Best Water Ever

Above are pictures from the technical museum in Helsingor and the Kronborg Castle.

I have to tell a story from the Italian restaurant Kelli and I went to. Pictures of the appetizer and pizza we got are in the previous blog. We ordered a sampler platter type appetizer and a seafood pizza! The seafood pizza was shockingly good. I like pizza and love seafood, but I didn't have the highest hopes for them together. But it was certainly one of those things I needed to try and Kelli is a brave soul.

The appetizer and pizza were reasonably priced, with one exception. The waiter asked what we wanted to drink and I said, "water will be fine." He interpreted that statement as, "money means nothing to me, please bring me the finest water you have." Long story short, the water cost almost as mush as the appetizer. $16.00 for two people.

Kelli and I agreed that this water didn't taste any differently, but I am going to consider it the best water I have ever consumed. That thought helps me sleep at night.

Kelli's Visit

I haven't put up a post for a long time because kelli has been visiting. Last week was WSU's spring break, so Kelli visited me from Sunday to Sunday.

I will save the stories for next time and simply tell you what we did during the week.

Sunday - Shopping in Copenhagen

Monday - I went to school while she had a well deserved sleep to help cure the jetlag. Then we went on a train ride to see some countryside.

Tuesday - Visited Kronborg Castle (the castle Hamlet was based in) in Helsingor Denmark.

Wednesday - Kelli went to class with me to see what a four hour class is like. Not that bad, seeing as how they usually just lecture for about 1.5 hours. After class we made another trip to Copenhagen to do more shopping at stores that were closed on Sunday.

Thursday - I went to class then we went out to an Irish Pub, it was St. Patrick's Day. It was a bit to crowded there so we left and went to a bar to cut some rug.

Friday - Went to Frederiksborg Castle and did a speed tour. I had to make it back to school to compete in a competitive drinking game commonly played in the United States. In the 16 team bracket there were two teams from the states and the other team got put out by some Canadians in the semi finals. But my Chicago partner and I dominated the tournament. After the dominating performance Kelli and i made dinner for some international friends of mine (mac + cheese and hot dogs).

Saturday - After sleeping in Kelli and I took a bus to Malmo Sweden. We didn't really have a goal when we went there. We just walked around to look at the old local buildings and walked down the streets. Then we went to dinner in an Italian restaurant in Copenhagen on our way home.

We also saw a fun street show as we were walking in Copenhagen and below is an attempt to post a video.

Overall it was a wonderful visit and I have about 200 new pictures!

Have a good week everyone!

Wrong Bus

The picture is of a "solar tree" that can be found on the DTU campus. It does not really resemble an actual tree in any sense, and the solar panels on the leafs can't offer very much area to capture sunlight. So I don't really see the point of it, but it was worth a picture.

I thought everyone may want to here the story of the wrong bus. All I wanted to do was buy stamps. If I walked to the stamps it would have taken about 40 minutes round trip. If I took the bus I knew it would only take about 10 minutes, even though it would cost about $3.00. But I didn't feel like walking, so I opted to spend that $3.00. Before I took the bus into town, I looked at the bus stop I wanted to come back to and wrote down what three buses I could take to get back to my residence. 300s was one of the buses I could take.

I successfully got into town and bought my stamps, then it was time to take a bus home. 300s was the first bus I saw so I got onto it. It then preceded to go the opposite direction I wanted for about 40 minutes. Then at the end of the line I was the only one left on the bus. The bus driver didn't speak English but indicated that I needed to get off he bus, somewhere about 40 minutes away from the station that is a 20 minute walk from where I live. I should look up where I was because I still don't know, but it started with an I.

I need to give you a quick explanation of the bus pass system. There is a system of "zones." If you go through 2 zones you need to punch a 2 zone pass. That allows you to travel with any public transport (bus, train, metro) freely within those two zones for one hour. By the time I was at the end of the line with that bus I was outside my time frame AND zones, thank goodness I didn't get caught.

I waited for another bus that could hopefully take me back, and I saw another 300s. I figured it was going back to my hometown station so I got on it. It was the exact same bus with the same no English speaking driver that I was just asked to leave 5 minutes before. When I got on I had to punch my 2 zone pass twice, bring my total for the trip close to $10.00. The bus did in fact come back to the station I got on it at, but now it was facing the other direction. So, maybe after it gets back from that loop it goes on a loop that passes my home. It didn't stay on it to find out. I got off the bus at a place where I recognized and simply walked home.

So my $3.00 ten minute trip became a $10.00 2.5 hour trip, not including my 20 minute walk home.

Other than that mistake I have been doing well with the public transport here. Of course, nothing beats driving your own car! Especially when driver a car in the United States is cheaper than public transportation in Denmark!

First Container Dinner

6 of us out of the 9 people that live in our container had dinner together. There was a soup from Singapore and rice with chicken from India. Needless to say, the guy from India bought some hot peppers and another American and I had to try them. It took a mere 3 seconds after the pepper entered our mouth that we knew we had made a mistake. The top picture offers a proper depiction of our experience. It is of Brett (from Chicago) 5 or 10 minutes after eating the pepper still bright red, sweating, and there may have been some man tears involved for him. I was lucky it didn't hit me quite as hard because I took a little smaller bite, and my tear ducts are to masculine to relinquish to lowly peppers.

The second picture is the castle the museum was in when we visited Malmo, Sweden.

The last picture is what my cooking has evolved to in this country. Hash browns with hot dogs instead of sausage and Hollandaise sauce instead of country gravy. I normally poach my eggs now because there is no amount of oil that will stop eggs from sticking to the pans we have access too. I am making do with what I have.

I am extremely pleased with how school is going so far. I have fallen into a comfortable daily schedule and am enjoying the group work. I have gotten lucky and ended up in groups with all outstanding students. I am a valuable asset to some of my groups because I am a native English speaker. This is a blessing and a curse because I have a good purpose, but I have edited countless papers.

 Have a great week everyone!

Danish Fun Facts

These are more pictures of Sweden. It is quite cold, that's why the fountain is frozen.

I have learned a few things about Denmark that I did not expect even after all the reading. I was asking a couple danish friends what the country side was like because i wanted to see it and they said, "oh, the rotten banana?" I, of course, had to ask what they meant by this. The rotten banana refers to the lower class country side of Denmark. If you imagine the east coast and south of Denmark in a banana shape, that is the rotten banana. I guess there are very very few college educated people in this area. Guys that grow up and live in the rotten banana are called "Brians" (sorry friends that are named Brian), and the girls that group up and live there are called "Connies" (sorry mother). That really only stuck with me because they are familiar names to me.

What i learned today is more important to me personally and i now understand how lucky i am. I was standing with my homework group when someone asked what the clip was for in my pocket. It was just my knife.. But apparently, that's not ok. For the two danish people in my group, i am the first person they know that owns a gun as well as the first person they know that carries a knife. I have had a knife with me for the last 6 weeks and i guess i could have been arrested for that. I even heard a construction worker was carrying a carpenters knife home and got arrested. I have taken my knife to public places, bars, and school. All of which is very bad. My friends are surprised i was never caught for having a knife in a bar.

But now i know what i can't carry in my pocket. I also know where not to live if i move to Denmark. I hope you find these facts as interesting as i do! Have a good Wednesday everyone!