It's Already Been Two Weeks!?

Geez Luis, I haven't written for over a week!? It's just proof of how busy we've been in Copes! Friday was the DIS welcome party at the discotek, which was jam packed full of us Americans! I was still slowly recovering from jet lag because on Saturday, I woke up super early, before anyone else was up. So I sat in our common room in Tasingegade and watched Despicable Me and knitted :) We went to a botanical garden really close to Osterbro, where I live! It was so pretty and I got lots of good pictures!!

That night was the Tasingegade pub crawl, where Christian (our SRA) took us around to some of the bars in the city!

Here's just some of Tasingegade taking on Copes.

On Sunday, Laura, Natasha and I decided to wander around the city. When we got off the bus at the Town Hall Square, we walked into this huge basketball tournament that was there!

They had a dj and this guy who was rapping in English. It was awesome! Haha. Then we wandered over to the harbor, where a Triathalon was going on!

People swam in the harbor... which is so big!! You can see people swimming in the water!! We made our way over to the new library of Copenhagen, which is SO nice!! It's really modern and has the best view of the harbor!

On Mondays, I have my three hour seminar for my base course. It feels realllllly long. But then we have our Practicum seminar with crazy Alis who is really entertaining. I now can count to ten and ask "Do you want to play?" That night, my Danish class got together at a cafe for dinner (and DIS payed for it too!). My teacher, Morten, is awesome. He's this awkward, nerdy guy who loves film (that's what he teaches) but is such a nice guy. I had my first real Danish meal! It's called smorebrod or something like that, which is an open sandwich. Chicken salad sandwich with bacon... so legit.

Tuesday is my long day for class... I have 4 classes basically from 10 until 4. But luckily, my Classical and Renaissance Rome class doesn't start until this Tuesday!! In my developmental neuropsychology class (it's once a week, but three hours long... gross), we watched a video about a boy who has Sydenham's Chorea... this class is going to be awesome! Every Tuesday, Tasingegade has "cafe" where we all hang out in the common room and they have 5 kroner beers. It's a blast... I love where I live!

Wednesdays we don't have class, but Natasha and I had a study tour for our developmental neuropsychology class to a special needs school. I don't know how they spell it in Danish but everytime she said the school name, it sounded like super school. So... we spent the first half of our day at a SUPERSCHOOL! At the school, they gave us pastries, fruit and coffee!! Best surprise ever! At 10:00 everyday, all the students get together to sing a couple of songs and if it's a kid's birthday, they get a Danish flag. Some of the students came and talked to us about the school. Their english was almost perfect! And they all love the school, it's really cute! The school gets 8 million dollars a year from the government. And the government pays for a taxi to and from school everyday for the kids who live far away. The school has everything! Including a woodshop and a pool!

Once we got back, everybody in Tasingegade wanted to be lazy and watch a movie. But I was in the mood to do something, so Tim and I rallied a couple people to go on an adventure with us.

The crew who joined us on our rally adventure!

We went into the city and sat at a cafe by the harbor and had a beer. Then we took the harbor bus (such a cool way to see Copes) around and decided to go visit Christiania.

The Royal Palace from the Harbor bus!

Christiana... This place is unlike anywhere else I've ever been. A long time ago, the hippies all moved to this area, which is in Copenhagen, but not a part of Copenhagen. It used to be a little bit more unruly, and they were stealing the city's electricity and water, but now it is much more civilized. In Christiania, they literally sell pot on the sidewalks at picnic tables. It's very much so it's own community and can't be described, only experienced.

Thursday is my practicum and I was SUPER nervous. I managed to navigate to the school with no major problems! And the train ride to the school is on the water the whole way and I can see Sweden the whole time! I am in a class with about 20 3 to 6 year olds. I already have a best friend in the class, Isabella. It's so cute. We were outside for a good amount of the day. We walked around and picked leaves for a while. Lotte, the main teacher in my room, said she was impressed by how well I was doing :) It's really tricky when I can't say anything to them besides my name! For lunch, we had fish potatoes peas and this sauce. It was soo good! One little boy, Valdemar, took me to this hidden house in the forest and made me a sand dinner with a sand drink and a sand birthday cake with candles! It was so precious! I'm in love with all my kids! I wish I was going back next week, but we have our short study tour to Western Denmark for a couple of days!

On Friday, after class, some of Tasingegade left for our cruise to Norway! We got off the bus and instead of waiting for Christian, decided to walk towards the water... major fail and ended up in the totally wrong place. We were running so late (aka we were supposed to be there and were nowhere close to being where we needed to be...) and had to walk to the real place. Luckily it didn't leave without us!! We hung out on the top deck and watched as we left the dock!

We staked out a whole portion of the top deck!

The dinner was soo good!! (More exciting than the food we've been making here). The cruise ship was so much bigger than I thought it would be!! Look!

Here is the whole group from Tasingegade/DIS on top of the Opera House and in front of the harbor with our AWESOME cruise ship!

This cruise ship was amazing... And it's got a discotek on board!! We got off the boat Saturday around 930 and wandered all over Oslo! We saw the Opera house, a museum with Edward Munch's Scream as a main attraction, Parliament, the Royal Palace, Viking ship museum, an outdoor museum of old houses, and a million other places!

Norway back in the old days.

The viking ships that are over 1,000 years old!!

We had to take a boat to get to some of the museums too, which had such a pretty view! When we got back, we sat out on the deck again and just looked out at the water. Best life ever.

Enjoying some time to sit after being "whipped around like Japanese tourists" as Christian would say.

Overall, Norway was beautiful and so awesome! I wish we could cruise there every weekend!

Today I went for a run through the parks around us. There were these big time soccer games going on! I went by the game with Nigeria vs. Ghana! So cool! Everybody is starting to get sick in Tasingegade... hope my immune system holds up!

Until next time, peace :)