It has been a few days since I have last posted and WOW has a lot happened. We returned to Kobenhavn from Virborg last week. All of the girls were so excited for me to finally experience life in Kobenhavn since that is not where my trip began because I came late. When I arrived I was far more excited than most people would be upon seeing the place we were staying. Our home in Kobenhavn would be the basement of a school! This was going to be just like last summer in Bramwell, West Virginia. Unfortunately within a few short hours after our return from Oslo, Noway it turned out to be nothing like Bramwell. When we arrived I decided to download the pictures I had taken on to my jump drive because I was running out of space on one of my disks (because I never took pictures off from over 2 years ago!). I downloaded my pictures then when to find my camera. In my suitcase? Nope. Purse? Nope. Backpack? Nope. Ok, we had a long day of traveling and I am tired so I told another girl on the trip with us I was going to go take a shower and come back and look with a fresh perspective. I got in the shower and I was still contemplating all of the places I could have put it but couldn’t think of anywhere I hadn’t checked. Then as I kept thinking I realized when I checked my purse for my camera that my wallet was also not in my purse. I knew immediately what had happened, we had been robbed. I got out of the shower and went to another girl in my room and told her I think we have a problem. Well, as luck would have it we were officially robbed my first night in Kobenhavn. The thief found a few vulnerable Americans and made out with 2 wallets, 2 cameras, 1 iPhone, and iPod chargers. Not too shabby for raiding our room while everyone was having dinner. Although I was a little frustrated and it became a little hectic trying to figure out how to cancel credit cards from a foreign country, we were really lucky. As I sat at my computer trying to find numbers online to reach MasterCard I realized that another student in our group had just lost one of her best friends to brain cancer at the age of 20, what did I have to complain about? All I had to give up was a partially working camera and a wallet! That definitely put things in perspective for me.
Now, back to the great adventures of our trip! We took a cruise ship to Norway last weekend. Although this sounds like an amazing time, I didn’t have the best trip. I loved seeing Norway and I am sure there were pretty views along the way but unfortunately my stomach and my head don’t handle boats so well. I ended up spending pretty much the entire time on the cruise ship laying in bed, praying we’d be on solid ground soon! However, we did have a great time in Oslo. On the way there we decided to all dress up and enjoy dinner on the cruise ship. Then when we arrived the next morning in Oslo, we visited the Munch museum, which is the artist who painted “Scream”. We also went to the Kon-Tiki Museum and a Viking Ship Museum. We didn’t have much time in Oslo but we made the best of what we had.
Our week in Kobenhavn was scattered but full of interested times. I got to visit Copenhagen International School which was a real treat and now I am going to be teaching some summer school classes there my last 2 weeks here! I’m very excited because the students at this school are from all over the world. We also did lots of touring in Kobenhavn and even enjoyed the annual bonfire in the park for St. Hauns Eve. Originally witches were burned but now it’s just a fun bonfire that thousands of people crowd the park for. One day we spent time at the castle that is the setting for Hamlet. This was a beautiful place and it overlooks Sweden. Some of our time last week was spent wrapping up classwork, so we weren’t always able to go out and do fun things. We used our time the best we could and even when we were here at Niel Steensen (the school we are staying at) we had a great time!
This past weekend 3 students and 2 professors went to Stockholm, Sweden for the weekend. It was an amazing trip! We took the train to Stockholm (about a 5 hour trip), arrived there in the early evening, got some dinner then headed to bed to prepare for a long day on Saturday. We toured lots of museums yet again but one of our favorite was Jueniboxen! It was actually a childrens museum but you rode a ride that took you through a children’s book. It was an exceptional museum. We were able to see a lot of the city and I absolutely loved it! We decided to walk up to the Royal Palace on Saturday (a couple of us went to see it Friday night because it is beautiful at night) and we noticed people gathering around. We were able to watch the changing of the guard at the Royal Palace. This was a very interesting process and a lot of the guards were actually very kind, they were willing to take pictures and answer questions. However, they are not overly fond of dumb Americans who accidentally call them the Swiss Guard rather than the Swedish Guard (Thanks Erica!). I wish our trip had been to Stockholm with a weekend in Kobenhavn instead, it was a great city. The Swedish people are also very kind and helpful which made our trip even better. On our way home we had an interesting ride on the train. We made it all the way back to the bridge that leads from Sweden to Denmark when suddenly the brakes on the train were slammed on and we were at a complete stop in the middle of the bridge. Not many passengers were on board at this point but everyone began looking around. The train was having technical difficulties and had to stop. Perfect, right in the middle of a giant bridge. Thankfully, after a few minutes of waiting the train was ok to take us to Kobenhavn. However, we were not allowed to pick up any additional passengers along the way. At least we made it back!
The rest of the group left early this morning. I will be moving to Sonja and Petere’s house this afternoon for the rest of my trip. They are super excited about hosting an American for almost two weeks! I will be home in 11 days! Ready to head to Australia soon after that!
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