Today in my Danish class, we learned how to sing the birthday song. It is much superior to the lame American one, because you get to pretend to play instruments and the song gets really rowdy. I think I will try to implement this song next year. Then I had to blow out the candles and I missed two, which means that I have two boyfriends apparently. The cake was sort of like a fruit cake with rhubarb and almonds. It was very good and I had to eat a lot of it. Also, Mette brought chocolate milk that was so delicious. It was a nice birthday party.
Last week, I visited Legoland. It was so much more than I expected. It had entire cities made out of legos, with working locks, cars, de-icing machines, and windmills. The spaceship from the JFK rocket center acutally has smoke to mimic liftoff. There was this ride that let you pick the intensity and moves. It was a huge mechanical arm that flung Kate and I around and upside down and it was a little scary. I was moving a little in my seat and after screaming the entire time, the machine took a picture of us. My hair was completely in my face and I looked like the fortune teller from my Dante's Inferno movie. I really wanted to buy a t-shirt with that on the front. The entire day, I was in a constant state of amazement. Especially, when I saw this fish that was yellow in the first part of its body and magenta on its hindquarters. I couldn't believe that they had an aquarium with huge crabs, sharks, and weird looking fish. On the three hour bus rides, I played some Spades and an awesome game called Whist. And for dinner, a delicious buffet complete with the best applesauce I have ever had in my life. It had some sort of whipped cream on the top and was perfect. A very good way to spend a Sunday.
And next Sunday, vado a Roma!!!!!!! Non posso aspettare. And after some amazing days in Rome, I am going to travel around and see awesome cities for a week. Study abroad is the best. Of course, these last three weeks have been packed with midterms, presentations, and papers. But the next two weeks will make it all worth it.
Tonight I rode back in the rain for the first time. My rain jacket kept me dry from head to waist, but the tops of pants were completely soaked. I think I noticed that many people were wearing rain pants? I think I should look into this. The ride was fine except for my legs.
Also, the Danish kids wear snow suits when it is cold. It doesn't even snow here. Yesterday on my misty run, I saw these two brothers who were running in their snow suits with sticks in their hands. Their dad was just standing nearby laughing at them. SO CUTE!! Then I ran past a dog carrying a stick in his mouth, it was really just a stick kind of day.
Monday, October 26, 2009
Friday, October 9, 2009
I love Europe
Wow. Stockholm is completely breathtaking. The canals are huge and lined with trees. And it is fall, so all the leaves are beautiful colors of reds, oranges, and greens. The city is majestic with a wonderful mix of old, windy, hilly, narrow streets and the newer stuff. I went to the Vasa Museum that has this ship that capsized on its maiden voyage in 1628. The entire thing was pulled out of the water in the 1960s. very impressive. We went to a Swedish hockey game one night. Another day we went to the Karolinska Institutet. This is a very highly respected medical school, and in one of the conference rooms, a committe decides the medicine/phisiology nobel prize. I sat in one of the seats and the round table that has room for 24. It was amazing to be there the day after the prize was announced in that very room.
But, my favorite part of the trip was the modern art museum. The museum had a visiting exhibit of Salvador Dali. They had a lot of his paintings and some video clips of him. There was this one ad for alka seltzer that had an older and wild haired Dali using paint on a model's white onesie to explain the effects that it has on the stomache. And he declared that the neutralizing action was art. And then I went around and saw some stuff by Andy Warhol, Jean Arp, Max Ernst, Picasso, Ducamp, Kandinsky, Jackson Pollock, Piet Mondrian, and other really cool artists. There was a contraption that was a very complicated fly swatter, that I operated by stepping on a lever. Then, there was this huge statue of a man/beast that had black fingernails and grey fur. That was the only peace that really creeped me out. But, the highlight was seeing "Fountain" because it's a urinal that is "art." Like I learned about this three years ago and then just saw it in the flesh. It was in the same room with the mustached Mona Lisa, which is actually rather small. I have heard this about the real Mona Lisa as well. I walked out of that museum in the best of spirts. I felt so happy. Walking down the beautiful hill to the incredible canal, I wished to be nowhere else in the world.
After an awesome time in Stockholm, it was time for a booze cruise to Tallinn, Estonia. The ship had a show that was beauty. The caberet dancers were in insane costumes and the singers were sub par in this Viva Las Vegas show, but the music was so entertaining. The show started out with a Pink song and then played "It's Raining Men" and other gems. Then afterwards, the dancers came out into the audience and danced with us for "I Will Survive." The entire show, I had no idea what was going, what I was experiencing, but I knew that I loved it. I ended up dancing for so long and when I finally came back to go to bed, there were all these people outside my cabin that were drunk, 40, and loud. So, the first day in Tallinn was a bit tough. After a good night's sleep, I got to go on a tour of old Tallinn, which apparently means Danish town. During lunch on Friday, we were having a discussion about healthcare and the differences between Denmark and America. We were talking about equality and the right to care, when our tour leader comes up to us and says "Obama just won the Nobel Peace Prize." We were completely shocked. Just three days before we had toured the Nobel Museum in Stockholm and watched the live feed of the announcing of the chemistry prize. The Peace Prize is the only one to be awarded in Oslo because Alfred Nobel wanted to ease tension between Sweden and Norway. It was all in all an amazing way to spend the week. Pictures to come, too many to sort through right now.
But, my favorite part of the trip was the modern art museum. The museum had a visiting exhibit of Salvador Dali. They had a lot of his paintings and some video clips of him. There was this one ad for alka seltzer that had an older and wild haired Dali using paint on a model's white onesie to explain the effects that it has on the stomache. And he declared that the neutralizing action was art. And then I went around and saw some stuff by Andy Warhol, Jean Arp, Max Ernst, Picasso, Ducamp, Kandinsky, Jackson Pollock, Piet Mondrian, and other really cool artists. There was a contraption that was a very complicated fly swatter, that I operated by stepping on a lever. Then, there was this huge statue of a man/beast that had black fingernails and grey fur. That was the only peace that really creeped me out. But, the highlight was seeing "Fountain" because it's a urinal that is "art." Like I learned about this three years ago and then just saw it in the flesh. It was in the same room with the mustached Mona Lisa, which is actually rather small. I have heard this about the real Mona Lisa as well. I walked out of that museum in the best of spirts. I felt so happy. Walking down the beautiful hill to the incredible canal, I wished to be nowhere else in the world.
After an awesome time in Stockholm, it was time for a booze cruise to Tallinn, Estonia. The ship had a show that was beauty. The caberet dancers were in insane costumes and the singers were sub par in this Viva Las Vegas show, but the music was so entertaining. The show started out with a Pink song and then played "It's Raining Men" and other gems. Then afterwards, the dancers came out into the audience and danced with us for "I Will Survive." The entire show, I had no idea what was going, what I was experiencing, but I knew that I loved it. I ended up dancing for so long and when I finally came back to go to bed, there were all these people outside my cabin that were drunk, 40, and loud. So, the first day in Tallinn was a bit tough. After a good night's sleep, I got to go on a tour of old Tallinn, which apparently means Danish town. During lunch on Friday, we were having a discussion about healthcare and the differences between Denmark and America. We were talking about equality and the right to care, when our tour leader comes up to us and says "Obama just won the Nobel Peace Prize." We were completely shocked. Just three days before we had toured the Nobel Museum in Stockholm and watched the live feed of the announcing of the chemistry prize. The Peace Prize is the only one to be awarded in Oslo because Alfred Nobel wanted to ease tension between Sweden and Norway. It was all in all an amazing way to spend the week. Pictures to come, too many to sort through right now.
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