The End

Well, four months later and I'm all set (well, kind of) to return to the States tomorrow. It's crazy to think how long it's been since I've been in the United States! This post will probably be pretty long and sappy but it is really the only way I can even begin to describe this past semester. I'll try not to get too mushy! First, I can't believe it is over already. It flew by! Once we started traveling almost every weekend, the days just seemed to pass at twice the speed. I remember saying during long study tour, "that's it, it's over. Study abroad is over," because I knew how quickly the weeks were going to go by from there and I was right.

I wrote this entry sitting at DIS with my friends (they are studying; I am simply distracting them and providing amusement on their study breaks). Writing this post is turning out to be a lot harder than I anticipated. While I am excited to go home, it has really hit me these past few weeks what an amazing experience I have had here.

Before solidifying my decision to study abroad, I talked to a lot of my friends who went to Denmark to hear their take on it. They all said, "you have to go! It's amazing! It will change your life." My one friend told me that she couldn't even describe it; it was just awesome. Now I know exactly what they meant.

Last semester at school wasn't exactly the highlight of my Gettysburg career. I was in some pretty tough classes, injured throughout the cross country season, and missing all of my classmates who were abroad in the fall or had graduated last spring. Thinking back upon it now, I definitely was not the brightest ray of sunshine on campus. Let's just say, I needed to get away, so going abroad couldn't have come at a better time.

It didn't take me very long to love studying abroad. I'll admit, the first week or two was a little tough, trying to feel comfortable in a stranger's home. I remember going to the opening ceremony the first day and seeing my friends -the first thing we all said to each other was how hungry we were because we were too embarrassed to take a second serving at dinner or more than one slice of toast at breakfast! We got over that soon enough though.

So, what exactly was my favorite part about studying abroad? It's way too difficult to pinpoint one thing. I came to Europe with my best friend, and I couldn't be happier about that (obviously), but one of my favorite parts was meeting new people, both from other schools and Gettysburg. We all had a blast traveling together, exploring Copenhagen and sharing the funny and awkward encounters we had with our host families or other Danes. Whether we were doing something stupid in Spain or attempting to study for an exam, I can honestly say I think I spent half of my time here peeing my pants from laughing so hard.

I also loved learning about the Danish culture and trying my best not to look like a “stupid American” all the time. It was so interesting to learn about all of the traditions and the way of life in general here because it is actually a lot more different than you would expect. I can proudly say that I did not get hit by any cyclists (although I had a very close encounter...while on my bike). I also bought a few groceries yesterday and managed to trick the cashier into thinking I was Danish and checked out without using any English (only two phrases were necessary: Hej and Nej, tak!) Speaking of groceries, I bought a package of this thin chocolate to bring home that the Danes like to put on toast for breakfast. It's delicious. I've memorized the list of train stops (Peter Bangs Vej is still my all time favorite) and I have my bike commute down to a science. I also got to experience another Danish birthday celebration –mine. It is a Danish tradition to wake the person up while singing a birthday song and waving Danish flags. My birthday also happens to be a national holiday, so my host parents had off from work. I woke up pretty early on my own though and since I didn't know for sure if I would be woken up, I figured I should get up instead of awkwardly lying there, already awake and waiting if they came in. So, I went for a run. Turns out they came to get me and I was gone! When I came back they were waiting for me with a nice breakfast and a birthday song, but I was totally embarrassed!

The more I think about it, the more I think my favorite part of being abroad was traveling all over Europe. I got to see so much of the world and I think I really took advantage of it. It was a blast being all on our own, having no idea where we were and just relying on our developing street smarts to get by. I've learned that transportation systems are not as mind-boggling as I once thought. Once you learn how to navigate one, you can figure out all of them. We didn't speak the language most of the time, which made traveling even funnier. I also never realized how much work actually is involved in planning a trip -from finding a flight, booking a place to stay, planning what to do, gathering directions and transportation information...it's a lot! I don't think I ever gave my parents enough credit. I've picked up on so many little tips this semester, that I think I could write a, "How to Travel Europe on a Budget" (for instance: share beds in a hostel for a cheaper room) or "Europe for Dummies" book. So, what exactly was my favorite city? It is way too hard to pick one. They are all so different, which makes traveling Europe so exciting...nothing is ever the same! So, I decided that I would just give out some city superlatives instead, so no one is excluded. Here it goes:

Prettiest city: Vienna

City that was much prettier than expected: Amsterdam

City with the best history: Berlin

Wildest city: Madrid

Most unique: Barcelona

Cheapest city: Poznan

Most expensive city: Copenhagen (of course!)

City with the sketchiest “sketch” area: Poznan…we nicknamed one area Iran.

Best crepes: see previous blog post

Best food in general: Paris

Greenest city: Amsterdam (based solely on the number of bikes)

Best "Africa" (just ask me if you're interested): Madrid

Most likely to get lost in: Copenhagen (It may be small, but half of the streets are not labeled and the maps are impossible to read!)

Best transportation system: Copenhagen
Worst transportation system: Ryan Air

Worst transportation system (aesthetically speaking....all were very efficient): Paris, Berlin, and Poznan’s trams…They are so crowded and hot, and Europeans kind of smell bad and.. you get the point. Gross.  

Best outdoor market for cheap stuff: Madrid (El Rastro)

Best outdoor food market: Vienna (Nasch market)

Best tour: Berlin

Best hotdogs: Copenhagen. No contest.

City I liked more than I thought I would: Vienna

City I felt most like currywurst in: Berlin

Best bowling alley/boringest city: Ebeltoft, DK

Windiest: Smorum

Coolest architecture: Barcelona

Best sightseeing: Barcelona, followed closely by Paris and Vienna

Most chic: Copenhagen

Biggest flirt: Madrid

Prettiest palace: Vienna (Schonbrunn and Hofburg)

Most likely to get your wallet stolen: Madrid

Most adventurous: Sweden

Best city to take artsy pictures in: Amsterdam

Also- an interesting note: I have officially been to the two largest red light districts in Europe: Amsterdam and Hamburg. New fun fact?

Anyways, I could ramble on for awhile about my past four months, but I will try not to. I certainly had the time of my life, and it really was too amazing to put into words. As far as changing my life, I guess I could say it did, but I probably won't realize in what ways until I get back to the United States. I'd like to think I'm the same person -I don't think I have changed that much! If anything, I have learned a lot about myself and maybe am just a more improved version of myself. I've definitely become more independent these past few months and I feel a lot more comfortable and confident in new situations.  As cliché as this sounds, I really do feel a lot more cultured, just by going out and seeing all of these things, interacting with different types of people and immersing myself in a new way of life. I think being at a school as small as Gettysburg can easily put you into bubble. There have been weeks at school where I have no idea what is going on outside of the vicinity of our campus, let alone the country or the world. I’m hoping that I will no longer fall victim to bubble syndrome when I return to school next fall. I also think going abroad helped to give me a new perspective on things. I didn't realize how "American" my views on the world were (if that makes any sense?) and it has been so interesting to learn about things from a Danish or European point of view. Finally, I think I've realized that there is a lot more to life than getting good grades, which was pointed out by my Holocaust & Genocide teacher. I obviously worked really hard to make sure I maintained my grades while studying abroad, but I was definitely less stressed. The classes were not as hard, so that clearly was a large part of it, but this was also the first time that I actually just let myself skip a reading if I didn't have time and not worry about it. It's not to say grades aren't important, but sometimes I think we can forget to have fun and enjoy it. Hey, I'm not going to be this young forever! Danish society is a lot more easygoing and laid back -they like to take their time with things (they don't even jaywalk when the street is clear!) and are just so much more relaxed. I think just the right amount of that has rubbed off on me.

Before I finish up with this post, for your enjoyment, I decided I would make a list of some of the highlights of the many random/silly/ridiculous/stupid things that may or may not have taken place in Copenhagen or on another trip, some of which I “forgot” to include in previous posts.  I’ll keep it short!

February: Napped outside of Copenhagen Central Station (huddled in a pile with friends) because we missed our last train and it closes down from midnight to 5 am on weekdays. A kind homeless man woke us up to inform us that the station was open and we could catch our train home. How nice of him.

Biked into a car because the wind was so strong it blew me over.

Went dumpster diving in the middle of the night to find the leftover pastries that the bakeries get rid of every night (no, this is not something that I made up myself and yes, we hit the jackpot!)

Slept in the same clothes that I ran in for a week straight over travel break because we insisted on packing in backpacks (no judgments, please).

Sang karaoke with a stranger to a song I have never heard of before in my life. Thank goodness this is not on video.

Used a free sample market as my lunch.

Late night bike riding.

Tagged along on a Danish student only pub crawl. We were technically invited.

Missed my train that I was 15 minutes early for because I was standing on the wrong side of the track. The train was parked in front of me the entire time.

Wore so many clothes on the airplane to get through the gate-check that I thought I was going to pass out.

It's been an awesome four months here, and I can't believe I considered not coming at one point. I am definitely going to miss it, but I am so excited to be back in my own home, see my family and friends and go back to everything and everyone at Gettysburg for senior year (how am I a senior already!?). I also am really looking forward to the weather back home. I'm still wearing the same thing I was wearing in February (I never actually wore the shorts I packed...what a waste of luggage space!) and I can't say I will miss the wind too much. I'm looking forward to being able to actually hear my music when I go running. Regardless, I will remember this experience for a lifetime and I couldn't have asked for a better group of people to study abroad with. Hey, maybe I'll even start biking to work! I guess the only thing left to say is...well, vacation is over!



P.S. I hope everyone enjoyed following along... Thanks for reading!

5000 Crepes in Paris

Bonjour! Guess who is finished her finals and free to enjoy the last few days in Copenhagen without any work, what-so-ever (except for updating this blog…)? This girl! I’m so glad to be done, even though my finals week was probably only a quarter as stressful as a typical finals week back home!

Two weekends ago, my friends and I took our final weekend trip (we tried to ignore this fact)…to Paris! I had been looking forward to this trip for almost the whole semester, considering it was the first thing we booked in February! Friday was a Danish holiday, so we flew out early in the morning to have three full days in the city. The trains don’t run at four in the morning, so Lexi’s host sister kindly volunteered to drive us to the airport, so we didn’t have to sleep in the airport like homeless people like we had originally planned!

After finding our hotel (yes, I said hotel. We decided to go classy for our last trip and squeeze five girls into a four person hotel room. Did I mention that we also got a “Congratulations, you have booked the cheapest room this hotel has to offer!” message after booking the room?), I split off from my friends and met up with two good friends from home, Ali and Amanda who have been studying abroad in Paris for the past year! It was totally crazy to casually meet up in Paris…but so awesome! My first thought when I was navigating the metros to get to our meeting spot was how big Paris is. There are so many lines and the metro ride itself took a good half hour. Copenhagen has one line that branches off at one stop, and most of the time you can just walk to wherever you want to go. It really put it the size of Copenhagen into perspective for me. Anyways, my friends know me too well and took me to a really cute crepe place, where we got ham and cheese crepes for lunch and chocolate ones for dessert, which were amazing! I wish I had the chance to spend more time with them, but it was so nice to see a face from back home.

We decided to be typical tourists and headed right to the major tourist destinations. After a quick visit to see Napoleon’s tomb on our way, we first stopped at the Eiffel Tower. To be honest, I expected it to be a lot more impressive. It’s actually pretty ugly the closer you get to it, and it’s not nearly as tall as I thought it was. I still liked it though and the park surrounding it was a great place to hang out. The view from behind is also pretty incredible as well. If you have seen my pictures already, you probably couldn’t help but notice the gigantic rain cloud lingering above us in every picture taken at the tower. (I tried to do some fancy photo editing to make it look sunny, but it was to no avail). Unlike our spring break packing fiasco, we decided to actually pack according to the weather forecast this time, which was rainy and cool, all weekend. We figured a 90% chance of rain every day would probably make the trip a pretty miserable experience if we followed our Spain philosophy. In case you are wondering, that rain cloud exploded just as we were about to get in line to climb up the tower.

We headed to the Louve as our next stop, partially because we were so excited to look at and interpret thousands of pieces of artwork, but mostly because we didn’t feel like being in the rain. If you’re not very art-saavy like any of us, there is a simple trick to mastering the Louve in ten minutes while still being able to boast about going to the Louve.  The key is to follow the crowds. They’ll take you right to the two most important pieces in the museum: the Venus de Milo sculpture and the Mona Lisa. As far as the Mona Lisa goes, I’m really not sure what the craze is about. It’s probably because I’m not really into artwork yet, but it is surrounded by so many huge, beautiful paintings with really vibrant colors, and this little tiny painting is what everyone wants to take a picture with (myself included). She’s not even pretty (no offense) and she’s a little bit of an attention-hog if you ask me! I think the outside of the Louvre is the most impressive. Not only is this place huge, but the architecture is amazing. It’s beautiful and the pyramids in the center are really neat, especially when you go inside of it. When you’re standing at the Louvre, and look straight ahead, you can see a whole stretch of Paris, all the way down to the famous Arch de Triumph. That was my favorite view of the whole city. It’s such a pretty area, and when I ran to it the next morning, I loved it even more!

The next day we took a trip to Versaille, to see the palace and gardens that King Louis XIV built. I was really excited to go because I remember spending so much time learning about it during European History in high school. Of course, getting there turned out to be an adventure in itself! We were waiting for our train and didn’t notice that they switched the track it would be arriving on. By the time we realized it, it was too late and we watched the train speed away. Luckily, the next train coming also had a stop with “Versaille” on it. Even though it wasn’t exactly the same name, we figured it had to be close enough! Once we got there, we thought that we would have to make one transfer at that station. We were about to get on a train that took us in the complete opposite direction of where we were headed (which was actually just a few blocks away) when a nice man kindly informed us that we were completely wrong. We literally jumped off the train before it closed its doors, skipping all steps and coming dangerously close to landing in the gap between the train and the platform. We weren’t about to get off that easy though. On our way out, one of the train workers stopped us to check our tickets. I don’t understand much French besides “Merci” and “Bonjour” but it wasn’t too hard to figure out that we were busted. Apparently, our “three day pass that will allow you to travel all over Paris” did not cover the zone we traveled to. Luckily, the guy was feeling nice and gave us a group rate on the fine, but after that, it was a grocery store lunch for us!

Besides our minor mishap, Versaille was awesome! The palace that was built is incredible! If the King was trying to show off (which I’m pretty sure he was), then he certainly succeeded in it. The entire façade seemed to be made of gold, as well as the whole interior. Every room was lavishly decorated and the hall of mirrors is pretty awesome. It bothered me that I couldn’t remember everything I had learned a couple of years ago about Louis XIV and Marie Antionette. I meant to look up some information after we got back, but not surprisingly, Paris managed to sidetrack me a bit. We went around back to the gardens after we toured the inside. We didn’t even see all of them, but they were beautiful as well. I love how all of the palaces always have these incredible backyards (I’m not sure backyard is the right word…park is probably more fitting), and we even managed to catch some of the fountain shows!

On our way back from Versaille, we followed through with our plan and paid a trip to the grocery store for our next meal, to try to make up for the ticket we had to pay. Maybe everything does happen for a reason, because this “grocery store lunch” was the best lunch I had in Paris! Kelly, Caroline and I bought some French baguettes, a carton of grape tomatoes, and ball of mozzarella each and made our own sandwiches. They could have come from the best restaurant in France and I wouldn’t have been able to tell the difference. Maybe it’s because I am addicted bread and French bread is amazing, so I was in heaven. We probably looked ridiculous because we didn’t have any utensils so we had to drain the cheese on the street and rip it apart with our fingers, but it was well worth it!

When we got back into the main city, the weather was still nice enough (somehow we really lucked out with the weather!) to climb the Eiffel Tower. Considering that one flight of stairs somehow always manages to make me feel completely out of shape, I thought that we were going to have to take a lot of breaks. Once we got into a rhythm though, we climbed right on up, no problem! Unfortunately, you can only take an overpriced elevator all the way up to the top, so we stopped at the highest platform you could go to walking. Either way, it was a really pretty view of the city. I forgot to mention, but Paris actually looked a lot different than I thought it would. From that height, it looked a lot more industrial and “city like.” My favorite parts are the stereotypical “Paris-in-the-movies, cobblestone streets” areas. Each quarter of the city seemed to have its very own feel though, which is pretty cool since the city is so large.  

After dinner (and my second consecutive night of ordering French onion soup…delicious!), we headed back to the Eiffel Tower area to see it lit up at night. It is lit up the entire night but sparkles on the hour. It is so pretty and looks ten times better at night…Paris in general is just a totally different city at night! Most of the pictures came out blurry, but I’m sure you get the point.

Later on that night, we wandered the streets to explore more of the city at night. The most memorable event though was the discovery of the greatest food I have ever tasted in my entire life (no exaggeration): banana nutella crepes. I thought the banana nutella crepes in Denmark were good –I was wrong. Denmark’s crepes are like comparing a box of Barilla rigatoni to Grandma’s ravioli. These crepes were a little on the thicker side (but not thick or fluffy enough to be pancake) so they aren’t overwhelmed and toppled over by the added ingredients and you can experience all three delicacies together at once, instead of having just crepe or just the banana (which is a full banana in France!) and nutella. Pure bliss. This is kind of disgusting, but I finished mine so quickly and bought a second one five minutes later because I couldn’t stop thinking about how delicious it was! I have to stop writing about it, because it is making me very jealous that I can’t get one right now!

On our final day in Paris, we hit a few more touristy destinations. First, we stopped at the Notre Dame Church. Like all European churches, this one was beautiful as well. I wish it had been better weather so I could have really seen the stained glass, but I guess I’ll just have to Google it to see what it looks like during prime conditions. We also went to the Sacre Coeur church, which is on a little hilltop and gives you another view of the city. Then we walked down Champs-Elysees, which is a really famous and beautiful street that starts at the Arch de Triumph (like everything else, this Arch is huge!) with lots of high end shops that you can only let yourself window-shop in. We had some free time at the end of the day and all bought a few things at some cute little boutiques in Bastille, another section of Paris. I bought myself my first non-running watch, which I think will make my sister and Mom very happy! When I took off my Ironman to put my new watch on, the shopkeeper told me to tell it goodbye! I guess she didn’t think it was too stylish. Oh well. We also tried the Paris version of a hotdog, which are hotdogs on baguettes that are covered in cheese. I’m sure your mouth is watering just reading that. Fun fact: the hotdogs in Copenhagen are way better!

I didn’t want to leave Paris because there is so much you could do there that three days is not nearly enough. I also didn’t want to leave because I knew that it was our last trip together and that meant the semester would be coming to a close before we knew it. We were all pretty exhausted by the end though. I think the past few weeks of non-stop traveling really caught up with us…actually, I think it all caught up to me in class the next morning (we left Monday morning pretty early so that we were back in Copenhagen in time for our first class). Anyways, that basically wraps it up for my whirl-wind tour of Europe. We had one more week of classes and this week is finals week. I’ll save all the goodbyes and end of the semester shenanigans for my final post though, which you can expect within the next few days since I have a good amount of free time before my flight home! Au revoir !

Sweden Canoe & Hike Trip

Last weekend, I went on a DIS adventure trip to Sweden! It was probably one of my favorite trips this semester. It was so much fun. You can get to Sweden pretty quickly from Copenhagen with the ferry. Since I had seen so many cities over the past few weeks, this weekend was a nice break from that and definitely brought out everybody’s inner nature-freak.

We got to Sweden by 10:00 am, and immediately hopped into some canoes for our first adventure. I have been canoeing one other time, and was not very successful (Mikaela can vouch for me…she was lucky enough to witness it). However, I was convinced that my problems my first time around were the fault of my fellow shipmate and were not an accurate reflection of my abilities. Turns out I was very wrong. I was in a boat with Kelly and Lexi. We figured we’d be pretty decent considering all of us are athletic and Kelly spends her summers sailing, so that’s close enough. Wrong again. We were one of the first groups out onto the water, but within ten minutes were in last place among all of the DIS canoes. I managed to steer us directly into the bank on several occasions, the worst of which almost ended up with us flipping the canoe because we were laughing too hard to get the boat and ourselves under control. I’m pretty sure a blind person could have rowed the boat more successfully than the three of us –we looked like we were skiing down the river because the only way we could get anywhere was to zig-zag our way down. We probably ended up rowing double the distance from all of the turning we did! Forty-five minutes in, our arms started to get pretty tired. That’s when we realized we still had another two hours to go! Fortunately, the owners of the canoes were handing out really good Swedish ice-cream at the half-way point, so we picked up a little bit of a second wind, but it was tough! We maybe improved from a D (if we had actually fallen in, then I would have said it was a complete failure) to a C, but still finished a good five minutes after everyone else. Needless to say, I don’t think that canoeing is our forte.

After lunch, we went on a hike which took us to Nimis. Nimis is a village made by a man completely from driftwood! He calls it a “micronation” and wanted it to be independent of Sweden, but not surprisingly, the Swedish government wasn’t too thrilled with this idea. It still exists, but the government does not recognize it. Regardless, it’s still really cool! The hike there was beautiful and even a little challenging at parts. It was really steep and rocky, and pretty slippery from all of the rain. Once you got to the entrance to Nimis, it was completely driftwood. There were tunnels and bridges and high towers to climb, all made of just driftwood and nails. For any future parents out there, this place would have been the perfect tree house growing up…build one for your kid, and they will be the happiest child in the world.  I was amazed that the creator did this all by himself, and it’s pretty sturdy considering what it’s made of…although one of the structures was a little wobbly at the top, so we climbed it and headed back down pretty quickly. Our leaders also had us participate in a meditation session on the rocks by the sea. I was laughing at first (immature, I know), but it was really relaxing once I was able to suppress my giggles. I mean, how often do you get to meditate on the Swedish coast!?

The hostel experience for this trip was just as enjoyable as the adventure portion. The place we stayed at was more like a bed and breakfast. It was located in the country side, in the middle of nowhere. There was literally nothing around. But it was beautiful! There was no wi-fi in the hostel either, which was nice because it really added to the “one with nature” experience for the weekend. Instead of being on our iPods at night, we found much better ways to entertain ourselves. When you walked in, you had to take your sneakers off and wear slippers! Somehow, I ended up with the smallest pair, so half of my foot was hanging out of each. It was like a big communal home. We could use the kitchen as we pleased, played card games in the dining room, and could hang out in the backyard as well. That night, our leader’s barbequed an awesome dinner for us, which we completely devoured. The only way I can describe our behavior: we were like animals! Afterwards, there were smores and icecream by the bonfire. It was a little too cold for me to stay outside, so most of us snuggled up around the fireplace inside and got to know some of the other kinds on our trip. Even though we were all exhausted, it was such a fun night and very relaxing!

 

The next day, we went to Kullaberg, which was a short drive from the hostel. It is a big nature reserve, with lots of trails and coastlines to hike. We split up into two groups. My group went orienteering first. We had a map and a compass to guide us to particular destinations in the area. At each place, we had a challenge to complete. Our first stop was to hike down to the water, where we had to build a tower of rocks as high as we could…which ended up not being very high at all. Laura took tumble number two (or three?...we lost count by the end) of the trip and fell off of a huge rock right into the freezing water. Luckily she brought lots of clothes because she was completely soaked, and it is not warm in Sweden in April! Some of the other challenges included a life-size tanagram puzzle, which our group could not figure even though all of us had solved one before! They are much easier when they are normal sized! This kind of crushed all of our dreams of ever winning Survivor. We also had to tie a couple of knots with the rope (thanks Mr. Cole and Wilderness-X class in high school for preparing me for that one!) and guess the distances of certain ropes tied up to the trees. The best part of the challenges though was trying to find the destinations and the actual hike there. There were a lot of cliffs to scale up and down and it was real rock-climbing. Some of them were so steep they had ropes set up to hold on to so you could get down. It was right up my alley!

After lunch, we switched groups and my group got to go repelling! It was such a different experience than it would have been at home. In the United States, they would have made me sign a billion waivers and make me sit through long, boring tutorials that I wouldn’t have paid attention to anyways. There was none of that in Sweden! We geared up, and headed right to the cliff! The instructor barely went over what to do before he had us rappelling! The first cliff was a practice one. It was a lot smaller and pretty flat, so you could walk down it fairly easily. The second one we rappelled off of was a lot harder though and a little scary when you first stepped off because you have to really lean back in the harness and just let yourself go. Even though you are mainly stepping down, it gets really tricky when the rocks are jutting out in a thousand directions. At one point, I lost my step and was swinging like Tarzan until I could find a better foothold. It started raining in the middle of it too, but we kept going, which is another thing I doubt we’d ever be able to do at home!

At the end of the day, DIS arranged a surprise stop for us on our way home –coffee and pastries! It was the perfect way to end, especially after being out in the cold for so long. We were wet and shivering, so something warm and yummy hit the spot. Overall, it was a great weekend, and the perfect trip to take after a non-stop spring break. I wish I had a couple of more free weekends (or even weeks) because I would go back in an instant and explore some more!