Just a quick update-
I've booked a trip to Southern France!! I leave October 6th and I'll be there through October 15th. I'll be in Marseille for 4 days and Nice for 6 days. I plan on visiting Aix-En-Provence, Monaco, and Cannes as well. From there I'll fly to Copenhagen.
Add to the excitement Mom and Dad are coming to visit me October 16th. I'll fly from Nice to Copenhagen to meet up with them then we'll spend some time in Copenhagen before it's off to Stockholm for a couple days. From Stockholm I'll go to Oslo and hopefully take a day trip to the western fjords and I'll stay in Oslo for a few days. Then it will be back to the normal life in Aarhus on October 25th.
After almost 3 weeks straight of traveling I'm sure that I'll be ready to come back to my temporary home and see everybody again.
In summary: Marseille-Aix En Provence- Nice- Monaco- Cannes-Copenhagen- Stockholm- Oslo- Aarhus. Should be absolutely wonderful and probably the absolute best birthday present ever!!
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Monday, September 20, 2010
School Has Started!
Life has been more than a little busy the past 3 weeks. A short re-cap of the important stuff:
Trip to Copenhagen from September 5-7. I went by myself and met up with my friend Magik from Poland who lives there. He was generous enough to let me stay at his apartment which saved A LOT of money. I love Copenhagen and the weather was beautiful while I was there so I spent a lot of time wandering around especially when he was at work (he's a mechanical engineer). He and I went to this IceBar one night and EVERYTHING was made out of ice. From the walls to the ceiling to the glasses. They give you giant insulated capes with gloves because the temperature inside is about 12 degrees F. He and I lasted about a half hour before it was too cold to stay any longer.
At Aarhus Uni we have something called Friday Bar which basically means every Friday the whole campus can unwind at the bar together. On September 10 the Uni threw us the biggest Friday Bar in Demark. It started at noon and went until about 3am and was sponsored by Red Bull, Carlsberg, and others... there were over 50 live bands on like 3 stages.. it was INSANE.
This past Friday night we threw a toga party here at Vilhelm Kiers. Let's just say it's probably one of the best parties I've ever been to. It's nice to have everybody come up here on the weekends because I don't have to worry about getting home.
A lot of us who live at Vilhelm Kiers have taken to cooking dinner in groups a couple times a week. It saves money and it's nice to eat dinner with really good friends and great company. Most blocks also have a floor dinner every week. Mine is on Wednesday and I found out that my week to cook is also the day before Thanksgiving so I'm going to cook a traditional Turkey Day dinner (or as close as I can get to one)!
Classes here are very different from those back home. I basically have about 400 pages of reading to do for my 3 classes every week and class consists of some lecture and some discussion. At some point in the semester for all my classes I have to give a group presentation over a certain topic. We don't have homework but it's important to keep up with the reading because it makes it easier at the end of the semester to write your term paper or prepare your presentation. Class doesn't usually start until about 15 minutes after the start time so it's okay to be a little late and you call your teachers by their first name. Classes are also taught in block form so you only meet for class once a week. Class size is also much much smaller than back home (about 35 people is average)
My Analyzing the European Union will be the hardest class I think. It has the most reading to do of all the classes. I have it on Wednesdays and it's a 4 hour lecture with a half hour break at noon. We also have a seminar session on Thursdays.
Introduction to China's History won't be too bad. The teacher is German and the class is pretty laid back. I already gave my group presentation last week (3 of us had to teach the class one chapter of the book) so I don't have to worry about that anymore. It meets on Thursday for 2 hours.
History of Eastern Europe Since the First World War will probably be my favorite class. There are about 15 of us in it that are friends (Jesse, Jane, Darren, Candice, Nick, Jess, Sally... I could go on) and the teacher is from Canada. He's really really cool and we'll be watching some movies as well. It's on Friday afternoon for 3 hours.
I'm also taking a Biology class but it doesn't start until the last week of October so I don't know anything about it.
The weather here has been cold. The high is about 63 for the day and at night it gets down to about 40. I've had my heat on for the last 2 weeks and I already had to pull out my winter coat (North Face) that I don't usually wear at home until at least November. It's raining a lot more as well.
Hard to believe I've already been here over 2 months!
Trip to Copenhagen from September 5-7. I went by myself and met up with my friend Magik from Poland who lives there. He was generous enough to let me stay at his apartment which saved A LOT of money. I love Copenhagen and the weather was beautiful while I was there so I spent a lot of time wandering around especially when he was at work (he's a mechanical engineer). He and I went to this IceBar one night and EVERYTHING was made out of ice. From the walls to the ceiling to the glasses. They give you giant insulated capes with gloves because the temperature inside is about 12 degrees F. He and I lasted about a half hour before it was too cold to stay any longer.
At Aarhus Uni we have something called Friday Bar which basically means every Friday the whole campus can unwind at the bar together. On September 10 the Uni threw us the biggest Friday Bar in Demark. It started at noon and went until about 3am and was sponsored by Red Bull, Carlsberg, and others... there were over 50 live bands on like 3 stages.. it was INSANE.
This past Friday night we threw a toga party here at Vilhelm Kiers. Let's just say it's probably one of the best parties I've ever been to. It's nice to have everybody come up here on the weekends because I don't have to worry about getting home.
A lot of us who live at Vilhelm Kiers have taken to cooking dinner in groups a couple times a week. It saves money and it's nice to eat dinner with really good friends and great company. Most blocks also have a floor dinner every week. Mine is on Wednesday and I found out that my week to cook is also the day before Thanksgiving so I'm going to cook a traditional Turkey Day dinner (or as close as I can get to one)!
Classes here are very different from those back home. I basically have about 400 pages of reading to do for my 3 classes every week and class consists of some lecture and some discussion. At some point in the semester for all my classes I have to give a group presentation over a certain topic. We don't have homework but it's important to keep up with the reading because it makes it easier at the end of the semester to write your term paper or prepare your presentation. Class doesn't usually start until about 15 minutes after the start time so it's okay to be a little late and you call your teachers by their first name. Classes are also taught in block form so you only meet for class once a week. Class size is also much much smaller than back home (about 35 people is average)
My Analyzing the European Union will be the hardest class I think. It has the most reading to do of all the classes. I have it on Wednesdays and it's a 4 hour lecture with a half hour break at noon. We also have a seminar session on Thursdays.
Introduction to China's History won't be too bad. The teacher is German and the class is pretty laid back. I already gave my group presentation last week (3 of us had to teach the class one chapter of the book) so I don't have to worry about that anymore. It meets on Thursday for 2 hours.
History of Eastern Europe Since the First World War will probably be my favorite class. There are about 15 of us in it that are friends (Jesse, Jane, Darren, Candice, Nick, Jess, Sally... I could go on) and the teacher is from Canada. He's really really cool and we'll be watching some movies as well. It's on Friday afternoon for 3 hours.
I'm also taking a Biology class but it doesn't start until the last week of October so I don't know anything about it.
The weather here has been cold. The high is about 63 for the day and at night it gets down to about 40. I've had my heat on for the last 2 weeks and I already had to pull out my winter coat (North Face) that I don't usually wear at home until at least November. It's raining a lot more as well.
Hard to believe I've already been here over 2 months!
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Everyday Life
More pictures from Barcelona on Flickr!
Now that summer is basically over I figured it was probably time to talk about my everyday life here. It's hard to believe I've already been here 6 weeks!
The University is pretty much what you'd expect of a European University. Campus is absolutely beautiful with a HUGE park and lake right in the middle of campus. There's a lot of ducks that live there that are basically tame and Aarhus has taken time to put picnic tables and park benches in the park. The buildings are limestone with lots of ivy on them. (Search Aarhus University on Wikipedia; they have some good pictures). There isn't a "student union" like what we have at K-State but there are a number of canteens scattered throughout campus and the food is actually pretty good and reasonably priced. Most of the buildings are connected and instead of being named they are numbered, which, being connected, can be quite confusing. The library (Statsbibliotekets) is huge.
I haven't had class yet (mine don't start for another week) so I'm not sure how they will differ from back home. All I know is that there is a lot of reading to do and homework doesn't exist.
There are a number of grocery stores to pick from but I haven't found one that has a Deli or anything like that. I usually go to Netto for basics (bread, frozen food, crackers etc) and Føtex for produce, cheese, meat, etc. Netto is cheaper but Føtex is better quality and has a much much larger selection. Føtex also has a good wine selection, paper products section, things used for cooking (pasta, olive oil) and breakfast foods. Kvickly is pretty good as well and is somewhere inbetween the two. I eat a lot of pasta because it's filling and cheap and a lot of apples for the same reason. Sandwich meat is very expensive and I cannot for the life of me find sliced turkey so my sandwiches are usually cheese with bell peppers or something like that. Cookies are called "the famous American style" which I find amusing and pretzels are "salt sticks". Nutella and toast is what I usually have for breakfast but I also have Cheerios and Frosted Flakes. I don't usually eat much for lunch; I just eat small snacks in the late morning and late afternoon to get me through to dinner. It's hard to lug a whole bunch of groceries home, everything is a lot smaller here (no extra large bag of potato chips) plus everything is kind of expensive.
It's hard to find a store like Target or Walmart that's a one-stop shop. I haven't done much shopping outside of IKEA (which was more than intimidating) and groceries but I've bought some shoes and a couple shirts. They have H&M here (it's a Swedish company and they're everywhere) but that's the only clothing store that I've recognized from home. Shops are much more specialized here which can be good and bad. Selection is often bigger between all the stores but the prices range wildly so you can't just go to one store.
I ride the Metro (the bus) everywhere that's not within walking distance. I'm not very close to downtown but there's a relatively large shopping center that's about a 15 minute walk so I can go there if I want to. The grocery stores I like to go to are all too far to walk to so I usually go grocery shopping once a week. The Metro is really really efficient and I've figured out how to read the schedules. They have a nice website where you can type in your starting and ending address and it will tell you which bus to take, where to get off, and give you a map of where you have to walk to. I'm about a 20 minute walk to campus so on nice days I'll walk but not if it's super cold or raining.
The Danes like to be efficient so there are the little take a number instead of wait in line machines. They're at the post office, the library, the train station, the pharmacy... anywhere where a big line could develop. I actually really like it.
Speaking of the pharmacy, they don't allow self-medication here. So if you're sick expect to wait until your number is called and tell the pharmacist what's wrong and they'll give you whatever they think will help. Example: I'm still sick and wanted cough syrup. Instead of cough syrup she gave me pills because the syrup apparently makes you really really tired. I would've preferred to just get the syrup but whatever.
One of the interesting things is any bill you receive you can pay at the post office. I don't have a Danish bank account so I just go to the post office to pay rent. It's definitely very convenient.
Warning: If you are expecting to use a credit card that does not have a pin code it's not going to work. Period. Don't even try to. They are going to make you use a different card.
It rains a lot here and you learn to not go anywhere without an umbrella if you don't want to get wet. When it rains it usually doesn't rain for very long but we've had a couple days where it rained pretty much all day. Now it's about 63 degrees for a high and it hasn't been very sunny the past couple days. Sometimes it's really windy as well.
Hopefully this helps explain what my everyday Danish life is like!
Now that summer is basically over I figured it was probably time to talk about my everyday life here. It's hard to believe I've already been here 6 weeks!
The University is pretty much what you'd expect of a European University. Campus is absolutely beautiful with a HUGE park and lake right in the middle of campus. There's a lot of ducks that live there that are basically tame and Aarhus has taken time to put picnic tables and park benches in the park. The buildings are limestone with lots of ivy on them. (Search Aarhus University on Wikipedia; they have some good pictures). There isn't a "student union" like what we have at K-State but there are a number of canteens scattered throughout campus and the food is actually pretty good and reasonably priced. Most of the buildings are connected and instead of being named they are numbered, which, being connected, can be quite confusing. The library (Statsbibliotekets) is huge.
I haven't had class yet (mine don't start for another week) so I'm not sure how they will differ from back home. All I know is that there is a lot of reading to do and homework doesn't exist.
There are a number of grocery stores to pick from but I haven't found one that has a Deli or anything like that. I usually go to Netto for basics (bread, frozen food, crackers etc) and Føtex for produce, cheese, meat, etc. Netto is cheaper but Føtex is better quality and has a much much larger selection. Føtex also has a good wine selection, paper products section, things used for cooking (pasta, olive oil) and breakfast foods. Kvickly is pretty good as well and is somewhere inbetween the two. I eat a lot of pasta because it's filling and cheap and a lot of apples for the same reason. Sandwich meat is very expensive and I cannot for the life of me find sliced turkey so my sandwiches are usually cheese with bell peppers or something like that. Cookies are called "the famous American style" which I find amusing and pretzels are "salt sticks". Nutella and toast is what I usually have for breakfast but I also have Cheerios and Frosted Flakes. I don't usually eat much for lunch; I just eat small snacks in the late morning and late afternoon to get me through to dinner. It's hard to lug a whole bunch of groceries home, everything is a lot smaller here (no extra large bag of potato chips) plus everything is kind of expensive.
It's hard to find a store like Target or Walmart that's a one-stop shop. I haven't done much shopping outside of IKEA (which was more than intimidating) and groceries but I've bought some shoes and a couple shirts. They have H&M here (it's a Swedish company and they're everywhere) but that's the only clothing store that I've recognized from home. Shops are much more specialized here which can be good and bad. Selection is often bigger between all the stores but the prices range wildly so you can't just go to one store.
I ride the Metro (the bus) everywhere that's not within walking distance. I'm not very close to downtown but there's a relatively large shopping center that's about a 15 minute walk so I can go there if I want to. The grocery stores I like to go to are all too far to walk to so I usually go grocery shopping once a week. The Metro is really really efficient and I've figured out how to read the schedules. They have a nice website where you can type in your starting and ending address and it will tell you which bus to take, where to get off, and give you a map of where you have to walk to. I'm about a 20 minute walk to campus so on nice days I'll walk but not if it's super cold or raining.
The Danes like to be efficient so there are the little take a number instead of wait in line machines. They're at the post office, the library, the train station, the pharmacy... anywhere where a big line could develop. I actually really like it.
Speaking of the pharmacy, they don't allow self-medication here. So if you're sick expect to wait until your number is called and tell the pharmacist what's wrong and they'll give you whatever they think will help. Example: I'm still sick and wanted cough syrup. Instead of cough syrup she gave me pills because the syrup apparently makes you really really tired. I would've preferred to just get the syrup but whatever.
One of the interesting things is any bill you receive you can pay at the post office. I don't have a Danish bank account so I just go to the post office to pay rent. It's definitely very convenient.
Warning: If you are expecting to use a credit card that does not have a pin code it's not going to work. Period. Don't even try to. They are going to make you use a different card.
It rains a lot here and you learn to not go anywhere without an umbrella if you don't want to get wet. When it rains it usually doesn't rain for very long but we've had a couple days where it rained pretty much all day. Now it's about 63 degrees for a high and it hasn't been very sunny the past couple days. Sometimes it's really windy as well.
Hopefully this helps explain what my everyday Danish life is like!
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Barca, Barca, Go Barca!
Barcelona trip part two
Saturday I slept in until noon (which was much needed) and spent the afternoon exploring La Rambla and some of the side streets that surround it. La Rambla is a 1.2km long pedestrian street that begins at Placa de Catalunya and stretches all the way to the water front, ending at the Monument a Colon, a statue of Columbus on top of a tall pedestal. La Rambla is always packed and there are some really interesting street performers that line it. There is a market, Mercat de la Boqueria, that is HUGE and was great fun to explore as well. Any type of shop you are looking to find (including XXX ones) you are probably going to find on La Rambla.
In my wanderings I ended up finding this Gothic church, the Church of Santa Maria del Pi, whose origins date back to the 10th century.
Saturday night was the all important FC Barcelona vs Sevilla Spanish Cup Game at Camp Nou. Camp Nou is supposedly one of the best stadiums in Europe and it is also the largest. It has a capacity of over 120,000 spectators!! The boys were especially excited to go to the game. It was sold out and the noise was deafening. People don't leave the game early like they do in the States so it was packed until the very end. Of the 23 people on the Spain World Cup squad (for those of you living under a rock Spain won), 7 came from Barcelona so that, by proxy, makes Barcelona one of the best soccer teams in the world. The final score was 4-0 Barcelona. Lionel Messi (considered one of the best players in the world) scored 3 and Pedro Ledesma (who was on the World Cup team) scored 1.
After the game I went back to my hostel and ended up having a repeat of Thursday night with some people from my hostel. We went to Espit Chupitos and Shoko and although it wasn't as fun as Thurs night was, I still had a blast.
Sunday afternoon I hit the beach again with some French guys from my hostel. Olivier and I laid on the beach while the others went swimming and it was super relaxing. Once again, many topless women on the beach. It's not uncommon at all in Europe. People just aren't as shy here as they are in the States.
I started not feeling well that afternoon and stopped at a Spanish pharmacy on the way home. I managed to find somebody who spoke English (not very many people do in Barca I discovered) and she gave me cough syrup that tasted like banana laffy taffy. It actually wasn't bad.
Monday morning we left for Girona. I spent the entire day in bed sick as a dog and spent all of Tuesday in bed as well. I started feeling a little better and managed to drag myself out of bed to go for a last dinner with Nick, Daniel, Lacey, and Nikki. From what I saw of Girona that night it was gorgeous. It was quiet and had a more upscale feeling to it than Barcelona did. I would've liked to have been able to explore it for an afternoon.
Wednesday morning at 4:30am we left for the airport to fly back to Aarhus. We were all sortof ready to come back, mostly because we had run out of clean clothes and wanted comfortable beds again. We got off the plane and were blasted by 55 degree air. Quite the difference!
I'm still sick and I miss the excitement of Barca but I'm glad to have my own bathroom again and it was good to see everybody again. I made an appearance Friday night to the party here at Vilhelm so I could see all my other friends. I'm also really appreciating being able to actually communicate with people here and not being paranoid I'm going to get robbed at any moment.
Classes start at the university tomorrow. My first class isn't until Wednesday so I've got 2 more days of freedom. It's been cold and cloudy here. Fall comes a lot earlier here than back home! I've already had to turn my heat on overnight.
See Flickr for some pictures! (I can only upload a certain amount per month so lots more will be added on Wednesday)
Saturday I slept in until noon (which was much needed) and spent the afternoon exploring La Rambla and some of the side streets that surround it. La Rambla is a 1.2km long pedestrian street that begins at Placa de Catalunya and stretches all the way to the water front, ending at the Monument a Colon, a statue of Columbus on top of a tall pedestal. La Rambla is always packed and there are some really interesting street performers that line it. There is a market, Mercat de la Boqueria, that is HUGE and was great fun to explore as well. Any type of shop you are looking to find (including XXX ones) you are probably going to find on La Rambla.
In my wanderings I ended up finding this Gothic church, the Church of Santa Maria del Pi, whose origins date back to the 10th century.
Saturday night was the all important FC Barcelona vs Sevilla Spanish Cup Game at Camp Nou. Camp Nou is supposedly one of the best stadiums in Europe and it is also the largest. It has a capacity of over 120,000 spectators!! The boys were especially excited to go to the game. It was sold out and the noise was deafening. People don't leave the game early like they do in the States so it was packed until the very end. Of the 23 people on the Spain World Cup squad (for those of you living under a rock Spain won), 7 came from Barcelona so that, by proxy, makes Barcelona one of the best soccer teams in the world. The final score was 4-0 Barcelona. Lionel Messi (considered one of the best players in the world) scored 3 and Pedro Ledesma (who was on the World Cup team) scored 1.
After the game I went back to my hostel and ended up having a repeat of Thursday night with some people from my hostel. We went to Espit Chupitos and Shoko and although it wasn't as fun as Thurs night was, I still had a blast.
Sunday afternoon I hit the beach again with some French guys from my hostel. Olivier and I laid on the beach while the others went swimming and it was super relaxing. Once again, many topless women on the beach. It's not uncommon at all in Europe. People just aren't as shy here as they are in the States.
I started not feeling well that afternoon and stopped at a Spanish pharmacy on the way home. I managed to find somebody who spoke English (not very many people do in Barca I discovered) and she gave me cough syrup that tasted like banana laffy taffy. It actually wasn't bad.
Monday morning we left for Girona. I spent the entire day in bed sick as a dog and spent all of Tuesday in bed as well. I started feeling a little better and managed to drag myself out of bed to go for a last dinner with Nick, Daniel, Lacey, and Nikki. From what I saw of Girona that night it was gorgeous. It was quiet and had a more upscale feeling to it than Barcelona did. I would've liked to have been able to explore it for an afternoon.
Wednesday morning at 4:30am we left for the airport to fly back to Aarhus. We were all sortof ready to come back, mostly because we had run out of clean clothes and wanted comfortable beds again. We got off the plane and were blasted by 55 degree air. Quite the difference!
I'm still sick and I miss the excitement of Barca but I'm glad to have my own bathroom again and it was good to see everybody again. I made an appearance Friday night to the party here at Vilhelm so I could see all my other friends. I'm also really appreciating being able to actually communicate with people here and not being paranoid I'm going to get robbed at any moment.
Classes start at the university tomorrow. My first class isn't until Wednesday so I've got 2 more days of freedom. It's been cold and cloudy here. Fall comes a lot earlier here than back home! I've already had to turn my heat on overnight.
See Flickr for some pictures! (I can only upload a certain amount per month so lots more will be added on Wednesday)
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Sangria Por Favor!
I have just returned from my amazing trip to Barcelona and I thought I'd share some things I learned while I was there.
1. If you have been walking around the city in circles with your backpack for 2+ hours lost it's okay to give up and take a taxi.
2. Under no circumstances should you do anything that will make you look like a tourist. Walk with confidence, don't pull out a giant map (if you have to, go into a bathroom or somewhere semiprivate), and don't wear any clothing that doesn't look like something you could buy in Europe
3. ALWAYS be aware of your surroundings. Don't pull out any cash until you're ready to pay for something (don't hold it in your hand, set it on the bar/table etc), keep one hand on your bag/purse/whatever at all times, and pay attention to who is watching you
and most importantly:
4. Spanish cough syrup tastes like banana laffy taffy
The group:
Me, Nikki, Lacey, Daniel, Nick, Orhan, Jess, Sally
Departure:
Taxi from Vilhelm Kiers to Aarhus Airport then flight to Girona. ETA 12:15pm. Bus from Girona to Barcelona.
Weather in Barcelona: 90 degrees F and sunny
Once we arrived in Barcelona we set off in search of our hostels. We were in three different ones so Jess, Sally, and Orhan left to go find theirs and I went with everybody else. We ended up doing a lot of walking in the wrong direction, backtracking, and walking in circles. After finally finding their hostel I decided to try to find mine. Terrible idea. I ended up doing more walking and finally gave up and took a taxi. Good thing I did because I probably wouldn't have found it otherwise.
The first night was rediculously fun. In Barcelona apparently each neighborhood organizes a festival and decorates the streets and there's live music and lots of dancing and drinking and craziness. We went down to a neighborhood where there was a festival and this great Australian guy, Shannon, who had met some of the others earlier, came with. The 9 of us took over this small restaurant and had a great first meal in Spain. Then we took to the streets and Barcelona certainly did not disappoint! Pictures are on Flickr. The decorations ranged from giant spiders to aliens to flying saucers... it was strange but it all seemed to fit together. After the festival Shannon and I decided to hunt down a bar or club and ended up way down on La Rambla (the famous pedestrian street) at Boulevard Culture Club. It made for a great night!
Thursday was even better.
We met up at the Sagrada Familia Temple and I think we would've all liked to go inside but the line was honestly at least 1000 people long. We would've been there all day. The Sagrada Familia Temple was Gaudi's dream and he started working on it in 1883. It is still not completed and will probably finally be finished sometime around 2020. It will eventually have 18 spires, one for each apostle, the 4 evangelists, one for the virgin mary and one for jesus. It will have 3 facades, the Nativity, the Glory, and the Passion. The entire thing is funded by private donations. I suggest you look it up online; the symbolism is insane and it truly is a masterpiece.
Next, I decided to do the most touristy thing possible. I took one of those double decker tour the city bus trips. And it was totally worth it! I got to see almost the entire city and I didn't have to walk anywhere (by then I needed to just sit for a couple hours) and I got to listen to the guided audio thing. It was perfect. Lots of pictures on Flickr
Thursday night we did a pub crawl, which is not the same thing as what we consider a pub crawl to be in the ville. This one was guided and we paid 15 euro for 3 drinks at the hostel and that also included entrance into Shoko (exclusive club on the beach). There were about 30 of us and it was a blast. It was POURING rain the entire walk to the first bar so we were all soaked by the time we got there. Espit Chupitos is a shots bar that has a menu of almost 600 shots and really really smart bartenders who remember them all. It was absolutely rediculous and the shots include such things as Animal Balls, Harry Potter, Halloween, Coco Loco, Bin Laden, La Cucaracha, King Kong, Kangaroo... I could go on forever. It was cheap and an absolute blast. A lot of the shots involve fire, straws and things like that (they aren't just straight alcohol shots) so it's fun to just watch too. Then it was on to Shoko, this awesome club located right on the beach. The atmosphere was really cool with giant round LCD screens hanging from the ceiling playing 50s dance clips and gigantic bamboo sticks going from floor to ceiling. The house music was awesome as well.
Friday we went up to Camp Nou to pick up our tickets for the FC Barcelona vs Sevilla Spanish Super Cup game which was on Saturday. Then I hit the beach for the afternoon with Shannon and some random people he met on his way down there. He's an expert at that. It was really hot out that day so it was awesome to just lay on the beach, drink sangria and have awesome conversation. The Mediterranean Sea is REALLY salty and it wasn't exactly clean there so I just got in for a few minutes just to say that I swam there. Friday night a couple of us went to a small bar and sat outside with some sangria for a while. It was really chill and a perfect way to balance out Thursday night.
Saturday through Tuesday will be described tomorrow. :)
1. If you have been walking around the city in circles with your backpack for 2+ hours lost it's okay to give up and take a taxi.
2. Under no circumstances should you do anything that will make you look like a tourist. Walk with confidence, don't pull out a giant map (if you have to, go into a bathroom or somewhere semiprivate), and don't wear any clothing that doesn't look like something you could buy in Europe
3. ALWAYS be aware of your surroundings. Don't pull out any cash until you're ready to pay for something (don't hold it in your hand, set it on the bar/table etc), keep one hand on your bag/purse/whatever at all times, and pay attention to who is watching you
and most importantly:
4. Spanish cough syrup tastes like banana laffy taffy
The group:
Me, Nikki, Lacey, Daniel, Nick, Orhan, Jess, Sally
Departure:
Taxi from Vilhelm Kiers to Aarhus Airport then flight to Girona. ETA 12:15pm. Bus from Girona to Barcelona.
Weather in Barcelona: 90 degrees F and sunny
Once we arrived in Barcelona we set off in search of our hostels. We were in three different ones so Jess, Sally, and Orhan left to go find theirs and I went with everybody else. We ended up doing a lot of walking in the wrong direction, backtracking, and walking in circles. After finally finding their hostel I decided to try to find mine. Terrible idea. I ended up doing more walking and finally gave up and took a taxi. Good thing I did because I probably wouldn't have found it otherwise.
The first night was rediculously fun. In Barcelona apparently each neighborhood organizes a festival and decorates the streets and there's live music and lots of dancing and drinking and craziness. We went down to a neighborhood where there was a festival and this great Australian guy, Shannon, who had met some of the others earlier, came with. The 9 of us took over this small restaurant and had a great first meal in Spain. Then we took to the streets and Barcelona certainly did not disappoint! Pictures are on Flickr. The decorations ranged from giant spiders to aliens to flying saucers... it was strange but it all seemed to fit together. After the festival Shannon and I decided to hunt down a bar or club and ended up way down on La Rambla (the famous pedestrian street) at Boulevard Culture Club. It made for a great night!
Thursday was even better.
We met up at the Sagrada Familia Temple and I think we would've all liked to go inside but the line was honestly at least 1000 people long. We would've been there all day. The Sagrada Familia Temple was Gaudi's dream and he started working on it in 1883. It is still not completed and will probably finally be finished sometime around 2020. It will eventually have 18 spires, one for each apostle, the 4 evangelists, one for the virgin mary and one for jesus. It will have 3 facades, the Nativity, the Glory, and the Passion. The entire thing is funded by private donations. I suggest you look it up online; the symbolism is insane and it truly is a masterpiece.
Next, I decided to do the most touristy thing possible. I took one of those double decker tour the city bus trips. And it was totally worth it! I got to see almost the entire city and I didn't have to walk anywhere (by then I needed to just sit for a couple hours) and I got to listen to the guided audio thing. It was perfect. Lots of pictures on Flickr
Thursday night we did a pub crawl, which is not the same thing as what we consider a pub crawl to be in the ville. This one was guided and we paid 15 euro for 3 drinks at the hostel and that also included entrance into Shoko (exclusive club on the beach). There were about 30 of us and it was a blast. It was POURING rain the entire walk to the first bar so we were all soaked by the time we got there. Espit Chupitos is a shots bar that has a menu of almost 600 shots and really really smart bartenders who remember them all. It was absolutely rediculous and the shots include such things as Animal Balls, Harry Potter, Halloween, Coco Loco, Bin Laden, La Cucaracha, King Kong, Kangaroo... I could go on forever. It was cheap and an absolute blast. A lot of the shots involve fire, straws and things like that (they aren't just straight alcohol shots) so it's fun to just watch too. Then it was on to Shoko, this awesome club located right on the beach. The atmosphere was really cool with giant round LCD screens hanging from the ceiling playing 50s dance clips and gigantic bamboo sticks going from floor to ceiling. The house music was awesome as well.
Friday we went up to Camp Nou to pick up our tickets for the FC Barcelona vs Sevilla Spanish Super Cup game which was on Saturday. Then I hit the beach for the afternoon with Shannon and some random people he met on his way down there. He's an expert at that. It was really hot out that day so it was awesome to just lay on the beach, drink sangria and have awesome conversation. The Mediterranean Sea is REALLY salty and it wasn't exactly clean there so I just got in for a few minutes just to say that I swam there. Friday night a couple of us went to a small bar and sat outside with some sangria for a while. It was really chill and a perfect way to balance out Thursday night.
Saturday through Tuesday will be described tomorrow. :)
Sunday, August 15, 2010
Meet Some of My Friends!
The last two days have been crazy. Here at Vilhelm Kiers Kollegium we have a full working bar and so Alejandro (aka Alex) organized a party here and invited all the international students plus everybody who lives here. It was INSANE! There were tons of people here (I won't guess but at least 200+) and it started around 8 and ended around 4:30am. It was really really fun and it was nice to not have to walk home or get a taxi from Downtown. Elliot made a hat with a Danish flag on it (see it in the flickr photos) and it ended up as the rotating hat. Nobody's sure where it ended up but pretty much everybody wore it at some point. Sparklers and Glow Sticks made an appearance at one point as well as Limbo.. nobody's sure where those came from either. Put briefly we all enjoyed more than one adult beverage, some more than others. It was great fun.
Last night Studenterhus Aarhus hosted a party for us with BBQ and drinks at the bar there. It was awesome and there were tons of people there. Around 11:30 some of us left to go downtown. We went to Sam's Bar (modeled after the Cheers bar from the TV show) first and then went over to Social Club which is one door down. Social Club was AMAZING and it was packed. We danced to Danish and American music and it was really really hot but really fun! I even ran into the guy who lives next door to me, Rasmus. Nikki Lacey and I left around 3 and got a taxi home. I'm sure the boys were there until closing time.
So I thought I should go over some of my friends here so you guys don't get too confused.
I'll just explain those who are on the flickr photo page.
Alejandro (aka Alex)- from Munich
Elliot- born in London, lives in Belfast
Daniel-from Australia
Hayley- also from Australia
Heidi- from London
Jake- from San Francisco
Jeff- from Toronto
Jordan- Jake's girlfriend. She has to go back to the States tomorrow; we're all going to miss her!
Jordi- from Barcelona
Kenny- my first Danish friend! He lives down the hall from me
Lutz- from Berlin
Marco- from Italy
Thise- from Austria
Nikki- from California
Lacey- from California
We leave for Barcelona Wednesday morning. The group consists of me, Lacey, Nikki, Daniel, Sally, Jess, and Nick (all from Australia). I am more than excited! We'll be in Barcelona for 5 days and Girona for 2.
There's a trip planned for Greece at the end of September which should be amazing as well.
Hope everybody has been surviving the heat! The weather here has been great. Other than a few days with rain it's been 70 degrees or so and at night it gets down to about 50. I'm sure you guys are jealous! :)
Last night Studenterhus Aarhus hosted a party for us with BBQ and drinks at the bar there. It was awesome and there were tons of people there. Around 11:30 some of us left to go downtown. We went to Sam's Bar (modeled after the Cheers bar from the TV show) first and then went over to Social Club which is one door down. Social Club was AMAZING and it was packed. We danced to Danish and American music and it was really really hot but really fun! I even ran into the guy who lives next door to me, Rasmus. Nikki Lacey and I left around 3 and got a taxi home. I'm sure the boys were there until closing time.
So I thought I should go over some of my friends here so you guys don't get too confused.
I'll just explain those who are on the flickr photo page.
Alejandro (aka Alex)- from Munich
Elliot- born in London, lives in Belfast
Daniel-from Australia
Hayley- also from Australia
Heidi- from London
Jake- from San Francisco
Jeff- from Toronto
Jordan- Jake's girlfriend. She has to go back to the States tomorrow; we're all going to miss her!
Jordi- from Barcelona
Kenny- my first Danish friend! He lives down the hall from me
Lutz- from Berlin
Marco- from Italy
Thise- from Austria
Nikki- from California
Lacey- from California
We leave for Barcelona Wednesday morning. The group consists of me, Lacey, Nikki, Daniel, Sally, Jess, and Nick (all from Australia). I am more than excited! We'll be in Barcelona for 5 days and Girona for 2.
There's a trip planned for Greece at the end of September which should be amazing as well.
Hope everybody has been surviving the heat! The weather here has been great. Other than a few days with rain it's been 70 degrees or so and at night it gets down to about 50. I'm sure you guys are jealous! :)
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Learning Danish is HARD!
Enter week two of my Danish class. Most of us have given up actually learning the language at this point. We've picked up the basics but grammer is rediculously hard and writing it is even harder. But it's still fun!
Sunday night some of the students had a BBQ at their house so I went to that with Elliot and Alex and we met everybody there. It was great fun and there was a huge mix of us there. Ireland, Japan, Italy, Spain, USA, Australia, Austria, England.. you get the point. BBQs here definitely aren't what they are in the States. Hamburgers and hot dogs don't cut it. You have to marinate the meat and make skewers and all sorts of other food. And of course, beer.
Monday night about 20 of us went out for dinner. It was a spur of the moment thing and we pretty much took over this little Italian restaurant. It was so much fun though! The food was amazing and it wasn't too expensive either. I didn't take any pictures but some other people did so hopefully I'll get copies.
Last night there was International Night at Studenterhus Aarhus and that was fabulous as well. Studenterhus Aarhus basically organizes tons of events for students and there's a huge place where we can all go hang out. There's a full working bar, table soccer.. it's really fun. Every Tuesday night there's international night so a lot of international students end up going to hang out with everybody. Last night was just a casual get together, but next week they're having a movie night and I think Karaoke is coming up soon as well. They also organize trips for us. Next weekend there's a trip to Legoland and in about a month there's a trip to Skagen on the very Northern part of Denmark that I can't wait to go on.
Today I went to Bazar Vest with two other girls from America, Nikki and Lacey. It's basically an indoor farmers market geared toward Middle Eastern people. We had falafals which were absolutely amazing and we all bought a lot of really fresh produce for not a lot of money. I spent about 75kr (about $15) and got 2 huge mangos, 5 kiwis, grapes, a huge thing of blueberries and 3 huge peaches. Pictures have been posted on Flickr.
Big news of the day: I leave for Barcelona in a week! There's a big group of exchange students going (I'm not sure what the total head count is) and we're going to stay for a week. Round trip flight cost about $100 and the hostels will cost about $35 a night. Definitely couldn't travel that cheaply in the States! I am rediculously excited and I'm really glad that there's a TON of stuff going on this weekend so the next week should go quickly!
Look for another update after this weekend :)
Sunday night some of the students had a BBQ at their house so I went to that with Elliot and Alex and we met everybody there. It was great fun and there was a huge mix of us there. Ireland, Japan, Italy, Spain, USA, Australia, Austria, England.. you get the point. BBQs here definitely aren't what they are in the States. Hamburgers and hot dogs don't cut it. You have to marinate the meat and make skewers and all sorts of other food. And of course, beer.
Monday night about 20 of us went out for dinner. It was a spur of the moment thing and we pretty much took over this little Italian restaurant. It was so much fun though! The food was amazing and it wasn't too expensive either. I didn't take any pictures but some other people did so hopefully I'll get copies.
Last night there was International Night at Studenterhus Aarhus and that was fabulous as well. Studenterhus Aarhus basically organizes tons of events for students and there's a huge place where we can all go hang out. There's a full working bar, table soccer.. it's really fun. Every Tuesday night there's international night so a lot of international students end up going to hang out with everybody. Last night was just a casual get together, but next week they're having a movie night and I think Karaoke is coming up soon as well. They also organize trips for us. Next weekend there's a trip to Legoland and in about a month there's a trip to Skagen on the very Northern part of Denmark that I can't wait to go on.
Today I went to Bazar Vest with two other girls from America, Nikki and Lacey. It's basically an indoor farmers market geared toward Middle Eastern people. We had falafals which were absolutely amazing and we all bought a lot of really fresh produce for not a lot of money. I spent about 75kr (about $15) and got 2 huge mangos, 5 kiwis, grapes, a huge thing of blueberries and 3 huge peaches. Pictures have been posted on Flickr.
Big news of the day: I leave for Barcelona in a week! There's a big group of exchange students going (I'm not sure what the total head count is) and we're going to stay for a week. Round trip flight cost about $100 and the hostels will cost about $35 a night. Definitely couldn't travel that cheaply in the States! I am rediculously excited and I'm really glad that there's a TON of stuff going on this weekend so the next week should go quickly!
Look for another update after this weekend :)
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