Emanuel and The Fear of Getting Up For Work in the Morning

Emanuel and The Fear! Monday night in Copenhagen!!!

What a wild time. Some things can't be described in words... like the sheer excitement of having East coast friends in town, and finally seeing E-man in action, and what better place than the little hippie commune of Christiania.... I also can't begin to describe how completely awful I felt the following day after getting home after 4:30am and having to wake up less than 2 hours later and work a full day!...


The show was great though and the sleep deprivation worth it. Good people, good music, good times. The band let me and my Danish friends in their secret backstage lair and gave us a ride in the band van! I probably should have gone home right after, but ya know E-man's only in Copenhagen for one night, and these things don't happen everyday, so we had to make the most of it and continue the party into the wee hours of the morning. My last vision of E-man was him and my Danish friend singing and dancing around the rim of a large water fountain in the middle of the city as the first morning birds are starting to chirp...















Thanks for the shout out E-man!

A wise man once said...

"To travel is to live."
-Hans Christian Andersen

"To travel is to die a little."
-Edgar Allen Poe

A Marathon Weekend

Yesterday I had the urge to watch "Gone With the Wind." I never saw it before and I am not sure what made me think of it. Possibly the insane wind? I rented it from I-tunes and 8 hours later it was only halfway downloaded. I watched it in fragments 30 minutes here, 15 minutes there, 10 minutes a bit later. I think that's the best way to watch that movie.

Later that night I went to a book publishing party at this little bar, The Black Swan. We got to talking about the Queen's birthday party and I found out that although most people in the country respect and admire the monarchy, more and more people are against the idea of a royal family and their life of privilege. They are upset that their tax money is going towards her lavish parties and they criticize her openly in the gossip magazines. The latest scandal: apparently when she was on her balcony waving to the crowd she had picked up her little grandson to give him a better look. Now she is being compared to Michael Jackson! Ha.

So back to the book publishing party. It was pretty interesting, but we got there pretty late and missed the speeches (I guess that is the highlight of publishing parties). I went with my cousin and his girlfriend. The author is a good friend of my cousin's from high school. I'm guessing he's in his 20's-30's. He wrote a book called "Pragmatisk Paedagogik: Mellem Selvdannelse og Kosmopolitisme" which translates to: Pragmatic Pedagogy: Between Self-Formation and Cosmopolitanism.






He didn't have any English copies. My cousin was telling me some funny stories about them growing up. Apparently his friend was always pretty forgetful and this one time when they were both running a half marathon race, his friend had borrowed his dad's fancy, expensive watch. He made a pit stop during the race and had taken the watch off to wash his hands. He ran back to the race and got a couple miles away before he realized he had left the watch in the bathroom! He had to run all the way back to get it adding a couple extra miles on to his run. The whole while he was running back to the bathroom the crowd was screaming at him, "Turn around!! You're going the wrong way!"

We got on the topic of running, and as it turns out my cousin wasn't drinking because he was getting ready for a half marathon tomorrow morning. Now I always wanted to say I ran a half marathon, but I never ever really wanted to run one. I was a couple drinks deep though and I had absolutely no plans for tomorrow. I was slightly tempted. The price to register was around $30 which is pretty cheap compared to US races. I figured what the hay? Maybe I should try it. I have nothing to do, I could always use some exercise, I have no expectations to win the thing, I have nothing to lose, I could walk if I want to.. It'd be a good way to get outside and see the city... So I woke up this morning, signed myself up for the race, and actually ran the entire thing without getting sick or seriously injured! I didn't do too bad either for not training.. I finished in 1hr 53min, which was 254th place out of 775 women.

Here are some pictures from the race (I'm not in any of them).

The people with the balloons tied to them are the professional runners. The balloons have different finishing times on them (i.e. 1:45, 1:50, 1:55, 2:00 etc.) If you want to try to run the race in 1hr 55min then you can pace yourself off the 1:55 balloon people. I thought that was really neat, but it must be pretty annoying to run around with a balloon tied to you.

Local Eyjafjallajokulls

This weekend was the Danish Queen's birthday. Queen Margrethe II turned 70 on April 16th, and it was a big to do throughout the city. Everyone put up a Danish flag on their house or lawn and all the trains and buses had Danish flags on them.

A lot of the kindergarden classes in Copenhagen plan school trips to the palace to see the Queen on her birthday. Every year at noon on April 16th she walks out on the balcony and waves to the children and her people. When I first got to Denmark my co-worker mentioned she would take me to the palace to wave to the Queen. I sort of thought she was joking, but sort of hoped she was serious. She was joking. Her birthday ended up landing on a Friday and we all had to work. No lunch break to see the Queen. Oh well.

Every TV channel on Friday night was covering the Queen's birthday festivities. She was throwing a big party at her summer castle and all the photogs were lined up taking pictures of the guests arriving. It was a red carpet affair, like the academy awards. Guests were arriving in fancy Rolls-Royces, Mercedes, airport shuttle-style vans, and big luxury buses with "VIP" plastered on them. The ladies wore really fancy gowns and crowns and the guys were all in tuxedos. I would say the average age of the guests was 70+. Lots of canes and slow, shaky walkers. Looks like everyone was having a good time though.

Today I had plans to go for another ambitious bike ride around the city. I made it as far as the park across the street before I turned around and high tailed it for home. It is ridiculously windy out. I nearly fell off my bike at one point and was nearly blinded the entire time by all the sand, dust, and debris in the air. I got back home and huddled up. At one point I thought my windows might blow open. Not sure what was going on with the wind patterns but it's settled down now.

Hopefully that Icelandic volcano settles down soon too. Today is the third day in a row that the airport has been completely shut down. Last time this particular volcano went off, it continued errupting for 2 years! Let's just hope I don't get stuck in Denmark that long...

Oh and well, I couldn't think of a title for this post...Any suggestions?

Scrambled Eggs & Babies

At work today we somehow got on the topic of eggs. My Danish co-worker was telling me how he makes scrambled eggs....He breaks the eggs into a plastic bag, shakes them up shake-n'-bake style, and then holds the bag in a pot of boiling water to cook. What a crazy guy. I can't say whether or not that is a Danish thing to do, but if it is, Danes are silly. Boiling plastic scares me.

We also got on the subject of working and having kids. Danes have this perception that all American moms quit their jobs, give up their careers, and stay at home to raise their kids. They were asking me why American girls would even bother going to school if they were just going to give up their careers once they had kids. I was really surprised that they think of American women like this because if I had to guess, I would think they'd believe they opposite. Personally, I can't think of a single American mom that I know today who doesn't have at least a part-time job. I guess I shouldn't be too surprised, because I think their impressions of American culture stem from 1950's cowboy movies and Little House on the Prairie.

I have no new pictures to post, so here is another Baby Julie to keep you coming back for more:

Solo, So Low

Living alone has taught me a lot of things about myself. The most obvious: I am an unhealthy slob when no one else is around. They sell these things called "Digestive Biscuits" in Denmark and that's pretty much all I eat for breakfast and sometimes dinner. I bought 3 large bars of Cadbury Chocolate from Ireland. I was planning on bringing them home for my sisters, but, sorry girls, I ate them....for dinner, with my Digestive Biscuits and a beer. I was down to salami and nearly-expired eggs. I boiled the eggs to make them last longer (does that work? I hope so). I ate boiled eggs and salami for breakfast, lunch, and dinner on Saturday. I talked to Trevor on Sunday and I was glad I wasn't the only one with an eating disorder...He was debating whether or not to walk one block to the supermarket or eat a can of beans for dinner. That's all..just a can of beans. That's all he had left in the house. We convinced each other to go grocery shopping. I was telling my only friend outside of work about my disgusting eating behaviors. She said something along the line of "you know you're a student when ...." Yup, wish I was a student. I have no excuse.

My apartment has also been a complete mess. There were about 12 plates, 6 cups, 1 pan, 1 pot, and 24 utensils in the cupboards and now they are all dirty and in the sink. The living room is covered with books, newspapers, receipts, dirty clothes on the floor, clean clothes hanging on the rack, the rack taking up half the room, 2 feet of clear floor in which to walk... I left the window open one day and when I came home I thought someone had broken in to my apartment. The map, receipts, tissues, chocolate wrappers...everything was blown all over the floor. I closed the window and started cleaning up. I found a set of keys on the table that I did not recognize! Someone had broken in! Picking up the trash from the floor I found a note from the landlord. "Here is the key to your mailbox." It had been in my apartment for a few days. I had no idea.

I checked my mailbox for the first time this weekend. Sorry Al, no postcard, but I wrote my name really big on the mailbox, so hopefully if someone else has it they will give it to it's rightful owner. Having a mailbox is changing my life. For instance, I went for a run on Sunday. It took all my energy to motivate myself. I couldn't decide if I should go running or grocery shopping and I definitely needed to do both. I did not want to do both though, because that would entail two times up and down the 7 flights of stairs. Instead I locked up my backpack in the mailbox, went for a run, then came home, pulled out my bag and went grocery shopping. I only had to go up and down the stairs once! I was very proud of myself.

I was also proud that I went for a really long run all by myself. I was out for an hour and a half and I made it to a part of the city I had never been to before (the part I was trying to reach by bike on Saturday but failed). I found the zoo and a cute little park on the west side. On my way home all I was thinking about was the McDonald's on the corner of my street. I walk past it everyday. When I first got here and saw it, it was sort of comforting, something familiar, but it was also disturbing. Why are McDonald's everywhere?! I swore I would never go there. But all I wanted was a McDonald's vanilla ice cream cone and hey, I deserved it! So I decided to give up and get one. I go in to McDonald's and there is a super long line. It is really hot and smells like burgers mmmm. I start getting really hot. All I want is ice cream. But this line is taking forever! Damn Danes and their lack of quick customer service. The line lasts long enough for me to guilt-trip myself to stick to my guns. I walk out of Micky D's and head to 7-11 for a large bottle of water.

I've come a long way...

Biking after drinking. What was I thinking?

I have a bike! I borrowed it from my friend's cousin and I am so excited about it. I want to ride it everywhere! It is huge, sort of like a beach cruiser, has back brakes, and I don't think you can change the gears. I'm guessing it weighs about 100 lbs. Needless to say, I can't go very fast and it is surely a workout, as I learned this morning. I road it to a party last night and in an effort to avoid the $20-a-beer bar prices, I packed myself a little vodka and juice for my pre-party commute. Sipping on vodka, riding a bike, heading to hang out with some people I don't know... I am pretty happy after an intense week at work. I was a little too excited about hanging out with a group of young international people and going out and doing social things. I might have drank a little too fast... After finishing the vodka at the friend's house we headed out to a local bar for some more drinks. Took shots of something that tasted like bleach, closed out the bar, then went back to the house... By the time I got back home it was 4:30am!

When I woke up today at 1pm (!), I felt awful. The sun was shining, there was not a cloud in the sky, it was relatively warm (48 degrees), and I had already wasted half the day. My head was killing me (what was that shot?!) and I smelt like an ashtray (you can still smoke in Danish bars, and everybody does it), but today was the day I had grand plans to go for this all day bike ride and see parts of the city that I've never been to and I'm already behind schedule. I forced myself to shower and eat a hard boiled egg wrapped in salami (the only food in my fridge unfortunately), chugged some water, and headed out on the bike. I got to my first destination, the Little Mermaid statue, and had to stop...soooo tired. The sun is no longer shining. The clouds are back. The wind has picked up and the temperature has dropped considerably. The little mermaid statue is no longer there. She was just shipped to China. Now if I can just make it to the palace I'll call it a day and turn back. Why do I torture myself?! I should have stayed in bed. I eventually make it to the palace. Find a 7-11 nearby. Buy an Orangina. Throw down the bike and sit on the curb for 30 minutes figuring out how to get myself back home without vomming. Pulled myself together, got back on the bike and headed home (into the wind), stopping every 5 minutes or so to walk a bit.

Rough day. Laying off the booze tonight. I promise to go grocery shopping tomorrow.

Last night, I met a Danish kid who is an American studies major and he seemed really interested to talk to me about politics and the American way of life, etc. He was showing me his 100+ page thesis about what it means to be an American and how Americans who are anti-government aren't really anti-American because Americans are defined as people who are non-conformists and who will stand up and argue for what they believe in. So in being what may come across as non-patriotic they are actually being very American. Something like that. It was a little too philosophical for me. I was wearing sort a slightly bright outfit, and he made a comment that I must really fit in in America and that people must really like me because Americans really admire people who wear clothes that are out of fashion or go against the grain. Thought that was funny. I didn't realize I was "out of fashion."

Norwegian Notes

Norway became an independent nation 105 years ago when is separated from Sweden. It wanted to have a royal family so they asked the Danish Crown Prince's little brother if he would leave Denmark to be the King of Norway. And he did.

Norway has their own native people who live in the northern part of the country. My cousin's dad is from one of these native tribes and he has set up a reindeer herd for her. As a reindeer herder she gets some sort of government scholarship. Wish I had a reindeer herd...

During World War II, the Nazis bombed Norway and tried to kill the king. There is a park in Trysil called "The King's Garden" and it is the woods where the king was hiding to escape being captured. I think he eventually fled to the US. Although they were bombed pretty heavily, the only Norwegian casualty was a single pig.

Swedes, Danes, and Norwegians seem to have a very sibling-like relationship. They make fun of each other often. I've met people from all 3 countries now and at least one person from each has said that people from the other don't know how to drive and made some sort of remark basically that the others are idiots. But they will still cheer for each other in sports and such as long as they are not competing against their home country. My Swedish cousins:



They are very curious as to why an American would come to Norway.

I was the first American that this one Norwegian fellow had ever met. He was very surprised I drank alcohol. He thought of Americans as very strictly religious and not liking to have fun, at least with booze. He also thought that all American guys were cowboys. He hasn't traveled much outside of Norway. Bonanza was on TV everyday I was there.

They are VERY into crime scene, who-dunnit, problem solving games. This is especially popular around Easter and Christmas. They send out fliers in the mail, magazines and newspapers each publish their own crime mystery scenarios, even the TV news reporters will report on these made up murder mysteries. The suspests include royal family members, politicians, CEO's, Norwegian singers, etc. People will call in, write in, e-mail in who the think is the culprit and how they think the murder went down and win prizes. They even have these crime scene scenarios printed on milk cartons. General trivia quizzes are also popular and are also broadcasted on TV, and published in magazines and newspapers around the holidays.

Also around Easter and Christmas, the TV networks will not play any commercial advertisements. They will only play advertisements for charity organizations: feed the poor, help the blind, are you depressed?, stop domestic violence, living with AIDS, etc. etc. It is pretty depressing.

Norwegians call the Friday before Easter "Long Friday." They think it is ridiculously cruel that we call it "Good Friday."

Norwegians LOVE Ace of Base. I think they are from Scandinavia. They also claim that the band, Aqua, is Norwegian (the singers of "Barbie Girl"), although I have heard a Dane claim that Aqua is Danish.

There is an illegal drink in Norway called "The Coffee Doctor." It is made of coffee and moonshine. Moonshine is illegal because of reports it causes permanent blindness in consumers.

In an effort to achieve their maximum energy potential, Norwegian athletes will drink a 50:50 mixture of coffee and coca cola.

I'd say 90% of the people I met in Norway are on a moose hunting team. Young, old, male and female, everyone has a 5-10 person team. They apply for a moose license and then each year are allowed to shoot a certain number of male, female, or baby moose between September to December. They sell or freeze the meat for the winter. They pile up the skins & furs and have a garbage disposal service burn them. All those wasted moose rugs and coats! I had moose soup while I was there and it was delicious.


They go ice fishing. When I caught that one little fish that day, I got a little excited in my celebration. When I started hooting and hollering and jumping around, the little 3 year old Norwegian girl yelled: "Jeg skal til Amerika!" which is Norwegian for: "I am going to America!"


Everyone has a hobby: ice fishing, moose hunting, knitting, spinning thread from wool or fur, dying thread with mushrooms or flowers, painting, drawing, melting glass into anything. There is always something creative and useful to do to keep busy. They keep bunnies as pets, also for food, and also for the fur to spin into angora sweaters!




This...


Came from this...

They also have their own version of reality talent shows...

Farmin' & Fishin', A Norwegian Tradition

April 3, 2010

Woke up with a traditional Norwegian breakfast: glass of milk, cup of coffee, assortment of breads, lefse, and crackers, hams and cheeses (including the very Norwegian brown cheese), mayonnaise (that comes out of a tube), smoked salmon, caviar (also comes out of a tube), cucumbers, tomatoes, and red peppers. Yum.

I have been in Norway for a couple days. I am staying on a farm way off in the countryside. This farm is where my great great great grandmother came from back in the day...










Here is a picture of my great grandmother sitting in the same room as I was:




Later that day I went ice fishing!! And the only thing better than ice fishing in Norway is ice fishing with Norwegian babies!! They loved it.



Making the holes:


Throwing some logs on the fire:

Snack Attack:

Hot dogs wrapped in lefse:

Mmm dogs on a stick:
Back to work:
Success! You may have to zoom in to view the fish ;)
Punky liked to lick em:

Find those fishies!!



(These are not my fish. I only caught that one in the picture. The guy before me left this hole to try his luck at another one, I just got to pretend I was that good....)

Isn't It Good, Norwegian Wood

The lumber industry is a huge business in Norway. Back in the day, the Norwegian lumberjacks would work all winter cutting down the trees and piling them up on the frozen river. In the springtime, the ice wood melt and the logs would go floating down the river to Sweden were they were collected and sold. A pretty creative way to transport goods. They don't do it anymore though because Sweden wanted their wood fresher and faster. The logs are now put on trucks and driven down the mountain. Plus the river is all dammed up now so I don't think they could do it anymore even if they wanted to.

A Norwegian Ferry Tale

A journal entry from Wednesday, March 31, 2010...

"Well I have done it again...I've signed myself up for another adventure without considering the fact that although I have been enjoying myself so far, traveling alone in other countries scares me to death. I'm scared of being lonely, of being bored, of not knowing what people are saying, of not having anyone to talk to.... I am on the ferry leaving from Copenhagen and heading to Oslo. It is 4:30pm. It is going to take me a little under 24 hours to get to Trysil. I don't know anyone on this boat. I could have taken the quick and easy route and booked a flight which would have taken 45 minutes. Why didn't I just book the flight!? Of course I was completely excited by the idea of sleeping on a boat, of going to bed in Danish waters and waking up in Norway! How cool it would be to wake up on a boat in Norway! And this is the biggest boat I have ever been on! It has bars, restaurants, shops, a water park. It's not a ferry it's a cruise ship!

So now I'm on it. I got to the dock at 3:30pm; was on the boat by 4pm. Found my room, dropped my bags, and walked the entire span of the boat top to bottom by 4:25pm. What to do now!? The boat hasn't even turned on it's engines yet and I am already overwhelmed with dread thinking about how to fill up the next 20 hours of my solo life. What's even more dreadful is thinking about not knowing where I'm going or who I'm meeting in Norway! Time for the bar.

I really wish I had someone to talk to. Looking around everyone is a couple, or family, or older couple with a family. I don't know how to approach people and start a conversation without feeling completely awkward. Plus I don't know if they will know English, or what if they're crazy, or what if they don't want to talk to me, what if I'm interrupting? Where are all the other single girl travelers my age and why aren't they on this boat!? I could go to my room and lay down, read a book, but I feel like that wouldn't be "making the most" of this situation (whatever that means).

I ordered a gin and tonic. I hate, hate, hate gin and tonic. But I feel like I need to punish myself, plus if I dislike what I'm drinking, I won't drink it as fast and that will give me something to do for longer. I don't want to go back to my room. At least I can people watch out here. Although no one is really doing anything worth noting.....hmm, hmm, hmmmm....Postcards!! I've been meaning to write some postcards.....

They are blasting "Born in the USA" over the loud speakers. The people behind me are speaking Danish (or Norwegian?) but I can tell they are talking about Bruce.....kdbiunrevhdbfvjhba Glory Days jhbdvjbhhjbdfvfl Streets of Phildalphia haofaiosdnkjnvfdnbv...

The gin and tonic is done. It lasted an hour. phew.

The boat has left the dock. Time for some duty-free shopping."










Norway: