host parents are back!

tak for gaven!

(thank you for the gift)

They had a wonderful time in India, although apparently the toilets everywhere are beyond disgusting and they are bitten all over with mosquito bites, but they loved it. And they soooo nicely brought me back this necklace! It is made from camel bone, and I believe that is a little elephant carved into it.

midterms happen here too

So, I guess it's midterm season over here in Copenhagen! I just finished my third and final test this morning. Whew. Actually, it's been kind of nice. I won't complain, but the academics at DIS are ... a little different than at Smith. While I do genuinely feel as though I am taking away a lot from the classes, they are structured very differently. I'm learning a lot more practical, real world, occupation-based information and getting some really cool opportunities through work shops, but I have to admit, I would love to write a culturally analytic paper right now. On anything. Any Sociology/American Studies students at Smith have a paper they don't want to write...? Just kidding, kind of.

Last Thursday I had my International Advertising midterm which was actually kind of fun because I'm an advertising nerd. Part of it was having to analyze the target consumer audience of a advertising campaign for a car in Denmark. I hate to say it, because I am terrified of selling my soul to the corporate world, but I do truly love advertising. All of my classes this year have made me realize it. Branding, marketing, advertising, it is all just so awesome.

Friday I had my Danish quiz, which we got back today, and I did well on! I know you are all so interested in my academic triumphs and not in fun stories about going to bars. Ha. Just reminding you that I do have to study while here as well as immerse myself into the Danish culture!

And, today I had my Current Trends in News Media midterm. So, now I'm done with tests for a while!

LONDON ONE WEEK FROM TODAY!!!

culture clash

Mathias: what's that smell?
Gillian: balsamic
Mathias: vinegar??
Gillian: yeah, you put it on salad!
Mathias: that's why you can't cook

Sorry for the hiatus! I'm back!

Highlights of the past week:

• Rosenborg Castle! Visited with my Danish class. I still want to live in a castle. Although, visiting this one wasn't quite as enjoyable because you weren't able to touch and sit on everything. But, there were crown jewels.
• Making Danish pancakes. Thursday night we had guests over because my host parents left last night for a week and so their friends who are our neighbors came over so I could meet them. My host dad started making pancakes (basically, Danish pancakes are like crepes but you roll them instead of folding them) and then after making the first one, stopped, and told me to make the rest. So I did. And they were good! We put ice cream, nutella, jam, and whipped cream inside of them. Delicious.
• Drinking wine in McDonalds. Classiest way to start a Friday evening.
• Dancing with a ridiculously tall Danish man. Hilarious. We danced for probably half an hour at the Happy Pig bar. Just twirling around and goofy style rocking out.
• Jailhouse bar: A famous jailhouse themed gay bar. Went in to check it out- actually was a pretty cool, non terrifyingly leather, place. I liked the lighting and atmosphere. Although, of course, being surrounded by gay men of all ages is amusing but not necessarily my number 1 choice of company. Had a nice chat with an older man about gay culture in Copenhagen and America though, so obviously I loved that.
  
• and last but not least, Bobby's hot pants

When in Denmark...blodpølse

Well, Denmark wins again. I just tried blood sausage. For those of you who know me, you should be well aware of what a giant leap this was for me because of my intense fear of blood. But! After two glasses of red wine and my desire to experience absolutely everything possible when it comes to studying abroad, I said what the hell, bring on the blood! Ew, okay I didn't say that exactly. Yes, I do realize that blood sausage is made from draining a pig of its blood and then baking it with raisins, fat, and flour. And yes, my host brother Mathias did kindly remind me continually throughout our after dinner blodpølse snack that it was, indeed, blood that I was eating. Anyway, what you do is buy the sausage and then slice it and throw it in a frying pan without butter or anything until it is black and smelling delicious. Then we poured syrup on it.

Curious as to what this Danish traditional treat could taste like? FRENCH TOAST. Literally. After my first few bites I could not figure it out but it finally hit me. Blood sausage has the exact same texture and taste of french toast, no wonder they put syrup on it! Don't ask me how or why, but it does. And it was good. I give it a thumbs up, although, I'm not sure how much of it I will be eating in the future.

Romeo and Juliet Didn't Die!

Last night, my Danish class attempted to see Romeo and Juliet at the Opera. We looked good, we got there on time... mayyy have had our classy Valentines day dinner at McDonalds but whatever, we're in Europe. We find our seats and sit down as the show begins. The opera is a modernized version of the play, and it began with the funerals of Romeo and Juliet side by side. Although, because we were seated to the extreme far right of the theater, we had no idea that Romeo was also hanging out on the right side of the stage until the end of the scene when he and Juliet rose from their coffins to dramatically exit so the story could begin.

And then...turn curtain fell and after a moment the orchestra stopped playing. Another moment went by, and the director of the opera came out and informed us that they were having technical difficulties.

Because the Copenhagen Opera House was, when built, the best technology money could buy, the stage involves an elevator which gives it levels to perform on. Apparently, the elevator broke during the opening night performance we were attending. Although they tried to restart the technology and fix it rapidly, no go.

So, after an hour and two free glasses of wine- thank you, opera house- we were told that the show would not be able to go on that evening. Ah well! Still an amazing experience and we will be going back to see the ENTIRE show (hopefully) next month!

And, perhaps this was meant to happen, so that on Valentines Day, Romeo and Juliet did not in fact die! The last thing we saw was them happily leaving their coffins. Metaphor for love? Who knows.

Weekend Recap

Thursday night: Communication and Mass Media social. Surprisingly fun! We went to this building with tons of floors and bars and stages. Very cool place. We grabbed some drinks on DIS at our bar and chatted and then went into the private, old, small cinema to watch a movie. Our attention spans didn't last too long with the movie, so we went out to keep chatting which was nice! Thankfully, the people in the group are really awesome and fun to be around. London should be amaaazing.

Friday night: Went home with Sam and had a WONDERFUL dinner with her family. OH! But first, she and I went with her young host sister to her riding lesson. Basically, Ulla, Sam's host mom, dressed us up in incredibly warm clothing (snowpants included) and we stood and watched her host sister ride a horse in a circle for an hour. While this may not sound like a blast, I have to admit it kind of was. I also have to admit that I am kind of terrified of horses. Would I EVER have imagined myself in Scandinavia with Sam watching a wonderful little Danish girl riding a horse? No. But that's what this semester is about!
Dinner was delicious pizza and wine and fabulous conversation. Both of her host parents do such awesome things with social media but in totally separate career areas. So obviously I was fascinated and intrigued.
Then, we headed out and spent most of night at a bar called The Happy Pig where they were having a Valentines Day themed party in the upstairs bar and dance area. It was soo much fun. The music was good, they had goofy Valentines Day themed drinks and free shots (mayyybe these tasted like Pepto but oh well) and everyone who was there was really awesome and having a good time.

Saturday night: Met my friend Ethan for drinks at a bar called Lord Nelson where they have expensive locally brewed delicious beer. We discussed film, culture, music, and video games over out pints and it was nice to sit down and have an intellectual conversation over good drinks. I felt very cultured?
Then I headed to Floss to meet some other friends from DIS and played pool, Dad- you were totally right, I should really have taken pool lessons. I am truly, truly awful. Here, I also had another intellectual conversation with a girl about theory (from old French dead guys to modern Black feminist authors) which I have missed so much since last semester.
So, overall successful and fun night.

Now it is Sunday afternoon and I am trying to get the motivation to do some homework and stop watching Modern Family. Sundays are just as lazy for me in Denmark as they are at Smith.

Celebrating Amy's 21!

Tuesday night I went out with Amy and Charlie to celebrate Amy's 21 birthday! It was a night of bar hopping, vikings, singing loudly, and taking blurry pictures.

We started at one of our favorite places: The Viking Bar, and got Amy a pitcher of long island ice tea which she managed to finish herself in about ten minutes. JUST KIDDING. We all drank it and it took a lot longer than ten minutes, no fears everyone.

After finishing getting Viking'd up, we headed across town (I say this as if the walk takes more than about 7 minutes) to an Irish pub. On our way, we passed some guy in a ...crusader outfit? And I told Amy that it would be necessary to get a picture with him for her birthday. Upon entering the bar, we were immersed into louuuuddd singing and chanting to a live band and men showing their excitement for the England/Denmark game. Here, I met two charming men: one, a Dane who kept dancing and putting his hat on me and singing with me to the great covers of I'm a Believer, Sex on Fire, and other winners. Then, a man from England decided he would also like to bask in my awesomeness for a while (ha?) and told me repeatedly how good looking and sexy I was. What a charmer. Not really. Eventually, the real winner, was the Crusader who Amy and I took this lovely picture with:
After escaping my new boyfriends, we headed over to the Australian bar near our school which was dead but seemed like a chill place. And we got to pee, so that was an overall win.

Our last stop was the Happy Pig bar which was filled with DIS and I didn't stay too long. Just long enough, in fact, to have my beer knocked out of my and and then I knew it was time to sleep.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMY!

Remember that time...

I was on a news show? And was a therapist from Wisconsin reporting on Football Attention Neurosis? No? Well, now you can watch the full news show my group created and see my interview...

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/15539912/DIS%20030211_003.wmv

Friday: castle, M2 Film, creepy cabins

Valdemars Slot

Friday began with with a trip to a Danish castle

Basically, I have decided that I need to live in a castle soo I'm going to have to work on seducing royalty from now on. The entire thing was beautiful and old and wonderful, but there was something very interesting about it. The current owner, a hot blonde baroness named Caroline who is married to a famous soccer player over ten years younger than her, has made her modern impression on the 17th century castle. You see, while walking through the castle, there are pictures displayed: family portraits, individual faces in beautiful frames... and a few pictures fit for MySpace. I felt too awkward to take any pictures of these, but the contrast was so odd. For example, Caroline recently threw a masquerade party and amongst the antiques on an old wooden shelf, were pictures of her and a few friends holding the camera and taking pictures of themselves in their tiny sequined dresses. Then, you go look at another wall in the same room, and there is a painting probably from the 18th century of a former king of Denmark. So weird!

After the castle, we went back to Odense to explore and grab lunch. I had my first taste of shawarma and found out that the word for "hummus" is Danish is "homos" so obviously I got a kick out of that.

We also took a little walk to the Hans Christian Anderson museum/his old house but didn't go in because we didn't have enough time.

Then the group headed to M2 Films, a major production studio in Denmark, where we were given a tour and were shown a few examples of the advertisements and short films they have created. This place was awesome. It was the coolest office I have ever seen. Then, to make the visit even cooler, we got to hang out at their Friday Bar. In Denmark, it is a tradition in businesses to go out together on Friday afternoons and have a few drinks and hang out. M2 Films actually has a bar inside of their office building. Whaaaat. It was awesome. There was a ping pong table and couches and a little bar and it was so cool. So, we had a few beers and mingled with famous producers and interns and yeah, very, very neat.

When we arrived a while later at our hostel for the night, it was basically out of a horror movie. Don't fret parents, it turned out to be fine and in the morning we realized we were right on the water and in the summer it would be so beautiful. However, we arrived during a rainy windstorm and had to walk down a dark dirt path to our cabins. Which actually were quite nice. And I fell asleep quite easily in my new bed:

Thursday: news production, TV2

Thursday morning I woke up bright and early to get on a bus and begin my short study tour with my Communication and Mass Media program!

Our first stop was the Brandts media museum where my group spent the afternoon creating a news show- which you will soon be able to see online. We each had a job and had to research stories to do and film our parts. Another girl and I were assigned the roles of the cultural interview and we chose to do a piece on Football Attention Neurosis (FAN) which is the diagnosed problems of Superbowl fans before and during the big game. I played the role of a therapist out of Wisconsin who was explaining FAN. It was pretty hilarious. And don't worry, its real, we found it on the NY Times.

Next we got back on the bus and headed to TV2, Denmark's major publicly owned television station. We had a tour and a question session with their manager, a pretty important guy here, who was handling phone calls from Egypt the entire time. That was pretty incredible. We got to see their news room, which was so MELLOW compared to how any of us ever imagined it.

After TV2 we checked into our hostel, which was surprisingly nice, and then headed out to dinner provided to us by DIS- thanks for the burgers and creme brulee- where the waitress tried to charge us 12 dkk for water. Tap water.

Then after eating our weight in free food, I headed back to my room to watch bad Danish television with one of my roommates for the night. We found this show... I think its called the Wedge? But I could be wrong. Basically, it was like foreign SNL and it was hilarious.

PR Field Study

Mmmm I just finished a delicious dinner and had a wonderful dessert of DANISH PANCAKES with my host family. Danish pancakes are... basically crepes but instead of folding them, they are rolled with jam and whipped cream inside. Or whatever else you'd like. Sooooo yummy.

Today I went on a field study with my core group to a PR office. When we got there, we were given a short introduction into PR and then were broken into groups designated by different companies and had to create a presentation for the person in charge of the campaign. My group was in charge of Penguin Candies and creating a Penguin Olympic Games event to get children excited and to create loyalties surrounding the product. It was a lot of fun. We had a lot of good ideas and it was actually really awesome to be in a "real life" setting and applying our academic knowledge to something real.

Tomorrow I leave for the short study tour around Denmark. I'll be back Saturday and will fill you all in on my adventures!

Academics in Copenhagen...

Currently in a blogging workshop for my Virtual Worlds and Social Media class. This is pretty awesome.

And, this weekend we are going on our first study tour and paintballing will be happening. So excited. There will also be tons of awesome academically focused visits to news stations and museums and other media related activities. But, yeah, paintballing!