Life after Denmark

Reverse culture shock does exist:
1. I have been reading the date backwards, unless the day of the week is larger then 12, then I get really confused before I realize what happened.
2. Despite the fact that it is almost summertime, I am more pale then I have ever been in my life, which means, according to Mom that wearing white makes me look terrible.
3. I attempted to play tennis. That attempt failed
4. Driving is exciting again, until I had to drive home from Elon in the dark and pouring rain
5. Despite the fact that I really need to diet and exercise after spending an exerciseless semester abroad, I can't help to indulge in all the foods I have not been able to eat for the past 4 months
6. I keep trying to find the bikes
7. It has been a week, and aside from looking forward to my 21st birthday, I am really only looking forward to a Keops reunion, whenever that will be

In other news I am a published scientist :)

Winding Down

The bittersweet news is that I only have 5 days left in Copenhagen, and while finals and the cold weather are certainly pushing me to be happy about my departure on Sunday the fact is that I am going to be terribly upset on Sunday. All I can say is thank goodness my friend Jennifer was here this weekend to force me out of my studying hole and see the last few things in Copenhagen that I had yet to make time for. She was an amazing guest and we had a great time wandering around Copenhagen in the dreary weather and going to Tivoli. Unfortunately after she left it was time to buckle down and get studying for my 3 finals this week. As per usual I got one of the worst finals schedules ever, and I will be studying until Friday, but I thought I would take a break and decompress a little. In doing so I created some lists, of things I will miss about Copenhagen, things I probably will not miss about Copenhagen and things I am excited to come home to.



So thats all I can think of for now, I am sure I will be able to think of more as the night progresses.

Bornholm Bike Trip :)

A weekend full of biking makes you realize 2 things. First, The Tour de France now looks impossible (not that i actually thought I could do it before, but you get the point) and second, I never would have imagined how much someone's butt can hurt after biking. These 2 things aside I had an amazing time in Bornholm over the weekend. Bornholm is an island about a 6 hour boat ride away from Copenhagen, that is often called the Hawaii of Denmark. After boarding an overnight ferry at 11pm Thursday night we arrived on the island at 6am, exhausted for sure. Me and my friends grabbed a bite to eat, grabbed a nap, and then grabbed a bike for a loooooong day. The weather was not on our side in the least, in fact, there were 15mph winds blowing at us the entire time and it poured down rain when I had a flat tire. These things might make it sound like I did not have a good time, but in fact the exact opposite is true. I had an amazing day, despite how utterly tiring it was.


We had a fun picnic outside of a school, had some amazing home made ice cream, and traveled back to the mid 1800s in a little store. And also slept like rocks that night. Which was good because we were off on our travels again! We visited a blown glass workshop and then stopped at the cliffs and relaxed in the sun for a while


All in all it was an awesome weekend, with awesome people. I think my abs got just as good of a work out as my legs did I was laughing so hard. But you will not be seeing me biking around France any time soon!

Tall Ship Sailing!

Last weekend I signed up for the DIS trip to go tall ship sailing. I could not have picked a better way to spend my weekend! It was perfect weather, and despite it being a little chilly on the boat, it was incredibly relaxing. As soon as we boarded the boat we were divided into teams so we could help with various tasks around the ship. We started off hoisting the sails and preparing to set sail, with the help of our ship dog! Everyone on the boat was awesome and we got to know each other pretty fast, before I knew it, it was time for lunch. All the meals were cooked in the tiny tiny kitchen the entire time, which was pretty impressive. Lunch was good, and after we cleaned up we headed to shore to go on a short hike. After about an hour we headed back to the boat and sailed towards port. My group was in charge of making the cake, and we almost added 2 liters of butter into the mixture, good thing our tour leader stopped us! We reached port at about 8pm and proceeded to eat dinner. Then we I went on a night walk with a few new friends as everyone else cleaned up. After an exhausting day, we went to bed on the boat, awaiting my 4am wake up call for night watch. Just about the only good part about the night watch was getting to see the sun rise a little bit, but it was really cold and I was really tired, so I was not too happy about having to wake up then. Thankfully I got to go back to sleep at 5am and slept like a rock. The next day was spent sailing again, and I got to climb the rigging all the way up to the top! That was kind of scary. Then my group was in charge of making lunch. That was quite a challenge in the tiny kitchen, but we only had to warm things up. We arrived back to the original port at about 4pm that day, cleaned the boat, and headed on our way. It was a very awesome experience that went by way too quickly.



In other news, I am a little bruised from the soccer match I had for one of my classes, against some asylum seekers we helped in the beginning of the semester. I have hardly ever played soccer, and pretty much suck at it but it was still really fun. I only fell twice, haha. Also, I am preparing to go to Bornholm, an island about an 8 hour boat ride from Copenhagen. Hopefully the weather holds up long enough for us to bike all over the island and see some of the finest sandy beaches in the world!

Living in a Midsummer Night's Dream

I posted before that I feel like my life here in Denmark has been like a dream, and last night I got to experience dreaming on stage in the Royal Ballet Performance of A Midsummer Night's Dream. It is safe to say that I have been going through a little theatre withdrawal, and I felt slightly homesick because last night was also my school's greek week dance competition. Needless to say I think watching the Royal Ballet perform was an acceptable remedy to both of these problems.

Last night's trip to the theatre was also a mixture of really great luck. My friend Meg and I decided that Wednesday night would be a great night to attend the ballet and were going to head to the box office to get half off tickets after classes, but i woke up to an awesome email from DIS. Essentially the Volcanic eruptions finally paid off in my favor. DIS was supposed to sponsor some sort of conference this week, and as a part of that they bought ballet tickets for those who were planning on attending. However, due to the Volcano, DIS suddenly had 500 kroner tickets (100ish dollars) on their hands with no one to attend the show. DIS then turned to the students, offering the tickets for a mere 200 kroner (35ish dollars). Meg, Miriam and I jumped at the chance and got our tickets!

We arrived at the Royal Theatre about 45 minutes before show time and struggled a slightly to find our seats. Little did we know we did not have to walk very far, because our seats were in the 9th row! Not only were our seats amazing, but a women sitting close to us informed us that the Queen of Denmark would be in attendance!!!!!! I don't think I have ever been so excited for a ballet performance! Not only is Midsummer Night's Dream one of my favorite plays, but I was very excited to see it translated into a ballet. After the Queen arrived, to a standing audience of course, the ballet started and suddenly the stage was transformed into a beautiful Shakespearian world. The dancers seemed to float across their stage in their beautiful costumes, and their ability to convey a story without the use of words fascinated me. Act 1 came to a close much faster then expected, the ballerinas had successfully transformed my world into theirs. After intermission, Act 2 started and once again my world was transformed. The wedding scene, which is the first in the act was by far my favorite and I simply did not want it to end. Time flew by again and I found myself clapping for the curtain call. The ballet was over :( However, it is safe to say that last night was one of my favorite nights in Copenhagen, and as we clapped for the performers, I glanced over at the Queen, who was absolutely beaming at the performers, and so was I.

Interlaken: The Final Stop

The final destination on Kelli and I's agenda was cozy Interlaken, Switzerland. The quaint Swiss town was absolutely adorable and was the perfect place to end our journey. After we checked in and got settled we wandered around the town and found the perfect place for dinner: Mexican! The only problem was, every thing in this town was about 30 dollars for a meal, so Kelli and I split a huge plate of guacamole for dinner, which was totally fine with me! The view from our hostel balcony was breathtaking as well, it overlooked almost the whole town. We went to bed early in order to prepare for our hang gliding adventure the next day!



At 9:00am sharp our new friends Bernie and Ed picked us up from our hostel. These 2 jokesters would be our pilots for our adventure in the air! We joked with them the entire way up the mountain, about how they "just bought the business at the bar 2 nights ago," all in attempts to put our nerves at ease. However, I think it was safe to say at this point that I was not hardly as nervous as I was excited. After a short hike up to the launch area I helped Ed assemble our glider, suited up, and had a little bit of a photo shoot! We also had to practice our launch, so that we could run in-sync down the hill. After 2 practice runs, and a good-bye to Kelli, we started our run! 3-2-1 step step run!!!!!! Suddenly I was in the air like a bird. There is simply nothing like this feeling, I wish I got to do that every day.


After landing safely we waited for Kelli's glider to land as well and headed back to the hostel. Hang gliding was by far my most favorite thing I got to do while traveling. And we still had the entire day ahead of us. We got McDonalds for lunch, completing our cycle! And wandered around the city. We found an awesome park where we could watch other hang gliders and para-gliders sail through the air. It was really cool to see what exactly we had done, but while sitting on the ground. Kelli and also found a place to make our own jewelry, and we both made bracelets to remember the best 2 weeks of spring break ever. I was happy to head home after Interlaken, traveling is exhausting, but I loved every moment.

Rome and All Day Field Study # 2

After Florence Kelli and I headed to Roma! After arriving mid morning and checking into our hostel we jumped onto the metro and headed downtown to see the city. First stop: Colosseum!



Stunning, such amazing history in this city. After the Colosseum Kelli and I visited the Palatine Hill, the Roman Forum, and then headed over to Trevi fountain to eat gelato and throw a coin in:



Then we sat on the Spanish steps and people watched, including watching the crazy people try to sell noise makers. Then we headed over to the Pantheon and finally got dinner at the same place Kelli visited with her family 6 years ago. Needless to say it was an exhausting day but I enjoyed being in Rome so much and could not wait to get up and see the Vatican the next day.

We spent the majority of the day walking through the Vatican museum, gazing at amazement at the Sistine Chapel, waiting in line to enter the beautiful Basilica, walking through the tombs of the Popes and hunting for the nearest McDonalds to continue our quest for it in each country.



After such a long day, we headed back to our hostel where we looked for a place to eat. When we were at the front desk, our friends Meg and Bridget were there and we were so excited to see them! We had no idea they were going to be in Rome at the same time as us, so we spent the evening, after a delicious last Italian dinner, catching up with them over gelato.

Now for Field Study number 2! Yesterday we went to the Odense Zoo and the Fjord Research center to see some Marine Mammals in action. We learned a lot about the training aspect for the animals and how it makes handling them in every day life much easier. We watched a sea lion feeding, watched the seals, watched a manatee feeding, saw the trainer do an exam on a lioness, and wandered around the zoo. I loved this zoo! Most of the exhibits were multi species and their training solutions were very different and innovative. They were also breeding most species in the zoo, including the Tapir, who recently had a baby, the manatees the lions and the tortoises. Then we headed over to the research center to watch a seal feeding and see trainers interact with porpoises. All in all it was a very educational weekend and I thoroughly enjoyed our Marine mammals field study.