JAN 28

I am sitting on the couch this evening watching The Voice, the Danish version, with my host family. Last night Nina's daughter came to stay for the weekend. Her name is Sophia and she is a fun addition to the family. As a 21 year Danish woman she is way more mature than her U.S. equivalent.

I got to Skype with Tom for a couple of hours this morning. It was amazing to "hang out" with him. This is the longest we have gone without actual talking in at least 10 years. He is smothering Betty with affection and it seems to be working. She is taking a shine to him. She was cute on Skype this morning as her eyebrows would raise when I spoke to her. Of course it made me cry.

Thursday and Friday were spent in class. And by class, I mean outdoors in the freezing cold. The DIS motto is "Europe as your classroom". My fingers looked like little Vienna sausages after a day in -2 degrees celcisous. We went to the top of the round tower (see pictures below). We also went to the Black Diamond art meusum. Pictures not included due to copywrite laws and my breaking the rules by taking of the pictures in the first place. I am really into my classes so far. Of course, I have a ton of reading and drawing to do.

Today I made my family scrambled eggs and French toast. Sophia had it a couple time in the states and really liked it. I was grateful they love bacon the way I do. After breakfast we drove to Norrobro to visit Sophia's apartment. It was a two bedroom on the third floor of an old building. Which the Danes call the second floor. The first floor basically has no number. Between the roommate and Sophia they are forking out 8000 kronner a month. This equates to $1425. Now that I am writing this it doesn't seem that outrageous. Especially considering the costs in Portland.

Then we were off to the mall. Sophie lead us around to all the good shops and sales. The shoe/boot selection was amazing. There were also fur coat stores. Very different from Portland considering the fur store that was picketed downtown. There is a different pace in Danish malls. Things move a little slower. No one ever says excuse me though. Undskyld in Danish. It is very strange. They just stand there waiting for you to move or visa versa.

So here is the Danish I know so far. Hej,jeg hedder Meegan. Jeg er fra Portland. Luckily my family puts Danish subtitles on American movies. This helps a bit. The best is sitting around the dinner table making vowels sounds. Surprisingly funny.

Enjoy the pictures.

Inside the Round House walking back down.

View from the top of the Round House.

Black Diamond Art Museum

Sunset from the Black Diamond Museum.

Oh naughty dog.

Asta with magnifying glass.

Tarzan on my bed. Kitty.

Hard to see, but this is rush hour in downtown. I think 50 bikes pasted me in a group. I still canøt get over how many people ride bikes. And ride them with no gloves, a cigerrette in one hand and a cell phone in the other.

JAN 25

After not much sleep last night the bracing cold of today was a eye opener. I am finally figuring out fahrenheit, celcius thing. It was 0 degrees celcius today. This was our last day of orientation and we were broken into small groups and sent out to various parts of the city to get the lay of the land. We visited the Christianborg Castle Square, the Vor Frue Krike (rolls right off the tongue doesn't it!) which translates to Church of our Lady, this was followed up by the Greyfriar Square and then the Royal Palace. There was a professor at every stop to give us the history of the area. We had a couple of whiners in the group that wanted to get out of the cold and sit in a cafe. This would mean skipping a stop. I said this is costing me 83.33 a day - time to put your big kid pants on and keep moving. By the time we got back to school my fingers looked like little vienna sausages. Truly amazing scenery though. I must add that I have a pretty good since of direction, but not when you plop me into the center of a medieval city. Man alive.

A little family history- my grandma used to sing in all kinds churches and my aunt Priscilla used to play the piano and organ. When I was growing up my grandma would take me garage sales and churches for fun. I now waddle away many summer weekend mornings garage saling for fun. I was reminded today that I really enjoy looking at churches. And not just the outside. I sat in the Church of our Lady and listened to the organist play. It was soothing and beautiful.
When I was leaving for the day another student that I met on the plane asked if I wanted to go hear the organist at Saint Peter's Church. It was just a 15 minute performance, but again, just awesome.

On the quite train ride home I realized I have had this particular feeling a few times in my life. It is as if this "outer me" knows what I need to do in life. It just has to convince the "inner me" to actually do it. I have to override the fear, the negative self talk. But when I actually do it. When I actually combine these ambitions with action I am overwhelmed with the most amazing bliss. The sense that I am doing exactly what I need to be doing at exactly the right time. I have only really had that feeling three times. Marrying Tom, moving to Portland, and studying in Copenhagen.

On to the pictures for the day! Lots of buildings today. There was a small smattering of people doing funny things or signs that made me laugh. Enjoy! I sure the hell did!

I walked past this alley and noticed the stroller. Creepy. Turns out there was a whole bunch of kids and parents around the corner. The strollers here are really nice and cozy. Parents just park them on the sidewalk or in the alley evidently.

 This could be yours Karen. Just a 1000 dollars!

Looking down the stairwell in one of my school buildings. NARROW! The building is 300 years old. Now that is sustainability.

 

HAAAAYYYYY

 

Church of our Lady

 

Notice that Jesus is not on a crucifix or his mother's lap.

 

Parliment

All the school children where these one-piece snow suits and they wear little back packs. ADORABLE!

 

Performing arts building. Often the buildings that have that dirty, black ash look are the ones that survived the fires of the late 1700's.

 

I thought about getting a Viking tattoo to really summarize my trip to Denmark. Then I learned you can't get them on your neck so I decided against it.

 

So this guy is dressed up as the big bad wolf costume and you can get your picutre with him. It all seemed so normal until he drooled on the guy in my group.

 

Who doesn't want a prtable hotdog cart with an umbrella?

Last church of the day.

Enjoy the day my friends. More tomorrow.

JAN. 24

Disclaimer: Nothing I type is spelled right according to the Danish computers I use. This means I can not really spell check anything. So now you will know the true horror of my poor grammer and spelling.

Today started out kinda hard. I woke at 5am in tears missing Tom and Betty something fierce. After crying for 45 minutes I gave in and made the 20 dollar call home (there is no dollar symbol on a Danish keyboard). It was encouraging to hear his voice. I continued to cry till I got to the train station. I decided then it was best to pull it together and do what I came here to do.

The train rides here are just as I had heard them to be - QUITE. And I mean silent. Unless you are 5 years old you shut the bleep up. It is fantastic! What makes it even better is the "Quite Car". That is the part of the train set aside for silence. Ummm yeah. These are my kind of people. Especially considering the weird stuff that happens on Portland public transit.

School is wonderful minus the 20 year old kids. I am old. They annoy me. If I had a cane I would shake it at them. Campus is spread out over a 8 block area in buildings that are 200 years old. Needless to the say, the bathrooms were an after thought. The architecture is inspiring. The program I am in seems to really have their stuff together. Which is appreciated considering the cost. I offically start classes on Thursday. We have had orientation the last two days and it will complete tomorrow.

My host family, as I have stated before is awesome. Nina my mum is 4 years older than me. HA! Jesper my host dad is 50 and an IT guy at a natural gas company. Asta is two and full of personality (and I mean that in the nice way). Greta my roommate could not be nicer. She is the most mature 20 year old I have ever met. Talented as well. We are both in awe of how lucky we are to have this family. We all sit around the dinner table and talk politics every night - heaven. And the whole conversation stays very civil even when we disagree. Dinner is kind of deal. Like a two hour deal. Then there is the hanging out after dinner. I am sure some of that will subside as school progresses. I am going to start jogging with Jesper and the very ill behaved dog Luvee. I have also taken the 300 year old cat, Tarzan, under my wing as he is kinda the forgotten animal of the house. (Dad- he is like a very old Ray. Very cute)

So Danish is not an easy language. Not that any of you would make that assumption, but just to be clear . . . After dinner I was asking Nina about the name of bird I keep seeing around. It is large like a crow with the coloring of Magpie. She said that it was maybe this bird called a Sakther (I am butching the spelling). When I repeated it back to hear to verify my pronuncation she burst into laughter. (So far that has not been the common response to my attempts at Danish) She said "oh I must correct you. A skede is a vagina". I was grateful that she corrected me.

I had an entertaining day with taking pictures. Somehow, everything looked like a dirty joke. It had me laughing in the streets a few times. So enjoy.

Please send me letters or emails. I miss home a great deal and would love some American distractions.

The sign reads "slut spurt". It means final blowout sale. Language is funny.

 So they have all these posters around with hot guys holding puppies. Um yeah. Everyone likes that. Loosely translated - he is saying that he will no longer be playing video games but instead hanging out with his gal and dog.

 This is adorable Greta.

Side note - Amy Wheeler, you were right. It is great when everyone is speaking another language around you. There is a certian bliss in not knowing what the hell is going on!

JAN. 23

At my host families house. Their place is amazing. My roommate Greta and I share a room which has been laid our so we each have some private space. We have our own bathroom with a heated towel rack! It's great.

View of the bikes down one of the streets. I have to be honest that I could not spell or pronounce whatever street it was. Lovely though don't you think?

A fountain just near Tivoli.

I can't begin to express how happy I am to be here.

Janurary 6th -

On January 21 I leave my beloved home in Portland, OR and head off to study abroad in Copenhagen for four months. I have been planning this trip, applying for scholarships, gathering supplies, contacting banks, filling out paperwork . . . for the last six months. I am now just two weeks away and am absorbed in a state of shock and awe. Soon Tom and I will be exploring an "aloneness" neither of us has known for 15 years. We talked about it this morning as we sent our dear friend Mike back to Indy where he will now reside. The three of us have been a tight group for three years now. Mike is the first to depart and explore a new segment of his life. I will soon follow. Tom will be exploring his new found alone time here in lovely, rainy Portland.

The idea that life is what you make has been simmering on the back burner for a long while. This past year and half I have steadily explored that idea and moved it to the forefront. I had/have a really great coach who challenged me to fill out this 75 page goal worksheet. I breezed through the first section that laid the ground rules and foundation ideas about how the process for visualizing what you wanted your life to be like for the next year. The pyramid for this road map goes as follows: Foundation, Vision, Theme, Action Steps, Achieve Goals. Do not let the simplicity of such a simple process fool you as it did me. I have been stuck on "Vision" for the last six months.