Berlin/Prague

So, last week I went on my long study tour to Berlin/Prague. This is part one of my adventures there.
We (my class and I) left Sunday March 24th and returned Friday March 29th.

Berlin: AMAZING
So Berlin is legit an amazing city with over 100 years of history there. My class and I took the Fat Tire Bike Tour of the city which gives you the summary of the most important sites that Berlin has to offer. It was three hours long but it felt like 1 hour. Out bike tour guide was this young fellow from London who was a history major so that meant he knew his history very well. Before the tour started, he asked if anyone could be in the back of the group to make sure no one got lost; I rose my hand and thank goodness I did because at the end of the tour, I got a free soda and a few pieces of the Berlin wall. I'm not lying to you, people CAN get pieces of the wall that have been pre-packaged. So yes, always volunteer because you never know what the reward it.
 (Side note: my friends and I started writing down famous last words that we thought could be famous last words and here is our first one:
               Flora: Always volunteer for things
               Holly: What about as tribute? (referring to The Hunger Games)
               Flora: No!
  so yes, this game of figuring out famous last words went on throughout the week. It was definitely entertaining).

Now back to what I was saying before. The bike tour allowed us to see such as where Hitler committed suicide with his wife, the monument for all the Jews whose lives were lost during the WWII period, the place where the burning of the books took place, parliament, the Square that has the hotel where Michael Jackson dangled his baby from, and the TV tower. We were also told some pretty funny stories that came along with each site. For example, there was a French church built for all the french that came into Germany and the Germans were a tad bit jealous so they built what seems like an exact replica of the same church but on the other side; the German's church is of course just about a few inches taller than that of the French.

I also went to a chocolate store where you could actually make your own chocolate! I didn't make my own but I did get some delicious and cheap chocolate. At night, I went out with a few of my friends to a bar where I met some awesome Dutch guys (they were also in Germany for a school trip; they were architecture business students) I danced the night away along with them and my friends from school. Here are what the boys from Netherlands looked like: I think the one in the middle of the 3 boys was the cutest!)

But I wish I could have gotten their numbers because I want to go to the Netherlands before I go back to the states. Oh well. Man, my hair is getting longer and even bigger in poofiness! After a little hick-up with a girl in my class that I went out with (she basically wanted to go home with a guy and I told her no), I went back to the hotel. Oh the girl basically ran away from my friend and I and I had no energy left to spend looking for her but don't you worry, she came back to the hotel at 6am and was fine. 

As for academic visits while in Berlin, we visited Andels Hotel which opened in 2009, the unfinished Berlin Airport, and the Brewers association of Germany. The hotel was beautiful and everyone in my class decided that we should have stayed there instead of our non-magnificent hostel. The airport looked HUGE but I along with other students were exhausted from our nights shenanigans to truly pay attention. The Brewers Association was everyone's favorite visit because we got beer and pretzels. I had the most delicious tasting wheat beer I've ever had and I wish I could remember the name of it so you the reader can try it but I can't. 

With our visit to the Brewers Association over with, there was another pause to the tour when one of the students had to go to the Hospital to be checked out because he felt very dizzy. We waited about 2 hours or so and he came back feeling good and all that was wrong with him was that he was dehydrated. Guess from what? bingo, drinking 70% alcohol. So children, please drink responsibly and don't use 70% alcohol, it will destroy your insides. I wish we had been given more days in Berlin because it's a great city that has a lot to offer. But we were back on the bus and off to Prague.

*the Bear is the symbol of Berlin so they were found everywhere!

Prague: Everything is sooooo cheap

Our hotel in Prague or Praha as was written everywhere was much nicer than that in Berlin. It was called Ibis  Hotel. We went on a tour of the old castle and "parliament" but it was FREEZING! The tour was supposed to be 4 hours or something but it was only one and a half hours. Even the tour guides were cold and always tried to bring us inside. We got some amazing views from where we were located.

 

My friends Holly and I also visited the Basilica S. Apostolorum Petri et Pauli and the church looks amazing from the outside. There is also a beautiful cemetery that is on the church property. We looked at each tombstone and kept seeing the word Rodina so we thought it was a first name and guess what? Every tombstone we saw had that on there and we couldn't believe that everyone was named Rodina. After getting back to the hotel, we asked one of our leaders, Lucie who is from the Czech Republic, what it meant and it just means family. So if it said Rodina Christopher, it meant Family Christopher blah blah blah. That cleared up a lot of things for us. One more interesting fact about the cemetery is that whole families were buried together in one spot. Pretty crazy I think because there was a tombstone that had 9 names on it. Talk about a tight squeeze. 

It was a ton of fun. That night we went to eat and a bar while most of my class mates went on a pubcrawl and let's just say, they had A LOT of fun but not very many memories except for the pictures of the night. One kid got mugged but he fought his attacker off, he had the biggest lip I've ever seen. Many people threw up. It was a mess but! we everyone made it for our academic visit in the morning. 

*I think college students are pretty incredible because they can have the wildest night that's filled with fights, drama, drinking yet still wake up when they have to and look presentable. It's a great skill to have. 

We also went on a dinner cruise that lasted 3 hours that was fun; I got to see some cool penguins and the Charles bridge at night. After that, the majority of the class went to the Mafia bar and then a club that Rihanna filmed a video at. Mafia bar was dead when we went there but the club was a ton of fun. Entrance fee for Girls: FREE. I danced the night away with my friends and the unbelievable amount of sweat that came from each surface of my body was worth every second of it. 

As for academic visits: we spoke to the Danish Trade Council, T-Mobile, and Lego which was everyone's favorite because it's Lego! A great toy company and the presenter was the best out of the rest. 

On the last day, we went to see the clock tower and the line was long but the view was incredible. We had to climb stairs (of course) but my friend and i took the elevator on the way down because the stairs were too "crowded"..we were just lazy. 

 There was also a cool market near the tower where I got a ton of food to eat, I'm still a hungry girl so I need a lot of food. 

Prague was amazing and what made it amazing wasn't the fact that food and drinks are cheap (seriously though, $2 for a mixed drink is NOT bad), it's the fact that I was able to make these great memories with people in my class. When else will I ever get to do this again with 27 other people? And I hope you don't think my class is full of alcoholics because we went out almost every night, we are just college students trying to enjoy this great opportunity that has been given to us.

But I am now back in Denmark and everyone is very glad to be back because this has become our home. I will leave you now with a few video clips I took from the week. 

Adios for now

When did this happen?

That's the question me and a lot of other people seem to be asking these days: when did this happen?

One week ago, I was in Belgium relaxing, sight seeing, meeting people, getting a massage and now, back in Copenhagen, I seem to be in the middle of a battle. The enemy, school work. More specifically tests and papers. You could be thinking I'm just being a drama queen but just go back to the days of when you had to write papers and take what seems like 20 exams all in a weeks time...the horror! I know!

I had to write a paper about the consequence of the 2nd Industrial Revolution. Got it done. Thank goodness. But I am currently in the library researching Norse mythology for my other paper that is due next week.

So many books!

At least my research is about Thor which interests me. But yes, this weekend will be filled with writing papers and studying BUT also a lot of fun. 

I will be meeting my buddy network (sponsored by the school) to do a pub crawl this evening, tomorrow i'm going to a Walk the Moon concert!! :) currently my favorite band. And Sunday? Salsa dancing. So yes, I have work to do but I don't want to stress too much over it which is why I am doing fun stuff in hopes of balancing the work load. wish me luck!

also here is a Walk the Moon song for your hearing pleasure. Prepare to fall in love

See ya later alligator :-) 

Belgiummmmmmmm :)

March 1^st 2013 Post

Waiting at the airport:

After getting patted down at security because something on my body kept making the metal detectors beep (I think it was my watch and ring) it’s currently 7:05pm and I am at the Copenhagen Airport because I am going to Belgium! J I sat down for a while near the duty free shops because I came quite a bit early and the monitors didn’t have my gate number up yet. I’m not sure about you but whenever I’m early at the airport, the one thing I usually do a lot of is observe. It’s not that I’m trying to be a creeper but I get tired of reading or writing and people are so interesting. For example, I saw a young man who worked for Joe and the Juice flirting with a young woman who worked for Pandora. She went up to him while he was picking up some boxes filled with apples to bring them into Joe and the Juice. They spoke for a while and the young woman got a free apple out of it.

Once my gate number became available, I began to walk towards it. About half way to my gate, I saw something I thought I wouldn’t see until May 17. Starbucks. Yes, you read me right, Starbucks. The one thing Copenhagen doesn’t have is this great little coffee shop. Now don’t get me wrong, they have plenty of coffee shops such as Baresso but no Starbucks. So, what do you do when you are abroad and you see this beautiful site? Grab yourself a caramel macchiato and continue on your journey to your gate. I even have proof for you:

Several steps ahead, I arrive upon my gate and I hear some yellow coming from the counter near the entrance of the plane. Well from what I was here to hear, a woman was trying to get the plane to wait for her husband who was still at security. The woman was here (the gate) with her son and her brother. Now the plane was meant to leave at 7:05pm and guess what time it was? 7:05pm. That time also translates to 19:05. Well the man at the desk was telling her that the plane couldn’t wait and she was not having it. The man gave her an ultimatum of either getting on the plane or not. She chose not to get on the plane. 4 minutes later, a man comes running to the gate (the husband) and he asks about his wife. The man at the front tells him that she left but the captain said that he would wait one more minute for them to get on the plane. At this time, I turn to look outside the window to see that the plane was just waiting there with a latter so they could get on. (What a nice captain waiting for the family! I’m impressed.) Now here comes the sad part. The man doesn’t know where his wife went and so he tells the front desk attendant that he will not be getting on this plane. You may be asking yourself where they were going. Paris, France.

With that tid-bit of excitement over with, I looked away from the front desk to see a woman riding a scooter. A woman running very quickly might I add. An airport employee on a scooter (I’m guessing that’s how they get around here. I like!)  More people coming into this cubicle like waiting area that has its own bathroom. Oh! I just saw a really cute boy. Make that two cute boys. Then a woman asks the woman who is sitting next to me to watch her bag while she goes somewhere.

And if you wondering about my drink (which you probably weren’t) it’s gone now, just like the time I’ve spent in this airport.

*My tummy sort of hurts from the coffee I drank, but it was totally worth it.

8:12pm (20:12)

I’m now on the plane and oh my goodness I am SOO excited!! It feels like my insides are going to burst out from all this excitement! 

I somehow got lucky and have no one sitting on my side so if I wanted to I could lie across all three seats and take a nap. I don’t think I will do that since this flight is only an hour and 10 minutes.

One cool think about taking Brussels airlines is that they speak in three languages: French, English and I believe Danish. So I get to practice my French which isn’t very good since I have no one to speak to in French back in the states. It’s a tad bit weird though when I hear French. For example, a flight attendant told me “bon soire” which means good evening in French and it took me 5 seconds to comprehend what she was saying. Then when I wanted to say thank you, I was about to say tak which is the Danish thank you but I wasn’t sure if she spoke Danish so I was going to say merci but all I said was thank you in English. Confused yet? Me too. All these languages are getting jumbled up in my head. Let’s just say I am now very impressed with people who speak 10 different languages and can switch from one to the next with ease because I obviously just failed that task.

Fun fact about me, my ears always hurt when the plane takes off and lands. This isn’t the regular ear pain that comes and goes away within 10 minutes of landing; it literally feels like someone is smashing my whole face with a hammer. This description may be a little too dramatic but I need you to understand the pain that I go through whenever I fly. I always try chewing gum, yawning, holding my nose and blowing the air out, drinking water, swallowing a lot and nothing ever works. Someone needs to come up with an invention that prevents these ears/head pains while flying. Um maybe I’ll do that myself. Watch out world, I may find a cure for this curse!

I wish there was Wi-Fi on this airplane so I could post this right away (hint hint to all airlines).

March 11th (today)

So I spent 10 days in Belgium. I met many amazing people that I will stay in touch with and they are truly my family so it's nice to know that other people out there are similar to me :-) and I'm so greatly for them for showing me around Belgium everyday that I was there. 

That is all i shall say about my trip because I have to study for my accounting exam Thursday. Let's just say these next two weeks aren't going to be very fun like my time in Belgium. 

If you are wondering why I haven't posted many pictures, it's because i took over 600 pictures and that's a lot to go through and put on this blog.

till next time!