Hej Alle!

So, update #2, all about classes and my first full weekend in Denmark/Copenhagen:

I will be quite honest with you, I slept through my first ever class in Denmark. I forgot to set my alarm the night before, and with that I had some night-before jitters (so I slept very badly). Therefore, I did not wake up until half-way through my class (class started at 10:30, I woke up at 11am). BUT I emailed my professor right away, explaining what happened, and he said it was alright (he blamed it on jet lag .... which I honestly think I still have). The ”positive” was that I got to walk the dogs that day!! This was ... exciting, I guess. Although the whole time I was in belief that they were taking me somewhere where they always wanted to explore but my host family never let them. Then they started digging and getting dirty. So I freaked out. But my host mom said that that was normal, so no worries. J That night, I finally got to see Wimbledon (with Kirsten Dunst and the blonde dude from A Beautiful Mind).

Then Friday would technically be seen as my first day of classes, starting at 8:30 in the morning!! (eugh).And while that is horrible time for a class, it is MUCH easier at Goucher to get there than it is in Denamrk where I need to catch a bus (on the :24 or :43 every week day) adn then a train (at the x:x8 every weekday). So it takes, around, an hour to get to Copenhagen. My ’popular culture of the 20th century class’ (about Euro and US) isn’t exactly what I thought it woudl be about, partially because I thought I would get to watch TV for class. But still interesting. I then had my Turkey class, where I believe we picked groups for the project due at the end of the semester (mine is about Turkish food ... partially picked so that I would get to try lots of food and eat a lot J [sorry mom!!]). In my ancient art and archeology class (which I’m really excited for because I learned that Denmark has FANTASTIC Greek and Roman art), I got to act REALLY smart because I was able to answer the questions about ’what is going on in this vase,’ ’what makes this vase different from the other vases we’ve looked at,’ amd other questions like that. The ”downfall!” of doing that is that I do not want to be termed the ’brown-noser’ day 1 of class. ;) But c’est la vie. I felt smart. When I went back to my house, I got to watch a danish movie about a woman who’s husband drops her (penniless) for a younger woman, and how she survives.

Friday night, DIS had this club that we could go to. It’s called LUUX, and it had discounted prices for drinks (first one was on the house). The great thing was that a cranberry vodka (TOTALLY legal for me now!! ... until I go back home) was around 6 dollars. The Bad thing was that it took, around, 30 minutes of waiting in line before getting your drink. Therefore, I only had 2 in a 1.5 hour span L ..... which, of COURSE I mean to be a happy thing J lol. ALSO, for anyone who would never have thought it was possible, I decided that that night was the night to not act my normal, secluded, seer way, and I decided to go out there and DANCE ... with a BOY!! So I promise there will be a picture of the dude (dancing with someone else though, because it would ahve been REALLY weird for me to ask one of me while danicing) on facebook. J And If you don’t believe me ... well .... you’re wrong ;)

Saturday, I got to go ice skating in the middle of Kongens Nytorv, which is this square with a statue of ... soemone ... in the middle. And so it's basically a ring of ice, with benchs on the inside ring, and then green in the middle. SO cool .... except that I started to remember that when I was 14 I took ice skating lessons, and I was placed in a group of 6 years olds .... and they were better than me. So ... yeah ... I wasn’t very graceful, like, at ALL. But I didn’t fall, which was good. We then got free hot chocolate. Oh yeah ... also .... it was POURING, and this was an outdoors rink. So .... yeah. That part was not fun. After that, since it was raining, I decided to skip my tour that I was going to do, and instead go to the mall and buy a towel. And you would think that since I am in a homestay, they would have towels. Well ... yes they do – but not ones big enough for me to wrap around my self (because they are UBER skinny here). So I bought myself an emerald green towel. And then I saw that they are selling my snow boots here (my gray merells, that kinda look eskimo-ish), and it is sale month, so I am DEFINITELY gonna see if I can buy them tomorrow. J Also, I finally got to see French Kiss, with meg Ryan and Kevin Kline. Not that bad of a movie, actually ... wonder why I never watched it before ....

So, you all know how Europe’s equivalent to (american) football is soccer? Well, Denmark’s equivalent to football is HANDBALL!!! So I have been watching the quarterfinals, semi-finals and then the FINALS (last night) to see how far Denmark would get. And quess what?? THEY WON!!! It was the first time they ahd won in 41 years. So today at 5:00, the team is going to be in Copenhagen (at Rådhauspladen), and I plan on going so I can get at least 1 good picture of them. Then I am going home because my host mom said that she is going to be making a danish dinner for me. So yeah!!!

Yesterday (Sunday), we went to see Enchanted in Compenhagen, and we meet up with their cousin ... but I forget her name ... I think it started with a ’J.’ (If I forget someone’s name, I kinda don’t call at them, just ask a question towards them). I ahve to say that watching it a second time might be BETTER than the first time!!! And I realized a lot of things, but I’m not sure if youa ll have seen it, so I’m going to keep it to myself. But this movie will DEFINITELY be on my brithday wish list because it is the movie taht makes me happy (especially when I am sad, which I found out the last time I saw it, a few days after I got home from school).

Updates on the dogs:

We have 2 dogs (puppy and mom). Whenever the mom (Miko ... but I feel like that’s the phonetics of the real spelling) has a ball, and Mia [Mya] (the puppy) tries to grab at it, the mom FREAKS outa nd starts yapping at Mia, and I’m just like, ”Whoa! That’s you’re kid! And you are YELLING at her!!”

Also, I have to start a list about all the things Mia has chewed, of mine:

- My Merell boots ( you know how it has 3 leather straps on the side? Well ... yeah. One of the straps was chewed off, btu my host mom fixed it, which is good)

- My ’bed, bath and beyond’ lip gloss (I’M SORRY KARA!!!!)

Also, I thought that this woudl be a good time to ’show off’ some of my danish, and for you to learn some. So:

MEANING
WORD
PHONETICS (my translation of it)

Hi/Hello
Hej
Hi

Bye Bye
Hej Hej
Hi Hi

One
En
In

Two
To
Two

Three
Tre
Trés (or tray)

Four
Fire
Fear

Five
Fem
Feh

Six
Seks
Sex

Seven
Syv
Sur

Eight
Otte
Oat

Nine
Ni
Knee

Ten
Ti
tea

I do not speak danish
Jeg taler ikke dansk
Ya tie-air igga den-sk

Do you speak English?
Taler du engelsk?
Tie-air do eng-esk

My name is ...
Jeg hedder [name]
Ya hil-tha [name]


Enjoy your time until the next e-mail!! And feel free to e-mail back. Because I LOVE getting new mail J



aaaalllllssssoooo!!!

fOR ANY OF MY GOUCHER PEOPLES, WHO wILL GOING TO THE BEAM SIGNING??

aND WHO WOULD love TO SIGN MY NAME FOR ME?!?!?!?!

yOU KNOW YOU WANT TO!!! ;)



~Hil~