Future party

Yesterday the Korrallan house (the dorms I live in) decided to have a futuristic party. It was pretty fun. Because we are an international dorm, there are people from all over the world here. It was really interesting to see what the different cultures definition of the future was. I liked looking at everyones outfits. Many were similar to the Jetsons. It was fun.

We had to take my friend to the hospital today. She ended up being fine. After the hospital we went to get her medicine from the pharmacy and it was amazing. They have this huge upstairs room filled with all the medicine and robot type machines got the different medicine and then it came down a slide. You got to see the robots at work from a huge TV that was in the pharmacy. It was pretty freakin cool. It felt like I was really in the future.

Pretty much all of today was boring. Did a lot of homework and got ready for the week. I did look up information on Lego Land. I am thinking about going soon. It is about two hours away from where I am. Its like a huge Disneyland made out of legos. I think its pretty cool.

I booked my tickets to Ireland, Scottland, and London! I booked all the hostels also. I am really excited about this. Mili and I are going to see some amazing things. We are definately going to a few castles while we are there. It is completely free to go to them. Here is a link to one that we are going to in Dublin, Ireland. Its amazing. Check it out if you want. http://www.dublincastle.ie/

Well I think thats all. More to come.

Afternoon alone

Today I went into Roskilde completely alone and it felt great! I went into all the shops that I never seem to have time for. I took time for myself and realized that I need to do that more often. I bought some really cute clothes and some boots that I am in love with. I discovered a store that is like Payless shoes only better. Obviously they were more expensive than the states but everything is.

After I went to Roskilde, I came back home and went grocery shopping. It was nice. My bags were a little heavy so I stopped in the grass and layed there listening to my IPOD. I ended up laying in the sun for an hour. It felt so good just to have some time to myself to think. I need to do that more often for myself.

So I have definitely made the decision to not stay in my Danish classes. I felt such a relief to make that decision. I hated that class and it really stressed me out.

For some reason, I feel like I need days off from school during the week. I never felt that way at the University of Washington but here at RUC I feel so drained. I think its because the classes are boring and I am not engaged in the conversations. Its not that its not interesting (well some of it isn't) its that I have already learned the material. I need some education that will stimulate my brain. I have being doing a lot of research on my own fields of study, which I have found to be helpful but still not as educational as I would expect out of school.

I have come to really appreciate the way that schools are set up in the states. I have come to appreciate many things about the states and I will never take those things for granted again.

MORE TO COME! Stay tuned!

Decisions

I decided that for my week off in October that I will go to Ireland and Scottland and maybe ever over to London. I am going to be traveling with Milli. I think it should be good because we get alone pretty well and have similar financial situations. I like hanging out with her and she wanted to go to the same places that I did so it all works out.

Last night was a CRAZY party. There were so many people everywhere on campus. There were people throwing up everywhere too. It was just so crazy. Even though there was a mass amount of people there, somehow our group always managed to find eachother in the shuffle. It was pretty fun. We dances from 11pm to 5:30 in the morning. I feel sorry for the people who have to clean everything up.

Oh and last night was the first time in my life that I used a port a potty. Pretty gross but not as bad as I thought they were going to be. Thought I would never have to use one but I guess I was wrong.

So I have had to do a lot of work around school the last few days. We had to form groups for our projects and that was EXTREMELY stressful. Every one just kept getting shuffled around and groups kept dissolving. It took 2 eight hour days to figure it all out. I am glad that it is over with now. I think that the even harder part of the project is coming up soon. That is the actual work that has to be done. I chose to be in a group that is focusing on prostitution in Denmark involving immigrants through a Marxist feminist lens. Pretty excited about the topic.

Anyway. I will have more soon. Going to a party tonight for Milli. She is turning 21!

Will write soon!!!

Danish Class

I cant believe the difference in teaching styles here compaired to the states. In my spanish classes that I took in college, there was usually a week or two of intro to the language. Then we would move on to talking to eachother in small conversations. Not here. No it is far different. My teacher started the class by asking every person in the room what there name was in danish. No english explainations and there was a lot of frustration when we had no clue what she was saying. Then we had to answer where we were from, our nationality, and what language we spoke with little to no explaination in front of the whole class. I was really stressed the whole time.

I dont think that I will be attending any more danish classes anytime soon. That was the most high stress situation I have been in for a while. I dont need all that added stress in my life. Got enough of that without the danish classes.

On top of it being utterly horrible, it was three hours long. Pretty frustrating.

After class I made taco's out of danish versions of mexican food and meat. It was... different. Was not anything like cooking in the states. It was interesting though. No way to compair the two.

The rest of my day was pretty dull. Watched the end of weeds on my computer and that was about it. Not a great end to an already pretty bad day. I miss home...

Write soon!

Nothing interesting

Nothing interesting has been occuring lately with me. I have been sick for about a week now. Its hard to buy any kind of medicine here because all the medicine boxes are locked behind registers and the boxes are all in Danish. Many of the people working these registers dont speak english which makes communication near impossible. I miss the convience of the states.

I also miss the food. I will never take food from America for granted again.

I did go to a more interesting class today. She actually talked to us like humans and not like we were children. Tomorrow I start my Danish classes. Not to excited about that. Languages other than my own have never been my strong suit. It should be interesting none the less.

Will be posting more soon!

Denmark's national museum

Yesterday we had a class outing to Denmarks national museum. I couldn't believe how nice this place was! It was completely amazing. There were rooms from the stone age all the way up to the present. I will be going back to get a better look at everything one of these days. We didn't get to seen even half of the museum. And the admission was free. Thats always a plus.

In the museum there were conficting images of immigration which was interesting to see. They present the immigrants as being something outside. They talked about how the immigrant only wants to keep their culture and they dont want to intergrate any of the danish culture into their own. I thought that was pretty interesting.

The way that they presented women was pretty typical. The woman always had on a dress and the younger women had full busts and the older women were "less attractive". All the women had really skinny waists. If the woman was being presented with a man, she was constantly "swooning" over him. Pretty typical of older European art.

The rest of the day I pretty much didnt do anything. I did eat at this really amazing Italian place down in Copenhagen. Christy and I shared a pizza. It was pretty dang good.

Tonight I think that a group of us are going out dancing. I hope everything works out because I would really like to go dancing tonight. They have a lot of dance clubs in both Copenhagen and Roskilde. Pretty exciting stuff!

I will have more coming your way!

Deer Park

Yesterday the group was required to go on an outing to deer park. It was amazing! There were deer everywhere and they were not afraid of us. It was a really nice site. We did some group activities that helped the group dynamics alot also. Then Serena made us a completely Danish lunch. It was a really good experience.

Then me and the girls went out to enjoy the town of Copenhagen. I wish that I was living in that town instead of Roskilde. Its still nice to be in Denmark in general though.

Tomorrow we are going to the Denmark national musuem. I hope that it is all that it is cracked up to be. I am excited to be able to go somewhere other than this dorm room. I do enjoy living here I just get so bored. We are basically out in the middle of the field.

There is a lot of stress that is evolving around money here. No one gets their financial aid until Sept. 26th. It is stressing a lot of people out because we cant do anything until that aid comes in. I would really like to be able to travel more around Denmark on my days off, but it seems pretty hard when you have no cash. I will be fine though. I am in an amazing country and I can do anything I want.

MORE TO COME!!!

Long education day

This was a really long school day. I had a three hour class with one ten minute break and then another hour and a half session. It was better than the friday class but still not good. I feel like they take one concept and for three hours talk about exactly the same thing. I dont know how to handle myself in these classes. We are in these little confined spaces also which make the class hard to stand. I feel like I want to scream while I am in classes. Very frustrating situations. I am just going to have to enjoy the experience rather than the education.

I dont really have any plans for the rest of the day but I know that I need to get out of this little tiny area that my school is located in. I feel so confined and lost. I am really missing the convinance of the states. I just hope that I get used to it and learn to love what I am doing.

Something either in the food or water is making a lot of people sick. I dont know what to stop eating or drinking to not keep getting sick. Many of the American international students feel the same way. I just want to go home!

I miss my family and friends a lot too. Especially my Evan. You never realize how much you love someone until you leave them for four months! How am I going to make it through this time without my support system? Its a weird experiance being all alone in a foreign country where you dont know all the rules and you have no one to lean on for support. I will make it through this, I know I will!

More to come soon!

Class

I went to my first real class yesterday and was offended the whole day. There was such a sense of the Danish people being the best "type" of people. The teacher, I felt, was completely ignorant to issues that were occuring around the world. She said things like being gay is a complete choice and that we can end racism with having laws that state that you cant say anything racist. When I asked if Denmark had freedom of speach she said that it was the country that was most open about the freedom of speach. It sounds like to me that if you make racial statements illigal that the people have less right to the freedom of speach. I am completely for the ending of racism but this teacher thinks that it will end with legal reform. I was just completely frustrated with the whole class. She made statements that were presented as facts instead of stating that they were her opinion. I felt like I didnt learn anything in that class other than patients. I guess they just teach differently in Denmark...

I did talk to this guy yesterday that is danish and he stated that the women in Denmark have more rights then the men do. I thought that that was interesting since the women in the US hardly have any rights. A woman has complete control over her body and has say in every issue in her life. Now if we could take women having no rights in the US and women having more rights in Denmark and somehow created a happy medium, maybe there could be equality between women and men. That would be great!

I am thinking about taking a job on campus but I dont know yet. There is a possition opening in the copy room, but its kinda nice just to be able to focus on my studies while I am here. The extra money would be nice though...

Yesterday I went to a dance club and had a blast! It was nice to be able to just hang out with my girlfriends and dance the night away. I really enjoy dancing, but I dont enjoy danish music much. Its a lot of techno. They did play a few American song though like Candy Shop and I kissed a girl, but that was about it. It was still a lot of fun.

MORE TO COME!

Getting settled

I never thought that getting settled in a different place would be so difficult. I feel like there is so much that needs to be done. I am lost in this new world. I went out and bought some things yesterday and the day before that would make me feel more at home. I bought some candles and cleaning supplies. I even rearranged my room so that it would feel like MY room not just a room that I am borrowing. I still feel very homesick....

Every time that I want to go somewhere I have to walk to get there. It is fine for now but it will start to get harder as the time goes by and the weather gets colder. I was thinking about joining a gym, but I have to walk there too and I dont know if I would be motivated enough to walk there every day to every other day. Its 299 kroner a month which is about $60. It is the most amazing place that I have ever seen though. There is a huge pool and hot tub, a sauna, of course the work out macines, all the work out classes you could possibly ask for, tanning, and personal training sessions. Its a pretty amazing place. I dont know it I could get up and go work out all time though. There is a gym on campus but I dont know what it is like. Maybe today I will go check it out. Its only $20 a month and I dont think that I have to pay an starting fee. The other gyms starting fee is $60 which is a lot!

So this really horrible thing happened the other day. The girls and I were getting off the train and a woman was trying to get on and she placed her hand in the door and was proceeding to move her body in as well and they slammed the door on her hand. The conductor saw what had happened and simply told her it was too late to get on the train. Another passenger had to come and pull her hand out of the door before the train started to move. I was appauled that the conductor didnt do anything or even cared to do anything. We talked about this in one of our classes. In this country, everyone is to look out for themselves. They are to take responsibility for themselves. They have no seatbelt laws or laws about food quality. I have seen many times the people that are preparing my food for me touch it with their hands or drop the food on the ground. Everyone is to look out for themselves. Its just so different then what I am used to.

More to come! Stay tuned!

Moving in

It has been an interesting couple of days. I moved from the apartment that we were staying at to a hostle then from the hostle to our long awaited dorms. Yesterday we walked over 5 miles with our luggage. My body is really tired from yesterday. It was a really long day, one that seemed like it wouldnt have an end.

When we finally got into our dorms, I discovered that they are really nice. I have a kitchenet, a bathroom, and a bedroom with two desks, a dresser, and a bed. All in all it is pretty nice. The dorm that I am in is the newest one on campus. I think that I will enjoy living here.

I have met some really interesting people while I have been here. Yesterday I met another girl from the states who was really home sick and had been here a week by herself. I like her and everyone else that we meet.

Roskilde is amazing. Its like being in the country compaired to Copenhagen. There is a nice town center that is a train ride away. They just recently built two grocery stores somewhat on campus. They are about a mile walking distance. A mile here doesnt seem like that much when you walk all the time. I know that I will be loosing weight here. I can feel that i have already.

There are some things that I have grown to miss. For one, the comfort and ease of a home cooked meal. At home you can just pop into a grocery store and get some food and make a great meal. Here its not that simple. You have to buy in little amounts because you have to carry everything home. You also have to pay for the bags here so most people bring their own. The grocery stores here are also a lot smaller and are a lot more expensive. It is really hard to find the things that you need here in the stores. Little things like that are taken for granted in the states.

Hope you enjoyed! More to come!