Observations of Denmark

Even though I am frequently busy doing traveling stuff, I am going to make more of an effort to blog. I originally blamed my sudden lack of writing on the fact that I am out doing the aforementioned traveling stuff, but you, my audience, are largely made up of my friends and family who have been extremely generous in your emotional, mental, and financial support. Every so often I see a little more money in my bank account and I know a gracious family member is thinking of me. When Michael arrived in Europe he gave my sister and I wonderful letters from home that were also bearing gifts. I am extremely lucky to be part of such a generous and thoughtful family.

Now onto Denmark matters. As we all know, I set some very high expectation for this country, doing tremendous amounts of research on Danish people, businesses, and food. After spending roughly 5 weeks there (having taken that two week "vacation" around Europe), I feel like it would be interesting to list some of the things I learned from actually being there, rather than what I read off the internet.

Danish people are some of the nicest I've ever met, and the stereotype about them being difficult to crack open is only partially true. About half of the Danes I met initiated conversation, and the other half wouldn't even look at me if I spoke to them.

Danish food is very good, but it must be authentic. The homemade Danish dishes (as well as the non-Danish dishes) made by my host family were some of the best meals I have ever consumed. But finding restaurant food in the city is not as easy as say, in Paris, largely because Danish families almost always eat in, so there is not a huge market for take away food. Also I am used to giant American servings, but Danes eat a very healthy amount, so I was frequently surprised.

Copenhagen felt extremely safe to me, something I cannot say about Madrid. It was as dirty as any other city, something which I did not expect, however they have a wonderful train accessory: All of the seat groupings (usually 2-4 seats) have small bags hanging from the side where you can deposit your trash, so the trains stay very clean. I have not seen this in any other city or local train.

I am happy that my abroad experience was in Denmark, but unless the weather is always like it was this summer, I can´t say that I would move there. Plus they don´t have New York OR Chicago style pizza there, and I don´t think I could live without that. And my family. Them too.

Off We Go

I have pretty much made up my mind about the whole stay in Denmark vs. travel some more debate: I will travel.

My next question was should I go to Greece and Italy or Prague and Austria? Well I have made a compromise, and I think I will stick with it: I will go to Florence and Venice, then to Budapest, then Vienna and Salzburg, then Prague, and finally head back to Copenhagen to meet with my boyfriend so we can fly together to Madrid. This way I get to see Italy and some bits of Eastern Europe. I like it this way, because it almost forces me to have a trip to Greece all on its own, that way I can truly experience the country in all its grandeur. This is my justification for not going, anyway. But I am excited for Austria, Czech Republic, Hungary, and Italy, because I originally had no intention of visiting any of them. Being spontaneous is so fun!

Speaking of which, tonight I will be going to my second Metallica concert in as many days. Also, I got an ear piercing while strolling through downtown Copenhagen with my sis and boyfriend. Whee!

Better late than never

I apologize for my lack of updates in the past few days. A lot has been going on here, most importantly being joined by my sister (on Saturday) and my boyfriend (yesterday) in Copenhagen. After my sister arrived, we spent our time watching TV and searching the city for McDonalds. While this sounds like a pretty crappy way to spend a possibly once-in-a-lifetime vacation, it really suited us at the time, and isn't independence all about making choices for oneself? Actually we did go out yesterday but it rained so hard all we could do was stand under an awning and reminisce about California.

Michael (my bf) arrived late last night, so we pretty much just went straight home. Today we went down a few train stations with the intention of going to the Experimentarium, but instead wandered around Tuborg Havn (harbor) looking at the boats, Ferraris and the reason for the name of the harbor:

Giant beer bottles standing out on the shore. Pretty awesome. When I yelled "Look, giant beer bottles!" my boyfriend claimed I was smoking drugs.

We also ate delicious pad thai at a thai/sushi restaurant, and then groaned at the lightness of our wallets. But it was certainly fun, and nice to eat food that wasn't unfrozen first.

Another important occurence is my decision to leave Denmark 3 weeks early to travel to Italy and Greece. I still haven't figured out how to tell my hosts/work but I also really, really want to make this trip. I feel bad because even though the au pair is at this house, I am sort of in charge of the dog while my hosts are in Sicily, and I would be leaving 6 days before they return. But to not go to the Mediterranean because of a dog that someone else can technically watch? Seems silly. But still, my qualms remain. It is so hard to make choices!!

The Trouble with Trips

The past few days I have been struggling with the same issue I encountered the moment I set foot on European soil, namely my growing resistance to structure and planning. As you may recall, I had plane tickets directly to Greece on the day of my arrival, however I was so enamored with the idea of spontaneity that I turned my nose at the airport and proceeded to the London Underground, where I promptly fell asleep on my luggage. I planned to head straight to Belgium, but instead I stayed there for 2 days. Afterwards I planned on going straight to Copenhagen, but I ended up in Amsterdam for the night. Then 5 more nights.

The point is, being spontaneous is, evidently, like doing drugs for me. I was able to spend 2 weeks in Copenhagen before I needed my fix and I rushed up to Stockholm, where as it turns out, I should have stayed an extra night because they gave away free tickets to the Britney Spears concert! But I digress. I need my fix again. Today it hit me that I am in Europe, for easily the last time in a long while, doing exactly what I do at home. I wake up, go to work at a clinic, go home, too tired and dirty to do anything but spend a few hours on the internet or read a book.

This has stirred the restlessness within me, a feeling I have had difficulty quieting. It has manifested itself in strange ways, including a desire to change my major and my entire career path. While I know that is a subject that obtains better results through planning, I still can't shake the sheer joy I feel at having a life made up entirely of mysteries. But in this area I will let my head command my heart, because the Spock in me is reminding me to think logically.

The Question of what to do about my European travels remains. Do I stay in Denmark, biding my time until my boyfriend finishes his studies in London, and pursue our planned trip together for the remaining month of summer? Or do I spend one more week in Denmark entertaining my boyfriend and my sister, who are coming to visit, and then when they are gone take the next train to wherever I feel at the moment? Truthfully, I can only afford select places that I have researched. Or perhaps there are other opportunities I haven't yet discovered, which excites me further.

Until this point in my life I have always let my head be my guide, and it has always kept me satiated. But now I am by myself in Europe with an unlimited train pass and I am feeling trapped in a country that remains as unfriendly as the day I arrived, and my heart is screaming to be set free. Do I let Spock keep control, or is it time for Kirk to take over? Or should they share the wheel? I suppose these are the questions that make up life, and now is the time that I begin to answer them. Wish me luck!



I am aware of the Star Trek references. You should know by now that I am quite geeky for my gender. Deal.

CAT-astrophe

Newfoundland dog, from www.puppypoopy.com. Hehehe.

When I decided to work abroad in Denmark, I was excited to witness a new style of veterinary medicine, and as it turns out, a lot has been different than my experiences in California. For one thing, neutering dogs DOES NOT happen (which may be a European thing, I dunno). Also the law requires you to put an ID tattoo on your dogs ear so when it runs away, it can be easily identified as not a stray, and the tattoo code is in an online database that anyone can access, so people can contact owners themselves. Other differences are minor, like the style of IV catheters used, the method of catheter insertion, and the fact that every dog I have worked with is pure-bred, not a mutt among 'em.

But one thing in particular is the same in Denmark as it is in the US, and that is the clients. Clients can really suck. I have noticed that the biggest barrier to helping a sick animal get better is its owner. To me, there is no animal that does not deserve to become healthy, yet there are so many people who stand in the way of that. Today a woman came in with a vial of her Newfoundland's urine, and asked the clinic to process it. She didn't have the dog with her, and she was already known for being picky and stingy when it came to her dog's health. The vet on staff processed the urine and found a huge amount of blood in it, as well as an excessive amount of the sort of elements that cause crystals to form in the bladder, and eventually turn into a stone that can cause death. People used to frequently die of "The Stone" centuries ago, but since then, treatments have been developed to dissolve the minerals and save the lives of man and canine alike.

One of the treatments is a special diet. A fairly expensive special diet. Needless to say, the owner of this dog won't be purchasing it. And the dog will die a very painful death.

And what can you do? You have the ability to save this animal, yet there is nothing you can do, except sit and wait for her to bring him in to be euthanized.

Some of you might be thinking, "Well you can't always expect people to throw out a lot of money for their pets, there are financial limitations!" I would agree, except the lab work that she ordered costs more than the diet, so why process the urine at all if you're not going to do anything about it?

Sorry for the long rant, but in the 2 years I have worked in vet clinics, I have seen way too many of these clients hurting the well-being of my patients, and it makes me very sad. It is probably the only thing that could stop me from being a veterinarian, because having the power to save a life but not being able to use it is a very frustrating thing. BUT I know that for every animal whose owner won't let me help it, there are many more whose will. And that is a comforting thought.

Huzzah

Sorry for the lack of updates these last few days. Life has been not as eventful as my blog would hope. Well actually I made an interesting discovery...

On Friday night Nicolaj took me and his two eldest children to Bakken, an amusement park North of Copenhagen. It happens to be the oldest STILL-RUNNING amusement park, which I think is pretty cool. It is set in the middle of a beautiful forest. On our way to the park, we saw an albino baby deer, which is pretty rare, but not my interesting discovery. My discovery was that amusement parks attract White Trash. And that White Trash exists in Denmark. I never expected to see it! The first person I saw at Bakken was a man with his hat on backwards, no shirt, and his chest hair shaved into the shape of a cross. People were wearing giant inflatable condom hats (yes I wanted one), and they had stands selling giant ties that displayed such words as "FUCK" and "SHIT," in English. The whole place had the general feel of less-than-sophisticated.

Now don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with these people, I was just surprised to see the (now outdated) stereotype of "American" wandering through Scandinavia. These were the same kinds of people I have seen at every county fair I have ever been to. It was fun.

Anywho, the next day we went to the beach where I was reminded that Europeans enjoy swimming in the nude. But not the hot, young, sexy Europeans. The old guys. Ew. Trying to ignore a certain man's "Golden Years," I focused my attention on the landmass across the water, which turned out to be Sweden. So now I have decided to go to Sweden this weekend. Yay! I am going to Stockholm, where I will surely do stuff.

I will update more later. Now it's dinner time!

Danish Factoids

I was going to do a long post about how EVERYTHING went wrong today, but I decided not to burden ya'll with my problems, because they won't feel so heavy tomorrow, so what's the point?

Instead you get to see a list of cool Danish stuff! I love lists.

Famous Danish Companies
- Lego: little toy blocks that people love well into adulthood
- MAERSK: a cargo shipping company, for those of you who don't live on the ocean or have never seen one of their containers.
- Haribo: they make super delicious candies. Not totally sure they're Danish, but whatever.
- Skype: cheap/free online communication program. The guy who started this also did Kazaa, a program to illegally download music.

Famous Danes
- Hamlet: fictional Prince of Denmark, main character of the most performed Shakespeare play
- The Little Mermaid, Thumbelina, and Beowulf: three more fictional Danes
- Viggo Mortensen: Technically half-Danish, but who cares? Most famous as Aragorn of the Lord of the Rings movie trilogy, also my future husband. Not that he knows this.
- Saxo Grammaticus: a historian I've never heard of, but I saw him on the wikipedia list of famous Danes, and he has the coolest, most badass name ever. I am going to change my name to Saxo Grammaticus.
- Niels Bohr: physicist. Worked on the Manhattan project, did some other stuff.

Other
- First country in the world to refer to the union of two people of the same gender as "marriage." This was in 1989, only 20 years ago! Still got a lot of work to do, world!

Okay I can't think of anything else. EXCEPT! this doesn't have to do with Denmark as a whole, but whatever. Last night I spent about 2 hours chatting with Nicolaj over the Danish beer, Tuborg, and after all the stories of my mother during college, he proceeded to tell me that someone died in the bathroom that I use. In addition to the colony of spiders living outside my window and threatening to eat my soul, I am now supposed to fear the ghost haunting my toilet. Naturally, I slept with the light on last night.

You may be thinking, 'don't be such a baby, people die in places all the time.' No. The man was burned alive in the bathroom, unable to escape a house fire. When Nicolaj visited the house for the first time, they had not yet cleaned up all the soot, and the outline of the man's body remained on the floor. Now YOU sleep with the lights off.

Random bits and pieces

I should let you all know: State of Emergency over - for now. One of the lovely ladies I work with went to the big library during her lunch break and brought me two English novels, one of which is written by one of my favorite authors, Neal Stephenson. Hurrah for good friends! She has also helped me translate Danish transportation sites, even calling the main offices for clarification. I really enjoy working with her, and everyone else at the clinic. Even though Danes are stereotypically reserved, once you get to know them, they are just about the kindest people ever.

Speaking of transportation, yesterday I spent my time after work buying a 45 day train pass. At the rate I was going to work or to the city, I was spending about 20 American dollars a day, or around 100 Kroner (Danish money). If I were to travel 45 more days, I would have spent around 900 dollars, or 4500 Kroner. So I bought a pass instead, which cost me about 200 American dollars, or 1000 Kroner. So in the end I will have saved about 700 American dollars! I think it's worth it, don't you?

Today after work I went to the little market up the street and bought some baguette and Brie, nectarines, and these little candies I found in Holland. At least I thought they were! The holland candies were these marshmallow bars about as long as a finger and as wide as two, with a thin layer of raspberry jam running through the middle, all wrapped in milk and white chocolate. I saw similar candies in the market, but as it turns out, they're filled with marzipan instead of marshmallow. BOO! I hate marzipan. Oh well. It was fun to pretend to be a local by shopping at the local grocer. Even though my brown eyes gave me away. At least when I wear my sunglasses, my blonde hair fits in with the crowd, and no one knows I'm not Danish!

So basically, I am having a really great time. This weekend I am going to spend time with Nicolaj and his family, and he has promised to take me to a local outdoor museum, and perhaps Tivoli, a park that inspired Walt Disney to create Disneyland.

I have so many things I want to share with you all, but as you can tell from this entry, I am so excited about everything that I am failing to organize my mind. We all have days like that, I'm sure. Perhaps I will just make more entries. Maybe even another one tonight! But first, a shower.

My First Day

Last night I could hardly sleep with anticipation. That, and reading Pride and Prejudice until the wee hours of the morning. But mostly anticipation. I got up extra early this morning, 6:30 as opposed to my usual noon, and took the three trains and two walks required to meet my destination. I have worked at 4 different clinics, and this is the first one I have felt immediately integrated into. There was no awkward phase where everyone is aware I am new, and in this case, foreign. There certainly were moments of me wandering through the clinic, but that was largely due to it being a slow day. The girls at the clinic were so welcoming and friendly that I immediately knew that it was a good place for me. All the puppies didn't hurt either. Even though it is an hour commute and about 20 dollars worth of train tickets every day, and I can't understand a word anyone says, I feel it is worth it.

Every Monday the clinic buys lunch for all staff present, and I was treated to a Chicken Sticks sandwich from the Crazy Chicken (unaffiliated with the Pollo Loco in the US), which bore little resemblance to sticks. It was 2 slabs of chicken on a king-sized bed of lettuce, slathered in some kind of curry mayonnaise, all between two slices of a brown bread. But hey, what is traveling if not taking adventures?

Later in the day the nurse in charge of the attached shop decided the products would be more enticing if the walls were painted Caffe Latte instead of the barren, clinical white that it currently boasted. Since we were not needed otherwise, we taped up the floors and windows and began to paint. Now, the last time I painted a building in a foreign country (Ecuador) it stood only a week until it was buried and then forgotten under an exhalation of ashes. This memory returned to me as I first dipped my brush, but my fears were quelled once I recalled that Denmark's highest point is 561 feet, basically a tenth of a mile. With no volcanoes to ruin my work, I painted.

It was a good day :)

København

Tomorrow is the day of days. I start my internship at the veterinary clinic here in Copenhagen (well, technically in suburb called Vanløse). I am pretty nervous, largely because of my inability to speak Danish, but also because I haven't worked in a hospital since last summer. From what I have seen of Copenhagen, neuterings are also not common, so maybe the clinic won't be so busy and I will have a lot of time for each exam. But that is usually not the way things work.

I spent this weekend getting to know the city a little bit - yesterday I ventured out to Østerport train station, right in the middle of historic Copenhagen, where I saw the famous Little Mermaid statue that has been a tourist attraction for many years.

As well as a target that local teens just love to desecrate:

I also spent the equivalent of 9 American dollars on a bottle of water and a medium Soft-Ice, which while very expensive, was pretty much worth the money. Soft-ice is the most incredible thing I have ever eaten. Imagine frozen yogurt, but creamier and thicker and sweeter and oh so amazing. I can guarantee I looked like a small child with the amount of delight that covered my face while eating this treat.

Because most of the attractions in Copenhagen, like everything else, were really expensive, I decided instead to walk around some of the gardens. First was Kongens Have (King's Garden), where I found a multitude of tall, blonde, blue-eyed young people (my age) enjoying the rare sunshine that has graced this country for the past few days (I am giving my arrival the credit). It was nice to see so many people out and about doing stuff, and I always appreciate a beautiful, well-maintained garden.

Plus, it included the Rosenborg Castle, pictured above, which houses the royal jewels, which I was too cheap to go see.

All in all Copenhagen and its surrounding suburbs are beautiful and unique, and I look forward to getting to know them better. It will be nice when Michael gets here, because I intend to do a lot of the touristy stuff with him, since I don't want to pay for stuff twice. Also, he moved his flight 2 days earlier! Yay!

conGRADulations

I forgot to mention a special Danish tradition I witnessed today while wandering the streets of the Copenhagen suburbs. When students graduate from high school/secondary school over here, they have a special little parade that they do to celebrate. First of all, each student receives a special graduate hat, that kind of looks like the French Legionaries or some kind of naval cap. They must wear the hat at all times to signify their accomplishments, and you must compliment them.

To seriously celebrate the graduation, large groups of students rent trucks for the day, kind of like how in the US we hire limousines to go to prom. The students then pile into the backs of the these trucks, and I'm talking military style trucks, not pickups, and they drink and blast music while dancing, yelling, and blowing whistles. The proper response from everyone else is to honk their horns and yell in approval - traffic comes to a standstill while all surrounding Danes recall their own graduation and respond with memories of their own delight. I saw at least 15 of these trucks go by, the most recent one only 15 minutes ago, at 11:30 pm.

When I brought this up to Nicolaj and his family, they slipped into reverie, and his dad, Giacomo, recalled Nicolaj's graduation and the grand celebration they had for it. I asked them if they still have their hats, and they do. It seems like a truly special, Danish tradition they have going on here, and I am happy to have witnessed it. I can't say I'm not jealous, because it looks super fun, but I can gloat in the fact that where I'm from, we have sunlight all year round. Take that, Denmark!

Tip for Danish living - respect the flag. The flag is very important to the Danes. Even tonight at a dinner where the patriarch is Italian, the dinner table was littered with small Danish flags. Their national identity is very important to them, and since the flag represents that, they put it everywhere, as you can see in the picture above.

And then the loneliness sets in...

I am a crier, and I know that. But I have not cried yet on this trip, which surprises me. Perhaps it is because, up until now, I have been sharing rooms with other people, and I have been to proud or too ashamed to cry in front of other people. Now that I have settled into a home with my own bedroom, I have started to feel the itch of missing home.

Being in a hostel means having a constant flow of friends, people who are as alone as me and so always wanting to hang out. Now I have barged into a very busy family whose main concern is not finding friends, and it is a very different experience for me.

However, the party tonight was very fun. I realized at once I would not be experiencing a typical Danish dinner, which is stereotypically very organized, calm, and clean. Nicolaj is half Sicilian, and that heritage was the one present at the dinner table. There were 8 children, 9 or 10 adults, 2 large dogs, and lots of good food. I had a really great time, and it was nice to be welcomed into the family. It was hard though, because their fun made me truly miss my family for the first time since I left. The dinner party tonight reminded me of the dinner part at home, only with far more small children. Chances are I miss my family less than the au pair misses hers, as she has two small children at home. Anyway I am sure I will get over it, but the first few days of moving are always hard, especially when you are providing your own emotional support. Plus there are a lot of big spiders outside my window, and I am arachnophobic. That sucks.

In less depressing news, I figured out the extremely complicated train systems (there are 3) and went to find the place where I will be working. They gave me a tour of the hospital, and it seems really nice. Unfortunately it is kind of far from where I am living, but many people commute, why should I be so different?

Dog days

I have been lucky enough to have Nicolaj and Louise, extremely generous hosts - they are treating me like their own daughter. I could not be more appreciative. They invited me to come to a family celebration dinner tomorrow, and my guidebook has said that Danish family events are normally just that - for family only, so I feel pretty special.

Anyway here is a peek into my life for the next two months in Denmark.

View of the house from the backyard.

Here is my room - it overlooks the lake.

There are some beautiful swans that swim around outside my window.

Here is the bathroom. I share it with boys. It is very beautiful and spacious, as is the rest of the house.

Here is the dog, Lucy. She is a great Dane. She is only a 5 month old puppy, but she is massive, as Great Danes tend to be.

Here is Nicolaj's youngest son, Vito (totally guessing on spelling here). He is absolutely adorable, and looks just like his dad. Kind of makes me reconsider my decision to not breed.

Danmark!

I am in Denmark! After a 15 hour train ride through Northern Europe, I have arrived. And I have to say, it has only JUST hit me that I am even in Europe. It is like I have been preparing for this big trip since November, and Denmark was the focal point of it, and here I am! It is a beautiful country. Reading my Denmark Culture Shock book I was convinced that all Danes are standoffish and reserved, and that they will not talk to you. I started thinking, "what am I doing in this crazy country? I will be so lonely!" But there were 3 Danes in my 6 bed compartment on the train, and all 3 initiated conversations with me, one even asking to be Facebook friends.

However once I got settled at Nicolaj´s house I took a walk around the lake, and people do not like to be looked in the eye or smiled at. Very different than the US.

Now with that bit, I am sure you all want to hear about the house! It exceeds my expectations. It is massive and beautiful, old and classy, and on a ton of amazing property. There are 3 horses (not 20, mom), 2 goats, one Great Dane (still a puppy omg so cute), one cat, and swans gracefully floating on the lake the house sits on. It is a fairytale property. I cannot believe it. I feel like a princess.

More later!

Venner

This entire academic year I have worked for the psychology department here at UC Davis as a research assistant. I helped on a study that aimed to qualify household cat personalities. One of the other assistants happened to be of Danish descent, and as it turned out, she spent most of her summers since she was 8 years old in the same exact town I will be living in. Being the nice person that she is, she offered to help me with Danish pronunciation.

Yesterday we met up at Burgers and Brew and spent two hours discussing where I should go while in Copenhagen, and how to say certain words. Here are some of the things I learned:

- In true Viking tradition, a Dane should never put down their knife while eating, not even to switch hands. This is because a knife is a weapon, and if a Viking drops it, it could be stolen or he could be attacked and be unable to defend himself.

-Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen may be the most romantic place on Earth. It kinda reminds me of Disneyland. That's a good thing!!


- I must visit Hamlet's Castle, "Kronborg Castle," where I will get to see Holger Danske, a viking statue built to protect the country from all enemies.


- I have to eat "Soft eis," a soft-serve type ice cream that will not be kind to my lactose intolerant digestive system. Thank goodness for lactase pills!

- In Denmark, they called high schools "gymnasiums." Huh.

- Some new words have been learned: kartoffel = potato. Last night, some friends and I went to the International House of Pancakes, and when we got a minimal amount of hash browns, we declared it "The Great Kartoffel Famine." It truly was.

- Lyngby, the town where I will live, means "City of Lights." Aww, how pretty.


Anyway, that pretty much sums it up. My pronunciation is sort of better, but I still maintain that Danish is a freaking difficult language to learn. For example, friend = ven, but friends = venner. I need to work on my plurals.



Oh and by the way...once I get to Europe, I will post a picture every week, and you guys get to guess where or what it is! It will be fun :)

Kongens Lyngby

Tonight while traveling the globe via Google Maps, I found a photo of the lake that sits by the house I will be occupying this summer.

by guaravcreations.com

Isn't she purdy? Since it will be almost July when I arrive, I don't think the lake will be as frozen or as surrounded by snow, but knowing the lake is this beautiful in winter is getting me excited about seeing it in summertime!

Veterinary-ing

I got a job! I got a job! I got a job! It doesn't pay but...I got a job!
The whole purpose for this summer was to emulate a typical study abroad type program, since my major (Animal Science) isn't widely taught throughout the world. Since I am going to be a vet one day, I figured a good replacement for studying would be working to gain clinical experience.

Today I received an email from the Sallingvej Dyreklinik (animal clinic) in Copenhagen saying they would let me work with them for the summer and show me the ropes! Click this link for a description of the people working there (in Danish).

I am so grateful for them taking in a non-Danish-speaking-American-traveler like me! They were so nice in their email and they seem like truly wonderful people to work with. Unfortunately right now all I can say in Danish is hot dog with ketchup (pølse mel ketchup), but I plan on learning some medical terms so I don't end up accidentally killing anything during an emergency (not that I would, I am very good at what I do).

Yay for work! Now I don't have to sit around for 6 weeks working up the courage to ask for a hot dog.

Mom's Stories

I think I have said before that the inspiration for this summer's European adventure is my mom's own adventure back when she was 18-19. My mom has always been an inspiration for me in many other ways, but after hearing endless tales of her European travels I wanted to try to get a taste of it for myself, even though I know I could never compare to her (and in some ways I don't want to - you'll see why).


My mom started the trip traveling with her aunt, but was eventually left alone to continue the trip by herself. She was armed with only a Eurail pass and a plane ticket home from London, and money that was very quickly running out. Eventually the money ran out entirely, and began seeking sleep on the beaches of Greece. To drink she would find discarded water bottles along the sand. To eat she would work for a day, dragging bricks up a hill in Corfu, and she would be rewarded with a baguette, which she woud save for days at a time, picking beetles out it to get at the bread.

In Greece she faced many difficulties, including an attempted "taking." If you have seen "Taken" with Liam Neeson, then you can get an idea of what would have happened to her. A man came up behind her with a chloroform-soaked rag and covered my moms mouth with it. Unable to fight, my mom was picked up by the man so he could bring her to his prostitution ring. Fortunately, a good-samaritan stopped the evildoer. My mom woke up naked in a Corfu hospital, with an IV coming out of her arm.

Anyone else would have been phased, but my mother gathered her belongings and headed to Germany for a glass of genuine cow's milk. At this point she had lost one shoe, but if you know my mom, then you know she will go to the end of the Earth for a good cup of milk. Throughout the trip she had waited to go to Denmark to see her friend Nicolaj (the very same Nicolaj I will be staying with this summer), as he was vacationing in Sicily with his family. His parents believed my mom was going to steal him away to Los Angeles where they would become actors. When they returned to Denmark she desperately headed North with no money and no shoe.

When she got to Copenhagen, she was warmly greeted by Nicolaj's parents, prominent fur-traders in Scandinavia (don't be mad, it's REALLY cold up there). They housed her, shoed her, fed her, and even let them spend time with their son. One of the most memorable occurences of my mom's visit in Denmark was Nicolaj pushing her in a fountain in front of a bunch of people. So you can get a pretty good idea of my mom: not bothered by attempted kidnapping, but if you make her recall the fountain fiasco, she turns red with embarrassment.

Since her ticket from London could only be used in a certain window of time, my mom eventually had to leave the warm hospitality of Nicolaj's family. With a now expired Eurail pass she hid in the bathrooms of the trains avoiding tickettakers, all the way to Amsterdam. Eventually she needed to make her way onto the British Isle. So my mom, after so much experience hiding on trains, but wanting to try something a little different, decided to stow away on a boat. She boarded the boat, and hid her things, and when they came around asking for a ticket, she burst into tears, claiming a foul fiend had stolen her belongings, including her money and boat ticket. The captain, brimming with empathy, invited her to the captain's table for dinner, and gave her a room for the evening. Once the boat arrived in England, my mom found her plane ticket and made her way back to the USA.



So there you go. Kidnapping, hospitalization, stowing away, working for breadcrumbs - she did it all. Even though I'm sure these experiences were scary, they have made my mother into the strong, courageous woman I know and love. I don't know anyone else who has endured such trials and come out with any psychological issues.

I know my dad would prefer that my trip be NOTHING like hers, and I don't think it will be, but I have to say, if there is someone whose idea of adventure I would like to emulate, it is my mom.

Summer Yummies

One of the things I am most looking forward to this summer is the cuisine. I have very little exposure to food from European countries, besides the Czech restaurant "Little Prague" here in Davis, and random Italian restaurants.

Here are some of the foods I am looking forward to, most of which I have never tried or even heard of!

Tiropitas

Greece:
- Breakfast: tiropitas (flaky cheese filled pastries)
- Lunch: garlic-marinated lamb kabobs or tzatziki (garlicky yogurt and cucumbers)
- Dinner: moussaka (lamb, eggplant and bechamel sauce), pastitsio (lamb or goat meat with macaroni and tomatoes), stifado (braised beef with onions) and paidakia (grilled lamb or goat chops)

Denmark:
- Breakfast (morgenmad): is usually very abundant, based on yogurt, jam, sandwiches, eggs, cold meats, cheeses and fruit juices
- Lunch (frokost): is generally based on canapés (small, prepared and usually decorative food held in the fingers), calls Smørrebrød, which are generally a complete meal made up of a series of slices of buttered bread with all kinds of cold meats, fish, sauces and pâté.
- Dinner (middag), is usually formed from a single dish based on meat or fish.

This especially looks good: Apple- and Prune-Filled Spareribs - Ribbenstykke med Æbler

Since the other places I'd like to visit are not yet confirmed, I won't list their specialties until that happens.

I do solemnly swear not to be that American that goes to France asking for French fries or to Belgium for Belgian waffles. I also promise to try foods that I haven't tried or make me uncomfortable (ie seafood). I want to try a local delicacy in each place I go to, if I can afford it of course. Here's to food!

Weekend Mini-Vacations

Since I will have a place to stay in Denmark for about a month and a half, I figure it will be pretty easy to go out for weekend trips. So where should I go? Here is what I'm thinking:

- Paris! Paris is not on my month long trip extravaganza, so it will be a perfect weekend getaway. Plus, my friend David will be in Rome and wants to see Paris as well, so I can go there and not be alone. Yay!

- Norway! I'm 1/4 Norwegian and as the most ethnically diverse part of my background, I would like to see it.

- Sweden! It's close to Denmark and easily accessible. Also, it's the homeland of Inga so I must go.

Edit:
- Hamburg! I would like to see more of Germany, and since Hamburg is only 4 hours from Copenhagen, it would be a convenient and quick trip.

I don't know where else. Any suggestions?