Biking around Bornholm

You're probably wondering where the hell Bornholm is..I know I was. It is a small island south of Sweden - it is actually closer to Poland and Germany than it is to Denmark, and yet it is one of Denmark's 406 islands! Crazy. It is absolutely beautiful though.

Friday night, i said goodbye to my parents, and got on a big bus that took us to Køge, the ferry landing. Seeing as my ferry experiences are pretty much just to Orcas Island and back, I was expecting something similar to a Washington State ferry. This was nothing like it. It was more like a cruise ship. You can pay for a cabin, or just sleep on the floor or reclining chairs. We chose the floor, and had some sleep on the 6 hour ferry ride to Bornholm. As soon as we got there, we saw a beautiful sunrise!
Then we proceeded to eat some breakfast at our hostel, took a quick power nap, and got on our bikes. We decided to be ambitious and bike the "Killer Tour" - 65 kilometers! It turned out to be tough but definitely worth it. Although we had some bike trouble on the way (word of advice : next time your bike breaks - just kick it around a bit, swear at it, and even spit on it, it worked for us!) There were 5 of us biking together which turned out to be a great group. We tried some of the famous smoked herring on the way - everyone liked it except for me.Notice the intensely gold color! After biking along beautiful coast through cute Danish towns, we ended up on a beach that is famous for having the finest sand in the world! They export it for hourglass clocks. I have never seen a sea like this before - it was pretty incredible.

We even built a sandcastle, complete with a moat, medieval ramparts and a mini stonehenge!

At the end of this day we were pretty exhausted, and went to bed pretty early after eating some Digestives (no they are not for senior citizens, they are actually delicious biscuits that I have become slightly obsessed with despite their humorous name).

On Day 2 we decided to explore the northern half of the island, and biked about 45 kilometers. We biked through very peaceful farm land, and even some sheep pastures! We visited some very adorable towns that you can see pictures of in my photo album, as well as the Hammerhus ruins - the largest fortress in Northern Europe. There were amazing views from there of the sea and the forests.

Overall, the sore legs and lack of sleep was well worth the trip, Bornholm was one of the most beautiful places I have been to!

http://picasaweb.google.dk/lizadadiomov/Bornholm?authkey=KNdsycLmpNk#

There's a link to see the rest of the pictures!

pictures!

Here are lots and lots of pictures from the weekend!

http://picasaweb.google.dk/lizadadiomov/ShortStudyTour02?authkey=xC1wNnR0vtE#

Short Study Tour and Parents!

Well, it has been an extremely busy few days, and I have some busy days ahead, but right now it is time to update, get some sleep, and breathe!

Last weekend I went on my first study tour for my psych program. We went to Odense (third biggest city in Denmark), Skandenborg and Legoland! This is supposed to be a somewhat "academic" trip, but during the 3 days, we spent a total of 4 hours on anything academic. Not that I'm complaining, the trip was a blast! We visited two schools - one was a preschool made up of mostly immigrant children, and then a school that tries to incorporate different learning styles. I won't go into the details that probably only I find exciting, so you can ask me about that later. In Odense we visited the Hans Christian Andersen museum, walked around, had amazing cappuccinos, and made some new friends in my program! I bonded especially with one girl who also works at a summer camp - I think we shared camp stories pretty much nonstop the entire weekend! Sorry to everyone else who had to listen to our camp talk! Anyway, after Odense we went to Skandenborg which was a beautiful lake. We had a huge bonfire, and roasted bread on the fire! That's right, we twisted dough around a stick and then roasted it on the fire, then roasted hot dogs, combined the two, and voila! The danes know how to have bonfires. In the midst of this eating, we also decided to jump into the lake in the freezing cold! The next day we went to a few more sights like the Jelling Stones which are stones with Runes written on them, we finally went to the main attraction - LEGOLAND! This was amazing, it brought out the 5 year old in all of us. Legos will always hold a special place in my heart - as a child I remember playing with my brother's legos and being fascinated by the castles he would build. I think I liked his legos way more than my own toys! Anyway, I was in lego-heaven, as you will see from the amount of pictures that I took there! I was so excited that it took me a while to realize that I had stubbed my toe and was bleeding all over Legoland! Overall, great trip. It was nice to see other parts of Denmark and get to know my psych group better!

As soon as I got back, I met up with my parents who are visiting for a week before they go to Russia! It has been very busy this week with school, essays, etc. but I've had some time to show them around, and introduce them to my host family and such. It has been great to see them, and I've got 3 more days with them in Copenhagen :) This weekend I'm going on a biking trip in Bornholm - an island off Denmark that is supposed to be very beautiful! Right now, time to get some sleep and relax.

Hej hej!

mmm Danish Kage (cake)

I finally feel fully settled in my house and routine here and get lost less and less frequently. School is starting to pick up with lots of reading as well as impossible Danish homework. From all of the languages that I know, Danish is definitely one of the hardest. There are many sounds that they make that I didn't even know humans were capable of making. They also have no rules for some of their grammar, meaning everything must be memorized. I am continually impressed with how amazing everyone's English is here, I have never had a problem with someone not understanding me or not speaking English, and most of the time they barely even have an accent when they speak to me! According to my host family the reason for that is that because no one else speaks Danish anywhere in the world and Denmark is such a small country (the population is about 5 million), it is necessary for everyone to be fluent in English. One way many people improve their English is through TV and movies - TV here is not dubbed, so it is in English with Danish subtitles! Makes it easy for me as well :)

This weekend my good friend Chris from Scotland (who I worked with at camp) came to visit me with his friend Magda. We had an amazing time walking around the city - we got some great weather. On Saturday we took the train to Malmo, Sweden. Malmo is pretty nice - theres a big city center and lots of parks. Saturday night, my host brother had his birthday party which we were invited to. He had about 20 friends over for a HUGE fancy dinner. I was very impressed, he had spent the whole day preparing with a friend. They set a beautiful dinner for 20 with a velvet tablecloth, candles, flower centerpieces, and delicious food! It was nothing like an American 21st birthday party, it was MUCH classier and more sophisticated. Though a bit awkward at first, Chris, Magda and I had a great time talking to his friends and making fools of ourselves. Overall, it was an incredible weekend full of good food, not so good and expensive beer, sunshine, and British friends!

Now it's time to get back to school for 2 days (yeah school doesn't take up too much of my time here...haha) and then Thursday I go to Western Denmark for my Psychology class! Hej Hej!

me and Chris reunited after a whole year!


The Swedes love their clogs...


Me and Chris at the Kronborg castle in Helsingor!



I'll post the link for the rest of the pictures soon!

Maybe this is what Hygge feels like..

Almost in every talk we've had about Danish culture, they've mentioned "Hygge", which if I understand it right, is basically the "cozy" feeling that you get when you're with family and end up talking for hours after dinner and enjoy the company of your friends and family. I'm not sure if this is "hygge" but so far, dinners with my host family have been pretty entertaining as well as delicious.

exhibit A: Dinner today

Because the mom and the daughter do not speak much English, most of dinner was in Danish today. I don't mind it, it's pretty entertaining to listen to and try to guess what they are talking about. At one point, the dad apparently had had enough of listening to his daughter talk about her friend's mean ex-boyfriend while she is furiously texting her friends at dinner, and decides its time to play his music on the huge speakers next to the table. So he goes and turns on Pink Floyd, a live concert. The mom quickly pulls out her cell phone and starts playing a song by some Swedish artist that she likes. The daughter joins in with her own cell phone, playing "Low" by Flo Rida. I wonder if they know all about Apple bottom jeans and boots with the fur in Denmark? Anyway, pretty entertaining to watch this battle of the bands. The dinner ends with the dad going to his computer to download Kate Perry's new song "I kissed a girl and I liked it".
Another delicious dinner with my host family complete :)

I think for someone who is interested in psychology, living in a host family and watching the dynamics of another family (especially in a foreign country) is pretty freaking sweet.

I am also being film-educated, since my host brother owns pretty much every movie ever made. He was appalled at all of the movies that I have not seen. So far we've watched a Danish film called Adams Aebler, and Pulp Fiction.

I'm out! Time for a run, people here are active, not like me, the lazy American!