A basket of fruit

Hello!

Congratulations on finding your way here. Decided to change the URL because reasons, so hope that hasn't annoyed you too much. If so, tough. I don't think I can change it back :D

Sorry it's been so long since I last posted, but as you well may imagine, I've been really busy. And it has been super awesome. About an hour ago I submitted my second term paper (it's not fantastic, but should be fine), and I have a Danish test next Monday that I'll spend the rest of the week studying for, but right now thought I'd do a quick update. In the coming weeks, look forward to more or less a post per day I spent in America, and several detailing my family trip around Copenhagen, and to Germany. This weekend I'm going travelling around to see some of the rest of Denmark which should be plenty of fun (and contain a lot of bus time in which we can practice Danish).

I'm not really bothered to navigate around placing lots of photos right now, so I shall leave you with one, a basket of fruit.

What is so special about this basket of fruit you ask? Well nothing particularly. But there is this trendy-- by which I mean super-hipster--street,Jægersborggade,in my neighbourhood. Basically every other shop is a café, with the others being a Michelin star restaurant, chocolate shop, a bakery or two (which make delightful cinnamon scrolls), indie clothing shops, that sort of thing. So at one of them, you can pick fruit off a shelf, and then they juice it for you. So this was my fruit. I had a lovely juice. 

That is all. I will get into better updating habits again! Well, in theory :P

Have a nice day!

A few fun things

Hi hi. Or rather hej hej. Not that if I was speaking to you, you'd know the difference. Makes it easier actually, I don't have to think when I reply. Except that 'hey' sounds like Swedish apparently. So if you reply 'hey' to a 'hej' maybe they look at you funny. I don't know.

Keeping with tradition-- Thursday night
pre-training hot dogs :)

So this'll probably be my last update for a little while, seeing as I'll be in America (do do do do do America! No? West Side Story? Oh never mind. I don't know the actual words.) I will have wifi for at least part of it but I don't want to try writing on my phone. That just seems designed to irritate me. But we'll see. I'm in New York from Friday-Wednesday, then I go to Myrtle Beach for the Quidditch World Cup on Thursday. We have four games on Saturday then if we finish top three (of five, duh) in our pool we'll progress through to Sunday. So excited!

I spotted a few fun things this week though:

This guy was talking Danish. (Er, I think.) I wonder how he chose his NFL team...

I was the 5630th person to ride past this sign that day. It was a mainish road in the middle of the city, but isn't that fantastic?

So this guy just casually taking his hockey stick on the train. Little creepy. What's creepier is the guy behind him with the exact same hair.

I was walking around in town the other day (which is a little strange to say. Copenhagen really isn't that big and I'm only a 10-15 minute ride into what I consider the centre anyway, but there is still a distinction between where I live and there.) and came across this stage that hadn't been there the last time I was there. There was a girl walking up and down the catwalk singing into a microphone, and a few minutes later the full music came through as well. My sources tell me there was an X Factor concert on there that night, so I assume I found the sound check. It rained though if I recall, so I don't know how happy the crowd would've been.

On Sunday I played in a football match (rather badly, I will admit), for which we (by which I mean my lovely team mate) had to drive outside of Copenhagen. It was strange being in a car again, and super strange having the steering wheel on the wrong side. Didn't notice so much being on the wrong side of the road, since on a split highway you don't really notice the other side anyway. The really odd thing was the countryside-- so highways and rolling green hills look mostly the same (if the grass was the wrong colour), but the trees were really tripping me out. It honestly looked like bushfires had gone sweeping through all of them-- they were that pale white colour with not a breath of green for ages. I mean I know they just came through winter and winter here is not to be trifled with but it was super, super strange to look at. Also they had signs warning of wildlife in the coming stretch. With a reindeer as the animal depicted. I normally don't notice my accent when I'm speaking, but my reply to the question "oh, you don't get that?" was "reindeer, no. A stray kangaroo maybe"-- and I really heard it then. Sorry, I didn't take a photo :(

Aight that'll do. I'm tired and I'm sick of trying to get the photos to align up there. So sorry if it looks a little strange. It'll bug me more than it does you, I'm sure.

So have a wonderful almost two weeks. I know I certainly will :D

If you can dodge a wrench...

Hello, dear reader! I hope this finds you well. I think I'm getting sick again. Booo-urns.

The big news of this week is THAT THE SUN IS OUT. And it is out for long enough that I can actually feel warmth from it when I am outside, can feel heat coming in through my windows. It is beautiful and majestic and wonderful and a whole eight degrees outside. Isn't that ridiculous? That would be middle-of-winter-rug-up-and-stay-home weather in Sydney but here everyone is outside, sitting on the lawns drinking, in the parks, and in my case celebrating only wearing one layer, namely one t-shirt, jeans, and my coat (and scarf and gloves while riding). But it is so great, I wore my sunnies outside on Sunday (blog to come!)... and promptly stepped on them Monday morning so had to buy a new pair. Good to know that the rules of the universe haven't changed for me, namely that sunglasses have a very limited lifespan. My new ones were $10 from the Kmart/Coles crossover place, which will hopefully not suffer the same fate as their predecessor. But I'm not particularly hopeful.

Still playing in blue :)
Yes that is artificial turf.

My football team had a match last week, they ended up losing. But it was fun to watch. Everyone was wearing long sleeves and pants and when they started I didn't think it was that cold to warrant that but damn by the end (about 6pm) it was freezing and I completely understood! They had kids matches all the way up til about 5pm too, space is clearly a premium here!

&nbsp &nbsp Just casual pop-up dodgeball.

So on to the title of this post. My uni is pretty cool, have I mentioned that? Last week they had a dodgeball tournament. Inside one of the large seminar room type things, just a few strung nets, a whole lot of orange balls and people willing to hurt each other for entertainment.

And it was entertaining! Dressing up was encouraged so there were a few pirates, ninjas, fluro people, cats, I don't know what else. Was a fun way to spend the afternoon!

Vi ses!

Hells Angels, Danish and the Sydney Derby

Hello!!

Sorry it's been a week since I updated! I realised this week that I actually had to do some real work, get my proposal in for the paper I have to write worth 100% for Sports Economics. The brief is basically "write up to 15 pages on something to do with sports and money", so I had to do some research. Haven't written the proposal yet, but I think I'll be looking either at the league design of the A-League, what choices they made when creating it, that sort of thing. Or, if I can track down some key information (through polite emails) about the 'success' of the Wanderers as a new team, how their marketing strategy operated, maybe compared to the GWS Giants in AFL or something, etc. I should get onto that.

Of course, the only thing the Wanderers were successful at tonight (well, lunchtime my time) was messing up and losing. (Burn). SYDNEY IS SKY BLUE!!! I made a Bet365 account and had to put $10 on it but it was totally worth it because I could stream the second half, when all the action was and it was fantastic! Earliest I've voluntarily gotten up in a long time!

Anyway, so I made this video. It will become apparent that I meant to upload it a few days ago, but like I said, I got busy. One of the captions is cut off a little, sorry, it looked different on the preview.

Hope you are having a great day! 

Signs make people go round the world

So this is at Kongens Have, the garden I
found the other week. I really just love
that it has a crown.

Just proof I'm alive. Bonus points
if you can pick the signs of
photoshop- we were playing with
my friend's new phone. So, thinking
about it, not very good proof I'm
alive at all, really.

Get it? As in 'make the world go round', but they don't really, but they do help people get around the world.

I'm so cool. I know.

Also, I've changed the settings so you don't need a Google account to post comments, but also I have to okay them before they'll be published-- but that's cool, unless you're being a real prick I'll publish them :)

So! Seeing as I haven't done anything exciting this week besides Danish homework, and tried a satay sauce mix (which was quite delightful), I don't really have much to say. So instead I shall share some of the fun signs I've found so far on my adventures.

So these are the movie posters from Frozen and Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2 in Danish. Not terribly exciting but more a 'hahaha, look at the language' thing.

Cultural sensitivity, what?

Also this shows how long ago I took these photos. It hasn't snowed since then, and I'm fairly certain these movies have long left the cinema.

Hmmm, I wonder what they sell?

Good motto. Except Carlsberg is horrible.
Sorry Denmark.

Another great shop name I go past on the way to uni is 'Gastro Pizza'. But I've seen quite a few things with 'Gastro' in the title describing food related things, so I think it is just a phrase. And you know, not to be feared.

-> -> And I'm pretty sure that this is the national motto of Denmark. Except that I've hardly seen anyone drinking Carlsberg. Also, if you look closely, this establishment appears to be called Brooklyn. Naturally.

These are from the sports bar around the corner from me (which I have actually spent no time in). Denmark made the World Handball Championships semi final against Croatia. Denmark won, and then lost to France in the final and there was a massive public outcry because they got smashed when they were the favourites. Danes love handball. Also the Superbowl was kind of big here. We had a party in my dorm, but if you will remember I was sick that week so went down for like 20 minutes before going back to sleep. I'm so social.

Good advice. Even if John Hurt doesn't appreciate sand shoes.
(Yes that is another Doctor Who reference.)

Okay these aren't signs but I haven't shared them yet, I mean it is Lego, and they are pretty cool. This is inside the Lego Shop on Strøget. What else but a bike were they going to make? Also the giant dragon curling its way through the wall wins at life. I will be going to Legoland in Germany in a few weeks too, and then in Denmark the week after, which should be really fun! Yay Lego!!

<- This shop is merely declaring that the sale it is having will soon be ending. What did you possibly think it meant? :P

So, poor you Australia, no longer in Summer, but I'm celebrating because it is officially no longer Winter! Although apparently it is meant to get colder next week again. Which is a shame, but such is life!

[Also incredibly, I wrote the preceding few sentences last night, just to make the point, and then walked past this last night, on the construction wall things in the city. Good job, universe!]

Farewell!

The Magic Bus (and Train and Metro)

So having been here five weeks now I (can probably not claim the title of expert, but I can confidently say that I) have probably more knowledge about the Danish public transport system than you do. This was made clear when I was talking to Mum, who along with the family is coming to visit in April, when we noted that the hotel they were looking at is near a Metro station, whereas I live near an S-Tog station. And her reply went along the lines of "so Metro is the bus? I wasn't sure" to which I replied "no, buses are buses." And so I shall dedicate this post to explaining what I can of the system (because you know you want to know).

*Disclaimer: At least this is mostly how I think it works. But if you get caught fare evading it is 700DKK (or about $150) for which I am absolving myself of any responsibility.

The Copenhagen Transport Map
&nbsp

The first, and best, thing is that the whole system is integrated. So I can get a bus to the metro station, the metro a few stops then the train back to my station (not that I would, that is just a waste of a trip), all as one 'trip', and hence one ticket, as long as I complete my journey within one hour of starting out on the bus. The travel tens are called Klippekort (clip card, one of which I successfully bought in Danish the other day), so named because when you dip it in the machine it cuts off the relevant number. They also have an existing card scheme but it hasn't really caught on yet. Or you can get a monthly pass. The dumb part is that the metro doesn't go through Central station. Which kind of defeats the point of calling it central. They're in the process of extending metro, with work completed by 2018, and trumping NSW, construction has actually started.

Metro lines are the green and yellow ones running from the right hand side through the middle. My train line is the other yellow one, named the F-line and even though it is a loop going nowhere useful, it is still better than the Carlingford line seeing as it is in fact a loop, not a dead end.

Actually I lied. That's not the best part. The best part is HOW OFTEN THEY ACTUALLY RUN. Okay so when I'm walking towards a station in the middle of the day, I am happy to see a train or metro just leaving, because by the time I get up to the platform, another one will have arrived. Trains run every 5 minutes during the day, 10 at night, and metro is more like every 3 minutes, basically all the time. And nothing completely stops over night, maybe just decreases in frequency to like 30 minutes, but you are still going to be able to get home! This is another dig at the Carlingford line (one hour what?), but also at the whole Sydney system. They do have extra bus lines as well at night, and I got on the wrong one Saturday night, but seriously why have one the 95N and another going completely the other way the 96N? Not cool at 4am while somewhat intoxicated. (To my family: I mean at 11pm, while perfectly sober and with a large group of friends. Shifty eyes.)

Buses are pretty straight forward. Except that my favourite bus is one of the most popular in town, which means that to speed things up you have to get on in the middle, and off at the front and back. Which is fine once you are used to it, but confusing when you go to get on and people glare at you trying to get off. Ditto when you go to get off. The buses are only used for one route, so they have a list of stops inside the bus, but most of them talk to you saying where you are as well, which is very useful. I think it is helping my pronunciation too-- for example I live near Frederiksberg, pronounced (at least according to the metro lady) Froi-er-iks-spbearrrr. Actually that is awful. It is nothing like that.

Now S-Tog is what we would consider 'normal' trains. But since this is Denmark there are of course some funky quirks.

This is a (S) train. This is inside a train (note the bikes). This is a train station.

You aren't allowed to take your bike on the metro during peak hour, which is very sensible, but you sure can take it the rest of the time, and any time on trains. There are specific train carriages without many seats for exactly this purpose. And if you'll remember from a previous post, lots of bike parking available near stations if you don't need to take it with you.


This is map that shows the upcoming stops... and how far between them you are as well! Very useful.

This is Flintholm, a major interchange. This photo is taken from
on the Metro down at the F train line below. In the distance you can
see another train line running across the top.

I think this was at Nørreport. But it looks so much like Macquarie
I took a photo. Except there are multiple escalators.

Metro is higher tech, unmanned, looks like a fatter version of the Sydney monorail, mostly runs underground (but it comes above ground too). You know how for as long as we can remember we've wanted a monorail that goes around school/uni? Well this one does! So to walk from the furthest building to the other (we don't have a campus as such, just a collection of buildings with city in between) is probably about the same distance as going from Redfern to Bosch. But we have a metro that runs straight through stopping at four of the bulidings. It is fantastic. Of course most locals use their bike instead, but that isn't the point.

The magic doors open automatically when the metro pulls up. Since there is no driver, you can stand up the front and watch the tunnel come at you (bro). Very cool. And I guess peak hour looks the same everywhere.

But of course, even though the system is pretty great, riding your bike is even better. And I have now joined the club :) This is mine, and I am rather proud that I have ridden down to uni and back successfully twice so far! And it has rained on me while riding, so I am getting close to being a true Copenhagener.

My bike <3
The stickers say 'mustang', because I'm that cool. Back pedal breaks, three gears, and heaps fun to ride.

I'm out of nutella again. How upsetting. This having to shop for myself this can be quite annoying sometimes. Plus side, I get to eat the whole packet of bite size brownies. Down side, that's probably not fantastic for my health. Plus side, riding your bike everywhere is really good for you. Plus side, said brownies are amazing. Maybe these Danes are onto something.

Farewell!

European Handball

A bouquet of Roses... lol 

(Some joke about you all on the cover.)

Hello!

Happy Valentine's Day! I present to you a bouquet of Roses, and a photo of the flowers on my desk [I stole the rose from our welcome dinner two weeks ago. I have trouble letting things go, okay?] and the photo book I brought with me, because Valentine's Day isn't just for romantic love.

Jeg elsker jer alle <3

Uni kids acting pro.

VIP Dinner :D

The Arena

Sure beats the RBB.
Not that that is hard :D

Last Wednesday, as part of my Sports Economics course, we went to a Handball game. Our lecturer has contacts with everyone (and among other things apparently used to be a hurdles world champion) and so we had VIP tickets. Basically this meant a buffet dinner and free drinks before the match. Nice dinner, too! Feeling pro with (what we assumed were) sponsors and family, with an MC making jokes in Danish... probably at our expense. Who knows?

The match was København v Viborg HK. Viborg was touted to us as "the best women's handball team ever"... I don't know if that is just because the lecturer supports them or if they actually are that good. We were all supporting København of course, but unfortunately they lost, 31-20.












Indoor sports are fun because the atmosphere is awesome. This one had loud pumping music and this motley crew/cheer squad (in sponsored sports wear) complete with giant drums. The crowd all had clapping folded fan things too, which was fun!

I'm still not entirely sure on all the rules. I think I picked up the gist of it and we figured out most of what was going on. There really is something quite universal about sport. I had no idea what the players were complaining about to the ref, nor could I hear them (and it would have been in Danish anyway) but the motions and expressions... oh I recognised that. One of the teams was down a player at one stage (we think because of accumulated team fouls), so the keeper would sub off while their team was in attack so that they still had the full offensive line up, and when they would fall back into defence the keeper would come back on. Clever.

This sport is really quite intense. 

So, definitely quite entertaining. In a few weeks we have a trip to a football match between the top two teams in the Danish league, which should be pretty awesome. In other news, I actually have uni work to do now. How gross. I'm planning on finding a bike this weekend (because as I've mentioned, everyone here has one and I can definitely see the benefits), and I've booked my flights to America which is exciting! [I'm going for the Quidditch World Cup because Usyd qualified!] I went to football training with the Uni women's team last night as well which was tiring but good-- I miss playing so might join the team :) I'm definitely out of practice though. My touches are awful and my aim is far worse than it used to be. And yes, I did actually bring my boots over with me! Shin-pads I'll have to find, though.

Farewell!

Danish Coins

Aloha!

As part of my shorter but more frequent update series, I present to you: Danish coins!

50 øre, 1 krone, 2 kroner, 5 kroner, 10 kroner, 20 kroner 

And if you thought our size system didn't make sense... I think I've got the hang of them now. I'm not entirely sure how they do heads or tails, since not all the coins have a head on them (that's Queen Margrethe II, by the way).

Now 1 krone is approximately 20 Australian cents. Adding an 'r' on the end makes it plural. I am yet to find anything worth 50 øre. Also it will round to the nearest 50 øre if you pay in cash, but not if you pay with card. Generally most people don't use cash. The exception is paying for the cloakroom at bars and clubs-- that's usually 20 kroner ($4ish). So marginally a rip off but it is absolutely necessary-- you can't go outside without a coat but then you definitely don't want to wear it while dancing!


Danish notes come in 50 (purple), 100 (orange), 200 (green), 500 (blue) kroner. They are paper, predominantly white/cream/that-old-parchment-colour, with highlights of the aforementioned unique colour. The current series has bridges on it. When you live in an archipelago chain, bridges are pretty important. But not terribly exciting. The older series had famous Danish people. But you can google them if you want to see! Oh! Did you know that the band Aqua (Barbie Girl, Doctor Jones) are Danish/Norwegian? Cool, right?

My room, all Natalied

In other news, I feel nicely moved into my room, all set up, with my doona cover from home and my stuff everywhere. I'm thinking of getting some little Danish flags to celebrate my multiculturalism. The pictures on the wall are Australian animals and those random postcards you find at museums. Mum's sent me photos from home too and they're on my other wall (but nothing like my home wall yet!)

Also I got mentioned by Jonesy and Amanda tonight/this morning (your time). I had been streaming the Sochi men's half pipe final while cooking dinner, and then WSFM online because I felt like it. So Amanda was like 'I'm just going to come out and say it... I feel like snowboarding isn't a real job', so I tweeted saying that the ages of the medallists were 25, 15 and 18 (which they were), and so they had plenty of time for a real job. And then they read it out, had a little discussion! Feeling very pro.

Oh, and technically 'vi ses' means 'we will see each other'. Which is sort of a lie. But I like signing off with that, so vi ses!

[Lol, 'shorter'.]

Soup and Danish Folk Dancing

Okay, so I'm currently in that stage of I can feel that I'm about to be sick (like cold/flu sick). And it sucks. But that's okay, I'll stay in tonight and eat some fruit and have some chicken soup... Well I bought some oranges and the one I had was quite nice, and I was looking for some cuppa soup in Fotex (one of the larger supermarkets). Well that was fun-- so the flavours you can buy here are tomato, Italian minestrone, asparagus, Thai chicken red curry, broccoli and cauliflower and Hungarian goulash. But no ordinary chicken, which is upsetting. I was quite impressed I found the right section at all, really-- I'm getting better at navigating around in Danish... as long as I don't have to speak it!

Also this is pretty funny. See, I'm not just being overly dramatic:
The Copenhagen Post: lowest amount of January sunshine in 26 years

On Tuesday night as part of our university run welcome events we had a 'Danish Folk Dancing' evening. Yes I can hear the rolled eyes and groans from here, but it was actually really fun. And quite tiring! The steps themselves weren't terribly difficult... to watch the professionals do! They taught us a few dances, one went along the lines of: hold hands in a huge circle, take four steps in, four back out, eight to the left, four in, four out, eight right, then play a hand clapping game with a partner, then swing around for a while.

Yes, I am absolutely certain they were laughing at us foreigners trying to get the steps down, but it was a hell of a lot of fun!

Fem, seks, syv, otte!
{Pronounced fem, six, sue, odour [kind of]}

For an idea of the music, if you'd like.

My dancing partner for the
evening, Ian from South Korea

A few of the dances had a step they called 'promenade', which was hold hands and prance around the circle, which was a welcome break from all the spinning! One step that took a while for us all to get the hang of was called a 'chain'. You're standing next to your partner in a circle, then you shake hands with your right hand, then swing past and grab on to the next person's left hand (with your left hand), then onto the next person's right hand and so on. We mostly got it in the end-- it is easier in smaller circles (of eight) but when we did it in the big circle, you had to go through seven people-- and there were always some who had to chase to find a partner who had also been left behind! So that was entertaining. All up, quite a fun night!

Me, Ellen, Savannah and our wonderful teachers!

Other state sponsored fun this week included a speed dating set up (without the dating) to meet more people, a trip to a club called Jazzhouse for an introduction to Danish music with live bands, a dinner hosted by our buddy Danish students (which was lovely) and a trip to Søpavillonen, a club by the lake downtown. Tonight we're having a movie night where they are showing apparently one of the best Danish comedies with English subtitles, but I think I should stay in and recover for our formal (well as formal as you can be with 23kg per suitcase) dinner tomorrow night.

Classes (for me at least) start next week and I have the dream timetable-- Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, starting at 11am with only 11 contact hours a week for the first three months, then only three hours a week for the last six weeks! Then I'll go back to Sydney and my science degree and five days with 26 hours... ah well.

Vi ses! {Pronounced vee cease [kind of], meaning see you!}

PS What do you think of the new design?