Mamma Mia

So, as you know, I went to a psychiatric day center to make dinner for the... lets call them "clients." I decided to make the only decent traditional danish dinner I know how to make- A Tomattærte and a salad. It turned out to be a really good way to break the ice and get to talk to the clients. Several of them helped me make the meal and everyone was very curious and talkative. However, it turns out that the manager of the place got me and one of my professors clients mixed up, so he thought I wanted to become a client of the psychiatric day center... (He thought I was Schizophrenic.) Luckily, after observing me that night, he cleared up this misunderstanding and I signed a contract to be a weekly volunteer and attend the meetings so that I could learn how best to talk to and interact with the clients. My teacher said I should be proud that I got in, because it can apparently be hard to get a spot as a volunteer at this center. So, I'm going back again on Wednesday, no idea what to make this time, probably just some sort of pasta dish. I wish I could say more about my experiences there, but I signed a... "tavshedspligt" which= "vow of silence" but I can't remember the proper name for it in english.

The weather here has been delightful, but seeing as in 6 days I'll have visitors for 3 weeks straight (Kevin, followed by Mor and Lars), I've retreated to my room to read and read and read, so that I can get ahead before Kevin comes. I caved on a particularly nice day though and went with Javier and his cousin Ricardo to walk around the city.
Last weekend was my mormor's birthday so I spent the night there after her birthday party and made her this layer cake:

Peter, Peter, and HelleHelle and Mormor

Helle and Peter's new dog (Chaplin)

A Jens SigI stayed the night and it was practically a therapeutic experience. Whenever I woke up in the middle of the night and saw where I was, I felt comforted, it reminded me so much of being there in the summer on vacation without a care in the world. Mormor and Morfars house feels like home in the sense that a lot of my childhood memories were made there so I feel like I've grown up there, and it was so comforting to wake up in the morning with the familiar smell of warm bread rolls and tea, I just felt like all my stress was gone and I was home. I should really visit more often!

But, since I have stream of visitors coming soon, I spend most of my time reading to get ahead, I've practically committed social suicide, I come home from work or class, say hi, go into my room and shut the door... they've stopped telling me where they're going or inviting me along, so I am very excited to get ahead with my reading and rejoin the social realm! Starting now, I am baking cookies with a somewhat new friend, we both really miss chocolate chip cookies, and I'm trying not to eat the pastries that I've put in the freezer to preserve for when Kevin comes. (last week everything at the bakery across the street was just 5 kr!!) Alright, time to study hard, I'm so excited to see Kevin in 5 days, and mor and Lars-bars in 17!!! It'll be so nice to have some quality mother-daughter, brother-sister time!

Warrior Blood

That's what I've got!! (My head is to the left of the play-arrow symbol in the middle. And we don't really make an appearance until 2min in)

Layercakes and Free Beer

Yesterday was Pernille's birthday, so with the help of Tom and Javier, a surprise, and slightly inappropriate) layer cake was made.

Lars!! Javier is a computer science major, and he put the candles to represent "7" in binary code (she's 27)

Then we went out dancing for a few hours at place that happened to have free entry and free beer--Perfect deal!

I've been trying to fill my time with practical things, so for starters I'm working tonight, and my psych teacher said he'd help me get volunteer shifts working with patients in a psychiatric unit, or at a research lab, plus I now have time to figure out what the heck I'm going to do after I graduate and how to best plan for the next 5-10 years of my life. I'm only freaking out a little bit, talking to Pernille helped a lot, she sounded a bit like my mom. ("Hold on to what makes you happy, and work on helping the rest fall into place one way or another--strict ambitions alone can leave you lonely and unsatisfied, I have to remember that the process is not only the way to my goal, but a big chuck of my life.) Lots to think about, I hate taking risky leaps of faith!

Bartending at Signalhuset

First and foremost : I found a Surf Chess set! They ride snails instead of horses.

And this in the checkout

So this weekend revolved around the building's party. My friends and I took turns bar tending, which was a ton of fun. I enjoyed being behind the bar more than in the actual party, because I got to meet a lot of new people, and have lots of up beat short conversations, without ever having to endure awkward silences or being stuck with one person too long, and I felt I could relax and be more socially outgoing because I had a physical barrier between me and the drunk guys, so I didn't have to worry about seeming friendly, so I could be myself.

Andria from Canada, Me, Kiwi Tom, and Blake

Sonna wanted pictures of us wearing the little Tequila Sombreros, but gravity disagreed.

That's Daniel, my neighbor and head of the building's party committee.

So, the party was a huge success, the place was packed with happy people and good spirits, and the best part was that when I was too tired to stay, it took me under one min to get to my bed. This whole bar culture being so intertwined in school is a new concept for me.

This poster is the sign on the door of the Bar INSIDE the school building, across the hall from my classroom, and there is at least one bar in each faculty's building. Pretty strange, but with all the couches and pool tables it seemed cool.


The rest of the weekend was spent washing a sticky floor several times and studying. I really like my classes, I just wish there would be some Danish students in some of them... I'm sad that I barely use Danish at all these days. Right, well back to the books!
But one last thing. Under this post, it says "Fjern......dette." This is what the "unlike" button gets translated to when Facebook is in Danish. hah.

The House of Awesomeness

Yesterday I got a new desk and a bigger bed, both of which required assembly and the total rearrangement of my room. This picture shows two things: 1) I have started running a few times a week, and 2) I have started dealing with problems and fixing things when they break, instead of just living without them. I will no longer live with a broken desk, small wobbly bed, and no light bulbs. I will take control, TURN those tables...and yes, that always requires a hammer. Watch out Mini-fridge and broken bike in Seattle, your year of sitting around will be over when I get back.
This weekend the sun decided to make a rare appearance, so we (Pernille, Tom, Blake and I) decided to go for a sunny walk in "Dyrhaven" wich is a giant park including meadows and woods, surrounding a "castle," one of the oldest amusement parks on earth, and a totally overpopulated community of deer. We encountered quite a few herds, each with hundreds of members, and many with deadly looking horns, but even though we passed through their herds, we did not get charged at.


Tom was a dear, and tried to make them feel more comfortable. His sneak-tactics what got us through alive.
Don't know what they point of this mini cave was, but I know if Lars were here, he'd go in it.

I REALLY like my living with my flatmates, it's such a fun atmosphere, and they are really sweet people, the chemistry is great and our flat is a cool atmosphere with lots of "family" fun that usually draws friends to hang with us too. It is the place to be. The other night we decided to call our flat the House of Awesomeness, to represent how lucky we feel we are to be living together, so we made a sign.

(Tom= sweet cheery guy, Javier= hungover groggy guy, Pernille=messy frizzy hair me= the child of the flat)
And then went out dancing all night :D (yes myself included!)
Here is an snapshot of the awesomeness that goes on in our flat:
3/4ths of the house of awesomeness.

By the way, this is the last 4th of the House of Awesomeness: His name is Javier, I like to call him Harvihair, and occasionally accidentally Alejandro... luckily never while he was around. He REALLY likes watching movies.

Not much else to write about today...but I did save a few hundred dollars on textbooks by checking them out from the library to share with some classmates in my building so that's good.

....and then we built a village!

SO. This weekend was packed with strange events. On sat, I brought Ash and Blake to my uncle Peter's band's music video shoot, and we got to be in the video, which was FUN. We got to wear disturbingly dark band T-shirts, drink free beer with crazy viking men and head-bang, mosh, throw horns and scream along to the "song" "Warrior Blood."

Kevin told us that to fit in, we should constantly pretend to be smelling something putrid

No idea who that guy is, but he managed to bomb our photo.

That's my uncle Peter

Speaking of death metal and satanism, I saw Hitler at the metro station the other day:

On Sunday the trains were free, so I took a group of people on a "tour" (mostly random exploration, because I didn't actually know that much about where we were going) of Køge, which is a old little fairy tail-ish town. We wandered around, raided a candy store, and eventually visited the town's historical museum, which had everything from viking coins to a relocated mass grave of actual skeletons. Which I forgot to take a picture of... But I DID get a picture of this old bed:

And this stick with people's initials on it. It reads: "PMS ASS"
Ha. I really should take more pics of my surroundings. Well, after that, the others went home and Ash and I went to Mormor's and borrowed bikes to go to the beach and explore the old WWI forts by the ocean. And then...we built a smurf village.


One last thing. I use the "Centrifuging Slut" function on my dryer to make sure my clothes don't come out damp:
My Social Psych Class starts tomorrow, so I am excited to have something productive to do soon! But I will have 4 day weekends every week, so I am going to Aarhus with Ash and Blake for a romantic weekend getaway! (valentines day weekend, and I have renamed valentines day to Eat More Chocolate Than I Would on a Normal Day-Day.

Din Fart

I finally got a picture of a danish speed control sign:
So, this past week I went home to visit mormor and morfar, which was very nice. Mormor found my favorite type of pastry, and morfar fixed my skirt zipper and found a ton of tourist catalogs to help me figure out what I want to do with Kevin and Amanda when they come. Also, I got my mom's old bedspread in the mail; it is COVERED in red hearts, big and small, and thus is perfect for my room. So naturally I had to paint my nails to match. They look like hooker nails though, so I decided to enjoy the act of picking all the polish off. Plus I now have a really comfy new desk chair (also red) that Pernille is storing in my room for the semester.

I also bought myself some tiny roses :)
The other day I went in to spend an evening with Helle, and the best part was taking her new puppy for a walk. This is the view from the beach her house is on:
Anyway, my kiwi flatmate is home again, and he came bearing tons chocolate, and washed all the dishes and washed the floor. I like him already. I'll have to take pictures of the flat, Pernille and I had a lot of fun rearranging the furniture, so it is now much more cozy, and our flat has now become a favorite place for movie nights.

After spending the past month trying to find a cheap way to scan my passport so that I could get my scholarship money, I found out yesterday that Pernille has a scanner in her room, so now all is well and I can move on to figuring out other things. Like financial aid. Crap.

I miss speaking Danish. Even though I'm here, I speak English the majority of the time, but I suppose it will be easier to make Danish-speaking acquaintances once I start actual school (not until the END of feb, as it turns out...).

Last night, Pernille treated me and her other friend to a free movie (she works at the theater) so the three of us went and saw "Klovn," a Danish comedy based on a very popular TV show. It was like a more sexually charged, more explicit and inappropriate version of The Hangover, and even ended with a slide show of ridiculous pictures.

Some good news: I've put junk food behind me (until valentines day) and am starting to get the hang of feeding myself. Oh! I nearly forgot; I took a video of the sheep I walk by on the way to work: (yes, it really is on of the most exciting parts of my day)

Strange Sightings

So, as my favorite thing to post is weird city sightings, here's a good one to start with. It says "shall we dispose of your bike? Then put it here." Or this sweatshirt in a shop window:


Then there's this add in the newspaper for a very expensive necklace:

And this children's book entitled: "the big butt book"

"When people get bigger, their butts grow too, and the farts and poo get bigger as well!...blah blah... Peoples butts have different colors. In China, butts are yellow, in Africa, they are black, and in Denmark, they are white."

What the English call butts

Storkespringvandet: a typical place to meet people in the city
And apparently there are enough Hansens in Denmark that they make door mats with just that lastname.
And Pernille's new bookshelf! (she found a way to put all those darn textbooks to use.)
Anyway, since the blog, I took a few new friends on a tour of Copenhagen. We saw two castles, two churches, a statue museum, the little mermaid, and an old battle fort.

By the way, this is Ash, she's a kiwi (from the same town as flight of the conchords, and has actually run into them on the street several times!)
Ash likes to carve our initials into potatoes:

This is my English friend Blake

We made the ever so hard to pronounce: Rød Grød med fløde

I'm glad that I found cool people to hang out with, I feel much less lonely now that I know I can just go knock on someones door and have impromptu nacho nights and such.