well.
it's over.
and here i am, sitting on the couch at home, surrounded by familiar sights and smells and sounds and pets.
and it's sinking in in waves. the fact that it's over. that i'm not going back. probably ever. that my bike is not my bike and my room is not my room and i'll never go back to that zoo or that street or that computer lab or that cafe or that falafel place. it's over now.
i'm not sure how i feel.
like i said, it's sinking in in waves.
maybe this means that i'll feel it all gradually and it will hurt less? or maybe this just means that it will just hurt later?
for now it's nice to be home. my family just so happens to be awesome.
i'm running myself a bath now (A BATH!) and for lunch i'm going to walk the dog to Bearance's to get the best sandwich in Canada, then i'll meet mom at her work for tea and then I'll go downtown to find a Teach Yourself Bahasa Indonesian book.
Bahasa Indonesia. yeah. that's right. no time for looking back and being sad. there are big things ahead, and i gotta be ready.
anyways. I just want to say Thanks for Reading. I loved having this blog (even when i neglected it) and knowing that people were reading it, and commenting (!), made me feel more connected to home. i honestly can't believe that so many of you took the time to read my ramblings, and even sometimes post comments (or for some of you: always post comments). i really really appreciate that. my friends just so happen to be awesome too, eh?
maybe I'll try to have a blog in Borneo...
but for now: tak for kampen, dudes.
Monday, June 1, 2009
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
whykid
so
people actually read this. indeed, some of my very favourite people. thus, as i continue to procrastinate, i shall continue to post.
only two things to tell you about today:
1. The New Junk on my Face
2. Floss
1. so, that appointment that i mentioned? i went and got my nose pierced again. same side. two holes. sooooooooo awesome (if i do say so myself). i saw a girl on Strøget one day who had two rings side by side in her nose and totally fell in love with the look. so finally, yesterday i went and got it done. the place i went to was actually the nicest, cleanest place i've ever seen in my life (not that i go into piercing places very often, but seriously, it was way cleaner than any hospital i've ever been in. and hospitals, i know). it's a "body modification" place, so they do piercing, scarring, and silicone implants.... some pretty nutso stuff. the guy who pierced me is the owner/founder of the place - sooo friendly, but basically the freakiest lookin dude ever. he's got the neck piercings, HUGE stretched ears, horns, etc etc, everything you can imagine. i was feeling pretty mundane in there, just getting my nose done. i opted to get it done with a ring, rather than a stud. he was sooo smooth at the actual piercing, but getting the ring in hurt like stink. at first i was quite certain that i'd made the wrong decision, because it's REALLY big... but i'm getting used to it now, and I really like it. mostly though, i'm excited for when i can finally take it out and put in two little silver side by side rings :)... anyways, i'm not a huge fan of posting self-taken non-ironic shots, but i just love it so much, here's a photobooth pic:
(...2...) a friend of mine got hers done right after me and as soon as we were done, we headed straight across the street to Floss, my favourite bar in cph. the weather was great so we sat at the outside tables and drank Tuborg and Fisk shots till it got dark. all in all, a great day. I heart Floss. it's a dingy, hole-in-the-wall, graffitied, smokey little bar with an even dingier, smokier, more graffitied basement. apparently it used to be cph punk central. but now it's getting a little tired. in the good way. The crowd is always a mix, the music is always good, and the drinks are dirt cheep. It's a little off the beaten track, so never too busy and mostly locals. From the outsides, especially at night, it looks like a death trap. ...actually, from the inside too. But it's great. I need to find a place like Floss at home... there is just nowhere quite like it. that is your mission dudes: let's find a Floss. I will miss Floss. i don't have any pics of it, but i found some older ones online...
.jpg)
the bathrooms in Floss are pretty much exactly what you'd expect - not a spec of white wall space, so many stickers and so much graffiti. down the wall of the women's washroom, in the corner, i noticed yesterday that it says in big black descending letters: "WHYKID"... and, for whatever reason (maybe my post-piercing hurting face state made me more receptive to meaningful undertones?) it just resonated with me. I feel as if it should be pronounced "wicked"... thus, it's got a double meaning. "wicked!" and "why, kid?"... as in, "dude that is totally great, but what is the motivation, what is the meaning behind it?".... it's deep, i know. .... jeez, i must sound like i'm high. i swear, i'm not.
anyways, that's about it for now... not much interesting going on here. mostly sad - lots and lots of goodbyes and lots and lots of paper writing. blaaaaaaaaaaaaah. this last one is gonna be brutal, mostly from the motivational standpoint though, cause i'm pretty sure I could source wikipedia (or my own blog) exclusively, and still pass... i just gotta actually WRITE it.
blah
today, i biked home from Floss in the absolute pouring rain. I don't think i've ever been so wet without actually having submerged myself underwater... it was amazing. and there was thunder and lightening and rivers in the roads and the rain drops were as big as fists. within about seven seconds i was soaked right through. it was actually pretty fun.
i love this place.
people actually read this. indeed, some of my very favourite people. thus, as i continue to procrastinate, i shall continue to post.
only two things to tell you about today:
1. The New Junk on my Face
2. Floss
1. so, that appointment that i mentioned? i went and got my nose pierced again. same side. two holes. sooooooooo awesome (if i do say so myself). i saw a girl on Strøget one day who had two rings side by side in her nose and totally fell in love with the look. so finally, yesterday i went and got it done. the place i went to was actually the nicest, cleanest place i've ever seen in my life (not that i go into piercing places very often, but seriously, it was way cleaner than any hospital i've ever been in. and hospitals, i know). it's a "body modification" place, so they do piercing, scarring, and silicone implants.... some pretty nutso stuff. the guy who pierced me is the owner/founder of the place - sooo friendly, but basically the freakiest lookin dude ever. he's got the neck piercings, HUGE stretched ears, horns, etc etc, everything you can imagine. i was feeling pretty mundane in there, just getting my nose done. i opted to get it done with a ring, rather than a stud. he was sooo smooth at the actual piercing, but getting the ring in hurt like stink. at first i was quite certain that i'd made the wrong decision, because it's REALLY big... but i'm getting used to it now, and I really like it. mostly though, i'm excited for when i can finally take it out and put in two little silver side by side rings :)... anyways, i'm not a huge fan of posting self-taken non-ironic shots, but i just love it so much, here's a photobooth pic:
(...2...) a friend of mine got hers done right after me and as soon as we were done, we headed straight across the street to Floss, my favourite bar in cph. the weather was great so we sat at the outside tables and drank Tuborg and Fisk shots till it got dark. all in all, a great day. I heart Floss. it's a dingy, hole-in-the-wall, graffitied, smokey little bar with an even dingier, smokier, more graffitied basement. apparently it used to be cph punk central. but now it's getting a little tired. in the good way. The crowd is always a mix, the music is always good, and the drinks are dirt cheep. It's a little off the beaten track, so never too busy and mostly locals. From the outsides, especially at night, it looks like a death trap. ...actually, from the inside too. But it's great. I need to find a place like Floss at home... there is just nowhere quite like it. that is your mission dudes: let's find a Floss. I will miss Floss. i don't have any pics of it, but i found some older ones online...
.jpg)
the bathrooms in Floss are pretty much exactly what you'd expect - not a spec of white wall space, so many stickers and so much graffiti. down the wall of the women's washroom, in the corner, i noticed yesterday that it says in big black descending letters: "WHYKID"... and, for whatever reason (maybe my post-piercing hurting face state made me more receptive to meaningful undertones?) it just resonated with me. I feel as if it should be pronounced "wicked"... thus, it's got a double meaning. "wicked!" and "why, kid?"... as in, "dude that is totally great, but what is the motivation, what is the meaning behind it?".... it's deep, i know. .... jeez, i must sound like i'm high. i swear, i'm not.
anyways, that's about it for now... not much interesting going on here. mostly sad - lots and lots of goodbyes and lots and lots of paper writing. blaaaaaaaaaaaaah. this last one is gonna be brutal, mostly from the motivational standpoint though, cause i'm pretty sure I could source wikipedia (or my own blog) exclusively, and still pass... i just gotta actually WRITE it.
blah
today, i biked home from Floss in the absolute pouring rain. I don't think i've ever been so wet without actually having submerged myself underwater... it was amazing. and there was thunder and lightening and rivers in the roads and the rain drops were as big as fists. within about seven seconds i was soaked right through. it was actually pretty fun.
i love this place.
Saturday, May 23, 2009
examing (and by that i mean dancing around my room to mgmt whilst i should be writing papers)
i'm not sure that anybody actually reads this anymore, but i'm bored and in full-on procrastination mode, so i figured i'd post anyways.
yikes.
i leave here in 8 days.
EIGHT DAYS! actually, considering that it's saturday evening, and i leave on a sunday morning, it's probably closer to SEVEN DAYS now. double yikes. one week.
i honestly can't believe it.
i wish that i had something witty and insightful and summative to say. maybe i will next saturday?
for now, i am just trying to get through this exam that is due on monday at noon. then i'm going out for pancakes, then i'm have this special appointment at 4 that i'm not saying anything about until afterwards (it's a surprise. don't worry mom, not a tattoo), and then i gotta start writing my last exam that is due three days after i leave, which means i gotta hand it in two days before i leave (can't hand stuff in on the weekend).
(ps "exam" here means "big paper"= the only summative assignment for each class. as in, my whole mark for each class is based on one paper. pressure? yes.)
so anyways
i should probably get back to these papers
.... for a while now i have been wanting to give you all the full run-down on my house and my housemates. I have refrained for two reasons: 1) fear that one (all) of them come across this blog and read it and then pee in my bed as revenge, and 2) writer's block, because, really, there are no words to describe these people that i live with. no words (and if i found the words, i'd probably just come across as a malicious b***c, instead of a hilariously insightful and relatively normal individual who had to put up with them all for four months). i am wondering if there is some way to password protect a blog post? so then i can give you guys a hint to the password (my dog's name, my best friend's name, the name of the street i grew up on, something like that) and so you guys could find it but not my crazy housemates... anybody know of a way to do this? seriously. the world needs to know about these people. the world needs to be warned.
anyways. i'll think about it. try to come up with something.
in the mean time, it's exam time.
peace out G's. maybe the force be with you.
-aa
yikes.
i leave here in 8 days.
EIGHT DAYS! actually, considering that it's saturday evening, and i leave on a sunday morning, it's probably closer to SEVEN DAYS now. double yikes. one week.
i honestly can't believe it.
i wish that i had something witty and insightful and summative to say. maybe i will next saturday?
for now, i am just trying to get through this exam that is due on monday at noon. then i'm going out for pancakes, then i'm have this special appointment at 4 that i'm not saying anything about until afterwards (it's a surprise. don't worry mom, not a tattoo), and then i gotta start writing my last exam that is due three days after i leave, which means i gotta hand it in two days before i leave (can't hand stuff in on the weekend).
(ps "exam" here means "big paper"= the only summative assignment for each class. as in, my whole mark for each class is based on one paper. pressure? yes.)
so anyways
i should probably get back to these papers
.... for a while now i have been wanting to give you all the full run-down on my house and my housemates. I have refrained for two reasons: 1) fear that one (all) of them come across this blog and read it and then pee in my bed as revenge, and 2) writer's block, because, really, there are no words to describe these people that i live with. no words (and if i found the words, i'd probably just come across as a malicious b***c, instead of a hilariously insightful and relatively normal individual who had to put up with them all for four months). i am wondering if there is some way to password protect a blog post? so then i can give you guys a hint to the password (my dog's name, my best friend's name, the name of the street i grew up on, something like that) and so you guys could find it but not my crazy housemates... anybody know of a way to do this? seriously. the world needs to know about these people. the world needs to be warned.
anyways. i'll think about it. try to come up with something.
in the mean time, it's exam time.
peace out G's. maybe the force be with you.
-aa
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
the metro lady
get comfordable, cause this might be a long one. in fact, there are so many fun things that i want to talk about today, that i'm even going to index them, so that you can skip ahead to the parts in which you are interested (and if you are not interested in any, then See ya next time, thanks for stopping by)
1) Eat One Live Toad Every Morning
2) my List
3) the title of this post
1) EAT ONE LIVE TOAD EVERY MORNING
well i left off in the prison hostel in oslo, with the strange man in the snowsuit. now i'm going to tell you about one of the most ______ [insert adjective that does not exist in english] days of my life. basically, it started out as the Worst Day Ever, and ended as the Best Day Ever. you might think i'm exaggerating. i'm seriously not. words can not describe the horror of the morning, or the happiness of the evening.
In high school, my friend's dad had a poster on his door that was something like "murphy's laws" or something like that... all i rememer is that it said something like: "Eat one live toad every morning and then you know your day can only get better."
so i went to bed after posting that last post and i read for a while, looked at my watch at 11:30pm, put away my book and drifted towards sleep. at 11:47pm (i know because i checked my watch again) i awoke to a loud and chaotic rumbling coming from the bed beside me. snoring. but not just snoring, SNORING. no no, not even. words cannot describe what i was listening too. it was the loudest, most horrendously sputter-tastic snoring i've ever heard in my life. at first it was hilarious, and i occupied my very awake self by coming up with insightful and comedic metaphors for the snoring. lawn-mowing olympics. rhinoceroses fighting to the death. being trapped in the engine of of jumbo jet. but as time passed, and i lay awake, slowing descending into exhaustion induced insanity, the metaphors became less comedic. isn't there a form of torture where your captors just don't let you sleep?
i actually got out my camera and made videos in the pitch black darkness, just to record the noise. i knew that i would need sound evidence to prove the volume and flemyness of this snoring.
i lake awake for what felt like years. years went by. i shifted and made noises, i threw things, i tried ear plugs, i tried headphones, i tried ear plugs and a scarf wrapped around my head. i tried everything. it was absolutely impossible to sleep.
i read a bit more but i was too tired to focus. but still unable to sleep. the noise. oh, the noise. i cannot explain. i just cannot.
knowing that the first train left the downtown station for the airport at 4:45am, i got up at 4:15. i packed up in the pitch blackness.
i openned the top pocket of my backpack to check that i had my passport.
it wasn't there.
again, something indescribable. the feeling of my insides falling through the floor and my head bursting through the ceiling, simultaneously. the physical symptoms of panic. my passport was gone.
how could this have happened? i was awake the whole night! i was awake and hugging my backpack the whole night! how could this have happened!?! i looked at my enemy. my nemesis. the man i hate most in the world. the snorer. could he have taken it somehow? maybe in that 17 minutes when i actually was almost sleeping? DID HE TAKE MY PASSPORT?!
but most of all
what the &%$# do i do?!?!
how could i have been so stupid? why didn't i move it to a different pocket? like the pocket in the INSIDE of my bag!?
wait a second.
i remember now.
i did do that. my passport is in the pocket on the inside of my backpack.
false alarm.
i left my room, still shaking. because it wasn't reception hours for my hostel, i had to find the hotel "next door" (note to oslo hostel: around the corner and through a sketchy parking lot is NOT "next door") and go there to check out. still shaking.
then i walked, in the pitch black night, in the misty drizzly snow, past all the drunken stragglers, still out at 4:30am, in creepy sketchy horrid oslo. i got to the the train station.
and it was locked.
the shaking intensified. the creepy people that hang out at locked train stations at 4:30am started yelling at/towards me in norwegian. i started walking away. fast, faster, i started running (wearing both of my backpacks) around the train station, towards a cab that i could see idling. i felt like i was in a movie. escaping.
as i come around the train station, i noticed that it's actually in two parts. i was heading towards another major entrance. lights were on and there were people inside. i ran inside. safe. lights. janitors. people with suitcases. early morning/late night commuters. i bought a train ticket and napped in the train station. then i napped on the train. then i full out slept for two hours in the airport. then i had a lovely chat with a somalian man at the airport.
i found the check in, found food, things were looking up.
i slept on the plane.
and all of a sudden i was in munich. germany. GERMANY! i'd never been there before but i'd always known that i loved it. or at least since blenheim (in nz, when i lived with lots of germans), i'd known that i would love it.
and i did.
i navigated my way to the main train station in downtown munich (yes, i'm pretty proud of myself), stored my bags and wandered for 4 hours. and it was sunny and warm. i changed into sandals and rolled up my pants. and wandered. taking pictures, drinking coffee, nosing in on easter church services. i lay in a park and read. i took a picture of a place called "The Ratsgellar" for RJ. then another picture of an accordion player, also for RJ. it was a great afternoon.
i found my way to my train seat, chatted with a friendly german man. declined his only-semi-creepy offer for drinks. and tried to sleep. but i was too excited. i was heading to blenheim people! BLENHEIM PEOPLE!
when my train pulled in to würzburg, i had another moment of doubt. i was ten minutes earlier than i'd told Jork that I'd be there. and i'd never actually even confirmed with him that he'd come get me. i had no idea where i was supposed to go. i stood in the train station for a few minutes, reading signs, pretending a knew what i was doing while my mind raced to figure out a plan of action. did i know the name of the hostel? did i know how to get there? did i know if the reception would be open so late? did i know what name the booking would be under?
then from the far corner of the station, a group of people, in shorts and sandals and holding beers were walking towards me. and before i know it, i'm being hugged, and i'm shaking hands, and these people know me. they know my name and they KNOW me. somewhere deep down, between the base of my spine and the bottom of my stomach, a knot relaxes. unties. these people KNOW me. I know that none of you will really understand this, except for Nicole, but I just gotta say it anyways: for the first time in a long time, i was Home.
what a crazy day.
-----
BANG. right here. i was writing the above blog post on tuesday, when right when i finished typing "what a crazy day" my computer crashed. and never recovered. it´s at the apple hospital now, and i´ve already been told that the 100GB harddrive is completely unsalvageable. i lost everything. sorry rj, no more pictures of german accordian players. i´m still waiting to find out if whatever killed the harddrive is covered by the warranty. hopefully i will get a new harddrive for free. and soon. but either way, my computer died.
i´ve been visiting the computer labs on campus every day and quietly morning my loss and licking my wounds and trying to figure out just exactly what i have lost. i know that i have all of my pictures from 2nd year uni up until i moved to cph backed up. but nothing from before that and nothing from after. thankfully, i had already given some of my norway pics to Esta and i´d posted an album of pics from my weekend in wurzburg on facebook, so i have those. and my parents have backups of most of the pics from when they were here. so that´s good. but i lost the rest of the pictures from my trip and 30 GB of music and all my journals and my writings from the last 10 years and hundreds of documents that i probably won´t ever need but still feel insecure not having.
but anyways
back to where i left off:
-----
2. MY LIST
As many of you may already know, I found out a couple weeks ago that I´ve officially been "hired" on as a research assistant by an orang researcher whose work i´ve admired for years. it´s a big and scary and very exciting opportunity and, if everything goes as planned (which is pretty unlikely, because there is sooo much paperwork and i can´t for the life of me figure it all out), i will be leaving for Borneo in early july. how nuts is that? and i´ll stay till december and then be back in vic in time for my last semester of uni, starting january 2010.
but, my point here, is that i very abruptly realized that i only have one month left in copenhagen. only one month left in europe! and i just wasn´t feeling like i had really made the most of it. and i was very sad. SO, i made a list. yes! a list! of all of the things that i want to do before i leave. and over the last week, i have crossed 3 out of 15 things off of the list (i need to speed it up here). Number One was get a bike. I am so mad at myself for putting off getting a bike for so long. but the day after i made my list, i bought a bike. and i think i´m pretty much the happiest kid in denmark now. i ride around all day, everywhere. i have named my bike Zoo Transport, because mostly i use it to go to the zoo. the weather here is sunny and warm now, and my bike is one of those old-school mary poppins bikes, with a big basket on the front, and i just ride around with my hair blowing in the wind all day. it´s pretty great. i will take some pictures and post them. maybe. i dunno how these computers would handle me trying to post pictures. i miss my mac.
3.THE METRO LADY
the metro here is very simple. when you're standing in the metro station, waiting for the metro to come, there are only two tracks, one going in each direction. and there are screens that say how long until the next metro, and where it is going. but then, as each train rolls in, there is a lady who announces something. for three months i have been trying to figure out what she says. For the train heading towards my house, it sounds like "Toes spok toes t´ Vanløse" and for the train going the other way it sounded like "Toes spok ind t´ Lufthavn." now seeing as how Vanløse and Lufthavn are the end stations, i figured that whatever she was saying meant "train going to ___" but i couldn´t for the life of me figure out exactly the words that she was saying. nor why it was different for each direction. and my danish teacher told me it was "Toget kører til ____" (train going to ___) but i knew that was wrong. then finally, just a few days ago, i went and made lasagna with my italian friend (holy crap it was the best lasagna ever. i take no credit for it. all i did was spoon stuff into a pan) and it occured to me to ask her danish boyfriend. AND NOW I KNOW. it´s been driving me crazy!!!
"Toget i spøg to til Vanløse"
"Toget i spøg et til Lufthavn"
train on track two to vanløse
train on track one to lufthavn
as i am writing this i am realizing the extent to which this means NOTHING to you and you can´t possibly CARE about the metro lady. but it was one of those things that was driving me totally nuts. and i can´t express how happy i am to FINALLY KNOW.
also, i feel like, just over the past few weeks, i´ve really settled in here. now, with my bike, and my comprehension of the metro lady, i LIVE in copenhagen. i don´t speak danish to people, but i often understand them now when they speak it to me. that´s the first step.
i live here now. i love this city. i love their crazy rediculous language. and their bike lanes and traffic lights just for bikes. i love how they never get out of the way and how there are just as many dad´s pushing strollers as there are mom´s. I love when the sun is out and so are all the people. I love how unnecessarily fashinable everybody dresses. I love how friendly danish people are once you get to know each other. I love the dice game that they play in dingy bars, and dingy bars where they play the dice game. I love when i don´t lose the dice game and so i don´t have to buy the next round. I love the zoo and the babboons and the gibbons (who, i swear, know me now), and the chimps and the camel that is my one true love, and the baby ring tailed lemurs. And i love the friendly guys at the falafel place by my house - i love how they can´t speak a word of english but they try anyways, and that they make the best falafel in all of copenhagen (yes, i have eaten enough falafel here to be able to say that with authority).
my close friend Laura left today and it´s made me all introspective.
this is all coming to an end, apparently. even though I feel as if it´s just beginning.
I will miss this place.
1) Eat One Live Toad Every Morning
2) my List
3) the title of this post
1) EAT ONE LIVE TOAD EVERY MORNING
well i left off in the prison hostel in oslo, with the strange man in the snowsuit. now i'm going to tell you about one of the most ______ [insert adjective that does not exist in english] days of my life. basically, it started out as the Worst Day Ever, and ended as the Best Day Ever. you might think i'm exaggerating. i'm seriously not. words can not describe the horror of the morning, or the happiness of the evening.
In high school, my friend's dad had a poster on his door that was something like "murphy's laws" or something like that... all i rememer is that it said something like: "Eat one live toad every morning and then you know your day can only get better."
so i went to bed after posting that last post and i read for a while, looked at my watch at 11:30pm, put away my book and drifted towards sleep. at 11:47pm (i know because i checked my watch again) i awoke to a loud and chaotic rumbling coming from the bed beside me. snoring. but not just snoring, SNORING. no no, not even. words cannot describe what i was listening too. it was the loudest, most horrendously sputter-tastic snoring i've ever heard in my life. at first it was hilarious, and i occupied my very awake self by coming up with insightful and comedic metaphors for the snoring. lawn-mowing olympics. rhinoceroses fighting to the death. being trapped in the engine of of jumbo jet. but as time passed, and i lay awake, slowing descending into exhaustion induced insanity, the metaphors became less comedic. isn't there a form of torture where your captors just don't let you sleep?
i actually got out my camera and made videos in the pitch black darkness, just to record the noise. i knew that i would need sound evidence to prove the volume and flemyness of this snoring.
i lake awake for what felt like years. years went by. i shifted and made noises, i threw things, i tried ear plugs, i tried headphones, i tried ear plugs and a scarf wrapped around my head. i tried everything. it was absolutely impossible to sleep.
i read a bit more but i was too tired to focus. but still unable to sleep. the noise. oh, the noise. i cannot explain. i just cannot.
knowing that the first train left the downtown station for the airport at 4:45am, i got up at 4:15. i packed up in the pitch blackness.
i openned the top pocket of my backpack to check that i had my passport.
it wasn't there.
again, something indescribable. the feeling of my insides falling through the floor and my head bursting through the ceiling, simultaneously. the physical symptoms of panic. my passport was gone.
how could this have happened? i was awake the whole night! i was awake and hugging my backpack the whole night! how could this have happened!?! i looked at my enemy. my nemesis. the man i hate most in the world. the snorer. could he have taken it somehow? maybe in that 17 minutes when i actually was almost sleeping? DID HE TAKE MY PASSPORT?!
but most of all
what the &%$# do i do?!?!
how could i have been so stupid? why didn't i move it to a different pocket? like the pocket in the INSIDE of my bag!?
wait a second.
i remember now.
i did do that. my passport is in the pocket on the inside of my backpack.
false alarm.
i left my room, still shaking. because it wasn't reception hours for my hostel, i had to find the hotel "next door" (note to oslo hostel: around the corner and through a sketchy parking lot is NOT "next door") and go there to check out. still shaking.
then i walked, in the pitch black night, in the misty drizzly snow, past all the drunken stragglers, still out at 4:30am, in creepy sketchy horrid oslo. i got to the the train station.
and it was locked.
the shaking intensified. the creepy people that hang out at locked train stations at 4:30am started yelling at/towards me in norwegian. i started walking away. fast, faster, i started running (wearing both of my backpacks) around the train station, towards a cab that i could see idling. i felt like i was in a movie. escaping.
as i come around the train station, i noticed that it's actually in two parts. i was heading towards another major entrance. lights were on and there were people inside. i ran inside. safe. lights. janitors. people with suitcases. early morning/late night commuters. i bought a train ticket and napped in the train station. then i napped on the train. then i full out slept for two hours in the airport. then i had a lovely chat with a somalian man at the airport.
i found the check in, found food, things were looking up.
i slept on the plane.
and all of a sudden i was in munich. germany. GERMANY! i'd never been there before but i'd always known that i loved it. or at least since blenheim (in nz, when i lived with lots of germans), i'd known that i would love it.
and i did.
i navigated my way to the main train station in downtown munich (yes, i'm pretty proud of myself), stored my bags and wandered for 4 hours. and it was sunny and warm. i changed into sandals and rolled up my pants. and wandered. taking pictures, drinking coffee, nosing in on easter church services. i lay in a park and read. i took a picture of a place called "The Ratsgellar" for RJ. then another picture of an accordion player, also for RJ. it was a great afternoon.
i found my way to my train seat, chatted with a friendly german man. declined his only-semi-creepy offer for drinks. and tried to sleep. but i was too excited. i was heading to blenheim people! BLENHEIM PEOPLE!
when my train pulled in to würzburg, i had another moment of doubt. i was ten minutes earlier than i'd told Jork that I'd be there. and i'd never actually even confirmed with him that he'd come get me. i had no idea where i was supposed to go. i stood in the train station for a few minutes, reading signs, pretending a knew what i was doing while my mind raced to figure out a plan of action. did i know the name of the hostel? did i know how to get there? did i know if the reception would be open so late? did i know what name the booking would be under?
then from the far corner of the station, a group of people, in shorts and sandals and holding beers were walking towards me. and before i know it, i'm being hugged, and i'm shaking hands, and these people know me. they know my name and they KNOW me. somewhere deep down, between the base of my spine and the bottom of my stomach, a knot relaxes. unties. these people KNOW me. I know that none of you will really understand this, except for Nicole, but I just gotta say it anyways: for the first time in a long time, i was Home.
what a crazy day.
-----
BANG. right here. i was writing the above blog post on tuesday, when right when i finished typing "what a crazy day" my computer crashed. and never recovered. it´s at the apple hospital now, and i´ve already been told that the 100GB harddrive is completely unsalvageable. i lost everything. sorry rj, no more pictures of german accordian players. i´m still waiting to find out if whatever killed the harddrive is covered by the warranty. hopefully i will get a new harddrive for free. and soon. but either way, my computer died.
i´ve been visiting the computer labs on campus every day and quietly morning my loss and licking my wounds and trying to figure out just exactly what i have lost. i know that i have all of my pictures from 2nd year uni up until i moved to cph backed up. but nothing from before that and nothing from after. thankfully, i had already given some of my norway pics to Esta and i´d posted an album of pics from my weekend in wurzburg on facebook, so i have those. and my parents have backups of most of the pics from when they were here. so that´s good. but i lost the rest of the pictures from my trip and 30 GB of music and all my journals and my writings from the last 10 years and hundreds of documents that i probably won´t ever need but still feel insecure not having.
but anyways
back to where i left off:
-----
2. MY LIST
As many of you may already know, I found out a couple weeks ago that I´ve officially been "hired" on as a research assistant by an orang researcher whose work i´ve admired for years. it´s a big and scary and very exciting opportunity and, if everything goes as planned (which is pretty unlikely, because there is sooo much paperwork and i can´t for the life of me figure it all out), i will be leaving for Borneo in early july. how nuts is that? and i´ll stay till december and then be back in vic in time for my last semester of uni, starting january 2010.
but, my point here, is that i very abruptly realized that i only have one month left in copenhagen. only one month left in europe! and i just wasn´t feeling like i had really made the most of it. and i was very sad. SO, i made a list. yes! a list! of all of the things that i want to do before i leave. and over the last week, i have crossed 3 out of 15 things off of the list (i need to speed it up here). Number One was get a bike. I am so mad at myself for putting off getting a bike for so long. but the day after i made my list, i bought a bike. and i think i´m pretty much the happiest kid in denmark now. i ride around all day, everywhere. i have named my bike Zoo Transport, because mostly i use it to go to the zoo. the weather here is sunny and warm now, and my bike is one of those old-school mary poppins bikes, with a big basket on the front, and i just ride around with my hair blowing in the wind all day. it´s pretty great. i will take some pictures and post them. maybe. i dunno how these computers would handle me trying to post pictures. i miss my mac.
3.THE METRO LADY
the metro here is very simple. when you're standing in the metro station, waiting for the metro to come, there are only two tracks, one going in each direction. and there are screens that say how long until the next metro, and where it is going. but then, as each train rolls in, there is a lady who announces something. for three months i have been trying to figure out what she says. For the train heading towards my house, it sounds like "Toes spok toes t´ Vanløse" and for the train going the other way it sounded like "Toes spok ind t´ Lufthavn." now seeing as how Vanløse and Lufthavn are the end stations, i figured that whatever she was saying meant "train going to ___" but i couldn´t for the life of me figure out exactly the words that she was saying. nor why it was different for each direction. and my danish teacher told me it was "Toget kører til ____" (train going to ___) but i knew that was wrong. then finally, just a few days ago, i went and made lasagna with my italian friend (holy crap it was the best lasagna ever. i take no credit for it. all i did was spoon stuff into a pan) and it occured to me to ask her danish boyfriend. AND NOW I KNOW. it´s been driving me crazy!!!
"Toget i spøg to til Vanløse"
"Toget i spøg et til Lufthavn"
train on track two to vanløse
train on track one to lufthavn
as i am writing this i am realizing the extent to which this means NOTHING to you and you can´t possibly CARE about the metro lady. but it was one of those things that was driving me totally nuts. and i can´t express how happy i am to FINALLY KNOW.
also, i feel like, just over the past few weeks, i´ve really settled in here. now, with my bike, and my comprehension of the metro lady, i LIVE in copenhagen. i don´t speak danish to people, but i often understand them now when they speak it to me. that´s the first step.
i live here now. i love this city. i love their crazy rediculous language. and their bike lanes and traffic lights just for bikes. i love how they never get out of the way and how there are just as many dad´s pushing strollers as there are mom´s. I love when the sun is out and so are all the people. I love how unnecessarily fashinable everybody dresses. I love how friendly danish people are once you get to know each other. I love the dice game that they play in dingy bars, and dingy bars where they play the dice game. I love when i don´t lose the dice game and so i don´t have to buy the next round. I love the zoo and the babboons and the gibbons (who, i swear, know me now), and the chimps and the camel that is my one true love, and the baby ring tailed lemurs. And i love the friendly guys at the falafel place by my house - i love how they can´t speak a word of english but they try anyways, and that they make the best falafel in all of copenhagen (yes, i have eaten enough falafel here to be able to say that with authority).
my close friend Laura left today and it´s made me all introspective.
this is all coming to an end, apparently. even though I feel as if it´s just beginning.
I will miss this place.
Thursday, April 9, 2009
kickin it in norwegia
k so
wow
i'm bad at keeping up with this
are any of you still reading this?
the task of a post about family time proved far too overwhelming for my computer (which couldn't handle uploading the pictures) and my own sense of initiative (i tried once then was too overwhelmed by the task to try again, so just gave up).
so instead of a full post about family time, i will just tell you the best part. the highlight, if you will.
three words: ice. cream. truck.
i will paint you a picture:
me and jenny. sitting on our beds at a tacky-fancy bed and breakfast. the curtains match the bed spreads. we are in a little town on a little island that is all deserted and ghostly in the off season. it is dark out. but not too late. 7:30pm, perhaps. we are doing homework.
a noise outside. a bell. in the distance. getting closer.
we look up at each other. eye contact. a conversation between sisters. a conversation without words...
that sounds like an ice cream truck
holy crap, that sounds like an ice cream truck
are we doing this?
we are doing this
run and get money from mom, i need to find shoes
...eye contact
we run down the hall. we grab money from mom. we run outside.
we are wearing socks on the cold cobblestone.
darkness.
a light at the end of the street. a truck. a white, square truck. danish is being spoken in the distance.
we approach. a man with a dog and a little girl, saying favel to another man standing by the lit up truck. the man with the dog is holding a box. A BOX OF ICE CREAM.
we speak words. incoherent slews of english words. we are too excited to make sense. with are met with a confused look by the man next to the truck. he doesn't speak english. let alone giddy-spewey english. wildly we gesture. ice cream! ice cream!
we look at the sign. we point to it.
we want one of those
and one of those
please
more gesturing. more danglish.
not possible to buy just one of each. must by a box.
en hel kasse.
a whole box.
awesome.
we choose the tastiest looking ice cream cones.
we buy a whole box.
we yell thankyous.
tak
tusind tak
tak skal du have
all the danish thankyous that we know
we yell and we laugh and we run in our socks back to our house.
we sit on our parents bed and the four of us each enjoy two ice cream cones.
four words: highlight. of. my. life.
k now. anyways.
back to the present.
so it's easter break here.
and we get a week off. which, because i only have class on wednesday and thursday, is actually 11 days. and because i flew to norway instead of going to class last thursday, it's actually 12 days. awesome.
quick summary:
-spent two nights in Bergen at Eyv's apartment with him and Esta. awesome. i love bergen. i want to live there. forever. it's amazing. it's like a combination of victoria, jasper, and the place where Wallace & Grommit live.
-spent one night at Eyv's family's country house with him and Esta and his parents. also awesome. a quaint little country house on the shoreline of a norwegian fjord. complete with a composting toilet, fishing rods, and the best vegetarian-food-cooking mom i've ever met.
-spent one night at Eyv's family's house in Haugesund (with him and Esta). also on the edge of a fjord. no wait, a sound. there is a difference, apparently. explored some cool historical sights around what used to be the center of norway.
-spent two nights at a totally hilarious hospital hotel in Stavanger (with just Esta). went to two cool museums, one of which featured an exhibit about homosexuality in nonhuman animals. a whole exhibit. with big huge colour photos. holy crap, i love norway.
-left Esta and took a boat back to Bergen. did homework in a cool coffee shop. stayed in a hostel that was totally great cept it had the worst beds in the history of horizontal surfaces. didn't sleep much.
-today: took the train to Oslo. went and saw the original "Scream" painting at the national gallery. very cool. drank coffee and wandered and read my book and wandered and drank more coffee.
tonight i'm staying in a hostel that i'm pretty sure i saw featured on America's Most Dangerous Prisons on sunday at Eyv's house. it's all kinds of awful. but whatever, just for one night. i think i'll sleep hugging my backpack. if the next hostel i stay in doesn't have lockers, i'm going to carpenter one out of another bed and used that to store my stuff in (the major downside of travelling with a laptop and non-pocket-size camera).
but when i came back after my wandering, there were three very friendly german girls in my room, so that made me feel better about this place. then i went in to the shower and when i came back out, there was a man lying fully dressed in snow-suit gear on the bed next to mine. boots and a tuque and everything. oh hello. no answer. sleeping? nope. eyes wide open and staring at the ceiling. deaf? maybe. he got up a few minutes later and when into the shower. from the sounds of it, he showered five times. like, water on for a few minutes, water off for a few minutes, water back on, water off, etc. then no noise for 30 minutes. then all of a sudden, he reappears around the corner, fully clothed in his snow suit gear. lies back down. snores for a while. gets up. leaves the room.
i am so unbelievably and profoundly confused.
but anyways
bedtime now.
tomorrow i'm leavin early and flying to munich, then train to würzburg to see blenheim people! yes! blenheim people! people who nicole and i lived (and worked) with when we lived in blenheim, nz! awesome! great! holy crap! i'm so stoked!
hope you could stay interested despite the lack of pictures.... i'll try to put some up when i get back to kbh next week.
wow
i'm bad at keeping up with this
are any of you still reading this?
the task of a post about family time proved far too overwhelming for my computer (which couldn't handle uploading the pictures) and my own sense of initiative (i tried once then was too overwhelmed by the task to try again, so just gave up).
so instead of a full post about family time, i will just tell you the best part. the highlight, if you will.
three words: ice. cream. truck.
i will paint you a picture:
me and jenny. sitting on our beds at a tacky-fancy bed and breakfast. the curtains match the bed spreads. we are in a little town on a little island that is all deserted and ghostly in the off season. it is dark out. but not too late. 7:30pm, perhaps. we are doing homework.
a noise outside. a bell. in the distance. getting closer.
we look up at each other. eye contact. a conversation between sisters. a conversation without words...
that sounds like an ice cream truck
holy crap, that sounds like an ice cream truck
are we doing this?
we are doing this
run and get money from mom, i need to find shoes
...eye contact
we run down the hall. we grab money from mom. we run outside.
we are wearing socks on the cold cobblestone.
darkness.
a light at the end of the street. a truck. a white, square truck. danish is being spoken in the distance.
we approach. a man with a dog and a little girl, saying favel to another man standing by the lit up truck. the man with the dog is holding a box. A BOX OF ICE CREAM.
we speak words. incoherent slews of english words. we are too excited to make sense. with are met with a confused look by the man next to the truck. he doesn't speak english. let alone giddy-spewey english. wildly we gesture. ice cream! ice cream!
we look at the sign. we point to it.
we want one of those
and one of those
please
more gesturing. more danglish.
not possible to buy just one of each. must by a box.
en hel kasse.
a whole box.
awesome.
we choose the tastiest looking ice cream cones.
we buy a whole box.
we yell thankyous.
tak
tusind tak
tak skal du have
all the danish thankyous that we know
we yell and we laugh and we run in our socks back to our house.
we sit on our parents bed and the four of us each enjoy two ice cream cones.
four words: highlight. of. my. life.
k now. anyways.
back to the present.
so it's easter break here.
and we get a week off. which, because i only have class on wednesday and thursday, is actually 11 days. and because i flew to norway instead of going to class last thursday, it's actually 12 days. awesome.
quick summary:
-spent two nights in Bergen at Eyv's apartment with him and Esta. awesome. i love bergen. i want to live there. forever. it's amazing. it's like a combination of victoria, jasper, and the place where Wallace & Grommit live.
-spent one night at Eyv's family's country house with him and Esta and his parents. also awesome. a quaint little country house on the shoreline of a norwegian fjord. complete with a composting toilet, fishing rods, and the best vegetarian-food-cooking mom i've ever met.
-spent one night at Eyv's family's house in Haugesund (with him and Esta). also on the edge of a fjord. no wait, a sound. there is a difference, apparently. explored some cool historical sights around what used to be the center of norway.
-spent two nights at a totally hilarious hospital hotel in Stavanger (with just Esta). went to two cool museums, one of which featured an exhibit about homosexuality in nonhuman animals. a whole exhibit. with big huge colour photos. holy crap, i love norway.
-left Esta and took a boat back to Bergen. did homework in a cool coffee shop. stayed in a hostel that was totally great cept it had the worst beds in the history of horizontal surfaces. didn't sleep much.
-today: took the train to Oslo. went and saw the original "Scream" painting at the national gallery. very cool. drank coffee and wandered and read my book and wandered and drank more coffee.
tonight i'm staying in a hostel that i'm pretty sure i saw featured on America's Most Dangerous Prisons on sunday at Eyv's house. it's all kinds of awful. but whatever, just for one night. i think i'll sleep hugging my backpack. if the next hostel i stay in doesn't have lockers, i'm going to carpenter one out of another bed and used that to store my stuff in (the major downside of travelling with a laptop and non-pocket-size camera).
but when i came back after my wandering, there were three very friendly german girls in my room, so that made me feel better about this place. then i went in to the shower and when i came back out, there was a man lying fully dressed in snow-suit gear on the bed next to mine. boots and a tuque and everything. oh hello. no answer. sleeping? nope. eyes wide open and staring at the ceiling. deaf? maybe. he got up a few minutes later and when into the shower. from the sounds of it, he showered five times. like, water on for a few minutes, water off for a few minutes, water back on, water off, etc. then no noise for 30 minutes. then all of a sudden, he reappears around the corner, fully clothed in his snow suit gear. lies back down. snores for a while. gets up. leaves the room.
i am so unbelievably and profoundly confused.
but anyways
bedtime now.
tomorrow i'm leavin early and flying to munich, then train to würzburg to see blenheim people! yes! blenheim people! people who nicole and i lived (and worked) with when we lived in blenheim, nz! awesome! great! holy crap! i'm so stoked!
hope you could stay interested despite the lack of pictures.... i'll try to put some up when i get back to kbh next week.
Sunday, March 29, 2009
family time is the best time!
yes, indeed, it is.
and i'm gonna write a lot about it and post a lot of pictures after i hand in this paper tomorrow at noon.
and after i finish my danish homework for tomorrow night.
and after i finish the copious amounts of work that i have to do for my new anth class on wednesday.
and after i finish my danish homework for wednesday night.
.... sometime, over the course of the next month, i will post all about family time.
on a scale of one to great, it was super awesome.
and i'm gonna write a lot about it and post a lot of pictures after i hand in this paper tomorrow at noon.
and after i finish my danish homework for tomorrow night.
and after i finish the copious amounts of work that i have to do for my new anth class on wednesday.
and after i finish my danish homework for wednesday night.
.... sometime, over the course of the next month, i will post all about family time.
on a scale of one to great, it was super awesome.
Saturday, March 14, 2009
today is family day. the best day.
so
apologies for the lack of postings
things have been busy.
AND today (!!!), at 3pm Denmark Time, my parents and my sister are arriving! HOLY MOLY! HOW GREAT IS THAT!?
my plan was to have my big poli anth paper done by the time they get here (it's due right after they leave and i don't want to work on it while they're here). but that didn't exactly happen. i had really good intentions for the week... but every day my studious plans of hardcore academia were foiled...
Monday: i was still tired from the the weekend, so i ate falafel and slept all day. then in the evening i did my danish language homework and then went to class. on the way home from class, as i was snoozing on the metro, a metro guard came over to me and spoke a lot of danish in an angry tone. i pulled out my klippekort to show him that i'd paid but he just kept going. finally it occurred to me to say "english! english!" at which point that he told me it was a 600kr fine for putting my feet up on the seat in front of me. i managed to get out of it by playing the Clueless Foreigner Card (which in this case was actually totally true), but he was not happy. then it was bedtime.
Tuesday: i got up early and went over to CSS to print off articles for my paper. i slept with my head on a desk for a while, then got a call to go for coffee with some friends... two hours later i was back at CSS, and i found lots of articles, and just as i was about to print them off, a security guard came and told me that he was closing the computer lab. no, there was not time for me to print anything. i must leave right away. phooey.
Wednesday: is always my busy day. i got up and went to my favourite coffee shop and read/skimmed/looked towards the readings for my class that day. then went to class. then went back to the CSS to print off those articles. then went to south campus and did my danish language homework and then went to danish class. afterwards, it was studenthouse time (have i mentioned studenthouse? it's a KU bar, and every wed night is International Student Night. the place itself kinda sucks, but when everybody comes out, it's really fun). i wasn't gonna stay long, cause i really needed to work on my paper. but EVERYBODY was there. and thus, so was i. Great. Night. (please note, however: never wear thai fishing pants out dancing. they fall down.)
Thursday: went to class. spent the first hour of class sleeping (totally not my fault. the lecturer has the most soothing, melodic, voice i've ever heard. also, the topic was Danish Literature up to the 1800s. seriously.), and the second hour drinking coffee and reading the first english newspaper that i've seen since home (!!!). then i went to my friend's place for daytime water cause i hadn't seen her much lately. so that was lovely. then i came home and i was gonna work on my paper, but i decided to get my danish homework out of the way instead. so that's ok. it's ok the procrastinate by doing other work. totally acceptable.
Friday: I WENT TO THE LIBRARY! and did work! for hours! then mid-afternoon, i got a call from my friend who needed a wingman for this party thing hosted by his department. he didn't know anybody going, but wanted to get to know them, so i said i'd go with him until he made new friends. around 2 am, we stubbled out of the swankiest bar i've ever seen (let alone been too; the drinks were all fancy and made with real crushed fruit while you watch! and everybody was like, late twenties, fancy upwardly-mobile business folk. in suits and dresses. having intelligent conversations about the economic crisis. whilst surrounded by fancy leather couches and edgy modern art). Eyv and I (me dressed like a straight-up hobo. my usual) and a bunch of our new danish friends were having a great time. as the only non danish speaker/comprehender (Eyv is norwegian, so he can understand danish and speak it with a not-quite-right-but-still-comprehendable accent) i found the whole night quite hilarious. by midnight, i was pretty much fluent.
Saturday: i went out for brunch with my italian friends. they are just lovely. as was brunch. very sophisticated and classy. my pj's only got a few strange looks. then i came home and cleaned the bathroom (only to find out that it was cleaned the day before so i don't get any cleaning points for it anyways.... seriously though, apparently i live with a black-haired yeti cause i can't believe it was cleaned within the last week. it was nasty). then i cleaned my room. cause my housemate was hosting a party last night, so ya know, time to deal with the old food and large piles of dust that are taking over. i would have started writing my paper, but then people started to show up... the majority of the party was upstairs in the common areas of our house and consisted mostly of people who i've never met before (or have met but don't reeeeally remember in that awkward reluctant-to-introduce-myself-just-incase kind of way), so a couple of my friends and I just hung out and chatted in my room. then we went downtown in search of falafel and found probably the best durum that i've ever had. then i came home to bed. way too tired to get to work on my paper. also i needed to be well rested for family day, today.
so you see. my intentions were good. always good intentions.
it's just that, after spending last semester cooped up in an old geography lab, having my soul ripped out by various 400 level anth class + stats, it's difficult for me to turn down opportunities of fun. so ya know. i'm just making up for lost time. it's ok, right?
now it's sunday, and i'm awake and obsessively checking the british airways website to keep tabs on my fam's flights. they have arrived in heathrow. how freaking awesome is that!? I think that i will practice my danish and work on my paper... but it's just filler time until i can justify leaving for the airport.... their flight gets in at 3... so probably i should be there early.... like 2ish. just incase it takes them a negative amount of time to get through customs. my family is awesome like that.
peace out homeslices.
(k actually, just before the peacing, here are some pics... nothing exciting though...)
funny story: do you see all that hay edging around the edge lake (behind the picnic table)? so when there was snow on the little hill above it, kids would toboggan down towards the lake and straight into the hay. it is the barrier that kept them from just going straight into the lake and freezing to death. and i don't mean the special, cool, dare-devil kids. i mean like whole school groups. "ok class, make sure you all wear your one-piece snow suits and pointy balaclavas tomorrow, because we're going tobogganing straight towards a semi-frozen lake, and we'll trust your health and safety to a small strip of hay bails. FIELD TRIP!"
the daily parade of the fur hats. as seen from my fav coffee shop.
i have been meaning to show you all these cool bikes things.... you see, you know at home how people sometimes pull kids around behind their bikes in those little fluorescent wheely tents? well here, instead, they have these cool bucket things that replace the front wheel. and there are special ones made to be comfy so that kids can sit in them. it's pretty cool.
list of things i've seen the front bucket of bikes:
1. dogs. plural.
2. newspapers.
3. children.
4. an adult.
5. pineapples.
i really like the colour arrangement of this edifice. especially the green door.
apologies for the lack of postings
things have been busy.
AND today (!!!), at 3pm Denmark Time, my parents and my sister are arriving! HOLY MOLY! HOW GREAT IS THAT!?
my plan was to have my big poli anth paper done by the time they get here (it's due right after they leave and i don't want to work on it while they're here). but that didn't exactly happen. i had really good intentions for the week... but every day my studious plans of hardcore academia were foiled...
Monday: i was still tired from the the weekend, so i ate falafel and slept all day. then in the evening i did my danish language homework and then went to class. on the way home from class, as i was snoozing on the metro, a metro guard came over to me and spoke a lot of danish in an angry tone. i pulled out my klippekort to show him that i'd paid but he just kept going. finally it occurred to me to say "english! english!" at which point that he told me it was a 600kr fine for putting my feet up on the seat in front of me. i managed to get out of it by playing the Clueless Foreigner Card (which in this case was actually totally true), but he was not happy. then it was bedtime.
Tuesday: i got up early and went over to CSS to print off articles for my paper. i slept with my head on a desk for a while, then got a call to go for coffee with some friends... two hours later i was back at CSS, and i found lots of articles, and just as i was about to print them off, a security guard came and told me that he was closing the computer lab. no, there was not time for me to print anything. i must leave right away. phooey.
Wednesday: is always my busy day. i got up and went to my favourite coffee shop and read/skimmed/looked towards the readings for my class that day. then went to class. then went back to the CSS to print off those articles. then went to south campus and did my danish language homework and then went to danish class. afterwards, it was studenthouse time (have i mentioned studenthouse? it's a KU bar, and every wed night is International Student Night. the place itself kinda sucks, but when everybody comes out, it's really fun). i wasn't gonna stay long, cause i really needed to work on my paper. but EVERYBODY was there. and thus, so was i. Great. Night. (please note, however: never wear thai fishing pants out dancing. they fall down.)
Thursday: went to class. spent the first hour of class sleeping (totally not my fault. the lecturer has the most soothing, melodic, voice i've ever heard. also, the topic was Danish Literature up to the 1800s. seriously.), and the second hour drinking coffee and reading the first english newspaper that i've seen since home (!!!). then i went to my friend's place for daytime water cause i hadn't seen her much lately. so that was lovely. then i came home and i was gonna work on my paper, but i decided to get my danish homework out of the way instead. so that's ok. it's ok the procrastinate by doing other work. totally acceptable.
Friday: I WENT TO THE LIBRARY! and did work! for hours! then mid-afternoon, i got a call from my friend who needed a wingman for this party thing hosted by his department. he didn't know anybody going, but wanted to get to know them, so i said i'd go with him until he made new friends. around 2 am, we stubbled out of the swankiest bar i've ever seen (let alone been too; the drinks were all fancy and made with real crushed fruit while you watch! and everybody was like, late twenties, fancy upwardly-mobile business folk. in suits and dresses. having intelligent conversations about the economic crisis. whilst surrounded by fancy leather couches and edgy modern art). Eyv and I (me dressed like a straight-up hobo. my usual) and a bunch of our new danish friends were having a great time. as the only non danish speaker/comprehender (Eyv is norwegian, so he can understand danish and speak it with a not-quite-right-but-still-comprehendable accent) i found the whole night quite hilarious. by midnight, i was pretty much fluent.
Saturday: i went out for brunch with my italian friends. they are just lovely. as was brunch. very sophisticated and classy. my pj's only got a few strange looks. then i came home and cleaned the bathroom (only to find out that it was cleaned the day before so i don't get any cleaning points for it anyways.... seriously though, apparently i live with a black-haired yeti cause i can't believe it was cleaned within the last week. it was nasty). then i cleaned my room. cause my housemate was hosting a party last night, so ya know, time to deal with the old food and large piles of dust that are taking over. i would have started writing my paper, but then people started to show up... the majority of the party was upstairs in the common areas of our house and consisted mostly of people who i've never met before (or have met but don't reeeeally remember in that awkward reluctant-to-introduce-myself-just-incase kind of way), so a couple of my friends and I just hung out and chatted in my room. then we went downtown in search of falafel and found probably the best durum that i've ever had. then i came home to bed. way too tired to get to work on my paper. also i needed to be well rested for family day, today.
so you see. my intentions were good. always good intentions.
it's just that, after spending last semester cooped up in an old geography lab, having my soul ripped out by various 400 level anth class + stats, it's difficult for me to turn down opportunities of fun. so ya know. i'm just making up for lost time. it's ok, right?
now it's sunday, and i'm awake and obsessively checking the british airways website to keep tabs on my fam's flights. they have arrived in heathrow. how freaking awesome is that!? I think that i will practice my danish and work on my paper... but it's just filler time until i can justify leaving for the airport.... their flight gets in at 3... so probably i should be there early.... like 2ish. just incase it takes them a negative amount of time to get through customs. my family is awesome like that.
peace out homeslices.
(k actually, just before the peacing, here are some pics... nothing exciting though...)
funny story: do you see all that hay edging around the edge lake (behind the picnic table)? so when there was snow on the little hill above it, kids would toboggan down towards the lake and straight into the hay. it is the barrier that kept them from just going straight into the lake and freezing to death. and i don't mean the special, cool, dare-devil kids. i mean like whole school groups. "ok class, make sure you all wear your one-piece snow suits and pointy balaclavas tomorrow, because we're going tobogganing straight towards a semi-frozen lake, and we'll trust your health and safety to a small strip of hay bails. FIELD TRIP!"
the daily parade of the fur hats. as seen from my fav coffee shop.
i have been meaning to show you all these cool bikes things.... you see, you know at home how people sometimes pull kids around behind their bikes in those little fluorescent wheely tents? well here, instead, they have these cool bucket things that replace the front wheel. and there are special ones made to be comfy so that kids can sit in them. it's pretty cool.
list of things i've seen the front bucket of bikes:
1. dogs. plural.
2. newspapers.
3. children.
4. an adult.
5. pineapples.
i really like the colour arrangement of this edifice. especially the green door.
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Thursday, February 26, 2009
"i'd sacrifice all the tears in my eyes..."
ok so
first thing's first: for a while now i've been having a bit of a love affair with Target Women and Sarah Haskins. However, I only ever watched it when it was posted on Feministing. Then, recently, I decided to actually go to the website. holy crap. it's amazing. there are so many of them! make sure that you watch the yogurt one. but i think this one is my favourite right now:
ok. now. back to where i left off:
so on wednesday my group presented
and despite being intimately involved in all aspect of the presentation construction and planning, and actually presenting a part myself, i had absolutely no clue what anybody was talking about.
i essentially just read off my sheet of paper, in my best no-i'm-not-american accent, then stood in the corner half-hiding while my other group members presented and while an intense discussion raged on. i have no idea what was being discussed.
i am officially really bad at Political Anthropology.
but it's over now
and that's what matters
afterwards i went to the place with the cheep coffee on south campus and checked my email about a billion times and fell asleep on a table. also i discovered The Fail Blog... which i think everybody else already knows about... but i was definitely sitting alone, laughing out loud. every time i look at it, i find a new favourite. but right now it's this one:
then i went to danish class with my supergreat buddy EstaBesta (we live together and are in the same danish class and have bonded solidly over a love affair for a certain kind of danish chocolate bar). danish class was pretty hilarious. i had missed the class before because i had a meeting with two of my Poli Anth group members (yes there was instant coffee, biscuits and plenty of candles involved. i'm pretty much danish now.) and i was dead tired so it was generally a pretty hilarious class. i kept getting mixed up and saying "ja" when i was supposed to say "jo". so then when the teacher called on me and i was supposed to read a sentence, i almost said "ja" but then quickly corrected myself and said "jo" but then i couldn't remember the rest of the sentence so as my brain froze my mouth said "YOOOOOOOOO". ok so probably you had to be there. but i essentially yelled out a very prolonged "YO" to my whole class. it was pretty funny.
then i talked to the canadian guy in my class. turns out he went to Queen's and lived across the street from KCVI for the last two years of my high school career. how random is that?
anyways. after class i headed straight to studenterhuseter (the KU student bar that hosts "international student night" every wednesday) and partied hardy with my housemates and my new italian friend and some strange foreign kids. until i basically hit a wall and all the lack of sleep and presentation-fear-stress caught up with me. so then i came home and ate lots of peanut butter. it was pretty awesome.
today i am back to breathing normally and just generally slacking off.
BUT
OK
NOW
this is the important part (this is especially for you, KTG)
so today in my "course on danish culture" class, the subject was Danish Music. so first the lady was talking about oldschool stuff (like how king Christians IV bankrupted the country by throwing a huge 3 week long party) and then we got to more modern stuff. and she talked a lot about an interesting modern Danish band called Outlandish... then she played this song...
........
.....
(these spaces are for dramatic effect)
...
RING ANY BELLS ANYBODY!?!?!?
.......
..........
.......
oh Aicha oh Aicha....
remember this guy!?!
.... apparently nobody else in my class did cause, as far as i could tell, i was the only person looking totally flabergasted and holding back laughter...
... i still don't get it
at all.
but anyways
that totally made my day.
happy number-twoing,
-aa
first thing's first: for a while now i've been having a bit of a love affair with Target Women and Sarah Haskins. However, I only ever watched it when it was posted on Feministing. Then, recently, I decided to actually go to the website. holy crap. it's amazing. there are so many of them! make sure that you watch the yogurt one. but i think this one is my favourite right now:
ok. now. back to where i left off:
so on wednesday my group presented
and despite being intimately involved in all aspect of the presentation construction and planning, and actually presenting a part myself, i had absolutely no clue what anybody was talking about.
i essentially just read off my sheet of paper, in my best no-i'm-not-american accent, then stood in the corner half-hiding while my other group members presented and while an intense discussion raged on. i have no idea what was being discussed.
i am officially really bad at Political Anthropology.
but it's over now
and that's what matters
afterwards i went to the place with the cheep coffee on south campus and checked my email about a billion times and fell asleep on a table. also i discovered The Fail Blog... which i think everybody else already knows about... but i was definitely sitting alone, laughing out loud. every time i look at it, i find a new favourite. but right now it's this one:
then i went to danish class with my supergreat buddy EstaBesta (we live together and are in the same danish class and have bonded solidly over a love affair for a certain kind of danish chocolate bar). danish class was pretty hilarious. i had missed the class before because i had a meeting with two of my Poli Anth group members (yes there was instant coffee, biscuits and plenty of candles involved. i'm pretty much danish now.) and i was dead tired so it was generally a pretty hilarious class. i kept getting mixed up and saying "ja" when i was supposed to say "jo". so then when the teacher called on me and i was supposed to read a sentence, i almost said "ja" but then quickly corrected myself and said "jo" but then i couldn't remember the rest of the sentence so as my brain froze my mouth said "YOOOOOOOOO". ok so probably you had to be there. but i essentially yelled out a very prolonged "YO" to my whole class. it was pretty funny.
then i talked to the canadian guy in my class. turns out he went to Queen's and lived across the street from KCVI for the last two years of my high school career. how random is that?
anyways. after class i headed straight to studenterhuseter (the KU student bar that hosts "international student night" every wednesday) and partied hardy with my housemates and my new italian friend and some strange foreign kids. until i basically hit a wall and all the lack of sleep and presentation-fear-stress caught up with me. so then i came home and ate lots of peanut butter. it was pretty awesome.
today i am back to breathing normally and just generally slacking off.
BUT
OK
NOW
this is the important part (this is especially for you, KTG)
so today in my "course on danish culture" class, the subject was Danish Music. so first the lady was talking about oldschool stuff (like how king Christians IV bankrupted the country by throwing a huge 3 week long party) and then we got to more modern stuff. and she talked a lot about an interesting modern Danish band called Outlandish... then she played this song...
........
.....
(these spaces are for dramatic effect)
...
RING ANY BELLS ANYBODY!?!?!?
.......
..........
.......
oh Aicha oh Aicha....
remember this guy!?!
.... apparently nobody else in my class did cause, as far as i could tell, i was the only person looking totally flabergasted and holding back laughter...
... i still don't get it
at all.
but anyways
that totally made my day.
happy number-twoing,
-aa
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Jeg kan ikke tale engelsk.
don't be fooled into thinking that the title of this post is pronounce "jeg kan ikke tale englesk"
no.
not even close.
so danish classes started last week
wow.
gong. show.
fortunately, i'm not doing it for credit, which means that i just have to put in enough effort to not completely embarrass myself. unfortunately, the amount of effort that it's gonna take just to get by is more than any of my credit courses combined.
i'm not trying to be judgmental, and i know i should be very PC and anthropology and blah blah blah. and i know that learning english is no piece of cake either...
but seriously.
danish is ridiculous.
written danish and spoken danish DO NOT MATCH EVEN A LITTLE BIT.
for example
the word "selvfølgelig" is pronounce "seføli"; "Jeg er" is pronounced "Yai"; and "hedder" is pronounced "he&$#ea" (weird sound that we don't have in english... it's like trying to pronounced a "d" without letting your tongue leave the bottom of your mouth) (wtf)
our most common in-class and homework activity is to listen to the cd that is saying the sentences that we have written in our book. and we have to go through the written sentences and cross out the letters that don't get pronounced and then circle the letters that are not pronounced 'the way they should be'. needless to say, by the time you get through it, there are so many marks on each sentence that you can't even read it anymore.
anyways
i'm not angry.
not frustrated.
no way.
i'm pretty much fluent.
also, the work book is very lovely and pretty, and i've got a system involving three different pens and a pencil. (taryn, you would be proud)
Fluency. i kid you not.
anyways
remember how i was saying that this all just felt like a "holiday" so far? ya. well. that all pretty much flew out the window sometime last week. all of a sudden i'm in way over my head. between the danish classes and the confusing poli-anthropological banter about networks and contextualization, and all the strange techno clubs, and the huge group presentation that i have to do on wednesday (1 hour, seven people. topic: Ethnicity and Political Anthropology), and the major important job interview that i have tomorrow, i'm just tryin to get by. also i keep making stupid mistakes like scheduling important group meetings at the same time as i'm supposed to have a class and deciding to dissect my outlet adaptor with my swiss army knife, thereby ruining the only way that i have to power my computer. et cetera.
somewhere between our quiet day in sweden last saturday, and waking up to a house full of empty beer cans this morning (eerr... afternoon), everything took a very strange turn.
it's fine though. i'm actually having a blast.
but yeah. everybody who i said i'd phone but then didn't, and to who i owe emails and fb msgs, etc (you know who you are), i'm sorry i'm sorry i'm sorry. i think after wednesday things will stabilize a little. i think. maybe. i'll keep you posted.
pictures? ummm check facebook. it think there might be some unfortunate recent tags on me.
but here's a few more city shots and one of me and my housemate.
((oh one more thing - shouts out to my lil shvester and the KC senior girls' vball team! good luck at bartlett this afternoon! you were born ready.))
that look pretty much sums up my thursday night, i think.
looking out my window towards the just-set sun
the main KU library. hogwarts, anyone??? (there are even those old-school slidey ladders to get up to the high shelves!)
graffiti near my house
i really like this one.
no.
not even close.
so danish classes started last week
wow.
gong. show.
fortunately, i'm not doing it for credit, which means that i just have to put in enough effort to not completely embarrass myself. unfortunately, the amount of effort that it's gonna take just to get by is more than any of my credit courses combined.
i'm not trying to be judgmental, and i know i should be very PC and anthropology and blah blah blah. and i know that learning english is no piece of cake either...
but seriously.
danish is ridiculous.
written danish and spoken danish DO NOT MATCH EVEN A LITTLE BIT.
for example
the word "selvfølgelig" is pronounce "seføli"; "Jeg er" is pronounced "Yai"; and "hedder" is pronounced "he&$#ea" (weird sound that we don't have in english... it's like trying to pronounced a "d" without letting your tongue leave the bottom of your mouth) (wtf)
our most common in-class and homework activity is to listen to the cd that is saying the sentences that we have written in our book. and we have to go through the written sentences and cross out the letters that don't get pronounced and then circle the letters that are not pronounced 'the way they should be'. needless to say, by the time you get through it, there are so many marks on each sentence that you can't even read it anymore.
anyways
i'm not angry.
not frustrated.
no way.
i'm pretty much fluent.
also, the work book is very lovely and pretty, and i've got a system involving three different pens and a pencil. (taryn, you would be proud)
Fluency. i kid you not.
anyways
remember how i was saying that this all just felt like a "holiday" so far? ya. well. that all pretty much flew out the window sometime last week. all of a sudden i'm in way over my head. between the danish classes and the confusing poli-anthropological banter about networks and contextualization, and all the strange techno clubs, and the huge group presentation that i have to do on wednesday (1 hour, seven people. topic: Ethnicity and Political Anthropology), and the major important job interview that i have tomorrow, i'm just tryin to get by. also i keep making stupid mistakes like scheduling important group meetings at the same time as i'm supposed to have a class and deciding to dissect my outlet adaptor with my swiss army knife, thereby ruining the only way that i have to power my computer. et cetera.
somewhere between our quiet day in sweden last saturday, and waking up to a house full of empty beer cans this morning (eerr... afternoon), everything took a very strange turn.
it's fine though. i'm actually having a blast.
but yeah. everybody who i said i'd phone but then didn't, and to who i owe emails and fb msgs, etc (you know who you are), i'm sorry i'm sorry i'm sorry. i think after wednesday things will stabilize a little. i think. maybe. i'll keep you posted.
pictures? ummm check facebook. it think there might be some unfortunate recent tags on me.
but here's a few more city shots and one of me and my housemate.
((oh one more thing - shouts out to my lil shvester and the KC senior girls' vball team! good luck at bartlett this afternoon! you were born ready.))
that look pretty much sums up my thursday night, i think.
looking out my window towards the just-set sun
the main KU library. hogwarts, anyone??? (there are even those old-school slidey ladders to get up to the high shelves!)
graffiti near my house
i really like this one.until next time-
flowers and spring showers,
-ama
Sunday, February 15, 2009
my coffee cup goes everywhere with me
wow
(ps TARYN - i have NO idea how to pronounce the title of my blog... i found it in my danish phrase book... it means "Keep Refrigerated".... i start Danish language classes tomorrow, so i'll get back to you on that one...)
us in front of the best house in Sweden.
the castle
the best house in Sweden and the tallest building in Sweden (actually)
baby common marmoset! if i was gonna steal a baby, it would be this one.
pygmy marmoset... it wasn't in an enclosure at all, just in a big room with bats where people could wander around. it was strange. also very cool.
dinosaurs on the left, tamarin on the right. at this zooish type place, they housed a lot of animals of different species in the same enclosures (there were also big turtle things in this particular enclosure). it was really cool.
malmo! i like this picture... quaint houses, a cool mural, and the best street sign i've ever seen (i don't know what exactly it's supposed to mean though).
searching for a place to eat food
me and malmo city hall. note the sunglasses. it was nice to need to wear sunglasses for a change.
windmills in the channel, as seen from inside the train whilst crossing the bridge. windmills are almost as cool as graffiti and cranes (have i mentioned that i love graffiti and cranes? i might start a blog dedicated entirely to pictures of those two things...)
this is back in copenhagen, walking home from downtown (on friday, when it was also sunny!) ((Mom and Dad and Jen - the hotel where you are staying is in the background of this picture on the left... if you click on it to blow it up, you can see the hotel's sign clearly))
i count murals in the same category as "graffiti".... although i suppose they are somewhat different. perhaps i should go with "Street Art". either way, it's awesome.
this is my house after it snowed last week. the window in the top left hand corner of this picture is my room... and my balcony is right there where the wall ends.
this is my street. the name of which i cannot pronounce.
i did laundry last week. it was quite an adventure. there were three slots for different potions in the washing machine. i just guessed and dumped in a bunch of each thing that was on top of the machine. my clothes came out lovely and clean (although everything was tinted green from my towel cause apparently there is no "cold water" option in denmark) and smells very fresh. too fresh. my room still reeks of Danish Tide. sometimes it makes me choke a lot. anyways. these are my socks drying. the black socks have the days of the week in danish written on them. i love those socks. (... i have no idea why i decided to include this picture)
a whole week since my last post?
is it because i have been so crazy busy doing crazy amazing things, and have thus not had time?
or is it because i haven't really done much worthy of blogging lately?
.... i'll just leave you to wonder....
so
yesterday we went to sweden
just cause we can
it's about a 40 minute train ride to Malmö
there is a very cool bridge involved, too
in sweden it was about a billion degrees below zero. but very sunny and otherwise lovely.
we wandered around for a while and saw lots of very practical furniture and very blond people.
also there were some pretty quaint little streets, and a castle, and a farmer's market, and i went to a reptile zoo thing that had like five different species of monkeys. it was pretty neat. i really have a thing for monkeys. also there were some huge turtles and iguanas and snakes, so that was pretty cool. animals that look like dinosaurs are always awesome. after dinner we sortof got stranded in sweden. all trains to Kobenhavn were cancelled and the sign said "take bus instead" (according to my Norwegian friend. as if I could make any sense of Swedish. it might be even more ridiculous than Danish. maybe.) but do you think that we could find a bus? or even a person who could point us in the right direction? Sweden is a very strange place. but after two hours the trains started again. so that was nice.
you'll be interested to know, i'm sure, that people in Malmo also leave their children outside in buggies on the street. we were eating lunch upstairs in a cafe, and the couple beside us had a little baby monitor thing. and as we were leaving, the mom went outside and pulled the tiniest little human that i've ever seen out of a buggy that was parked by the cafe window. this kids-in-the-street thing still gets me every time. once, on oprah, i saw that it's common in iceland too. but my norwegian friend thinks it's very strange so apparently it doesn't happen in Norway. I am curious about finland... i will have to go there. (But then, of course, we got to thinking - who would steal a baby? Honestly, what are the chances of somebody who just happens to be THAT crazy wandering by whilst you're enjoying your lunch and your two-month-old is siesta-ing outside? Do people who are THAT kind of crazy even exist? Who wants to steal a newborn? I don't even think I've ever seen that happen on CSI...)
ok well. i was discussing with my friend the other day how so far this doesn't feel like an academic exchange. i just feel as if i'm on holiday. i have a five day weekend (wtf!?). one of my classes is a super slacker "Course in Danish Culture"... it's a lecture for international students, so do you really think that i will do those readings? My other class, however, will be much more intense, it's just that the ball hasn't gotten rolling yet. we had one class two weeks ago, and then last week it was cancelled. however, it's a pretty intense seminar course with lots of master's students and i have about 200 pages to read for it this week. THEREFORE, today, tomorrow, and tuesday, I am actually going to attempt to do my first installment of KU homeworking/studying. i'm pretty excited about it. i hope it doesn't harm my health. i'll let you know how it goes.
(ps TARYN - i have NO idea how to pronounce the title of my blog... i found it in my danish phrase book... it means "Keep Refrigerated".... i start Danish language classes tomorrow, so i'll get back to you on that one...)
us in front of the best house in Sweden.
the castle
the best house in Sweden and the tallest building in Sweden (actually)
baby common marmoset! if i was gonna steal a baby, it would be this one.
pygmy marmoset... it wasn't in an enclosure at all, just in a big room with bats where people could wander around. it was strange. also very cool.
dinosaurs on the left, tamarin on the right. at this zooish type place, they housed a lot of animals of different species in the same enclosures (there were also big turtle things in this particular enclosure). it was really cool.
malmo! i like this picture... quaint houses, a cool mural, and the best street sign i've ever seen (i don't know what exactly it's supposed to mean though).
searching for a place to eat food
me and malmo city hall. note the sunglasses. it was nice to need to wear sunglasses for a change.
windmills in the channel, as seen from inside the train whilst crossing the bridge. windmills are almost as cool as graffiti and cranes (have i mentioned that i love graffiti and cranes? i might start a blog dedicated entirely to pictures of those two things...)
this is back in copenhagen, walking home from downtown (on friday, when it was also sunny!) ((Mom and Dad and Jen - the hotel where you are staying is in the background of this picture on the left... if you click on it to blow it up, you can see the hotel's sign clearly))
i count murals in the same category as "graffiti".... although i suppose they are somewhat different. perhaps i should go with "Street Art". either way, it's awesome.
this is my house after it snowed last week. the window in the top left hand corner of this picture is my room... and my balcony is right there where the wall ends.
this is my street. the name of which i cannot pronounce.
i did laundry last week. it was quite an adventure. there were three slots for different potions in the washing machine. i just guessed and dumped in a bunch of each thing that was on top of the machine. my clothes came out lovely and clean (although everything was tinted green from my towel cause apparently there is no "cold water" option in denmark) and smells very fresh. too fresh. my room still reeks of Danish Tide. sometimes it makes me choke a lot. anyways. these are my socks drying. the black socks have the days of the week in danish written on them. i love those socks. (... i have no idea why i decided to include this picture)until next time!
sunshine and snowflakes,
-ahsbury
Sunday, February 8, 2009
soon i will buy a bike
ok i would just like to start off by saying that i am fully aware that "they changed the constitutional amendment" is in no way a correct phrase in the sense that i was using... i don't know much at all about constitutions and amending them, but i do believe that i was trying to either say "they changed the constitution" or "they passed a constitutional amendment"... somehow those two got smashed together and i ended up sounding pretty knobbish.
i will do my best to bring back this fashion. that is A Hot Hat.
the second creepiest thing in Denmark.
the absolutely number one most creepy thing in Denmark. (and i'm sure that it could make top five in the world)
my favourite green statue so far.
this is a church near a weird castle island that my housemate and i happened upon yesterday. note the beautiful rainy weather. it's ok though. it takes a lot more than bad weather to dampen my spirits. (i think that might have sortof been a pun.)
bikes! (does this picture give the illusion that i am very fast?)
i like this street. colourful houses are all kinds of great.
a stump that has been carved. there are three people in this stump. can you spot them all?
i live in Frederiksberg and at all of the bus stops there is this add/sign/WTF (and also an add for a danish grey's anatomy show.... picture soon). i have no idea what the deal is with this sign/add/poster. but i like it.
in some random garden that we found - i just really like that duck house. although, probably there is an abundance of smelly duck poo in there.
parliament? maybe?
the ceiling of a very cool dome church thinger
a statue of one of the Frederick Christians or Christian Fredericks. also, that is the queen's house behind it.
me at Nyhavn (i am thinking of doing a "Spot The Mug" series... like Where's Waldo but sponsored by Starbucks)
city hall in the fog and rain
anyways
on to more important things.
(i am really liking the list theme, so i think i'll stick to that. organized blogs are the best blogs.)
LIST #1: more important things
1. my cleverness: did i tell you about my sneaky class attendance trick? for one of my classes, you have to go to 80% of the classes in order to get the credit. which is no problem, it's very interesting. but it occurred to me, what if i have kidney problems and/or i go travelling and/or i sleep through it. it's only once per week for 13 weeks. so missing even 3 classes is bad. but, to take attendance, they send around a sheet and you have to sign it. and there is a spot on the sheet for every week (ie. it'll be the exact same sign in sheet at each class). and so they were like "even though there are 100 of you, we can see the signatures, so we'll know if they don't match" (ie if you get your friend to sign you in). this worries me. so. i was very clever and sneaky. and instead of signing my special fancy loopy illegible signature, i made up a signature. it's just a big letter M with a horizontal ling through it (like AA or even AMA). SO EASY TO FORGE.
i. am. already a great slacker. ((Note that this amazing plan is entirely contingent on my ability to make a friend in this class.))
2. this weekend: this weekend has been pretty cool. my housemate and i, on friday and saturday, wandered for hours and hours and hours. we went back to all the neat places that we saw on the bus tour so that we could check them out on foot. this meant, however, walking non stop for about 6 hours a day (the alternative would be trying to figure out the bus system... which is totally crazy and not in english. also very expensive) my feet are now covered in blisters and my calve and shin muscles might never full recover. but it was totally worth it. i am totally rocking the Being A Tourist thing. it's also very possible that i am falling head-over-heels in love with copenhagen.
3. today: a bunch of us went to the Glyptotek... basically a really strange museum. with millions of statues and busts. it also just happened to contain the creepiest and the second creepiest things in denmark. please see the pictures.
4. speaking of statues: denmark LOVES statues. there are green statues all over this city. most of them are of previous kings. who were all named Frederick Christian or Christian Frederick (not even kidding. apparently it just alternated for about 700 years) (ok that may have been a gross exaggeration. but a long time). some of them are of other things though. such as The Thinker, and The Little Mermaid, and there is an angel one that i really like.
LIST #2: the next things on the interesting things in cph list:
10. at the grocery store, most vegetables come in scannable packaging. which is a) a huge waste and b) much faster for the cashiers. HOWEVER, there is some sort of strange process that occurs for the few vegetables that are not in a package/bag/wrapper with a bar code. i tried to buy an onion the other day and the cashier held it up and said something in danish with a major "duh" attitude and i said "sorry sorry english!" in my apologetic tone and she said "how much is this?" and i was like... ummm... it's an onion? so i just didn't get it. then i noticed at the grocery store today, there are scales with special buttons that have (i think) the danish words for the produce on them. and i think you put the thing on the scale then push the right button then it spits out a ticket with the price or a bar code or something on it. unfortunately, not speaking any danish is therefore interfering with my ability to purchase vegetables. i hope that my first danish class is a produce vocab lesson. fingers crossed.
11. the thing about the abundance of statues should probably be on this list too
12. danish people like fire. a lot. there are candles everywhere. standard canadian fire safety rules DO NOT apply over here. in peoples rooms, in kitchens, in cafes and restaurants. even in the streets, outside of restaurants, there are torches and candles and stuff. it makes everywhere very very cozy and i love it. unfortunately, however, it's only a matter of time before i get lit on fire.
ok
that's it for now, i think
not much interesting to say
i am loving having all of this time. at first it was somewhat daunting and lonely. but now, i am settling in and meeting people and loving having a five day weekend every week. time. so much time.
time to wander and explore and discover and get lost in this strange and beautiful city.
ok, speaking of time, it's picture time. the best time!
cupcakes and puppies and big fluffy clouds,
AA
i will do my best to bring back this fashion. that is A Hot Hat.
the second creepiest thing in Denmark.
the absolutely number one most creepy thing in Denmark. (and i'm sure that it could make top five in the world)
my favourite green statue so far.
this is a church near a weird castle island that my housemate and i happened upon yesterday. note the beautiful rainy weather. it's ok though. it takes a lot more than bad weather to dampen my spirits. (i think that might have sortof been a pun.) 
bikes! (does this picture give the illusion that i am very fast?)
i like this street. colourful houses are all kinds of great.
a stump that has been carved. there are three people in this stump. can you spot them all?
i live in Frederiksberg and at all of the bus stops there is this add/sign/WTF (and also an add for a danish grey's anatomy show.... picture soon). i have no idea what the deal is with this sign/add/poster. but i like it.
in some random garden that we found - i just really like that duck house. although, probably there is an abundance of smelly duck poo in there.
parliament? maybe? 
the ceiling of a very cool dome church thinger
a statue of one of the Frederick Christians or Christian Fredericks. also, that is the queen's house behind it.
me at Nyhavn (i am thinking of doing a "Spot The Mug" series... like Where's Waldo but sponsored by Starbucks)
city hall in the fog and rain
CITY HALL IN THE SUN
TODAY IT WAS SUNNY
i seem to have neglected to mention this above... today it was sunny. i saw the sun briefly last sunday, but it was only for a couple of minutes and the rest of my time here it has been grey and rainy. which is really not a problem. but, today the sky was blue with big billowy white and grey clouds. and the sun shone for extended periods of time. and it was pretty amazing. it was strange to see the streets that i have become so accustomed to in the fog and grey, all lit up. the colours of the buildings were even more vivid and copenhagen had a spring in its step. i am very excited for more sun. shining it's spotlight on this small corner of the world. (too corny? yes. m'bad)
Thursday, February 5, 2009
clåsses! big håts! lists!
so i wrote a whole long post that was basically a blow-by-blow of my life since the last post. then i realized that was pretty boring. so i'm just gonna post lists and pictures instead.
LIST #1: things that i learned on the international student bus tour of copenhagen
1. in denmark, there is one bike for every foot. ie. 5 million danish people, 10 million bikes.
2. the military marching band thing that i saw before class on wednesday happens every day, just before noon. they march from somewhere (i can't remember where) to the huge house place where the queen lives.
3. the soldiers' comically huge, totally ridiculous fur hats are made of "canadian bear skin"... i kid you not. when i accidentally gasped loudly, i was told that they only use bears that have "died of natural causes" (.... ummmm... ok?)
4. when the previous king of denmark had three daughters and no sons, they changed the constitutional amendment so that they could have a queen (i like how it was so casual (at least that is how danes talk about it, casually but with pride)... i feel like anywhere else it would be such a huge big deal to amend a constitution (especially in such a way that puts a powerful and traditionally man-dominated position into the hands of a woman)... but here it was like, well whatever, let's have a queen then) (interestingly, it is totally normal to hear danish people say "our king is a queen")
5. on the first and third monday of every month, at 9:45 am, danish people can go to the queen's house and meet her. she receives about 50 visitors each time. the only prerequisite is that you wear "your best clothes outfit"... but no appointment is necessary. apparently it is usually scholars and diplomats and people with important things to say that go to see her. however. enter alie, from the land of the bear-skin hats.... i'd better just pencil that in my agenda right away ("monday, feb 16, 2009: go say hi to the queen, remember to scrape old food off sweater first, wear fanciest running shoes and least hobo-esque pants").
6. by 5 pm it is too dark to really appreciate a bus tour
LIST #2: to be added to the master list of interesting things here:
5. people leave their babies (in the stroller/buggy things) out in the streets a lot when they go in to shops and cafes. ... like, if the place is too small for a buggy to get around, or has stairs at the entrance, and the baby is asleep, they just park it outside then go in. it makes me nervous. i feel like i should stand nearby and discretely guard the baby. but also, i think that's pretty cool.
6. at the supermarket, people always ALWAYS always put the divider stick down at the end of their order on the conveyor belt. always. i've never seen anybody forget. i get so nervous that i'm going to forget. i'm pretty sure that all of copenhagen would stop, turn towards me, point, and make that 'hoh hoh' noise that they make at people who don't obey the pedestrian traffic lights.
7. at the Netto supermarket nearest to my house, they don't sell peanut butter. i'm not sure how a store can claim to be a store, let alone a supermarket, and not sell peanut butter. i'm also not sure what i'm going to eat tomorrow, since i ran out of PB today. what if i starve?
8. i've had two classes so far (i only have three courses this semester and one of them doesn't start until april, when one of the ones that i have now ends... it's confusing but i only have five hours of class each week, and i have a five day weekend, so whatever) and the first one, that was supposed to be three hours, started 45 minutes late, ended 1 hour early, and had two 15-minute breaks. the second class was supposed to be two hours but it started 30 minutes late and had a 20 minute break. i feel like i am missing some vital piece of information ("psst alie, your watch is set to the wrong time zone..."). but actually i like it. it's very relaxed.
9. my extended interactions with danish people (and by extended, i mean over 5 minutes, so more than just ordering food or paying for something or asking directions - but never really very long at all.... mostly i only talk to myself and other international students) have all followed a certain pattern - the dane at first comes across as unfriendly and mildly annoyed with my existence, and then i try to say something in danish (such as my street name, or "hello"), or i respond with "no! i am canadian!" when asked where in the US i am from, and they laugh and become the friendliest person i've ever met. it's very strange. they are all (or at least the four or five that i've spoken with) very very friendly and full of questions, but first their i-think-you're-an-annoying-tourist shell needs to be cracked.
ok sorry, picture time.
lost in copenhagen. i like the huge danish flag that is hanging right out over the road.
this is called "the palace" and it's a movie theatre... also, it's a very offensive shade of bubblegum
"the thinker"... very famous sculpture that i stumbled upon on my way home from class today
whoa! see that little rail thing on the left side of the stairs!?!? that is for bikes! cool! so that when you are walking your bike down the stairs it doesn't smash into each step, instead you just put the tires in the rail and it rolls down smoothly. holy moly clever.
the class that i had today was on this really weird far away campus, south of the city, on the other side of downtown from where i live. it was this strange barren wasteland (not even fields, WASTELAND) everywhere, and then out of nowhere there is this huge, brand new, university complex with all kinds of fancy space-age buildings... so i took pictures of course. that one is the black one.
this one is the one with the crazy bridge... also note the human-made river/canal thing that is running through the middle of this campus... so random...
not sure what these are... maybe construction headquarters.... but i just thought they were super cute and colourful
the hats! they are huge! enormous! ... why aren't these men toppling over!? (ps. moment of silence for all of those black bears that "died of natural causes")
i climbed up "the round tower" a few days ago, and this is taken from the top, looking down at a portion of the main pedestrian street.
these are the stairs right near the top of the tower. mostly i was impressed with the lovely shade of dark blue on the walls.
competition for who can come up with the best caption/meaning for this strange warning sign (it was at the top lookout level of the round tower). i think it means "be impressed with the view"... what do you think?
another shot of the pedestrian street (these pictures are not exactly in the right order)
before the cool blue stairs, there is 200 meters of windey going-up ramp (instead of stairs)... it's pretty cool, i've never seen anything like it.
haw haw.
more cute and colourful buildings... the novelty still hasn't worn off for me yet, so i continue to take many pictures of places like this... sorry.
ok, this sign i understand.
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