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.

Det var lidt bt blæsende (She was a wee bit windy)

*So this is a post that I written on Monday (the 28th) but apparently I never published it. So here it is...

As usual today, I biked to school in beautiful sunshine, the beginnings of a perfect fall day.

However, I was not surprised that by the time my first class was over, it was raining.

What was surprised though was how much the wind had picked up. Sonderborg is an ocean town and so it rains pretty much at least once a day, it's always windy, and the weather is seriously bipolar.

But this was different. Because the wind didn't stop.

It kept getting worse and worse. Outside, boats were being tossed back and forth on the pier and white-caps started to appear in the harbour. And it still kept getting worse. Soon, the tops of the white caps were being picked up the wind and it made the whole scene looked like a typhoon. The harbour water looked like it had risen and you couldn't go outside without being blown around.

It was crazy, so reminiscent of Hurricane Juan. People were starting to stop what they were doing inside just to look out the windows and watch the whole scene. The wind eventually got up to 120km/h.

Meanwhile, I had my bike and my laptop at school. And we were being told not to go outside and that it was too dangerous to cross the bridge across the harbour to get home. Not only that, but roof tiles (brick roof tiles by the way) were being flung off the roofs and people were worried about getting hit.

The lucky part of the whole situation is that, like I said, Sonderborg is an ocean town. And so, weather moves in and out pretty quickly. What looked like a dire situation at two in the afternoon, had all but died down by 5pm. So I got to bike home around that time. But three hours of wind like that had definitely caused some destruction.

There were roof tiles shattered all over the ground. There were branches down on the road. The city centre had lost power in the middle of a business day. Apparently it was the worst storm Sonderborg had seen in eleven years.

Pretty cool that I got to experience it though. I've always had a fascination but also a deep fear of the sheer power of nature. And so, for a while I was a little afraid, but it's still pretty crazy what a little wind can do.

PS. I mentioned a while back that my window had broken the night I got my stitches. It's still not fixed. And so I was really afraid that the win was going to rip it out of the frame. By the grace of God, this did not happen. Definitely getting on the janitor to fix it though.