Tonight I went to Tivoli Gardens and it was lovely.
Drank gløgg (warm spiced red wine) and ate pølse (sausage) and rode the rides even though it was raining. A very Danish evening.
"Tivoli i Regnvejr" is a song by Søs Fenger, an 80s Danish starlett. You can't find the song on youtube, but you can find it on grooveshark.
On the way to Tivoli I saw a man crush a live bat with his foot. I have never seen a creature larger than a spider die before my own eyes. I guess the bat was in pain and he was putting the bat out of its misery, but it was so sad. I could hear it hiss as the air left its body.
Iphone was stolen. Feeling a bit lost. Who does these things?! And why am I so attached to a stupid phone? Its pretty much the photos I want. I had 1000 plus photos on there documenting my college graduation, sisters high school graduation, my summer, move to DK, last semester of college. Oy it hurts to think about this right now.
Material things are just that and nothing more. I need to let go, move on, and extinguish this bitterness in my heart. Don't know what the fuck I did to deserve this kind of karma.
On another note, one of my coworkers got their contract terminated so I have to cover for him until we find another person. Three cheers to manning two full time positions, having a cold, trying to study Danish two nights a week, keeping up my social life, and trying to not be obese, all with no phone and a bitter heart at assholes who take/find things that are not theirs!
Each morning I wake up (later than intended, god damn you snooze button!) and get ready for work. I need to be at work by 8:30am and should leave my house by 8:15 if I want to be safe. It only takes me about 8 minutes to cycle to work on a good day.
My office is on the third floor and I share the space with three others. The rest of the people in my department have smaller offices attached to our main one. 9 people in total which I will introduce later…
Here's a photo of me at my desk. Shitty quality but I got interviewed for an article about international education in the DK and this is the photo that was used:
Once at work I log into my computer, and start the day by checking emails. I sometimes eat breakfast at work (museli) if I don’t feel like eating at home or run out of time. Wednesday mornings we have an all house meeting with breakfast including the most delicious bread.
Every single day is different and I never know where the day goes! I spend a lot of time on the computer, a lot of time talking and consulting directly with students, and take phone calls as well. I have various meetings throughout the week with my supervisors or people in other departments about projects and things. I cover the front desk when the front desk man, Mathias, goes on lunch, has meetings, etc. I compile the student newsletter. Totally random, hard to explain, behind the scenes work as well. I get a half an hour lunch break and can take it whenever I want. I usually eat upstairs in the lunch room or out on the terrace since the weather hasn’t gotten terrible yet :) I don’t have a microwave at home so leftovers are often my lunch, or I’ll make a salad, or put anything on some rugbrød (dark rye bread). Eating out or buying lunch is tempting since there are just so many options, but it adds up and gets expensive!
Mondays after work I always go to the Nørrebro Bryghouse (brewhouse) with my coworkers. It’s a sweet little microbrewery in the hippest part of town and with the beer card I bought I get to try a new beer every week for free for a year (when you do the math it’s an excellent deal!)
Every other Monday evening I run the Student Activities Committee meetings as well. The Student Activities Committee is made up of a group of students who get a budget to plan and lead activities and events throughout the semester. They are a group of really driven kids who are representing the other students to ensure that DIS offers cool things that all students actually want to do. For example, the SAC subsidized tickets to a huge pop concert at TivoliGardens last week and we sold out soooo fast.
Tuesdays and Thursdays I leave work early to go to my Danish class at 4:15, about a 10 minute bike ride from work. I was able to test into module three and skip levels one and two. There are 6 modules all together. My first few classes were challenging and terrifying because I feel like I had some catching up to do. The Danish I know is different than the Danish they teach in Studieskole, so it’s taken me some time to get used to the system. I was considering dropping down to a lower level, but my teacher convinced me to stay and I am happy that I did. Even if I don’t pass my module test, at least I gave it a good try and can repeat this module if I need to. I don’t quite have the vocabulary to speak well about grammar, but “det kommer”, it will come. My class lasts until around 6:30 and is pretty fun if I actually do my homework and come prepared. In my class we have over 15 different languages represented and off the top of my head we have people form Pakistan, Germany, Poland, Finland, Russia, France, Bulgaria, Japan, another lady from San Diego, and a few others. A fun group and interesting experience.
Fridays and Saturdays are going out nights of course and the weekends always manage to fill themselves up somehow. This is the first weekend I have had since I have been here where I really have nothing planned at all. It feels really good. Sundays I usually am on skype to talk to the familia.
A typical night out might begin around 8-9 o clock pregaming or having dinner with someone until around midnight when you actually venture into town. The night could easily last until the morning, after enjoying a kebab or falafel of course :) The Danish fourth meal. The other day I was out until 7:30 am at the trashiest club in town, haha. (In my defense, I would never go there normally, but someone paid for me to get in!) I think it has the rep of being the club with the longest opening hours in this part of the world because it doesn’t close until at least 8am.
Went out last Thursday until 3am to a record release party when I had work on Friday and I will never do that again! So. Hard. To. Function.
Overall, living a pretty good life. Between working full time and Danish class I am a busy busy woman! And most stores, banks, post offices, doctors offices etc. are typically only open 8ish-5ish here so it’s definitely a challenge fitting everything in. Oh Denmark
