Mom's Visit - Copenhagen, Berlin, Aarhus

My mom's visit was exciting for many reasons. It was my first visitor from the US (Granny has to come again, since I did not know anyone or have a place to live!), which was exciting enough in itself. It was amazing to finally be able to show someone what this world is like that I live in, because it is sooo different. It was also her first trip to Europe, and I was excited to play a role in the adventure with her. It was just nice to have a familiar face, and to be able to introduce them to the people and places I talk about all the time.

We stated the trip in Copenhagen, Denmark, where we spent about 2 days. We definitely did a lot of touristy stuff, which is great, because I don't know much about Copenhagen yet. It is 3 hours away by train from where I live in Aarhus, and is on the 2nd largest island, called Zealand (I live on Jutland, which is the biggest land mass, but not technically an island because Southern Zealand borders Germany by Flensburg and Hamburg). I would have to say one of my favorite things we did in Copenhagen was the Absolut Ice Bar. It is literally a bar made entirely of ice. You have to put on snow boots and big parkas with hoods and gloves to go in. The drinks are served in ice glasses...literally. It was so crazy. You can only stand to stay there for about an hour, maximum, but it was great to say we have done that.

Then on to Berlin. I will say this. Germany does not have the best impression in my mind. Admittedly, I stereotype Germany. When I think of the country, I think of a dark past, and that has stuck in my mind. Berlin definitely lived up to this bill. While it was probably one of the coolest cities I have ever visited in terms of history (next to Paris - although much more of a focus on recent history), I found it fairly 'dark' and bland as well. I loved seeing all of the damage and drama from WWII, and loved learning about it as well.

I had two favorites in Berlin. The first was the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp. I was enthralled and fascinated. I can not believe what mankind has done to each other in the past, and to actually see the scene of the crime was life-changing. I couldn't take my eyes off of things, and kept reading as much as I could. I just have to say, if you have the chance in your life to visit a concentration camp, I definitely would. Putting all those stories and history lessons to life is more impactful than I could have ever imagined.

And on a lighter note, I treated my mom to a place called "Unsicht-Bar" or Dinner in the Dark in Berlin. The concept is all of the wait staff, etc, are visually impaired or blind. The experience is about seeing what life is like from their perspective. While waiting for your server, you order your dinner, although the descriptions are so vague, you are not sure what you will be eating (for example, for poultry, all it said was Donald - ie. duck). You were led into the PITCH BLACK DARK...not an ounce of light creeping from under a door anywhere. Your server seated you, told you where your glasses and stuff were. You had 3 or 4 courses, along with your drinks. You literally had to put every other sense into overdrive...I touched my food and finally gave up on cutting my beef and ate it with my hands. I smelled things before I put them in my mouth. I listened all around. It hurt to have my eyes open in the pitch black, for them not to recognize anything, so I finally ate with my eyes shut. We heard 3 different glasses shatter throughout the course of the evening. It was a fantastic experience I would recommend to anyone, but I am so thankful for my sight. When I was ready to go, we told our waitress and she said, 'oh, you are ready to go back to the light?' in a sad tone-of-voice. I thought to myself....hell yeah, I am ready to go back to the light!!!

After Berlin, we went to Aarhus, which I was probably most excited about, to show mom my school, work, friends...just my life here. I had arranged some fun things so she could get a good taste of everything:

-Breakfast with my coworkers (ps - European breakfast consists of bread and butter, maybe a slice of cheese or some jam, and coffee)

-Lunch and a tour of Den Gamle By (The Old City) with my coworker and great friend Susanne

-Afternoon beer with Rachel

-Lunch with my buddy Nanna

-A tour of the art museum Aros (so modern!) and dinner and drinks with Susanne

-A traditional Danish dinner in a Danish home, with my friend's Victor and Anne

-A soccer game, and drinking beer after the game (which they always do!)

I was so happy she came - and I just hope that I showed her a great time. I think she had the time of her life, and I am glad, because I am experiencing the same.

I am ready and experienced for my next visitor!!!

In Aarhus, by the river. many cafes and stores down there

My buddy from the beginning, Nanna

After my soccer game, the girls were looking at the American pictures my mom brought - think cheerleading, prom, etc. They don't have these things really in Denmark, and their only basis of reference are the American movies

Two good friends - Chanett and Line

Mom enjoying the traditional beer after a football match

Chanett using her American coozie my mom brought. The Danes had a hard time understanding what a coozie was

The team trying American snacks

She loves to eat water bottles

Chanett and I before the game

Aarhus theater

By the harbor

At the ArOs art musuem - this place is pretty cool and unlike many others! Mom took this picture for her special boys, Sam and Owen

This giant boy is so life-like up close

View of the city from the art museum

At one of my favorite cafes

Rachel and me

My old neighborhood in the "island streets"

My old building

Traditional Danish meal of "frikadelle, kartoflr med brun sovs." Or fried meat (pork) balls, potatoes and gravy (brown sauce)

Dinner with mom and Anne at Victor's

The Old City - Susanne took us here for lunch one day

Mom and me in the Old City

Susanne and me

Looking rough after a long day :)

Editing a friend's 13 page paper in English on the train from Copenhagen to Aarhus

On the train

A church in Berlin bombed during WWII

Cracked ceiling of the church

Eating Currywurst at a famous stand in Berlin

Holocaust Memorial

Yes, a Star Trooper in Berlin

Reichstag

US Embassy - flag at half-staff for Memorial Day

This random house has big bullet holes in the concrete from the war

Where Von Stauffenberg (along with many others) were executed (think of the movie Valkyrie)

The courtyard where everyone stood, watching the executions

Where the Berlin Wall once stood - this monument can be found all along the streets of Berlin

What remains of the Berlin Wall

Potsdamer Platz - a busy area for the U-bahn and S-bahn

Reminds me a bit of Denmark

The crematorium remains at Sachsenhausen

The shallow graves that were unearthed

A shooting and hanging area

A monument to represent every nationality represented at the concentration camp

Site of the former gallows

Where the prison cells used to stand

A prison block

A wash room; there were 100s of people in here at a time, and in the morning, prisoners were often found dead as a result of being drowned in the water holds to the right

Bunks where the prisoners would sleep, often 2 to a single bed

Representative of lodging that used to stand there

Punished prisoners would have to test leather for shoes by marching along this path with many pounds on their backs

The many barbed-wire and electrical fences put in place to deter escape

The main gate entrance to Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp

This was lodging used for the soldiers

This fence represents where the actual fence to the concentration camp once stood

Reichstag

Main Berlin train station

Tv tower

Berlin is famous for their bears

Reenactment of Checkpoint Charlie

I found this at the Checkpoint Charlie museum and thought it was so profound: Mankind has reached a critical point at which it will be destroyed by atomic self-destruction, ecological self-poisoning, uncontrolled poplulation explosion and dehumanization if its scientific and technological progress is not supplemented by thorough-going changes in the social, moral, and cultural life. WOW

The spray painted line that separated East and West Germany by Checkpoint Charlie

It is so exciting and humbling to realize what a power and role America plays on the world, past and present

Displays of how people were snuck across borders

A piece of the Berlin Wall at the entrance to the Checkpoint Charlie museum

Copenhagen Zoo

Changing of the guards at Amalienborg Palace

We followed the Danish guards on their walk from one palace to the next

Famous amusement park in Copenhagen

A beer tasting - always one of my favorites!

The famous Little Mermaid statue

Moving...again and again

With the housing situation like it is here, you would think I was living in New York City! It's impossible to find a decent place, and so expensive at the same time!

I moved at the beginning of April. Rachel and I were originally supposed to move out of our apartment (which she has not had to do yet), and we both decided to live on our own and take a break from each other. I am used to living alone...and the two of us had been thrust into this really intense situation where we completely relied on each other, and basically lived on top of each other (there were not two proper bedrooms, but rather one bedroom and one living room).

It was the best thing that could have happened. I absolutely love where I live now, but new that moving in here was taking a risk, as the man I am renting from was trying to sell the apartment. I took the chance, knowing the market has not been great. Well...it was sold while I was in Paris, so I have to move out by the end of June!

I have found another place already. I will be living with a classmate (Christina - the one who went out of her way to speak English with me on my study trip) and another Danish girl. The apartment is super nice, in a good location - it is just a little further from the city center than where I live now, which makes me a little sad. But it is probably only a 10 minute bike ride to get there. From a language perspective, living with Danish girls will hopefully help me tremendously...I would love to be confident enough in my skills to speak in Danish regularly.

I won't even waste time showing pics of the apartment I am in now. I will show you pictures of the one I am moving into when I finally get there!

I had to ask for so much help when I moved, which was so hard. I will just break it down for you what people did for me...

-My friend Susanne found an apartment for me through a coworker at ASB

-Mathias, my soccer coach, borrowed his parents bigger car, went to a random girls apartment with Rachel and I to pick up a couch that I was buying from a girl (I got the hookup through my buddy Nanna), and he helped me move the couch into my new place.

-Nanna borrowed her parents car and drove me to Ikea on a Saturday, where we bought EVERYTHING and wrote down the information for the big furniture pieces I was buying.

-Rachel and I borrowed her boyfriend Kristian's car on Sunday, loaded up as much as we could, and moved a lot of stuff in on Sunday night.

-Monday, Susanne and Thomas left work with me at 4pm (which, I may add, Susanne scheduled the help without really asking me - she told me they were going to help me on Monday, because she knows I don't like to ask for help). We drove in Susanne's car to Ikea, where Thomas had booked a trailer for us. We hooked up the trailer, bought my furniture, loaded it - then headed to my old apartment to get the futon (which is now my bed) and the rest of my stuff. We made it back to my new place, moved everything upstairs (to the 4th floor, I might add). I had bought a closet which was impossible to put together on my own. Susanne and Thomas didn't even give me an option - they went to return the trailer, said they were stopping at Thomas' for tools, and would be back to put the closet together with me. By the time we were done, it was midnight already. They were amazing, and were not coworkers - they were true friends.

Thomas and Susanne putting together my coffee table, with Lincoln on it, so we could sit down and eat dinner.

Susanne in my new closet, screwing stuff together

Susanne driving the trailer with her new car.

Three Interesting Thoughts

When I first arrived in Aarhus, I attended the Master's Introduction days at ASB. I was sitting in a large lecture hall when a speaker came in and said that this would be an interesting time for all of us in life, that there will probably be personal changes we would face.

It was very interesting and insightful to see the following three statements put up on a Powerpoint slide:

Allow Myself

-To be young and stupid

-To not control everything

-To seek help when needed

It is so interesting to realize that those three statements are SO very true to my new life in Denmark. It has been a time of personal reflection, but at the same time has been very carefree. I go with the flow much more easily now, and asking for help is a hard thing for me to do, but I have to do it. And being young and stupid...well, lets just remember I am in college now!

Tournoi des 5 Ballons - Cergy, France

I joined 7 other girls I play soccer with at ASB for a tournament in Cergy, France at the school ESSEC. Cergy is about 30 minutes outside of Paris; unfortunately, there were only 4 teams signed up to play women's soccer, but it was still an experience!

We played France, Russia and Algeria - we lost to Algeria the first time, and lost to them in the finals 1-0, but it was a hard fought game. Considering we had no subs, and they were slapping our faces and scratching us, it was a great game. Definitely an experience I will never forget. And my team voted me player of the tournament, which was pretty cool too.

Anyway - I was close to one of these girls already (Line Madsen), but became much more close to them. I love soccer, and I love these girls. But since this trip, I have been so much more close with them. It is on a different level now, and we can joke around at practice and at games all the time too.

I arrived home from my study trip around 9pm on a Friday night. Saturday I had a soccer game and two birthday parties to go to, and left for France at 7am on Sunday. It was a 5 day trip, and well worth the exhaustion. I never played select soccer growing up, so to be able to experience a mini-tournament like this was a lot of fun.

Soccer girls are a different breed. For the most part, we are all laid-back and down to earth. We like to play hard and don't mind getting dirty. There is a level of respect amongst athletes that I don't think you can always find in your everyday life. It was fun to just chill out with these girls all day and all night, with no pretention. We were just in our soccer clothes, laying in the park after a game, having a good time.

I couldn't have asked for a better group of girls to go with - Line Madsen, Chanett, Britt, Maja, Mei Mei, Bettina, and Line Pedersen. So fun. This is a trip I will never forget!!!

We had one free day off, and a group of us headed to Paris. It was sort of funny, because myself and one other girl were the only ones who had been there - so I was basically the tour guide amongst all the European girls! Being in Paris again reminds me how cool of a city it is - I love it!

On the metro on the way to Paris, I was looking at the map and planning our trip. I was trying to remember how to get to Moulin Rouge, which is where we needed to end the day because we had tickets to see the show. There was a woman who had made a small comment to us earlier about a crazy man that got on the metro preaching in French. She spoke clear English, so I asked her if she could help me for a second. Turns out, she is from Australia, was married to a Frenchmen, was in town with her children to see their grandparents. She knew the city well and was very helpful. We got to talking more and more - I noticed she was carrying an Hermes handbag...she alluded to the fact that she travelled a lot for her job. I asked her what she did. It turned out she is the Editor-in-Chief for Vogue magazine in Australia!!! For those of you who don't know, she is the Anna Wintour (American Vogue) of Australia. She is the Meryl Streep in the Devil Wears Prada (that was based on Anna Wintour's former assistants account of what it was like working for her). A very prominent woman in the fashion industry. We talked about fashion a bit, about Neiman Marcus, about travelling - it was a nice conversation - she was so down to earth. Small world, and I would love to get in contact with her someday!

This is a picture of Kirstie Clements, the editor in chief of Australian Vogue that I met on the metro.

http://www.vogue.com.au/in_vogue/vogue_australia/editor_s_letter

There was a blue-collar workers demonstration in the streets by the Louvre, and the police were all ready to go in SWAT gear!

The demonstration

Bettina and I in front of the Arc de Triomphe

I am closest to these two girls: Chanett and Line Madsen

Madsen is a girl of few words, but is hilarious when she opens her mouth! She was rocking out on our boombox to Lionel Richie and doing a little dance with it!

That animal was the women's handball teams mascot

Britt Jensen

There is a student bar at ESSEC that we would go to after games; I looked around, and look what I found mounted on the wall?! The grill of a car with a Missouri license plate!

Madsen and I

Soccer girls are notorious for being proud of their bruises. These are Madsen's ball marks

Mei Mei, almost passed out before a game after a hard night out the night before!

The three Danish teams from ASB - and they all go crazy when the football National Team song is played.

Madsen is probably the best juggler on the team

Hanging out in the park after games

Before a game. And yes, that ground (dirt, or 'gravel' as they call it), is what we played on. Yikes! I had huge strawberries from it.