The fact that it is my last day in Copenhagen is RIDICULOUS. Time flies. But that just means that it's time to reflect upon my experiences here! But first I'll update on what I've been up to.

Wednesday was indeed a beautiful day so we did the Harbor Jump.  Oh and it was the fourth of July so the extremely patriotic people got flags and waved them around.  Most of the Danes were very nice and a few started clapping for us and singing the national anthem (Why the know our national anthem is beyond me. The only other one I know is the first two lines of Canada's).  But some of the people I was with were quite obnoxious about it and for the most part I wanted us to put the flags away. lol I'm clearly patriotic.

The harbor water here is so clean that you can swim in it.  The harbor jump is just a wooden block in the water that's 5 meters high out of the harbor.  It sure felt like a long fall though! I jumped twice and then my butt was killing me from hitting the water lol.

Later on there was a barbecue at someone's kollegium and I went for a bit.  It was kind of nice to just be around other Americans and know they weren't judging me for being American.  We listened to patriotic music and ate hot dogs wrapped in bacon.  But I went back pretty early to write my paper and because I was still feeling a little sick.  So I got a nice night of sleep (6 hours is pretty good right?) and felt better on Thursday.

Thursday during class we had our group presentations! Ours went pretty well, so then we just had an individual paper to do.  After class we took the S-train to the Carlsberg Brewery! It was an adventure getting there and on the way we kept finding random stuff such as these ropes, hammocks in which people were laying, and springy metal table thingys.

 The tour was fun and we got 2 free beers.  Oh the statue of the Little Mermaid's little sister was also there.

 The horses that pull the barrels of barley or some other important job. He tried to eat me.

 The largest beer collection in the WORLD.

After the tour we went home and I finally finished my paper, under other people's pressure that we had to go out for one last time because we're not going to tonight.  We went out and it was probably one of the most fun nights we've had, ending with McDonald's lol.

Today we had our last class and Gitte brought us Danishes and coffee. Rhubarb danishes are delicious.  After, I had just allotted the entire afternoon to shopping for myself and everyone else.  It was more difficult than I intended and I ended up getting home around 4 when I started shopping at 12.  I also had churros with chocolate on them for lunch. Mmmm healthy. My walking around also consisted of me depressingly thinking about how this could be my last time seeing that building and the Stroget and everything else.

Tonight the plan is to have one last bike ride, return our bikes, and have a dorm dinner at the Cafe that we went to the second night here. Then packing and hanging out and leaving in the morning!

Ok so here are some of my observations and reflections on some of my experiences and stuff.  First, Denmark is one of the most trusting countries.  Parents leave strollers with their babies in them outside of stores.  A lot of the city is under construction because they're like changing the metro and making it bigger.  So a lot of the streets and sidewalks are just covered by wooden boards.  I honestly witnessed a stroller outside a store on the boards but next to the store and a truck come down the street and drive across the boards, shaking the entire stroller and no one did anything about it.  At the finals for the world cup, we were sitting next to a family with 2 kids.  The parents just let the young little boy run around as long as he was within eyesight.  He would just walk up to people and sit on them or start talking to them in nonsense.  It was crazy.

Everyone sits in cafes and socializes, something that I had to get used to.  We had to ask for the check, which felt rude to me, but it was nice the few times that I did want to sit and talk with my friends.  The Danes may seem rude, but it is their culture.  If you are in their way, they just either take a hold of your shoulder and move you or place their hand on your back and push you forward.  It took me by surprise the first few times, but now I'm kind of used to it.  There is no exchange of words.

The street acts here are cool and I must say, I saw the same few multiple times.  Those people are dedicated.  Also, people say the Danes are not affectionate, but I have seen many examples of love and affection.  A couple was biking next to each other and the girl kind of leaned over far enough so that the boy could kiss her on the cheek.  First, awwww. Second, how the heck do you do that and not crash?  I've seen boys riding bikes with girls on their handlebars.  People say that it is so easy to get divorced here (it takes about a day and costs 500 kroner) that no one is in love, but I disagree. That may be true to a point, but the older couples that are married are in love.  I see them strolling around after work holding hands and just being adorable.  There are always couples in Cafes sitting together and just enjoying a cup of coffee.  Whoever said they are not affectionate was blind.

Finally, I think everyone here is so nice.  I haven't had any experiences of people being outright rude to me or felt hated because I am American.  The cashiers and people in line behind me are always patient as I try and figure out the money.  I think they very much appreciate when I even just say 'Tak' instead of Thank You.  I know I would.  As I said, the Danes started congratulating us on the 4th of July (however, we passed some Middle Easterner lookingish folks on their motorcycle, who started screaming 'F*ck America, F%ck USA' and even turned around to pass us again).  As I was telling Mommy on the phone, however, I could never live here and experience the same amount of happiness that these people do.  They are a very tribal country and even if I spoke Danish fluently and became a citizen of Denmark, I would never belong.  This is sad, but I can't disagree or change anything about it.  My time here has been wonderful, but it would not always be so happy if I lived here.

Final points: They are really smart with their food and pricing.  Vegetables and healthy food are pretty cheap and someone just said they imposed a higher tax on foods that have a certain amount of fat count. That's amazingly smart.  As my teacher was saying in class today, we should take some of their ideas, but they are still not a perfect society, they could benefit from some of our rules and stuff as well. But no one's perfect and things are always changing so much that I doubt any society will ever be perfect.

Ahh, enough reminiscing, I'm going to go and enjoy my last night here in Copenhagen.  I'll see everyone so soon!!!!

Happy 4th of July!

Still so much to do.  This week has been a bit more calm though because we actually have work so it's not all just fun and games and exploring Europe.

Monday after class, we explored the Botanical Gardens which is just across from our dorm.  I think it belongs to the University of Copenhagen? It's beautiful with flowers everywhere and a pond with all sorts of wildlife in it. 

One of my favorite things to do now is take my work to a cafe and just sit there for hours doing work as I did on Monday night.  Then we hung out here all night.  It felt like freshman year again, hanging out in the dorms just having a good time.

Tuesday was busy as well.  I rented a bike!  I have to return it on Friday.

 
 After class, we biked over to Christiania where the church of our Savior is and you can climb the tower and it gives you such an incredible overlook of the entire city.  Afterwards, we somehow ended up on Stroget shopping. 

 The view from the top was amazing! you could see Sweden!

After dinner, I wrote some of a paper, but then everyone wanted to go out so I did.  Did more homework when I got back though.  Today is supposed to be one of the most beautiful days yet.  We're planning to do the Harbor Jump!

PS - Two girls in my dorm have gotten sick I think from just lack of sleep and exhaustion and I believe I'm starting to.  Don't worry I'm drinking my Emergen-C like crazy! I'm just trying to hold it off until Saturday so I can come home and get you all sick.

Ahh, so much to do, so little time.

The playfield Institute was in Fife, and it was a beautiful drive.  Our bus driver, Graham, said being a bus driver was his side job, he was a tour guide (yes, this means he was not the best driver).  But he was awesome.  On the way he pointed out the park in which golf was invented, the birthplace of Sean Connery and Alexander Graham Bell, the bridge that was voted best in the world, oh and the best place to hit tourists as you round a corner.

At the Playfield Institute we had a talk about interventions that are being conducted to try and make the Scottish people more happy.  We then learned Chi Quong and did a few other things.  After that we had another half hour or so drive to Elie for kayaking in the North Sea! Elie was BEAUTIFUL.  Just like a small town out of an old British movie or something.

We were given wet suits so even though it started pouring while we were out there, I barely felt a thing (besides the fact that I couldn't see due to the whole glasses thing).  I got stuck in a 2-person kayak, but the other kid had been canoeing before so it worked out well. 

Thursday morning we went to Edinburgh Castle! It was really foggy, but the view was still amazing.

The inside of the castle had mostly been renovated to re-enactments of the royal family with creepy wax people so I didn't take too many pictures of that, but it was still amazing.

After the castle, we went to the National Museum of Scotland.  I could get lost in there, actually, I did get lost in there.  It starts on the basement floor with beginnings and early people.  Old bones and artifacts, and theories about how Scotland came to be where it is. Up on the 6th floor, is from about the 1950's to now.  Each floor has multiple wings for technology, animals, and everything in between.  The 7th floor is a rooftop overlook.  I don't even like museums, but I was in there for almost two hours.  Mommy could wander through for a week and not see everything and fill up 6 memory cards with pictures.

For lunch we went to the Elephant House! It's a big deal because that's the cafe where JK Rowling used to go to write Harry Potter! Also exciting because I had a bacon, brie and mango chutney sandwich and it was one of the most delicious things I've ever had.

After a few hours of wandering and shopping (and a run in with 2 scottish girls who rubbed self-tanning lotion on a girl in my class's face and yelled at us) we had the Scotch Whisky tour! It was awesome learning about the 4 different areas that make different kinds of Whisky.  We got to see the largest collection of Whisky ever.  Unfortunately, it didn't make me like whisky any more than I already hadn't.  After our last dinner together as a class, I stayed in because I was exhausted and had to be up at 6:30 on Friday.

Friday! We got up and it was beautiful and sunny.  We ate breakfast and then were about to begin our hike up to Arthur's seat.  Of course, it started raining.  The weather changes in the blink of an eye in Scotland.  Most of our class hiked it anyway and it was well worth it.  It was beautiful.

 On the way up.

 At the top.

Cold and wet, but having a great time!

And that means it was very slippery on the way down, but no worries I had my knee brace on!
After that we went to the airport. Oh, funny story. I didn't take my knee brace off before I walked through the metal detector so obviously it went off.  I thought they would just be like oh, take the brace off and walk through again. BUT NO. they were all, excuse me we need to pat you down, don't mind me I'm just going to stick my hands down your pants and wave you over with a little mini metal detector.  Then they like scanned my knees? It was weird. And my class was just standing there laughing at me.  After that whole ordeal, I went to get my carry on and there's a worker standing there holding my laptop, out of its case, being like who's is this? I was like uh, mine? And she told me it had been selected for a random scan.  Um, isn't that what you do when it goes through the machine that the carry-ons go through? Obviously it was fine, but still, Edinburgh airport, you are annoying.

Finally, back to Copenhagen! I was gone for 5 days and I missed it so much.  The people in Scotland were mean, honked as soon as their lights changed if you were still crossing the street, and were not as pretty as the Danes (sorry if anyone's Scottish).

The first new thing when we got to Copenhagen was the open top truckish type cars driving through the streets at random intervals, with screaming teenagers, boys and girls, hanging out the top with blasting music and lots of honking.  Apparently, that is how they celebrate high school graduation.  And it lasts for days.  I still heard them this morning (Sunday) carrying on through the streets.

Saturday we went to Sweden for the day! Malmo was adorable.  We didn't go into much of the modern area, so the areas we were in were quaint and beautiful.  We walked through the town and the Lilla Torg, through a park, saw a windmill and the twisted torso, and found the beach.

It was a full day and then we came back and went out to celebrate our last Saturday here!

This morning was another full day.  We finally did the walking tour of Copenhagen! This took us by Rosenborg castle, the Gelfion fountain, a few churches, and the Little Mermaid! As it was a beautiful Sunday afternoon it was very crowded, but I managed to get a few good pictures!

 We ended up cutting the tour a little short because it took us down to a different area of the city, but there weren't many big attractions there.  I would like to get to go down to explore, but think the week is going to be very busy!
We went up the round tower (I don't know what it used to be used for) but it has a beautiful overlook of the city when you get to the top!

Brittany, Jill, and I at the top.

Finally, we came back and made dinner.  But that was not the end of the day! Tonight was the Finals of the Euro Cup and although Denmark was eliminated the first day I was here, they obviously still have huge gatherings in the park with flat screens showing the game.  Interestingly, the first game they were all wearing red and had their faces painted.  They stood and jumped and cheered.  For this game, they brought blankets and wore their normal clothes (we termed their fashion chicemo for chic but black and emo) and sat down and watched the game in a more calm setting.  Espana won woohoo!

Plans for this week: art museums, the church of our savior, souvenir shopping, the harbor jump, tour of the carlsberg brewery, clubbing, oh and class and homework. So much to do, so little time!

So that's why I haven't posted in so long.  It's been crazy and I'm so sad that it's ending soon. And now I'm exhausted and going to bed.