Now it's cold.

Frozen. Absolutely frozen. I don't even want to walk 10 minutes for I am in fear of slowly turning into a glacier. Ok, that's obviously an exaggeration. A glacier takes a long time to form. Moving on..

Don't mind meeee

I love snow, I really do. Actually, let me re-phrase that. I love it when it is snowing. However, the resulting aftermath of mountains of brown sludge paired with gail force winds is not so pleasant. Yes, the snow enhances the lovely Christmas atmosphere of Copenhagen, but this bitter cold is not making me the cheeriest of house elves (HP reference). I want to go out and explore Denmark in its pinnacle season, but the bone wrenching cold is obviously hindering my Jacque Costeau/ Christopher Columbus what-have-you explorer ambition. They count as explorers right?

Seems like a nice guy.

Maybe an explorer...maybe not.

You know I have actually been relatively surprised with the weather here in Denmark. I thought it was going to rain all the time and we would be experiencing sub-zero temperatures by October. Nei, it has only rained a handful of times and the sub-zero temperatures didn't hit till this weekend. MERRY CHRISTMAS! 


Well, I must learn to master the Scandinavian ways of bundling up. Massive scarves, knitted crap, Norwegian sweaters, and the occasional thigh high boot seems to be the way to go. I may have to take a trip to the "Sweater house" this weekend and do a little damage to the bank account. May buy a reindeer blanket or two, because no house is complete without the essential Rudolph throw rug. As shown here.

Who knows what to do. Three weeks left...so sad. I don't want to leaveeeeeee! (despite the cold) The other day I had my last core class and I honestly felt depressed leaving it. Never before have I loved a class so much, that I didn't want to leave it.  Our professor made us a goodbye cake that said, "team awesome" (epic right?) in messy handwriting..dawwwwww SO CUTE. I was coming very close to just engulfing my professor in a huge hug and just letting him know how much I loved my class. I suppressed that urge and settled for a handshake, but I felt utterly defeated and melancholy leaving that class for the last time. Someone cue the the depressing Charlie Brown Christmas music.

To further exemplify how awesome my classes are, I brought it one of my Danish friends to class. No reason, just a little show n' tell if you will. Just waltzed on in 20 minutes late (due to train problems aka girl getting run over). Don't worry she was okay...back to the story.
It was great, it was like that one time in 4th grade when someone snuck their bunny into class and got away with it. Except I did it with a Dane. Mad props.

Not always the easiest task.

Okay well, I can further procrastinate studying for my Communications class exam by writing more on this blog but I must bid you farewell once more. Tootles.

Margaret= Denmark weather. Photo credit: Kenneth Laugaard Andersen

A Happy "Taksgiving"

One thing that never really occurred to me is that Thanksgiving is an American holiday. It's when you're abroad that you notice these simple little things. Like, oh we don't have 20 lbs turkeys at our disposal...well in this case we made it happen, we brought America to Denmark. How did we do this? We ordered two 20lb turkeys from the American Air Force base in Germany. That's what I call utilizing our connections. We also received a large amount of Thanksgiving decorations shipped in from the States to make it an extra authentic Thanksgiving. True, it looked like we were throwing Thanksgiving for a bunch of Kindergardeners, but hey if the pilgrim statues get the point across then so be it.

A Taksgiving Dinner!

Lovely decorations

The Americans at the hojskole really outdid themselves. The kitchen staff was nice enough to let us borrow their ovens and cooking materials to make our Thanksgiving an extraordinary feast and some of the girls were really able to put their cooking talents to test. We had two butterball turkeys (w/stuffing), green bean casserole, corn, peas, cinnamon sweet potatoes, homemade cranberry sauce, buttered Southern rolls, three homemade pies (with homemade whip cream) and decorations everywhere. It was the ultimate Thanksgiving. We ate dinner in the oldest room of the hojskole which had authentic wooden Danish furniture from the 17th century and we held hands and went around and said what we were thankful for. We invited some of the Danes to come and experience a thanksgiving and they loved it! It was quite the festive feast. O and I had my first "white" thanksgiving! We had snow on the ground which made it even more enchanting. 

The next night one of our friends from Elon invited us over to his host family's house in Lynge for a second Thanksgiving! It was pretty much the same deal, but we had duck instead of turkey. Mm mm good. It was nice to be included in a family dinner again, and to see and interact with Danish children was a lot of fun too. Later on, we came home in a crazy blizzard that left us with 2 ft of snow in the morning. So of course, this calls for a snowball fight. I literally got pounded into the snow, this was a battle of the best.

The next day I just vegged out. I literally did nothing. I procrastinated from doing my procrastination work. Later we all had a "super hero" themed party. This was hard because where in the world would I get a costume for that?! Luckily people went as the most random things possible. There was Cinnamon Man, the ManEater, the Joker's son, and then people who just came in their regular clothes. It worked out.

O my gosh, I only have 3 more weeks left here....where.did.that. go.  I am just in pure shock right now! How did 4 months fly by so fast?!?!? Wow, well Ill post an update soon.

Went to Russia and Made it Back!

Forewarning...boring but informational post. Too much adventure for one blog. 

Now what are your stereotypical thoughts of Russia?
Cold.
Depressing.
Communism.
Bears?


Well, I am glad to say that only one of those words is true. St. Petersburg is cold, but the rest of Russia was relatively comfortable with the correct winter wear on. 

My trip to Russia with DIS was absolutely amazing. This trip help put to rest some of the typical stereotypical thoughts I had about Russia, but it also confirmed some. For instance, I thought Russia was going to be very poor, very cold, and overall I thought it would be a very depressing country to visit. It was the complete opposite! Most people were driving around in brand new models of Land Rovers or other luxury brands, the weather was only 30 F (it could have been worse), and the country was definitely more beautiful than I thought it was going to be. There were candy-colored palaces and churches everywhere and oddly enough both cities were actually pretty clean.
However, there were also stereotypes that were confirmed. Russians are very stoic people. They don't smile and are very distant, the woman all wear 6 inch heels and tons of makeup while the men look like they could be part of the KGB. No one speaks any English (not that they should) and everything is written in the Russian alphabet. The law enforcement is very strict and intimidating and their presence is evident on every street corner.  So overall, Russia is a very foreign place to be. It's somewhere that you definitely need a guide who knows Russian and the true Russian culture, but don't let that scare you away! There are so many wonderful things about Russia so let me tell you a little about each city I visited in the "heart of darkness."


St. Petersburg

Absolutely stunning. This city is an embodiment of French architecture and is truly a "window to the west." The palaces among the Neva River look like Candy Land. Pink, blue, yellow, green, the colors pop out against the gray, snowy landscape of St. Petersburg. There are hundreds of statues and beautiful gold Russian orthodox churches that dot the city. The classic onion domes are everywhere to be found along with the occasional trace of communism that lurks behind every symbol of today's Russia. 
While we were in St. Petersburg, we learned that Russia has definitely created a facade for the outside world. While the palaces are beautiful and the appearance of wealth is everywhere, we got an inside look  of how true Russians live. Our professor organized an opportunity for us with his former Russian students to take us around and show us the St. Petersburg that they know. What we saw definitely left an impression. Our friend showed us communal flats where several families lived in a condemned apartment that just reaked of unhealthy living. Many middle class Russians can only afford this way of living because their wages are poor and most small businesses cannot withstand the pressure of competing with big companies and living in constant fear of corruption that continually plagues business owners. He continued to say that communism had left many Russians poor and unable to function in society that allowed political and economical freedom. Though this was the case for many Russians, he did make a point that most citizens of St. Petersburg do fine on their own if they find the ambition to break out of the communist mindset. As a journalist, he was able to afford a nice flat and a comfortable living on a pretty normal salary. 
Throughout the days, we visited the beautiful Winter Palace and even saw a Russian ballet at the famed Mariinsky Theatre. We also dined on excellent meals that included reindeer meat, potato pancakes, fish, and even the classic Russian borsch soup. I left with such a changed outlook of Russia. St. Petersburg was truly a gem among the harsh, cold landscape of Russia.

Moscow

The New York City of Russia. With over 10 million people living in a big circle of constant traffic and dark buildings, this is what I had in mind of Russian life. The Red Square is the pinnacle of Russian authoritarianism. Foreboding Russian guards in fur hats stand sentry waiting for any chance of any interruption to occur, while the Kremlin fortress stands above the mausoleum where Lenin's 100 year old body is mummified is on display. However, the beauty of St. Basil's Cathedral brightens up the square with its gingerbread appearance and surrealistic architecture. Like in St. Petersburg, our professor paired us up with "Russian buddies " from the local university. Four of us met up with three other lovely Russians our age who showed us the fun side of Moscow. We walked throughout the parks, watched the Russian guards change post, and then went back to their apartment to have tea and cakes and talk about our different lives. It was an amazing experience because now I can say I have three Russian friends :) 

 

I am sorry this post is so short and I wish I could share all the hilarity that I experienced on this trip, but it is simply too hard to constrict such a fabulous learning experience into one blog. I could probably write a novel on it, but due to time restrictions (project due and seeing Harry Potter at midnight) I simply do not have time to fully give my Russian experience the credit it deserves. I will leave you with this though. If you have the chance to take this trip. Do it. There is simply no possible way to have the experience I did without going through DIS. I saw and learned so much more than the tourist side of Russia and I got to experience the history, culture, and nationalism that this mysterious country has to offer. 


Russia. Just do it.

Czech Trek!

Czech it out yo! I just came back from an AWESOME travel break trip to the Czech Republic. Hands down one of the most beautiful places I've ever been to in Europe. AHH everything was so great, so I might as well just go ahead and tell you too :)


Initially, I was a little hesitant about this trip. Traveling on a bus for 15 hours with a bunch of randos to the middle of nowhere Czech Republic doesn't exactly spell out fun for me. However, my friend Margaret convinced me to go with her.  So seeing that I love the outdoors, this trip seemed right up alley. It was also cheap considering all the transportation, housing, and meals were included leaving it to be only $500 for the whole thing. Good price for you!


Well, so on and so forth let me tell you about my harrowing journey.


Day 1 (Sunday at 6 PM)


Margaret and I travel to Frue Plads to get on the overnight bus to the Czech Republic. I was really not looking forward to this...I despise buses. When I am not getting car sick in them I am sitting in an absolute bored stupor. Ughhhhhhh I can never sleep on buses. So we climbed on board and after 10 minutes of debating where the best place to set up camp was, I finally settled in. All 50 of us then took off to catch a ferry to Germany where we then continued our journey. After 4 hours of iPod shuffle music and the theme from 'Edward Scissorhands' (movie we were watching) playing in the background I started getting stir crazy. F this S I am going to pop an Advil PM in and see if it works. 
It did. Thirteen hours later I woke up to the sun rising over the Czech mountains.....the fall colors were so pretty and it was so much warmer than in Denmark. Hallelujah! From the little Czech town we drove into, we then ascended a mountain to see Hruba Skala.

YUP. This is where we stayed! A castle. Not just any castle....a castle with a view. Real life? You betcha. The staff gave us an excellent breakfast buffet and then we started the day with some archery courses. I know youre saying really?..archery? But hey! It is cooler than you think. If we got the most points then we won a bottle of wine...sooo I got pretty competitive. We're talking Robin Hood competitive too. Fast as lightening I was, but I didn't win. I lost to a Jesus look-a-like. Figures.
After archery we did some "team building exercises" aka a bunch of games where you hold hands and and wear blindfolds. Literally, this was just one big moment of absolute confusion, but it was hilarious. The satisfaction from knowing you can make your circle into a star while blindfolded is un-paralleled. We then settled in the wine bar where we ate incredibly heavy Czech food. The poor vegetarians. Unfortunately, vegetarian translates to what in the world is wrong with you? in Czech.


Literally What Happens



So the poor things kept on getting fried potatoes and even desserts on occasion instead of the hearty meals we were getting. The staff eventually figured it out and gave them salads but I'm pretty sure the vegetarians were starving for a good 2 days. 


Day 2
We woke up and did some crazy shizz. We zip-lined over a 500 ft deep gorge and then repelled off the same cliff. You know, I was really surprised I was able to get myself to do some of these things. I really do not like heights but I just took a leap of faith off a side of mountain and just hoped for the best. Though the one moment I regretted my sudden burst of courage was the rope bridge. Why..why...WHY did I get on this thing. This bridge was literally made of a rope and it just straddled you over a gorge. Fantastic. I was fine until I got 15 ft from the entrance and realized....this bridge is not stable. True you are attached to a safety harness, but making your way across a bridge comprised of two ropes is not fun. I was literally having a heart attack, my arms were shaking, the bridge was shaking...sheer terror. So for 15 minutes I tried balancing my way across that horrifying thing. Never again.

whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

After a lunch and a few breathing exercises, we then went on a 4 mile hike throughout the mountains. It was gorgeous! There were the beautiful gorges and these really high mountains. The colors were vibrant and we got to do a lot of exploring.

However, my little happy adventure took a bad turn when the night fell. Towards the end of the hike we decided to split and go back to the hotel rather than continuing on to see another castle. The guide just told us to follow the road back to the castle, well unfortunately the road splits into two different directions. So six other girls and I were lost in the middle of a Czech Republic forest in the dark. I did not sign up to be a member of the movie "Hostel." Luckily, we were all able to keep our cool. We finally stopped a car to ask for directions but for a good 30 minutes we were pretty lost. 


Later that night we had this insane scavenger hunt that went all over the castle and its grounds. There were literally no rules. We had to find these messages in the dark with only candles and then piece them together to find the answer to find the prize. After finding all 20 messages which lead us through the gorges and into old houses we finally pieced it together. It told us to look under the dark knight to unlock the prize. First of all, we don't know who the heck the dark knight is and second, where we could find him before everyone else got to the prize?! So as I was walking around I am came upon a dementor-like person. Thinking this was the dark knight I tried to open its cloak but the person reached out and grabbed me which scared the living daylights out of me and then disappeared. Then I saw him unlock the door to the clock tower. I couldnt believe it, I found it! However, the rest of the groups saw me and rushed in before me. So annoyed, but I held my own! We all sprinted up this ancient staircase to the top of the clock tower to find this room filled with candles ( fire hazard?) That's when things got really competitive, like I was honestly getting ready to throw punches. The two groups up there were pushing and shoving for the first prize of 3 wine bottles, however, I saw the second prize and pulled a Michael Jordan and slam dunked the second prize from the window. BOO YA! So ended up leaving with two boxes of chocolate :)

Had to scale this baby.

Day 3


The next day we woke up to go caving! SO FREAKING COOL. Basically they would just shove us into a hole in the ground and tell us to find our way out without any flashlights. Not kidding, these people really have a thing with "trust." They are like "have trust in your group and your instincts, you will find your way out." Umm okay, so basically we have to army crawl through a system of tunnels in the dark and then somehow get through crack at the end that I can barely fit my arm through. Repeat the same procedure 14 times. So by the end we were all covered in dirt, but it was so cool to just trust your instincts and crawl through the dark and scale these huge walls just by using your senses. So 'Avatar.'
Later on in the day, we had lunch at a local Czech restaurant and then we went rock climbing and rappelling! It was great way to end our outdoor adventures in the Czech!

Fancy footwork.

Day 4 and 5
Prague.
Amazing. Beautiful. Favorite city in Europe. I want you to go and experience the majestic beauty of Prague yourself, so I won't give away the wonderful hidden treasure that it is.

"Hot Wine" in Prague!

Second part of travel break....Russia.

Tro lo lo song!