Getting behind on my blogs!

Sorry guys, I realize a few of you have been annoyed that I haven't posted a new blog in a while but I've been super busy with classes and really settling into a routine. I can't believe that we've all been here over a month already and that we start our three week travel break on Oct 11th! That's next Saturday! What's even scarier is the realization that when we return from break classes restart on Nov. 3rd which means we only have the rest of November and a little over half of December left of this semester! After thinking about this reality, I am so very glad that I'd decided to do the year here and will be able to really integrate my self into the community. I have only just scratched the surface of all the things I want to do in Denmark and I feel pressed for time to accomplish them all. Those leaving in December must be feeling this twice over.

So recently I've been hanging out with friends in Copenhagen and going out to different places (a few bars perhaps). I love the city, though the constant construction can be annoying, and I love my house in the suburbs even with its near hour commute in. I'm excited to be able to jump right into the second semester without having to "feel it out" and get used to all of the new things like we all have to do in the beginning. Plus, I'll already know some fun places to go.

Last weekend I went to Legoland which is located on the other side of Denmark. To give you some perspective on this country, we did this entire trip in a day AND made it back to the city in time to go out that night. haha. The park was really neat and had a bunch of miniatures of famous locations in Scnadinavia. It even had a lock canal system made out of legos that actually worked and had boats passing down through it. There were also some fun rides and we got some ice cream. Not quite as fun as ice cream and legos, I've had to being getting ready for the upcoming midterms next week and have been working on a few other papers and assignments that are somewhat hanging over my head.

BUT! Come next week, tests and papers will be finished (until we are back in classes at least) and traveling adventures will begin!
A breakdown of my upcoming travels:
Week 1: DIS European Culture & History Study Tour
Oct 11th- 13th Vienna, Austria
Oct 13th- 16th Budapest, Hungary
Oct 16th-18th Krakow, Poland (in between DIS tours a friend and I are making a tiny excursion)
Week 2: DIS Optional Study Tour
Oct 19th- 22nd Rome, Italy
Oct 22nd- 25th Florence, Italy
Week 3: Free travel with two friends
Oct 25th- 27th Stockholm, Sweden
Oct 28th- 29th Helsinki, Finland
Oct 30- Nov 1st Tallin, Estonia
Nov 1st- Flight to CPH and have a 12-hour layover in Riga, Latvia (meaning we are clearly going to leave the airport for some Latvian fun!)
Nov 2nd back in Copenhagen, Denmark and sleeeeeeeeeepzzzzzzz.

Yeah, so I have a rather full itinerary but it should be AMAZING and I am so so excited and will take as many photos as possible. Oh I also forgot to mention that I went to Malmö, Sweden last week. It's right over the bridge from Copenhagen and only takes about thirty minutes to get to. It's very similar to Cph in architecture and design (this area of Sweden did used to belong to Denmark after all) but has it's own charms. The only major difference was that I had no SEK (Swedish Kroner) and was detered from buying too many things (it's a tad cheaper then DK) and that I know even less of their language, though there are some similarities. Overall, my freind and I enjoyed it and got some ice cream as a snack (because it's what you do anywhere new that you go to it seems).

Want some recently acquired fun facts? First, rather then being very active during Halloween, Danes tend to dress up in costumes around Carnival in February (read: Mardi Gras time). One of their traditions dating back to the middle ages involves putting a cat in a barrel and smacking the barrel around to ward off evil spirits (as possessed by the cat). Now they clearly don't do this anymore but they have some sort of pinata type barrel that has a fake cat in it and I believe you can be Cat King or Cat Queen if you are the one to break the barrel open. Something else fun is that the term "adam's apple" apparently corresponds to almost every language and the same term is used (albeit in their words for adam and apple) to explain that thing in your throat. Facsinating, I know. Wow, there are so many other things I can't remember right this second or can't write down in a blog that are constantly contributing to my experience studying here. Hopefully it will only continue to get better! Wish me luck on all my upcoming travels!