Travel ups and downs

I'm back in Copenhagen! I missed it, definitely. Who would have thought Albertslund would ever be a welcome sight for me?

I had such an amazing time in the different cities I was in and even traveling between them wasn't that bad, for the most part.

Some high (and low) lights: If you actually know me, I'm sure you'll hear longer stories about this trip when I get back, but I am way too tired right now to write everything that happened. Plus, it would be way too long to read.

:Riding the London Eye



:Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese, a pub that was rebuilt in 1667


:The Charles Dickens museum, located in one of his old houses


:Shooting this protester for my photojournalism assignment and watching him and a "Heritage Warden" get in to a shouting match


:Eating scones and drinking tea on a cruise down the Thames

:The British War Museum's Holocaust exhibit

:Camden, London, a really cool alternative neighborhood

:Old Spitalfields Market. I literally went there four times, though the last two were both to look for something I saw on the second trip (which I didn't find again)

:Being in the East End and the West End and thinking of the Pet Shop Boys song

:The ferry ride from England to Holland was pretty cool, even though I got seasick. The ferry had a casino and about six restaurants in it, not to mention two movie theaters. It also showed one too many Britney Spears music videos

:A carnival ride in Amsterdam that first rocked my world then messed with it. What's with European rides lasting five times longer than American ones?

:Introducing Becca& Kathryn to soft ice
:Seeing the Nightwatch, both in person and in 3-D sculpture form


:Amsterdam in general was really fun. And food in Amsterdam. Helllooo 77-Euro cent Doritos!

:Losing Kathryn and Becca at Amsterdam Centraal and winding up just taking a train to Eindhoven myself, then remembering after the first train stop that they were going to take a bus, THEN getting a €50 fine because I bought a student ticket and despite being a student, I was somehow not eligible for the student price. Eventually I found them at the airport so it all worked out

:The adorable child who sat in front of me on the plane and discovered that when she threw her Teletubby toy behind her chair it magically reappeared back there (I was playing along)

:The air pressure on the plane messing with my ear so I couldn't hear for like four hours out of one ear

:Being really sick once I got to Milan


:Did I mention non-stop coughing?

:Il Duomo

:The stores!! The Prada, the Dolce and Gabbana, the AMAZING shoes

:One word:GELATO


:That wonderful feeling of not being able to breathe

:Leaving my purse on a bench at the Metro station (I have never done this before, ever, by the way, and of course I decided to lose my purse in Italy), frantically running around to get back to that station to find it, asking security about it and having him point to a guy literally inches away from walking out of the station who had found my purse and seemed almost as happy to be giving me back my purse as I was to be getting it back (It had my passport in it, for goodness' sake! And my camera!), and even insisted that I check it to make sure it was all there and that he hadn't even opened it. Can you say lucky?

:With a combination of a late plane and a long bus, got in to Stockholm at 1:15 a.m. The train station had closed at 1, so I set up an impromptu hobo camp, sat on the sidewalk wearing as many layers as I could, surrounded by my worldly possessions. It was cold. Very cold. Then a crazy man came up to me and told me his life story. Then the train station opened finally.

Ugh and then I got back to Copenhagen FINALLY and it was awesome.

I have hundreds of photos but for some reason either Blogger or this firewall isn't letting me post them, so just hold tight! (Or if you're in college, just look at my facebook)

Via the dutchflyer

I survived a night in London on my own, two train rides and a ferry ride and am now having an amazing time with Kathryn and Becca in Amsterdam. Gotta love the Dutch!

Can't write much, just stopped by an internet cafe.

How's home, everyone? Leave comments!

Oh, that crazy ol' GOP

So despite my wonderful life living in Europe, I have to keep an eye on US politics and such, and some of the things I learn here give me a different perspective on American situations.

For my photojournalism assignment yesterday, I ended up photographing this crazy activist guy and his friends. Activist guy, Brian Haw, has been living across the street from Britain's Parliament for 5 1/2 years, protesting against various wars and such, general crazy activist folderol. And so there I got many an earful about how wrong the war is etc. etc., and they didn't quite understand that I wasn't Danish, just studying in Denmark, so they liked me.

But I digress, and that's not really related, it was just fun, especially when the Heritage Warden came to tell him to bugger off and then they got in a screaming match. Also yesterday, we spent five hours at the Imperial War Museum. Yes, five. It wasn't really what I expected from a war museum; we spent most of our time focusing on the Holocaust and such.

What I took away from it, among some other things, was an important point that British people today like to think they were fighting in WWII to save the Jews, even though during the war they knew about the concentration camps and did nothing to stop them because it would have let the Germans know their code had been broken. And today, the US knows the genocide going on in Darfur and we see a lot of other horrible crimes against humanity, but we don't really do much about them. Even in Iraq, we didn't go in with the aim of helping humanity, we went in under the false pretense that America could have been attacked by Iraq.

Even the GOP says we are fighting an ideology, not a tangible enemy (it's their newest commercial, just click on top news or whatever to see it), yet the armed forces in Iraq are fighting like it's an actual war and not an ideological one. Why, if we are so desperate to show the Muslim extremist world that we really are a good country, do we not act like a good country? Why do we go into a hastily-thrown-together war in Iraq instead of ending a genocide in Sudan? Why do we not put hundreds of billions into improving domestic life for both our country and that in the developing world? It seems so simple to me that if we do not want to be seen as a capitalist, destructive society with no heart, then we should not act like a capitalist, destructive society with no heart.

We should be fighting to save humanity, not fighting to cause more harm to innocent people.

Living in Europe has made me realize how much I love America, really, and how much I love being American, but it also has reinforced my beliefs that this administration (and probably others before it, but I didn't follow politics then) doesn't know what it's doing in the world and doesn't really care about the world's opinion of it. It's a hard thing to do, to see how little my country is valued by the rest of the world, and how much of a joke it is to so many people.

London!

Top o the morning to you all, even though it's the afternoon. Obviously, I haven't picked up much British slang, but I've been having a jolly good time here in the UK.

We've been doing a mix of touristy stuff (the London Eye, tea cruise down the Thames), lectures, visits (the BBC tour sucks, by the way), and just wandering around by ourselves (the Charles Dickens museum was everything I expected and more).

Leave comments requesting particular souvenirs if there's something British you really want, or just leave comments telling me how much you miss me!

In a couple days I'm going to Amsterdam and Milan with Kathryn and then hiking and rock climbing and such in a forest in the Czech Republic for a week.

Woo!

Yes, I know, I'm totally eloquent.

Another Danish controversy?

Sorry for the lack of posts. My computer, delightful thing that it is, now won't charge at all and so doesn't turn on. So I use the computers at DIS, but they're only available from 8 am to 10 pm my time.

Anyway, just a tiny something interesting before I have to head out to a lecture, when the new newspaper Nyhedsavisen launched on Friday, it broke the story of a group of young politicians from the Danish People's Party having a contest to see who could draw the most humiliating picture of Mohammed. The Muslim world is angry at Denmark again, but the country is hoping to avoid another controversy like last year's by immediately distancing itself from the politicians and Nyhedsavisen and other newspapers have removed the video of the contest.

It will be interesting to see how this evolves.

Will try to post again this weekend, but if that proves unsuccessful, then I'm off for three weeks of travel. My itinerary is:

London Oct 15-20 with my CAC class
Amsterdam Oct 21-25 with KATHRYN!
Milan Oct 25-26 also with KATHRYN!
Stockholm Oct 26, haven't decided if I will stay here for a day or just catch a train back to CPH
Czech Republic Oct 29-Nov 3 with DIS, living in a castle in the forest, going hiking and rock climbing and rappelling and all sorts of fun things, then a day in Prague with DIANE

then probably sleeping foreeeeeever

Happy girls in the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of Spain, in a city that may be called Sainte Marie, near Cadiz.

In a hammock on the rooftop terrace of my Friday and Sunday night hostel.

The BEACH! In October! Que bonita!

From the Torre del Oro (Tower of Gold) looking out on Sevilla, with the Cathedral in the background.

My roomie and I on the beach.

Leaving Spain

Ugh. I finally found a flight yesterday after a lot of hassle. I had to stay in Seville for another night, though, which was ok, because it relaxed me and now I don´t hate the city as much as I did, though this trip has been the most nerve-wracking thing of my life. Traveling would be so much easier if I could just chill and not have to worry about schedules and flights and making it back for class. I don´t think I want to take any more weekend trips, and now I´m pretty darn nervous about traveling with Kathryn and Becca for a week, but I think that it will be different.

Doing the touristy, hostely thing is much easier when you aren´t trying to meet up with someone that lives in the city and wants to do things the nontouristy way. It was just awkward really, coming from two so very different perspectives on what to do in the city. The whole constantly lost thing didn´t help. Or feeling constantly that the city was so peligroso and that I was going to be mugged at any minute by someone coming from any direction. I definitely lucked out with how safe Copenhagen and Denmark are. I never feel afraid there.

I did have a great time for part of the time I was here. The beach was amazing and gorgeous and wonderful. Nights on the town were interesting and inexpensive and I think it´s pretty cool that I got to hang out with a bunch of professional flamenco dancers. (They spoke a little English, I speak a little Spanish, so it worked out much better than me trying to talk to other Spaniards.) Even walking around on my own was usually pretty cool. The buildings here are so old and impressive and the architecture seems uniquely Spanish. Everything is so bright here, and while I don´t like the way of life here, I can respect it, I guess.

Anyway I´m using the one hostel computer so I feel I should go and leave it for other travelers. Off to the aeropuerto. Back in CPH around 9 p.m. tonight, finally.

Thanks to all of you for being so helpful and supportive.

Un poquito mejor

So I´m much less stressed (read: no longer bawling) about being stuck in Spain. I just have to keep telling myself it´s only money, it´s only money. But I´m also upset because I am missing my classes on Monday for sure and probably on Tuesday too if things don´t work out. The guy working the reception desk at the hostel I stayed at was really nice and he was trying to cheer me up and he was like why do you care about classes, they aren´t important, but mine are to me...I´m actually really upset about missing class.

And, of course, I´m not looking forward to spending another night in an airport. I was looking forward to my bed in my city in lovely wonderful Denmark.

I just can´t think about all the responsibilities I have in Denmark and all the things I need to do this week or I will be crying a lot.

Here´s hoping I make it home. Aiming for Tuesday. And under $400, but who knows if that will happen.

Stranded in Spain

This is the most horrible thing ever. I overslept and missed my flight to London and now I am stuck in Seville, a city I am not fond of (though I love Spanish beaches), and I don´t know how to get home and I think that the only flights I can afford leave so late and it means I have to buy also another ticket from London to MalmÖ and I really don´t want to pay that and it puts such a huge dent in me and it cost me about $300 (US) to come to Spain and I am so, so, so mad at myself and upset that I missed my flight and I just don´t know what to do. This is so horrible and I am never coming back to Spain ever unless I have to.

Starstruck

So there I was, at the bus stop across from Copenhagen University's Amager campus, when who do I see? The editor-in-chief of Politiken, which if you guys don't remember from my Dansk Avisen post, is one of the Big Three national papers in Denmark.

I was a little bit nervous, but I waited until he had finished reading an article in the newspaper he had and then I started talking to him about Danish media and Politiken, and he was so nice! We talked for like 5 minutes or so waiting for the bus and then talked all the way from Amager to Rådhusplasen (city center)!

Definitely the highlight of my day, though later I'll post a picture of what I was doing this morning. It's actually been an incredibly fun day. I didn't have class, but I had to come into the city to work on an assignment for my photojournalism class. I was photographing some of the guys that hand out the free newspapers, and in Rådhusplasen, there is an absolute madman, who is so funny. He (frustratingly) loved the camera, too, and posed for it all the time.

Then I ate my lunch overlooking the canals in Christianshavn and then went to part of a European media conference in Amager, where Politiken editor-in-chief was speaking as part of a panel discussing journalistic freedom and media pluralism in Europe, and how they are affected by membership in the EU.

Truly a lovely day!

Albert-slum

Albertslund Centrum on a quiet Monday morning, way too early for anything to be enjoying the sun except for this weathervane and town symbol.

I really feel like I'm settling in here in Albert-slum and Copenhagen. When I say Albert-slum, I mean, of course, the quaint suburb of Albertslund, known to Danes as the ghetto and known to me as the quiet town that houses my less-than-great kollegium, filled with plenty of sketchballs. Like Kim, from block 7Ø, who broke into every block and went to every American girl's door and tried to sleep with them. (Happily, I wasn't home for this lovely would-be encounter.) After a 2-hour lecture from our "Inspektor," Kim told my friend Tracy that he "wasn't allowed to talk to Americans any more," but has since repeatedly groped her and tried to kiss her (she lives in his block and shares his kitchen), and offers a wide array of drugs, from hash to crack, to American girls from DIK that he meets on the train or walking around. There's also Stupid Nigerian Guy, whose name I have blissfully forgotten, who lives in my block, and delights in knocking on my door and trying to come in my room, telling me I'm a "sweet gerl," despite my repeated refusals and outright rude behavior to him. At least he doesn't offer me drugs.

As for the rest of the kollegium, well, it looks like I'm lucky. Over in block 2Ø, people get mugged, and there is some sort of inter-block war between blocks 7V and 8Ø. Other people have also told me their couches mysteriously disappear sometimes, there are old chicken bones all over the floors, etc. My kollegium was actually a pit of filth when I moved in. I was disheartened, to say the least, by my grosser-than-my-apartment-last-year living conditions, not to mention that I never saw anyone hanging out, ever.

Thanks to the organizational efforts of a few cool guys on the block, our kitchen now stays clean thanks to a mandatory kitchen schedule (seriously, how did 5 guys make that much of a mess? It mystifies me), and the common areas of the block were cleaned Saturday for the first time in at least a year and a half, if not longer. They also threw a "party" Saturday night, which I couldn't go to because my friend Danielle's mom was in town, buying us dinner. Sadly, their "party" was just a couple of people hanging out, blasting music and drinking beer before going to a disco. Then they came back around 5:30 and started up the music again, much to my delight, that's for sure. I'm only glad I thought to pack earplugs, otherwise they would have been faced with a cranky, sober American, the last thing a drunk Dane probably wants to see.

Ugh, but other than kollegium goings-on, I'm used to the city - well, the city center anyway, I still haven't actually ventured out into Vesterbro and Nørrebro (with the exception of Keops, another kollegium). Riding the S-train, with all its foibles and faults and lateness and overcrowding at rush hour, is normal to me now. I have the extreme urge to buy a bike and ride it everywhere, not really fearing that it will get stolen, but more that I will be run over by a bus in the city. I enjoy shots of Fisherman's and don't remember the taste of Bud Light compared to Carlsberg and Tuborg. And sometimes, I can understand what Danes are saying and can even talk back without them knowing I barely speak Danish! (Unless they are just being polite, I suppose.)The view from one side of our kollegium. The other? Well, Jacq likens it to a prison camp.

Interesting statue garden near my kollegium.

Random statue. There's nothing else to it; I've looked. The tail/head/mystery doesn't have a face or anything, either. My best guess is some sort of random sea serpent.

At least the town center is pretty! And on some Saturdays, we have Western festivals. No, for real, they sing Johnny Cash.

FCK vs. Brøndby

Vi elsker, vi elsker, vi elsker Parken

The FCK fan section, which was literally hopping up and down for most of the game.

On Sunday, a lot of DIS kids went to the FCK vs. Brøndby soccer game, billed as a rivalry similar to the Red Sox vs. Yankees. Personally, I thought the game was kind of tame, especially for a European soccer game, but then, Danes are pretty mild in general.

I did see more smoke bombs (this would never happen in the States) and seat-throwing (literally ripping up their seats) than I expected, especially from the Brøndby side. Brøndby fans have reputations as rough-necks, and they definitely tried to start a lot of fights after losing 1-0 to F.C.København. Security was insane after the game, with strong lines of men wearing electric green vests blocking the field, and outside, about 10 police vans with full riot gear, ready to arrest at the blow of a punch. My Danish teacher was talking about this and said she was mad taxpayer dollars were going to paying for that many police to be there all over a silly soccer game.

I must say, our halftime shows beat theirs without any question.

I enjoyed the game much more than I thought I would, though it made me really miss football season! The stadium, Parken, is the largest in Denmark, and holds 40,000 people, compared to glorious Williams-Brice Stadium, which holds around 80,000. I have to say, however, that soccer fans are much better at staying for the whole game than Gamecock fans. The game went by a lot faster than the football games seem to do, probably because we weren't standing in 97-degree heat under the sun. In October.

Player getting helped off the field by medics

Speaking of which, how is it October? I know I didn't leave until the end of August, but wow, it doesn't seem like it's already Halloween month (and I'm missing it - killer). On actual Halloween, I will be somewhere in the forest of the Czech Republic. I think we are supposed to be sleeping in a castle. So I guess I can live without costumes for that. (When I get back though...it's Non-Halloween Costume Party time!)

I'm actually going to split this off into a separate post about life in Albert-slum and feeling a part of the city. Enjoy soccer pictures. I'm realizing that I need to start taking pictures with things and not just of things, so I'll work on that.