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.