The Longest Birthday Celebration

Where do I even begin, it's been so long since the last blog. I guess that means I've been keeping busy with school or having too much fun... I think it's the latter.

In the beginning of March all DIS students had their long study tours - a mix between culture and academics. And this tour is the defining aspect of the DIS program, so it's weird to think it's over and that we only have 2 months left :(

So for a week I was in London with my international business class. But before leaving Copenhagen, I of course went out with friends because we would miss Denmark and it's open container laws...but on the way home my roomie Liz and I ran into some problems...typical. We went to central station to catch the 4:21am train back to Horsholm...turns out there are no trains between 4 and 5am. After waiting a while we eventually hopped on a train we thought would take us home, but nope we just got stranded at Osterport station until after 5am. Finally we made it onto the right train only to sleep through our alarm clocks and miss our stop. We went one stop too far. When we were finally at our stop, Rungsted Kyst, we were so excited to ride our bikes home, instead of a 20 minute walk, only to discover Liz's bike was stolen...typical Denmark. Liz and I locked our bikes together with the lock attached to two metal bike holders and each individual bike. My bike was still there and the lock was still intact... we still have no idea how they got her bike.

March 4th

They are everywhere!

London on the other hand was a great time! We left on a Sunday and got back on a Friday. When we landed in London it was of course raining and the traffic made us miss the Tower of London tour, but it was nice to unpack and have free time before a typical London meal of fish and chips. After dinner some friends and I walked around Leicester Square and eventually landed in a local pub that was playing live Jazz music for some wine and beer. Our class and a bunch of other classes all stayed at the same hotel and it was a very nice place, I was just so happy I could take real showers again!

Welcome to London

Almost to the top of the London Eye

March 5th
Early Monday morning we started the day by navigating the underground transportation system: the tube. It was jam packed with literally no personal bubble space, everyone was right up against each other. We eventually arrived at the Danish Chamber of Commerce for a boring presentation...whoops. But after that the day turned out amazing. We had some free time so a group of us went to Harrods a very fancy and huge ass department store. After a quick run back to the hotel to change out of business clothes we meet the rest of our class for a bike tour around London. It was easily the highlight of my trip. The weather on Monday was sunny and gorgeous and we biked around the London Eye, Big Ben, Parliament, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, and Trafalgar Square. Biking is really the best and fastest way to see a city, although I mean I only was threatened once by a car while on a roundabout that people drive in the opposite direction. After the bike tour it was then time to ride the London Eye, a huge ass ferris wheel looking over the skyline of London. This was my second favorite activity because we went at sunset and the ride lasted for half an hour, which meant we got to see the sun set over the city. Our class then had dinner and wine at Cafe Rouge.

Check out the pastries on the left!

March 6th
On Tuesday we hopped on a bus early in the morning to see the Oxford Science Park... for all the folks on Maui it was just like the tech park but much bigger and they actually have a gym. We didn't actually get to see the Oxford campus though...kinda a bummer. We then had another academic visit to Leo Pharmaceuticals. After that we then went to high tea, a traditional part of a Brits day. I'm not a big tea fun but with a lot of milk and sugar it tastes good. The place we had it at was gorgeous and overlooked a small lake and a church, and London was outdoing itself with even  more sun! After dinner we went to a pub to watch the Arsenal soccer game. Then Chris, Adam, and I went to a gay bar. This was probably one of my favorite nights out in London. Adam was on fire with the guys and Chris had to fight off a bunch of guys that kept asking me to take pictures of them and Chris. Turns out drinks are cheaper at gay bars.

March 7th
On Wednesday morning, London lived true to it's form and the downpour of rain lasted through most of our walking tour through London's East End (the financial district). The tour finally ended in the Bangladeshi area where we had traditional Indian food that London is known for. Finally we ended with an academic visit to Dow Jones Newswires (they work with Wall Street Journal). Next Chris and I went shopping around Covent Garden before our Harry Potter walking tour of the film locations! Unfortunately two people from our group totally missed our meeting location for the HP tour, but that meant our tour was very personalized. Our tour guide was great, she was super enthusiastic and acted as if she was a wizard the whole time. It was fun seeing some of the real life film locations because I would have walked by some of these places and never thought anything of them. It still would have been cool to see the indoor film sets because the sets would actually be more recognizable, but no complaints either way. The rest of our class was either out at a West Ham soccer game or at a jazz show at a crypt so we just stayed at the hotel and hung out in one of the rooms with some cider and wine after HP.

Who can guess what movie this is from??

March 8th
On Thursday morning we had free time, thank goodness. Chris, David, and I went to the Tower of London to see the crown jewels, torture tower, and traditional amour. Did I mention that DIS pays for this and the HP tour! Afterwards we then meet the rest of our class at the National Portrait Gallery... to put it nicely I'm not a big fan of art museums. The next activity was fantastic though! We got a tour of Lords, a Cricket Club that will be hosting the olympics. There are so many rules for cricket, it's crazy but I was impressed with the club. We finally had dinner at a Italian place that I wouldn't recommend. But the night turned around once we were back at the hotel for some pregamming before our last night out and about London. A couple of us ended up at a bar playing 60's music and it was quite fun!

Cricket! Intense!

March 9th
Finally on Friday morning we loaded our luggage onto the bus and headed to Wimbledon Tennis Club. The field tennis grounds were very impressive. Apparently someone counts every piece of grass to make sure it's up to standards. Whoa. We also had lunch, a presentation, and free time at Wimbledon to tour the gift shop and the museum. Wimbledon is also hosting the olympics. And Wimbledon marked the end of our long study tour. We headed back to the airport with time to kill browsing around the duty free shops in the airport.

Some of my favorite things about London were that they spoke English and I could read the signs again and understand the train announcements. The architecture was gorgeous with lots of modern and impressive buildings. There were many cultural things to see and the accents were great, a little hard to understand at times. But being in London made me miss Copenhagen. A lot. The weather was a little drab and overcasty in London and as my host mom would say they aren't good cooks in London, which I agree with.

March 14th
After coming back to Denmark, DIS outdid itself with all the homework, tests, and essays. The three weeks before our travel break (spring break) are jam packed. I had two major and hard exams two weeks ago. Two papers last week. And a Danish oral exam and business presentation this week. On the good side, my 3 hour business class will be done before travel break - so no more 8:30am classes! On a different note, I had a field study to Sweden for a couple hours on one day. It was great to have people smile and say excuse me again. The streets were also so wide unlike Copenhagen. I really enjoyed Malmo and the weather was gorgeous.

Look who is everywhere in Sweden!

March 17th
St. Patrick's day was two weekends ago and it's true that it really is an American celebration. Sure people go out here, but there is no green beer :( But we had fun regardless, although I misjudged the train times again and had to ride a bike with a flat tire home in the rain. During the day I went to the Louisiana Museum to check out some modern art while family at home celebrated my grandpa's 90th birthday!

After St. Patrick's day, it was the week leading up to my 21st birthday. So according to Rete, the whole week was my birthday week meaning that I had to make a lot of decisions about what I wanted to eat and do. We celebrated my birthday on Friday night because Rete and Flemming had a dinner party on Saturday (which apparently they got home from at 4am). For dinner we had homemade tomato soup (yumm) with garlic bread and champagne. Duck, creamy/cheesy potatoes and red wine was the next course. Finally desert was a strawberry and chocolate cake with more champagne... oh so yummy. The night was only marked by a home doctors visit to check out Liz who apparently has a kidney infection, poor girl.

March 24th
On Saturday I woke up to my dad calling me at 7:30am because he thought it was Friday and that I was on my way to school...um nope. But I love you dad! I then got up at 9:30am only for Rete to come running to my door yelling for me to go back into my bed... hesitantly I did and 10 minutes later everyone walks in banging pots and pans while singing happy birthday in English and Danish...I guess it's a Danish tradition. Breakfast was amazing and we opened presents while skyping with mom and dad... shout out to Jenny for successfully getting confetti everywhere. Payback is coming.

Shout out to Chris for helping plan the night!

On Saturday night, friends and I did a pub crawl for my birthday. We only hit 4 out of 6 places. But this was easily one of my favorite nights in Denmark. We were in a more ethnic area of Copenhagen, but all the places were so hip and more like cocktail bars and not pubs...no worries we had fun either way. First we went to Mexi Bar, which was very cheap! Then we went to a medical school hangout bar called Plenum. The third place was a bar/club called Barcelona. The last place was a club called Rust. After leaving Rust, some friends and I took a taxi to the train station to catch the 5am train. On the train a bunch of guys brought a whole sofa onto the train..so unusual but funny. I stayed over at Chris' since my roommates left earlier in the night and Chris so kindly loaned his bed for me and slept on the floor. After some sleep Chris' host mom made brunch for us, our time schedules were all screwed up though because it was day light savings here. We then played a Pirates of the Caribbean board game with his host brother. When I went to leave at 1pm Chris' mom said I couldn't because his host sister was making a surprise for me. She backed a delicious cake for me and I was very full because an hour earlier after brunch another host brother brought an ice cream bar for me. Chris' host sister also backed a goldfish shaped cake for me the night before. This family is way too sweet and I love them.

All in all my birthday was amazing, it was the longest birthday celebration of my life but I loved every minute of it. So thanks everyone for the wishes and the goldfish!

This should last the rest of the semester...hopefully.

In a couple of days I'm off to Norway, Italy, Switzerland, and Germany for travel break! Can't wait to continue all these adventures!