2nd Weekend

I’m blogging from the train. Normally I blog from my room or the living room but today I had to go into Copenhagen for a group project so I’m using my commute time to knock something off my to do list.

Sorry for not blogging yesterday. I accidently drank too much white wine during dinner and was too tired and incapacitated to write a coherent blog post. I wasn’t drunk, I was just very dizzy and had a headache. I watched a Danish singing contest with my host family and it was hard to pay attention. So I went to bed fairly early last night.

Yesterday we (me, Julia, Gitte, and Cheng) went to Helsingnor for a DIS brunch for students and their families who lived up north like me. It was at a place called Café Chaplin. It was a buffet and they had bacon, mini pancakes, sausage, liver, croissants, and coffee. It was nice to talk with other students about how hard it is to go out when you live 45mins away from Copenhagen. One girl was a full year student so she told us what last semester had been like for her. We made a facebook group to coordinate going out together in Helsingnor where there are some bars and clubs. Yay.

I baked Nutella and peanut butter cookies for my family last night. I was proud because I did it by myself. My grandmother wouldn’t approve of how I baked them because my family didn’t have ¼ or ¾ measuring cups so I had to guesstimate the quantities using a 1 cup cup. The cookies came out fine. I don’t think I’ll use that recipe again though. I’ll try a different one.

 At first I was concerned because the dough was very dry and flaky. I asked my host mom and she wondered aloud if I had already put in the butter. Nope. So once I added the butter it looked more like dough. I think I’ve made this mistake before.

Saturday night, a friend asked me if I wanted to go out last night and I politely said no. When I told Emily and my host father this they both asked me why. I told both of them that I simply preferred to stay in my comfort zone rather than venture out into the unknown. Which is silly because I want to go out, so I can’t keep whining about it when I don’t seize opportunities I’m presented with. I need to be more like that guy from the movie Yes Man and say yes to everything.

Goals for the week: Say yes to things. Talk to people in my classes. Wake up earlier. Be more social! Bake more.

Today (Sunday) my host family woke me up at 7:30 for breakfast. We had to go to the riding school to get Tiger ready for the jumping show. My host sister Signe showed Tiger Woods in two different events at a local horseback riding show. I always like going to horse shows because there is so much excitement in the air and since I know horses, I know what’s going on.

Several things amazed me at the show:

·      Tiger loves going into the trailer. You have to stop this horse from going into the trailer before we’re ready. He’s the opposite of Ginger in that way.

·      The girls were so young and small. Their ponies were bigger than them.

·      The girls weren’t scared of the high jumps or big scary fire breathing ponies. They were fearless. If an 8 year old girl can jump one meter than I can certainly jump a hay bale.

·      Even when horses refused jumps, knocked over poles, or the girl fell off, she didn’t cry or pout. A couple times the girl toppled over the horses’ neck and crashed into the jump. I gasped loudly. They were all okay and able to walk out of the arena. It was just of course scary to watch.

Signe and Tiger didn’t do their best at today’s show but that’s alright. In the first event Tiger refused a jump and in the other event he also refused a jump and knocked down one or two poles. Oh well. Signe said he was spooked by the colorful jumps and wasn’t going as fast as he normally does.

Even though it was cold and I lost feeling in my feet, I had a good time at the horse show. I hope to attend more of them with Signe. She said she has one in Feb 17 and 23.

Overall I had a pretty good weekend. Not terribly busy or overwhelming but not boring. My favorite part was eating my Nutella and peanut butter cookies and my least favorite part was accidently drinking too much.

Random: My new quest is to find grape jelly. I asked my host mom to buy some and she said she couldn’t find any. I asked the other DIS north Copenhagen girls if they knew where to get it and one girl said she saw some in Netto. I suppose I could try and peanut butter and raspberry jelly sandwich if I can’t find grape jelly. 

Friday

Today was a very "Copenhagen student" day what with the classes, shopping, and dining out. 

• In Photojournalism, we spent the class overanalyzing photographs from a 1940 Life magazine. He had us come closer to the projector to see better so we had to stand the whole class. I made sure to stand by the window so I sat on the windowsill. It was a boring class. In the last minute of class, he told us we had to take 40 pictures like the ones we'd seen for next class. Great. 
• In Human Trafficking, we talked about the Palermo protocol which sounds like the most important document in defining human trafficking. We got into small groups and looked at 3 situations and decided if it was prostitution, trafficking, or smuggling. It was harder than we thought. 
• I had to turn in my Copenhagen Post application today and I had a heck of a time finding where to turn it in. It was confusing because the woman recently moved offices and because there is the DIS Communication office and the Communication and Mass Media program office. I wanted the latter. I would go to one building and be told I needed to go to the other building and vice versa. It was a nightmare. I eventually found her office and turned it in. 
• I met up with my host sister Julia in Copenhagen around 3:30. We went shopping along Stroget. It's shocking how expensive everything is. If you do the price conversion to dollars in your head, it makes you not want to buy anything. I bought eyeliner and some socks while Julia bought a tank top and some makeup primer. 
• For my first Danish meal out of the house, it wasn't very Danish. We ate dinner at a sushi place that had rotating sushi. I had only seen food on a conveyor belt like that in a tv show, never in real life. I ordered the same thing she did, just to be safe and I really liked it. There were california rolls, tuna, salmon, and shrimp over sticky rice. I had to ask for a fork and a knife while Julia used chopsticks. We also got cupcakes from Agnes Cupcakes that we ate at the handball game. I got a Lemon Meringue cupcake while Julia got the Chocolate one.  



the rotating sushi on the conveyor belt

• We took the S train to see Tim's handball game. It was kind of like intramural basketball or like high school basketball in the sense that it was in a gym and there weren't a lot of people there. Tim's team didn't play very well in the first half but turned it around in the second half and ended up winning. 
• Tim drove us home and I found it neat that highways and driving is pretty similar as in America. I also found it interesting how Tim and Julia prefer driving over taking the train. I had a stereotype in my mind that Danes didn't like driving because it was bad for the environment. Nope. 

I can't get over the fact that the microwave insults me. haha

Photgrafica

These are some snapshots from Wednesday when we went around sightseeing with my creative travel writing class.

The famous little Little Mermaid statue

She had snow and ice beneath her.

Me and Ariel. I made sure to wear my Little Mermaid watch that day.

Me in Nyhavn. Fun fact: locals don't go here. 

So many colorful houses. My host mom told me the food around here isn't very good and is overpriced. 

I'm proud of this shot.

"That will be 80kr"

I was inspired by a girl I talked to yesterday to try harder on my outfit than I normally do. So I wore leggings, a purple dress, a black cardigan and a scarf. It was an upgrade from my usual pants and a sweater.

Just as I was about to head out walking to the train station, Ulrik's father pulled up with Berta and offered me a ride to the station. Yes! Normally he comes too early or too late for me to catch a ride with him.

I got to Copenhagen an hour early. Not knowing what else to do, I looked around H&M and Matas. At Matas, I bought a eyeshadow brush. I figured it wouldn't be very expensive. The woman at the cash register said it was 80kr. The price didn't register until I had left the shop. I had paid $16 for a eyeshadow brush. Later in the day, I went to a different Matas and returned the brush without a problem and got my money back. I'm very happy I returned it. That's not even funny, paying that much for a stupid little brush that I didn't even need.

I had Creative Travel Writing first in my day. We discussed our readings (glad I did them) and talked about tourist vs. traveler and what the word exotic means. They were good discussions. There is one kid in our class who has a lisp and he makes a point to talk multiple times each class period. It's the kinda lisp where he doesn't pronounce 's' right. I find it very noticeable, but maybe I'm the only one.
During my break between classes, I used my phone to help me find this place I'd been looking for called "Squeeze Me First." I'd heard kids say they had cheap coffee. I found it and was shocked at how small it was. There was hardly enough room to sit down and eat. I saw on Facebook they had a daily special for facebook fans which was tomato soup (with pasta in it) and bread for 25kr. I got that and a coffee. The soup was very delicious. It was a sweet and creamy tomato soup that was perfect for the cold weather outside. When I was done, I was proud that I didn't spill any. I look down and see two huge orange spots on my dress. Damn.

At DIS I went to a bathroom (that had a puddle of pee by the seat and smelled so disgusting I couldn't breathe through my nose. I blame the boys. They are co ed bathrooms. Boys are disgusting.) and used my tide to go wipe to clean up the spots the best I could.

With time still to kill, I walked to the Copenhagen tourist office because Samantha Brown told me to. It was pretty empty. It's connected to a coffee shop which is kind of strange. I grabbed some free brochures and another map.

My 2nd class of the day was International Reporting. We had to submit to him a half page article about our partner that we interviewed Monday. He told me I did a good job but forgot to include a headline or subheadline. Whoops! I'm used to other people writing those. In class, he gave each group a food and asked us to taste and describe it in a non biased way. My group got these gummy black licorice fish called like Salty Fish. It was so disgusting. I wrote: "Salty Fish taste and look like a sweedish fish that has been left out in the hot sun all day and spoiled. They look ominously black with no smiling face, fins, or eyes. The taste lingers in the mouth for several minutes. A starving feral cat would not eat Salty Fish. They taste like candy that has sat in the ocean for a few years." Haha. I wasn't very unbiased. Other groups had rye bread, canned fish, and mackerel.

In Strategic Comm, we talked about the 2006 Mohammed Cartoon Crisis in Denmark. We discussed whether a U.S. newspaper should reprint the cartoons when covering the news about it. We also learned what is a reputation and how to manage it.

I had a meeting at the Studenterhuset for interested volunteers at 6. I went to that and it was very crowded. I signed up to help at the cafe/ bar. The meeting only lasted less than an hour so I was able to take my normal train home.

I called my host parents but they didn't pick up. So I had to walk home. :( and cold face. My host mom came home shortly and she made me an omelet. We watched a show like What Not to Wear but in Denmark. The host woman touched the other woman's breast! They showed her trying on bras and touching her breast. I was shocked. I can't get over the fact that they say shit and fuck on the TV. Little kids and old women will say "That was fucking fantastic" or "She's so fucking beautiful." I gasp each time.

My host father asked me what I learned today and I felt kind of embarrassed when I just said "Uhhhhhh." As I blog and reflect, I suppose I learned a lesson about money value. I'd rather buy a tomato soup and bread than a eyeshadow brush.

White wine

Wine made my day better. No, I don't mean by getting drunk. I'm just saying my day improved after I had two glasses of free white wine with friends.
My creative travel writing class met at the Little Mermaid statue at 1pm. I thought I wouldn't have a problem finding it, but I did. I looked it up ahead of time and used Rejesplanen. I wrote down the directions and felt pretty confident.
I took my usual train, planning on getting off at an earlier stop (Hellerup). I heard an announcement in Danish that mentioned Hellerup so I got off. It wasn't actually that stop. It was the Kokedale stop. I was mad at myself for not knowing Danish and the announcement for misinforming me. I just hopped on the next train because it was going to Hellerup too.
I got off and boarded the right bus. I think I made a mistake by getting off at the wrong bus stop. I wrote down two names for what bus stop to get off and I got off at the second name but maybe I should've gotten off at the first name stop. I don't know. My written directions said I was three minutes walking distance away. I knew the little mermaid was near water and saw no water around me. Desperate, I used my iphone and looked up directions. It said that in walking distance I was 35min away! Disappointed, I began walking. I allotted 30min of extra time so I wasn't very worried about being late. I was more worried about being in an unfamiliar place. The stupid directions took me in strange parts of town and I had to walk .8 miles on a walkway sandwiched between a major road and the train tracks. I felt like a homeless person, walking alone on the sidewalk by the street. That was a major low point. I wanted to cry. I felt lost, mad at myself, confused at where I went wrong, cursing technology, I was cold, my feet hurt, and I was alone. I followed the directions and turned off that awful road. I walked by another girl and I'm sure she saw how lost I looked and asked if I was with DIS. I said yes and so we walked together. I was relieved to find someone and be lost together. My face and lips were numb, so I'm surprised she could even understand me. We went the wrong way, asked for directions, walked past the frozen harbor and finally found our group. I said Hallelujah aloud.
Our professor wanted us to talk to other tourists there and ask why they were there. Most of us just took more pictures of the underwhelming statue. A girl near me asked a woman why she was there and she said she was from Holland and was on holiday here. She was told that this was a sight she ought to see and so that's why she was there. Pretty typical response.
Like in elementary school, we took a class picture in front of the statue. The statue wasn't veyr big or anything grande. It seemed silly all the hype that is around it.
Then we moved onto the next stop on our creative travel writing copenhagen tour. We went inside the marble church that was dome shaped for about ten minutes. We sat in an eerie silence. There was a homeless guy sleeping in the pews.
Next we went to Nyhaven and our professor told us how it used to be a very rundown area but the city tried very hard to clean it up and tell everyone to go there. Clearly it worked. Now it's a spot that only tourists go. We took some more pictures and headed to thaw out in a Baresso coffe shop. He bought us all hot drinks and we got to relax and leave when we wanted. I ordered a neat chocolate mint latte that had chocolate mint candies at the bottom of it. I sat with two or three other girls and we had a nice casual chat.
I walked with a girl who was in another one of my classes, Liz, to the Studenterhuset. We just wanted a place to relax. I was planning on going to the Communication program social but decided not to because of my terrible travel experience this morning. The social was in the meat packing district and even though I wrote out directions, I didn't feel excited about getting lost again. So I stayed in the studenterhuset and did reading with Liz.
I looked up and recognized Liesje. I walked over and Miaja was there too. She explained that she was there for a climate seminar which would have free wine and cheese after. Liz was also planning on going there, so on the spur of the moment, I decided to go too.
It was a powerpoint presentation about bike culture in cities and how this guy's company is working to promore biking. He talked about why copenhagen is a model biking city and the benefits of biking. He made me feel bad about loving my car so much. I still liked the presentation.
After, we gathered in the back of the room and ate bread, crackers, cheese and drank white or red wine. I chatted with a couple other girls I knew.
It was a nice way to end a rather "out of my comfort zone" day. Just chatting, drinking wine, pretending to be fancy adults.

Oh yeah, I made chocolate chip cookies with my host mom tonight. She went to the store and bought the ingredients. I wasn't sure if it was for chocolate cookies or chocolate chip (I guess they call them chocolate cookies but they are chocolate chip cookies). Baking was different because she measured things on a scale. It would call for like 360 g of flour rather than 3 cups of flour. Weighing the ingredients seemed easier to me. Instead of buying a pack of choco chips, she chopped up the chocolate. She said the chocolate chips weren't good quality. I started to eat the cookie dough and she lightly scolded me about getting salmonella and I explained I do it all the time at home and have never gotten sick but am aware that I shouldn't do it. She nodded and said she used to do it too when she was younger. The cookies came out great. They tasted weirdly better than American cookies. haha.

I found these on google images

An off day

Today felt like an off day. I just mean I didn't feel like myself today. I just felt "blah."
I rode Julia's bike to the train station (struggling with the hills) and was proud of myself for that. I got there ten minutes early somehow so I just sat in the covered area where I earlier saw a rat and spaced out. On the train, this guy was talking very loudly in front of me and it was annoying. It's also annoying how my train rarely has wi fi. I tried to read my homework and stared out the window mostly.

I walked to DIS and went to Photojournalism. I haven't liked that class yet. Today he continued to tell us how fascinating his life has been and the deep philosophy behind photographs. I think he's full of himself. That was a long and boring class because it was just him lecturing at us. No discussion or even mention of the reading that was for today.

Next was Human Trafficking. We discussed the film we watched last night. One girl said the main character had no choice but to prostitute herself. My hand shot up and I told the class that I disagreed and felt that the main character had plenty of other options like staying in school, getting a job, or going to social welfare. That started a discussion. We talked about the difference between trafficking and smuggling as well as the broad causes of trafficking. The main cause is mostly poverty.
The little notebook I bought claimed to be 5 subject but the 5th subject is graph paper, so i took notes today on graph paper. Haha.

I took the train home, biked home, and ate leftover Chinese rice. Then I sort of spaced out again and just cleaned my room a little and went on the computer.
I went into the bathroom and randomly decided to take a shower at like 6pm. I don't know why.
I think I'm just feeling sort of lonely or sad. At DIS and in my classes I haven't made any concrete friends. I tried very hard to make friends during orientation but when classes started, I stopped being as friendly and trying to make friends. Now I just feel that everyone else has found friends to go out with and they are living it up more than me.

Of course, tomorrow I'm going to try harder to be friendly with people and work harder to make friends.

A cold Monday

I'm very tired because it's been a long day. I hope to keep this short. My morning started rushed because I thought my host father's dad might give me a ride to the train station but he didn't come in time so I had to speed walk to the train. I made it with one minute to spare.
In my creative travel writing class, he told us how with travel we had the opportunity to become whoever we wanted to be. I already knew this. I think I should figure out who I am before I go and try and become someone I'm not.
I went to a coffee shop cafe place and ordered a coffee. I sat by the window and tried to do my International Reporting reading. It was very boring and long so I just skimmed it. We didn't talk about it in class so it didn't even matter. When I went to pay for my coffee at the counter the guy was very nice and helped explain to me the different coins and their value because he saw me fumbling with them and trying to read their value.
In International Reporting, we learned the basics of journalism. It was review to me. Then we interviewed our partner and have to write up half a page about them for Wednesday. My partner told me about how disgusting her room was and how long she spent cleaning it. Glad I live with a clean host family.
In Strategic Comm, we talked again about Lance Armstrong and then about the BBC show we watched about the use of social media in the Arab Spring. We got in groups and talked about the advantages and disadvantages of social media. It wasn't anything new or groundbreaking. I'm sort of tired of the term social media. I feel it's overused.
I had a film screening for my human trafficking class at 6. We didn't start til 6:30 because she made us coffee and tea. I listed to the kids in front of me talk about living with Danes in their living arrangement. They said they would give them random geography quizzes and laugh when they got them wrong. They would tell them aggressively what to do and be very patronizing. At dinner, the Danes were making announcements and someone reminded them to speak English and they just kept talking Danish. Err..glad I live with a host family.
The film we watched was called Lilija 4 Eva and was honestly the most depressing film I have seen and will ever seen. It was about a young girl who lived in Russia and how her mother abandoned her, she did prostitution to get money, was gang raped, then met a guy who told her they would run away to Sweden and get jobs but actually he sold her into sex trafikking in Sweden and she was trapped there. Her only friend from Russia committed suicide. In a trippy dream sequence, he told her the door was unlocked and she ran away. Then she jumped off a bridge and died.
We were all silent when the professor turned on the lights. She asked us if we had any questions and I wanted to ask (as a joke) to go see a counselor. It was very emotionally draining.
Feeling numb, I had to take a different train home. At first it was tricky finding the right platform but I did. I had to take the train one stop, transfer and then I went home. I called my family to pick me up at the station because they offered to do that for me.