Peace out Copenhagen!

Hej hej! Almost time for me to go on my super fun Euro-trip to Portgual, Madrid, Paris, and Vienna! I leave October 29 and I will not be back until November 13th. Ah!! I am so excited!

 I just have to get through my Danish Oral Exam tomorrow and I will be free. I am so proud of myself and have finished my Positive Psychology paper, which isn't technically due until tomorrow.

Just wanted to say thanks for reading my blog, my faithful readers. Haha I kid, I kid. I have probably one "faithful" reader, and that is probably my mother. See you in two weeks!

~Jenna

Ice, ice, baby

Hej Hej! So another week has begun. This is going to be a very difficult week for me to get through. I have two papers due this week, one for my Livability in the Modern City class and one for my Positive Psychology and an oral midterm in Danish. However, on Saturday at 2:30 PM my time I will be leaving for Portugal for one week from October 29th till November 4th!!!! Ahhhh! I am so excited. I will be spending a week learning how to surf, doing yoga, riding bikes, and other exciting things. Should be so fun!

Then, week two (Nov 4-13th) I am meeting up with my friends Victoria, Emelye, and Rachel in Madrid and Paris, and then my friend Bianca will be meeting us in Vienna. I am kinda nervous, but I was successfully able to navigate Switzerland and Germany without anything major happening so I can just hope that nothing too awful will happen during my two-week break. I am so excited to see more of Europe.

Last week, nothing too eventful happened. Just back to the old routine of classes and what not. This weekend I had a good time with my friends Kyra, Jen, Emelye, Rachel, Hayley, and Molly. On Saturday, night we went to a bar that was completely made out of ice! It was so cool! The glasses, the tables, the bar, EVERYTHING was made out of ice. We even had to wear these cool blue coats with gloves attached. We had a great time! Here are some pictures:

Sunday, I went to church at Copenhagen Christian in Nørrebro. I really enjoy attending church there and like that I am starting to forge friendships with some of the attenders who are around my age. The church is going to celebrate 100 years of being a church next Sunday and is having a really awesome dinner and many fun activities planned. I, unfortunately, will not be able to attend as I will be in Portugal next week and then will be traveling Europe the following two Sundays. After church, I got to spend time with Jessy. She moved to Denmark about 7 years ago, but she is originally from Chicago. I really like talking to her because she understands what it is like for an American to live in this country, yet has been here long enough that she can answer any questions I have about Danish culture. Sunday was very fun!

To close- here is a video that my group made for my Virtual Worlds and Social Media class about myths we have about Danes. Hope you like it!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6Vin94RjQY

I will try to maybe update while I am traveling these upcoming weeks, but I cannot promise anything. Vi ses!

Switzerland and Germany

Hello! Hope everyone is well. I have just returned from a long weekend in Switzerland and Germany! I visited my friend Meaghan in Switzerland and my cousin Phil in Germany.

Friday, I couldn't wait to get to the airport. I only had classes until 11:30AM and my flight did not leave until 5PM. The metro was packed with people going to the airport. This was because Danish children have a week off from school this week (called "Week 42") and many choose this week to travel. My host family is not going anywhere. My host mother just started a job a couple weeks ago, so she cannot take off work. My host father's mother ("far mor"- literally means father's mother) is coming to stay for the rest of the week today. It will be neat to meet more of my host family's extended family. My host sisters had a friend spend the night, which I'm sure they had a lot of fun.

Instead of writing everything I did in Switzerland and Germany I will write some of the highlights. For some reason, it takes an eternity for me to post pictures on here so here is a link to my photo album if you would like to check out the gorgeousness that is Switzerland and Germany.


Highlights:
Getting to the airport and going to the ATM where my debit card would, yet again, not allow me to get money out. I then exchanged $40 worth Danish kroner for Swiss Francs and got 25 francs. Definitely got ripped off... Oh well. For the record: I was able to get money out the next day.

Taking the bus from the airport to Basel train station. When the signs on the bus said, "Banholf SBB" I hoped it wasn't going to take me to a different train station. I asked a woman if the bus was going to Basel train station. She looks at me and goes, "Ya- SBB" Duh! Doesn't everyone know that SBB means Basel train station? haha

Going to the main walking street in Basel, which for the record, looks like a mini- Stroget, the main pedestrian walking street in Copenhagen. Basel, for the few hours I was there, reminded me of Copenhagen.

Eating crepes and getting to meet Meaghan's other friends and fellow CABI ppl Alicia and Leah

Going to Lucern, Switzerland! Got to see and walk on the beautiful Chapel Bridge, Lion Monument, climbing a castle, seeing alpacas, eating truffles, kind of seeing the Alps through the clouds, the train rides from Delemont to Luzern, and eating great pizza in Laufen!

Day 2: Getting to see the lab where Meaghan has been working for eight months.

Going for a ride in a car to see a 1,000 year old tree! (I seriously had not been in a car for two months). Danes, especially my host family, are not real big on driving. And especially considering that they are taxed 150% over the car's retail value and the VERY high prices of gas, think double what we pay a gallon)

Eating cheese fondue and watching How I Met Your Mother.

Finally seeing Phil! And I got to be in a motorized vehicle yet again!

Hanging out at HBR, the dorm Phil is a house parent in and getting to hang out with high school boys and watching them play a game where they jump on top of each other (Tuktuk? Jump jump?) haha some name like that

Going on a hike to find a castle and then realizing we were not on the right path. Oh and feeling sick! I felt so bad that I wasn't feeling too great in the one day I could see my cousin. Phil if you're reading this sorry I was not feeling the best! I still had an awesome time!

Climbing a tower and almost being able to see the Alps!

Eating scnitzel and speitzel. So good! Felt like I was in Lancaster, PA. The part of Germany I was in reminded me so much of Pennsylvania- it was crazy. I now know why so many people with German ancestry chose to move to PA. I also felt like I looked like the inhabitants of Germany/ Switzerland. I feel like in Denmark I stand out since I am not a blonde with blue eyes, though I promise, not all Danes are blonde. I believe I do have some German ancestry so I guess it makes sense that I look German.

I am now back in Copenhagen. I was not feeling real well yesterday. My ears were really clogged and being on the plane didn't help much. Today, I feel much better. I think it was a combination of having a cold/ traveling/ not being able to sleep. Today, I skipped my Danish class. Oh well. My professor wasn't even going to be there- she is in Israel for the week, so hopefully I didn't miss much. I have my Literary London class at 3PM my time. I am really excited about this class. My professors seem really excited and enthusiastic about what we are learning and it just makes me excited to learn about British literature and culture. It also doesn't hurt that we get to go to London for a weekend in November. We are reading Shakespeare's MacBeth. I tried to read it in the airport, but after not reading Shakespeare since high school, it is hard to get back into that style of writing.

Until next time!

~Jenna

Are Danes Truly the Happiest People in the World?

Hej! So I have been back in Copenhagen for a few days and have been getting back in the routine of having classes. I apologize about the length of my last post, but I had so much I wanted to say about my trip to Milan and had a hard time editing it down to a readable level.

I know you all have been super worried about my lack of Internet after 9:30PM every night (just kidding…), but have no fear, I now have access to the Internet when I want! I had a meeting with DIS Housing to see if there was anything they could do. I didn't really think anything could be done about the situation, but DIS has given me this handy little thing I plug into my USB port that gives me access to the internet. I am so happy! If you have no idea what I am talking about, please see the post entitled, “Impressions”, where I explain my Internet situation and why my host mom turns off the internet at exactly 9:30PM every night. 

So there are apparently four stages of culture shock, according to Wikipedia. The first is the Honeymoon phase, where one sees the differences between their home culture and the new one they are in as exciting and wonderful. I must now be in the second stage, negotiation, where I am finding some of the differences between the United States and Denmark to be frustrating. For example, today I had a field study for my Positive Psychology class. Denmark, as I have mentioned previously, is ranked in the top three countries consistently to be the happiest country in the world.  My class was instructed to go around Copenhagen and ask people why they thought Denmark is ranked as the happiest country in the world.

The group I was with and I decided to ask store workers their opinions. We were doing this around 10AM so most places did not have too many customers. We purposely only went up to workers who were not dealing with customers/ did not look busy. We probably spoke to about five or six different people. Most of the people we questioned answered our question, however, I had a problem with a few of the people we asked. Two separate women we asked were basically like, “I don’t want to answer that question. I am too busy.” How hard is it to answer a question that will probably take about ten seconds out of your life to answer? I feel like if someone approached an American with a question, the American would always answer it, even if they were busy. We specifically made a point to talk to people who were not preoccupied. It almost seems rude to me to not answer the question. However, this is just my opinion.  Danes are a lot more reserved than Americans and are a lot more blunt, which I suppose can be a good thing in some cases.

I also have found that Danes will not help you if you are lost- you must ask for help. You could be walking around clearly lost, looking at a map, but a Dane, for the most part, will only help you if and only if you ask for it. This sort of makes me feel worried because if I were truly in danger or needed help, would a Dane help me? If someone is in trouble, they can’t exactly always ask for help… I am definitely generalizing here and I am sure there are Danes that would definitely help someone in need, but it does make me wonder. I would hate to see another Kitty Genovese- - a New York woman brutally murdered in the 1960s where many people watched the murders from their apartment buildings who did not call for help, assuming that others had already called for an ambulance.

I do like how genuine Danes are. If they say let’s meet for a cup of coffee, they mean it. I can’t count the number of times Americans, myself included, have said, “oh, let’s go out/ meet up” and it never happens. Or how American will ask “How are you?”, but not really mean it. Do you really care how I am doing? Probably not. When you ask a Dane how they are doing, they will usually tell you how exactly they are doing. Just something to think about…

Tomorrow I have a test in my Human Sexuality class. Hope it turns out well! Next blog I will tell you about my adventures in Switzerland and Germany!

Vi ses (See you!)

~Jenna

P.S.- Oh and most of the Danes felt that Denmark was the happiest country because they did not set their expectations too high, like American do, and that they have the welfare state, which provides for their basic needs. Did you know that Danes are paid to go to school? No student loans for them! I shouldn't let two people not answering my question get to me so I am not. Though it is true what we have been learning in Positive Psychology, that we tend to focus on the negative events more than positive...

This one time, in Milan...

Ciao! I have just returned from a week in Milan, Italy! I had a really wonderful time.  I was there from October 3^rd- October 8^th. Warning: the post you are about the read is going to be long. You can skim through to the more interesting parts if you would like, I will not be offended. Not that I will be able to know which parts you do not read haha

Everyone in DIS got a week off to travel with their core class to various places in Europe. My core class is Positive Psychology and we went to Milan. There are other sections of Psych and they went to either Madrid or Scotland.  Other programs, such as Sustainability in Europe, went to Germany and I know another program went to Kosovo! Crazy!

So my journey started on October 3^rd at 4:30AM. My class was to meet at the Copenhagen Airport at 6:30AM. I wanted to give myself plenty of time to get to the airport so I took the 5:30AM from Bernstorffvej to Hellerup station. Hellerup is more of a major station and has regional trains that go to the airport. I needed to buy a train ticket to get to the airport as my transportation pass only has zones 1,2, and 30 and you need zones 3 and 4 to get to the airport. This is where my problems began. I went to the ticket machine and attempted to buy a ticket. Card denied. I tried 3 or 4 other times, still denied. I then tried my credit card and then that would not work, either. A man was waiting behind me so I attempted to then move my heavy luggage to another track and buy a ticket there. I tried several other times and neither my debit card nor my credit card would work at any machine.

I began to panic. I did not have any kroner (Danish currency) on me because I was going to Italy where they use the Euro and I didn’t want to mix up my money. A man who worked for DSB, the company who runs the trains, attempted to help me.  He just thought I was some dumb American who didn’t know how to use the machine so he showed me which buttons to press and then walked away. I then attempted to explain that yes, I know how to use the machine, but my credit and debit card were both being declined. “You don’t have any kroner on you?” he asked. “Nope”, I said. He told me the ticket office would open at 6AM and I could buy a ticket from them, and by ticket office he meant 7-11. Yes, in addition to pastries, beer, and “baby bites”, which are like pigs in a blanket, 7-11 also can sell train tickets. Who would have thought? Anyway, I was supposed to take a regional train from Hellerup to Kastrup, the airport at 6AM, but I guess that wasn’t going to happen.

I then attempted to buy a ticket at 7-11, but neither of my cards would work. I began to freak out. I had kroner in my host families’ house so I called them begging them to please bring over my money. “How would we get it to you?” my host dad asked. Do you not have a car? I thought. “Um… if you’re not using the car right now could someone please bring it over?” Thankfully Hellerup station isn’t too far from where my host family lives so my host mom, Anne Marie, was able to bring the money over to me. Thank God! Lesson learned: always bring money from the country you are leaving. I then called my dad to see if he could figure out what wrong with both my cards. It was 12:30AM their time so there wasn’t much he could do to help at the moment.

I arrived to the airport just 30 minutes late, which was good. My flight to Milan was very relaxing. Soon, we arrived and got to our hotel. It was beautiful! We stayed at the Hotel Michelangelo. It was definitely the nicest hotel I have ever stayed in. The bath had jets so we could take bubble baths. Awesome! The weather our whole trip was amazing. It was in the 80s and felt like August in Philly. Unfortunately, the weather in Copenhagen has gotten way colder since I was last here and it is now only a high of 55.

Thinking that perhaps my cards not working in Denmark was just a fluke, I attempted to take out money from an ATM in Italy. The machine then ate my card so I had to go into the bank and ask the teller to give me my card back. The bank teller didn’t speak English that well, but eventually I got the card back.. I sound very calm in this blog about the situation, but trust me, I was very upset about my card. Soon, I spoke to my mother and she talked to my bank. They decided to freeze my account for “suspicious behavior” b/c I had used my card in a 7-11 a few days before in Denmark. I had told my bank that I was going to be in Europe until December, but I guess they didn’t bother to check or care that I was in Italy with no money. What would I have done if I was all alone? Thanks Freedom Credit Union… I will not be dealing with them in the future.  Luckily, it all was figured out, and my professor Gitte was kind enough to loan me money. My card now works, and everything is fine, just so everyone knows.

If I could, I would write every detail about the trip, but I think it will bore everyone to death so I am just going to go over the major, fun stuff we did. Just know that every meal I had was amazing! Here are a few pictures of the many wonderful pizzas and pastas I ate.

Being in Italy reminded me so much of Philly. I never really thought about it, but where I grew up, I had many classmates/teachers of Italian heritage and sometimes I would pass by people in Milan who reminded me of them. So weird! Also the food we ate and the gelato shops were so similar to places I went to growing up. I do not have any Italian heritage, but for those of you who do, you are lucky to be from such a wonderful, beautiful country!

Tuesday morning we had an academic visit with Andrea Crocetti and he spoke to us about well-being and the 14 Fundamentals to happiness. He was kind of interesting, but rather long. Also, it was hard to understand him at some points.

Later that day we got to see the Last Supper painting! It was so beautiful. Apparently, in order to see the painting you have to book tickets way ahead of time. DIS definitely gets major props in my book for doing this. Unfortunately, we could not take pictures of the painting. They were very protective of the painting and took many measures to make sure no one took any pictures. It was so awesome to be able to see the painting up close. It took Leonardo da Vinci 3 years to complete the painting. Crazy! Here is a Google image of the Last Supper painting. Not as good as seeing it in real life, but I guess it will have to do.

After the Last Supper, we had a wine tasting at “That’s Wine”. We tasted Italian champagne, Pinot Grigio, and a red wine called Col di Sasso. So good! My class had not eaten for at least six hours so let me just say that we were just a tad bit tipsy. A group of us found a pizza place and had to most wonderful pizza. So big! Then we were near the Duomo and we found a gelato place. Such a good night!

Wednesday October 5^th: We had an academic visit with Paolo Ingilleri at the University of Milan. We learned about optimal experience (when you are doing a challenging, yet satisfying experience such as rock climbing or surfing) and also about good, professional methods for psychotherapy.

Later that day, we went to the Duomo! It was this gorgeous cathedral. We even got access to the roof. Here are some pictures. The views were phenomenal! If you ever go to Milan, you must go to the Duomo!

On Thursday, we went to Polo University and our speaker was Antonella della Fave. She spoke about cultural well-being. She apparently had been at a Positive Psychology conference this past summer in Philadelphia. It’s a shame I didn’t know about it because I would have loved to go! We also talked about optimal experience and altruism.

Later that night, I met up with my old Camp Sankanac friend Noemi. Noemi came to work at Sankanac in the summer of 2007 and lives in Milan. I knew I had to meet up with her when I could. Contacting each other was very complicated as whenever  I tried to call her it did not work and whenever she tried to call me it would not work. We both were randomly on facebook that night and decided to meet up! We went to the Porto Genova district with my friends Caitlin, Ansley, Allie, and Lauren and had a wonderful dinner outside. It was so much fun! I was so glad to be able to see her.

Friday, we had one last academic visit also at Polo University. There we learned about how psychology and health are important. Such as how disability and disease can affect a patient. We also learned about rehabilitation path and its importance to a patient’s recovery.

It was a Liia, a girl in my class’ birthday, so as a class, we went to get gelato. It was so yummy!! Then, we finally had some free time so my friends Caitlin, Shuyao, and I went to a park where we found this monument. So cool! We also went to Pinoteca di Brera museum. Some very interesting paitings in there. We were not allowed to take pictures, so I don’t have any to show, sorry. It was a nice, relaxing day.

That night we went to a Jazz Show at a club called the Blue Note Milano. A guy named Luca Jorman played. He was very good and played mostly American music, which was really great. We had been told a few times by our tour leaders before we went that we were to be quiet the whole show. I guess the last DIS group to have gone to Italy was really loud when they went to the Jazz Show.  I think everyone enjoyed themselves. I know I did.

Saturday was the last day.  We were to go to Lake Como. About 15 minutes into the bus ride to the lake, my roommate, Briana, and I realized that we had forgotten our passports in the safe in our room! Let’s just add this to the list of stupid stuff Jenna Watkins has done in her life.  Our tour leaders dropped us off at a metro so that we could return to the hotel. Of course, it couldn’t just be a direct line to get to our hotel, but I guess that’s the way life works. We got our stuff, in addition to a girl in my class’s shoes. We then had to take a train to Lake Como. Thankfully, the ticket to get there was only 5 euro. Briana and I were kind of upset that we were going to be missing out on some of the action at Lake Como, but it ended up being ok. We only got there 45 minutes after the rest of our class got there. Briana and I eventually met up with some of our other friends and we just walked around having a relaxing day. I bought a pair of pearl earrings and a cool necklace at a market. You can check out my Lake Como photos on my facebook. Just look for the photo album called "Viva Italia".

Soon, we left for the airport and before I knew it I was back in Copenhagen. The S-trains, which I normally take to get back to my house were all messed up because of construction this weekend. A really nice conductor on the regional train from the Airport to Copenhagen Central Station was able to help me out and figure out what I needed to do to get home. He was so helpful. Thanks nice conductor guy!

Yesterday, I went to church. It was nice to be back to a regular schedule and to see some of the friends I have made at church, especially Erika from the UK! I fell down the stairs today. Trille, the dog, was going to pee on the rug  upstairs because she was excited to see me. My host family was gone at a birthday party. I wanted to take her outside before she peed anymore. The door was locked so I quickly ran down stairs to my room to get my keys. As I ran down the steps, I slipped and fell on my back. I am fine, my butt just hurts lol. When I finally came to take Trille out, she had hidden under the couch. I guess my fall must have scared her. Poor dog…

Next weekend, I will be visiting my cousin Phil, who is working at Black Forest Academy, a Christian boarding school where missionaries from around the world can send their children to school. I will also be visiting my friend Meaghan. Phil is staying in Kandern, Germany and Meaghan in Delemont, Switzerland. Both are pretty close to the city of Basel, Switzerland. I am really looking forward to it! I worked with Meaghan at Panera Bread this past year and haven’t seen her since maybe April. Much of the reason I am here studying abroad is because of  the many hours I spent working at Panera. I had a very stressful junior year trying to balance going to school and working at Panera, but it was worth it. Definitely.

Shout out to anyone from Panera Wayne reading this! I could totally go for broccoli cheddar soup right now. A totally upset a vegetarian girl from my class when I informed her that Broccoli Cheddar is not vegetarian. Oops...

Hopefully, this trip to Basel goes off without any hitches, unlike my trip to Milan, though know despite my setbacks I still had a wonderful time! Sorry this was so long! I tried to only write the important fun stuff we did on the trip. Just imagine if I wrote about everything we did! Thanks for all your support!

<3, Jenna