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

Two Months Later... (St Patrick's Day)

Yay parade!

Hello! So today marks two months since I landed in Copenhagen. And it simultaneously feels like I've been here forever and that I've been here since yesterday. It's incredible and I am so glad that I'm here. Oh, yeah. Miss y'all too.

Haven't been up to too much that's terribly exciting. Actually doing real Uni work, finalising US plans, celebrating when I understand a spoken phrase or a piece of Danish text I come across, random bike rides to nowhere, partying through my last weeks of teenagerdom, that sort of thing. It's gotten colder again but that's really just windchill. Riding in the wind is irritating because it is so much harder and you feel so unstable! I rearranged my room the other day so next time I post a video you'll have a new view. And I've fallen in love with a brand of cookie/biscuit (I'm not entirely sure which. Actually, what is the difference?)

Parade parade!

People gathering in Rådhuspladsen
(remember that from an earlier post?)

Good costuming effort!!

Music and dancing stage. Nice balloons, no?

There were festivities in the main town square yesterday for St Patrick's Day, so we went along to check it out. Little strange really seeing as Denmark isn't terribly religious and then isn't Catholic. But I guess there is enough interest and any occasion to drink extra beer on a Monday goes down well with the locals, and hey, why not?.

There was music playing and Irish dancing, then the crowd went on a parade through the streets. Just a nice sea of (somewhat) green just casually walking around, a bit of singing, people were looking at windows and such and it was fun parading around.

A group behind us started up a chant of "LEPRECHAUN" a few times to the tune of "here we go, herewego, here we goooo, here we go here we go here we gooooo-ooooh....". Some people put a lot of effort into their costumes (or recycled them from last year) which added to the fun. They had a tent set up offering face painting [free only for kids ):] and with more live music. I think there were other things planned for the rest of the evening but me and Manon were tired and cold so we went back.

Short parade video :)

Haven't got much planned in the near future at the moment. I have a huge chunk of work I want to get done before I go to the US so that's kind of taking priority at the moment. Or, well, in theory at least :P

Farewell!

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! 

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!

Like seriously, this place is gorgeous.

Hello! Today is the one month anniversary of my leaving Sydney. Wow. It both feels like it hasn't been that long at all but also that it has gone quite fast. Well, four more months in Denmark and five and half til I get home!

Today I present to you... photos! Of the city! According to Google it was 7 whole degrees celcius outside. I think I even felt some warmth from the sun! It was amazing. So, rather than stay home and do uni work, naturally I went out exploring.

Again a reminder, if you click on the photos they will be enlarged :)

First was to Kongens Have, the Rosenberg Palace and Gardens. The Palace is now a museum, as are many in and around Copenhagen. I'll get around to visiting eventually. Today was about outside!

I continued wandering on, in search of Den Lille Havfrue, plus I was curious what this shape was. I mean a giant star-shaped thing on a map... So I cross into what looked like the entrance to the mangroves at Bicentennial Park, and found myself in a cute little park with bird feeders and views of a palace or church or something. There is a lot of those somethings around town.

There was just something really quaint about the place. Walking along by the (suspiciously still) river, people walking dogs, the couple sitting on the hill... It was nice. Copenhagen is a pretty small city, really, with only 560 000 or so people living here, but even still, I didn't feel like I was in a city any more. But I was on the wrong side of the river to where I wanted to be, to check out the windmill (that you can kind of just see peeking out of the trees).

So I was really glad when I got to a bridge, and gate. So it turns out, according to the sign, that Kastellet is a fort. So the hills weren't hills, they were ramparts, and it wasn't a river but a moat! The sign said it was still owned by the military but it was open to the public.

         

I'm not exactly sure who fought who or what. But in any case, it is pretty cool. There is also a memorial and you can walk around the whole upper rampart.

Now I had been warned that Den Lille Havfrue was "the most underwhelming statue in existence". But I nonetheless wanted to check it out, it is a national monument, and to get my Hans Christian Andersen on. And yeah, it is pretty small. Very small. But still quite cute. 

Now this post is too long, I'll finish the rest of my day soon! 

Just quietly, it has been eight years since we were on Year 7 camp. Damn.

To be continued!

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!