The Worst Train Ride of My Life.

Well after a long week of stress about everything under the sun, my visiting family invited me to their house for dinner. I did not really want to go because I was simply in an awful mood from an awful week but I did not have much choice and began walking to the train station. However, half way there, I realized I forgot my clip cards for the train.

Here was my dilemma: Do I risk being late (Danes HATE being late) and go back to get the pass or keep going and risk a $100 fine. Naturally, I decided to be a good traveler and go back to get my pass. Sorry visiting family, I'm going to be a bad Dane, be late, and make my REAL family happy by potentially saving $100.

Finally I get to the train station, clip my card 4 times, and hop on the train. I'm almost to Holte station (my destination) when the man comes around to check cards. "YES!" I think,  "It's my lucky day!!"This will make being late and going back to get my clip card all worth it. With a huge grin on my face, I hand my card to the man and he looks at me and simply says "That will be a 775 kroner fine. You needed 5 clips on your card."

THERE IS NO WAY. Can this day get any worse?! Can this WEEK get any worse?! Be strong, Kat. Nope, that's not working. Don't cry, Kat. Negative, that's not working either. The tears start flowing. And I walk off the train with a $140 fine. Potential worst experience in Denmark.



Disclaimer: (mainly for dad) I in fact got this ticket appealed the next week. Good new. :)

Danish Christmas

This past week, we had the pleasure of going to my Virtual World and the Digital Consumer teacher, Marie's, house to celebrate the end of a great semester, enjoy one another's company, and see how the Danes celebrate Christmas.

Upon arrival, we had a delicious spaghetti dinner, which was so nice considering my specialty these days tends to be chicken and frozen veggies. We ate tons and the table was covered with bowls of cookies which was absolutely fabulous! So we ate even more...

Glogg and aebleskiver

I have come to learn that the staples at every Danish Jul (Christmas) Party are glogg and aebleskiver (except the "a" and the "e" are smooshed together, naturally). Glogg is hot wine with nuts and raisins in the bottom. It is a very sweet drink and is one of my favorite things about the cold in Denmark. Marie is not a fan of the typical red wine glogg and has created her own recipe of white wine glogg, which was delicious! Aebleskiver is harder to explain. It is essentially donut-hole-shaped, but is baked instead of fried (soooooo healthy!!). You dip them in jelly and powdered sugar and they are to die for.

We all sat around and ate and drank adn even sang American Christmas carols at the end of the party. It was so great to simply be in a home and celebrate Christmas. It made me very excited to be home with my family and friends to celebrate this wonderful time of year.

Happy Turkey (Chicken) Day!!

            Danes don’t have Thanksgiving. They also don’t really understand it. Hence the fact that we had class on Thanksgiving. The one good thing about Danes not having Thanksgiving is that there was no stigma against the fact that I started listening to Christmas music November 1.

            Thanksgiving morning, I woke up somewhat depressed that I would not be with my family for this day. However, all I had to do was look outside and realize that Copenhagen had turned into a snow globe overnight! It was covered in snow and the snow only came down more and more as the day went by (and is not supposed to let up for about a week!!!). So I went to class and then went on a walk with Bethea and Nick to enjoy the day!

Nyhavn Canal

            We walked through the snow and down the fully decorated streets. Bethea and I were excited and acting like we had never seen snow, while it was just another day in the life for Nick (who goes to school in Maine). But all the streets are draped in garland and hearts (no, I cannot explain the hearts..) and now SNOW! We walked to Nyhavn Canal, which is the main tourist attraction for the city and enjoyed the Christmas market that had been put in place. We then remembered that the Little Mermaid was back from her trip to China for the World Fair.

 The Little Mermaid is a statue that stands about 4 feet tall and is somehow the symbol of Copenhagen. She is really nothing special but her name is hyped up all around the city. So of course we wanted to go see her and take pictures with her.

The Little Mermaid

            On the way back, we stopped in a small café and had hot chocolate. It was honestly the perfect end to the perfect start to our day! We then came back and rested/ warmed for a while before we went to have Thanksgiving dinner.

Thanksgiving Table

            Katy’s, our friend from Georgetown, family was in town and had rented an apartment and was kind enough to invite a bunch of us over Thanksgiving dinner. It was so sweet of them to invite us and so great to have a family to celebrate the holiday with, even if it wasn’t my own. Sadly, Denmark is not big on turkey (you cannot even get sliced turkey for sandwiches), so we had chicken. But the chicken really tasted just like turkey and was absolutely delicious. The dinner was fabulous and tons of fun! The McConnells were so nice to take Jessica, Susanna, Bethea, Lance, and I in for the night.

The group- minus Katy's family.

            This morning (Friday), we did not have class. Go figure- they gave us class on Thanksgiving but not the Friday after Thanksgiving? Anyway, I woke up and decided to put my iPod in and go for a walk around Copenhagen. So I bundled up (smartwool socks, uggs, long underwear, jeans, long sleeved-shirt, pullover jacket, scarf, gloves, and my big puffy jacket. I have it down to an art.) and walked around the city listening to Christmas music. My favorite destination was a beautiful cemetery with tons of evergreen trees that had not been snowplowed or touched. It truly was a winter wonderland! The best part was that right when I walked in, “Walking in a Winter Wonderland” by George Strait came on my iPod. I couldn’t even make that up. Magical. I blissfully wondered around listening to Christmas music and could not stop thinking that I was in a fairy tale. It was such a fabulous morning!

 

And thus is a day in the life in Copenhagen. Definitely something to be thankful for!

Break Pictures

ROME. The Coliseum.

Live or Die?

FLORENCE.

The pig at the Central Market. If you rub
his nose, it means you will return to Florence :)

CINQUE TERRE

Hiking between the cities.

Aix en Provence, France

PARIS! 

MADRID

BARCELONA. FC Barcelona vs. Villareal

The last day of the trip. Barcelona. Sus was over it.

2 WEEK BREAK!

Alright. Here it is! The much awaited 2 Week Break blog. Sunday I got back from our 16 day whirlwind break. It was absolutely the best two weeks of my life.  I wish I could go back and relive those two weeks over and over and over and over. I could go on FOREVER about how great of a two weeks it was but no one would read all of that (as if very many people read this blog regardless…) so I have decided to bullet point each city to hopefully make for a quick, bearable read.

Rome-

Catherine, Charles, Jessica and I roamed around Rome for the first weekend of our break. I absolutely loved Rome. It is nearly impossible to state which city was my favorite but Rome is definitely a top contender (after Cinque Terre, which was hands down my #1). The mix between history and amazing food made for such a fabulous trip. 

Some highlights-

Vatican Museum- my favorite museum on the trip!

Sistine Chapel- I cannot say enough how amazing it was to see this.

Coliseum- We saw this at both dusk and in the day. Simply breathtaking.

Forum- Thank you Rick Steves for walking us through this bit of history.

Dar Poeta- Absolute best pizza of my life.

Mass at the Vatican- An experience everyone needs to have in their life. However, ask me to tell you about how Jessica and I ruined mass at the Vatican. It’s quite humorous after you get past the initial shock of it all. Oh, and we saw the Pope!

Trevi Fountain- One of my favorite spots. Its breathtaking. We sat here at night and ate gelato. I could have sat for hours!

Florence-

Bethea, Jessica, and I went to Florence. The first day we were there, it rained the whole time. But we made it through by eating lots of gelato and sitting in the Duomo for a while. However, the next day was absolutely gorgeous! Loved this city!

Some highlights-

La Giostra- Known as the “best restaurant in Italy.” While I do not know who said that quote, I believe them 100%.

4 Leoni- Best pear and asparagus pasta of my life. (Florence wins the food category!)

Duomo- Pretty sweet.

Ponte Vechio- We sat here in the sun one day for hours and just enjoyed people watching and being warm.

San Miniato Almonte- A beautiful lookout over the city. Once again, we sat here and enjoyed the view and the warmth for hours.

Uffizi Gallery.

Cinque Terre-

The three of us went to Cinque Terre next. It was sunny and beautiful and I cannot even describe to you the views. We hiked along the cities and sat out in the sun simply enjoying the view. We even made friends with the sweetest couple on the trail who we later ran into and they bought us wine and bruchetta. That night, we ate dinner while watching the sunset and I had some of the best, freshest seafood pasta of my life. This day was hands down my favorite day and I wish I could have spent more time here!

Thursday-

This day gets a header of its own. We spent 12 hours on 6 different trains. We also caught a 3-minute connection in one of the largest train stations I have ever seen! Lucky, lucky tourists.

Aix en Provence-

Some of our best friends are studying abroad in Aix so we absolutely had to make a stop. This is where Jessica, Bethea, and I met up with Susanna and Elizabeth (and Lizzy in Paris).

We spent most of the time hanging out and getting to know where our friends were studying. It was so quaint and homey. Tons of shopping and small stores lining the streets. Oh, and there was the BEST macaroon store ever. It was simply to relaxing and fun to take a break and have them show us around. One night, Kyle, Jocelyn, and Catherine’s French roommate, Reda, made us all crepes. Absolutely delicious!

Paris-

Paris was somewhat sad. While I could tell the city was beautiful and had a certain magic to it, it was hard to see because it rained the ENTIRE time and I would average the temperature at about ZERO. So that was somewhat of a letdown. But we still enjoyed climbing the Arc de Triomphe to get an amazing view of the city. We had many looooong coffee breaks and even had one fabulous fondue dinner! Notre Dame was stunning and my favorite part of Paris, by far, was the Eiffel Tower at night. On the hour, the tower shimmers and it was simply stunning! Oh, and we went to the Louvre too. Duh.

Oh, we also went to the Monet Exhibit. Apparently, it was the largest exhibit of Monet ever and it was FABULOUS. I was somewhat museum-ed out but I could have spent even more time here!

Madrid-

Bethea, Jessica, Lizzy, Susanna, Elizabeth, and I were all so happy to get to Spain where it was WARM. Madrid was nicer than I had even imagined it being.

Some highlights-

Plaza Mayor- We watched a traditional play/dance thing the first day.

Palacio Real- Beautiful Palace with fabulous gardens.

Churo and Hot Chocolate- “Hot Chocolate” is a misleading term. I should say “hot fudge sauce.” We went to a famous hot chocolate place that Lizzy knew about and it was absolutely fabulous.

Prado Museum.

Barcelona- 

By Barcelona, we were all pretty tired. However, tons of our friends were studying abroad in Barcelona so it was fun to see them on Thursday night. Charles and Catherine also met us in Barcelona, which was a ball! Barcelona was one of my favorite cities we visited. I would love to study there except for the minor detail that I don’t think I could keep up. They don’t eat dinner until about 10 and don’t go out until 1 or 2. Meaning they don’t go home until about 5 or 6. That is a little intense for me! But was great for a weekend!

Bocaria- The Market. Candy wall. Chocolate wall. Gelato. Enough said. We visited every day.

Park Guell- Gaudi’s park. Cool! (I’m out of good descriptive words for this trip. I need a thesaurus.)

Beach- One day, we went to the beach and just sat there and enjoyed the view. We were just so happy to be warm and in the sun.

Montjuic- We took a gondola up to the top of a mountain where an old fortress (maybe?) sits. It was beautiful and a great last hoorah for the trip!

FC Barcelona vs. Villareal Futbol game- Such a great memory! This was a great last night thing to do. People in Spain get so in-to futbol games and it was such a fun experience to be a part of it all!

Okay, so I left TONS out of that recap but those were some highlights. I haven’t uploaded my pictures yet so I know the blog is somewhat boring now but I’ll add some soon.. promise!! 

Prague

First of all, I forgot to mention the tiny detail that after Kosovo, Lizzy, Susanna, and I went to Budapest, Hungary for the weekend. How one forgets to mention that she went to BUDAPEST, I don’t know but it was beautiful. And exhausting. And we saw essentially everything and had an amazing time.

Sus, Lizzy, and I in Budapest in
front of St. Stephen's Basilica

On to PRAGUE.

Mom and I arrive in Prague Friday night and take a taxi to one of the nicest hotels I’ve ever stayed in. It was simply fabulous. We unloaded and went to a small Serbian restaurant right next door. The entire restaurant was ornately decorated and there was a small band playing. After eating entirely too much pasta and a few glasses of wine, we decided to get a good night’s sleep so that we could tackle Prague the following day.

Dinner the first night. SO FUN!

Saturday, we woke up, ate breakfast (delicious), and attempted to see all that Prague had to offer. After about 30 minutes of walking straight uphill only to realize we had to clue what we were looking at, we decided to turn around and catch a tour. So we started our 3 ½ hour tour around Prague which was fabulous. We saw the changing of the guards, the castle, the Cathedral, Old Town, New Town, Lesser Town, the Jewish Quarter, synagogues, churches, squares, the list goes on and on. Needless to say, we were exhausted and starving after the tour so we settled on a place for a late lunch. We ate goulash and snitzel, both traditional Czech food and it was DELICIOUS. After dinner, we could hardly move because we were so full so we took a leisurely walk around Prague and ended up back at home. That night, we were entirely too full for dinner so grabbed drinks at the hotel bar, watched “Crash,” (fabulous movie by the way. I encourage everyone to watch it tonight.), and passed out.

Sunday, we went to the National Museum. I saw every mineral in the world! And fossils! Then we toured the Castle and St. Vitus’ Cathedral. I don’t think I can ever get used to seeing such amazing buildings, architecture, and landscape. The Cathedral took over 500 years to complete! The capped off the afternoon with a visit to the Castle’s special Cartier exhibit. Never have I ever seen so many HUGE diamonds and jewels in my life. Sweeeeet.

Our Hotel's Garden

That night, we went to an Italian restaurant for dinner, ate too much once again, and went to sleep fat and happy. Sunday morning, we woke up, packed, and headed off the to airport where I was off to Copenhagen and mom was off on a longggg journey back home to Mobile. 

My Birthday!

Last Thursday was my 21st birthday. And this is a tribute to all those who made it so special.
Disclaimer: This may be boring because there are no pictures but I havent uploaded them yet. Sorry!

My mom flew in to town Wednesday morning and we spent all Wednesday exploring the city, showing her where I go to school, live, go for runs, sit in the park, have coffee, etc. It was such a great day just to be with her and take a break from life. I spent the night in the hotel with her in possibly the most comfortable bed in the world and woke up the next morning...

AND I WAS 21!!!

I will admit, a 21st birthday in a country where the drinking age is 16 may be somewhat anticlimactic. BUT, when you have the right friends, a father who is gracious enough to send my mom to come visit me for it, and I'm in Europe, what could be better?!

I arrived to my 8:30 War Crimes class to a huge box of cookies, brownies, and treats from Susanna and a class to sing me happy birthday. I then had coffee with my mom at my favorite cafe down the street and an exhilarating Environment Economics class. After that, I met Bethea who had brought me back the most delicious chocolates from Belgium (gone within the day) and I was off to lunch with mom. After lunch, we continued walking around as I showed her Parliament, the Palace, the Opera House, and my favorite park, Kastellet.

For dinner, my mom took a few of my friends and I to dinner at Cafe G, a small cafe across the street. It was fabulous. I had an amazing steak sandwich, my first "drink-that-if-I-were-in-America-would-be-legal" and had a great time. After dinner, my friends surprised me with cupcakes (apparently harder to find in Copenhagen than one might think..), sang happy birthday, and thus completes the birthday dinner. Well except the beautiful necklace and earrings from Lizzy and Bethea. :) OH, and the Ramen noodles from Susanna.. which came in use later.

After dinner, mom went home and my friends and I went to Kulor Bar, a Thursday night special here in Copenhagen (at least with the international crowd). After a fun night of dancing, we ventured home, I ate my Ramen (thanks Sus) and I was off to bed.

My birthday present from my parents was a trip to Prague. Best present known to mankind, I know. Therefore, this birthday blog is to be continued.......

Kosovo

*Disclaimer: I could write a novel on this past week but lets be real, no one would read it. I am going to try to simply highlight a few things that I found interesting. Just know that I am OBSESSED with this country now and could go on for pages.

Prishtina

This past week, I went to Prishtina, Kosovo with my class War Crimes and Human Rights. I was somewhat dreading the trip because my other friends were going to destinations such as Milan, London, Scotland, Prague, etc. and had fabulous trips planned. Call me crazy, but on the outside, the war torn, former- Yugoslavia country was not high on my list and I was simply jealous of everyone else.

We arrived in Prishtina and drove down Bill Clinton Blvd. to get to our hotel. There was barbed wire, run down houses, construction, trash, and graffiti everywhere. (Along with a Bill Clinton statue. They LOVE him.)

Bill Clinton

That afternoon, we took a tour of Prishtina. I quickly fell in love with the city. Despite the fact that many of the buildings were damaged or torn down, you could tell that the people took great pride in their country and there was something endearing about that. In the beginning of the tour, we passed a gate covered in pictures. We learned that these were missing persons. After the war ended in 1999, there were 5000 missing persons and currently there are 1800. These people looked just like our fathers, our brothers, our friends, and even our mothers or sisters or grandmothers. Heart wrenching.

 After this, I had a conversation with our tour guide to get a sense of his life. He was Albanian but from Serbia. As a teenager, he was recruited to the Serbian army but fled the country. He obtained an illegal passport for 2000 euro, went through Slovenia, and then bounced around through 7 countries before ending up in Switzerland for a year and a half. When he was forced to come back home to Kosovo, he arrived and his house was gone. It had been burned down in the war so he and his family moved into an abandoned house. Until the owners of that house came back. After living in four different abandoned houses, his brother finally helped him buy a house of his own, where he lives now. He was one of the lucky ones who were fortunate enough to flee the country during the war. Many people were not so lucky.

Which makes me think, how did I end up so lucky? How am I privileged enough to have only known peace my entire life. To have only known democracy my entire life? To live in a country with rule of law? Police I can trust? Government I can trust (for the most part)? To have only known family and stability my entire life? To be able to walk around with no fear? To be able to worship where I want to worship, learn where I want to learn, and travel where I want to travel? I have done nothing to deserve such grace.

The next day, we awoke and went to our first academic study. We spoke with the President of Kosovo. Through a translator, he told us how far his country had come and his hopes for the future. I could not stop thinking about where these people had come from and wondering if I would be so hopeful if all I had ever known was war. My favorite quote from President Jakup Krasniq was that their goal was to “sacrifice history for the sake of the future.” This is the attitude that I perceived from the vast majority of the Albanians living in Kosovo (we were not privileged enough to meet and talk to many Serbs and I am sure if we had, we might not have gotten quite the same impression.)

Precious Friends

After speaking to the President, we went to Parliament’s chambers and spoke to a member of the Assembly. He was one of the men who had an integral role in starting the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) and was subsequently imprisoned and tortured by Serbian armies for seven years. His response to this: “That’s life. You have to move on.”

That was simply one day in Kosovo. Life changing. There was so much more and so many more encounters and adventures like this. We spoke to students in Kosovo, EULEX, the leader of KFOR, went to the city of Prizren (absolutely beautiful), the US Embassy, ICO, OSCE, the list goes on and on.

View from our restaurant in Prizren

It was amazing seeing a state truly building (not even Rebuilding. Simply building). Seventy countries in the UN currently recognize Kosovo as an independent state. Only 5 EU countries remain to recognize the country. They are in the process of building a legal system. There is a high international presence in the country but it is evident that the international community (UN, Nato, EU, etc) has great hopes in transitioning their roles to the government of Kosovo. It will be fascinating to follow this budding country for the next years. I suggest you join me as well. 

Oktoberfest

Inside Haubrauhous

This past weekend, my friends and I ventured over to Oktoberfest. After a close call transfer in Zurich (please google a map of Europe and notice how unbelievably out of the way Zurich is when going from Copenhagen to Munich), we arrived in Munich at about 2. We took our bags to the hotel and were off to Oktoberfest. Not that any of us knew exactly what Oktoberfest was. All we knew is that Theta had an Oktoberfest date party and there would be beer.

We arrived at Oktoberfest and it turns out it is sort of like a carnival or fair with rides and stands of food, etc. Except for instead of funnel cakes and cotton candy, there was wiener schnitzel and pretzels. There are extravagant beer “tents” around the carnival, each holding about 10,000 people. And all the Germans wore lederhosen and dirndls. My friend Susanna even bought one off the street and wore it all weekend!

We found our way inside and met up with our Vandy friends. It was literally Vanderbilt does Europe because there were TONS of us there. We sat at a table and the beer maidens brought us huge steins filled with beer (we actually preferred the beer that was mixed with lemonade, yum!). The tent was extravagantly decorated with ivy and plants and was absolutely beautiful. There was a band playing traditional German music up above us (I think it was the national anthem) and all the Germans would sing along and chant German chants and cheer and it was just such a surreal experience.

Susanna showing off her dirndl. Someone
 ACTUALLY tried to order a beer from her!

Bat :)

That night, we went out with some of our friends and then went to sleep pretty early so that we could wake up the next morning at 7am to get ready for the big day. If you are not in line to get in a tent early, you will be stuck in line for hours (at least 4 or 5) before you are able to get in. So we arrived early and were enjoying Oktoberfest with all of Vanderbilt when Bethea and I decided to go see some of our DIS friends upstairs. Literally the second we made it upstairs, the ENTIRE upstairs got kicked OUT of the tent (into the cold rain) and we were screwed. We tried waiting in line but like I said, it is essentially no use. So what else could we do but EAT! We had the most amazing hotdog ever and met up with her friend Lule. Somehow, two hours later, we met a beer maiden and paid her to sneak us in the back of the tent and we were back in action! We enjoyed the rest of the day with our friends and then came back home to our hotel to leave the next day. What was potentially disastrous, turned into a nice break in the day!

All in all, it was a fabulous trip. There were a few mishaps but Oktoberfest was hands-down, one of the best weekends of my life. I kept pinching myself because I couldn’t believe we were actually in Munich, Germany at Oktoberfest. This is the type of things you have date parties about. And I just lived it. Fabulous.

Cooking

Things I could cook before coming to Europe:
1. eggs
2. toast
3. cookies and brownies

Things I can cook now:
1. eggs
2. toast
3. chicken
4. pasta
5. rice
6. vegetables
7. cinnamon apples
8. pizza toast
9. grilled cheese with tomatoes on it

I can even combine the afore mentioned items and make tasty meals. For example, I just ate stir fry. Yummmm

To be continued....

Bornholm Bike Trip

Well, my weekend begins last Thursday actually. I joined a fansy-smansy gym in Copenhagen and there are free exercise classes. Like really intense classes. As in last Tuesday, I did a spinning class for 75 minutes with an instructor who rode in the Tour (de France for those of you who are not fortunate enough to have a bike enthusiast as a father!). Back to Thursday. I did a class called “kettlebells” in which you essentially have a 16 lb weight and swing it up in the air while you’re doing lunges for an hour. My body was in PAIN.

Okay, so Friday at 10 pm, I loaded a bus with my friends Catherine and Katy (both from Georgetown) and Nat and Nick (Georgetown and Colby College, respectively) to board an overnight ferry to Bornholm, which is one of Denmark’s 406 islands. I was so excited to get to the island and have a weekend of fresh air, exercise, and a little change of pace.

Arrival to Bornholm (back when I still enjoyed the island)

The ferry that night was absolutely the Ritz Carlton of ferries. Great news. So we slept in cabins on the way over and arrived the next morning at 6am. Catherine, Katy, and I decided to do the “killer tour,” which involved a 65 km (41 miles for those of you that have not been forced to make the switch to the metric system). The first leg of the trip, we went about 100 mph the whole time. I was seriously peddling as fast as I could and still could not stay up with the group. And keep in mind Bornholm is the only place in Denmark with hills. And lots of them! I think we were probably going uphill about 85% of the time. Rough. But manageable. THEN, the wind kicked in. This was no slight breeze. This was monsoon strength wind. As in some ships didn’t even leave harbor that day because the wind was too strong. We would be peddling and literally not moving against the wind. Catherine even got blown off her bike (as in fell on the ground) because the wind was so strong and blew her over. It was the hardest thing I’ve ever ever ever ever everrrrr done in my life.

Catherine, myself, Max, Nat, and Katy still enjoying the day

I hope you haven’t forgotten the intro to this story. I went into the bike ride NOT BEING ABLE TO WALK NORMALLY FROM FREAKING KETTLEBELLS CLASS.

Biking.

Anyway, after the absolute worst bike ride of our life, we make it to the beach to see the beautiful island which is apparently the “largest exporter of sand” because they use it for hourglasses. It looked exactly like the sand in Alabama. And there was no food. So I had soft serve ice cream for lunch. So NOW, we are 20 miles away from our hostel and the only way to get back is to ride back. At this point, we were miserable.

We hop on our bikes and go. The wind refused to give us any slack. I cannot even count the times that I honestly did not know if I would be able to do one more peddle. All I could do was pray that I would be given the strength for one more push. I’m not sure if the tears were me crying or just the wind making my eyes water.

One girl face planted. One girl started cramping and fell off her bike. One girl was dehydrated. One girl hitch-hiked home. Many people paid hundreds of dollars for taxis back to the hostel. There were so many times I wanted to give up. But we made it.

Catherine, me, and Katy at the beach

The next morning, Catherine and Katy caught the first ferry home but the group was not scheduled to leave until Sunday night at 10. So now I was friendless. And in unimaginable pain. I made friends with some random girls who said they were not going to bike for the day so I decided to go with them because my guy friends were planning to bike. The girls lied. So on the bike I got. We went about 3 miles, stopped at a rocky beach and then… breakdown. As in hyperventilating crying to the point where I was coughing. With strangers. All strangers. I’m not sure whether it was a good thing I found Nat and Nick or not because now they think I’m a psycho but at least I knew someone to give me a hug. I was simply exhausted. What a joke.

So I sat by myself on the rocks for a while, thought about how much my body hurt, thought about how friendless I was, and then walked my bike back to the hostel. But I was locked out. So I just hung out with myself all morning. I found a beautiful church that overlooked the city and just sat there and had one of the best quiet times in my life because it was definitely one of my lowest points.

The rocks where I camped out for a while.

My church

Then we had to wait around until 10 to leave on the ferry.  We arrived back in Copenhagen this morning at 7:30 am. And I had class from 8:30-1 straight. Longest day ever.

I officially hate biking. And Bornholm. And for a while there, I hated life.

ROUGH WEEKEND.

A little taste from home.

Finally. Today, Jessica, Bethea, and I went to church for the first time since we've been here. It's so hard because there are next to no weekends that we will be able to attend church so it was refreshing to enjoy fellowship with other Christians while we had the chance. While the Danish people as a whole are some of the kindest, most helpful people, there is such an absence of Christ in the city. For some reason, this is just such a worldly city so it was so nice to be with other believers.

I then went and worked out because it turns out that all Danes eat is bread. And pasta. And carbs of other sorts. Shoooooooot.

And then I did some homework. Perfect day of home. But in Copenhagen. Minor details....

Short Study Tour

Some people in our group in front of our bikes on the beach by the North Sea!

Big weekend, big weekend. Thursday morning to Saturday night, we went on “short study tours” with our program classes around Denmark. Essentially, we rode around all of Denmark on Greyhound buses and went to sites that had to do with “War Crimes and Human Rights,” as well as some cultural events that did not. We went to the Navy Marine Police, the Naval base, the Army Marine Police, an architecture museum, some gardens, an art museum, the beach, had a bonfire, went on bike rides through the woods and beach… the list goes on.

Our bike ride through the forest.
My two favorite parts of the weekend were the trip to the Navy Marine Police and the two hour bike ride. Next weekend, I will be going on a weekend bike trip with DIS to Bornhom, Denmark so I will spare my (FIVE!!!!) followers the pain of having to read about two different bike rides and just tell about the Marine Police (MP, as they are called) visit. The two MPs gave us a powerpoint presentation of the situation in Somalia and the ways in which they are combating piracy in the Gulf of Aden. Both men had been on the ship Absalon when Somalian pirates had been detained two separate times. The first time, ten pirates were detained but after a week, were taken back to Somalia in what was called operation “Silent Night.” The interesting case was from about a year ago. Danish Marine Police pulled over a boat that looked like any other fishing boat (our power point had plenty of actual pictures from the event) but described it as being a typical pirate boat, complete with rats, sewage floating around, guns, explosives, drugs, etc. The MPs detained the pirates and brought them onto the Absalon. It was fascinating hearing the humane way in which the MPs treated the men in order to avoid torture. I got the impression that the pirates actually were treated better than some of the crewmembers. One of the MPs even made the point that these were not bad men, but simply men in the wrong place at the wrong time. He said if he were the Somali men, he would probably do the same to provide for his family. We saw pictures of their living quarters, heard about their wardrobe, their games they played, the food they ate, the jokes they made. The pirates stayed on the Absalon for 34 days before being given to the Netherlands to stand trial and were sentenced to five years in prison. Once again, they were treated fairly and received a sentence of five years in prison as opposed to eight because the Dutch judge realized that five years to these Somali men with no family contacts in the Netherlands would seem like eight years.

Lizzy and I on the dunes.

The MPs explained that the Somali pirates are no more than fishermen without jobs trying to make a living to support their wives (plural. The wealthier the man, the more wives he has.) and children. In the 80s or 90s (I forget the exact date), the United States and Britain (among others) came into the Gulf of Aden and essentially depleted it of its fish, leaving the fishermen with no jobs. These men have no other way of living and slowly piracy has become the answer. It started by just taking over a ship, demanding the fish from the ship, and moving along and over time, the pirates have realized the lucrativeness of demanding a ransom. In a world of towns made of mud huts, when a mad comes back from piracy and can actually buy his family clean water and maybe even some electricity, piracy becomes a popular option. The MPs explained that these men are not hardened criminals, but simply a victim of hard times who have resorted to providing for their family in the only way they know how.

Where's Kat?!

Its amazing how much I did not know about the piracy in Somalia and how interesting it is. I was also astonished at how sympathetic these Danish Marine Police were and am quite curious as to the level of respect and humanity pirates who are detained by other countries receive. Its safe to say, here is an example of where no war crimes were committed but the MPs explained that they had to go to quite lengths to ensure the men were not tortured (including separate living quarters at least 7x7, bathroom facilities, clothing, books, games, religious practices, food, etc.)

Travel Adventures

Well, tomorrow I am off on a study tour around Denmark. I'm not quite sure what we will be doing but I think we are essentially traveling all around the main part of Denmark which is called Jutland (Copenhagen is on a large island that is not part of continental Denmark). We are traveling with our "program" class. My program class is War Crimes and Human Justice. It is very interesting and we will be visiting members of the Navy, attending a class at the University of Arhus, eating dinner with the University students, meeting with more members of the army, going on bike tours of rural Denmark, and much more that I am simply not aware of yet. It will be great getting to know the people in my class who I will be going to Kosovo with in a month. Updates to come. See you Sunday, loyal followers (all 3 of you...)

Politics in Denmark

          Growing up in Mobile, AL, I have only known extreme conservative values and politics. There is much tension between the Republicans and Democrats in the deep South of Alabama. I was excited to travel to Denmark, a country with views on the opposite end of the spectrum of my friends and family to further my own world view. I came with a limited knowledge of Danish politics and the government´s interaction with other countries. Since being here, I have learned that Denmark has an election coming up next year in which the ruling party could potentially change. However, if the Prime Minister wishes, he has the power to hold an early election, in which he would have better potential to win. Furthermore, the Danish government is suggesting to the European Council that the Swedish elections should be censored in order to “secure democracy for the future.” It turns out that Denmark’s politics are just as complex as ours in America and quite similarly to us, the country interferes in other countries’ elections and politics as well. While the United States and Denmark are far away not only geographically, but also on the political spectrum, it is interesting that even when thinking about politics, one can find similarities between the two.

Miscellaneous Pictures because I have been slacking

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