London!

After visiting London from the 17th-21st of October, I've decided that I absolutely want to live there someday!  I got into the airport at about 9:45 and after being hassled for about ten minutes by the customs department, met up with my friend Courtney in the airport!  Since she hasn't found a permanent place yet, we booked a hostel that night, which was really gross.  It ended up being 80 dollars though, despite being the grossest accomodations I've ever experienced in my life! However, since we were just sleeping there (I was sooo tired from traveling) it was perfectly fine.  

The next morning, we booked a much nicer hostel and started all of the sightseeing!  The first thing we did was go to the London Dungeon, which is basically a huge haunted house that takes about an hour and a half to walk through.  A bunch of actors were dressed up and walked around scaring people as you looked at the exhibits, which kept maki

ng me really nervous, so they definitely did their job well.  The best part about the whole thing was probably the ride at the end, where you are buckled in and you do a little free fall.  The picture of us on the ride is pretty funny.

My favorite visit of the trip, though, was probably Madame Toussaud's, which is the wax museum!  Each of the respective rooms were set up to accommodate the different wax characters.  For example, in the first room there were tons of celebrities that you could take pictures with while walking around on a red carpet.  There were other rooms that contained different sports figures or political leaders.  We took so many pictures with all of the wax people because they were so realistic.

Besides these two museums, we also did lots of other fun things everyday, such as meet up with some of Courtney's friends from culinary school for a big Chinese brunch; visit places such as Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square and the London Bridge; and even rode the London Eye!  The various meals we had, though expensive, were absolutely amazing and totally worth the price.  I would like to personally discredit the stereotype that all food in England is bad!  I was especially excited to try out the Indian food, which was very impressive.

I was sad to leave London on the 21st since I was getting used to where everything was in London and taking the metro all over the place.  However, I know I'll be back someday soon since I loved everything about the city, especially the British accents!!

Brussels/The Hague/Amsterdam

Last week I went on my study tour to Brussels, The Hague and Amsterdam, which was so much fun!  The majority of our time was spent in Brussels since the EU has most of its dealings there.  It was very cool getting to meet with representative from te Common Foreign and Security Policy, the Danish ambassador to the EU, the European Commission, NATO and the European Parliament just to name a few.  We really got a first-hand look of the meetings and got to hear the perspectives of the people working there.  After intently listening and taking notes about what they had to say, we were always happy to have some delicious dinners and snacks: Belgian waffles, fries and beer...all the famous foods of Belgium!

At nighttime, Brussels has a lot of fun things to do.  There are so many restaurants to try, but whenever we walked down certain alleys, some of the men who tried to pull us into their respective restaurants were very sleazy.  One of them, who was about 35 years old, even bought my friend Becca a rose and made her kiss him.  Besides eating though, there are tons of bars and clubs open all night, and two of the nights in Brussels we went dancing at the Irish Pub, and I met lots of other Americans from a study abroad group that my friend from school (Shanthi) is studying at!  Unfortunately, she wasn't there but I talked to lots of people who knew her, which was exciting.

After Brussels, we headed to The Hague, where we had the most delicious dinner ever.  Our group leaders bought us tons of pitchers of wine, too, so we were all pretty happy by the time we left.  After dinner, we all went out to the bars together and had a good bonding experience with the whole group.  The next morning we went to the ICTY (International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia) and learned about some of the terrible crimes that had been committed in the former Yugoslavia and what they were doing to bring justice to the victims.  We were supposed to attend a case hearing, but unfortunately, it was cancelled for the day so we were all a little disappointed about that.

However, we got to head to Amsterdam a little bit early because of the cancellation.  There were definitely a lot of cool sights to see there, but I didn't have much time to do anything but eat dinner and go on the canal tour with my group because I had to catch my plane to London.  I had been planning to hang out with my friends for a while longer, but I'm extremely glad I played it on the safe side, since I ended up getting pretty confused in the Amsterdam airport.

Overall, though, my experience in Brussels and The Hague was so much fun and academic at the same time.  The only bad thing about it was how fast it all went by: we were shocked to wake up on the 17th and realize it was our last day!

Kultur Natten + Halloween i Tivoli!

So this past week was amazingly stressful...but as soon as midterms were over, it was time to have fun!!! On Friday, some friends and I attended a city-wide festival called "Kultur Natten" or "Culture Night", which I loved! Basically, for 75 kroner, we had access to every museum, the city hall, the prisons, the churches, the towers, the zoo, etc. and we could listen to free concerts or taste traditional Danish beer or food...all with free transportation from the bus system!  The first thing we did was check out the Round Tower, which you could climb to the top of and look out at all of Copenhagen.  It was fun climbing to the top because it was a gradual ramp instead of stairs.  There was also an observatory room with a huge telescope where you could do some stargazing and a gorgeous church at the bottom of the tower.

After that, we caught a bus to the other side of town and headed to an old bath house, which was of course very exciting!  The whole place smelled of amazing aromatherapy oils, but we didn't end up getting the spa body treatment since they suggested we have bathing suits. However, we did get to soak our feet with a warm sea salt scrub in a candlelit room while enjoying a calming Danish concert.  We had to be shushed by all the Danes in the room though because we were the typical noisy Americans when they were trying to enjoy the music.  

On the way out, I saw lots of people getting acupuncture done, which is something I have always wanted to do!  I was a little sad I missed out on trying that, but at least my feet felt great...we walk all the time here so they needed that.

On the way back to the city, we had to stop and grab some filafel at the nearest cafe! Surprisingly, Copenhagen seems to be overrun by filafel; I guess they really enjoy it here, which is not a food I would have expected. In any case, I'm so glad since it's delicious and one of the relatively moderately priced dishes here.  

In the city, we met up with lots more friends and just kind of strolled around Copenhagen with the huge crowds of people.  Eventually, we decided to head into the Museum Erotica, which was a very interesting experience.  There were some very graphic pictures and statues, as well as a stripper pole for the visitors to use!  We had to try out the pole, but luckily for you Mom and Dad, I don't think I was really cut out for that.  

While we were visiting some animals later, I had the brilliant idea to climb on top of a big white statue of a cow.  The first problem was that the random man who boosted me up helped me up so I was sitting on it backwards.  So, even more brilliantly, I decided I would be able

 to turn around while still ON the cow, which is the point when I slipped off the cow and landed hard on my back on the concrete.  It's kind of a miracle that I'm not severely hurt, but I really wanted to sit on the cow so I was more careful when climbing up the second time.  After that, we went to pet the real cows, which were very cute.  

However, I think that when I fell I lost my wallet, which was a huge dilemma.  Instead of going to the karaoke bar, as we had planned, we spent the night running around looking for my wallet in a panic.  I eventually found it this morning at the police station, and I'm so thankful someone was honest enough to turn it in, although there was some money missing.

Then, this afternoon, we headed to Tivoli Gardens, which is a famous amusement park, since it was all dressed up for Halloween!  We mostly walked around and took random pictures of ourselves, but we also got to do a hay maze, eat some delicious food, watch a performance or two, and shop in the cute little stores.  Unfortunately, we didn't end up going on any rides because they are SO expensive...I'm talking at least 20 bucks per ride.  We were happy enough eating and experiencing the culture, though, so it was a lot of fun!!

Now, it's time to go to Brussels, The Hague, Amsterdam, London, Seville, Rome and Florence!!!  Even though Copenhagen is so much fun, I'm glad to see new countries in Europe!!

Meeting my Visiting Family

Today was the day I got to meet my visiting family!!! I was sooo nervous to meet them and was afraid to get off the train in Hundige (the station where I was meeting them), but as soon as we pulled into the driveway and sat down for brunch, they were so friendly!  They were very curious about America and my studies, and they have an 18-year-old son who is very easy to talk to.  He is planning to visit America when he turns 21 and he definitely wants to go to Seattle, which I of course encouraged.

I was expecting us to enjoy a nice brunch and then to take the train home to Albertslund, but they suggested that we do something fun in Copenhagen.  They gave me a little tour of the city, telling me about its history, showing me where they worked, etc.  We ended up going to the Rosenborg Castle, where we got to see the crown jewelry and tour the castle where the royalty used to live.  Unfortunately, I again forgot to bring my camera, but I'm sure a lot of the beautiful architecture, paintings and jewelry are pictured online.  The most amazing part of the castle was the ball room on the third floor, where they keep the king and queen's thrones guarded by big gold lions.  I don't remember the last time I saw so much wealth in one place; it was overwhelming.  

Afterwards, they asked if they could drive me home, which was so nice since I didn't have to take the train back!  I was a little worried that they would not want to see me again, but when they dropped me off at my kollegium, they invited me over again and made sure I had their number.  I'm not going to be able to see them for a while since I'm going to be traveling soon, but I'm so excited I finally got to meet them and that they were such a great family!