What I'm actually expecting

Considering the tempertature is expected to be around -10 degrees Celsius when I arrive, I think I should prepare myself and plan to picture Aarhus more like this...

Flight 6579, would you please let me exit the plane!!

Well, I did pretty well today about staying calm... It took about 23 tic tacs. I had a big crew drop me off in the airport. I said my goodbyes to Dad, Kim, Aly, Mom and Tommy and headed toward my first challenge. Security. I was actually pretty proud of getting through and to my gate so quickly. I guess I was just excited about it being the first thing I'd done on my own in this journey. Maria posted this on Facebook after I was texting her at the gate to Chicago.

She's a mess! I can't wait to be her roomie in the fall!

So the first flight from Nashville to Copenhagen was delayed from 5:59pm to 6:40pm. Well, 6:40pm rolls around and they announce that take off will be delayed further to 8:04pm. At this point, I remain fairly calm, because I know I'll have about 45 minutes once I land to catch my next flight. Then, I talked to the guy at the counter, and he explains that I will need to be running in order to make it. I was pretty worried, but what can you do really besides try to make the flight.

We arrived in Chicago at 9:15pm. However, the passengers were not able to exit the plane until 11:15pm. We seriously just sat in a parked plane for 2 hours!! Chicago was backed up due to planes icing over at the gates. There was also a shortage of gates available and when we arrived we were fourth in line.

Obviously, I didn't make my flight. Fortunately, as soon as I landed I found the first United Airlines agent I could, and he set me up with a complimentary hotel room, $15 meal voucher, and booked me my flights for tomorrow. See, there is only one flight from Chicago to Copenhagen per day, and it's always at 10:05pm.

So tomorrow I'll be in the windy city all day! It's actually really, really cold. Maybe even colder than Denmark will be. Oh! That was another thing. I'd dressed for Denmark. After four hours on a plane I was sweating like crazy!

Turning Skjoldhøj into my temporary home

Well, it took quite a bit of an adjustment, but I feel like I'm beginning to figure things out here in Aarhus. Today is the first day I've been able to blog because my 3 prong converter did not fit into a Danish plug (which look like smiley faces!).
My roommate Christina is from California. We arrived only an hour apart. So, it worked out very conveniently. We were able to go buy sheets, pillows, etc. to get all settled into our apartment. Afterward, Niklas and Mette, our mentors dropped us off in the city, showed us our bus stop and basically said good luck figuring everything out. I think they're quite busy getting all of the international students settled in. I believe there are 50 or so of us in all 4 courses. 18 in my TV course.
So first on our list of things to do was buy sim cards, 3 prong converters, and find a Danske Bank to exchange some money. It took us most of the afternoon to find this tiny shop called Telenor that set us up with phones. But getting lost in the city wasn't bad at all. We discovered all the cute shops and canals you see in Google images when you google Aarhus. We saw where there's an entire area cut out of the city center for ice skating. Oooh and I love all the little alleyways that are mostly cobblestone. Everything is just so charming to me right now. The people are wonderful. I try my best to say Tak as much as possible. It's definitely Christina and I's go to word. It means Thanks. We've learned not to say goodbye or Farvel when you leave a store. Niklas said if someone says farvel it means you won't be seeing them ever again. Instead you say Tak Hej Hej (Thanks Bye, Bye). Hej is pronounced as "hi" though, so it's kind of funny to hear.
Most people do speak English thankfully, especially, the young people. So when we do get lost and need to find a place, we look for the younger people. I've noticed that their language is much more short and soft here, whereas in America we really pronounce our words. It's hard for me to make my voice lighter so that I pronounce things better, but I'm getting better.
As far as food goes, we haven't ventured out too much yet. We did try their danishes and coffee and it was delicious. We may try the street food tomorrow.
Today, went much better than yesterday. We were able to find a plug adapter for my pc, a switcher box for the internet, and a really, really long ethernet cable that stretches from Christina's room to mine. So, it's been a successful day, and I also need to pay a special tak to my Aunt Karen and Uncle Steve who bought me these wonderful thermals! They've been wonderful in this freezing weather. It's not unbearable, but you definitely have to layer up your clothing here. I mean a tank, shirt, maybe another shirt, jacket, scarf, ear muffs, gloves, leggings, jeans, boots, and socks keeps me warm enough. It's kind of difficult to live in a cold environment, because you walk into stores and they are kept very warm. So you are constantly layering and unlayering throughout the day.
Oh yea, it's kind of funny that they put the two Americans together in the same room but also two tiny Americans. Christina is the same size as me! So, tomorrow we'll be searching for an Ikea to buy a stool so that we can see in the mirror in our bathroom :) We might also be buying our bikes! I have a feeling I'll be coming home in great shape. It's about a 20 min. bike ride to school, well so we've heard. I can't wait for the semester to begin and meet more people. We've already met so many, especially since our apartment is host to many international students. On our way home tonight we met a group from Madrid, Spain. We're planning on meeting up with them later tonight. It's just so cool to be around so many different cultures.
My first trip has been planned. Christina and I are meeting a couple other students in our program in Copenhagen. We'll probably leave Monday by train and return Wednesday or Thursday. We'll definitely come back in time to get prepared for school, which starts Jan. 31st!

A walk along the North Sea harbor

I included a few pictures of the apartment as well as the deer we fed near the harbor. Yes, our entire bathroom floor is also the shower floor. Thank goodness for flip flops!

Today we woke up and performed our new ritual of taking the bus into town for a danish and coffee. Both are quite delicious here. I tried a chocolate one today and it tasted like heaven! Then, we met our new Lithuanian friends who took us for a walk along the harbor. After half an hour or so they asked if we wanted to feed bambis. Of course! So, we met two other students in our program at the train station and walked to the beach. The deer seem much smaller here. It was very weird for them not to be skiddish. One of them backed his but into me kinda like Buddy, I guess he wanted it scratched. So, I obliged ha.

Partying Lithuanian style

Last night was very interesting. I just love how easy it is making friends here. Everytime we get off at our bus stop it seems we are making friends from all over the world. A group from Madrid arrived yesterday. They are attending the business school. So before we met left to meet Carolina, we stopped by their place because they live very close. At that point it was so cool because we could understand a little bit of their Spanish when they'd go back and forth between English and it. They were just moving in but we may be touring in the city with them soon. They also gave us some really helpful tips about where to visit when we travel to Spain. They said if we go to Barcelona, wait til it warms up, and if we go to Madrid, don't take the train. Little things like that are going to be very helpful. I think the one thing we really want to do now is make friends with a Dane. We need someone to tell us the rules of biking, tip or don't tip, and things like that.
Well we were supposed to meet our German friend Carolina at the bus stop yesterday and go to our first Danish bar in the city. I guess she left before we got there though. Then, we started to realize as we were walking around the kollegiet that there were quite a bit of parties. We actually ended up stumbling upon a birthday party. A guy holding a sword invited us after talking to us outside for a while. Turns out everyone was Lithuanian at this party. There was also a folk dancer... oh and a guy from Madrid who knew card tricks. Although he wasn't as good as my friend from home. It was about like any other college party though besides the different languages we were hearing.
We've also noticed everyone listens to American music. They say everything else sucks. After a couple of hours we left. Christina is african/african-american, and one of the cute Lithuanians all of the sudden started asking where she was from and announced himself as a racist. I wasn't even in the conversation, but I quickly turned around when I heard him say he hated asians, jews, africans, and muslims. However, he kept saying he didn't hate her because she was cute and nice. We were both shocked to experience something like that so early during this experience and in Denmark too. After he left we asked his friend if racism was common in Lithuania and he said unfortunately yes, but more so to Africans, not african-americans. Which is weird, I think that may be reversed in the states. He said not everyone feels that way, especially not him and his friend. It's terrible to hear that kind of hatred, but I guess as Kim said I guess you're going to meet a few assholes no matter where you travel to.
Today we are planning on meeting Eddie and Justin in the city. They are going to show us around since they have been studying here for about 2 or 3 years now. I think they're taking us to the harbor as well.

Dinner with Wendy

Last night, Christina and I had dinner with Wendy from the Netherlands. She prepared spaghetti for us in her dorm 135. We're 139; so we're very close! Dinner was amazing and her apartment looks much more homey than ours. Her parents drove her down here to help her move in, and she was able to pack quite a bit more. She had extra furniture, candles, lamps... we'll definitely be hanging over at her place more often than ours. Her roommate Marije (pronounced similar to Mariah) is from the Netherlands also. So when she moves in they'll probably have even more of a home.

Dinner was so interesting talking about religion, politics, cultures, and diversity with her. Even Christina and I differed in many of our views being from different parts of America. I also had to introduce them to a few southern words... including "piddlefartin' around" and "pole cat." If you think of other ones let me know. Those just came to me first for some odd reason. Christina says many Californians say "hella" instead of "a lot." Wendy on the other hand was teaching us their language which sounds a lot like your haucking up a phlegm ball. (sp? on hauck?)

After dinner Wendy brought out some Dutch snacks. Black liquorice is very popular there. Now, I don't like any kind of liquorice in the states, but I knew I should try it. Well, my face was probably very horrible.... I'm sorry but it was disgusting! In the form of a jelly cough drop, not even the twisted straw. Then, I chased it down with a Dutch stroopwafel. Now that was delicious! Here's a picture.

It had a cinnamon taste inside. It was very good. We will definitely be buying more of those at the grocery next time. So, then... she taught us a German card game, well we think it's German called Ligretto. It was a lot of fun once we figured it all out. Ligretto is very similar to Speed. Maybe I'll be able to order the game online once I come home.

Wonderful Copenhagen!

Copenhagen was the perfect destination for our first little excursion. We left Wednesday morning by train, no plans at all for what we wanted to do or see, we just knew we wanted to go see something! The train ride was very neat. I think we may have went through a channel at one point underwater. It was about a three hour trip, and we got to see the Baltic sea!

When we arrived, our first mission was to check in at our hostel. Most of you who know me well, know that I do not handle smells very well. Smoke, bubblegum, berries, and B.O. can make me gag. Well, that is the one thing that I've got to get over if we keep staying in hostels. We stayed in 2 different ones this time because we wanted a room with all girls and neither hostel had both nights available for two. The first one was filled with 4 girls from Spain, who'd practically moved in....and apparently not showered. The second one goes along with a funny story. We loved this hostel minus the fact that it didn't offer a complimentary breakfast like the other. It was colorful and hip and very clean. However, when we checked in and went to our room, we were overcome with the smell of fart! Christina says really loudly, "It smells like a fart in here," just as a girl raises her head on one of the beds. Needless to say we thought the room was empty whoops! By the time we returned that night the fart smell had passed and so had nocturnal fart girl. Seriously, who sleeps at 2pm in a Copenhagen hostel! Anways our first experience with hostels has been basically you get what you pay for. It's a bed for the night and a shower/toilet. That's all you need for quick trips anyways. $56 for two nights!

The street food was very good! Danes put this special yellow sauce on everything (bread, hotdogs, smorebrodd, meat...). It's wonderful! They also put whole pickles on my hotdog, which now that I think about sounds not so weird compared to relish ha!

We spent the first day exploring, and then, we met up with Hugo and Rosalie. Hugo is from Montreal, Canada. He's studying abroad for the whole year. Last semester he studied stereotypes in the media. So, he was there visiting his peers from last semester that now have internships in Copenhagen. They were able to show us around Friday night to several bars in the city. Here's where my smell issue comes up again. I can't stand how smoky all the bars are here. You come out smelling like an ash tray, and it seeps in your hair, clothes, everything! We went into one place that made my throat burn. Still, the Danes are fun, and they taught us a cool drinking game called The Little Maya. It didn't make since til I played it a few times, but I think we'll have it mastered it soon.

Saturday, we were able to buy this pass that got us in to 6 different museums for only $12 total. It was a one time deal only offered in January. How convenient for us! We ended up visiting 4 including the Thorvaldsens Musuem dedicated to a danish man's art and sculptures, the Theatre Museum where we saw a rehearsal show, the Castle Ruins underneath Christiansborg Palace, and then finally, Christiansborg Palace. We also checked out the National Museum where we discovered Romboller in the cafe. I guess you can tell we are definitely doing the whole eat, pray, love thing. It was sooooo good, and very filling. I wrapped mine up to go and ate on that thing a few times before finishing it. I think it's a rum ball of some sort that is very popular here. Granted, that's not all we saw at the museum. We got to see a real viking braid. They'd chopped a vikings hair and tied it just like you see it in the movies. That was pretty neat to see upclose.

We finished Saturday with a trip far away from downtown to see the Little Mermaid! She's actually been in Asia for a while getting her head glued back on. It's still so weird to see the beach and it be frozen, or covered with snow. I keep asking myself why I didn't go to Austrailia or Chile or someplace warm. Then, I remember I'm going to be able to travel Europe for 4 months! Plus, the TV course is supposed to be ballin'. The interns we met had taken it before and said it improved their skills tremendously. How could it not going from 9-4pm everyday with no lectures. It's all hands on with projects around the city and other countries. I'm so excited for school!! Ok back to Copenhagen...

Sunday, we woke up very early to see the harbor before we left. You know the place where if you Google Image Copenhagen the canal pictures pop up. Well, now I've got my own! The water was frozen solid though. A chair was sticking half out of it!

Copenhagen treated us well, and I can't wait to go back again when it's warmer. Strolling along their main pedestrian street Stroget (I can't character map that special o with the line through into blogger so excuse the misspelled Danish words) would've been much more relaxing in some warmth. Instead we kinda powerwalked among it. We'll definitely be returning in March for a longer stroll. We have this theory that the cold makes people more productive. We got so much done in 2 days because of our pace. When it's freezing outside you see what you need to see and keep moving! Maybe it works both ways... does the hot sun not just make you thirsty, tired, and lazy. We also figured maybe this is why danes eat such a hearty lunch. Their dinner is smaller and lunch becomes the biggest meal of the day.

One three hour train ride later, and I'm glad to be back in my new Danish home! 3 days was the perfect amount of time for us to get our feet wet and ready to start traveling the rest of Europe. Our next trip will tentatively be a combo of the Netherlands and Germany.

The list begins

I'm a listmaker, so of course I've started making lists since I arrived in Aarhus. I've been keeping track now of what I miss from home, and then what I love about being here. Both are pretty short now, but here's what I got so far.

I love... Kvickly! As seen in the picture, it's a massive grocery chain here with the cheapest food we've found yet! Ok NOW to the list.

1. The bread and the golden pretzel sign that represents bakeries. Seriously, the bread here has to be the best I've ever tasted.

2. The people are very friendly and so helpful. All you have to do is ask. Most are very reserved, but as soon as you flash a smile and say Hej!, well it's like being in the south again :)

3. Stroopwafels, romboller, gross liquorice, street food, and basically the principle of being introduced to new foods. I appreciate all of them even if I don't like it, which has only happened twice. Once with the liquorice, and once with the first bottle of juice we bought. We had to pour 3/4 water in it to make it taste remotely like juice....very syrupy! Later we found a bottle that said mild.

4. The cobblestone roads. I love them; however, after a long walk it starts to feel like your feet are receiving a deep tissue massage. Once in a while a step can really hurt!

5. All the buildings have so much character.

6. Downtown. I've never really lived in a city before. Being downtown is exciting and always so full of life. I'm not sure if that's how most downtowns are or just this one in particular, but I really do love it at this point in my life.

7. The opportunity. I am so thankful for this experience. I'm learning new things and adapting so quickly each day. I'm feel myself becoming more independent everyday. Being an international student has allowed me a unique opportunity to explore cultures from Denmark, as well as many other countries around the world. For example, I love listening to the sounds of the Singapore girls in the unit above me. They play music all day and sing too really relaxing beats too.

Sure there are going to be luxuries of America that I miss also. So far, the lists seem to be pretty well balanced though.

I miss... not having to wear shower shoes!

1. My car! I love driving my car around town. Not being able to drive and taking the bus or biking everywhere could make for a pretty long, cold February.

2. Diet Sun drop/ Diet Dr. Pepper. I wasn't too surprised by no Diet Sun drop, but I was hoping they'd have the Diet Dr. Pepper. No such luck. It doesn't really matter though. Their cokes taste different anyways. Much sweeter. Diet coke is sweeter than Coke zero here.

3. Warm weather. Granted, it's actually about the same here as it has been at home.... around 32 degrees. But it's starting to warm up at home, and not here. Apparently, February is the coldest month.

4. I miss my friends and family. Keeping a blog, along with Skyping has helped so much though.

5. Not converting money, degrees, wattage, or voltage all the time.

And that's all for the list now. Tomorrow I have to show you my new bike! Took it home today, and I love it :)

Inspired on the 1st day

Today was the first day of school, and Christina and I were nothing short of ecstatic. It felt like the first day of Kindergarten. We met our friends at the bus stop at 9:05 and took a snapshot. Well I let the photojournalists do it. I'll post their pics as soon as they've posted them on Facebook. They are all so talented. The majority of our group living together are in the TV course or the photo one. It's a really good mix. People come from Canada, Germany, Egypt, Minnesota, California, Holland, Latvia, Slovakia Republic, Nepal, London, Sweden, Portugal, Australia and Missouri. That's only to name the ones I live next to. I believe there are over 25 countries represented here at the Danish School of Media and Journalism.

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But our small group has decided to do something very special to set ourselves apart. We will be producing our own side project during the semester aimed for prospective international students at DSMJ. There will be a short film as well as a website featuring anything a student could possibly want to know about what to expect from the program, the city, and the entire experience abroad. We've decided to meet every Wednesday to add onto our project. It's very exciting to dive into journalism and producing again. Having such a long break was making me crave school again... or at least some kind of project so as not to forget any of the skills I've learned over the past 3 years.

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Working with such talented people from all around the world will be such an amazing learning experience, and I cannot wait to get this project started.

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Today was a very short day, but definitely inspiring. The teachers introduced the programs, teaching methods and took us on a tour of the campus. This school is probably the size of Tullahoma High School...maybe smaller. For once, I'm not too worried about getting lost. When the teacher spoke, he reminded me so much of previous teachers like Dr. Sawyer and Bernardo who inspired me from the very beginning to become a journalist. While I'm studying here I want to reach my greatest potential. I want to learn different views and methods. I want to become well-rounded and frankly, I want to set myself miles apart from the other students in my graduating class looking for jobs out of college. I feel like I'm in the best place I can be to learn how to achieve that type of success. Being here has made me consider possibly working as an international journalist someday.

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It's so interesting that with every student I meet, we may come from opposite sides of the world and have entirely different opinions and beliefs, but we are the same. We chose to come to DSMJ, out from our comfort zones, to learn how to be better journalists. My semester has just begun, but today, I feel sure that I've made one of the best decisions of my life coming here. I could not be happier.

Wow these Danes sure do work hard/ PLAY HARD!

Today was so much fun. I worked on my first TV assignment with Kim from Toronto and Thorsten from Denmark. We worked really well together and had a lot of fun shooting with such new and light equipment. Our assignment was to shoot a 30 second segment in the TV technician room. Talk about a boring room. However we managed to spice it up a bit :) Check it out! www.vimeo.com/19560943

So afterward, we finished around one thirty. Ate lunch around noon. Friday bar, which is a bar in the basement of the school began at two pm. Oh goodness! People drank for 12 hours, no supper in between. We even threw a trip downtown in there somewhere. It was crazy how the Danes could throw a party. I mean that place was bumping at 3pm in the afternoon!!

It was so much fun though! I made a lot of new friends, and I can't wait to finish partying the rest of the weekend with them... and then get back to work and meet our teacher!!