"We're Great Danes!! Ha......get it?"

Ah it has come time again to celebrate this wonderfully American made up candy corporation holiday...tis the day of All Hallow's Eve. I must admit it is a little strange celebrating Halloween over Europe...people are just like "eh....let's go ahead and bring out the Christmas decorations." Umm excuse me? I will not be satisfied to just 'moving on'  until  I get atleast 20 Reese's in my halloween bag. This year I will for-go the Twizzlers though...thank god. Who gives Twizzlers out on Halloween? You are an abomination to American nationalism madam, if you think it is okay to give out Twizzlers. Cheap. 

Gross.

Well, since I live in an awesome hojskole, where the motto is "there is always something to celebrate," the Danes were more than happy to take part in the American festivity of Halloween. Since I was done with the three weeks from hell, I was so excited to take part in all the pumpkin carving! Grundtvigs supplied us with 20 pumpkins or so to just have at it! Don't think there were any stencils or pumpkin carving tool kits in this joint. This was real pumpkin carving. We're talking free-hand, butcher knife wielding pumpkin carving. No mercy. 

Absolute professionals.

However, since my carving craft had been hindered by the fact that I used "kits" all my life...my pumpkin was resembling Quasimodo. So I substituted by just taking everyone's pumpkin guts out for them, because you know that's the best part. I swear, I think pumpkin guts are the key to time travel. There is no other smell that can whisk you back to your childhood like that. Woo getting sentimental there, continuing on...after pumpkin carving the rest of the Danes decided to go watch "The Shining" which I opted out of because if you're going to do a horror movie please do something that doesn't contain Jack Nicholson. 

Americans know what's going on. 

The next night the real festivities began. Naturally, my roommate and I had absolutely no clue what were going to be. I was going to just be a Dane, but then I realized I couldn't really pull it off. So then I had the BEST IDEA EVER....

Two words. Great. Danes. 

BRILLIANT! Right?!

Easy, fun, absolutely clever, and we could bark....we would be the cat's meow at this party. Chicka chicka yeahh.

So we drew on our dog faces and wore Danish flags that said "great danes" on our costumes and pranced on down to the dinner. As we ran into the dining hall, we honestly thought....what the hell?! This was terrifying. Everyone was dressed up as something dead. Dead clowns, dead brides, dead fairies, dead butchers, and Amy Winehouse who basically looks like death. What is the debauchery? Halloween can be cute too! At least, the dining hall was decorated in a non-ghoulish manner. They had candles, lit pumpkins, and green potatoes? I don't know they had to dye something green. It was very well done. 

Amy Winehouse (Tijana), moi, and Julie!

Though this feast was fantastic, no one got our costumes. I was crushed! They just thought we were just cats with signs on us that said "great danes" which they took quite literally to mean "o we're cats that happen to be great Danish citizens." Absolute tragedy. It wasn't till later that we discovered that they call Great Danes by their French name here.. "Grande Danoires," well that's just perfect.

So Margaret and I just looked like idiot cats all night long. However, we lived it up by drinking Halloween punch and dancing the Monster Mash all night and having fun with our Danish friends. The Danes really are great...ha. ha. k.

The Great Danes and KISS.

Danes living Halloween up.

Well I need to pack for Prague! I am leaving this afternoon on a 12-hour bus ride (crying a little on the inside) but it's going to be a blast. Czech Trek here I come!

"You know Swedish? Yeah, everyone in Africa knows Swedish."

Instead of doing my Communications paper or studying Russian, I am writing a blog. But let's be honest, when I am ever going to use Russian? (Mother comments "...when you leave for Russia in 2 weeks.)" Yes, yes, but besides that the only thing Russian is useful for is when I do my "Tatiana, the waxing lady" impression or on the off days when I try to be Agent Salt. Russian= not applicable to my life at the moment.

She knows what's up.

Well, this weekend has been a journey. After several hours of debating whether my mom and I should get on a plane to Stockholm or not, we finally settled that we should just take the 30 minute train over to Malmo, Sweden. Sweden is going to be Sweden anywhere right? True, I may get to see a moose or two more in the more Northern parts but let us not beat around bush, we are truly going to Sweden to just say "we have been to Sweden." Taking the TJ Maxx route by spending less on basically the same thing, we went to Malmo. 
Pretty cool, nothing I would hop over the moon about, but it was Swedish enough. We got some of those wooden horses, walked around saw some Scandinavian houses, and then went to TGI Friday's. Classic americano.

Brr....Malmo.

Thinking we were done for the day, Mother of course had to talk to the Swedish couple next to us and they recommended that we see Lund as well. So, of course, we went to Lund. Still cool, they had an ancient church and mom was freaking out because it was Lutheran. "You know, we just don't have these things in America!" It was truly beautiful, it had this ancient clock and this old crypt. So I say it was worth it! Then we went to this Williamsburg-esque set up where they had houses from every time period in Sweden. Houses with grass roofs, mansions, windmills, wooden churches, the whole kit and kaboodle was there. Well done, Lund, well done. But after 10 hours in Sweden, I was getting a little antsy because I had a lot of work to do. So we went back to the SAS hotel and had a lovely night's sleep in our big, Danish bed :)

Momma enjoying the church.

Next morning, we woke up to go to Hillerod and see my town! Mother was ooing and awing the whole train ride and just exclaiming how gorgeous everything was. Easily entertained she is. 
Well, we got out and I decided to head over to Frederiksborg Castle. If you remember my post from a while back, this castle was the Yoko Ono to my John Lennon. If I was amazed, lord only knows how she was going to react. 


Though we were eager to go inside, we were hungry. Unfortunately, everything is closed on Sunday. Options for food....7/11 and the Turkish/pizza joint. Sigh...so after eating some less than satisfiable Turkish shwarma we went to the castle. Mother could barely contain herself. Taking pictures everywhere, she was practically bouncing off the walls. It's a great castle and I was happy to be back, but as we were walking through the great hall disaster struck. 
"O no......o no......o no o no o no o no" I stopped dead in the middle of this massive hall. A wave of nausea came over me and my stomach felt as though someone was ripping it apart. GOD, WE SHOULD HAVE CHOSEN 7/11! Ow. Okay, what do I do?!?!!? If I move, I will literally barf all over this 600 year old marble, gold leaf floor. Slightly panicking, I whisper, ".......Mom." She is too busy counting the sparkles in the room. "mooom......mom.....mom.....CHERYL!"  I hear her go, "hmmmm?" in her happy, high pitched voice while she is still looking at a painting of a princess. I try to whisper, even though it echoes throughout the hall. "Mom....just..just..come here. I'm not feeling well." She turns around and goes, "O NO!! What's wrong?! Are you ill? Okay, okay, it's okay... what do we do?" As the Japanese tourists start pouring in (naturally) I start getting panicky and turning white. If I move, I will throw up. Staying still and immobile, seemed to be the best plan at the moment. 
Let's just pan out and look at the situation. 
My mom and I are standing in the center of a massive hall......just standing, while little Japanese tourists shuffle in taking pictures of everything in sight. We have no clue where a bathroom could be but I'm starting to get whiter and sicker. Where did this come from?! "Okay, honey.....let's... just go and find a bathroom."
"Mom, we are in the top floor of a castle that has over 200 rooms, none of which are bathrooms. They used buckets back then for Christ's sake!! WHAT AM I GOING TO DO!?" That's when it got worse. 
Yup, their is vomit in my mouth. No choice, we are running. 
Literally, vaulting over a Japanese lady (easily done) I booked it through 20 rooms, down 2 endless flights of spiral staircases, burst through the gift shop and saw the most beautiful sign in the world. The bathroom sign.
And the rest of the story you probably know. Cheryl (my mom) was somehow able to keep up even though she was carrying her over-sized satchel that could easily fit Gary Coleman in it (too soon?) and was wearing heels. But nevertheless, she was there in all her sweater and big hair glory to rub my back as I threw up in the cellar of a castle. Sometimes, you just need your mommy. 
SO thank you sketch Turkey shop for making me up chuck in a 700 year old castle. Cheryl was quite worried and even though we still wanted to go through the gardens, I was feeling too bad to go any further. We opted to try and make it back to my hojskole, which luckily, I did. There I relaxed and much to my happiness, was able to get better and head back to Copenhagen. 
Seriously, I probably need to practice Russian. I wonder if watching "Anastasia" counts as learning Russian? 
Probably not.


Yup.  Big thanks and much love to my mom who helped me get through my little Danish adventure of the day :)

Cheryl hits up Copenhagen.

Absolute Mayhem

Well my Mom is here!!! Yay!! I am so excited to see a face from home. Don't get me wrong, I am not wanting to go home but it is always nice to see a familiar face :)
She is a little jet-lagged so I am letting her catch up on her sleep. She is staying at the SAS Blu Royal Hotel that is only 5 minutes away from DIS, so I am definitely going to catch up on some sleep this week since I only have a 5 minute walking commute. SCORE! 
We are debating on whether to go to Stockholm, Amsterdam, or Berlin for the weekend? Oh the life of studying abroad. It's funny when someone asks 'oo what can I see and do in Copenhagen?!" I don't really have a good response. 
There is so much to do and see in Copenhagen but studying abroad has enabled me to not be a tourist. So in retrospect, I don't really know what tourists are supposed to do here. Besides Nyhavn, the museums, and the palaces there isn't much that comes to mind. I guess this is the time to try out the canal tour! We will figure something out. It is just difficult because, of course, this is midterm week and everything is due. I have been able to finish two papers but I still have one more and then 2 midterms to study for.....craziness. So I will have to balance the traveling and work this week. 
On another note, some of the girls from my school back in NC came up to Copenhagen from their study abroad in Florence. They were so shocked it was so cold! It really isn't that bad, it is in the upper 40s, but compared to Italy, I am sure it was colder than they were used to. I went to Tivoli for the first time and it was SO BEAUTIFUL! They totally decked out the place for Halloween. Even though Halloween isn't big holiday here, they still try to deck it out for tourists. It was so warm and cozy. Pumpkins were everywhere and the scent of hot apple cider and caramel candy just wafted in the air. It was just absolutely magical.
Well, I have to go but more will come soon! Sorry, this isn't a good post. I barely have time to think this week, much less be witty. Tragedy.

Elon at Tivoli!

The "study" of study abroad is kicking in..

Studying abroad is essentially studying...but abroad. 


I still have professors, I still have reading to do, I still take notes, have papers/exams/ etc. But the one thing, that is nice about DIS is that they don't make you do "busy work," which I found I got a lot of back at my home university.
You just show up to class, have the reading done, you discuss it, and that's it about. No frills or bells, just a good old fashion interactive lecture. Well, since I have been used to doing just reading and a few papers/tests here and there I was not prepared for the overwhelming work fest that is in front of me for the next two weeks.
I have three 8-10 page research papers due, three midterms, 1 research synopsis due, 2 film screenings for my film class, a Russian language quiz, oh and top of all that my mom is coming to Copenhagen.
My mom coming to Copenhagen is actually the best part of the week and I cannot wait to see her! It is just going to be a lot of stuff to juggle around. 
I guess this happens to everyone, but all of this stuff is due within a 3 day span of the last week of October.  Lawwwwd have mercy (as my grandmother would say).
So, hopefully I will survive.


Oh and last night at my folkhojskole, we had a fake wedding party. SO MUCH FUN! We were all given roles to play in a wedding and had a fancy dinner and then we continued to play along through the night. It was a blast. Do a folkhojskole when you choose housing, you won't regret it.
La picturas.

Me and the Danish "priest" aka Isabella!

Lovely wedding preparations done by the student council.

"Excuse me, can you tell me how to get to platform 9 3/4?": Study Tour in London

A foggy day in London town is where this tale begins.


Actually...no. It begins with SAS losing my luggage.


Despite that little fluke, my trip to London with my Current Trends in News Media core class was out of this world. Eating fish and chips, pretending to speak in a British accent, and actually trying to go through platform 9 3/4 made this one of the best trips I've taken in my life. Despite having been to London before, DIS was able to show me a whole other side that I had never experienced!
My expectations for this trip were far surpassed. The activities, the food, the lodgings...everything was so well thought out and absolutely amazing. Cheers to the DIS Study Tours office for planning out such a great trip!


Well, I obviously must recount everything for you.


Day 1: Took a relatively easy metro ride to CPH airport and got on a hour and half plane ride to London.
Stood and waited for my luggage.....didn't come. Slightly panicking. Listened to some Michael Buble which somehow calmed me down and got on a bus with genie bus driver (I kid you not) who took us to Fat Tire Bike Tours. Saw hot tour guides and forgot about losing my luggage. Took a gorgeous bike ride through Kensington Gardens, Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, Trafalgar Square, and other awesome places. Went to Royal National hotel then walked to pub where we were having dinner. 15 minute walk turned into 1 hour when we got lost. Had traditional British pub food (eh) and then went back and went to sleep.
Randomly, woke up at 3 AM and literally marched myself down to the lobby to ask for my luggage. Hallelujah, praise Jesus it was there.


Day 2: New clothes, new attitude...very sick. Where did this mac truck of pain come from? I don't know. But it unfortunately decided to hit me while I was London. Dismal.
Took the tiny tube to the Telegraph, which is London's equivalent of the New York Times. Had a very interesting lecture with a sassy character of a man who showed us the reporting center and what not. We then had lunch at The Shakespeare pub (eh food again) and after that we departed to the Tate Modern museum. This huge...warehouse type building sits precariously on the Thames river. It truly is a gigantic amount of space and being a modern museum it houses some of the strangest art I have ever seen. After that we somehow found ourselves on Brick Lane. Never heard of it? Because it is India. This one street was packed full of Indian and Banglandeshi (is that right?) stores, restaurants, and a short movie film festival. Variety..I like it. The film festival was called "Short and Sweet" and was a really cool experience. The venue had mismatched couches and seats that made it really quaint. We then watched different short films that were introduced by this spritely young British woman. Though I was still feeling like death I really was able to enjoy this unique experience.

At the Telegraph!

Day 3: Feeling slightly better from a good night's rest and large dose of Theraflu I went with three other classmates to an interview with Edelman PR. Edelman is the largest, independently own PR agency in the world with multiple offices across the world. Their clients include all the big name companies including Shell and Walmart and much more. This was honestly one of the most special experiences I had on this trip. We were taken up to the swanky office that just oozed cool. Exhibit A: the chandelier was made out of photographs of China dolls and everyone dressed like they popped out of Vogue. It was B.A. We sat down with two employees who gave us a little background and answered our questions about the PR industry. They were so nice and complementary and made our experience absolutely fantastic. It really sealed the deal for me, for I had a more concrete idea of what working in the PR industry is like and what it takes to truly make it. We did more cool stuff like Westminster Abbey and Convent Garden.

At Edelman! 

 Day 4: This was the super fun day. It was funny because I did this exact same excursion when I was in 8th grade but DIS made it so much more fun. Where did we go? To Stonehenge and Bath of course! Stonehenge is well...stone, but it is still pretty baller to think that these people were able to construct something so large without the necessary tools. Stonhenge rocks.
We then went onto the gorgeous town of Bath. Bath is the quintessential English countryside town. All the buildings are gorgeous and of course it is home to the Roman Baths! Okay, they did an overhaul of this place. It used to be you went and saw the baths, checked it off your list, and went shopping. Well now it had this amazing museum and they excavated even more of the original structure. It was mindblowing how much it had changed. And a change for the better at that! True, I still ended up going shopping after but I spent atleast 2 more hours in there than last time. After hours of shopping we then went to a glass blowing demonstration. I got to blow glass. Too cool for school.
O and we had dinner at this AMAZING, GORGEOUS English manor. It was delicious and so cozy. In love with the The Pear Tree Inn.

 

Day 5: Next day was a free for all. We met up the former Communication advisor for Tony Blair (heck yeah) and then we had lunch at a nice French restaurant in Convent Garden. After that we went to the O2 Arena were we went to the British Music Experience museum. SO COOL! If you go to London, you have to go here. It had all these costumes from famous singers (including the Spice Girls) and interactive things to do. It was a lot of fun and a really futuristic experience. From there I found a Chipotle and gorged myself with a much needed burrito. Then I traveled to King's Cross station. Blew my mind. I got to go through platform 9 3/4.....life.is.complete.
We then went to go see Wicked on West End. Jealous of my day? You should be.
O and then we all went out to O'Neills pub where I had British men talk to me..... living the viva loca.

Done.

In LOVE with England. Had the best time ever.