Walking around Helsingør

On a walk with Berta & FarFar

This morning, I went for a walk with FarFar (my host dad's father) in the woods with Berta (the dog) and to FarFar's garden. It was so beautiful both in the woods and in the garden. It was quite relaxing and nice to be with FarFar. Berta is so cute because she gets really happy when FarFar comes to the house but really sad when he drops her back off at home. FarFar smiled and said "Berta's my dog" :)

Selfie behind the cheese shop

He dropped me off in Helsingør where I went to my host family's cheese shop. Ulrik showed me around Helsingør like where the best shops are and the church that him and Gitte were married in. We walked to the area near the Helsingor library where there is a harbor and the statue of the boy Little Mermaid named "Him" . He blinks once every hour. It's really great to see all the things that I had seen in the winter time but now to experience them in the summer. I walk around places and think "Oh I remember being cold over there or that thing being covered in snow." Ulrik told me about the old ships in the harbor and how the area has evolved over he years. We drank some delicious vanilla iced coffees at the library cafe, talked about life and looked at the harbor.

Me and "Him"

We went to the new Maritime Museum of Denmark  which was the most unique museum I've ever been to. It's built in an old shipyard. You walk down these big ramps to get to it and all of he museum kind of overlaps each other in a way. It has such a Danish design and is so modern looking. I learned a lot about ships, WWI and ships used for shipping.

We went back to the cheese shop and I went shopping with Gitte. We went to to Fotex and I always love Danish grocery stores because there are honestly more similarities than differences between American grocery stores. Yeah there are a few different foods but it's organized pretty similarly and it works the same of course.

Julie playing the drums 

Gitte and I went to the Espergaerde center to see Julie's marching band. They sounded really great and it was so nice to see them after hearing so much about them.

Today Gitte's egg chair finally came. She ordered it back in January so she had waited a long time for it. Her face lit up like a child unwrapping a Christmas present when she opened the package. The egg chair is very Danish and looks nice.

Gitte loves her new egg chair :) 

At home in the city of Copenhagen

Today I went to Copenhagen with Julie and ate a nice dinner with some close family friends of my host family.

Julie and I went to go get fresh bread and pastries from the supermarket for breakfast. We quickly ate some bread when we got home and then drove to catch the train. The train we were hoping to catch was cancelled so we had 20 minutes to eat our pastries. I've missed Danish bread and pastries!

In Copenhagen, we saw the Royal Guard at Rosenborg. They were marching, playing drums and flutes. We walked around near Norreport until we saw a Tiger. I did some much needed shopping in Tiger :) It was so wonderful to walk around Copenhagen both because the weather was nice and because I knew it so well. Like, Julie wasn't sure how exactly to get to Cafe Paludon and I knew the way. We ate there for lunch. I got the herring because Denmark is where I learned to love herring and it's tough to find in the States.

  We went to Nyhavn and then to Amelienborg. I could totally be a Copenhagen tour guide. I know my way around pretty well. I felt at home stepping off the Norreport train because I knew where to go. It was near Amalienborg that we saw a crowd of people around a boat. Julie overheard them say that the Crown Prince was coming. Sure enough, he came out of the palace and got onto the boat!

We continued our touristy journey and went to The Little Mermaid. We ate some delicious ice cream there. We caught the train from Osterport and went back to Espergaerde.

Some of my host parent's friends came over (I'm not sure how to spell their names...) and we had dinner with them. They are so funny and it was great to see them again.

At Amalienborg

One of those men is the Crown Prince

Reunited

Flight over

The flight from Columbus to Chicago was fine. I sat by the window, next to a nice quiet girl. I read my book about Denmark and Divergent on my ipad.

The Chicago airport can be so confusing because it isn't labeled which terminal the International one is. Thank goodness my mom told me to go to #5 because she was right. I took a little train there. It was a bit surreal how much I remembered Chicago from when I was there returning from Copenhagen with Miaja and Liesje. I recognized parts also from when we flew out of there to London.

I bought a not so great cup of coffee and a banana nut muffin since I had like two hours to kill. I was glad I had a long layover because getting past security and to my gate took like 45mins. When I boarded the plane, I heard some Danish and saw Danes I started to smile a lot. Yay. On the plane, I sat next to a nice guy from Norway. He was an electrician and he had a wife and two kids. He wasn't shy about telling me how great Norway is.

I slept for maybe 3 hours, read like half of Divergent, and watched some TV. The food they gave us on the plane was really yummy. For dinner we had beef, potatoes, carrots, bread and a lemon cake desert. I was content. The flight was fine until we landed and that's when I got impatient, like just let me off already. It was a long line to show them my US passport and then it took a while to get my luggage. I was like I just want to see my host family!

In Denmark  

Julie took these really sweet pictures of me, Gitte and
 my birthday cake

Gitte and Ulrik met me at the airport and we were happily reunited! When we came home, I was reunited with Julie and Signe (they had school). I cried when I saw my old room again because I had dreamed about this moment for so long and was so happy to be back. My host family gave me a really nice Troll Beads bracelet for my birthday.

Almost all of the Sjoltov family came over for dinner. It was soooo nice to see everyone again and chat with them. Gitte baked me a traditional Danish birthday layer cake (lagekage) with candles and everything. I'll always remember that moment when everyone was singing Happy Birthday to me :) I tried to blow out all 22 of the candles but 7 didn't go out so apparently that means I have 7 boyfriends-- one for each day of the week!

I also wanted to clarify that I am not moving to Denmark, I'm just here for a little less than two weeks.

Returning!

I'm so happy to say that I will be returning to Denmark May 19-May 30!

It's not easy

I've heard from a lot of people that coming back from abroad is not easy. Now I know how right they are. You can't just snap your fingers and go back to happily living in America. Instead, you think about the experiences you had abroad every day and wish you were there right now. It's worst when certain things "trigger" my homesickness. For example, bike riding will make me miss going to Bornholm because all we did was bike there and I made some amazing friends and explored that beautiful island.

Talking to my friends about this homesickness has helped. I talked to Emily May and she said she missed Germany a lot when she got back. For her, walking on cobble stone streets, triggered her homesickness because there were cobble stone streets all over Berlin. Miaja told me that she thinks about Denmark a lot too but that she was ready to come back so she doesn't miss it as much as I do. I wasn't ready to come back to America. I didn't want to leave.

I like sleeping because I can "go to Denmark" in my dreams. I can see everyone and everything I miss in my dreams.

I was walking around Denison on Thursday and it felt so weird to be there because I hadn't been there since December. I walked into the English building and saw a DIS poster on one of the walls. I gasped out loud. It was like Denmark had found me. It was really comforting to see the DIS logo printed out and look at the promotional photos that I recognized. I could look at them and say where they were taken. I hope they keep that flyer up forever.   

I'm trying to deal with this feeling of sadness by reaching out to my friends and family. I messaged my host family on Facebook asking how they're doing. I'm sure talking with them will make me feel better. We should set up a Facetime session. Those are fun.

How study abroad changed me:

This is one of the moments when I wish I could freeze time. 

    It's been two months since I got back. Can you believe it? Nope, me neither. I can still feel that brisk Copenhagen breeze on my cheeks.

   I quit my job at Cedar Point because I frankly hated it. I visited my host family in Las Vegas! I was so excited to see them but devastated to say goodbye again. I travelled around Tennessee, North Carolina and to Pittsburgh. Now, I'm interning at a travel agency. I also have a part time job with a catering company helping with some weekend weddings. I've also been reading a lot of novels. Staying busy.

The busy street of Norregade

I find myself thinking of Denmark and my study abroad experiences on a daily basis.  Heck, I'm even dreaming about it. I dreamed that I somehow took a flight back to Copenhagen and I was on the train going from the airport to Espergaede admiring the city. I was glued to the window, in awe of the magnificent buildings. In my dream, I hugged everyone that I've been missing and they welcomed me back with smiling faces. If only my stupid alarm clock didn't have to go and ruin it.


I'm certainly not the same girl I was before I left. I view the world much differently and find myself doing little things that I didn't do before.

Love this picture of Ulrik! It's hanging right
next to my calendar. 

Things I do now having returned from Copenhagen: 

- Drink tea in the evenings. My host family brewed a pot of tea in the morning and evening. We all sat around drinking it and chatting. My parents don't drink tea but I find myself still making a cup fairly often. I learned to really like tea and as an added bonus: whenever I drink tea, I think of Gitte. 
- Biking. Anytime I ride my bike, I think of Copenhagen and how 1/3 of the population bikes to work. It's so engrained in the culture. I rode my bike to the train station sometimes but never in the city. Biking= Denmark. Too bad I live out in the country and can't easily or safely bike anywhere. 
- Trying to make bread. Every morning, my host family baked bread. When I visited them in Las Vegas in July, they shared the recipe with me. My first attempt to make the bread didn't work out but I will try again. I've never baked bread before but I'm determined to recreate the delicious Danish breakfast bread. 
- Leaving work at work. Part of the Danish culture is leaving work at work and knowing that home is for family. I think that's why Danes are so happy. I find myself striving to distinguish the two worlds and not bring work negativity to my home life. 
- Complaining about paying for healthcare. I'm joking here. I didn't even use my free healthcare while I was over there. 
- At stoplights, I notice how in America it goes from Red to Green but in Denmark they went Red, Yellow, Green. It's the little things that count.
- I view grocery stores differently. Danish grocery stores were a place where you stuck to your preplanned strategy and got out quickly. They weren't gigantic but could be disorganized. Today I went grocery shopping and noticed I was devising a strategy plan of attack in my head to try and get in get out. I'm still not adjusted to how big everything is in America. Was it always like that? :)

This beloved picture of Julie and Pernille is also proudly
displayed on my wall.

- I'm not afraid to travel. After surviving all of my Europe travels, I know that I can conquer any travels. Drive to North Carolina by myself? Bring it. Ain't nothing like Italy was. 
- Eating different foods. If you had told me a year ago that I'd be buying herring and blocks of cheese from IKEA, I wouldn't have believed you. I learned to love eating cheese and herring while in Denmark. In America, I sometimes struggle to find cheese that is anything as good as it was in Denmark. Ulrik knows cheese! My parents were really surprised when they noticed I was ordering salads at restaurants and eating smelly fish from a jar (don't let that fool you. Herring is the bomb.) I used to be a picky eater but have opened up to trying new foods. 
- I talk to strangers. By this I mean, I strike up friendly conversations with strangers. For example, Alaina and I were waiting for the zip line and I turned to the guy behind us and asked him, "Nice shirt. Do you go to North Carolina State?" I used to be afraid to talk to strangers because I was shy. Europe forced me out of my shell. In Copenhagen, if I didn't ask a stranger what an announcement on the train said, then I might not be getting home. My friends and family have all commented on my new confidence. Yay!

This picture from my going away party
is now in a fun purple frame from...Tiger!

This week, I printed out several of my favorite photographs from Denmark and put them on my wall of photos. I always smile looking at them. I framed the picture of me with my host family and the picture of me and everyone at my going away party.

They weren't kidding when they said study abroad changes you. For the better. 

Back "home"

Well, I've been back in America for almost a full week now. Weird.

Coming home was a mix of emotions. Relief, sadness, happiness, confusion, denial, and a bit of gloominess. I'm still not over the hump. I knew coming back would be hard and was right. It's a big adjustment.

 I compare everything to Copenhagen ("The people looked so much prettier." "They don't use coupons in Denmark").

I always think of my host family and Espergaerde. They really are a second family to me.

It's really difficult to explain to people where I was the last four months. They just ask, "So, what language do they speak over there?" or "What was your favorite part?" I wish they could understand, or that I could somehow let them understand what an experience it was for me. It wasn't just some sort of a travel trip or a vacation. It was more.

Some life updates:

• Got my horizontal Ohio driver's license. 21!
• Turned 21 on Monday May 20. Finally :-)
• Had a nice dinner at The Melting Pot with my parents, grandparents, and Emily May's family.
• Dad took me to New Jersey and Philadelphia
• Finished unpacking from Denmark. Started packing for Cedar Point.