70 things I learned abroad

*In no particular order

70. Product names are in English, yet their instructions are in Danish.

69. Berlin is the most amazing place you will ever visit.

68. French accents are awesome.

67. Danes have a day of getting hammered to celebrate the release of limited Christmas beer. It's like St. Patrick's Day.

66. Don't judge a bar by it's size.

65. A degree in mechatronics is a thing.

64. It rains a least once a day. If it rained less than twice, it was a good day.

63. Diving in a non-heated outdoor pool in November is so ill-advised.

62. Smoking in a bathtub is probably the most suave thing ever.

61. Hedgehogs are everywhere.

60. Europeans drive like madmen.

59. There's a Czech version of Cinderella, it's a classic.

58. If you puked in the harbour while a Frenchman held your hair, it was a good night.

57. Shots first thing in the morning is the worst.

56. Being woken up with a leaf blower will scar you for life.

55. Stripping in the woods during a freezing cold night is a horrible idea.

54. 150 drunk kids on bicycles is the number one way to die.

53. The fun factor of a pub crawl depends entirely on who else is on it.

52. Scots have the best accents.

51. Meeting another Canadian abroad is the most exciting thing.

50. Europe has the most eclectic types of hard liquor. If you don't recognize the brand name, you're gonna have a bad time

49. Be prepared to always repeat what you just said. Either they didn't hear you, you spoke too fast or your accent is too thick.

49.5. Alternatively, make sure to always listen closely to other people, to avoid the same issues.

48. Europeans have never heard someone say "oh my fuck" before. They will mock you.

47. Europeans have also never heard of Arthur the Aardvark, any reference will be lost.

46. People will always greet you with a hug regardless of when was the last time you saw them.

45. Naked people are everywhere.

44. French girl anger is legendary.

43. No one says washrooms or bathrooms. It's toilets. People will look at you funny when you ask where the washroom is.

42. No one knows what the piano song "Chopsticks" is.

41. Germans think that Christmas songs like Silent Night and Oh Christmas Tree are exclusively German.

40. "Can You Feel the Love Tonight" sung in German is the cutest thing ever.

39. People will think you're making a sexual innuendo if you say "we're working like a well-oiled machine". Actually, this applies to a lot of English sayings.

38. Glogg is hot wine. Not as gross as it sounds.

37. There is little to no water in the toilets.

36. Pillows are square, not rectangle.

35. Top sheets don't exist.

34. Passive aggressiveness is a way of life.

35. Yet somehow direct confrontation is also a way of life. Europeans have figured out a way to be insulting while being completely nice about it. Who knew.

34. Germans are the most homemaker-esque people you will ever meet. Everything they make is delicious.

33. Rolling cigarettes is a religion.

32. European students have no problem having sex in classrooms with glass walls.

31. Currywurst is the best thing you will ever eat.

30. Lightswitches switch down to turn on. It's weird.

29. If at first it doesn't work, assume it's automatic.

28. Heinz ketchup is ridiculously expensive in Denmark.

27. When you use the shower, there's no little wall to block the water from going all over the bathroom floor. And it does.

26. Danes keep to themselves for the most part, however Germans are friends with literally everyone.

25. World War jokes are made mercilessly and no one takes offence.

24. No one knows Canadians were in the World Wars.

23. Stereotypes run rampant. No one gets insulted.

22. That being said, all Canadian stereotypes are true.

21. People are not as courteous, they don't necessarily say sorry for running into or cutting you off.

20. Not every accent is the stereotypical one. Birte was German but had a British English accent.

19. Germans are the kindest people you will ever meet and are the kindest to strangers.

18. Canadians think they can drink. They've got nothing on Danes.

17. People will call you American to get on your nerves. It works.

16. Danes are ridiculously flirty, yet will never buy you a drink. Germans are the opposite.

15. Jagerbombs are the go-to drink.

14. Europe is home to the most creative drinking games.

13. Christmas is a huge deal in Germany and Denmark. Like huge.

12. Danish is the weirdest language I've ever heard.

11. Although stereotypically German is an aggressive language, this is not true. However, it's fun to make fun of it.

10. Barely anyone has cars, everyone bikes. And I'm talking upright European bikes that we would call "hipster".

9. Bike bells are used to say "get out of the way". Who knew a dainty sound like that could be so aggressive.

8. Most Europeans are ridiculously well-travelled. They are also way less dependent on their parents. Kind of makes you wonder what North America is doing wrong.

7. European clubs play the best music.

6. Absinthe is the drink of the devil.

5. The most useful words to learn from another language are the swear words, yes and no.

4. The Danes have this weird tongue twister they get foreigners to say. They think it's hilarious when you fuck it up all over the place.

3. Everyone is ridiculously skinny and small. Even the guys aren't built.

2. Not every stranger is rude or wants to cause you harm. You will experience some of the most amazing kindness from strangers.

1. You will have the best time of your life and meet the most amazing and interesting people. Ask questions, learn things, love who you're with and what you're doing. Don't let fear stop you.

The Last Weekend and Canuhduh

This time last week I was still about twelve hours from home.

I know I should've written about my last weekend in Sonderborg at least eight days ago, but I had limited access to my laptop on the way home and since I've been home it's been hectic.

And it's been a lot of the same.

I guess I'm used to new things constantly happening to me now. Without that daily novelty, life seems a little boring.

Sure, I'm excited to go skiing and to go back to Mt. A. and see everyone, but I realized I'm back in my yearly routine. And that kind of sucks. It was weird, when my plane finally landed in Halifax, the first thought that went through my head was "well that's it".

It seems like I never left. And when I think about my time in Sonderborg, it seems like a dream. Like it didn't actually happen. I'm more and more thankful that I wrote this blog so that I can remember the things I might otherwise forget.

And with that in mind, here's my second last blog post (because I have one more in mind) and the last run-down of a drunken weekend.

FRIDAY

In typical fashion, for my last five days in Sonderborg I was drunk almost every night. What started out as casual drinking on Thursday night, turned into a entire bottle of wine, three beers and two shots of Fisk all by myself. Therefore, Friday felt a lot like Saturday and I could feel my body hating me already. How is it possible that in September I could five nights in a row and now I can barely do two?

Anyway, Friday was the last night of Cafeen being open. We decided tonight was the night to go hard. We started drinking in the kitchen and by 10 we were plastered. Maud, Solene and I had planned to do one more Shot-Up challenge once we got to Cafeen, you know, in remembrance. But we were wayyy too drunk once we got there. Hence, I don't remember a lot of Friday.

However, at some point, Birte decided that we should go exploring. Little did I know, that the university is left open, even during Cafeen nights, and so drunk people are free to roam. So we took the elevator upstairs, spent way to much time yelling into the high ceiling foyer and ran around crashing some random teacher's party. We also found out the hard way that a lot of classrooms are used for drunk hook-ups.

At some point, someone must've reported that we were causing a ruckus because next thing we knew a security guard was after us. We ran through staff rooms and kitchens (stealing beer and food from the fridges along the way) until we found a cleaning closet and hung out in there until the guard was gone. As a side-note, there was a Kit-Kat bar and a beer in the cleaning closet. Only Danish janitors...

After we made our way back down to Cafeen, it was closing up and the boys were already belting out "Closing Time". We were soon ushered out and from there we headed to Wunderbar. I didn't stay long because I was at the crashing part of drunken-ness, so I headed to Pronto Pizza for the last time. It's official, the pizza man knows my name. He also somehow knew that I was from Canada and talked to me about he hoped to get there someday. I can only hope that my response was one of some kind of encouragement. Some random dude in there also asked me for my number... weird. What was even weirder was when I told him no, he asked for my Facebook... I'm sorry, what? Is that a thing?

SATURDAY

Preeetty rough hangover on Saturday, but the show must go on. That night we were headed to a housewarming party. This apartment was insane. It's right on the waterfront and they have the best view. It's also loft style, so it had the downstairs drinking area, then they had set up a DJ and a dance floor in the loft. So sick.

So Birte and I spent most of the time drinking a lot of wine and then started to head out to Wunderbar when the Danes at the party started to light themselves on fire.

I'm not kidding.

Someone thought it would be fun to stick toilet paper in their pants and make a toilet paper tail, then light said tail on fire. I've seen a lot of stupid shit, but I think this is right up near the top. It was at this point that the hosts started to kick people out.

We got to Wunderbar and had copious amounts of shots, danced to some of the worst techno music ever and then called it a night with a knock-off Subway sandwich.

SUNDAY

Sunday was sad and depressing. I cleaned, packed and returned my bike. Lame.

MONDAY

A few days before, the girls and I had decided we were going to make home-made pizza for my last dinner in Sonderborg. What I didn't know is that they made it into a kind of going-away party for me. They decorated the kitchen in little signs and hung up lights. It was absolutely adorable. We ate our pizza and then the boys came and we all had a few drinks.

Then came the water-works. Unbeknownst to me, Maud and Solene had got everyone together to make a good-bye video for me. Here's the link. https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10152065250689455

Literally, it was one of the nicest things anyone has ever done for me. I was in tears before it even started. So rough.

But believe me, it got rougher. I decided to go to bed early because I had to be up at 4am to leave. The girls had decided to come to the train station with me, but the boys weren't, so I was essentially saying my final good-byes that night.

Oh it was so bad. I was bawling all over the place and hugging the boys. When I finally went up to my room, I just kind of sat and sobbed for a while. It's weird to think that I'v spent so much time with these people and I might never see them again. It's just hard to imagine.

TUESDAY

I couldn't sleep at all through the night. I spent some time crying and some time trying to sleep, but for the most part I was too restless. I woke up at 4am and did some final cleaning and packing before I got the girls and we all hopped in the car and went to the train station. When we got there, my train was already there, so we decided to wait for a bit. We all got out of the car and walked down the platform.

As we were doing this, we noticed two guys sitting on the bench next to the platform with their hoods up. It was super sketchy because there was no one else around. But as we got closer, I recognized one of the guys' shoes. It was Victor and Simon!!

And they were loaded.

Apparently, the boys had stayed up and got drunk. At around 4:30, Victor and Simon decided they wanted to to come say good-bye. So they grabbed a couple of beers and walked all the way to the train station. I was so unbelievably touched.

The girls had also made me a little care package full of goodies to take on the train with me so I wouldn't be hungry. These people are literally amazing, I didn't even know what to say.

When it came time to get on the train, everyone helped me put my stuff in it's place and then went outside and stood by my window. Simon had explained to me that they were going to do a "Pearl Harbor good-bye", like in the movie.

So when the train started to move, they all started to run after it. All six of them. It was both hilarious and heart-wrenching all at the same time. One-by-one, the train outran them until it was only Victor and Simon still running and then the platform ended. I may have cried just a little bit when they were finally out of sight.

And so began my long trek back to Canada. I tried to focus on what was ahead instead of what I left behind, but I still miss everyone everyday and I know it's going to be so much harder in January when they're all back together and I'm not with them.

However, I know I'll be back. I'm already planning to go to Paris to see Maud and Solene and Germany to see the Germans. This isn't the end of these friendships, it's just the end of the simplicity of them.

This exchange has completely changed me. I can't really say how, but the world just seems so close now and my little life in Nova Scotia seems so small. I can't wait to be done school and to travel more. To learn things that actually matter and to meet people who would do anything for others. Mostly I can't wait to see anyone from Team 11 again. They are some of the best friends I've ever had and I'm looking forward to what adventures we might have together in the future. This exchange would not have been what it was without them.

Vores Secret Santa (Our Secret Santa)

I think it was in my last post that I said that we were all doing a Secret Santa. So on Sunday (the Second Advent, apparently this was significant) we all came down to the kitchen with our presents and put them under the tree.

Aww, like a real family.

Maud and Victor were already manning the crepe-making and all of us had brought down different condiments to put on them; nutella, jam etc. Sophia had also made a cake and Solene had made cookies.

We then turned on some Christmas music and had regular wine and hot wine while we ate our crepes. It actually felt so much like Christmas. Although I'm excited to come home, I kind of wish I had all these people coming with me.

Anyway, before we started opening gifts, the boys made Max bring his keyboard into the kitchen and play Christmas songs. It was kind of funny at first because Max was taking it very seriously. Plus all the Germans were singing the Christmas songs and "Oh Christmas Tree" sounds hilarious in German. As a side-note, the Germans seem to think that songs like "Oh Christmas Tree" and "Little Drummer Boy" are exclusively German. I had to explain to them that the songs exist in English too.

Finally we got around to presents. I had to insist that we open each one-at-a-time because everyone was set on opening them all at once. But we had to see what everyone got each other!

Some of the most notable gifts were,

Maud to Hadrien (who just got an internship in South Africa): a "South Africa survival kit"- treats, a tie, a condom and a "little bit of company..."

ie. a unicorn

Max to Irina: Silicone (like for building houses) for her 'small boobs'. Apparently she'd joked about it to Michi and Michi had told Max to buy it for her.

Michi to Jo: A massive block of clay, for when he gets mad so he can punch it. If you haven't gathered already from my past posts, Jo has a temper.

Irina to Maud: Some Christmas candy and a toy princess set.

Henceforth dubbed "Princess Maud of France/The World"

Nils to Max: A construction sign and some candy. 

Yeah, I don't even know.

Birte to Michi: Beyblades. Apparently those were never a fad over in Europe, so I had to explain what the big deal was and how to use them.

As for me, I got Birte, so I bought her some earrings and some Ferrero Rocher chocolates. And it turns out Simon got me. Apparently I'm very hard to buy for, so he got me this cute little stuffed gnome, candy and some of those green and red reindeer antlers.

All-in-all, pretty great night. It was good to everyone together again, since that's barely happened since Flensburg. 

PS. Bought my train ticket to Copenhagen to get home today. Leaving is getting real. Ugh.

Bartenderundervisning og skøjteløb (Bartending and skating)

A few things...

Last night I stayed out until 6am. I have only done this one other time in my life and that didn't even count because we just left to the Crow to go to a co-worker's house.

Not claiming to be any kind of badass, but holy shit, last night lasted forever.

We started the evening at 8 in the kitchen. I have now officially confirmed that my alcohol tolerance has gone way wayyy up since I've been here. I downed a bottle of a wine in the span of an hour and a half. In second year, this would've floored me for the night and I was barely buzzing at that point last night.

Two hours later I was bartending at Cafeen, for both the first and last time. I know I've had some hate-on for working at Cafeen in some of the last couple of posts but it was actually so amazing to be behind a bar again. You just get in the zone with the music and the speed of it all and it's just kind of a high. Plus I was making great tips. Found out later on that night I was the only one who did that night. Score one for the Canadian.

And I don't want to brag too much, but Team 11 kept saying I actually looked like I knew what I was doing and I was really fast. So, woot, I'm actually skilled at something. I may or may not have threw a couple drinks their way.

So after cleaning Cafeen (which took longer than expected because Hadrien knocked over a whole case of empty beer bottles as he tried to stay after closing) it was about 3am. I was exhausted, but I really wanted to go out and see everyone.

Let me set the scene here. I walk into Wunderbar, which isn't as full as I was hoping for, but it gave me a clear view of where everyone was. Nils and Simon are holding themselves up at the bar, each throwing back five consecutive shots of Fisk. Hadrien is sitting on top of a table with his head hanging, presumedly taking a nap. Maulene (Maud and Solene) are dancing on the tables next to the dance floor to the Backstreet Boys "I want it that way". Joe is having a tantrum off in the corner next to the washrooms and Hanna is freaking because someone puked in the sink in the washroom so she can't wash her hands.

Oh. That's what happens after Cafeen closes.

Anyway, I just kind of jumped into the clusterfuck and next thing I know I'm teaching Simon how to probably do the YMCA dance on stage. (There were a lot of Fisk shots involved before that point).

Other significant events that night;

Solene nearly has a breakdown because she lost her purse, turns out it was on the d-floor
Hadrien falls asleep on almost every table in the bar
Fisk shots are only ordered in increments of ten. Eff.
Maud, Solene and I were most definitely the annoying white girls on the dancefloor.
The puke in the sink in the washroom was real.
Hadrien got kicked out (way too late)
Nick gets kicked out
Nick sneaks back in
Nick gets literally thrown out of the bar (much like you would see in movies)
Among other things...

I don't think any of us have been that fucked up before. This is the general idea of Team 11's Facebook group wall that morning.

You know you've killed a serious amount of liver cells when your phone is missing the next morning.

Anyway, I got home at 6am, after getting Pronto Pizza (the guy who works there every Friday now knows my name. I also recall us having a conversation about his homeland Lebanon and how he wants to go to Canada someday. I really hope I encouraged him or was at least coherent, but I honestly wouldn't know if I was) ate the pizza in bed (which I suppose was like breakfast), listened to One Direction then fell asleep.

Then woke up at 2:30 in the afternoon. I swear I thought the sun was setting when I woke up and almost had a panic attack. We were supposed to go skating at 3, but clearly that wasn't happening so we re-scheduled for 5.

Apparently Sonderborg builds an outdoor skating rink every year and we drive past every day when we go to school, so we finally wanted to go. So Birte, Victor, Simon and I all piled in the car and drove down there.

It was actually so much fun. I'm a horrible skater, but Victor had barely skated in his life, so Birte and I basically had to teach him while Simon twirled circles around all of us. 

At one point a child did crash into me and I almost fell, but I managed to save it in an embarrassing display of flailing limbs. Simon offered each of us a push-penguin, but we still had our dignity.

Thanks anyway Simon

We took a break halfway through and had glogg (hot wine, sounds gross but its actually really good. It's a German/Danish Christmas tradition) and hot chocolate. Then Simon and Victor went for a skate together which was hilarious. We have this ongoing joke that they are the ultimate bromance.

Yes they are holding hands.

All in all, pretty twenty-four hours. I only have nine days left here which is so weird. It's definitely beginning to feel like Christmas here though, so I'm starting to ache for home a bit. It even snowed yesterday and Maud and I bombarded everyone drinking in the kitchen with snowballs. Maturity.

Anyway the next week is going to be pretty great and I'm going to try to make the most of what time I have left here. The girls have already decided they're going to come to the train station with me when I leave (at 5am, no less) and say good-bye. I'm half happy about this and half sad. I'm flattered they're all willing to get up and come see me off, but I'm also not good with group good-byes. They make me all sad and emotional and then I cry and get embarrassed. Ugh, this is going to be rough, so I just try to think about it too much.

PS. Tomorrow we're doing a Secret Santa. Maud and I were procrastinating and designed each of the name tags for the drawing. I got both of the German flags wrong that I drew and now the Germans won't let me forget it.

I guess that's what I get for not Googling.

Also if you look closely, Victor drew a moose on mine. This is the foreign recognition of Canada. Maple leaf flags and moose.

Vores Charlie Brown juletræ (Our Charlie Brow Christmas Tree)

So as I may or may not have mentioned, the kitchens here are shared amongst all the residents of a floor. Usually we all hang out in the downstairs kitchen which is where most of the Germans live.

A couple of weeks ago, we got the idea that we should go chop down a baby tree for Christmas and decorate and put it in the kitchen. This would serve two purposes;

1) Christmas spirit woot!
2) A direct "fuck you" to the cleaning staff who keep locking us out of the kitchen for collecting beer cans in the cupboards.

Anyway, so because today is the first of December, it seemed appropriate to go out today. Plus, it's a Sunday and it's "the Lord's day". So we've got the religious part of Christmas covered too. Killing birds with one stone all over the place.

So, the boys + Birte and I headed off into the woods to look for our tree. Apparently the boys had scoped one out earlier in the week, so we hiked to where this perfect tree was located... Approximately an hour away.

But it wasn't bad, the walk was mostly on the cliffs that were next to sea and the sun was setting so it was a nice break from working.

It was pretty dark outside when we finally reached the tree. Nils got out his saw and I kid you not, within five seconds it was done.

"The Chosen One"

After it was cut, Max and Michi carried it and we all started the long trek back. Birte and I were a little bit spooked because the woods were freaky at night so we started to sing Disney songs. The boys had to stop about ten minutes later to pee and we didn't really think anything of it when they all huddled around the tree for a few moments before continuing to walk.

However, soon after Max, Michi and Nils "disappeared".

Simon went back to "look for them" which we later found out was just a ruse to freak us out. When Simon came back and said he couldn't find them, we were a little bit more spooked. Obviously there was a reasonable explanation, but still your mind wanders.

So we kept walking; Victor, Birte and I were in front, therefore we didn't notice when Simon and Hadrien ducked behind a tree. 

Victor at this point started feigning concern for where Simon and Hadrien had gone and how everyone kept disappearing. Birte and I kind of knew that they were planning to scare us, but that just freaked us out more, so we started walking faster towards the road.

At which point, we heard this loud scream from about sixty feet behind us. I swear to God, I screamed so loud and literally pulled Birte and Victor and just started booking it for the road. I was literally shaking.

When we finally made it back to the kitchen, I was ready to kill the boys, however all of them insisted they hadn't made the scream, that it must have been something in the woods... OKAY.

Anyway, since the men had cut down the tree, it was up to the girls to decorate. (We're very sexist here). 

Max had brought a tree stand, lights and ornaments from his house in Germany, so he left us to it. 

Before.

After.

Awww, so cute. Also please note the Santa at the top of tree. There was some inconsistencies there because the French and I always put angels on the tops of our trees, but the Germans do stars, so we compromised with Santa.

Such a cute way to end of the weekend.

PS. My own floor's kitchen was locked all weekend because it was "too dirty". Yeah, kay whatever. But some good has come out of it because I've literally OD'ed on take-out sushi.

Kobenhavn (Copenhagen)

And so ends the last "big trip" of my semester abroad. Last week, promptly after my birthday I hopped a train to Copenhagen to meet up with my dearest father and step-mother.

 

Pictured.

WEDNESDAY

When I first got to Copenhagen, the regional train dropped me off Copenhagen Central and from there I had to navigate the subway system to the hotel. I was kind of surprised by myself. The last time I was in Copenhagen Central was when I was first arriving here and I was scared and had no idea what I was doing. Now I feel like a pro navigating my way around big cities. I found the right train in no time and was soon on my way to the hotel.

As I mentioned, I've been to Copenhagen before, but I had never actually left the airport/train station to see the city. After having explored there, I love it. The city itself is so beautiful and has gorgeous walking streets and water everywhere with boardwalks and little cafes and boats. One of the most tourist-y spots is Nyhavn (which means "New Harbour"), essentially it's just the street of really high-end restaurants and colourful buildings and really gorgeous sailboats. I loved it.

"I'm pretty"

But before we hit up Nyhavn, we walked through Copenhagen. I was just so excited to see Dad and Mazy, I wouldn't shut up. It almost felt like my worlds were colliding. It's like I have a life here, and that life is kind of separate from my one back home, so to have them there almost felt weird at first. 

During our walk we peeked in at Tivoli Gardens, which is kind of like a theme park almost in the centre of Copenhagen. We didn't end up going, mostly because I just wanted to chill out and enjoy Mazy and Dad's company, plus I'm not a huge fan of theme park rides, but it was really pretty with all these lights and Christmas decorations up.

Next we went to a pub where Dad insisted that he get us our beer. What came to our table was essentially a four foot tall tube of four litres of beer.

Dad's proud moment for the week was that we finished it all.

From there, we went a looked around the shopping area, just trying to get a feel for the city. Dad kept trying to speak Danish and I was giving him hell for it. It's funny once you start living in a country how it no longer becomes acceptable to act like a tourist.

Mazy also figured out quickly that "tak" is thank you in Danish and throughout the entire trip she insisted on saying it to everyone. She also had this Top 10 book for like, every category of things in Copenhagen and would often consult the book when we were trying to make decisions. It was hilarious. My parents are the ultimate tourists.

Quotes of the day: "This is Denmark!" & Mary Ellen in consulting the Top 10 book "I don't know if we can go to that mall Jessie, it's not in my book"

THURSDAY

We slept in a little bit late on Thursday; Dad and Mazy had barely slept on their over to Denmark and I can sleep forever. When we finally got up, we headed off to a little cafe and had probably the best Danish pastries I've had yet here, which is saying something. We then began the shopping extravaganza. I had really really wanted to go to Mango, as it's become my new favourite store. Turns out, it was in this massive department store that apparently Copenhagen is well-known for. It's also one of the most expensive department stores I've ever been in. Sometimes I can't imagine having the amount of money to spend 500$ on a sweater.

After that, I wanted to do some more shopping and Dad and Mazy wanted to go on a boat tour so we split up and resolved to meet up in two hours. Looking back on it now, I kind of wish I had gone on the boat tour with them. They got to see the Little Mermaid and it went all through the canals of Copenhagen. Although, I'm not too disappointed because we got to see a lot of the city just walking around.

After that, we went and had a beer in an Irish pub (had to) and headed back to our hotel for dinner. Mazy and I then went to Catching Fire!!! Ahhh, best movie ever. It was like a little taste of home to go see a movie with Mazy, something that we often do.

Quote of the day: "Honey man..."

FRIDAY

We started off Friday with a visit to the Carlsberg Brewery. We did this really cool tour where we got to see how the brewery started off and the brewing process, as well the largest unopened beer bottle collection in the world (again, I'm a collection fiend). The we got to see the Carlsberg horses and all the old Carlsberg cars. The whole thing was really really interesting.

They found some kind of hand-warmer

Kills me.

Mazy with a Carlsberg car

After Carlsberg we headed back downtown where Dad decided he would treat me to a haircut and dye job since I had been saying the I seriously needed one (no joke, my hair was tri-colored). So while I spent some time at the salon, Dad and Mazy did some research on where we should go for dinner. They ended up finding this really nice side-street with all these little bars and restaurants that were so cool. We went to one that had this mojito special on, so we all got mojitos and chatted with the bartender for a while. Then we went to this bistro that was absolutely packed and had the best meals that we've had since we've been there. Dad was having like a restaurateur conniption watching all the people come in.

Quote of the day: "Honey, I don't know how you've been dealing with this cardboard toilet paper over here"

After dinner, we wandered around for a bit before packing up and going to bed. The next morning, we all took the subway to Copenhagen Central where we went our separate ways; Dad and Mazy to Vienna and myself back to Sonderborg. I had to make Mazy promise to cry upon saying good-bye because then I knew that I would cry and that's just not a good scene. I have to get better at this saying good-bye thing.  

Overall, I had a great time with Dad and Mazy and I'm so glad I got to see them and go on this little adventure with them. It was three days full of laughs and I really wish I could remember all the great quotes because there were so many. It was a little rough coming back on Saturday and realizing that I wouldn't see them again for another three weeks, but I intend to enjoy the three weeks as much as possible because pretty soon, I'll be leaving here for good.

Awwww.

SIDE-NOTE: SATURDAY NIGHT - CHRISTMAS DINNER AT ALSION

When I got back from Copenhagen that night, I had to pretty much immediately go to the school for the big formal Christmas party which takes place in the cafeteria. Two important things here; 1) when I say formal, I mean like very formal. Some people were in floor-length gowns. I, was not. 2) The keywords here are it was in cafeteria. Let me remind you what happened the last time I went to a party that was held there...

Good times.

And so, it was my goal to even the score. And that I did. Alsion - 1, Jessie - 1. Woot.

But a few great things happened on this night. Jo, Victor and Simon all dressed up exactly the same, having gone to Flensburg to go shopping for the event. The result was dress shirts, bowties and suspenders. It was awesome. Victor and Simon also had the ongoing joke all night that they were the secret agents hired for the event's security. Every so often, you would catch one of them talking into their watch like it was a walkie-talkie or saying each other's codenames. Too funny.

Finally, to add-on to the fact that I'm a pathological liar when I'm drunk, I'm now a clepto as well. Apparently one of the guys I know from business class took my lighter and wouldn't give it back. Somehow I got a hold of his wallet and held it ransom. What I don't remember though is not giving it back at all because I woke up the next morning with it in my purse and no memory of how I got it. Birte had to explain the whole story to me that morning. Embarrassing. 

But look at how cute and dressed up we are.

PS. Great night, although this whole Cafeen thing is really starting to not be fun. I was running behind and couldn't help decorate because I was getting back from Copenhagen and they all gave me shit for it, then I pretty much had to work all night long and only had an hour and half to hang out with everyone. I mean, it's a cool thing and all, but I'm starting to think it's not worth it.

Kobenhavn & 22

Well it's the day I've been waiting for for three weeks; Copenhagen! I'm currently on the train writing on my iPhone so forgive me if there's some spelling mistakes, autocorrect sucks.

So yesterday I turned 22 and thankfully the whole affair was pretty low-key. I went to school and everyone said happy birthday to me then I hung out with the German guys for a while and tried to study, though Jo and I pretty much just ended up playing games against each other on Sporcle.

I then headed home and took a much needed nap. I woke up yesterday feeling a little sick and it had gotten progressively worse through the day. I knew we were going to be drinking that night so I wanted to rest up.

After my nap, I packed and then headed down to the kitchen where the Frenchies were waiting. The German girls came soon after and the guys joined us an hour later after they got back from soccer. We didn't end up going out but honestly I was happy about that. I just really wanted to be around everyone especially since I'm leaving in a mere four weeks.

The best part of the night was definitely my cake surprise. Every time someone from the crew has had a birthday we've made a cake for them. However, Birte brought cookies she had made and the Frenchies brought candy so I figured they hadn't done a cake for me. No big deal, I was happy just to have them around.

However, around 10pm Sophia and Birte disappeared for a bit and then Sophia came back and stuck her head in the door and started singing. Ah I was so surprised! The cake was absolutely adorable too, a panda cake!

Although in this picture it looks like a pig

Anyway I was just touched that had put all of it together for me and that everyone had celebrated my birthday with me on Tuesday even though they has class the next day. I truly have the best friends here. 

PS. All last night we drank beer that we had left over from Flensburg that has been piled up in Nils room. His room literally looks like a liquor store, it's awesome. 

22

It's my last 15 minutes of being 21.

I don't really like birthdays. I don't usually like being the centre of attention. Plus there's so much expectation surrounding them. But still, turning 22 seems like a big deal.

It's like I'm actually a real adult.

Birte asked me tonight if there was anything I wanted to do in the next year of my life. I said I wanted to travel more, which is true. But the question has kind of stuck with me for the past three hours and the answer just hit me.

I want to live without fear. And this seems far-fetched and deep and whatnot, but it's really quite simple.

There are so many things in my life that I don't do because I'm afraid. I don't dance in public unless I'm drunk enough to not care and even then there's a little voice in my head that tells me I look dumb. I sometimes bail out of a social situation that I know could turn awkward (like a date) because I'm too afraid. I avoid situations where I might have to be in a bathing suit. I'm usually the one behind the camera, not in front of it. I'm probably the most subtle person ever when I like someone because I don't want to come off as crazy.

I almost bailed out of this exchange because I was too afraid.

And when I think about all the things I haven't done because I was scared, I wonder. I wonder because there are a lot of thing I have done despite my fear that turned out great, amazing even. And so, I wonder what I might've missed.

There's now 8 minutes until I turn 22. And so, during this next year, I want to live without fear. And I know this isn't a turn-switch thing. I'm not automatically going to be unafraid. But, I can try.

Team 11 does Flensburg

*Note: The title is in the English this time! Woot! And this is because we had made a rule that everyone had to speak English all weekend, otherwise they would chug a beer. Score one for the native English speaker.


FRIDAY

After the most boring week of intensive courses ever, the week of amazing-ness has arrived. So I could've come up with a more creative name, but you get the jest.

First up on the block, Team 11 does Flensburg! As I mentioned before, a while back we decided we were going to spend a weekend in a house in Flensburg, a town in the north of Germany. So at 3pm on Friday we set off. We had three cars and I felt like I was in a caravan of soon-to-be-drunk-20-somethings. So much excitement.

But really.

Plus I was just excited to be in a car again. I miss driving so much, so being a passenger is like the next best thing. Plus the German countryside is gorgeous.

I was in a car with Nils and Victor and we were responsible for buying the beer at the border shop. Okay, let me put this in context for you. When I got to Denmark, I thought everything was so cheap compared to Canada, but all the Frencb and the Germans constantly complained how expensive everything was. I thought they were just being dramatic. No. They were not. The border shop was ridiculously cheap. We bought 17 flats of beer (each with 30 beer), 6 bottles of wine, 6 cigars and 3 quarts of Fisk for the equivalent of 300$. I was in shock. So so so cheap.

Behold. The end of my liver function.

We got to the house and discovered we were in the middle of farm land. Not a problem because we thought we would be loud and whatnot. The house was sweet. It has a ton of bedrooms, a pool and a sauna. However, we soon discovered that because of the wind storm a few weeks ago, the heating room for the pool had been knocked out so the pool was freezing. We were advised not to go in... But as some of you know, when I get drunk I have a tendency to jump in bodies of water.

After grocery shopping (again unbelievably cheap) we came home and started drinking. The boys had already gotten started while we were shopping so they were way ahead of us. By the time we sat down for dinner (spaghetti) everyone was a little smashed. So much so, that someone decided we should say a prayer before dinner. And guess who ended up saying the prayer... This girl. My extremely religious grandmother would be proud.

"We bow our heads and softly say, 'thank you God for our food today'. Amen"

After dinner we continued drinking and played a few drinking games, all the while  continuously pouring shots of Fisk. By 10pm we were royally fucked. It was at this point that Sophia, Birte and I disappeared for a while to take care of something that I will not disclose on this blog, but it might've been the funniest thing I've ever done. From there, Solene and I got the brilliant idea that we should jump in the pool. Of course.

My whole strategy for this was to not feel the water before getting in. I regret this strategy immensely. It would've been nice to know what I was getting into. 

We jumped in and I have literally never been in water that cold before. I'm 95% sure my heart stopped. For a second, I couldn't swim because I just seized up. It was horrible. The effect was that I was immediately sober. 

As soon as we got out, however, Jo came outside and wanted to jump in and convinced us to go back in with him. We did. It was so much worse the second time. After this the three of us all hopped in the outdoor shower room and warmed up. I swear to god, I have never loved a shower more than I did in that moment.

After drying off and getting changed, we proceeded back to the living room where the treats were being broken into. We all just gorged on chips and candy while playing "chip bag football" and Never Have I Ever. I think all of our friendships are on a new level now.

After that, the boys went outside to smoke cigars and the girls took the opportunity to do some pranking...

Bitches be on prank patrol.

At around 1am, I headed off to bed, which, for anyone who knows how well I fare at house parties, is a record bedtime. Unbeknownst to me, Maud had decided to have a bath in the boys' room in her bathing suit (they have a jacuzzi). Apparently she messaged Solene to come join her and then Victor happened upon them and joined in too. The picture is priceless.

"What's a French bath?"

"A bathtub with French people in it"

Direct quote.

SATURDAY

The thing that I love about these kind of parties is waking up the next morning and finding where everyone ended up sleeping. I found Maud and Solene in the living room dying laughing. Solene had lost her pants at some point, so we wandered around looking for them while checking out where everyone else was. We then cuddled on the couch while waiting for everyone to wake up. 

Then we had a "Bavarian Breakfast". This consists of pretzels, assorted cheeses and sausages. Overall it was pretty good. To make the whole thing as German as possible, Nils cooked in his leiderhausen. I was dying.

Om nom.

After breakfast, we hung around for a bit before deciding that we wanted to go to downtown Flensburg. So we piled in the cars and headed in. Flensburg reminded me of both Prague and Halifax, which seems like a weird combination. But it's because the shopping area is cobblestone streets with little boutiques and cafes and they were in the middle of setting up for the Christmas Fair, so there were cute little vendor huts on the streets just like there had been in Prague. Plus it just seemed to have the same kind of unique character as Prague.

"Character"

But the Halifax resemblance is definitely on the harbour. We went down and walked along the boardwalk and it felt like I was back at home again.

Despite the German flags everywhere.

We grabbed a cup of coffee at a little cafe called "Friends" (copyright infringement fo sho), did some shopping and exploring, then headed back to the house. I had a short nap and woke up in time for pizza and a continuation of Friday's drink-a-palooza.

While we were in Flensburg, we had picked up some supplies for beer pong and a tiny trophy and we decided to have a tournament. I'm pretty sure my team either lost pretty quickly or we became disinterested because the next thing I know I'm the referee. And apparently this is a serious job. No joke, I distinctly remember making calls like "Un-sportmanlike conduct, one ball penalty."

After the tournament, everyone kind of dispersed a bit. Again, the girls got the bright idea that we should all hop in the bath together. This is the end result.

But seriously, how funny is that? Who needs a pool.

After most of the water had sloshed out onto the floor, Solene and I got out to hunt for treats, but Maud, Sophia and Birte stayed in to smoke cigarettes. This is so suave, I don't even know what to do...

 Just stepped out of the Great Gatsby.

In our search for food, Solene and I discovered that the boys had ordered pizza while we were in the tub, so we gorged on that for a while before putting on horrible music and dancing around, Solene with a box of cereal.

Marge was out in full-force this weekend.

SUNDAY

Around 2am, I hit a wall and knew I wasn't making it any farther in the night. So I went to bed, only to be woken up by Soso snoring at 6am. I moved to the couch and woke up again in time for breakfast ("American" breakfast this time, as requested by me; eggs, bacon and toast). Then we cleaned up, took some family photos and left. 

Aww we're so cute. This weekend was probably one of the best that I've had here. Before coming to Denmark, my biggest fear was that I wouldn't make friends and I count myself pretty lucky that I've met such awesome people. It's weird to think I'm going to leave and four weeks and not know when I'll see them again. Love them all.

PS. Birthday in two days (weh) and then Copenhagen in three! Week of amazing-ness is an accurate title.

Nedtælling (Counting down)

I've been doing a lot of counting lately.

It's been 7 days since my last blog post, which is a long time by my standards, but it's been a low key week. No adventures, no ridiculous drunk times, one shift at Cafeen that was extremely uneventful and lots of homework.

So, yeah lots of counting.

The first thing I've been counting is pounds and reps. I made the horrible discovery that I've gained seven pounds since coming here, which I can assure you is purely alcohol weight. So the past three weeks I've been really hitting the gym and especially this week since I have so much time right now.

The second thing I've been counting is days. This week was kind of a lull in between my last adventure and my next one. The next one is a trip to Flensburg with Team 11. We rented a house that has a pool and sauna and is absolutely massive. So we're going to go and get drunk and go shopping since Germany is so cheap. It's going to be 12 of us, 6 girls and 6 guys and I'm so so excited. So that's six days away.

I'm also counting down the days until I go to Copenhagen. That number is ten. Dad and Mazy are flying into Florence for a few days and then they're coming up here and we're going to spend a few days there after my birthday (which is in nine days, something that I've been dreading. Mid-life crisis.) I'm really excited to see them. I've just really been needing a taste of home lately. It's not that I'm extremely homesick, it'll just nice to see some familiar faces.

And finally, I'm counting pages. Pages and pages of studying. Because I essentially didn't do school for the first half of the semester, I have a lot of catching up to do. It occurred to me that, even though I'm on a pass/fail basis, I still have to actually pass, so I'm kind of buckling down here because the next few weeks are going to pick up again.

So while I know I shouldn't be counting down time, or reps or pages or anything because I only have so much time left here, I do get bored easily and I need something to look forward to in order to get through all this work.

Give me a few days here, I promise I'll have more exciting things to write about.

PS. Went out last night and while we were sitting in Cafeen waiting for things to pick up, this film crew came in to film an ad for a program at the University. I got to talking to the director about how I'm interested in making a career out of film and he said his company in Copenhagen is always looking for interns. Anyway he gave me his card and told me to get in contact with him! Ahh, so exciting. The film career is something that I'd love to do but am always afraid to take the risk, but after last night, I'm thinking maybe I can actually do it.

En lille smule hvile (A little bit of rest)

Rest, in this case, is a word used subjectively.

After last weekend's Cafeen craziness, I thought it might be nice to have a week of working out, getting schoolwork done, overall just being a productive member of society.

Sonderborg had other plans.

Up until Thursday, this "quiet" week plan was going well. However Thursday was Halloween (side-note, is it really the end of October already? What...) and there was obviously going to be alcohol-related tomfoolery.

So one of the residences, HK, announced that they were going to have a small kitchen party. This kitchen party soon turned into a 40+ person gathering inside a room that was never meant to house that many people.

It was actually pretty fun just to have a night where we sat around and chatted with each other, plus I got to get to know a couple of people that I had really only met briefly before. Yes, I got too drunk. Shockingly, however, drunk Jessie was mildly well-behaved.

Cue J-Day.

Some background. November 1st is the day that one of the biggest Danish beer companies releases their limited edition Christmas beer. "Christmas" in Danish is Julen, hence J-Dag. (Dag, meaning day).

J-Day is essentially Denmark's version of St. Patrick's Day. Everyone goes buck all day long.

While some of the Danes started drinking early, I didn't actually start until 6 that night. The Germans, the Frenchies and I all headed out to a friend's apartment where we did far too many shots in too little amount of time, resulting in a pretty heavy buzz by 10pm.

From there, we headed out to Cafeen. The Christmas beer had been officially released at 9pm, so we all ordered a bottle as soon as we got to the bar.

After trying the beer, it became apparent that J-Day is purely an excuse to get all-day wasted. The beer was bad.

The night is kind of a blur to be honest, but there are some key moments that I remember from Cafeen.

1) Maud lost her phone at some point. I came out of the bathroom and she was full-on screaming at some girl who had knocked over her beer while she had put it down to look in the massive pile of jackets on the floor. Keep in mind that when Maud gets mad, it's a fine line between terrifying and hilarious. The girl literally gives zero fucks. Plus she has a tendency to switch rapidly back and forth between cursing in English and yelling in French. It's brilliant. Anyway, so I grabbed Birte and told her and Flo to look for Maud's phone in the jackets while Maud and I went and asked at the bar if they had found it. We quickly discovered that someone had turned it in (after having taken a picture of his treasure trail and setting it as her background image... ew.) and we ran back to tell Birte and Flo, who were, I kid you not, waist deep in jackets, digging around. I was dying.

2) The second moment I remember was more infuriating than it was hilarious. I was outside talking to one of the Germans when I heard a French guy refer to my accent as American. Jokingly, I told him it was Canadian. He argued that it was American. Still thinking he was joking, I said I'm from Canada, so it's Canadian. He shrugs his shoulders and says it's American. Getting annoyed and because I was too drunk to be a mature adult, I continued to argue. To which, he started saying that Canada and America are basically the same thing, Canada is hardly separate, blah blah blah.

Usually this wouldn't bother me, I've heard tons of generalizations like this before. And I don't hate America, I just like to be identified by my proper nationality. Maybe it was that he doing it on purpose to piss me off (for no reason except to be a shit-disturber) or that he had this stupid smirk on his ass-resembling face the whole time, but I was livid. The thing is, I try very hard when I'm here to respect where people come from, to remember which nationality they are, not offend anyone, pronounce names properly etc. And to have someone purposely try and offend me based on where I come from, for no reason other than to instigate shit, pissed me off so much. Maybe that's an over-reaction, but that's how I feel.

And so, due to this over-reaction, I came up with the most mature response to him that I could. I asked if he was dropped on his head a lot as a child, or if he was born naturally stupid.

Maturity.

Either way, it effectively ended the argument and ended the good time that I was having at Cafeen. We were on our way out anyway and so we headed off to Wunderbar.

The square was absolutely insane. People everywhere. I totally understand the whole J-Day craziness now. Definitely like St. Patrick's Day.

Anyway I woke up this morning with a pizza box in my bed and a few really horrible bruises that I have no idea how I got. I'm not sure how I keep getting injured when I get drunk, but it needs to stop. J-Day effectively claimed most of my memory and liver function.

Can we get back to taking it easy again now?

PS. Solene has been known to get drunk and pull stunts that sober Solene would never do. And so, we have dubbed drunk Solene as Marge. Just for future considerations.

PPS. I got home last night and promptly got a text from Birte telling me to come back out. From what I remember, I had changed into boxer shorts and a tank top and couldn't decide if it was worth the effort to get changed again and go back out. And so, logically I mass snap-chatted requesting people choose A) or B), A) being stay in, B) being go back out (but I didn't tell them that). Majority said A). Night over. Apologies to all involved, thank you for staying with me through my drunk antics.