3 more weeks, but alas, i had class.

now i am off to bake some pies for danish thanksgiving, but tomorrow i plan to update with more of my life here...which i mentioned previously, i am so much happier here and having a great time and cant imagine going back to america.

update

so i realize that i have not finished updating about my time away. i still have to write about madrid (which was amazing) and switzerland. but i just wanted to say for now, that i offically like it here. as always, and i should have seen it coming since it always happens like this...i made friends and now like it here. go figure. just wanted to let you all know.

Ok so continuation of my last week.

On Sunday I flew to London and met up with Stephanie in the airport, where her camp friend Dalia picked us up and drove us around and brought us to our hostel in Victoria. London is huge...i mean, really really huge and awesome. We walked around the city for a few hours that night and went to a pub for dinner. I had the best burger of my life and a pint of beer for 6 pounds. After that, we came back to the hostel and fell asleep after totally exhausted. The next morning we got up early to go on a free walking tour of royal london. it was led by an australian expat and was filled with australians. it was really informative and we even got to see the changing of the guards at buckingham palace. At the end of the two hour tour, we went for lunch at an all you can eat chinese buffet for 5 pounds. An auzzie, fin, and bulgarian joined us. best moment came when the bulgarian takes out his camera, points it at stephanie and me and says ´may i take advantage of you´...um what did you say, yeah he didnt realize you can´t say that to a girl. from there we went to the national portrait gallery, which was amazing. we came back to the hostel, napped for a few minutes and went out to a pub crawel. it was suppose to be 10 pounds but the guy just didnt take our money...fine by us. the next day, we decided to take it easy and spent like 5 hours in camden market where we did some shopping and ate lunch. i loved it there, so artsy and alternative and cheap. that night we went over to the lse area and met up with a friend from Case-nina. We were going to go to a club with two of her friends but strangly in london, they stop letting people in at 1230...you´ll soon read how you dont even go out till 3 or 4 in madrid. anyways, we ended up just getting kebab and then stephanie and i coudnt find our night bus, walked around a bit randomly, finally got on to a bus we new wasnt right but was in our direction, got off at a stop that looked familiar and somehow ended up directly in front of the bus stop we needed to get back to our hostel...we rule. the next day was our last, we went to the tower of london, the british museum, and the imperial war museum. the war one was my favorite because they had a special art exhibit of the holocaust. there are several survivors who are now artists. i started crying a bit bc it was so moving and some nice old british man gave me a tissue. i have been to two former camps in the past two weeks and not until that moment, did i actually feel something.

then i left london and am now in MADRID! i leave tomorrow for switzerland and will write about madrid later.

Week in Review

So so much has happened this past week. I'll go by country:



Poland: 34 other classmates and two study tour leaders (alex and kristin, both doctors) and i drove for 12 hours to poznan, poland on what would become an incredible trip. poland is depressing and to top it off, we watched the pianist on the bus. overall not much to say about it though. they have an awesome mall and everything is cheap and i shadowed a pediatrician in the hospial there. we learned about lactose intolerance and then we sat in on an exam of a 7year old boy and when the doctor asked who was next for doing the exam, i was the only one to volunteer...when will i be able to do that again for at least 4 more years. i felt so grown up. after three nights there, we drove to...



BERLIN: alright, this is my FAVORITE place in the world. ive been twice and continually love it. we arrived on wednesday and within 1 hour got in a slight bus accident, no big deal but it was a great start... that night we went to unsicht bar-the blind restaurant...amazing just like it was last year. you eat in the dark and have blind waitors. afterwards, i became tour leader to about 7 students b/c i remembered berlin so well and can navigate. it was so much fun. thursday we did some cultural and educational stuff like going to the major hospital in berlin-charite and then we went to the olympic stadium and had a tour. so as we are driving back, im talking to some people about the perfume store i love there and who would have guessed, but we are driving on the correct street on the right block! so the driver pulled over and let a few of us off. we bought perfume and it was amazing. then i led the same group on a mini walking adventure to KaDeWe. that night we had a really lame dinner cruise. i ended up sitting next to both the tour leaders-alex and kristin. we had a really great conversation during dinner about religion in denmark and then some misc. stuff. after the boat ride, we went to the hopbanhopt big train station and got alcohol, then went back to the hostel...the events of the next 30 minutes can be asked directly to me. then me along with 8 other students and alex and kristin went to this awesome very local berlin underground club called Sage Club. There were about 10 different rooms, one with a live band. I hung out inthe live music room with maria and kristin, then alex came and got us to go downstairs to the dancing. we had a wonderful time there. Friday we went to the DDR museum and had a nice group lunch then had the afternoon free...so i bought birkenstocks. but, friday night was the hightlight so it gets its own paragraph.



Friday night!: about 15 of us and alex and kristin went on a pub crawel in east berlin and afterwards planned to go to this club called Panorama. At the first bar, alex and i talked about how excited we were for the club. of course i had dressed appropriatly for a club in europe...but no one else did. the leader of the crawel said that this club was one of the hottest in berlin therefore-appropriate clothing needed, no americans, no big groups, speak german. so, it ended up that after the third bar, alex kristin and i (he speaks german and we were all dressed right) snuck off to panorama. BEST NIGHT EVER. It was fabulous and they were fabulous and the music was amazing and the vibe was amazing. I danced till 545am and then we took a taxi back to the hostel. i had so much and didnt want to leave. the next morning i got up at 745am (next morning...maybe not) to leave for copenhagen.



BUS: the bus ride was painful. by the end of the trip though, i feel like i made a few really good friends and hoping that some new friendships develope in november when i return...even if two of those friends are doctors.



I got back saturday night at 7pm, packed, and left the next morning for LONDON with stephanie. We have had the busiest few days and tomorrow i go to MADRID to visit gilad!!



London: i will write about later because i just typed a lotttt.

I leave for London in 1 hour, so I don't have time for a long entry. I just wanted to say, I had the most AMAZING time in Berlin. I hung out with my two tour leaders two of the nights and went to what we learned is the hottest club in Berlin right now called Berghain-Panorama Bar and the rest of the time I acted as tour guide to a group of students because I remembered my way around from last summer.

I leave for London today, Madrid Thursday, Bern on Monday, and Zurich on Wednesday. I return Nov 1st and will write about my travels that weekend.

Study Tour

I leave tomorrow for a week long study tour to Poznan, Poland and Berlin, Germany. I return Saturday and promptly leave again on Sunday for: London, Madrid, Bern, and Zurich. I return November 1st.

a local?

Today, walking to DIS for a field study was the first time in almost 7 weeks that I finally feel like a local. Though I don't know how long that will last or even why. But it was kind of nice. I think it had something to do with my outfit-black dress, tights, ballet flats...getting ready for synagogue.

and look at all these crazy letters I can use on the danish keyboard-æ, ø, å

Germany for the night

At 5:30 pm on Friday, I got on a bus with my Holocaust and Genocide class to go to Hamburg, Germany and the Neuengamme Concentration Camp for a quick 24 study tour. We arrived in Hamburg at around 10pm, threw our stuff down and went out. Stephanie's friend Jordan has a cousin in Hamburg, so she took the three of us out to the red light district of Hamburg. We had a wonderful time. The cousin's husband (early 20's) bought the three of us German beers to try. We got back to the hostel late and woke up early the next morning. My one night in Germany showed me again how much I love that country compared to Denmark. Something about how the people were acting and interacting.

This was my first time at a concentration camp. I was far less emotional than I thought I would be and I don't know why. With the little sleep I got, I thought it would affect me even more. We were given a two hour tour of the museum and grounds. It was truly surreal to walk on the ground that so many Jews worked to their deaths on. The only building still intact for visitors is a brick factory. It was massive and we learned was built by hand by Jewish prisoners. After a few hours there, we got back on the bus and made our way back to Copenhagen.

Stephanie, Zoya, and I finally made it to Rust, a popular Danish night club. It was a ton of fun and I even convinced someone I was in medical school. Not that hard to do.
Conversation went like this:
Where are you all from?
The states.
Why are you here?
Studying.
Where?
(This is where I start to falsly answer all our questions): Copenhagen University
What do you study?
Medicine.
Oh, so you have classes at Panum Institute?
Yes. (not a lie since my cancer class is taught there)
Wow.

Oh and we met an anti-semitic italian from westchester county, ny who has lived here for 5 years. it was fun telling him he was saying things to the wrong group of americans (3 jews).

It was raining when we left, so we had to run to the bus stop and wait in the windy rain for a bit.

It was a really good weekend and I am now more excited than ever to go on my three week vacation. I still have to get through midterms this week though.

I think I've made two new friends. And maybe they will become non-school friends. 

First month review

I have officially been here for one month. I can say that I have never (with the exception of one other current item) tried to be more positive about an experience before. I keep reminding myself that for the past three times I've moved in the past 10 years (wow how it been 10 years since I moved from Colorado), it has taken me a minimum of one school semester to acclimate and begin the process of enjoying myself. Well, I obviously need to speed up the process since I only have ONE semester here. I think I am starting to make some friends, slowly, but its happening. But per usual, they are school friends. Meaning, I will probably never spend time with them outside of class. Wow, classic Ariella move right here. I could probably write out the next few experiences that will happen to me over the next month just because it is all so routine.

The situation is this, I do not love Denmark. I thought I would. I wanted to. I assumed I would. I got myself excited. But I don't. Now, I don't want to sound like I'm uber depressed and sulking in my room all day. I'm not, though it occasionally happens. But I don't love it here. I had very very very high expectations that have not been lived up to. I had expectations of the people I'd meet, things I would do, and how I would be able to alter my own typical behavior in the first weeks of meeting new people. None of those were met, so now I am attempting to rebuild/build what never became reality. I am jaded from past travel experiences, thank you parents.

But the thing is, I'm remaining positive. If for the main reason that if I stop being positive, I might actually cry in my room everyday. So to prevent this, I'm staying positive. For those of you that know me well, you will understand that I am RARELY optimistic about things because when I am, I soon become quite disappointed. Maybe this is a new turn in my life. I am becoming an optimistic person. Its a good start, optimistic about two areas of my life. I am questioning my decision to come here though. I've looked forward to this experience for the past 10 years probably and even wanted to do a full year (thank god I'm not), but I'm still questioning this. Maybe it would be different if I chose another location, who knows. I really miss my life at Case, because my time here feels exactly like my first semester at Case when all I wanted to do was transfer.

I am having a lot of trouble finding people I like here. I realized today while walking to verstergade 7 (DIS), that the reason I don't like 80% of the people I meet, is that they don't go to Case/schools I applied to. The majority of people I don't like, go to schools I had no interest in applying to for a variety of reasons. I realized today how perfect my chose of school was even though my freshman college self would completely disagree with me.

NOW THE BRIGHT SIDE! My classes are overall interesting (although the quality of teaching is mediocre to me). I went to a real life European soccer game on Sunday (FCK vs AaB) and I got a second degree burn on my finger from melted sugar. Awesome.

Human Health and Disease: I learned how to do a gynocology exam on a plastic dummy, delivered a baby (on a dummy), got a tour of an endoscopy suite today, and saw a radiology suite last week. Bummer though, I'm missing how to put in an IV because of Rosh Hashana! I'm so dissapointed. So, daddy...want to teach me over winter break? Also, we are learning anatomy and phys that I learned in bio last semester. But thats ok because it makes class easier and the other students are struggling trying to read an ECG.

Cancer: Actually really interesting, but my teacher is horid. Mumbles, doesn't speak above a whisper, and doesn't answer questions. Material is worth it though.

Genocide: Very interesting, lot of reading. I'm visiting a concentration camp near Hamburg next weekend. Stephanie is in my class. Therefore, worth it.

Danish: Probs my fave class. Who would have thought. I'm actually picking up the language, though I'm too nervous to actually use it anywhere.

I'm going to the Carlsberg factory tour on Saturday.

Main thing I'm looking forward to: 2.5 weeks of class, and then I have 3 weeks off for travel.

Traveling

I'm really bad at this whole blogging thing. I thought I'd be better and maybe it will improve, but as of now...obviously I am no good.

I think tomorrow I'll manage to recap on the past week. Classes are starting to pick up I guess; I have two tests on Thursday and two tests next week. On a good note: I offically booked my tickets to London and Madrid and tomorrow I'll book for Switzerland! And, Raphy and I have our hostels and 1 of 2 tickets for Belgium and the Netherlands in December!

Edit: As of today, I have my ticket to Switzerland and my ticket to Brussels. Now I just need three train tickets and 3 nights of hosteling in Denmark!

I had a really good day yesterday, which I will write about this afternoon after I return from my first day volunteering at the Chabad.

Dream #2: I dreamt about when I would be back, like the first day back. At least it wasn't me coming back prematurely.

I had a dream last night that I got on a plane and came home.

I think I had too high of expectations, so they are easily being crushed (maybe that is a bit too harsh of a word). I have moved to a new environment 5 times in the past 10 years and after years of analysis, I have discovered that it takes me approximately two years to feel like the place is my new home and a minimum of one full school year to make friends and at least 1 semester to make fake friends. So, here lies my predicament. I am only here for 4 months, so I need to speed up this process and I think I have so far. I was reminded by a friend how much I hated Case and Cleveland the first year and especially the first few months, but I miss it now, so that has obviously changed. For this reason, I am not freaking out about the fact that I haven't fallen in love with Copenhagen like so many of the other students here. But on the other hand, every single European city I have been to in my life, I have fallen in love with within several days. That is the one point of concern I have right now.

I met some more people this week who have been really wonderful and actually invite me to go out with them, unlike the people who I only ever felt like I was tagging along with last week. When I mentioned how badly I wanted to meet Danes, one of the girls says "oh, we hang out with two of them, we met them on the first day. you should hang out with us". So there you go, I am hoping this will turnout to be a positive experience and get my mind off of all the negative I feel.

The one bright point in the past few days has been planning for my two weeks of travel in October. I hope to go to London, Barcelona, Madrid, and maybe Bern/Zurich.

I am typically overly pessimistic about most areas of my life, minus only one in particular, so I am actually really trying to be optimistic about this experience. It has only been two weeks and it really can't get much worse (hmm now was that being overly pessimistic or optimistic...).

Although in good news, I had a meeting with the Rabbi's wife at the Chabad here and I will start volunteering next week along with one other student-Seth from Brandeis. She told me she could see the activist spark in me, which was nice of her to say, unless it was an insult-I don't know. I am really excited. It will give me something to do during the morning since my classes are all late in the afternoon and hopefully I'll meet some local Jews. She seemed so grateful for any help. Seth and I will help cook for some holidays and Friday nights, do some arts and crafts (though this is hard because most of the young kids don't know english yet), and help with some basic office work.

Hej Hej

Hard life in the city

Living in a city is hard. It seems I get up, lug myself and my stuff to school on the bus, go the grocery store, and carry bags back on the bus home. And each time I go shopping, I have to think about what I can carry by myself.

I've decided to check out each Netto that is either in walking distance or on my bus route to determine which is the best and which will by "mine". I think I found it today. Its about 4 stops before mine on the 6A bus route and is perfect-on the bigger side, good selection, and not super busy. I bought what I think, as of 5 minutes ago, is the worst bottle of wine I have ever had. But it was only 6$, so I guess I get what I pay for (I miss trader joes). I bought some curried herring yesterday in an attempt to try all danish foods. I'm still woring up the courage to actually try it. And I bought what I thought was regular cheese, but actualy smells terrible.

I'm still iffy about this city. Its smaller than many I've been to and hasn't stacked up yet. Tomorrow I will go sightseeing, I think that will help.

First day of classes yesterday, nothing amazing to say about them yet. No negative feelings though. Tonight is the welcome party at some club, so I'm getting ready for that as of now.

The most exciting thing as of yet is the news that I have been assigned my volunteer location and I will be posted at the Copenhagen Chabad! I can't wait. I am worried about my clothing situation though...I may need to go out and buy a skirt on Monday. And I have been invited by my visiting family for Rosh haShanah and for Friday night dinner in a few weeks.

One down...4 more months to go

This is my first opportunity to truly sit down and write about my experience in Denmark that has spanned roughly 36 hours.

Flight: I spent about 20+ hours traveling Saturday-Sunday. Due to the kind and generous nature of my dear father, I was able to fly in Business class from Atlanta to Copenhagen (with two previous connections). It may have been the most fun I have had all summer; I'm hoping Denmark will top it.

I was actually able to sleep and slightly function on arrival day, got served a lot of really good Greek wine, and ate enough so that I was not hungry on Sunday (arrival day)-this was a good thing because the opportunities for food were few and far between.

Arrival Day: I arrived at 9am DK time, 3am home time, only slightly exhausted. After a quick bus ride with about 75 other students to the University of Copenhagen (KUA) and another ride to my kollegium (dorm) Keops and lugging my luggage around 3 times...and then up 2 flights of stairs because the elevator thought it was a good day to break...I made it to my room. I am fortunate enough to have a single room with private bathroom and a little kitchenette. All the furniture is Ikea, so I don't feel far from home (even my desk lamp is the same as the one in my Boston room).

The strangest part though is the shower. The bathroom is the shower, the shower is the bathroom. There is a small curtain that blocks off the toilet and sink from the showerhead, but the floor is not as fortunate. Every morning I will have the good fortune was squeeging my bathroom floor. My room looks out over the metro train, which is very quiet so I don't mind. That evening me and few other people, mostly friends of a friend from high school (Abby, who is also here in Keops), went on a walk around the neighborhood. Everything is closed on Sundays.

The following day (today), all the students in my kollegium left at 9am with my pseudo-RA for the bus that goes to DIS. Its only about a 15 minute ride and now I know how to get there, which is a calmly thought. We were then instructed to follow instructions and find the location of the "opening ceremony". Too boring to really comment on. The only thing it did for me was make me second guess my decision to come here. Each speaker mentioned how the Danes are quiet, hard to meet, the weather is bad, things are REALLY expensive, etc.

I seem to have become the guide and map reader among the people I have been socializing with. I'm happy in that role and last night even had to whip out my compass and map, which I always carry, because we were lost. We walked around a bit, found some lunch, bought some water (which I will never do again because it was 3$! At 1:00 we went on a bus tour to some of the main tourist spots in Copenhagen: The Little Mermaid Statue, the royal residence, queen's residence, water front, and another that I can't remember. There are parts of Copenhagen that are beautiful and many parts that don't spark any excitement in me...I'm hoping that will change. I need to stop comparing it to other places I've been because its only dampening my excitement of being here.

Following the bus ride, Abby, Emma (a swedish girl), and me went to the metro station to get bus passes. But first I had to get passport pictures taken because I forgot to in Boston. We were all hungry, so we went to the grocery store Netto-its the cheap one they recommend us use. So this may have been the most hilarious and unsuccessful shopping experience of my entire life. I don't understand a word of Danish, can't read the labels, and the dictionary that Abby and I stood with in front of each aisle had few food words in it. We managed to figure out how to say turkey and milk, but that was it. I bought a few essentials including coke lite and carlsberg beer (because I can). I just made dinner, which may end up being pasta quite frequently and am in the mood to go to sleep ASAP. I'll stay up for a bit longer though.

Tomorrow is more orientation and registering for my CPR (SSN#).
Pictures can be found at here : I tried to put them in this post, but it didn't work.

Arrival

I have arrived in Denmark safely. More to come later.

17 hours...

I leave in officially 17 hours for Denmark. I am both extremely excited and more terrified that I thought I'd be. Despite the fact that this is my third year of college, I feel like a freshman again. I'm nauseous and worried; new school, new people, new city/continent. All week I've been receiving emails from Case about welcome days, etc. and I want to be there so badly. I love the first week of school, moving in and seeing old friends. I'll have a week of orientation, but it won't be the same. I'm leaving so many important people in Cleveland, but I know I'll be back in January.

I officially leave the country at 5:40pm EST...if all goes well (fingers crossed/I even made a wish at 11:11 just to be extra superstitious). Once I'm settled in Keops (my dorm/kollegium), I'll write something so you all (maybe 3 people who will read this) will know I'm there safely.

Passport has arrived

My passport came back from the Danish consulate finally...looks like I'm officially going.

4 Months till Denmark

Summer vacation has officially started today, so I figured now is as good as ever to begin this blog. I hope to use this to keep in touch with friends from home and school, to keep everyone updated on my experience in Denmark, and to keep a journal for myself to look back on in years to come.

I can't believe Denmark is so soon. I should probably start packing...I'm not sure how I'll pack everything in two suitcases (and everyone that knows me is probably wondering the same thing).