The Grand Finale!

Well, it’s my last morning in Copenhagen. I just said goodbye to my host parents and Kasper, and my suitcases are all packed up in the corner of my room. This is weird. After the first month here in Copenhagen, I never thought I would be ready to go home. Even yesterday I was dreading today, but as Gabi told me, now that all of our friends are leaving, there is nothing keeping me here. Of course I love Denmark, but it is the people I met along the way that are making this goodbye so difficult. I never could have expected how this journey would turn out or how it would change me, but I am so grateful for these past four months. I don’t regret a thing.

I realize I haven’t updated in almost a week, but I swear I have been having the time of my life with all of my friends! Basically after my exam on Friday, which went well of course, I have been spending time with everyone as much as possible. Friday afternoon, I got a beer with a few of my friends in the afternoon to celebrate being done with school. Then I went over to Gabi’s house to cook dinner for her host family! We made them a dish called chicken french, which is from the Rochester, NY where Gabi lives. We might have had a few mishaps with the rice and forgot to add flour to the sauce (which would explain why it wasn’t thickening up), but we fixed everything in the end and it was delicious! Our friends Tim and Mark came to dinner, too. They were actually supposed to help cook, but they came late when dinner was almost ready. Typical boys. We had a lot of fun talking to Gabi’s host parents at dinner though, and afterwards we went into the city to meet up with a bunch more of our friends. We ended up drinking outside for awhile before going to one of our favorite bars, Happy Pig, one last time. There was a lot of crazy dancing and crazy music just like always :)

On Saturday we went to Tivoli! It is the second oldest amusement park in the world, and it is actually what inspired Walt Disney to make Disneyland! We got discounted tickets through DIS, so it was good deal and we got to go with a bunch of our friends!

It was a really nice day at first, so we went on a bunch of rides. We went on swings that are really high so you can have an awesome view of the city, and we went on a few roller coasters.

The picture below is my favorite one of the day.. it captures everyone’s emotions so well haha! We were waiting in line for a roller coaster, and Gabi was just telling everyone that the ride goes around twice. Ryan is super excited, Pat is like “really?” and Tim is about to pee his pants.

Unfortunately later in the day it started to rain, and it got cold. I really don’t like being wet, so I didn’t go on anymore rides after that. Gabi, Mark, and I ended up going back to my house in Glostrup to watch a movie. We actually stayed in for the first Saturday in a long time! Gabi was a little sad we didn’t go to Kulor Bar one last time, but I was absolutely exhausted!

There isn’t much to say about Sunday. I stayed home, packed a little, skyped with some friends from home, did laundry, etc. It was a nice, relaxing day.

On Monday I had to go to DIS to return my textbooks, then I met Gabi and our friend Jackson for lunch. Gabi really wanted a calzone, but I really wanted nachos. Then we remembered this Italian-Mexican restaurant we ate at when her friend Abby was visiting back in February. Isn’t that the weirdest mix of cuisines ever!? It ended up working out perfectly though! Gabi got her calzone and I got my nachos! It was a little rainy/drizzly that day, but it was nice sitting outside under the umbrellas and by the heaters.

After lunch we went to this place called Studenterhuset, which has cheap drinks and food for students. We ended up getting some drinks and sat around talking for almost three hours with our friends. It was still kind of gross outside, and there was a candle on the table. It was so hyggelig…or as I say, hyggelicious!

Then Jackson wanted to go up in the Round Tower, which was a project of Christian IV (who basically made every building in Copenhagen). It is right in the center of Copenhagen, and was created as an astronomical observatory. There are only a few stairs to the top because it is a big circular ramp, apparently because Christian IV was lazy and wanted to be able to take a horse carriage to the top. Jackson and Tim made it a fun experience haha. I’m going to miss them!

The view from the top was so pretty, even if it was raining!

After the round tower, we all headed to the King’s Gardens so my soccer-loving friends could kick around a ball and I could stand there and talk :) Last time I kicked a soccer ball I was in 6th grade… and I tripped and sprained my ankle. Then all of my friends went home to their host families, but since mine were in Paris, I went over to Mark’s kollegium to make AMERICAN PANCAKES! I couldn’t wait until Friday when I was home haha. It was a little interesting because there were no American measuring cups and spoons, but they ended up being delish. I guess you could call me a pancake champion, or something like that. It was funny though because we couldn’t find syrup at the grocery store, so we just put some jam on them. So I am still craving American pancakes with peanut butter and syrup on top! We also watched Anchorman because my friends were quoting it all day at Studenterhuset, and according to Jackson, “it defines comedy for our generation.”

Tuesday was filled with DIS events! We had a concluding ceremony at 2:30pm, which was just some speeches and music. Then we all went to Studenterhuset for a champagne reception courtesy of DIS!

    

After we all got our fill of bubbly…

we declared it dinner time!

Gabi and I had walked by this one restaurant a million times throughout the semester, and we always drooled over everyone’s food when we walked by. Then one day we saw a sign that they have half price food Sunday-Tuesday, so we could actually afford to go out to eat in Denmark! We had a lovely “Skidmore Family” dinner. I just realized that I didn’t get a good picture of all of us at dinner, but I have 5 pictures of us with a magazine that was at our table called “Bitchslap.” We are so mature :)

After dinner it was time for the DIS end of the semester party! It was at a club on the lake, and all of us Americans got down on the dance floor haha. It was so much fun!

    

Some of my friends were leaving the next day, so it was really sad when I had to say goodbye to them at the end of the night. Goodbyes are terrible.

Yesterday was my last full day in Copenhagen. I got my last Danish pastry for breakfast to help cure my hangover from the night before. Then I met with Gabi in the city later. We went to our favorite bakery, St. Peter’s, and I got a sandwich. We ate at Frue Plads, which is where the opening ceremony for DIS was and it was also where Gabi and I met each other. It was funny reminiscing on the first day. Then we went to Studenterhuset again for coffee and people watching, and we just had fun talking about random stuff. I can’t wait to visit Gabi and everyone at Skidmore!

We walked around the city for a little bit after that, went into the huge department stores and pretended like we could afford anything there. Pat also came into the city and walked around with us for awhile. Gabi got her last hot dog from the stand at Gammel Torv, of course. Then we parted ways and I had to say goodbye to Pat, until the fall at least!

Then I had to go home for a few hours to clean up my room and pack. Packing is so much easier to do when you’re just going home! It only took me about an hour. I even had plenty of room in my suitcase…probably because I had to throw away basically all of my shoes because the cobblestone destroyed them. Oh well! My host parents weren’t getting home from Paris until 11pm that night, so I met Mark in the city for my last dinner in Copenhagen. I had been wanting pizza for the last three days, so we got pizza and sat outside at a restaurant that’s pretty close to where we went to school. We weren’t done with dinner until about 10pm, but it was still pretty light out so we walked to Nyhavn and around the city for awhile. I miss my friends already.

When I got home around midnight my host family was already in bed, so I set my alarm for 6:45am so I could say goodbye before they left for work and school. It was nice having coffee and breakfast with them one last time :)

Obviously there are a lot of things I am going to miss about Copenhagen, but thinking about them makes me tear up. Therefore, I am going to write the things I am not going to miss:

1. The secondhand smoke I am exposed to on a daily basis.

2. Cobblestone sidewalks.

3. Slow walking.

4. The lack of really good peanut butter.

5. Not understanding people’s conversations around me.

Hmm.. that’s about it. My “I’m going to miss…” list is much, much longer.

Gabi is going to be here in about an hour to help me take my stuff to the airport. Mark is meeting us at the airport so I can say goodbye to him too. I hope I don’t cry. At least there are hot dog stands in the airport so I can have my last one before I go home to make me feel better!

Well folks, I guess this is it. As my host mom told me this morning, “Every happy story has an end!”

Hej hej!

Emily

Blood, Guts, and Bones… OR Just Another Day at the Office

So yesterday made me officially decide that I have the coolest host parents ever. Since the day I met my host dad, he has been telling me that I can come into work with him one day. Now for most students, this would sound boring, but my host dad is a foot surgeon. Therefore, the first day I didn’t have class this semester, I made sure to clear my schedule so I could go see some operations!!! Ok, so maybe not every student would like that, but for a pre-med, it is the coolest opportunity!
I went into work with him at Frederiksberg Hospital around 8am, then we had to sit in a meeting with all of the orthopedic surgeons for about an hour. It was all in Danish, so I basically just zoned out. Unfortunately my Danish language class didn’t teach me orthopedic vocab. Then I had to get changed into my scrubs so we could get started on the first surgery!
My host dad wasn’t sure how I would react to seeing him cut someone’s foot open, so for the first surgery he just had me stand off to the side and watch. That way I could look away or go sit down if I needed. The man he was operating on had a tumor on one of the nerves in his middle toe, but he was also missing a couple toes from an accident earlier in life. Therefore, there was a lot of scar tissue, and my host dad really had to dig and cut around it to get the tumor. It sounds gross, but I actually ended up inching closer and closer to see it. I actually thought I would be more grossed out than I was!

Then for the second surgery I got to learn how to scrub in so that I could sit next to him and really see what he was doing! I don’t think my hands have ever been cleaner in my life haha. When you are all scrubbed in, you have to make sure you don’t touch anything that isn’t sterile, so my host dad had me do the “angel hands.” In the second surgery, my host dad had to elongate the ligament to a man’s pinkie toe because it curled in and was causing irritation from his shoes. My host dad literally just cut halfway into the ligament in two places, then he pulled it apart. Crazy!
The third surgery was on a young girl who twisted her ankle and damaged her cartilage. This would be so illegal in the United States, but my host dad actually let me help him!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It was a laparoscopic surgery, so everything was done through three small holes in her ankle. He had a camera in one of the holes so we could watch on a screen what he was doing. At one point my host dad was holding this pick-type tool in order to chip away some of the cartilage on her dead bone, then he asked me to grab the hammer. I was like “seriously!?!?” I actually hammered the pick that chipped away some girls cartilage through a tiny hole in her ankle. SO COOL!
The final surgery was a 14-year-old girl who has having pain in the joint of her big toe. Nothing was showing up on the MRI scan, but the parents really wanted something done. My host dad ended up finding some damaged cartilage in the joint, so he drilled 5 holes in it so it would heal itself and grow new cartilage. This one was by far the grossest surgery. He cut into the side of her toe and literally just pulled the toe joint apart. He even had me poke the damaged cartilage and the normal cartilage with a tool in order to feel the differences between the two. I can’t even believe what I saw yesterday and that I actually got to help him! Whoever gets my host family next is so lucky!

Today is my final exam for Health Economics, then I am home free!!! Tonight I think I am making dinner with Gabi for her host family because mine is leaving. Then we are going dancing!
Hej Hej!
Emily

I’m going to miss this…

I’ve been having so much fun this past week, and I have been so busy that it hasn’t really hit me until I started to write this post how much I am going to miss this… my Skidmore family, my friends, my host family, taking the S-tog, getting the stink eye when I cross the street when I’m not supposed to, hearing Danish and getting excited when I actually understand a word, smelling delicious sausage stands on the streets, dancing until 4am, getting asked, “What do you think about Danish people?,” and much, much more.

Honestly though, it is the people I have met on this crazy journey that have made it the most amazing, fantastic, life-changing experience I’ve had so far in my life. They have been there for the best of times and the worst of times, and I love them for it :)

That’s why I am spending every last second possible with my friends and my host family. Yesterday, I woke up and had a nice breakfast with my host mom, then I met up with my friend Ryan so we could go to Bellevue beach, which is just a 20 minute train ride north of Copenhagen.

I know I say this a lot, but it was gorgeous outside… really though, it was the best weather I have experienced the entire four months I have been here! There was hardly a cloud in the sky and it was about 70 degrees. Later, Gabi joined us and a few other friends, Dan, Dave, and Erin.

We just had a blast talking and goofing around for about 4 hours. One of the highlights of the day was that just to our left was the nudist section of the beach, which also happened to be where the nearest bathrooms were…

Yup, that’s me and Gabi. Yup, that man is naked. When a girl has gotta go, a girl has gotta go!

I didn’t realize it until later, but I ended up getting sunburned. My back is red, really red. Oops. After the beach, Gabi and I went out to dinner at a place called Riz Raz. It was a vegetarian buffet with Mediterranean food! Yum! Then we finally went to the ballet! It was at the old theater in the city, and the show was called Gamle Scene. We were so confused when after 20 minutes, the lights turned on and everyone got up. I mean we thought intermission is usually toward the middle of the show… but there ended up being 3 acts. It was funny, romantic, and beautiful. I was just so tired by the end!

Today was also a great day, of course! I had breakfast with my host mom and my host brother, Kasper, again. Then I met Gabi in the city around 11am to study for our final exams. Unfortunately I didn’t get much studying done, but I did work on a job application for the summer. I wasn’t completely procrastinating or anything…

Then something funny/kinda bad happened. Gabi and I were just sitting there typing on our computers when some man rushes in yelling something in Danish. He grabbed a fire extinguisher and rushed back outside onto the street, then we realized that there was smoke coming from the hot dog stand nearby!!!

I took the picture after they had basically extinguished everything, so it doesn’t look like there was much damage. However, you can sort of see where the fire was because there is smoke right by the yellow flower. Luckily they put it out quickly!

After studying for awhile, we met up with some friends at a different beach because it is closer to some of our other friends who couldn’t come yesterday. It was a little chillier today, so no bikini wearing and no sunburn!

It was just Gabi, Tim, and me for awhile. Our other friends are slow sometimes.

I’m pretty sure Tim was telling us a story. Then Mark, Pat, and Jackson came. We just goofed around again like normal, then I went to the city with Mark and Pat for about an hour before heading home for dinner with my host family. My host parents leave for Paris on Friday, so my last dinner with them is tomorrow night. So weird/sad/I don’t even know.

Tonight I am just studying because I have fun plans all day tomorrow! I’m going to the hospital with my host dad, then my last family dinner, then out with my friends! I love my life.

Hej Hej!

Emily

Vacation in MY city

Now that classes are finally over (except for that looming exam), and now that the weather is finally nice, I feel like I can finally enjoy all of the things I have been putting off visiting in Copenhagen! Mainly I was just waiting until I could be outside with out freezing my behind off. So this week, Gabi and I have a ton of plans… remember that bucket list??… so that we can make the most of our last days in the city we have grown to love so much.

Yesterday was so much fun! I met Gabi in a town north of the city called Sorgenfri, which means free of sorrow. Isn’t that a great name for a town!? It is also where the prime minister’s house is located, and it has a beautiful lake with hiking trails that go all around it! Gabi went there with her Danish class and said we had to go back!

It really reminded me of being home walking on the trail by the lake near my house. It is finally starting to hit me that I am nearing the end of this indescribable experience, aka study abroad. Ahh!

Gabi and I really wanted to rent kayaks or a canoe, but they were too expensive.

We walked around almost the entire lake!

We ended up walking into the town of Lyngby, so we took the train from there back to the city.

Once we were back in Copenhagen, we ate our lunch outside, then Gabi had to do some shopping. We ended up walking near Nyhavn, and my host parents had just told me about a canal cruise they really liked that left from Nyhavn. The one they told us to get on is apparently cheaper and better than the canal cruise that is right at the entrance of Nyhavn, so we walked a little further down on got on the Netto boat like they suggested!

It was really fun, and we liked it better than the canal cruise in Amsterdam. Mainly because they had an actual guide instead of just an audio recording. The picture above is Gabi and some houses in Nyhavn behind her. The blue house in the center right is where H.C. Andersen lived for many years, and he actually ended up dying there.

It’s finally getting crowded with tourists and Danes alike, drinking beers and enjoying their meals outside :) Hyggelicious.

We cruised past the Royal Yacht, which belongs to the royal family. There are people lined up along the side because they were just about to take the yacht out. Cool! Oh, and we all laughed at the fact that it was pretty small. Gabi called it the Queen’s Party Boat because it wasn’t really a “yacht.”

We also drove past The Little Mermaid statue, which Gabi and I still have to visit and get our picture with before we leave! The statue was inspired by H.C. Andersen’s fairytale, which is a lot different than the Disney version. In Andersen’s story, the prince doesn’t love the mermaid back, and she ends up turning into seafoam. How lovely. Oh and another fun fact that even my host parents didn’t know… last year the statue was on display in China for awhile, and they shipped 500 liters of water from the canal in Copenhagen with it because they wanted the mermaid to be in her own environment. What!??! I didn’t know statues could tell the difference, but what do I know?

We saw a lot of the mains sights in Copenhagen on the cruise, and it was cool because Gabi and I actually knew a lot of the information they were giving us! We actually learned something while we were here the past 4 months, and we realized how much Copenhagen feels like our city. We aren’t just tourists anymore :)

After the canal cruise, we got milkshakes at The Living Room, which was another place to visit on our bucket list. Gabi’s friend told her their milkshakes are amazing. I hadn’t had one in forever, and it was super delicious!!

The café was decorated really funky too, and they had sweet couches and pillows. It was random, but cool! After our milkshakes, I went back home and had dinner with my host family. They leave for Paris on Friday, and tonight I won’t be home for dinner. That means I only have two more dinners with my host family! It makes me sad. After dinner I went on a 4 mile run around my neighborhood, and it was the perfect weather for it. A ton of flowers are in bloom now too, so it smells like spring outside!

I have more fun plans for today, but you will have to wait until tomorrow to find out!

Hej Hej!

Emily

Officially Summer Break!

Basically my last days in Copenhagen are completely open for me to do whatever my little heart desires, so except for one exam I have this Friday, I am going to be celebrating and spending time with my friends as much as possible :)

Starting with our Cinco de Mayo celebration on Thursday… I ended up meeting some of my friends in the city later at night. It is finally nice enough out to actually be outside, so we drank outside a little bit before deciding to go to Kulor bar. It was mine and Gabi’s first time at Kulor Bar on a Thursday night, and we decided we are never going back unless it’s Friday or Saturday. It was insane. That’s the only way to explain it.

Anyway, I had to be at class at 10:05am on Friday and give a presentation in my Muslim class about an interview my group did with two Muslim girls from Turkey. It went really well, and I also handed in my last paper of the semester! After my class, I was so tired, and it was so nice out, so I decided to go to the King’s Gardens to nap for a little bit. It was weird because the last time I was there it was January and freezing cold! The Danes told us once it got warm, there would be people all over the park. It was hard to imagine it then, but they were right. There were people picnicking, napping, chatting, playing games.

Then I went home for a little bit, and I saw the weirdest thing ever. I was just sitting on the s-tog when some guy comes in and sits in a chair across the aisle from me. I didn’t think anything of it until I heard a bird start squawking and flapping its wings… this guy seriously was carrying this little white bird on his shoulder around with him everywhere! He kept talking to it, and he rolled up a piece of newspaper so the bird could sit there with it in its mouth. Then the bird flew across the aisle into the seat that was facing me directly, so he tried to coax it back.. but it’s a bird, not a dog, so obviously it wasn’t going to come to him. So I got to sit next to this crazy guy for ten minutes until he got up and was standing in the middle section of the train where you go to exit and started swinging on the handrails. He also had bird poop all down his back. Seriously, it was the craziest thing I have ever seen on that train.

After that crazy experience, I met Gabi and Mark for a picnic in the King’s Gardens for dinner! It was super fun. We had tapas and wine :)

It was gorgeous out, and when we left the park at 8:30, it was still light out too!

Then of course we went to happy hour, and the rest of the night is history…

On Saturday I went to the city for a little bit during the day, and it is so weird hearing languages besides Danish and seeing all of the tourists around. It was so crowded, and the best/funniest thing is seeing the segway tours. It’s just weird because Copenhagen does not seem like a tourist city when it is cold out, which makes sense obviously. Then at night I went out to two random bars in the city with Gabi, Mark, Pat, and two guys from the boys’ soccer team. It was fun, but like I said, super random.

Today it is absolutely gorgeous out, again, so I met Gabi in the city around 1:30pm, and we had a picnic in a park by our school. Then we got some ice cream and walked around the city.

It’s so funny reminiscing about the first few days of studying abroad when Gabi and I would walk around and explore the city. We went to a lot of the same places today, and they just do not look the same. The city is so lively and lovely now!

Gabi and I have lots of plans for the upcoming week! I am really excited!

Hej Hej!

Emily

There’s always room for a Carlsberg!

Wowzas! It seems like I have had so much free time this semester… until this week. Basically everyone in DIS has been going nuts with papers, presentations, projects. You name it, it was due. I myself had 1 final exam, 3 presentations, and 4 papers due this week alone. BUT, it is the last week of classes, and all of my papers are completed! I have to give one (easy) presentation tomorrow, and then I am home free!!!!!! Well except a final exam a week from tomorrow in Economics, but that will also be easy peasy. I’m not worried.

Before this crazy week began, I made it to the May Day festivities at a park in Osterbro on Sunday afternoon. Supposedly it is supposed to be a worker’s demonstration, but just like everything else, the Danes have just made it a big excuse to get drunk, eat food, party, and hang out with friends (aka. “hygge” to the Danes). I went with my Skidmore Family :) I will miss them so much.

Basically we just hung out, listened to some random reggae music, and got hot dogs.

We also people watched… always a good time.

Monday I had my Public Health final. It was supposed to start at 8am, so like good students, we were all there on time. Then we waited, and waited, and by 8:30am, our exam proctor still was not there! We were so confused, so we just kept waiting until about 8:45 when a DIS assistant came in saying the proctors had some emergency and couldn’t come, so they wanted us to come in on Thursday morning to take the exam instead. Of course, my first reaction was to yell out exactly what I was thinking, “that’s ridiculous.” Thankfully my entire class had the same opinion, so we got our teachers to cut the exam in half since we had half of the time to take it. Plus we were all busy and did not want to come in on Thursday when we already wasted an hour of our Monday morning. Oh well, it ended up working in our favor! :) YAY.

On Tuesday I worked diligently to get most of my work done. Seriously it was the most productive I have been all semester. Then Wednesday I didn’t have classes, but I had a presentation night for my Public Health class. Throughout the semester we have been working on group projects, and my group researched why more women got the HPV vaccine in Denmark than in the Netherlands. It was really interesting, and our teachers seemed to like our project as well! After the presentation, we had a reception with food and champagne to celebrate the end of our class. It was really fun, and I spent most of the time chatting with my friends. It was a nice break from studying and writing papers too!

Today I had my final Danish Language and Culture class :( It was definitely my favorite class of the entire semester, and my teacher Suzanne is the greatest! I think my entire class is going to miss her! I had to give a presentation with my group about Education in Denmark, then we had a little end of the semester party with smørrebrød, or an open-faced sandwich on really dense rye bread. It was fun but sad at the same time. I think we are all starting to realize that the semester is coming to an end :( We also sang a song that my teacher wrote us, which is apparently something Danes do for basically every party. Of course they have to drink a few beers before they will actually sing. Us Americans have no problem being loud and obnoxious even if we are completely sober, so our teacher was proud of us for singing haha.

Then she gave us a little piece of information to take with us when we leave… and the store goes like this:

You have a big mug, and you have to fill everything that is important in life inside of the mug. First you have to start with big rocks, the things that mean the most in life, so we picked family, good health, and friends. Then you have some smaller rocks, education, a good job, a nice home, etc. Next, you pour in some sand, which would be like a beautiful summer house in northern Zealand, a fancy car, lots of money. Then, your mug is full and you have everything you want in life. If you put things in starting with the sand, it wouldn’t all fit. However, we were missing one thing… you can still pour a Carlsberg in the mug and it will fit perfectly!!!

So her word of advice: In life, there’s always room for a Carlsberg!

I think I am becoming more Danish because I completely agree.

In other news, today is Cinco de Mayo, so obviously Danes couldn’t care less. However, I happen to love Mexico, I happen to be done with all of my schoolwork, and I am going out to celebrate!

Oh, and today Gabi and I made a list of things we need to do in our last two weeks in Copenhagen… we are going to be super busy, but since we have zero class/school/any other commitments, I think we can do it all!

Emily and Gabi’s CPH Bucket List

Viking house

A-Bar

Kulor Bar (x3)

Carlsberg Brewery

The Little Mermaid Statue

Tivoli

Bakken

Walking around Vesterbro day

Beach

Zoo

Run around the lakes in Norrebro

Round tower

Climb to the top of the church in Christianhavn

Happy Pig

Canal Cruise

The Living Room

Nyhavn

Can’t wait to start crossing them off our list! Oh, and my host family found out who their summer student is going to be today. Sad. Oh well, I guess I knew all along that I couldn’t live this crazy life forever! At first, it seemed so weird being in Copenhagen. Gabi and I said all of the time how it wasn’t real life. Now living here is normal. I really feel like my friends have become my family, and my host family is my second family. I never thought I would come here and make such a close group of friends, but I did! I can’t wait to visit them in New York!

Hej Hej!

Emily