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